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."

Comments

Cake

[dintech]

Wow, what a great summary. Both interesting and informative. Like having your cake and eating it, hmm?

Re:Cake

[enderjsv]

ENOUGH with the cake already! Stop perpetuating the lie!

Re:Cake

[nuzak]

The cake is a... aw forget it.

Re:Cake

[Killjoy_NL]

They're interesting and fun interviews to read as well :)

Re:Cake

[PrescriptionWarning]

I'd rather have my cake and then throw it at someone, preferably through a portal whose opposite end is directly on top of them :)

Re:Cake

[SuperKendall]

The summary is a lie!
The summary is a lie!
The summary is a lie!

Re:Cake

[Stormwatch]

In Soviet Russia, the lie is a CAKE!!

Re:Cake

[khellendros1984]

(She is watching you)

RTFA this one is a must read! Very informative.

[psychicsword]

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 :)

Re:RTFA this one is a must read! Very informative.

[moderatorrater]

The song is great, and the feminine tone really helped my GF get into it. Easily the best game of the year imho.

Re:RTFA this one is a must read! Very informative.

[enderjsv]

The song is EVIL. I've had that thing stuck in my head for two days. Especially the part

"And the Science gets done,
And you make a neat gun,
For the people who are still alive."

This kind of catchiness can only be the work of dark powers.

Re:RTFA this one is a must read! Very informative.

[Guysmiley777]

I chuckle every time at

"I've experiments to run
There is research to be done
On the people who are still alive"

(Emphasis is mine)

Re:RTFA this one is a must read! Very informative.

[enderjsv]

great, now THAT part is stuck in my head. Thanks a lot.

Re:RTFA this one is a must read! Very informative.

[aikouka]

That's why I always used the sexy voice in UT2K4. Nothing like a hot-sounding woman telling you that you're on a killing spree!

Bill and Ted's...wait

[LameAssTheMity]

Valve's most excellent puzzle/shooter hybrid Portal.
Anyone else immediately think of Bill and Ted here?

Re:Bill and Ted's...wait

[cthulu_mt]

GLaDOS defeated my Turing Test by repeatedly guessing the number I was thinking of.

Of course the number was 69!!!

Re:Bill and Ted's...wait

[the_tsi]

Something strange is afoot at the Enrichment Center.

Moar Maps!!

[robpoe]

I want more maps .. or even perhaps a good SDK so other modders can make good maps / etc.

Better yet, get the Dystopia team into Valveworld ... 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..

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

Re:Moar Maps!!

[AlexMax2742]

I don't know about that, one of the main selling points of CS, DOD and TF was that they continued to have popularity long past their origional release date. There's no doubt that Dystopia was an incredibly polished game, but the gameplay itself was really shallow compared to the former three games.

First, the level design from a pure gameplay standpoint was beyond abysmal in most cases, you were usually funneled into one chokepoint with one distinct way in, and it was simply bashing your head up against a wall for 20 minutes or however long the game lasted.

Second of all, the fact that there are two completely seperate and distinct forms of gameplay (cyberspace and meatspace), with some objectives requiring proficency in both to progress, meant that games were destined to end in stalemate. What's worse is that these two types of gameplay relied on each other, yet do not rely on direct teamwork to accomplish, you need both as opposed to the strength of one being able to shore up for the weaknesses of another. With a little thought, these gameplay weaknesses would be fixable, but from what I understand the development team has their head firmly placed up their ass when it comes to game design (I remember hearing about the author of dys_infection trying to pass off the rotating lock door room as good level design, what a crock of shit), so I doubt these issues will ever get resolved.

Re:Moar Maps!!

[AlexMax2742]

It's a shame too, because the game itself reeks of polish, and I imagine that playing a game of dystopia on a meatspace-only map that didn't have ridiculous chokepoints, or on a meatspace/cyberspace map where the cyberpsace objectives were merely helpful instead of required, the game would be tons more fun. As it stands now, though, it's got less players than a buggy Counterstrike "Promod", a conversion of Team Fortress Classic to source (which already has a TF2), and most embarassingly a Dragonball Z mod for Goldsrc, and I beleive the blame falls squarely on the well intentioned but ill-concieved gameplay.

Oh, and that ball-game. Instead of focusing on fixing the core gameplay problems, they instead add a minigame where you push a giant ball into a goal, something you'd expect to see in a Garrys Mod gametype. Whose bright idea was that?

yeah

[Sobieski]

It's Narbacular Drop, not Narbuncular or whatever... sounds like a Busherism

Re:yeah

[.Spyder78.]

[QUOTE]sounds like a Busherism[/QUOTE] ...as in President Busher?

Re:yeah

[Sobieski]

no... as in Hall of Fame hockey player Harvey "Busher" Jackson of course

Eric & OMM

[theantipop]

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.

BTW

[zsouthboy]

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).

Re:BTW

[pokeyburro]

Indeed. I liked that feature ever since Lost Coast; Valve really made a good move there. Guarantees I'll play the whole game through a second time, right off the bat.

In Portal's case, it's wonderful to hear commentary from Ellen McLain herself. I confess I never bothered to know who she was until those commentaries. And now I learn of the past work she's done for Valve. Portal should result in an enormous boost in her notoriety, and IMO she deserves every bit of it for what she did in just that game alone.

Re:BTW

[Kamineko]

Voice artists always do the best commentaries, but they're rarely available. ARE YOU LISTENING, FOLKS WHO MADE BIOSHOCK?

The first two-thirds of the game is a warm-up

[BigCow]

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.

Re:The first two-thirds of the game is a warm-up

[Arathon]

Check out Thinking With Portals and Portal Maps.net. And they don't even have the SDK yet.

I'm particularly partial to RenTest2 and Station 1. There are at least 8 maps currently out there that I know of that are well worth downloading and playing.

Re:The first two-thirds of the game is a warm-up

[dns_server]

The SDK was released last week I believe.

The Meta-Cube

[SuperKendall]

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!

Re:Way to kill a good thing

[SanityInAnarchy]

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.

That's the point. It's ironic, because GlaDOS mentions exactly these symptoms. "We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that the Weighted Companion Cube cannot speak. If the Weighted Companion Cube does speak, we suggest that you disregard its advice."

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.

Missing the point again. That's just All Your Base all over again.

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 would, given that GlaDOS does mention it (as I said) while you are progressing through that level.

Also, go listen to the commentary about it. This was deliberate -- they wanted to make sure you didn't leave it behind in the first part, so they made you like it. "Please take care of it."

There are lies, damned lies, and

[SurturZ]

CAKE.

Weighted Companion Cube vs. Clippy

[SurturZ]

Could someone write a Weighted Companion Cube replacement for Clippy in MS Office?

Re:Way to kill a good thing

[SurturZ]

Does it actually talk to you, and I just didn't hear it?

Yes.

One thing that Narbacular Drop had over Portal

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

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.