Potato Sack

Last updated

The ARG's theme of potatoes reflected a part of Portal 2's story, in which the game's antagonist (GLaDOS) is powered by a potato battery. Potato-Battery-5495.jpg
The ARG's theme of potatoes reflected a part of Portal 2's story, in which the game's antagonist (GLaDOS) is powered by a potato battery.

The Potato Sack is the name of an alternate reality game (ARG) created by Valve and the developers of thirteen independent video games to promote the release of Valve's game Portal 2 , in April 2011. Valve president Gabe Newell envisioned the game as a "Cross Game Design Event" in December 2010, and allowed the developers a free rein to design the game using Valve's Portal intellectual property. The game, requiring players to find and solve a number of puzzles hidden within updates of the thirteen games, led to the opportunity for players to release Portal 2 about 10 hours earlier than its planned release by playing games under the pretense of powering up GLaDOS, the sentient computer antagonist from the Portal series. The ARG's theme of potatoes is based on plot elements within Portal 2, specifically that for part of the game, GLaDOS's personality module is run off a potato battery.

Contents

Large numbers of people participated in solving the puzzles. Reaction from players and journalists was mixed; while some felt the ARG had limited benefit, some saw the ARG as a show of commitment from Valve to independent game development.

History

The Potato Sack Bundle

The ARG began without announcement with the release of the "Potato Sack Bundle" on Steam on April 1, 2011, which offered the included games at 75% off their normal price. [1] The games included in the Potato Sack are listed below with their developer and release year.

GameDeveloperRelease Year
1... 2... 3... KICK IT! (Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby) Dejobaan Games 2011
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity 2009
Amnesia: The Dark Descent Frictional Games 2010
Audiosurf Invisible Handlebar2008
The Ball Teotl Studios / Tripwire Interactive 2010
Bit.Trip Beat Gaijin Games 2009
Cogs Lazy 8 Studios
Defense Grid Hidden Path Entertainment 2008
Killing Floor Tripwire Interactive 2009
RUSH Two Tribes 2010
Super Meat Boy Team Meat
Toki Tori Two Tribes
The Wonderful End of the World Dejobaan Games 2009

The first update

In the first phase, players found nonsense phrases that contained 16 consonants, leading to a 4x4 grid and ultimately to a bitmap image of a letter, later combined with other letters to get a complete password. Potato-sack-phase-1.svg
In the first phase, players found nonsense phrases that contained 16 consonants, leading to a 4x4 grid and ultimately to a bitmap image of a letter, later combined with other letters to get a complete password.

On the release date of the Potato Sack bundle, players found the games within it had recently received updates. Most provided an immediate cosmetic change by replacing or adding assets that referred to potatoes. When players started looking deeper into these new assets, they discovered a series of glyphs that referred to other games associated with specific letters, as well as nonsense sentences that lead to specific cyphers. [2] [3] Other hints were less direct, using online services such as Twitter and YouTube to embed clues. In the case of Toki Tori, sections of new levels included braille code that referred to latitude and longitude coordinates of Two Tribes' headquarters. One player, "Jake_R", traveled to Two Tribes, where he discovered the glyphs and cyphers posted outside their headquarters. Several of Two Tribes' developers, upon learning of his presence, began filming him from a barbershop across the street. They would later use this footage of him climbing a pole to find these clues as part of another clue during the second phase. [4]

The second update

On April 7, each of the games in the Potato Sack received a second major update. Players found that by completing certain tasks in the game, they would be presented with login screens for the fictional Aperture Science corporation within the Steam interface. Other tasks and clues led to passwords that could be used to log into these Aperture Science screens. These provided players with compressed archives of pictures that consisted of Portal 2 artwork, including photographs from around Seattle (where Valve is based) embedded in their alpha channels. [5] Each archive included a portion of a larger archive that was password-protected; the password was unveiled using the glyphs, cyphers, and letters from the first update. The larger archive gave further photographs of the Seattle area. When the locations of these points were mapped and connected per the puzzle's instructions, the map showed the word "prelude". [1] Furthermore, players that reached and logged into these screens received a potato icon for each accessed screen on their Steam profile. [1]

The third update

For the third update, Teotl Studios integrated their own Mayan-inspired level design with Portal-themed aspects to create additional content for The Ball. The Ball - The Potato Sack.jpg
For the third update, Teotl Studios integrated their own Mayan-inspired level design with Portal-themed aspects to create additional content for The Ball .

On April 12, another update for each game was released. These updates were all Portal themed, such as levels based on Aperture Science in The Ball and Killing Floor. [6] Again, players found that by completing specific tasks in the new content, they would be presented with an Aperture Science screen, though this time the screens provided a cryptic audio clue. These clues were found to be two-part clues relating to the previously-identified locations around Seattle. By mapping these points, using locations commonly shared by one clue, players were led to the name of a Steam group that contained a single member by the name of "dinosaur", a reference to an earlier ARG used for Portal 2's announcement. Screenshots within this user's profile gave a QR Code that pointed to a website with a countdown time set to expire on the morning of April 15, 2011. Players who discovered these audio clues would be awarded another potato on their Steam profile. A total of 36 possible potatoes were found: 35 within the games and the referenced Steam group, and a 36th earned by obtaining all 35 of the other potatoes. [1]

Concurrent with these changes, Portal 2 became available for pre-loading on the Steam client. At this point, several journalists and players suspected that Portal 2 may have been unlocked early at the end of the countdown timer. This correlated with a separate puzzle embedded in messages sent by Newell to a number of gaming sites; the message suggested the "early release" of material and "thirteen offsite chambers", seemingly referring to the independent games, as well as a message "4/19/2011 7 AM == 4/15/2011 9 AM", again referencing the planned Portal 2 release date and the countdown timer. [7] [8] [9] [10] As April 15 drew near, about nine heavily involved players from the ARG appeared to disengage from the various chat rooms, leaving with the message "There's a hole in the sky through which I can fly"—a line used in early advertisements for Portal; when contacted by other players, these individuals remained coy and cryptic about their actions, appearing to have been "infected" by GLaDOS. [11] It was later revealed that these players, contacted by Valve a few days prior, were invited to Valve's headquarters to be the first to play Portal 2. [1]

GLaDOS@Home

At the end of the countdown timer, the countdown website redirected to a new page on the fictional Aperture Science website, calling itself "GLaDOS@Home". Spoofing other distributed computing efforts like Folding@home, the site stated that if players generated enough CPU cycles by playing the thirteen games in the Potato Sack, GLaDOS would be rebooted earlier, effectively suggesting an earlier release of Portal 2 before the originally scheduled time of 7:00 AM PDT on April 19, 2011. The number of potatoes found would also serve to help to "boost" the effort. [8] [12] Only one game, Killing Floor, saw an update in this phase, where a special chamber in their Portal-themed map would be opened for players to complete for an in-game achievement. [13] The players organized a schedule of games to be played to maximize the rate of progression, and eventually, ended up unlocking Portal 2 on Steam about ten hours before this scheduled time. [14] The approximately 1800 players that had successfully earned all 36 potatoes by the time of Portal 2's launch were given the Valve complete pack, including Portal 2, which they could gift to other players. [15] [16] Players who had found at least thirteen potatoes or played each of the Potato Sack games for a minimum amount of time received Portal 2-themed items within Team Fortress 2 .

Reunion

On June 13, 2012, the Potato Sack bundle briefly returned to Steam under the name "Potato Sack - June 2012". [17]

Development

Valve had previously performed an ARG in the week prior to the announcement of Portal 2, at the start of March 2010. The ARG was initiated by a new patch to Portal that led to a sequence of puzzles, which were ultimately solved within hours of the patch's release. [1]

Gabe Newell, president of Valve, is credited with the concept behind the Potato Sack ARG. Gabe Newell GDC 2010.jpg
Gabe Newell, president of Valve, is credited with the concept behind the Potato Sack ARG.

The idea of the Potato Sack ARG came from Valve president Gabe Newell sometime around December 2010. Following on the success of the first ARG, he saw a way to promote both the highly anticipated Portal 2 release along with several independent games through a "Cross Game Design Event". [18] [19] [20] Dejobaan Games' Leo Jaitley believed that Valve targeted developers that had proven track records of working with other developers, and not necessarily for the sales or popularity of the specific games. [21] Valve invited the twenty independent developers to their headquarters on December 16, though did not explain the rationale for the visit. [1] Only there did Valve explain the promotion, with the ultimate goal being the early release of Portal 2 at the conclusion of the ARG, according to Gaijin Games' CEO Alex Neuse. [22] According to Rob Jagnow of Lazy 8 Studios, Valve assured the developers of an open relationship, stating that they had "No constraints. No NDAs." [1] and that the project was "built on trust and mutual respect". [1] Jaitley commented "most studios got involved knowing that there was likely to be some payoff, but without anything upfront or any promises of riches". [21]

To help with the ARG, Valve gave the developers a free rein over the game's structure, and full access to Portal intellectual property to include within their games. Such assets included further voice work from Ellen McLain, the voice actress for GLaDOS, who recorded additional lines for the developers of the games to taunt the players with. [23] Furthermore, the developers were given the opportunity to play what had existed of Portal 2 to build ideas for the ARG. [21] Valve and the indie developers worked together over the next few days to design the ARG, creating the three phases, the timing between phases to allow for the puzzles to be solved, and the general fiction of the game. [1] The developers decided to design the fiction of the ARG around the return of GLaDOS, who had been apparently destroyed at the end of Portal, leaving clues to her revival in the various games. [18] The potato theme was based on Portal 2's fiction, in which, during a portion of the game, GLaDOS' personality is placed into a potato battery. [23] To help promote the ARG, Valve and the developers arranged for the Potato Sack sale as to "make it easier for hard-core fans to participate in every aspect of the ARG". [1]

Between the December meeting and second gathering in March 2011, prior to the ARG's launch, there was no direct verbal communication between Valve or the developers. [1] Instead, the independent developers spent time, using a shared wiki provided by Valve, to plan out and coordinate the game. They also had to develop the new content for their games, which in most cases was work in addition to existing projects that they were presently undertaking. Others had to go back to older programming code and re-acquaint themselves with it before undertaking the new additions for the ARG. [23] Valve's Jeep Barnett helped to coordinate the large effort. [18] The second visit to Valve in March 2011 was to affirm the plans for the launch of the ARG. [1]

Edmund McMillen (left), one of the developers of Super Meat Boy and creators of the ARG Team Meat (Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes) at GDC 2012.jpg
Edmund McMillen (left), one of the developers of Super Meat Boy and creators of the ARG

The first update was tied with April Fools' Day, with the addition of potatoes and gibberish sentences being in line with the pranks one normally sees on that day. [4] Throughout the ARG, the players were monitored by the developers through the Internet Relay Chat, forums, and web sites that were being used to coordinate the solving effort. This allowed, for example, Two Tribes to prepare for Jake_R's visit, and the integration of a screenshot of the chat log into one of the puzzles. [18] In another example, another chat room user, following a red herring, visited a physical location near the California studio for Team Meat; Edmund McMillen was able to arrange to meet the user and give him a signed copy of Super Meat Boy. [1] Monitoring of the players enabled the developers to provide hints and clues for puzzles that players were struggling with as to allow the ARG to progress in a timely manner. [20] While many puzzles of the ARG included cross-game clues—such as finding the password for one of the Aperture Science login screens from another game—Neuse felt they could have increased the cross-game complexity of the puzzles if they had more time to plan it out. [22] The developers were aided by the agility of Valve in its participation. During the second phase, one of the developers asked if Newell would become involved in the ARG. Newell then fed the image with the encrypted message to media outlets. [21] Valve also placed hidden messages in promotional videos for Portal 2 which helped to point the ARG players in specific directions, including calling some of the players out by name. [1] [24]

There were points during the ARG that players used unexpected means to solve a puzzle, but the developers and the player community worked around these issues. [1] In some cases, players attempted to download beta versions of the patches to the games, but Valve was able to respond, usually in minutes, to block access to these. Valve also quickly responded to a web site that used Steam credentials to award players the potatoes without having to complete the target achievements; only about 1% of the potatoes were earned this way, and Valve later revoked them, though let players earn them again though legitimate means. Other players examined the files and binary code of the patched games to try to find password strings or other identifiers that would normally be seen only while playing the game. In at least one case, where this action served to reveal the solution to the puzzle before it was truly solved, the ARG players discouraged this behavior and apologized to Valve for these actions. When possible, the developers laid red herrings for those that tried to hack the ARG, including the use of Rickrolling. [1]

Jagnow commented on several changes the developers would have made in hindsight after the completion of the ARG. One aspect he considered was the weak part of the fiction of the ARG, something he believed they would have integrated more in the game from the start. [1] The release of the Potato Sack on April 1 may have been a bad decision according to Jagnow, as they did not get the press exposure they thought they would in conjunction with the other April Fool's events occurring that day, with some media outlets hesitant to report on potential pranks for fear of having to retract these later. In the third phase, where certain players were "taken over" by GLaDOS, Jagnow felt they extracted these players from the game too early as they were influential in coordinating the chat rooms and wiki, leaving the remaining players confused. Instead, Jagnow suggested they should have found a way to allow these players to continue participating until near the end. [1] Jagnow considered the push of the crescendo of the ARG, the "appearance" of GLaDOS@Home, to have been the biggest failing. Originally scheduled for April 16 or 17, it was pushed to April 15 to allow more players, including international ones, to participate in the effort to release Portal 2 early, and to gain media attention. Instead, the developers found that existing players of the ARG were frustrated with no new puzzles to solve, while new players brought to the site by the media were skeptical and saw the event as "a cheap media ploy to get players to buy the Potato Sack in the hope of an early Portal 2 release". [1]

Reception

Overall, the alternate reality game received mixed response from gamers, some praising it as outstanding marketing between Portal 2 and the indie gamers, others considering it a way to force players to buy games they do not want to gain access to Portal 2 earlier. [25] [26] [27] Pete Davison of GamePro considered it a "risky marketing move" that relied on Valve's long-standing reputation with the community to build on their trust, as well as a "hugely positive sign of support for indie games" from the company. [25] David Ewalt of Forbes considered the tactic a huge benefit for the indie developers, whose games led Steam sales charts in the weeks leading to Portal 2's release. [28] Ben Kuchera of Ars Technica noted that it was entirely possible to ignore the alternate reality game without any negative effects or losing any potential benefits. [29] Luke Plunkett of Kotaku was more critical, commenting that for most players in North America, having the release only ten hours earlier—occurring overnight for many—would be "business as usual" in that they would not be able to play until the next day; thus, players that purchased and spent time in the Potato Sack games may have simply wasted their money for something they didn't want to gain almost nothing back. [30] Leigh Alexander of Gamasutra also criticized the ARG for not providing an idea of the expectation of reward when it was successfully completed, comparing the ten-hour gain to a vignette in the movie A Christmas Story , where the main character after saving up money and waiting weeks for a secret decoder ring to decipher a message from a radio program, finds that the coded message is only an advertising blurb. Alexander suggested that instead, ARGs should give players an idea of the type of reward that may be offered, and then can exceed player's expectations when it is completed. [31] Retailers in countries where the disc-based version of the game would have lagged a few days behind the Steam release opted to break their street date to avoid losing sales to the digital downloads. [14] [32] [33]

Though direct sales from Steam are unknown, the Potato Sack ARG helped to boost sales of the independent games. The whole Potato Sack promotion was the second-highest selling compilation on Steam in the week prior to Portal 2's release, following Portal 2 itself and ahead of the Potato Sack/Portal 2 bundle. [22] Dylan Fitterer, programmer for Audiosurf, noted that during the promotion, more than 6000 people were playing his game at a time, compared to 300 players before the event. [18] Fitterer also saw an opportunity to create a new game based upon the ARG-themed addition to Audiosurf. [23] Ichiro Lambe of Dejobaan Games was also pleased with the sales increased; while not a windfall, it helped him to continue to live comfortably. [23] Thomas Grip of Frictional Games claimed that the boost of sales for Amnesia within the first two days of the Potato Sack sale completely covered the development costs for the added "Justine" content they had developed for the ARG. [34] John Gibson of Tripwire Interactive believed that similar ARGs could be run in the future without the presence of a major title like Portal 2 as long as there is a significant payoff for the players. [23]

Journalists noted that many of the user reviews for Portal 2 on Metacritic evoked negative opinion of the game, believed to be tied to the minimal impact on Portal 2's release time. [35] [36] [37] These users cited complaints about the game being too short (with some saying it is only four hours long), the existence of paid downloadable content at launch for some versions, and supposed evidence that the game on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X were ports of the console version. [38] Journalists have defended Valve in these claims, countering that the game's length depends on the amount of immersion the player puts into the game, that the downloadable content is only cosmetic additions for the co-op mode, and that the quality of the graphics on the Windows and Mac version do not suggest a simple console port.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valve Corporation</span> American video game company

Valve Corporation is an American video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam and the franchises Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota.

An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions.

<i>Half-Life 2</i> 2004 video game

Half-Life 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Valve. It was published by Valve through its distribution service Steam. Like the original Half-Life (1998), Half-Life 2 combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling, and adds features such as vehicles and physics-based gameplay. Players control Gordon Freeman as he joins a resistance movement to liberate the Earth from the control of an alien empire, the Combine.

Narbacular Drop is a 2005 puzzle-platform game developed by Nuclear Monkey Software. It was the senior game project of students attending DigiPen Institute of Technology. The gameplay consists of navigating a dungeon using an innovative portal system. The player controls two interconnected portals that can be placed on any non-metallic surface. Gabe Newell, managing director of Valve, took interest in the team's work and employed the whole staff at Valve. The developers went on to write the critically acclaimed Portal using many of the same concepts.

<i>Portal</i> (video game) 2007 video game

Portal is a 2007 puzzle-platform game developed and published by Valve. It was released in a bundle, The Orange Box, for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and has been since ported to other systems, including Mac OS X, Linux, Android, and Nintendo Switch.

<i>The Orange Box</i> Video game compilation by Valve

The Orange Box is a video game compilation containing five games developed and published by Valve. Two of the games included, Half-Life 2 and its first stand-alone expansion, Episode One, had previously been released as separate products. Three new games were also included in the compilation: the second stand-alone expansion, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the puzzle game Portal, and Team Fortress 2, the multiplayer game sequel to Team Fortress Classic. Valve also released a soundtrack containing music from the games within the compilation. A separate product entitled The Black Box was planned, which would have included only the new games, but was later canceled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weighted Companion Cube</span> Item from the Portal video game series

The Weighted Companion Cube is a fictional item featured in the Portal series of video games by Valve Corporation. Initially featured in a single level of the original Portal, Test Chamber 17, as one of Aperture Science's ubiquitous Weighted Storage Cubes with heart symbols printed on the outside, it is given to the game's main character, Chell, as part of the antagonist GLaDOS's sinister testing initiative. After carrying it through the entire level and ostensibly anthropomorphizing and "bonding" with the Cube, the malevolent AI forces her to unceremoniously dispose of it in an incinerator device. Companion Cubes later re-appear in the game's sequel with a slightly different design. The original Companion Cube is shown to have survived the events of both Portal and Portal 2, appearing as part of an ending gag.

<i>Portal 2</i> 2011 video game

Portal 2 is a 2011 puzzle-platform video game developed by Valve for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The digital PC version is distributed online by Valve's Steam service, while all retail editions were distributed by Electronic Arts. A port for the Nintendo Switch was included as part of Portal: Companion Collection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GLaDOS</span> Video game character from the Portal series

GLaDOS is a fictional character from the video game series Portal. The character was created by Erik Wolpaw and Kim Swift and voiced by Ellen McLain. GLaDOS is depicted in the series as an artificially superintelligent computer system responsible for testing and maintenance in the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center in all titles. While GLaDOS initially appears in the first game to simply be a voice that guides the player, her words and actions become increasingly malicious as she makes her intentions clear. The second game, as well as the Valve-created comic Lab Rat, reveals that she was mistreated by the scientists and used a neurotoxin to kill the scientists in the laboratory before the events of the first Portal. She is apparently destroyed at the end of the first game but returns in the sequel, in which she is comically supplanted by her former intelligence dampener and temporarily stuck on a potato battery, while her past as the human Caroline is also explored.

"Still Alive" is a song featured in the closing credits of the 2007 video game Portal. It was composed and arranged by Jonathan Coulton and was performed by Ellen McLain, who voiced the Portal antagonist and subject of the song, GLaDOS. The song originated in a meeting between two Valve developers and Coulton about him writing a song for the company, which Coulton accepted as he was a fan of Valve's Half-Life series, which is set in the same universe as Portal. The song was released on The Orange Box Soundtrack on December 21, 2007, along with an exclusive vocal mix not heard in the game.

Wheatley (<i>Portal</i>) Fictional artificial intelligence in the Portal series

Wheatley is a fictional artificial intelligence from the Portal franchise, first introduced in the 2011 video game Portal 2. He is voiced by British comedian and writer Stephen Merchant, and created in part by Portal 2's designer Erik Wolpaw.

Chell (<i>Portal</i>) Fictional character in the Portal series

Chell is the silent protagonist in the Portal video game series developed by Valve. She appears in both Portal and Portal 2 as the main player character and as a supporting character in some other video games. Not much is known about Chell but some posit she is the daughter of an employee at Aperture Science Laboratories, the main setting of the games.

Cave Johnson (<i>Portal</i>) Fictional character in the Portal series

Cave Johnson is a fictional character from the Portal franchise first introduced in the 2011 video game Portal 2. He is voiced by American actor J. K. Simmons and created in part by Portal 2's designer Erik Wolpaw. He is referenced by a computer username in the first game and appears indirectly in Portal 2. Johnson serves as a guide to the player-character Chell as she explores an abandoned part of the Aperture Science facility, though all of his messages are pre-recorded from before the events of the Portal games.

Portal is a series of first-person puzzle-platform video games developed by Valve. Set in the Half-Life universe, the two main games in the series, Portal (2007) and Portal 2 (2011), center on a woman, Chell, forced to undergo a series of tests within the Aperture Science Enrichment Center by a malicious artificial intelligence, GLaDOS, that controls the facility. Most of the tests involve using the "Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device" – nicknamed the portal gun – that creates a human-sized wormhole-like connection between two flat surfaces. The player-character or objects in the game world may move through portals while conserving their momentum. This allows complex "flinging" maneuvers to be used to cross wide gaps or perform other feats to reach the exit for each test chamber. A number of other mechanics, such as lasers, light bridges, tractor funnels and turrets, exist to aid or hinder the player's goal to reach the exit.

<i>Cogs</i> (video game) 2009 video game

Cogs is a puzzle video game released in 2009 by Lazy 8 Studios, originally released as a Microsoft Windows title, but receiving subsequent ports to other operating systems, mobile platforms, and game consoles. The game requires the player to manipulate a three-dimensional object's sides as sliding block puzzles as to complete specific goals, such as meshing gears to complete a clockwork mechanism or routing gas flow through pipes to a balloon.

Portal 2 is a physics-based puzzle-platform game created by Valve and released on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Linux in April 2011, followed by a Nintendo Switch version in June 2022. The game, set in the desolate, labyrinthine Aperture Science facility, challenges the player to navigate test chambers created by the artificial intelligence GLaDOS, using a portal gun, a device able to create portals that link two points in space like a wormhole. The game expands on the original Portal by adding new puzzle elements, such as paint that imparts properties to surfaces, plates that can launch the player and objects over distances, tractor beams and bridges made of light.

Lazy 8 Studios is a small independent video game developer. It was founded by Rob Jagnow in 2008 and is based in San Francisco. Jagnow founded the company after spending some time in video game development on flight simulators. Jagnow soon brought aboard Brendan Mauro for art development and Luke Gilbert for sound and music.

<i>Portal Stories: Mel</i> Single-player mod of Portal 2

Portal Stories: Mel is a single-player mod for Portal 2 developed by Prism Studios. The mod was released on June 25, 2015, for Microsoft Windows, and OS X systems, available freely to users who own Portal 2 on Steam. Like the official Portal games, it is a puzzle-platform game that involves placing interconnected "portals" to solve puzzles. Set in the Portal universe, players control the test subject Mel, who has to escape an underground facility after she spends decades in artificial hibernation. Reviewers largely praised the mod's visual design and ambition, though they criticized its difficulty; later updates added a "story mode" that made the puzzles easier.

<i>The Lab</i> (video game) 2016 video game

The Lab is a virtual reality (VR) video game developed by Valve and released for Windows on April 5, 2016. It uses VR technology to showcase a series of play experiences accessed through a hub room. The game is set in the Portal universe and offers eight different game types that involve short demo experiences that use different aspects of the VR capabilities. Variety is also offered beyond the experiences themselves by the amount of interactability with objects in the environment that is included.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Jagnow, Rob (2011-05-06). "The POrTAl TwO ARG: The Whole Story". Gamasutra . Retrieved 2011-05-06.
  2. ↑ Goldman, Tom (2011-04-04). "Portal's GlaDOS Invades Steam With Potato-Related ARG". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2011-04-05. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
  3. ↑ Watts, Steve (2011-04-04). "Valve hides ARG in Potato Sack sale". Shacknews . Retrieved 2011-04-04.
  4. 1 2 "What we did for the Portal 2 ARG". Two Tribes. 2011-04-22. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
  5. ↑ Hillier, Brenna (2011-04-11). "Quick Shots – Portal 2 art explosion found in AR game". VG247 . Retrieved 2011-04-11.
  6. ↑ Orland, Kyle (2011-04-12). "Portal 2 ARG Introduces New Themed Content In Indie Game Updates". Gamasutra . Retrieved 2011-04-12.
  7. ↑ Goldman, Tom (2011-04-09). "Gabe Newell Sends Out Portal 2 ARG Email Blast". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2011-04-11. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  8. 1 2 Schreier, Jason (2011-04-15). "Play Steam Games, Launch Portal 2 Early". Wired . Retrieved 2011-04-15.
  9. ↑ Phillips, Tom (2011-04-13). "Portal 2 to get early release on Steam?". The Metro . Archived from the original on 2011-04-17. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  10. ↑ Senior, Tom (2011-04-13). "Portal 2 levels appear in potato sack games, clues suggest Portal 2 could be released early". PC Gamer . Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  11. ↑ Senior, Tom (2011-04-14). "Glados hacking ARG player accounts, ominous messages emerge". PC Gamer . Retrieved 2011-04-29.
  12. ↑ Davison, Pete (2011-04-15). "Play indie games, help Portal 2 release early". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2011-12-03. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
  13. ↑ "Potato Arg – A KF Postmortem". Tripwire Interactive. 2011-04-27. Archived from the original on 2011-04-30. Retrieved 2011-04-27.
  14. 1 2 Hillier, Brenna (2011-04-18). "No more potatoes: Portal 2 available right now on Steam". VG247 . Retrieved 2011-04-18.
  15. ↑ Jackson, Leah (2011-04-19). "Valve Complete Pack Rewarded to Potato Sack Bundle Players". G4 TV. Archived from the original on 2012-10-17. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
  16. ↑ Brown, Mark (2011-04-19). "Portal 2 Hits Steam After ARGs, Potatoes and Crowdsourced CPUs". Wired . Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  17. ↑ "Potato Sack - June 2012 - SteamDB". SteamDB. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 Brown, Nathan (2011-04-20). "Potato Sack Developers Helped Design Portal 2 ARG". Edge . Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
  19. ↑ "BTB+ARG=WTF". Gaijin Games. 2011-04-22. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
  20. 1 2 Pobst, Jeff (2011-04-20). "GLaDOS is a 'Special Guest Star' In Defense Grid". Hidden Path Entertainment . Retrieved 2011-04-25.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Kuchera, Ben (2011-04-25). "Abusing IP: the story behind one studio's Portal 2 ARG adventure". Ars Technica . Retrieved 2011-04-25.
  22. 1 2 3 Fletcher, JC (2011-04-25). "The indie origins of the Portal 2 'Potato Sack' ARG". Joystiq . Retrieved 2011-04-25.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Portal 2: Filling The Potato Sack". Edge. 2011-04-26. Archived from the original on May 1, 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-26.
  24. ↑ Senior, Tom (2011-04-06). "Portal 2 trailer sells turrets, contains secret messages". PC Gamer . Retrieved 2011-04-29.
  25. 1 2 Davison, Pete (2011-04-15). "Editorial: Valve can do no wrong... right?". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2011-12-03. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
  26. ↑ Brown, Mark (2011-04-19). "Portal 2 Hits Steam After ARGs, Potatoes and Crowdsourced CPUs". Wired . Retrieved 2011-04-19.
  27. ↑ Peckham, Matt (2011-04-18). "Play The Potato Sack, Help Release Portal 2 Late?". PC World . Retrieved 2011-04-18.
  28. ↑ Ewart, David (2011-04-19). "What Is Portal 2, And Why Should You Care?". Forbes . Retrieved 2011-04-19.
  29. ↑ Kuchera, Ben (2011-04-20). "Why complaints about Valve's Portal 2 ARG miss the point". Ars Technica . Retrieved 2011-04-20.
  30. ↑ Plunkett, Luke (2011-04-18). "Did Valve Just Take Everyone For A Ride?". Kotaku . Retrieved 2011-04-18.
  31. ↑ Alexander, Leigh (2011-04-27). "Opinion: The Human Spirit's Too Good For ARGs". Gamasutra . Retrieved 2011-04-28.
  32. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (2011-04-20). "GAME selling PC Portal 2 right now". Eurogamer . Retrieved 2011-04-20.
  33. ↑ Harman, Stace (2011-04-20). "GAME and GameStation selling PC Portal 2 early in-store". VG247 . Retrieved 2011-04-20.
  34. ↑ Grip, Thomas (2011-04-27). "The Portal 2 ARG Postmortem". Frictional Games . Retrieved 2011-04-27.
  35. ↑ Jenkins, David (2011-04-20). "Fans protest Portal 2 on Metacritic". GamesIndustry.biz . Retrieved 2011-04-20.
  36. ↑ Walker, John (2011-04-19). "Let's Address Some Portal 2 Nonsense". Rock Paper Shotgun . Retrieved 2011-04-19.
  37. ↑ Tolito, Stephan (2011-04-19). "The People are Panning Portal 2". Kotaku . Retrieved 2011-04-19.
  38. ↑ Dutton, Fred (2011-04-19). "Portal 2 Metacritic user score pounded". Eurogamer . Retrieved 2011-04-19.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.