This month marks the 10-year anniversary of “Portal,” a first-individual puzzle game that transported new levels of problem solving, humor, and meme-ready one liners to the space of video game. Such was the effect of “Portal” that it has stayed a big benchmark in games related to 3D puzzle from its debut in 2007.
It was rolled out as fraction of compendium parcel “The Orange Box,” which also included “Half-Life 2: Episode Two” and “Team Fortress 2” (a third and last episode has not yet been catered to).
With a silent feminine character, a cunningly antagonistic AI contender GLaDOS, a portal gun able to transport players between 2 otherwise unlinked points, the motivational pledge of cake-based reward, dumb fellow passenger in the Weighted Companion Cube, and a run of more and more tricky puzzle rooms that cautiously initiated new ideas in an open-ended stadium, “Portal” turned out to be a lasting and instant hit.
The game was in fact created by a student group from DigiPen of Washington, with gaming behemoth Valve Corp. transporting the group in-house to change “Narbacular Drop” into “Portal.”
Kim Swift, the head designer, was also comprised with various other key projects of Valve at that time, beginning with the first periodic extension for “Left 4 Dead” team-based outings and revolutionary action first-person game “Half-Life 2.” This is one more franchise that, similar to “Team Fortress” and “Portal,” began life outside of Valve.
“Portal 2” rolled in 2011, including a suing of new aspects, a two-player mode (as there have been huge homages), and two additional characters, and direct or otherwise contribution to the successes of franchise.
Maybe most particularly, Swift herself developed an inter-dimensional object manipulation jaunt named “Quantum Conundrum” (for Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3), while “Gateways” (for Mac, PC, Xbox 360, and iPad,) took the idea of “Portal” onto a 2D plane.
Australian game “Antichamber” (for Mac, PC, and Linux) took untrustworthy nature of GLaDOS and implemented the idea to explorable game space as a whole, welcoming the player to escape and explore from a series of impossibly laid out stages and levels.
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