Valve preps free VR demo reel of Portal-inspired experiences

Valve is evidently building a demo reel of room-scale virtual reality experiences set inside a "pocket universe" of Portal's Aperture Science, which it plans to distribute on Steam free of charge this spring.

This may afford VR developers some new insight into room-scale VR experience design. It will also coincide with the commercial debut in April of HTC and Valve's $800 Vive VR headset, and suggests the company is tapping its fan interest in its game franchises to drive adoption of (and excitement for) its room-scale VR venture.

This isn't new, of course; Valve has previously designed Vive demos set inside the Portal universe, and last year Valve's Yasser Malaika shared some lessons learned from working on the company's Aperture Science VR demo about how to create satisfying VR game interactions.

Developers planning to attend GDC in San Francisco next week may appreciate that Valve plans to debut this new compilation of VR experiences, dubbed "The Lab", during the conference.