Trailer Reveal news - Portal: Revolution mod for Portal 2

Release Date Announcement

Hello again!

We’ve been looking forward to this day; The day we finally release our official trailer and announce the game’s release on January 5th 2024.

As you may know, we originally planned to release in 2023. Due to unforeseen complications with releasing a game during a Steam sale and the Steam review process, we had to push it back a few days.

Now, I know what you think: “Oh sure, yeah as if. It’s a portal mod. Who will believe that it’s ever going to come out in a month?”. And I would understand your concerns.

Let tell you: This game is 99% complete and I will go into detail of what’s still missing down below.

We're also excited to share our new website Portalrevolution.com
There isn't much on the site yet, but we will expand it with more updates, posts from individual developers and assets.

User Interface

Over the last few months, we have been completely rebuilding our user interface. Portal 2 originally used VGUI2, which is known to be inflexible and hard to work with. We used Source 2’s Panorama UI framework, which we got access to from our CS:GO source code, to entirely revamp this user interface.

I know that UI showcases are always dull, but for those who are interested, take a look at our main menu.

What’s there left to do?

This game is 99% done. Most areas are already fully finished, so let me tell you in absolute detail what’s left to do until we can release.

Layout

Layout includes level design and general gameplay blocking. This has been complete for a long time. While small changes are always being made, the general layout of the game has been done for months.

Decoration

Maps can always look better. You can always add more, but at some point you have to draw the line. We’re really happy with the visual fidelity of the mod and it’s definitely one of our strengths. There are no spaces left over that we aren’t happy to ship.

Choreography

Choreography includes character voice over, animation and their map logic implementation. We’ve done a lot of work in this regard lately and are happy to say that all choreography is fully implemented.

There are some animations that aren’t finished yet, but we can finish these in a few days.

Effects

By effects I want to refer to visual effects like environmental set-pieces, animations, particles and anything that makes the environment feel dynamic. There is still some work left to do in this regard, but I’m positive we can finish all the remaining effects, which reside mainly in the game’s finale, in time.

Music

While we don’t have music in every single chamber, I’m really happy with how this game’s soundtrack turned out. All props go to Jared Poolaw for this. We just need to finish the finale music and tie up some loose ends.

Sound

We pay close attention to the sound design of this game. There is still some soundscape and DSP related work that needs to be done, but we can get this done in a few days.

Engine & UI

With a new engine comes new bugs and problems. And oh boy, we had BUGS! Currently there are only two major bugs remaining (one only applying to Linux) and I already know of a way to fix that last one. The new UI is also 90% complete and only needs final polishing. It is fully feature complete.

Summary of features and FAQ

The main game will release on January 5th 2024, so let me tell you what that includes:

• Entire singleplayer campaign
• English language UI, subtitles and audio
• German language UI and subtitles
• Full Steam Input controller support
• Availability for Windows, Linux and Steam Deck

After release updates:

• Standalone Soundtrack
• In-Game Developer Commentary
• Authoring Tools (Hammer, In-Game Tools, Faceposer…)
• Community contributed UI and subtitle translations

Workshop

We have no plans of including a workshop, but you will still be able to create custom maps using the SDK.

Multiplayer

There is no multiplayer

Can I use Portal: Revolution to make a mod?

Yes. You are free to use our engine as a base for your own mods. However, we will not be able to provide support or updates for modders. Keep in mind that Portal 2: Community Edition might be better suited for mods. You’re welcome to use it but, beware of dragons!

Do I need to own Portal 2?

Yes, you will have to own Portal 2 on Steam to download Portal: Revolution. However, you do not have to install Portal 2 to play the mod.

What hardware do I need for this? Can my Laptop run this?

This is difficult to explain. There might be a future blog post on our website which goes more in depth about performance, but since we get this question a lot, here is a summary:

To play on 1080p highest settings, you will want a dedicated graphics card and decent CPU. Anything younger than 10 years should be good. You can find reference specs on our Steam Store page. If you do not have a dedicated GPU (i.e. Intel HD Graphics…), you will have to lower your graphics settings to get playable FPS. Graphics settings do not have an effect on the world decorations, only on the quality they’re displayed at.

Final words

I can’t express how excited and relieving it is to release this trailer. We have been planning to create a trailer for over a year, but always pushed it back in favour of working on the game. After all, how can you make a trailer if the game doesn’t exist? Now we’re finally ready to share it and announce a concrete release day!

The last few months have been difficult for us. We could no longer stick to our comfort zone and it’s scary to finally share something with the world, that you have poured your soul into for so long.

Getting this trailer out feels like the first step to finishing this game and we’re excited for the actual release!

Thank you for sticking with us and I hope the wait is going to be worth it!

Thanks for reading!
Stefan