Freeware Games Of The Week (Making Of Portal I & II)

Have you played Portal? No? At least, have you heard about it? If your answer is no, then I suspect you may have been living under a rock, right?  Portal* and its sequel, Portal II*, have been hailed by the critics and gamers as the Best Games Of the Last Decade and possibly, among the best Games ever made. If you don't believe me, Google it. 

 

Now, you might be thinking why did I mention these commercial games?

 

Let's go back to DigiPen Institute of Technology, Washington, one of the best gaming schools in the world. Every year, numerous students take part in gaming projects and produce games of extraordinary calibre. Two of these games, gained remarkable respect in the gaming community and were discovered by Valve, a billion dollar video game development company, who hired the entire development teams. This led to the creation of the critically acclaimed PC games, Portal & Portal II respectively.  But did you know the original games created at DigiPen still exist? 

This game was created in 2005 by a team of 7 students at Digipen. It was a fresh new game concept that was deceptively clever and innovative. 

 

GamePlay: No-Knees is the main character in this game. She is so named because of her inability to jump, and she has been captured and imprisoned by a demon in a dungeon. There is a creature Wally that has the ability to create portals. The player is able to open up two gates that are interconnected. These gates act like portals, which means whatever goes in one, comes out of the other. Only one set of portals (Blue & Red) can be open at a time. The portals can be placed anywhere as long as it's a part of the natural surfaces and not on metals, lava or artificial ones. This portal system, combined with a basic physics simulation like tossing boxes, rolling boulders, activating switches etc., allows for a huge level of interactivity. 

 

The game is relatively short with just 10 levels but there are downloadable custom maps made by the forum community members to expand the basic game. Narbacular Drop is a clever and original game, short but surprisingly fun and you could get to see where Portal has got its roots from. 

 

Home: Narbacular Drop, DigiPen

Download: Final Release

Genre: Environmental Puzzle, Platforming

Awards:

Another game that was created by 7 DigiPen students in 2008, got the attention of Valve and the whole team was hired by them for creating a sequel to Portal. The game is an astonishingly unique puzzler that will keep you stunned in awe from start to finish, with the power of paint that's never been seen before. 

 

 

GamePlay: "Tag: The Power Of Paint"—the title tells it all. You manipulate the physical attributes of the game environment using the power of paint to reach your goal! You have a large super-soaker that's loaded with an endless supply of paint and this becomes your weapon. Use it against the black and white urban landscape that affects your movement. The paint alters the surface of surroundings and changes their physical properties to get the desired effect for approaching your goal. Paints in Tag are of 3 colors, namely, Green to launch off the surface, Red for speed boost,  Blue to stick to the surface and finally you have a spray that seems like water to remove the paint. 

 

The 3D graphics, music and puzzles are just brilliant throughout the 10 levels of play. This concept of paint was integrated into the puzzle elements of Portal II, making it an even better game than its predecessor.  One of the best games I've ever played.

 

Home: Tag: The Power Of Paint, DigiPen

Download: Final Release

Genre: First-person shooter, puzzle, platformer

Awards:

Both these games don't have a save feature, because they were mostly proof of concept games that lasted just for an hour. 

 

Note: * - commercial games

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