Thu, May 12, 2011 | 09:20 BST
Gabe Newell: Portal 2 delay sounded really good
Quote of the day is from Josh Weier, Project Lead on Portal 2, discussing the delay which pushed the game back a couple of weeks.
Weier explains that Gabe Newell was actually the delay’s “biggest supporter”.
“Newell was asking about what we wanted to do with the extra time, and he said there was no data to suggest a delay was going to hurt us, and that in fact all the stuff we said we wanted to do for the game made it sound like it was going to be really good.”
Play.tm points out that Gabe’s prediction was 100% correct. The delay didn’t hurt a bit, and the extra improvements to Portal 2 may well have been enough to clinch the game’s best-seller status.
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Posted in: Valve
Tags: gabe newell, josh weier, portal 2, quote, valve time
6 comments
#1
alterecho
12/05/11, 10:00 am
And it shows (don’t know which part though). Hope the game designers / level designers were rewarded really well.
#2
deadstoned
12/05/11, 12:00 pm
I expect they were, Valve rake in $1 billion a year for just 250 employees. So yeah I expect they’re swimming in it
#3
Dr.Ghettoblaster
12/05/11, 2:46 pm
Well earned.
#4
TheWulf
12/05/11, 3:01 pm
@2
True enough. Though with Portal 2 I really felt that they went out of their way to make a unique and compelling gameplay experience, and one that was as deep as it was funny and interesting. They make the effort more than publishing houses with 20 times their number of employees do.
I was stunned at how deep Portal 2 was, really. Not just the gameplay mechanics but the whole experience itself. I went in expecting something of a comedy, and it was funny, but there was this whole… undercurrent of melancholy. So many people have gotten caught up in the burgeoning beast of Aperture, even those who created that beast, and suffered for it.
And Portal 2 had some of the most awesomely feel good lines in spite of that, so there was a very human element to all of it. Even to the machines. That there was hope down there, deep beneath the earth, that one day they might free themselves of their own corruption. I’d love to see Aperture eventually become something amazing.
Oh, and those feel good lines?
“AND I’M GOING TO BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN! WITH THE LEMONS!”
“YES!! Burning people! He says what we’re all THINKING!!”
Yeah.
#5
Prof.Dr.Moertel
12/05/11, 6:36 pm
@4 And I want to earn additional 60 Dollars!
#6
dtyk
12/05/11, 6:59 pm
@4
The depth of portal 2 I have never doubted. With Valve’s amazing track record, and the geniuses of the original portal, there was no doubt.
What did surprise me, was just how nice portal 2 looked. I’m surprised no one has commented on how good the lighting is in the new source engine. It’s so easy on the machine, but look’s so good.