dangerous mute lunatic

In the past year…

Portal 2 has won the title of “Ultimate Game of the Year” at the 2011 Golden Joystick Awards, and ranked second place on Time’s ”Top 10 Video Games of 2011”. Gamasutra, IGN, Eurogamer, Kotaku, the Associated Press, and The Mirror listed Portal 2 as its top video game of 2011. The game received twelve nominations including “Game of the Year” for the 2011Spike Video Game Awards, the most of any title, and won for “Best PC Game”, “Best Male Performance” (for Stephen Merchant), “Best Female Performance” (for Ellen McLain), “Best Downloadable Content”, and “Best Multiplayer Game”. The title was nominated for five Game Developers Choice Awards for 2011, including “Game of the Year”, and ended up winning in the “Best Narrative”, “Best Audio” and “Best Game Design” categories. The game was nominated for ten Interactive Achievement Awards, including “Game of the Year”, from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, and ultimately won for “Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity”, “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition”, and “Outstanding Character Performance” for Wheatley. Portal 2 was nominated for six BAFTA video game award categories, and won for “Best Game”, “Best Story” and “Best Design”. The Game Audio Network Guild awarded the game for “Best Dialog”, “Best Interactive Score”, and “Best Original Vocal - Pop” (for “Want You Gone”). In the inaugural New York Videogame Critics Circle Awards, Portal 2 was given the top honors for best writing and best acting.

(source: Wikipedia)

It sure is starting to look that way…

From CultOfMac.com:

An unconfirmed report surfaced yesterday saying that Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted at Valve’s headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. Whenever Cook is spotted out and about, people take notice. The CEO of the world’s most valuable company doesn’t personally visit other tech companies to simply have a chat.

Many speculated as to why Cook would be visiting Valve, maker of popular game series like Half-Life, Team Fortress and Portal. Valve also boasts an incredibly robust online PC gaming platform called Steam that operates similarly to Apple’s App Store.

We’ve gotten word that Cook was indeed at Valve yesterday, and what’s more, Apple is planning a full-on assault to take over the living room. This assault won’t just be limited to the long-rumored Apple HDTV set, but will also include a revolutionary home console as well…

Read the rest of the article here.

From ValveTime.com:

Valve programmer Kyle Monroe, updated his personal website recently to include components he has contributed to the second unreleased Portal 2 DLC. Kyle refers to an unannounced feature which involves ‘interaction between the game client and back-end databases’ and ‘utilizing new APIs for Steam Workshop and Cloud.’Its unclear what the unannounced feature exactly is, however the details surrounding it seem to indicate a connection with the Portal 2 Puzzle Creator. Interaction with the back-end and game client means the puzzle creator is certain to be built directly into the game itself and not a stand-alone external tool.Other responsibilities listed by Kyle include:

1. Game UI to access and view the data.
2. Implementation of a game system that required accessing the Steam Cloud for both upload and download of data, as well as sharing the data between users.
3. New in-game elements that enhance the features of the new component.
4. Integration of the new component with existing game systems and content.

An integrated game UI to view data combined with Steam Workshop / Cloud APIs also indicate that third party content will be distributed through the game itself. Using the Steam Workshop infrastructure, it is likely that users will able to upload their maps (bsp or vpk) from the puzzle creator directly into Workshop, all within the game client.

Strangely, Kyle only includes PC under the platforms for the unreleased DLC despite him having experience with consoles and Mac for Portal 2 and the Peer Review DLC. This could mean he did not work on the multi-platform elements or that the puzzle creator will only be available on PC? Who knows?

The puzzle creator is an exciting prospect for the future of modding for Valve games, even dubbed “Google SketchUp on crack.” Yasser Malaika helped develop Google SketchUp back in 2000 but since 2008 has been instrumental at Valve in developing the Puzzle Creator.

Click here to go to the article