Cave Johnson here...

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

Last edited Sun Apr 29, 2012, 04:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Introducing the Perpetual Testing Initiative.

[LeftOfSelf-Centered]

1. ...so awesome...

If they did this right (and, who are we kidding, it's Valve, so of course they did it right) this well be great.

The only problem I see: I have a feeling that making test chambers that are challenging without being frustrating is exceedingly hard...

[Occulus]

2. And here is a day one review of the map editor

Holy crap!

No, really. HOLY CRAP!!

Valve just vastly increased the replay value of Portal2. The Community Map Editor makes Portal mapping easy. It's all literally drag and drop.

I think by far the most challenging aspect of the editor is making a map the player can't break. I've found myself resorting to making every surface unportalable unless I specifically want the player to portal there. To disguise this, I've taken to revealing with a button and a flip panel as many of those as possible.

I sincerely hope this is only a first step and not a finished product, though. Not because it doesn't work as intended- it does- but because it isn't enough. I want to be able to put every last entity type into the editor, dammit, and the lack of even lighting options just bothers me.

However, as a proof of concept, as a trial run, as the best damn thing to happen to game mapping ever, this really does the job. Caroline, get me a bagel and some cream cheese. We have some testing goodness to spread!

[LeftOfSelf-Centered]

3. Agreed.

I played around with the editor a little last night, and from the first look I have to say holy crap indeed. The editor seems like it's all it's cracked up to be. Even without reading any instructions I could easily place buttons and connect them up. The real challenge, as I mentioned before is coming up with good test chambers.

Have you ever played Portal Prelude? It's a fan mod for the original game, a it is a prequel (although I disagree with its portrayal of GLaDOS, but that's neither here nor there). It's technically a very well made mod, and it is fun and challenging, but too often the challenge relies on fancy jumping and not clever use of portals. For example placing two portals vertically and falling endlessly and then (while falling) placing a portal to fling yourself to the correct place (very hit and miss). Or worse, placing a portal on the ground and one on a wall to fall through a endlessly to build up speed. I'm not saying it's a bad mod (it's not), but they seemed to me to have missed the spirit of the game: difficulty through fancy portalling, not fancy jumping.

I also agree on your deep editing features. The editor could have two levels; basic, like it is now (I'd add being able to skin it with the various Aperture time periods), and deep, where you can manipulate every aspect.

Anyway, if you build and test chambers drop me a line, I'd love to give them a try.