As far as things like that one fling, or the part where it will auto switch the portal you fire, and all of the (frankly, very rare) instances where the developers step out of the box to help the player along, there's a fine line between wanting to keep player enjoyment to a maximum, and ruining clearly established rules in favor of making something neat.

I just wrote this in another thread: listen to the commentary if you haven't done so. Valve wants to keep the player engaged, and if that means making quiet, calculated alterations at key moments in the game, then so be it. I think it's melodramatic to say that the entire game is ruined because of 1 or 2 instances of some small hand holding.

Also, remember that people who play custom maps - much less make them! - are probably in the 10% of players where these gentle nudges are not needed. Odds are, the "herp derp banging rock together" players like on Youtube won't be playing the harder maps. As a map designer, you should figure out your target audience. Do you want to make maps that many people are going to enjoy, or do you want to make a map that most people will find difficult but some will enjoy the heightened difficulty?

msleeper wrote:
...or the part where it will auto switch the portal you fire...

did this happen in another moment than at the end when shooting a portal on the Moon?

Mek wrote:
msleeper wrote:

...or the part where it will auto switch the portal you fire...

did this happen in another moment than at the end when shooting a portal on the Moon?

Yeah, it happened when you're in the funnel behind the scenes escaping from Wheatley and he goes "Aristotle vs Mashy Spike Plate".

I think that having the portal gun work no matter which portal you fire is okay in those two instances, because at that point the portals are less a gameplay mechanic and more a story telling device. You're not solving a puzzle, you're advancing the plot forward. That's the difference between, say, the auto portal switch happening in the middle of a test chamber.

The portal switch in the finale is more of a limitation of how the level is designed (I won't spoil it for you, but decompile the map and look below the main room.) The portal switch in TPWHKY doesn't detract from the game at all - you've already solved the puzzle by the time you're able to open a portal below your feet, and if your objective was to fail, you can just jump into the chasm. If you wait a minute or two beforehand, you even get an achievement for doing it.