When you're interviewing Valve's self-proclaimed 'Mr Awesome', you expect some pretty forthright opinions - and not a small bit of excitement. So CVG is pleased to report that the studio's amiable Chet Faliszek offered both in abundance when we caught up with him last month.

In this Q&A, the Valve linchpin discusses the future for Left 4 Dead - and the prospects for the DLC that's coming around the corner.

In addition, he gives us his views on industry issues - and doesn't shy away from that most controversial of subjects, PS3 development...

Valve is legendary for its sprawling development cycles and serial delays, so much so that the company's public development wiki has an entry for so-called "Valve Time." It's one of the side effects of the company's production mentality, which eschews top-down management in favor of team-driven initiative.

In reality, the Seattle-area developer has largely left behind its legacy of releasing a single game once in a blue moon. Since 2007, the studio has released at least one game per year, including the new franchises Left 4 Dead and Portal, the long-awated sequel Team Fortress 2, and the latest entry in the Half-Life 2 sub-series of now-regrettably-named "episodes."

But Valve writer Chet Faliszek, whose current project is "The Passing" DLC for Left 4 Dead 2, says this newer, more prolific Valve hasn't appeared in spite of the company's traditional self-driven practices -- it has developed because of them.

"The structure of our company [means] we're really autonomous," Faliszek told Gamasutra, "and if there are enough people who want to do something, we do it. We wanted to do Left 4 Dead 2. It's not [marketing director] Doug [Lombardi] or [president] Gabe [Newell] or [COO] Scott Lynch sitting on top saying, 'This is what we must do.'"