PORTAL PERPETUAL TESTING INITIATIVE MOD
PORTAL PERPETUAL TESTING INITIATIVE UPDATE

Looks like Valve has ignited a pretty big spark. In the time IвЂ™ve been writing this, the Steam Workshop link at the top of this page has gone from 3 entries to 136. ThatвЂ™s something thatвЂ™s been sorely lacking in recent years with the rise of this generation of consoles, more and more complex internal tools, and fewer and fewer resources to release polished user-facing toolsets.

PORTAL PERPETUAL TESTING INITIATIVE MOD

For all the amazing ways that exist today to make entirely unique games, thereвЂ™s still something to be said for the playground of mod tools for an existing game вЂ“ for taking the familiar and adding your own personal twist. The spark of вЂњoh wow, I can do this?вЂќ The spark of realizing that all those ideas youвЂ™ve had bouncing around in your head as youвЂ™ve played your favorite games over the years are something you can actually try out for yourself. Simple tools like this, LittleBigPlanet,В or NadeoвЂ™s tools (pictured above: TrackMania 2 and ShootMania Storm) exist not to threaten the livelihoods of developers, but to create a spark. WeвЂ™ve been having a similar debate since Unreal Engine 2 stepped onto the scene with its modular/scalable mesh-based level design, and the art of level design has not yet crumbled into ruin (unless you count todayвЂ™s countless destroyed battlefields and overabundance of conveniently placed half-height cover, but thatвЂ™s another debate). In the discussion for the MapCore Challenge, one user worried that tools such as this will somehow dumb down or diminish the achievements of more experienced users. This type of tool gives anyone with an idea the near-immediate power to attempt to realize it, and thatвЂ™s a very good thing. However, they no longer exist behind a thick technical knowledge barrier or this jumbled visual mess: Sure, experienced professionals or hobbyists have the advantage of experience and the knowledge to take a test chamber and tweak/polish/detail it in Hammer. When it comes down to it, thatвЂ™s really the beauty of this editor вЂ“ whether youвЂ™re a professional, an amateur, or a first-timer, youвЂ™re on roughly equal footing in this editor. In addition to being a great quick and timely challenge (that also buys us some time to prepare for the next more technical challenge), it also provides as level playing field as weвЂ™ll probably ever get. Over at MapCore, weвЂ™re kicking off the Perpetual Testing Challenge in which designers will have about two weeks to create 1-3 Portal 2 test chambers using only the new editor.

PORTAL PERPETUAL TESTING INITIATIVE UPDATE

This update brings a slick and simplified level editor to Portal 2 along with Steam Workshop support to easily share and find other puzzles online вЂ“ the first chambers are already beginning to show up! As IвЂ™m typing this update, ValveвЂ™s Perpetual Testing InitiativeВ DLC for Portal 2 is downloading via Steam.

Portal perpetual testing initiative