Another major... er... personality in Portal is the Weighted Companion Cube, but apparently the cuddly cuboid never had any voice of its own. “We tossed the idea around a little bit, but nah. There’s something amusing about imbuing this completely inanimate objeღct with a personality that isn’t there, but everyone is impressing upon it these qualities - that it’s your best friend, it’s wonderful.”

Portal required major play testing to ensure the balance of gameplay, character and storyline to get it just right, using hardcore Counter-Strike fans, people’s wives and partners, and even Gabe Newell’s children. “I guess we just wanted to see how many kinds of people we could get to have 🐭fun,” adds Kim. “If people are laughing, we’ve done oඣur job. If they’re ripping off their headphones and looking at us in disgust, then we need to make some adjustments. A lot of our dialogue and narrative came from inside jokes, and if other people enjoyed it too, it stayed in the game. I miss the days of point and click adventure games where they were just funny, a laugh riot...”

Before we left Kim to begin planning her next secret project, we wondered what she and the rest of the Porta✱l development team felt like, knowing that millions of Portal fans are now quoting lines of dialogue to anyone who will listen? “It’s horrible! Why would I like people enjoying my game that I put my blood, sweat and tears into for two years?”

Feb 29, 2008