Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we enjoy a bonus conversation capping our series on Portal. We talk Portal 2, the tension between story and gameplay, its length, and yes, even some co-op. And we do it all live on Twitch. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: Much of SP, all of Co-op

Issues covered: recording on video, our history with Portal 2, being surprised that Portal 2 was a thing, the Valve employee handbook release, wanting a different sequel, a long campaign with many puzzles and mechanics, following up a perfect game, not cashing in, adding mechanics and the puzzles that teach you, character development and delivering more lore perfectly, a miracle, the progression of the Cave Johnson story, worldbuilding conflicting with gameplay, breaking out with Wheatley, cognitive dissonance, seeing all the behind the scenes, being re-tested, potato GladOS, the magic of how narrative connects, the chicken and the egg, a successful length for the format, a whole Portal inside the penultimate chapter, embedding lore successfully, back-propagating story, sympathy for the devil (i.e. GladOS), 2 + 2 = 4, being drawn to the financially productive projects, killer app for VR, the loss of single player, VR problems for consumers, adding portals to their hero-based MOBA shooter, lack of narrative progression in the co-op campaign, co-op for the sake of co-op?, helping the player vs not helping the player, not aligning well for a controller, more portals plus more mechanics become untenable, doing the impossible alongside the possible, potential solutions for portal confusion, playtesting and confidence in your solutions, specific buttons, the doorway effect, shape language, police procedure vs police procedural, inspecting tires, bread and butter TV format, empty JRPG chests and meaningless clues, the salience problem, getting the reward as if you had the skills.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Defeating Games for Charity, PANCAN, Kermit the Frog, Yoda, GoldenEye, Grant Kirkhope, Erik Wolpaw, LucasArts, Reed Knight, TIE Fighter, Orange Box, Half-Life (series), Brad Muir, Campo Santo, Marc Laidlaw, Dario Casali, J. K. Simmons, Stephen Merchant, Control, Uncharted, Spider-Man, Deadlock, Paragon, Tim Roth, Four Rooms, SplitGate, Halo, Chet Falisczek, Aperture Desk Job, Sony/PlayStation Studios, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Miss Stir Heed Hip/mysterydip, Spelunky, Calamity Nolan, Nintendo GameCube, Deadly Premonition, Pablo, Police Quest, Duncan Fyfe, L. A. Noire, Twin Peaks, X-Files, Heavy Rain, Rock Band, Return of the Obra Dinn, Golden Idol (series), Nancy Drew (series), Sherlock Holmes (series), Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time: Deadly Premonition wrap

Links: N0isses Twitch channel Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Apply for Defeating Games

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp YouTube Discord [email protected]