Portal 2: The Mechanism

Designer

A linear collection of puzzle chambers for Portal 2 built in the game’s own Puzzle Editor. Learn a complex mechanism of lasers and cubes, then find the missing pieces and build it yourself.

  • Portal 2 Puzzle Editor

  • Solo project

  • Spring 2023

  • Released - Steam Workshop

The Puzzles

Design Goals:

  • Tie together 5 levels in a way that makes sense

  • Build complexity over time without confusing the player

  • Give the player a cool toy, then make them build it

  • Get the most impact out of a limited editor

This project was designed from the start as a series of 5 linear puzzle rooms. My main goal was to show that I could lead a player through levels that increased in complexity, showing my ability to teach the player new things and build on previous challenges.

In these levels, the player is first presented with a simple mechanism involving two sets of lasers and a cube to redirect them. They can see this mechanism from multiple angles and must activate it in a way that gets them to and through the exit door to win the level.

In each subsequent chamber, I reused the same basic mechanism but removed a different component each time. This forced the player to search the level (and often solve smaller puzzles) to find the missing piece and reconstruct the mechanism.

Each time the level reinforces what they need to be doing so that by the end of the 5th level they should have a decent understanding of the mechanism and can be asked to find several missing pieces to not one but TWO mechanisms.

My Role

Responsibilities:

  • Explored and learned the capabilities of the Portal 2 Level Editor

  • Designed and built all 5 levels

  • Playtested and iterated on the levels many times

Starting with just the idea that I wanted to build a series of levels around some strange mechanism, I spent about a week playing around in the editor and trying to make little devices and toys for the player. I came up with several little doohickeys, but the final mechanism I ended up using was both visually interesting and useful in the way it alternated activating two different pieces of the level.

From there, I went on to design the progression of the whole level package. I knew that I wanted the mechanism to be a key part, so I eventually came up with the idea of slowly separating and removing the components that players would expect to see if they would be able to identify what was missing from each one.

Through a lot of playtesting with different people, both those familiar with the project and those who had only played the base Portal game, I found a satisfying build of both complexity and level length. I had to adjust a lot of smaller puzzles because I had been building them to my own skill level after having practiced them many times, but by the time I completed the levels, I found that players were all making it through the levels with only the difficulty I wanted them to experience.