Backtracking
Well for the bridge section in HL2 there is an entirely new map file for the 'over there' bit so that one certainly seemed very backtracky even though it was, in essence 'go over there to pass through here'
What I was saying is a lengthy section like that would be ok but one where you have to just retrace your steps for 5 minutes isnt cool.
Right now I have a hallway of puzzles set up in a row of doors, and at the end of the hallway there's a rocket turret, which you need to use a rocket from at an earlier part in the level.
unless the hallway is longer than 2500 units(or is fiendishly tricky to navigate) thats porbably fine
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... _design%29
This however doest really work well with Portal, due to many things, but the puzzle factor can, so a bounce might work great in a portal map.
Backtracking is okay, but it matters on the amount of it, and the continuance of the area, where adding more is just giving life to an already old area. Things should only be tracked towards momentarily. For things like momentum in a case, or perhaps a left behind cube, but the cube shouldn't be an entire game in itself.
Bounce's and arena's work great in portal, just how well they are made, and thats it really to it.
The most evident way of implementing "bounce" in a Portal map would be to have a puzzle that requires a box to complete, but to get a box in the first place, you have to solve another puzzle to get access to the box dropper. Chamber 23's first puzzle is essentially this.
Yeah, thats the premise, flip a switch to turn on a far away elevator. Portal is filled with this, as even tiny bounce's are included, like needing to press a button for something. The bounce's in portal are so minor you really dont notice that they are bounce's.
More often than not back-tracking in Portal is as easy as stepping into a...well, I'm really not at liberty to say. Hopefully it will all make sense in the due coarse of portals.
