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A Peek Through Portal's Walls
John Walker, of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, had the chance to chat with some of the principal folks behind Valve's most excellent puzzle/shooter hybrid Portal. He comes away with the goods from lead designers Kim Swift and Jeep Barrett, who discuss their momentous hiring by Valve, the evolution of Portal from Narbacular Drop, and the origins of the Weighted Companion Cube. Walker also talks to Erik Wolpaw, who not only wrote Portal but was co-writer on Psychonauts and the site Old Man Murray (back in the day). From that discussion: "Valve talks a lot about 'collective design process this' and 'collective design process that' to the point where, if I were me before I worked here and stopped swearing so much, I'd be like, this is some fake-ass marketing-ass Bigfoot-ass legendary bullshit. But, honest-to-God, I've seen it with my own eyes. Valve is the most collaborative creative environment I've ever heard of much less experienced. So the [Team Fortress 2] shorts grew out of basically everyone at Valve's desire to see these awesome TF characters put through their paces outside the constraints of the game. We did the Heavy as a proof of concept, and kind of freaked ourselves out, and then immediately decided to move ahead with the other eight."
Wow, what a great summary. Both interesting and informative. Like having your cake and eating it, hmm?
Very good informative article and even if you don't like to RTFA this one is a must. I also thought that the feminine tone tends to be lacking in most games and I just adds to the innovation of the game. It adds to the commentary from the game. :)
I loved this game so much the ending song is my ringtone
Anyone else immediately think of Bill and Ted here?
I want more maps .. or even perhaps a good SDK so other modders can make good maps / etc.
... http://www.dystopia-game.com/ -- heck Dystopia is probably a better put together game than either CS or DOD were (considering they were mods at one time). Some bugs, yes, but CS and DOD were (and sometimes still are) buggy as hell..
..
..
Better yet, get the Dystopia team into Valveworld
Oh, and for the obligatory Portal joke
Check out what happens when you're NOT playing in Portal
The Turrets visit the Portal Cafe http://picasaweb.google.com/robpoe
= Grow a brain...
It's Narbacular Drop, not Narbuncular or whatever... sounds like a Busherism
Particles, stuff that matters.
Eric still gives some of the best interviews I've ever read.
If you've never read any of his and Chet's stuff from back in the day on Old Man Murray, you owe it to yourself to check out some of their features and reviews.
If you have beaten portal already, you owe it to yourself (especially if you're interested in game design) to run through it with the developer commentary ON!
I love that feature! It's like watching a DVD, then turning on the commentary track.
It's amazing how much work they put into this game that you won't even notice (as that was the point of the work).
It's interesting they comment on the Valve design philosophy of training the player, to the point where I was afraid I was burning through the game too quickly. The first 13 puzzles out of 20, 0-12, are all incredibly elementary, they're there to showcase a certain "feature" of thinking with portals, and the first 11 puzzles don't even give you full control of the portal gun, and they all have essentially one unique solution. The final 7 set of levels are all very well done, they even have a "challenge mode" to showcase how it's possible to finish the levels with the fewest amount of portals, etc, to show the number of unique solutions you can achieve, and the final challenge and ending are extremely satisfying, but it still feels like they really only made seven levels of significant content.
While I'm all in favor of a tightly scripted experience that is novel all the way through rather than something which forces you to grind and repeat the same gameplay for hours on end, I was left wanting a lot more, and it'll take some significant community effort to keep it alive via map packs after enjoying the 3-4 hours it takes to play through the game.
Fantastic game, great interview, really fabulous stuff.
I do have a minor gripe, though. Why is everyone so obsessed with the weighted companion cube? Seriously, it boggles the mind. I can understand some players personifying it because they were reluctant to leave it behind at the end of that level, but seriously, it's nothing to talk about after you stop playing. You have the cube for a grand total of about 90 seconds, it never says anything, and it looks like any other cube except for the heart. Big deal! How could you get attached to something without any hint of a personality? Maybe if you had it for longer than a couple of minutes, or saw it again later on (in a capacity beyond a mere reference), then you might be able to develop a bond with it. But for the single level that makes use of it, how is it any different to any other box that you need to transfer from the start of the level to the end?
(Next paragraph contains a minor spoiler)
It was a fun part of the game, and I can understand people thinking, "Aw, I don't want to burn it after it helped me reach the end of this level," but the kind of affection I'm seeing around the internet now is just unhealthy. People are begging for information about where they can buy a WCC t-shirt, or a scale model to have on their desk. There are hundreds of wallpapers featuring the cube, with additional hearts and even poems written by people I hope never to encounter. It's scary, and it's wrong. Can someone explain what I may have missed? Does it actually talk to you, and I just didn't hear it? Would anyone care about it at all if the texture were the same as every other cube, and GLaDOS didn't mention it during the boss fight? I didn't think so.
You don't understand. The WCC with the heart is like the essence of all cubes embodied in one, representing all cubes past and future that selflessly help you while getting left behind or even incinerated!
WCC, my hat is off to you and your kindred.
I would so go for a WCC T-shirt!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
CAKE.
Could someone write a Weighted Companion Cube replacement for Clippy in MS Office?
One thing that Narbacular Drop had over Portal was that you could set a portal by aiming through another portal.
Although this might have made the game too easy.
Technoli