Portal Review

Portal?
Well During Sixth form I had a very good friend who is an avid PC gamer. As you would expect we often talked about games but one that always came up was Portal. As bad as it sounds I had never heard of it before meeting her. All the times she told me about cake jokes and GLaDOS's evil humor I was completely stumped. I tried to research into it but I didn't truly understand the depths of it until now. So now with a computer powerful enough to run it and a shiny new steam account I bought the portal bundle and the fun began.

Portal Puzzle Play
Nice clean room, little radio playing music and a timer lingering over the door.
"Welcome to the aperture science, computer aided enrichment center" the feminine electronic voice began, and continued explaining details of the facility, and then an ominous warning and the voice glitches out. And so the tests began, moving to the first room, a simple cube fell from its hanger, I picked it up and placed it on the button. The door opened and I enter the elevator and the test proceeded.

The next room has the same decor of light grey tiles walls and floors and glass paneling. Now the challenges stepped up. I have to reach the cube to place on a button by going through portal holes one of which switches locations in a timely fashion to allow you to reach different locations in the room. With a little patience and timing the task is quickly completed. The voice returns making a humorous remark, and you enter the elevator again for your next test. The seemingly simple game mechanic begins, with each elevator journey bringing a more difficult puzzle to complete.

But I got rewarded well I received my portal gun and given a little more freedom, eventually to the point that you can create both the orange and blue portals at your choosing instead of having the orange one in a fixed location. The challenges continue from here on in. Its odd even with the portal gun at times I forget that I have it and that it makes life so much easier, but when I can't use it and I have to do the old fashioned way of jumping it almost feels abnormal. It was so easy to get into the habit of just doing things one way that when things changed it was like a revelation all over again.

 Death is now common place. The game doesn't have a health bar but instant death is very easy to achieve. Falling into toxic water, or being hit by lazer orbs occurs more often than I'd like. I didn't give up though. With each death I'm one step closer to understanding how to complete the level. But its the same as all games right? Why is it so much more fun. The voice becomes more and more pessimistic as time goes on and I take pride in proving her wrong and reaching the next stage. It becomes me and the test and not much else matters. My only companionship is the lovely sarcastic and snide voice, and a certain object at one point in the game. The lack of any other humans interactions is odd but makes you love the intercom lady so so much.

I begin to get immersed in the tests, but at the back of my mind the thought of "why are they testing me?" and  "Wheres this cake you keep promising as my reward?" I began to explore and in little corners darker areas, completely contrasting the grey testing areas would show up. Writing over the walls, dismembered cameras, dirt and rust all hinting of those that were tested before you and to a darker undertone. Things begin to get more and more suspicious. And like with all stories things are revealed in due time, but I won't spoil.

All I will say is that the endings a good one. Though the story isn't too complex and not everything is revealed and sometimes you have to search for hints to it it makes it more personal. If you want the story its there to be discovered or imagined by yourself whilst the game will keep you entertained without. Its a perfect mix, its a completely unique and fun way of doing puzzles.

Evil Christmas Character

So we have been given the fun task of designing an evil Christmas character... this strangely turned out to be more difficult than I was first expecting. As you can see from my scrambled mind set of ideas.

When I'm trying to come up with idea I often do very basic sketches like these to see if things work. So as you can see evil Christmas trees, fire starter, random Robbin, demented rabbit teddy bear, then my trolls.
I got the idea of having a smart one and a dumb lackey, they would dress up like elves then try and steal presents from the grotto so I began on my silhouettes based on this idea.

|So they turned out quite well. But I realized I would need to do a lot more of them, and tat i needed to be less refined with them. Yet there I was doing the exact same with the second batch. So then I tried to work on the mood board.

When I began to look over the main themes of my idea they seemed to overlap a little bit too much with Christmas films. So I came to the decision to scrap my trolls unfortunately.

                                                      

                                            I even had a short story/ comic thought out for my duo. 

But I came up with a better idea. If you have been keeping up with my blog you should know I lived for a time in Italy. Its there where I learnt of "La Befana"  an old lady that came and gave sweets to children.It was at this point I began to be dubious of Santa at that age, as why would there be two people giving out presents? And This memory resonated in me and gave me my idea. La befana is meant to ave originated from the time of Jesuses birth so shes been around longer than Santa right. But many more children believe in Santa than in her and over the years shes become a bit bitter and twisted.

Her silhouettes were quite difficult as I didn't want to lose the old woman with a broom and sack of sweets look too much.As you can see i tried a lot of different idea and shapes with her and then began to work on my favourite 8. 

To be honest I have a personal favourite in this batch and its the second one that looks like shes carrying out the crash. I can't use her though as she doesn't have enough of a "evil" vibe. Yet I love her and why? Because after drawing her she reminded me of an old woman back from Italy, she would wander the streets with her large bags that she always looked like she was struggling to carry but if anyone ever tried to help her she would curse her head off at them. 

You may also notice in these designs that I begin to expand on the puppets. So this is where her story continues with in her bitterness she turns children who don't believe in her into puppets. Now for colours:

                                 

I was torn between using reds or oranges and browns. But since Santa is red I decided to go for orange as its stil quite a nice warm wintry colour but less overlapping with Santa.

So here is her final design. I'm quite happy with it, it doesn't have a very scary feel but I'm sure if she was creeping round your house you would be a bit scared too.

                                            

So here is the slightly scruffy story board.Reading downwards, of her entering a house, trying to find a stocking to place in some sweets but unable to find it so searched the little boys room where she finds the Santa Claus Toy. Angry that the boy believes in Santa rather than her turns him into a puppet.

So believe in her kids or she will be coming for you and turning you into a puppet...