And we’re right there with him
It’s been over eleven years since Portal 2 was released, and it looks like the fans aren’t the only ones who are clamoring for Valve to start on a follow-up to one of its most beloved games ever. Erik Wolpow, co-writer of both of the Portal games, as well as plenty of other famous Valve titles like Left 4 Dead and Half-Life: Alyx, went on the Kiwi Talkz Podcast this week and urged Valve to start work on Portal 3, as originally reported by VGC.
His exact words were: “I am not getting any younger. We are reaching the point where it’s crazy to think [that we’re] literally going to be too old to work on Portal 3, so we should just do it.”
First off, I think Wolpow is hilarious, and I think from this interview it’s really easy to tell that he wrote the Portal games. I also think it’s cool that he wants to come back, because it shows how much he really enjoyed working on those games. His comments also show that while he may have been instrumental in creating the game series we know and love, his wish for another sequel alone isn’t enough to get the ball rolling at the studio.
Wolpow goes on to discuss that a lot of fans are wondering what the team over at Valve is actually working on, but assures us it’s not all for nothing.
“As much as it seems like Valve often [is] just a bunch of people sitting around sipping gin and tonics by a pool, everybody’s working,” he said. “They’re working all the time, it’s just you don’t always see the [result], it doesn’t always end up coming out, or it comes out years later, it gets turned into something else. So everybody is accounted for, I guess is what I’m saying.”
This constant shifting and changing of plans is a classic tale of game development, and Valve has enough of that sweet Steam money to keep the lights on while they try to figure out their next move.
I’m with Wolpow — if they ever want to make another Portal game, they need to do it soon, and they need to do it with him and the rest of the original dev team while they still can. I get the feeling that any other attempt won’t be as successful.
