He is a former lead writer for the video game company Valve, where he worked on the Half-Life series before his departure in 2016.

Laidlaw attended the University of Oregon, where he tried, and was discouraged by, punched card computer programming.

Laidlaw created family relationships between the characters, saying it was a "basic dramatic unit everyone understands" that was rarely used in games.

[2] Laidlaw said he had intended Episode Three to end the Half-Life 2 story arc, at which point he would "step away from it and leave it to the next generation".

[5] He described the story as "fan fiction", and wrote: "I personally cannot give the world a Half-Life game.

[6] Laidlaw later said he was tired of the FPS genre and of solving storytelling problems in a Half-Life-style narrative.

[2] On August 25, 2017, Laidlaw published a short story titled "Epistle 3", describing it as "a snapshot of a dream I had many years ago".

[2] In 2003, Laidlaw said his favorite games included The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Ico, Fatal Frame and Thief: The Dark Project.