Good luck Arttu :D

Quote from Wunderboy

As others have said, even though you didn't get the job being flow halfway across the world for an interview when you didn't even make an application has to say something about your skill. I'd sure as hell put it in my CV!

Yeah, I would say that even if you didnt make the application, this is still something for the CV, you said how much you learned from it, and again, this is VALVE

Don't call us, we'll call you! Theres a reason that term gets spat out all the time even if it is rude.

Sorry to hear the trip wasn't succesful. Seems odd that the guy's would bring you on such a long trip if they weren't nearly 100% sure you were right for the job.

Anyway, hope you had fun and that the experience will help your career.

Online portfolios and a short phone interview never really gets across the way you design things, a collection of pretty custom maps for games already "finished" shows you have artistic ability and are able to understand the game mechanics. However, the ability to work from the start of a project when you only have a few lines of code and a concept document is another matter.

I'm pretty confident that Valve are after the whole package, but then if your being hired to work on a game well into full development you'd get away with it.

I'm not talking about skdr specifically, just what can be expected of you as a level "designer"

Congrats on getting an interview at Valve, that's quite a feat! I really think that you should be happy about that you had a good day and that they wanted you for an interview. With your portfolio should easily be able to find a job at some other great place.