IGN Portal Interview

[Mess]

IGN have managed to scoop an exclusive interview with Valve's Kim Swift, a member of the Portal team pinched from the previous project Narbacular Drop. In the interview she discloses information on the origins of Portal, its link to the Half-Life universe and the future of the franchise.

IGN: The demonstration at EA's Studio Highlight was excellent. Some things that we wanted to clear up, however, stem from Portal's separation or integration into HL2: Episode 2. Is it a standalone game or it is part of Episode 2? Also, we gather from the demo Portal is a single-player game, is this correct? If so, will Valve develop it into a multiplayer game in the future?

Kim Swift: Portal is a first-person, single-player game set in the Half Life universe. It is a stand-alone game that will provide an extra three hours of gameplay to the HL2: Episode 2 game package. The initial release is to be single-player only, but we have lots of ideas for multiplayer with Portal for future projects.

Read the whole article here

[ferret]

multi-player portal would be a riot

[tacoboks]

Yeah I can see it now, "OMG you no0b you portalled me and I died.....UGH , can we turn off FF pleze!"

[-[Getty]-]

I'm looking foreward to the single-player version. It looks amazing

[Sorrow]

IGN have managed to scoop an exclusive interview with Valve's Kim Swift
In the interview she discloses information on the origins of Portal

It's a bloody miracle

[-[Getty]-]

what is?

That there is a woman working for a computer game company?

[Jest@]

i cant wait for multiplayer portal...levels filled with death-traps, desperately trying to portal-hop away from someone who's trying to drop you through their portal into a burning pit...you fire a portal in a wall, but oh noes! someone put a portal right in front of your exit! fiery death!

gonna have soo much fun shooting a portal through someone else's portal just before they go through

multiplayer portal is gonna be fucking MANIC. serious headfuck time. I, for one, cannot wait.

[5eyes]

IGN: The demonstration at EA's Studio Highlight was excellent. Some things that we wanted to clear up, however, stem from Portal's separation or integration into HL2: Episode 2. Is it a standalone game or it is part of Episode 2? Also, we gather from the demo Portal is a single-player game, is this correct? If so, will Valve develop it into a multiplayer game in the future?

Kim Swift: Portal is a first-person, single-player game set in the Half Life universe. It is a stand-alone game that will provide an extra three hours of gameplay to the HL2: Episode 2 game package. The initial release is to be single-player only, but we have lots of ideas for multiplayer with Portal for future projects.

holy cow, 3 HOURS, that is freakin sweet, but will this make ep2 cost more or not? really just want to know already -_-

[Jest@]

holy cow, 3 HOURS, that is freakin sweet, but will this make ep2 cost more or not? really just want to know already -_-

naah, pretty sure they're keeping the price the same, TF2 and Portal are just freebies. The best freebies ever.

[The Watcher]

I didn't know Portal would be part of the HL story/franchise (and not an independant mod, with a different story, etc.).

[ferret]

I didn't know Portal would be part of the HL story/franchise (and not an independant mod, with a different story, etc.).

it isn't

[Spartan]

Did anyone else notice the motion blur in the Portal trailer and screenshots.

[Jest@]

Did anyone else notice the motion blur in the Portal trailer and screenshots.

yeah..schweet...valve have had it working for a while apparently, although it seems the way they've done it (realistically and accurately) requires bitchin' sstem specs, so they're unlikely to release it till either they've reworked it or system specs rise a lot higher - link

EDIT: Best. Answer. Ever:

IGN: From the point of view of a smart gamer, it's wild and curious that Valve is partnering with Electronic Arts...What is the business gameplan with EA? Are there potential plans to sell Valve to EA or to remain independent? Will you give us an idea of what's going on?

Kim Swift: As far as I know, Valve has no plans of purchasing EA.

[5eyes]

EDIT: Best. Answer. Ever:

IGN: From the point of view of a smart gamer, it's wild and curious that Valve is partnering with Electronic Arts...What is the business gameplan with EA? Are there potential plans to sell Valve to EA or to remain independent? Will you give us an idea of what's going on?

Kim Swift: As far as I know, Valve has no plans of purchasing EA.

QFT, lol

I didn't know Portal would be part of the HL story/franchise (and not an independant mod, with a different story, etc.).

it isn't

it takes place in the HL universe though, but not directly with the story (as far as we know)

Did anyone else notice the motion blur in the Portal trailer and screenshots.

hopfully not an added after effect

[dragonfliet]

Did anyone else notice the motion blur in the Portal trailer and screenshots.

yeah..schweet...valve have had it working for a while apparently, although it seems the way they've done it (realistically and accurately) requires bitchin' sstem specs, so they're unlikely to release it till either they've reworked it or system specs rise a lot higher - link

The effects are accomplished with an accumulation buffer for quality, creating enormous overhead; for instance, twenty to thirty motion blur frames need to be rendered for every one frame that the user sees. For a constant framerate of thirty frames per second, a video card is required to produce between six hundred and nine hundred frames per second.

Um...does that make sense to anyone? I really, really don't understand why 30 frames need to be rendered for every frame we see. Wouldn't prediction models be a much, much, much smarter idea? Calculate the motion of the character, guess the position it will be in in the next frame and create a suitable blur effect for it? This would create the occasional blurred frame that would be out of place should something suddenly stop moving, but it seems a bit more...um...not insane than this supposed process. Oh well. I liked the interview (though I saw it a few days ago)

~Jason