Portal 2 art free#

If you don't want the player to explore an area, placing destroyed catwalks or locked doors/gates would be a good way to do this without it looking unrealistic.Īll other robotic personnel use management rails, which they cannot readily be detached from. Humans, on the other hand, use catwalks as their form of transportation, and these should be connect to every door, button stand or anywhere maintenance might be needed, like around vents and 'quality control' stations. Keeping the 'tests' looking realistic is to make the player break the rules in these parts, like walking on the reverse direction of a conveyor belt, breaking tubes that deliver test elements to other parts of the facility, etc.Īperture Laboratories is known to solve their problems in the most ridiculous way possible, take the Pneumatic Diversity Vents for example, seen transporting numerous test elements and garbage from one place to another. There shouldn't be a solution, as this is not a test, only a way to advance. Something that is important to keep in mind when building tests for this theme is that it should look as if it was not designed to be a test. However, if you have an idea for a puzzle that involves moving test elements, conveyor tracks or exceptionally big momentum puzzles, try going with this theme. Most puzzles seen in this theme tend to revolve around momentum, and they do tend to work best in co-op. Because of this the theme is more to immerse the player than to be a good puzzle environment, however, using the various 'test elements in-testing-state' as functioning test elements could make it a more interactive puzzle. In these in-between areas a lot of 'behind the scenes' work is done, like building and testing of test elements.

Portal 2 art free#

The vast proportions of Aperture Laboratories allows a lot of free space to exist between test chambers and other rooms used for various purposes. Due to the nature of this theme, the huge vistas along with numerous dynamic elements it is recommended for users with advanced knowledge of hammer.

The exception to this is if you're making a full-blown mod, maybe even with a story as aforementioned, these can make nice interludes, and the sheer multitude of destruction sequences available for the catwalks are brilliant for action scenes. You'll see it done more successfully in co-op maps usually, due to the fact that the plot isn't quite as important and Valve tried to make the theme a puzzle rather than to leave an impact on the player. Sure, there's the old 'portal over to that wall behind me' to traverse long distances and stretch out dialogue, but making actual puzzles out of this theme without making it feel contrived is kind of difficult. This theme serves really only for plot advancement, so the scope for puzzles is somewhat limited here. You can see a lot of tubes transporting various test elements to unknown parts of the facility in this theme.