a walk through portal: an act of video game analysis
DESCRIPTION
With this presentation, I will engage in an in-depth close reading of the game, Portal, in order to parse out various meanings I found in the experience of playing the game. I approach the experience from the perspective of how its narrative development and game design help a player learn how to play the game. Sequences in the game will be played and analyzed in detail in order to illustrate and interpret how these various components of the game come together to create a fulfilling playing experience that leads to a literacy and mastery of the gameplay mechanics. I’m currently editing a book with a group of authors performing similar analyses of various videogames. The goal of this book is to help develop and define a literacy of games as well as a sense of their value as an experience. Videogames are a complex medium that merits careful interpretation and insightful analysis.TRANSCRIPT
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A Walk through
Drew Davidson
an Act of Video Game Analysis
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Analysis
Close Reading of the video game, Portal
Analogous to Literary and Film Criticism
Unit Operations
Learning Principles
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Portal
Narbacular Drop - DigiPen
Valve hired student team
Portal - Orange Box
Award winning game
Great success story
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The Game
Learning Units
Themes
Chapters and Test Chambers
Spoiler Alert!
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00
Introduction
See yourself in Space
Static in dialogue
Test chambers & Backstage
Puzzle with instructions
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Analysis
Narrative Development & Game DesignLiteracy and Mastery of GameplayLearning Units - FlowThemes
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01
Portals and Spaces
Short little Tutorials
Panopticon (cameras, observation rooms)
Visual Cues
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Narrative
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Gameplay
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02
Test Chamber signs
Get the Gun!
Clean Environments
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03
“Mind the gap”
Portals go both ways
Developer Commentary
You feel alone
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Full DisclosurePlayed through game at least 9+ times
+ many individual test chambersAbout 2-4 hours of gameplayXbox 360Some GameFAQs & the WebListened to Dev Commentary
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08
Can die (!)
More complex puzzles
Recursive view
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09
GLaDOS - trustworthy?
Audio and Visuals
Elevator - backstage?
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10
First Fling
GLaDOS explains momentum
Orient through Space
Variations (Learning Units
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Experiential Themes
Experiment - many levels of
Space - associations through and with
Escape - making the choice to
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11
Get the other half of the Gun
Circle around
Finally (!) get full Gameplay
Timed Puzzles
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Experiment
Chell is in an experiment
Player has to experiment within space
Aperture Science
Development was an experiment
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13
Both portals, Multiple spaces
Test Chambers more complex
Puzzles across rooms
2 steps forward, 1 step back
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Space
Players have to reorient through space
Reorient actions, indirect connections
Portal reorients FPS genre
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16
Live Fire (!)
Where you can’t be (through portals
A Lair - “cake is a lie”
Backstage and Subversion
GLaDOS - broken? lying? dysfunctional?
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Escape
Literal - must get out
Figurative - subvert GLaDOS
Existential - who you are
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17
Weighted Companion Cube!
Indirect Storytelling
Complex Gameplay combos
Love & Guilt
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Literacy & Mastery
Flow across Learning Units
Gradual Gameplay Mechanics
Layered Thematics
Practice and Variations
Explore and Improvise
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19Cake!
Backstage - Backstory
Short, linear game
Painted Clues
Guided Training through Level Design
Where you shouldn’t be
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Ludic Narrans
Homo Ludens
+
Homo Narrans
=
Ludic Narrans
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And so...Interpret / Analyze
Narrative, Gameplay, Learning Units
Meaning, Themes, Literacy and Mastery
Well Played
ETC Press
etc.cmu.edu/etcpress