-Portal- Aperture Science!

Reveal what you have made so far and get feedback on development.

-Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby TicTac on Sun Mar 22, 2009 12:55 am

Hello 'lopers! I've been working on this map-pack for Portal for a while now, and I used to have a thread for it on http://www.thinkingwithportals.com. Sadly, that website is in it's death-throws now, so there's no reason to continue giving progress updates there.
That's why I'm bringing my project here! :D Most updates will be posted here, though I'll still throw out major updates in this thread.
What's this, you say? Another shitty mod with no media, or even a decent level done?! Well wont I prove you wrong ;)

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Backstory: After regaining consciousness inside of an elevator, GLaDOS explains you passed out during the testing, and she sent someone to revive you. All that you can remember from before passing-out is your father bringing you to work with him. You continue on with your forced, labrat-esque testing, until an inexplicable explosion rocks the facility.

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Overview:The majority of my map pack is going to be test chambers. (At the time of this posting, there are seven chambers completed.) However, once things are literally shaken up, you'll find yourself behind the sterile, maintained walls of the test area. I've worked long and hard on this, albeit slowly, and take pride in my quality and detail. While this may not be the hardest map pack, I never intended it to be extremely difficult. (This began as a map for mahalis' GMOD Portalgun mod, and I halted work on that and started where I left off for the real Portal.) I simply intend for it to be very good quality, and to tell a story as it goes along.

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Other Nonsense!
-All media can be found on my website (link above).
-This map-pack is geared towards the casual gamer. It starts off fairly easy, and progressively become
harder.
-I've made an entirely custom set of GLaDOS speeches, so everything you hear is new!
-Now featuring forcefields!

Please leave comments on either this thread or on my site, I'll try my best to keep them both updated!
Remember, encouragement stokes the fire, but criticism is the fuel to keep it going.

-TicTac

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Media!
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Last edited by TicTac on Tue Apr 13, 2010 10:47 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby Pink Panther on Sun Mar 22, 2009 2:48 pm

Please don't take this the wrong way, but it's really hard for me to become interested and/or excited about a mod/map pack without any pictures. That's great it's gotten this far, but until you can show it to the public I wouldn't expect a 3 ring circus of publicity, if you get my drift.
"Here we go again..."
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby ad_hominem on Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:07 pm

The_Maker wrote:Please don't take this the wrong way, but it's really hard for me to become interested and/or excited about a mod/map pack without any pictures. That's great it's gotten this far, but until you can show it to the public I wouldn't expect a 3 ring circus of publicity, if you get my drift.

Did you try going to the link he gave you? There are images on that site.
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby Pink Panther on Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:14 pm

My mistake. Didn't see them in that small box.
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby TicTac on Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:22 pm

Media Bump :D

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Yea, sorry about that maker. I really should've posted some media on this thread earlier. I was counting on people noticing my link :oops:
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby Habboi on Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:31 pm

I looked at this yesterday and read it all, I even clicked the link you gave us. It just took me to the main page and I could not find your stuff so I gave up.

Today I saw the link to your page and had a look. Those pics were impressive and I think matched the Portal theme perfectly. In fact it made me think to myself how easy / hard it must be to map for Portal. I also took note of your aligned floor tiles which is a good thing.

My only nit pit is whether your map will offer something new to the table. Sure, making a new puzzle map is fun but people also like originality so if you had a puzzle that was different such as the stuff in Portal Prelude like that insanely annoying guide the companion cube through the firey maze by standing on buttons while at the same time under pressure from time.

I look forward to more from you.

Oh also, I didn't like those dirty decals in the second picture. Seemed off and you should only use on broken stuff in my opinion.
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby TicTac on Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:37 pm

Habboi, what about the site was hard to navigate? Everything works fine on my end. . . (oh! Did you follow the link to thinkingwithportals? :oops: )

Also, thanks for the feedback. I'm brainstorming ideas on how to get the most out of the force-field mechanic, and I'm thinking something along the lines of this:
If forcefield A is disabled, then forcefield B is enabled. So the player has to toggle A and B back and forth to solve the puzzle, along with other corresponding sets of forcefields.
did any of that make sense? lol

EDIT
Thanks for pointing out those decals, they aren't very noticeable while you're playing, but you're right. They do look a bit out of place... Perhaps I'll stick to the lighter stains/make some custom textures for it...
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby TicTac on Sat Mar 28, 2009 7:00 pm

Media BLOWOUT!!! (kinda sorta ;))
I tried to group these together by what's in them: Test Chamber, Maintenance Area, etc. They're not order of appearance in the game.
Comment away, please!

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Last edited by TicTac on Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby srredfire on Sat Mar 28, 2009 7:53 pm

Very cool, I'm definately digging some of the environments you've mixed in here, gives it a nice fresh feeling while still staying in that portal-like theme. How far along are you? Any ETA on release?

Also, there's been a pretty good handful of Portal packs released, and I agree with Habboi, what about yours make this special? Do you have cooler puzzles? I mean for one, like I said, the environments have got me pretty interested, but will they KEEP me interested?

Other than that, looks great.
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby Habboi on Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:55 pm

Nice new media. Two things that bug me. One is the giant hand. I like it but maybe change the colour so that it is either more transparent or less saturated. Perhaps the black around it could be less in your face.

The stairs in one of those pics needs to be randomised aka texture wise.

But apart from those minor things...You've got something nice here so keep it up.
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby TicTac on Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:40 pm

Thanks for the feedback, Habboi! I'll try to get those sorted out.
The hand, though, is my 'forcefield' I made that texture to be pretty in-your-face, so that it's obvious/easy to realize you can't go there, much like the contrast between the metal and concrete that valve created!

@Srred, I'm estimating that I'm 70% complete right now. ETA, I'd guess summertime at the latest. Nothing definite, though, seeing as I'm terrible at making deadlines :(
Also, as for holding your/anybodies interest, I'm weaving a story as the player progresses. Unfortunately, other than the forcefield mechanic, I don't have much else that's 'new'. (Though some area's in the game overlap, such as the office-like area. One level the player has the option to explore some of the hallways. Later on, on a different level, the player has to navigate to a 'control' room, which was visible from the aforementioned halls.) You know, little things like that ;)
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby spare8ball on Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:50 pm

I don't think new game play mechanics are really necessary for Portal. When i played Portal Prelude i felt sorta overwhelmed by all the new concepts they had in the game, it kinda threw me off. I like plain old Portal maps myself with maybe one new addition, I don't think every new Portal map needs a new concept though. The maps are looking pretty nice by the way.
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby TicTac on Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:57 pm

Thanks, 8ball! I still have to go over some areas and detail...
speaking of detail, does anybody have suggestions on how to make these visually better?
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby Habboi on Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:41 pm

Yeah I do. It's called leave them alone. They look fine and match the Portal theme so don't ruin it for the sake of it.
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Re: -Portal- Aperture Science!

Postby TicTac on Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:35 pm

Erm... Thank you..?
I honestly don't know if that was meant as a compliment or as "Don't f**k it up, stupid."
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