It’s so weird and uncanny seeing how quickly they settled on the iconic design scheme for portal 2
Like all of these things are so close to being right but not
Love it ❤

i still remember when they showed off the dynamic shadows for portal 2 before it released and i was blown away

> Glados speaks some funny dialog and puts you into a test chamber

18:28 I love this "Ohh, you've got to be joking" voiceline

fun little fact
in a febuary 2010 build i have
you can still press r for the time slowing mechanic up until sp_temp_portal_gun

I've also noticed this in the July 09 build but most of these maps are not proper test chambers but more like small gameplay experiment to test mechanics more than anything.
Kinda interesting to see how they built everything as time went on

Sp_paint_speed_racer at 55:16 was uploaded by a portal 2 Dev to the workshop in 2012

Sp_paint_jump_clean_box at 1:13:30 may have became crazy box

gotta say that the portal dev team's reaction to these leaks is entirely correct: all of the best ideas were used for the retail game (the ones cut don't seem all that fun or didn't allow for any ellaborate puzzles)

seeing that this still had elements of the july 2009 build while beginning on the final game's story leaves me to think that the core hub idea was dropped not too long before this build.

they probably didn't get far with the scrapped cores outside of aquarium and paranoid.

those builds are just getting more and more interesting :)

unimportant detail: pressdemo_01 which features chamber 04 and 05 although has more detail, has the dustmotes in the chamber 04 which i cant say if it's in march build in sp_intro_04,


and the actually interesting thing: and also in these maps in february build, there is a destroyed observation room in the chamber 04 which while not easy, but you can place a portal through the glass crack and the physics prop underneath the desks is trying to load props_fairgrounds/alligator.mdl which is missing in the build, but can be put in the game files

I like how a lot of the ideas that didnt make into the game were made as workshop maps and nobody knew it was already tested by valve or how some maps didnt change a single bit from its orignal creation

However, it seemed that it’s taking shape to rework something more portal.

1:11:30. The chamber seems to have directly involved into finale 2

thx brotha i really enjoyed that one

There has been countless times where I had to SKIP the gel puzzles due to a weird particle error that could just FLOOD the room and crash the game so Im VERY happy to see it playable at last

pee water near portal gun

this gave me a little jumpscare LOL 26:31

kinda sad they cut the rocket sentry puzzles and adhesion gel. i feel like the nausea issues coulda been resolved with better camera transitions, but they alreayd looked pretty good

1:27:13 this map made my head hurt just looking at it lol, reminds me of the shit u'd see in community chambers. but then you show the solution and im like oh its actually a simple chamber. did it take you long to solve it for the first time?

1:29:00 it looks like this puzzle has a easier strat, where you dump the cubes off to your standing platform, then use that checkerboard floor space to drop the cubes down on the turrets. it's easier, but takes more time and looks less cool. i thin i notice that portal 2's designers tried to avoid these issues and make sure safer players were forced into doing the cool intended solutions. theres a handful of beta chambers where i see these changes

the need to break glass on laser chaining is really interesting, thats such a wrong feeling testing element to have. actually wait the rocket sentry tests defy this too. No wonder glados was sad about picking up acres broken glass, by herself LOL

thanks again for taking the time  to make these really thorough breakdowns for us who arent knowledgable to fully explore it all ourselves

oh fiddlesticks, what now