The announcement that PC and Mac players of Portal 2 would soon get their own puzzle editor has generated a ton of excitement among the game's fans. Now a new video has been posted on YouTube showing how the puzzle editor will actually work. The video was uploaded by one of the editor's beta testers, who goes by the Steam name "Doogiehoogie."
The video demonstrates the drag-and-drop user interface of the editor, which will allow users to shape the actual level and place objects such as jump pads, lasers and other items inside. The puzzle editor will allow allow creators to quickly jump in and out of their level designs to test them out.
Once they are happy with their Portal 2 puzzle creation, users can they upload them to the Steam Workshop. The system generates tags automatically for people to find the level, although its creators can go back and manually edit tags and other aspects of how they want their level to be displayed on the Steam Workshop. That includes the option of sharing the level with all Portal 2 players or just letting their friends use them.
People who just want to play new Portal 2 puzzles can jump into the game's user interface and pick what kinds of levels they want to play. Once they complete a level made by a third party, they are shown a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" graphic in the game itself. This leads to an instant rating on the puzzle.
Serious level designers can still use Valve's Hammer editor to make Portal 2 maps. Hammer is more complicated to use but also offers a lot more in terms of features.
The Portal 2 puzzle editor will be released for the PC and Mac versions on May 8th as part of the Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC pack. Again, there's no word on if the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions of Portal 2 will also be able to access the puzzle editor at some point.
Update - Well it looks like the video has been removed
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