![]() ![]() "Your relationship sort of gets more complicated from there," he adds. While Wolpaw won't spill the beans on where they take the story from there, it's clear that GLaDOS is pissed about being blown to hell, and the ongoing conflict you have with her is central to the game. New characters are introduced to add variety and to give GLaDOS someplace to go, and they also put extra pressure on your already damaged relationship with the volatile hunk of sentient circuitry. Given Portal 2's greater length, balancing the comedic and story pacing throughout the journey was a big focus, says Wolpaw. So she starts out this time kind of where you left her, in that slightly more human state." "We didn't just want to do that same thing again. She's mad at you, and she's passive-aggressive," says Wolpaw. "The biggest writing challenge was that GLaDOS had this arc in Portal where she starts as this institutional voice, and then you escape and she gets, for lack of a better term, more human by the end. Though it was clear the megalomaniacal machine would make a return, figuring out how to fit her into the tale this time around was a bit trickier. GLaDOS plays a major role in shaping Portal's clever balance of story and wicked mirth. It also served a springboard for the demented and comedic interactions that have become a series trademark. "We put one in, and it worked out well," he notes. ![]() ![]() "People were enjoying the puzzles, but it was getting to be kind of a slog for them without something else to latch onto." Wolpaw also feels that because the game looked like a first-person shooter, it was expected to have some kind of story. "That's why we had GLaDOS in the first place, because the environments were so sterile," he says. In developing the original Portal, Wolpaw says the team didn't necessarily set out to make a story-driven puzzle game from the start, but the addition of a story element soon became a necessity. Other mechanical elements, like catapults, light bridges, lasers, and tractor beams further boost the many potential combinations available for solving Portal 2's crazy puzzles. "In Portal, it was kind of binary - you could put a portal on it or you couldn't - but by changing the surface properties, it really adds a lot of depth and complexity to the puzzles." Two of the gel types already announced, repulsion and propulsion, which respectively make you move faster and bounce. "One of the things we realized was that the portal mechanic is kind of about the relationship you have with surfaces," Wolpaw explains. Rather than adding a new gun or throwing in some new functions for the portal launcher, the team came up with the idea to use colored gels that act like paint that can change the properties of surfaces. "One of our primary design goals and constraints was we didn't want to change the simplicity of the core mechanic: You have a portal gun and you can shoot two portals," says Wolpaw. The sequel has many new puzzle elements, fresh environments, new characters, and a beefy new multiplayer co-op mode.ĭespite wanting to find creative ways expand on the original gameplay, the team was wary of fiddling too much with the winning puzzle formula. That team more than quadrupled in size over the three years it took to complete development Portal 2, he says - resulting in a much lengthier game that's packed with a lot more content. After the first game's success, another small team was assembled to begin exploring ideas for the sequel. Nobody expected the tremendous response the game received when it shipped as part of the Orange Box in 2007," says Wolpaw. The original was made with only a small team of about eight people. "In terms of scope, Portal 2 is going to be a much bigger game than its predecessor. With the hotly anticipated sequel about to usher in another round of psychotic sparring with everyone's favorite malevolent supercomputer A.I., we sat down to chat about Portal 2 with writer Erik Wolpaw - one of the key folks responsible for GLaDOS and the series' dark sense of humor. Flinging portals around to solve increasingly malicious test room environments is still a one-of-a-kind experience, but without inhuman antagonist GLaDOS spewing a laugh-inducing tirade of thinly veiled threats in her deadpan robotic drone as you progress deeper into the bowels of Aperture Science, Portal would have been a very different game. Few games come drenched in as much warped humor as Valve's surprise first-person physics puzzler hit Portal. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |