The Puzzle Creator (also known as Puzzle Maker or Editor) is a part of the Perpetual Testing Initiative in Portal 2, a DLC released on May 8th, 2012[1] allowing the creation of single-player test chambers within a simple in-game editor.[1]
Overview
The editor was first mentioned within The Final Hours of Portal 2, "[An in-game level browser won't be of much use unless] Valve figures out how to make designing Portal 2 maps an easier process. It has a plan there too, it comes in the form of a simplified level editor [...] a Photoshop for test chambers".[2]
The "Puzzle Creator" does not appear to have a single official name; Valve published a blog post on the October 27, 2011 referring to the editor as the "Puzzle Creator"[3], later referred to it on the blog post of April 27, 2012 as "Puzzle Maker"[4] and simply calling it "Editor" in-game.
Interface
The Puzzle Creator features a stylised representation of the test chamber being worked on; featuring a simplified, bright, and flat color palette, and models and textures lack the level of detail that they would have in-game.
The initial view of the Puzzle Creator.
Basic controls
- Hovering the mouse over the left screen edge displays the item list.
- The top edge of the screen features four buttons: "Build and play puzzle", "Undo", "Redo", and "Switch to game view".
- Selecting and dragging the upper-right corner pans the camera view.
- Selecting and dragging the right edge controls the camera zoom.
- Selecting and dragging the lower-right corner controls the camera rotation.
- - Select a block or item.
- - On background: Pans camera view; On chamber: Context menu.
- - Click: Controls camera rotation; Scroll: Controls camera zoom (follows cursor).
- W+S - Zoom in/out.
- Q+E - Rotate left/right.
- W+S - Pan left/right.
- R+F - Rotate up/down.
- P - Toggle surface portalability.
- ++- - Push/pull (extrude) surface.
- Delete/← Backspace - Delete selection.
Advanced controls
- ⇧ Shift+ - Allows for batch selection of surfaces.
- ctrl+ - Duplicates an item (does not duplicate any connections).
- alt+ - Places an item on the surface opposite to the one facing the camera.
- space+ - Pushes/pulls surface if selected.
Shortcuts
- ctrl+N - New chamber
- ctrl+S - Save
- ctrl+⇧ Shift+S - Save as...
- Tab ⇆ - Switch to game view.
- F9 - Rebuild
- ctrl+Q - Exit editor
- ctrl+Z - Undo
- ctrl+Y - Redo
- ctrl+A - Select all
Items list
Related commands
procedural_generator_solve_it
- Solve the procedural puzzle generator.
procedural_generator_test
- Test the procedural puzzle generator.
puzzlemaker_autosave_dev
- autosaves the current puzzle as 'autosave.p2c'
puzzlemaker_compile_and_preview
puzzlemaker_compile_and_publish
puzzlemaker_current_hint
puzzlemaker_drawselectionmeshes 0/1
- draw wireframe item selection meshes in red
puzzlemaker_export
- export the current puzzle as 'name.vmf'
puzzlemaker_load_dev
- load the puzzle called 'name.p2c'
puzzlemaker_new_chamber
puzzlemaker_open_chamber
puzzlemaker_play_sounds 0/1
- sets if the puzzlemaker can play sounds or not
puzzlemaker_publish_dev
- compile the current puzzle and publish it to the Steam workshop
puzzlemaker_quit
puzzlemaker_request_publish
puzzlemaker_save_chamber
puzzlemaker_save_dev <name>
save the current puzzle as 'name.p2c'
puzzlemaker_shadows 0/1
- Enable shadows in the Portal 2 Puzzle Maker
puzzlemaker_show_overlay_web_page
puzzlemaker_show 0/1
- 1 shows the puzzle maker, 0 hides it
puzzlemaker_zoom_to_mouse 0/1/2
- 0-zoom to center of screen, 1-zoom to mouse cursor (smart), 2-zoom to mouse cursor
Unused content
The following have been found in the game files:
- Aerial Faith Plate (large).
- 'Push out' panel.
- Additional voting criteria for a map, including "confused" and "stuck".
- Various "upgrade" badge textures.
Gallery
Puzzle Creator |
| An example of a simple test chamber.
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Pre-release |
| Announcement screenshot #1
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| Announcement screenshot #2
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References
Portal Series |
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| Games | | | DLC |
| | Other | |
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