Valve’s Canceled Portal Prequel Game Revealed

Sorry, no new Portal game in the works but we do have our first look at the canceled Valve Portal prequel. For those that may not know, Portal (and Portal 2) is a game where players attempt to manipulate the very laws of physics in a totally unique puzzle experience that has been hailed for its witty dialogue, challenging puzzles, and its overall enjoyable adventure. While it looks like Valve’s inability to count to 3 will continue (if you don’t include Alyx for Half-Life), we do at least have a sneak peek at what could have been with Valve’s canceled Portal prequel game. 

first look at Valve’s canceled Portal prequel game

This first look comes courtesy of LunchHouse Software, an indie studio that has the scoop we’ve all been looking for. According to the studio, the prequel was called Aperture Camera and the code was given to the studio in order for them to aid i video creation with a series meant to document the development process. This ongoing series went behind the scenes of the game’s progress while revealing pivotal moments in its creation and to highlight the main focus of the prequel, which was meant to focus on a more photography-driven angle.

This series, called ‘Exposure’, revealed the previously kept secrets recently. According to the Exposure website: 

Exposure is a documentary-type archeological journal of F-STOP from LunchHouse Software. The mechanics are not based on speculation or heresay. Instead, Exposure uses the original, official code from Valve’s own F-STOP, or as it was properly named, Aperture Camera. We look forward to sharing more in the near future.

According to a recent report from Rock, Paper, Shotgun, we first were teased details about this project within The Game Awards’ Geoff Keighley’s book The Final Hours of Portal 2. In his book, Keighley mentioned that Valve was interested in going in a completely different direction with the Portal prequel, instead veering away from Chell, GLaDOS, and our beloved Wheatley.

As for LunchHouse, they mentioned that Valve gave them explicit permission to share their code and knowledge publically, which prompts us to wonder if this is perhaps their way of evaluating interest now that the Half-Life community is alive once more with the big Alyx reveal.