I never played portal exactly for that reason. It seems to have a story, more than one tool to interact with, flair, etc. Therefore it's not a perfect example. But I actually believe there are probably a lot of games out there who simply won with one mechanic, like back in the day when Max Payne was a not-so-bad shooter with a simple mechanic added, to slow down the time until some "Mana" runs out. It really happens, I agree on that. But if I want to invest my money in a crowd funding campaign I don't bet on luck. I bet on things I believe to be success factors, which in this case is not a mechanic.
Portal was definitely more than one clever gimmick repeatedly reused though: puzzle design, plot (short as it was), and atmosphere were very well thought through. I recommend giving it a shot if you have a couple of hours spare next time the original is dirt cheap in a Steam sale.
It is worth replaying with the "commentary track" option afterwards: it is quite an education to find out how much play testing and rework effort goes into trying to get everything "balanced just right" even for a game of that size (which in turn explains where a chunk of the massive amounts of money and other resource ploughed into some larger titles goes, and why naively cheap game based kickstarters are a often bad idea).
If with this game the creators can wrap the other elements around their core gameplay artifact(s) in the same way then it'll be well worth a go, if they can't then, well, that is always the risk of kickstarter and it is your choice (valid either way) to, or not to, take a punt on that.
I usually don't mention Portal 2 until they'#ve play the original. Avoids the "I don't have time for both right so is it worth it?" thought! Mention Portal 2 once Portal has been played and they want more now...
There are various bits of the commentary when they discuss previous versions of levels and why they changed things after the play-testing sessions. A lot more effort seems to have been expended getting things as close to "just right" as possible than you might first think.
I still feel Portal 1 works very well as a kind of introduction to the much bigger (and in most ways better) Portal 2. I also usually suggest people play the first one, especially if they're not that into FPS games, because it's less of an investment and focuses a bit more on just the puzzles.
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I never played portal exactly for that reason. It seems to have a story, more than one tool to interact with, flair, etc. Therefore it's not a perfect example. But I actually believe there are probably a lot of games out there who simply won with one mechanic, like back in the day when Max Payne was a not-so-bad shooter with a simple mechanic added, to slow down the time until some "Mana" runs out. It really happens, I agree on that. But if I want to invest my money in a crowd funding campaign I don't bet on luck. I bet on things I believe to be success factors, which in this case is not a mechanic.
Portal was definitely more than one clever gimmick repeatedly reused though: puzzle design, plot (short as it was), and atmosphere were very well thought through. I recommend giving it a shot if you have a couple of hours spare next time the original is dirt cheap in a Steam sale.
It is worth replaying with the "commentary track" option afterwards: it is quite an education to find out how much play testing and rework effort goes into trying to get everything "balanced just right" even for a game of that size (which in turn explains where a chunk of the massive amounts of money and other resource ploughed into some larger titles goes, and why naively cheap game based kickstarters are a often bad idea).
If with this game the creators can wrap the other elements around their core gameplay artifact(s) in the same way then it'll be well worth a go, if they can't then, well, that is always the risk of kickstarter and it is your choice (valid either way) to, or not to, take a punt on that.
And don't forget Portal 2; the plot was much more fleshed out and followed a great story.
I am intrigued by this commentary track, looks like I'll be playing Portal tonight!
I usually don't mention Portal 2 until they'#ve play the original. Avoids the "I don't have time for both right so is it worth it?" thought! Mention Portal 2 once Portal has been played and they want more now...
There are various bits of the commentary when they discuss previous versions of levels and why they changed things after the play-testing sessions. A lot more effort seems to have been expended getting things as close to "just right" as possible than you might first think.
I still feel Portal 1 works very well as a kind of introduction to the much bigger (and in most ways better) Portal 2. I also usually suggest people play the first one, especially if they're not that into FPS games, because it's less of an investment and focuses a bit more on just the puzzles.