Feature: Behind The Scenes Of The Portal 2 ARG

Author: by Staff

In Gamasutra's latest feature, Rob Jagnow with Cogs developer Lazy 8 Studios' Rob Jagnow reveals how indie game developers joined forces with Valve to infect their games with GLaDOS in the run up to Portal 2's release. "On December 16, 2010, 20 indie developers fly in to Seattle, all somewhat confused as to why they are there in the first place." "With everyone gathered in Valve's sixth-floor fishbowl conference room, Gabe Himself lays out the core idea: Somehow use our Steam games to usher in the arrival of Portal 2. That's it," Jagnow writes. In the full feature, he goes into depth on the exact process the indie dev teams used to coordinate with Valve and each other, and also lessons learned from watching the ARG unfold across their games. "Other than the meeting in December 2010, the only time we all met in person was during a March 10 meeting in Seattle where we finalized our plans and made sure everyone was on the same page for the April 1st #PotatoFoolsDay launch," writes Jagnow. The plan was carried out across three phases and a "crescendo" prior to the early launch of Portal 2 when it was unlocked by players of the ARG. Jagnow identifies different types of participants in the ARG as well as miscalculations on the part of the developers participating in it, and what they'd do differently next time. The full feature, The POrTAl TwO ARG: The Whole Story, is live now on Gamasutra.