Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Valve’s canceled Portal prequel with unique gameplay revealed in documentary

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

Aperture Camera, Valve’s canceled prequel to the popular puzzler series Portal, will be featured in a documentary series by indie developer LunchHouse Software.

Valve, which moved away from prolific game development to focus on its digital storefront Steam, released the source code of Aperture Camera to LunchHouse Software. The developer is now working on Exposure, a multi-part video series that already released its first episode.

Recommended Videos

In Portal and Portal 2, players use the portal gun to solve puzzles by creating portals and passing through them. In Aperture Camera, things are a little bit different, as the portal gun is replaced by a camera.

Exposure by LunchHouse Software • Announcement • Episode 1

The first episode of Exposure reveals the unique gameplay of Aperture Camera. Players take pictures of objects using a camera, and they then transfer the object from the photograph back into the world at the size and position that they choose. For example, the episode demonstrated the player taking the picture of balloons, and then transferring the balloons from the photograph onto a box to make it float.

LunchHouse Software said in the first episode’s description that there remains a lot of depth to the unique game mechanic, which will be featured in succeeding episodes. It remains unclear how Aperture Camera fits as a prequel to the Portal series, why the game was canceled, and why Valve decided to send the source code to LunchHouse Software, but these questions may be answered as Exposure continues.

The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley revealed years ago that Valve was working on a spinoff of the Portal series that did not include protagonist Chell and the evil supercomputer GLaDOS. LunchHouse Software’s Exposure, however, is the first real look at the game, which was previously codenamed F-STOP.

Valve, meanwhile, is returning to game development with Half-Life: Alyx, a virtual reality game that will highlight the capabilities of the Valve Index VR headset. The game takes place in between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, with players to take control of Alyx Vance.

Valve programmer David Speyrer revealed that if Half-Life: Alyx succeeds, it may lead to the development of more Half-Life games, which will hopefully include the long-awaited Half-Life 3.

Aaron Mamiit
Aaron Mamiit
Former Contributor
Aaron received an NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was four years old, and he has been fascinated…
Topics
Sony’s new PS5 Prism Collection gives a beautiful retro makeover to your console and controller
The new collection lets you peek inside your PS5 and DualSense controller with a glossy transparent design.
sony-prism-collection-ps5

Remember when transparent gadgets were the coolest things you could own? Sony is bringing that late '90s aesthetic back with its new PS5 Prism Collection. The gorgeous lineup gives your DualSense controller and PS5 console a glossy, see-through makeover in three eye-catching colors.

https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/2115459064981512662?s=19

Read more
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s Stranded mission had me hooked for hours, yet left me wanting more
I spent hours sneaking through North Korea, scavenging supplies, and clearing outposts, and I’d happily do it all again.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Stranded mission gameplay

For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.

I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.

Read more
The $1300 Acer Predator Atlas 8 handheld is finally US-bound, and its pre-orders are already sold out
Acer’s first gaming handheld to launch in the US arrives November 1 with Intel Arc G3 Extreme hardware.
Intel Arc G3 Extreme Hands On with Acer Predator Atlas 8

Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.

Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.

Read more