Former Valve San Francisco devs form Temple Gates Games

Two former Valve employees based in San Francisco left the company to form a new indie studio called Temple Gates Games, IGN reports.

Valve hired former PopCap Games employees Tod Semple and Jeff Gates of Star Filled Studios late last year. Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi told Joystiq at the time that it was "probably better categorized as Valve hiring two new employees instead of an acquisition of a company or opening of a Valve SF office."

In a statement to IGN, Semple said that the duo is "working on indie games again."

"We were working for Valve in a remote office in San Mateo," Semple said. "It turned out that there weren't many benefits for either side in that arrangement.

"Valve was super cool about it and is letting us continue to work on our game and is also giving us the office," Semple said. "So Jeff [Gates] and I are starting up a new company called Temple Gates Games."

A statement from Valve also characterizes the split as amicable.

"We were big fans of their prior work," a spokesperson for Valve told IGN. "We worked with them during their startup phase, but they're independent now and still working on their game. We wish them the best of luck."