2025/09 - Level Design in a Cabal - Valve’s Best Practices - Optimal Process for Collaborative Level Design and Game Development (Phil Co - Valve))

Phil Co has been a level designer since 1996. After graduating from architecture school at the University of Virginia, he began his career at a startup company called Cyclone Studios working on a first person shooter titled Requiem : Avenging Angel. He moved on to another startup studio, Infinite Machine, where he worked with some former Lucas Arts developers on a brawler called New Legends. Taking an interest in the Harry Potter phenomenon, he joined Knowwonder to make levels for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with EA. In 2002, he was hired by Blizzard to work on levels and environment art for Diablo III. Blizzard decided to move the Diablo team to their location in Irvine, California, so Phil interviewed with Valve and has been there ever since 2005. At Valve, he started on Episode Two for Half-Life which shipped as part of the critically acclaimed Orange Box in 2007. For the next two years, he created levels for Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 on the No Mercy, Blood Harvest, Dead Center, Dark Carnival, Swamp Fever, The Parish and The Passing campaigns. On Portal 2, he worked on the last section of the game including the Wheatley test chambers and the final level which has been regarded as one of the greatest endings in all of video game history. He took a break from level design from 2011-2013 to work on a feature length documentary film titled Free to Play now available on Netflix. Returning to game development, he worked on the Dota 2 custom games Overthrow and Colosseum as a game designer and scripter. VR started to become a focus for the company, so he joined the Steam VR team making the Home application with several initial VR experiences for Steam users. He moved onto the Half-Life Alyx team where he worked on the intro of the game to the first combat level as well as the narrative scenes throughout the rest of the game. After shipping in 2020, he rejoined the Dota team to make more custom games including Aghanim’s Labyrinth and Diretide. He started on the Deadlock team in 2022 and continues to be responsible for the game’s map. He is also the author of the book, Level Design for Games, published in 2007. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

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