A few months ago I was brainstorming puzzle ideas for a custom portal 2 map when I realized that most of what I was coming up with was either exceedingly convoluted or complex for the sake of difficulty, rather than fun or novel in the spirit of "thinking with portals." Now I realize these distinctions are rather subjective, but my basic idea was that fewer elements working together in unexpected ways (such as[spoiler]the first time you use a light bridge to block a fling in mid-air in the single player campaign, or the combination of elements in the "pull the rug" level[/spoiler]) can make for a far more satisfying gameplay experience (from a puzzle-solving perspective) than repeating several basic maneuvers in different orders, or with ninja reflexes, or with pixel-perfect-platforming, etc.
On that note, (and in an effort to discover any low-hanging fruit that the developers may have ignored) I thought it might be useful to create a easy-to-look-up reference of puzzle element interactions. Dividing the puzzle elements into 14 types, I set up a grid to analyze the 196 ways each of these elements could act on another. I separated the kinds of interactions into 3 main categories, "physical, causal, and no effect," with an added "unknown/inconsistent" category. Most of these distinctions were fairly obvious, while others were more a matter of opinion.
For people adept at puzzle creation, this may seem like a terrible waste of time, but by looking at the game from this perspective, I was able to make what I think were some noteworthy observations. For instance, elements which do not interact with one another can be thought of as orthogonal, and their effects stack. Thus, a grate, which allows portals, bullets, and thermal discouragement beams through, but otherwise behaves as a solid texture, when used in combination with a fizzler, results in what is effectively bullet/gel-penetrable glass. Similarly, a death field, used with a fizzler, makes bullet/gel-penetrable death-glass.
This list is by no means complete, but can be thought of as a partial attempt to record the "rules" of portal 2 puzzles ([spoiler]for starters, I have neglected to include bombs or glass as puzzle elements, though bombs' ability to break glass is an important component of the single player campaign![/spoiler])
For anyone interested in using, adding to, or ridiculing this project I have attached the excel spreadsheet to this post.
A few months ago I was brainstorming puzzle ideas for a custom portal 2 map when I realized that most of what I was coming up with was either exceedingly convoluted or complex for the sake of difficulty, rather than fun or novel in the spirit of "thinking with portals." Now I realize these distinctions are rather subjective, but my basic idea was that fewer elements working together in unexpected ways (such as
Spoiler
the first time you use a light bridge to block a fling in mid-air in the single player campaign, or the combination of elements in the "pull the rug" level
) can make for a far more satisfying gameplay experience (from a puzzle-solving perspective) than repeating several basic maneuvers in different orders, or with ninja reflexes, or with pixel-perfect-platforming, etc.
On that note, (and in an effort to discover any low-hanging fruit that the developers may have ignored) I thought it might be useful to create a easy-to-look-up reference of puzzle element interactions. Dividing the puzzle elements into 14 types, I set up a grid to analyze the 196 ways each of these elements could act on another. I separated the kinds of interactions into 3 main categories, "physical, causal, and no effect," with an added "unknown/inconsistent" category. Most of these distinctions were fairly obvious, while others were more a matter of opinion.
For people adept at puzzle creation, this may seem like a terrible waste of time, but by looking at the game from this perspective, I was able to make what I think were some noteworthy observations. For instance, elements which do not interact with one another can be thought of as orthogonal, and their effects stack. Thus, a grate, which allows portals, bullets, and thermal discouragement beams through, but otherwise behaves as a solid texture, when used in combination with a fizzler, results in what is effectively bullet/gel-penetrable glass. Similarly, a death field, used with a fizzler, makes bullet/gel-penetrable death-glass.
This list is by no means complete, but can be thought of as a partial attempt to record the "rules" of portal 2 puzzles (
Spoiler
for starters, I have neglected to include bombs or glass as puzzle elements, though bombs' ability to break glass is an important component of the single player campaign!
)
For anyone interested in using, adding to, or ridiculing this project I have attached the excel spreadsheet to this post.
