Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal, Portal 2, and
Left 4 Dead Writer Erik Wolpaw is officially working for Valve again. This information was first announced by Shack News and Founder of Valve News Network Tyler McVicker, who spied his name in the credits for
Artifact and released a screenshot of an email conversation between Valve Corporation Cofounder CEO Gabe Newell and an anonymous featuring Nawell's claim that Wolpaw is indeed working at Valve again after his 2017 departure.
Polygon reached out to Wolpaw yesterday for an official confirmation and that's what he had to say:
“I’ve had a contractor agreement with Valve since the day I stormed out and then immediately timidly stormed back in to ask could I please have my old job back and they said no and I was like good because I’m too busy to work for you anyway and they said but you can be a contractor and I said oh thank god okay I’ll do that. I’ve been helping Pinkerton and Jaros and Vanaman whenever they need it. It’s been busier on that front lately, but I’m not currently a full time employee. My main gig is still delivering juice for my niece Jodi’s vegan juice shop plus an unpaid internship playing Slay the Spire three hours a day.”
The fact that Wolpaw is helping the developers means that Valve is all but officially re-strengthening its writing team, as
Portal 2 Co-Writer Jay Pinkerton and
Team Fortress 2 Senior Programmer Adrian Finol re-joined the developer last year. Maybe their involvement will allow Valve to finally count to 3.