Valve adds new features to its popular in-game level designer.
Team Fortress 2 isn’t the only popular Valve game to get a significant co-op update this week. Portal 2‘s Perpetual Testing Initiative, which allows players to build levels in-game, was recently updated to allow users to design and share their own co-op maps through the Steam Workshop. Valve is also taking the opportunity to implement a new “Quick Play” feature that allows players to jump immediately into the highest rated maps in a variety of categories.
The Perpetual Testing Initiative is still relatively new, but it’s been a successful project for Valve nonetheless. Since its release, users have designed and shared over 170,000 puzzles through the Steam Workshop, while the Workshop’s rating system allows fans to rank their experience on each map. The Initiative was originally provided as a single-player update so that Valve could release it as quickly as possible, but the developers have used the past four months to iron out a two-player version that friends can attempt to struggle their way through.
To promote the event and help players “find a co-op partner”, Valve is giving 75% off coupons to anyone who owns a copy of Portal 2. If you have a friend with a copy of the game, and you personally haven’t had a chance to try out what Gabe Newell calls “the best game we’ve ever done”, now seems like a great opportunity to give it a shot.
The question I’m left wondering is what Valve could add next? Perhaps a GlaDOS-like spectator mode that lets you watch players make their way through your maps, complete with optional taunts for when they die horribly?
