PORTAL 2 Map

Personal Project

Role: Level Designer
Genre: Puzzle Game
Platform: PC
Engine: Portal 2 Map Editor
Context : Personal project.

MAP CONCEPT

Medium difficulty map

DESIGN INTENTIONS

Push the player to try and think a bit outside of the box
Allowing multiple way of using playing and solving the puzzles
Play on visibility and lines of sight

WORK HIGHLIGHTS

Easy-to-use Level Editor
Endless possibilities of items combinations
Large community open for testing maps

Paper Maps and Scenes Screenshots

Level Highlights

INTRODUCTION ROOM

Objective: Introduce the basic mechanics of the levels : cubes, switches and lasers.

DESIGN GOALS

Ease the player into using simple interactions with the items.
Make the players use the portals smartly.

Short and simple mechanic with not much room for improvisation.

Introduction Room

Critical Path

First time Player's Path

Drawn from playtest sessions.

Introduction Room

1/3

SECOND ROOM

Objective: Make the player practice the base mechanics and push him to search for alternative solutions

DESIGN GOALS

Complexifying the puzzles by introducing news mechanics : laser "plots", timed-actions, attractive beam and jump pads.
Introduce the crafting mechanic

Puzzle difficulty raised a bit to keep the player involved and make him learn sideways of solving simple puzzles.

Practice Room

1/1

FINAL ROOM

Objective: Push the player further into finding alternative solutions and being observant of their surroundings.

DESIGN GOALS

Final level with highest complexity puzzle.
New difficulty : turrets and secret door.

The last room compels the player into a more inventive way of playing with multiple possibilities for getting rid of turrets and using the laser.

Final Room

1/1

Playtests Result

Some players tended to be confused between the cubes used for switches and the reflective ones

Players were missing important informations (such as portalable walls)

Some players where confused by some portalable walls that were either misplaced or useless

Playtests Feedback and Modifications

Modifications

I switched cube switches for ball ones as the different shapes are then easier to associate to the right action

I added lights to catch the eye of the player and direct them where I wanted

I reworked the portalable walls placement to prevent confusion by looking at how players where using them and deleting the useles ones, adding some to create more possibilities and move some others for them to be useful.

CREATIVE PROCESS

I started by choosing which mechanics I wanted to work with, and with I will base my level on. Then I hoped onto the obstacles such as water, moving platforms and turrets.

After that I created paper maps for 3 separate rooms with increasing difficulty and increasing room of innovative way of the environments and props such as the cubes. I hoped onto the editor whenever I needed to have a sense of space and what the room would feel like.

Finally I blocked it into the editor before doing minor changes such as room sizes, placements to tweak and portalable walls placement.