Portal: Black Forest Edition - Still Alive! + The First Slice
Hello everyone! It's...been a while, huh?
Let's talk.
What Happened?
A while ago, I told the Discord server for this mod that I was unsure about the future of development. I said that I'd rather focus on other gamedev stuff and that as a result, this mod was either going to be put on hold for a while or scrapped entirely.
(I also forgot to post an article here about that. Oops. Sorry!)
After that, I had junior year and 6 AP classes to contend with, which meant that I had time for neither gamedev nor this mod for almost a full year. This summer, though, I decided I'd rather focus my energy on finishing this mod before moving to other gamedev projects since I've already put a good amount of work into its development.
What Now?
I've only been working on this mod again for a short period of time, so I don't have many new chambers to show. However, I've now finished the first 11 chambers - so The First Slice is technically ready to go! I've also figured out how to change the testchamber signs and set Black Forest Edition up as an actual, playable sourcemod. More details on progress to come in another article soon.
One more important thing that I plan on touching on in greater detail in that article - I need playtesters! I love Portal 1 to death, but there are a TON of ways to break it and a LOT of jank involved in mapping for it, so I'd love some help with debugging my maps. I also want this game to be quite difficult, but I honestly suck at figuring out the difficulty of my own maps, so outside perspectives on that would be super useful.
So, if you'd like to get ahold of The First Slice, help out the game, and get your name in the credits (should it ever get finished!), join the Discord (Discord.gg) and stick around for info about playtesting!
Since I'm a slow mapper and an even slower puzzle designer, there's still a long road ahead of me before I can call this thing done. However, in compiling The First Slice, I've taken care of a lot of the scary logistical stuff that I was dreading (looking at you, 3D model testchamber signs), so hopefully the rest of the development will go relatively smoothly.
Oh, and one more little thing: I changed my name to KasioGames to match an old YouTube channel I had, so that's what happened to UpiOn.
Thanks!
If you're somehow still thinking about Black Forest Edition in 2023, thank you. I really do love Portal and hope that someday soon(ish) I can finally share this with its community.
See you again in the next progress update!
You're undoubtedly doing well in your class! You can improve your grades; to improve your skills and, most importantly, gain experience. Be determined!