Valve is known as one of the best game development studios of today, but that didn’t stop Half-Life 2's art director, Viktor Antonov, from leaving when it became apparent to him that they have stopped making "epic AAA games."
Antonov’s last work at Valve was pitching for Team Fortress 2. However, he believes that Half-Life 2 was the epitome of the studio’s epic AAA games. "Since then, they were episodes," he said. "Valve is a great place, but I'm interested in projects, not in companies. I went to Valve specifically for Half-Life 2."
Antonov is currently working with Arkane Studios on Dishonored.
"Valve has grown into a much bigger company, and what I really enjoy about the philosophy of Arkane is that it's a small, core team that does risky creative projects. And when I went to Valve, they were a small company. They've grown now, they're much bigger, and I'm interested in a certain level of creative risk taking and a certain energy that can be compared to jazz, jamming or rock n' roll, where it's small, it's intense and it's about making revolutions in the media."