Portal 2 Level

Level Design
Project Overview
A custom Portal 2 level made using Portal 2's in-game level editor. The level starts the player at the back of a long dark room with a laser down the center. There aren't many portal-able spots so the player must use the ones they have wisely. As the player progresses, they will have to find a way to bring cubes with them to open the final door.
My Contributions
For this project, I first researched the mechanics and level design of Portal 2. Using what I learned I outlined the story beats, made a level sketch, built the level, received playtester feedback, and published the level to the workshop.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3190680187

Initial Level Sketch & Outline

Act One

1st Beat

  • Player enters the level in a relatively dark room with very few portal-able surfaces
  • The room is quite long and features a laser that pierces through the center all the way to the end hitting a laser catcher that deactivates all of the fizzlers
    • Blocking the laser in any way will activate the fizzlers
  • Next to the laser is a button that spawns reflective cubes
  • Across from the cube is a laser catcher
  • Activating the laser catcher will activate the glass panels, allowing the player to progress
    • This will also activate the fizzlers as it redirects the laser

Act Two

2nd Beat

  • The player finds a button that activates a laser and a button that spawns a weighted cube
    • The laser has a portal-able surface across from it
  • Further ahead there is a laser catcher on the floor with a portal-able surface above it
  • The player would likely place the cube on the button and activating the laser catcher
  • Activating the laser catcher will activate the light bridge that is right next to it, which leads to another button
  • The player might try to take the weighted cube to place on the button, but doing so will deactivate the laser, which deactivates the light bridge
  • The player has reached their first big obstacle as there is no way forward without the ability to press both buttons

3rd Beat

  • The player realizes that they need to grab the reflective cube from earlier
  • In order to do so they need to find a way to activate the glass panels without using the reflective cube
  • Eventually they may figure out that they could shoot a portal at the wall on the other side of the laser and another portal at the wall across the laser that is activated by the button in order to activate the the laser catcher without the reflective cube
  • In order to do so they need to first deactivate the fizzler by moving the reflection cube and possibly the weighted cube
    • This allows them to place a portal on the wall by the cube
  • The player may realize that the cube needs to be on the side closest to the glass panels and will use it to reactivate the glass panels in order to cross
  • Then placing the weighted cube on the button will fire a laser through the portal and activate the glass bridges, allowing the player to bring the reflection cube with them

4th Beat

  • Now that the player has both cubes they can easily retrace the steps taken in beat 2, placing one of the cubes on the button to the side, activating the light bridges to the next area

5th Beat

  • The final area contains the exit and the laser catcher that deactivates the fizzlers
  • In order to open the exit, the player needs to activate a button and a laser catcher at the same time
  • The player may have brought the other cube with them, but there is another problem, they’ll need both cubes in order to open the exit, but in order to reach the final area they need a cube on the button that activates the light bridges
    • The player will likely assume that they need the light bridges and now needs to challenge that assumption

6th Beat

  • The player notices the portal-able wall in the final area and remembers that there is a portal-able wall at the start
    • The fizzlers should be down at this moment
  • Going through the portal will allow the player to press the button of whatever cube they left behind on the side button to respawn it
    • If the player left the weighted cube on the button it may take some additional steps
  • After respawning the cube they can take it back through the portal, in order to unlock the exit

Act Three

7th Beat

  • Now that the player has both cubes in the final area they can place the weighted cube on the button and the reflective cube in path of the central laser to hit the laser catcher to unlock the exit
  • All that’s left is to walk through the exit
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