Co-op Mini Game Brainstorming
I've been trying to come up with some sort of mini game for Portal and wanted to start some discussion on what people would think is fun and some questions on if things are even possible. Feel free to post your own ideas and maybe we can start a new series of maps that have a bit more replay value than your typical Portal map. These will obviously be co-op centric maps (I guess you could do single player, but even if its 1 player at a time you might as well have 2 people there to enjoy it together.
Idea #1
"Gladiator"
Players start on opposite sides of a room on wide floating platforms with portalable walls behind them. They each have a ball dispenser and a portalable surface below in which they use the walls behind their opponent to fling the ball and knock them off into a pit to die.
Issues:
- The balls will not naturally push the player when they are hit. Is there a way to enable that, or should another object be used?
Variables:
- Button to be pressed to release a new ball to fling -or- balls are automatically dispensed every few seconds.
- Instead of killing the player when they are knocked off, simply teleport them back to a random location on the platform and have a score counter.
Idea #2
"Puzzle Point Control"
A room split in 2 with a set of identical puzzles on each side. The players must "capture" a certain number of the puzzle points in order to win the match. To capture a point, complete a puzzle, and your opponents matching puzzle will be reset.
Issues:
- Logic gates to determine when enough of the total points are captured to win. I'm just not sure what to use to make this work.
- The puzzles must be relatively difficult and take about the same amount of time. Twitch based is likely best so there is more chance of someone messing a puzzle up and falling behind their opponent.
Variables:
- How ever many puzzles you want and how many you need to win. Optimal seems like 4 out of 5.
- Have puzzles completely independent and separated by emancipation grids -or- have them all in the same space with a universal "drop box" in the center where things like cubes and spheres are dropped when the point is lost.
Idea #3
"Portal Volleyball"
Players are separated on 2 sides of a court, in which the ground is a portalable surface, and behind them is a multi directional wall to place portals on. The ball is served, and the players must place a portal on the ground and fling the sphere back to their opponent using the walls behind them. If the ball touches the ground it is a point for the player on the opposite side. The ball is then served from a dispenser in the ceiling to the player who just received a point.
Issues:
- Sphere flinging may be to predictable. But, when floor portals are placed in different orientations, it could become more and more erratic as the game goes on.
try to find the bombs Wheatly uses at the end for the gladiators.
keep up the good work! 
keep up the good work!
LOL that would work pretty well... and might even work for tennis as well. It will simply explode when it hits the ground at all. But, that wouldnt work because I'd still want it to bounce off the side walls.
I'm currently working on the Tennis map. I'm running into the issue of how to kill the sphere when it hits the ground. How do I do that? I tried to see what was done on the Antimatter map, because the futbol explodes on ground contact. Not sure if that would work here though. Basically, some sort of trigger that would fizzle the sphere on contact with the floor, but still allow it to be portaled through it. I'm guessing it would take some sort of logic gate that determined when contact was made... not sure, though.
A trigger_multiple should do the trick.
Thanks, I'll try that. I think that I just plain forgot about filters since its been so long since I've done any mapping 
Thanks for the reminder!
EDIT: Hm, one issue with the trigger_multiple though. How do I make it and still have it as a floor? Do I just put the trigger and the floor in the exact same spot?
I'm having an issue with the ball not going very fast when its dropped. When I fall from not even near the height the ball is dropped I get flung much farther. Is there some sort of max speed for the sphere that I can modify? I want this to be a fairly large room to leave the players time to place a portal, and the current drop speed doesnt send the sphere nearly far enough.
Well I got the sphere to move faster out of the spawner with a point_push, but as soon as it moves through the portal it slows down to the old max speed that I had the trouble with. Is there some sort of limiter in play here? I hope I dont have to use a pusher behind each of these panels to get what I want, as that would probably look and feel really odd.
Still dont know how to trigger the ball to dissolve when it hits the floor though.... 
OK, I guess I'll just resign to using pushers on every panel to send it the desired distance. I'm going to have to redo all of the panels, though, because I want to get the pusher centered properly as well as portal placement helpers so it doesnt get pushed in an odd direction because your portal was an inch too high or low.
I did get it basically working, so its certainly a start. I just need help on how to make the sphere dissolve when it touches the ground!
Once I get it fully working (possibly minus the floor dissolving) with the desired push strengths I'll upload a WIP version for you guys to test out. That wont be until later tonight though, so until then please help me out with my problem!
Tennis 0.1 is (hopefully) working and uploaded here: community-releases/tennis-t2695.html
finally found the proper thread to post this in...
brainstorm for coop map
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coop strategy ctf/shooter map/mod
players start on opposite sides of the room. the game can be won by killing the opponent x times or by triggering the button/flag near their spawn point. the map would be somewhat complex and maze like. all game elements could be used in some way.
+++ how some gameplay elements might be used or tweaked +++
-player movement could be increased from the default walk pace for puzzles
-player jump height increased
-player damage model... could be incremental, have a timed recovery to full health or elements could do different amounts of damage
-lasers and redirection cube (gun) are fatal after a x seconds. multiple laser emitters could be available throughout the map.
-funnels can only be activated x times by x button/s that trigger them once. . funnels can be used for surveillance (forward x seconds back x seconds) and transport and could be invisible or the player could become invisible when inside. if player is invisible inside, turrets would not be triggered but you could be killed by a laser. if turrets are placed in the funnel they are not destroyed.
-light bridges are located near spawn points and are vertical for blocking opponent turrets and trapping the other player at key spots in the map. (block the ability to walk through portals that contain a bridge.)
-turrets... 5 or so player friendly turrets would be available near spawn points and a couple of neutral ones in the middle of the map. turrets could have have different triggers such as distance/time from/to spotting player and could be random to vary the gameplay. turrets, like the lasers, would be more fatal but how much? friendly turrets kill hostile turrets
-random triggers/tripwires could spawn lasers/turrets/bridges or teleport player to various places on the map
+++ strategy beyond well placed turrets and laser kills +++
-activating funnels are a puzzles within the game
-trapping the other player on the map via light bridge. this would be made possible by making some portable surfaces accept only one players portal. (if one player makes a portal to trap the other player, the player that is trapped can not take a way the bridge. key trap points would have a trigger that the trapped player would invoke, this trigger would reveal a turret/s or laser/s (wall opening) inside the the trap and a button outside the trap for the other player to push/activate. (the button would be activated automatically after 15 seconds to avoid a long taunt)
other traps points would reveal the turrets and lasers but would also have portable surfaces inside and a line of site to portable outside the trap. the player would have to explore the trap to find the portable surface inside in x seconds.
-faith plates in pairs could be used in pairs to take the player deep into enemy territory/across large sections of the map for a for a hit and run offensive strategy or recon. to counter this the opposing player could set up a laser in the faith plate flight path.
-funnels that are being used can be countered by placing a laser in it's path to kill the other player
+++ wining and scoring+++
-a win is had after activating the button at your opponents spawn point or killing opponent x times.
-kill points could be awarded depending on where on the map the kill occurred. the closer the kill is to the opponent spawn point the more kills you get. (if you kill your opponent 25 ft. from their spawn point you get a triple kill 200ft double kill etc...
+++ transition to the next chamber +++
after the match is over the players spawn one last time. a faith plate and timed lever are reveled, players the start a countdown and the faith plates send them to the entrance of the next chamber before entering next chamber a gesture is triggered (winner hugs the looser)
-the game could be extended by using the same map for many chambers but to vary gameplay the elements and trap points would have to be moved around.
+++ problems so far +++
locating the other player... because the map may be large and complex it may be necessary to give away the general location of the other player (not to obvious though). it could be done by splitting the map into zones and each zone would have a trigger that would change the appearance the of the ceiling in some way, maybe through animated panels or lighting.
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