Puzzle Element Interaction Index

A few months ago I was brainstorming puzzle ideas for a custom portal 2 map when I realized that most of what I was coming up with was either exceedingly convoluted or complex for the sake of difficulty, rather than fun or novel in the spirit of "thinking with portals." Now I realize these distinctions are rather subjective, but my basic idea was that fewer elements working together in unexpected ways (such asthe first time you use a light bridge to block a fling in mid-air in the single player campaign, or the combination of elements in the "pull the rug" level) can make for a far more satisfying gameplay experience (from a puzzle-solving perspective) than repeating several basic maneuvers in different orders, or with ninja reflexes, or with pixel-perfect-platforming, etc.

On that note, (and in an effort to discover any low-hanging fruit that the developers may have ignored) I thought it might be useful to create a easy-to-look-up reference of puzzle element interactions. Dividing the puzzle elements into 14 types, I set up a grid to analyze the 196 ways each of these elements could act on another. I separated the kinds of interactions into 3 main categories, "physical, causal, and no effect," with an added "unknown/inconsistent" category. Most of these distinctions were fairly obvious, while others were more a matter of opinion.

For people adept at puzzle creation, this may seem like a terrible waste of time, but by looking at the game from this perspective, I was able to make what I think were some noteworthy observations. For instance, elements which do not interact with one another can be thought of as orthogonal, and their effects stack. Thus, a grate, which allows portals, bullets, and thermal discouragement beams through, but otherwise behaves as a solid texture, when used in combination with a fizzler, results in what is effectively bullet/gel-penetrable glass. Similarly, a death field, used with a fizzler, makes bullet/gel-penetrable death-glass.

This list is by no means complete, but can be thought of as a partial attempt to record the "rules" of portal 2 puzzles (for starters, I have neglected to include bombs or glass as puzzle elements, though bombs' ability to break glass is an important component of the single player campaign!)

For anyone interested in using, adding to, or ridiculing this project I have attached the excel spreadsheet to this post.