It's proven to be one of the better purchases I've made. I had a guy in a Mass Effect t-shirt come up to me at the mall and ask where I got it.

Anyways, it's been a while and I've missed you guys for the last year. How are things going?

I would totally dig a scarf if it was cold enough to wear it down South.

As to the community: things go here and there; there are still some 'regular' releases of Portal/Portal 2 maps and packs, while the last of the major mods struggles to wrap itself up. Other than that, the vast majority of the people on this site have largely become disenchanted with the Source engine. We still meet regularly for Saturday Chats and Friday Game night and occasionally between then.

tl;dr the community is still here but the amount of Portal-related activities is becoming dilute.

Vansulli summed it up well.

Heh it gets cold enough during the winter here to make it very valuable.

Any particular reasons as to why interest in the Source engine's dropped?

It's getting outdated. Modern engines like Unreal and Cryengine are popular, while the Source Engine (at least the public version, not sure what Valve's got) is still as buggy and unreliable as ever. The one advantage Source has is that since the others that I've mentioned are almost entirely mesh (model) based, they're harder for a newbie to deal with since they're very low on content by default. Source has a wide variety of stock stuff included, but if you've got a decent modeler and texture artist there's no reason for a developer to go Source nowadays.

I suspect interest may pick up once Source 2 is announced. Maybe we'll get a pair of porting projects for Portal and portal 2, potentially.

Coppermantis wrote:
It's getting outdated. Modern engines like Unreal and Cryengine are popular, while the Source Engine (at least the public version, not sure what Valve's got) is still as buggy and unreliable as ever. The one advantage Source has is that since the others that I've mentioned are almost entirely mesh (model) based, they're harder for a newbie to deal with since they're very low on content by default. Source has a wide variety of stock stuff included, but if you've got a decent modeler and texture artist there's no reason for a developer to go Source nowadays.

Yeah, I guess so...pity. I've got a project idea or two running around on the engine. Is it really that buggy though?

p0rtalplayer wrote:
I suspect interest may pick up once Source 2 is announced. Maybe we'll get a pair of porting projects for Portal and portal 2, potentially.

Aw please don't say that...you all know how big a Portal fanboy I am, but I'm not entirely sure I could go for a series of attempts to replicate portal gameplay in an engine not specifically coded for it.

I remember getting a group photo taken by a guy who was wearing an Aperture Science lanyard. Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to talk with him. Seemed like a cool guy.

As for community activity, I'd put it partially on the fact that it's been, what, 5 years? Not only has Portal grown older, but so have we, and we just don't have as much time to dedicate to mapping. That being said, we still mess around with the Source engine - I know Reep's been working on a HL2 mod called Punt, vanSulli was messing around with Alien Swarm + deferred lighting, and I've recently gotten into mapping for TF2. Source development is still around, just maybe less enthusiastic and a bit slower than before.

Winston. I thought you ceased to exist.

I'm not a scarf kinda guy.

Speaking of Portal apparel, I'm at Sakura Con in Seattle and despite the main theme being anime/manga, there's a surprising showing from Portal, TF2 and even Half-life. My sister went as Chell and got in a group photo with two others with nearly identical costumes. There was this one guy with a clever spin on it, he had the standard orange jumpsuit with big leg casts and a label that read "control group."

Plus a huge group of TF2 guys, missing only the demoman and medic. Their heavy was almost perfect. Wish I'd gotten a picture.

Coppermantis wrote:
Speaking of Portal apparel, I'm at Sakura Con in Seattle and despite the main theme being anime/manga, there's a surprising showing from Portal, TF2 and even Half-life. My sister went as Chell and got in a group photo with two others with nearly identical costumes. There was this one guy with a clever spin on it, he had the standard orange jumpsuit with big leg casts and a label that read "control group."

Plus a huge group of TF2 guys, missing only the demoman and medic. Their heavy was almost perfect. Wish I'd gotten a picture.

Huh. If I actually were into manga/anime I'd totally go. As it is, I'd be a bit tempted to check it out next year just for the portal cosplay.

p0rtalplayer wrote:
Huh. If I actually were into manga/anime I'd totally go. As it is, I'd be a bit tempted to check it out next year just for the portal cosplay.

Well, you can still go, just don't expect to know why everyone is fanboying/fangirling over stupid things.

Yeah, we pretty much kind of don't do much Source mapping/modding anymore. Seems like you can not but a wow factor into anything anymore without hitting some wall, limit or your project is using a 5-6 year old version of the source engine. But I and other's have been in it for so long, and I personally feel like I can not get into anything else game related. Source 2 is probably gonna be like Unreal/Unity. Mostly engine scripting. Hell, that is how the cooler things in Portal 2 work now. If I or others here will care when it releases still remains a mystery that only time can answer.

Yeah, I'm starting to understand. Especially the thing about growing older. And yeah, about engine scripting...I dunno how I feel about it. Maybe it's just because I haven't had the time or chance to really investigate and learn it, but I prefer to some extent trying to work things out in level design. The scripting work in P2 is awesome though.

Also I want to go to an anime/manga convention sometime if only for the Portal/HL2/TF2 references. There are a fair amount that happen around me but I've never actually gone to one.

Colossal wrote:
Winston. I thought you ceased to exist.

I'm not a scarf kinda guy.

Never.

And...well, to each their own I suppose.

I didn't mean it in a "scarfz r sutpid" way. I just mean I don't like scarfs personally. Like I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever wear one. One slip and the world could go Final Destination on you and you'll be dangling from a highway overpass. Then somehow you explode and blood goes everywhere and it turns out to be a really great prequel.

Colossal wrote:
I didn't mean it in a "scarfz r sutpid" way. I just mean I don't like scarfs personally. Like I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever wear one. One slip and the world could go Final Destination on you and you'll be dangling from a highway overpass. Then somehow you explode and blood goes everywhere and it turns out to be a really great prequel.

Colossal wrote:
One slip and the world could go Final Destination on you and you'll be dangling from a highway overpass. Then somehow you explode and blood goes everywhere and it turns out to be a really great prequel.

I considered getting a scarf, but my paranoia led me down this exact line of thought, and now I don't think I will.

Work laser eye surgery and a rollercoaster in there.

Colossal wrote:
Work laser eye surgery and a rollercoaster in there.