No GLaDOS. No Chell. No portals. Set in the 1980s. Competitive multiplayer. Multiple endings. The Portal 2 That Could Have Been.
posted by Artw on Mar 9, 2012 - 44 comments

Mari0 is a Super Mario Bros and Portal mashup currently under development. Previously, the same developer made Not Tetris; a faithful reimagining of the original game, but with the addition of realistic physics and geometry.
posted by schmod on Sep 1, 2011 - 21 comments

Hollywood shuns intelligent entertainment. The games industry doesn't. Guess who's winning?
posted by Artw on May 23, 2011 - 254 comments

It's well-known at this point that Valve Software hired the team of Digipen students who made Narbacular Drop to turn their student project into Portal. But even people who drooled over the new mechanics in the Portal 2 E3 videos may not be aware that Valve has hired another team out of Digipen for that. If you're looking for a preview, you should probably download and play Tag, the game the new mechanics are based on, in which you explore a grey, cell-shaded world by spraying paint on it.
posted by Pope Guilty on Jun 17, 2010 - 28 comments

Anyone who grew up playing video games understands the impact of the music. But the internet has allowed all sorts of people to express their love in many different ways. [more inside]
posted by restless_nomad on Mar 19, 2010 - 33 comments

It's been almost a year since Roger Ebert responded to Clive Barker on the debate over whether games can truly be "art." In support of Mr. Barker's position, here are some of the most artistic moments from games in recent years - the tragic, the trippy, the Saturday mornings, the darkly comic, the downs and the ups, and the rare phyrric victory. [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer on Jun 23, 2008 - 126 comments

Student Projects from DigiPen, a computer game college. A few I've tried and approve include Narbacular Drop, which is very short, more of a tech demo, but contains the idea and some of the people behind Valve's upcoming Portal^, Orblitz, a get-the-ball-to-the-goal puzzle game with extremely calming graphics and music, and Bontãgo, a weird combination of RTS, Tetris, and Jenga.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim on Jul 22, 2006 - 19 comments