Welcome to Episode 178 of Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers and Fans.  In this episode, we launch our third joint production of Speculate and Greg’s Twitch channel (under the moniker Arvan Eleron) as we discuss the world of Portal, Valve‘s groundbreaking puzzle game with a whole lot of story both implicit and explicit.  We talk about how the appearance of the otherwise silent protagonist allows the player to experience the story more immersively, the way game mechanics and increasing difficulty help to further the sense of increasing dread, and how the cake must clearly be a lie (it will make sense after you play the game for yourself).  Greg has never played Portal before, and having Mike comment on the story elements as Greg was discovering them for himself was a great experience–and one which the Twitch chat apparently enjoyed as well.  We hope you find it similarly interesting in helping think of narrative in new and different ways.  If you’d like to see the video version of this, head to Greg’s YouTube channel, and if you liked what you saw and heard, don’t forget to check back soon as we start a new triptych of shows.  Thanks for supporting us here and via the Patreon, and thanks as always for listening to and spreading the word about the show!