Prerelease:Portal 2/Core hub

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Portal 2.

This page sucks. If you could make it suck less, that would be awesome. Specifically: Spelling and grammar.

To do: Basic things like sources and clean-up. Might also need to resize/replace some images here as well.

Starting in 2009, Valve moved away from F-Stop, and began developing a true sequel to Portal.

Development

At first, Valve began experimenting with various new elements and features for Portal 2, many of which (light bridges, excursion funnels, and lasers) remained in the retail game.

In early 2009, Portal 2 entered what Portal superfans refer to as the "Core Hub Era", Valve’s first attempt at a coherent storyline for Portal 2. Focusing on a new player (not Chell), the game focused on getting GLaDOS back online with various Cores the player would find around the facility. They would then need to be brought back to GLaDOS’s chamber, which acted as a sort-of hub area (hence this Core Hub nickame). Not much else is known about this era.

Early Animations

(Source: Lambda Core (Video))

Things seen in the Early Test Intro portion are:

1. The Intro was not made in-engine or in SFM/IFM, presumably in Maya.
2. The Lighting is Incomplete; It can be buggy sometimes
3. The Laser emitter is using a different model.
4. A early version of the Laser over goo is shown.
5. A few lines from the first game are reused in the intro, including one that is missing from either aforementioned or the sequel. That line being the following: "You have been detained in the relaxation vault for..."

Gallery

Some screenshots that are listed below may be concept arts or paintover, but not from the actual game.

Prehub Test Chambers

• 

  Diorama

• 

  Ditto

• 

  Portal Gun Pickup

• 

  Prehub Test Chamber 03

• 

  Ditto

• 

  Prehub Test Chamber 07

• 

  Prehub Test Chamber 09

• 

  Prehub Test Chamber 10

• 

  Prehub Test Chamber 12

• 

  Ditto

Hub

GLaDOS Lair

• 

  Hallway

• 

  GLaDOS Room

• 

  Ditto

• 

  Ditto

Core Rooms

• 

  Morgan Freeman Core Room

Core Hub Room

• 

  Core hub room

Characters

GLaDOS

From what was seen in test animations, GLaDOS was going to act much more erratic and unhinged. Her design also shows she would have been literally hanging by a thread, as most of her parts have fallen off. the original plan was for the player to slowly but surely put her back together by getting different cores from different testing tracks.

Paranoid Sphere

This Sphere would be in room surrounded by Turrets, The Player would be able to grab him which would cause him to shriek, He would also threaten the Player to put him down, or he would go "mental". He would also react to being bashed against walls and thrown down a flight of stairs. This core would be removed quickly from game. The Sphere would later appear and be reused as a cameo in Poker Night 2.

This core uses curiosity core model from Portal as placeholder.

In Poker Night 2, he speaks in a fast and nervous manner, babbling about conspiracies, and his appearance is identical to Wheatley's.

(Source: [1] Combine Overwiki)

Morgan Freeman Sphere

To do: Morgan Freeman was apparently not wise about the room ingame as planned, and was later version of Paranoid core (reusing same voicelines) (Source: Portal Series Beta Research)

The Morgan Freeman Sphere (also known as the Richard Sphere) is a core that has spent a lot of time in a small room, to the point that he could remember every single detail about it. When player finds him and gets him out of the room, he freaks out seeing all the damage that Chell has caused to the facility. While player was transporting him to the Hub, she could hear him telling different facts about the room that he was in.

The Core was based primary on Freeman's role as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding in The Shawshank Redemption

Mel

Oh, it's you.

Mel was originally to be the main protagonist of Portal 2 before being moved to the multiplayer mode and then eventually cut altogether. The only valid instance of her appearance (physically) is from a retexture of a Chell model from the original Portal. Her appearance featured a blue-eyed, blonde woman with a light blue jumpsuit, some pink gripped Advanced Knee Replacement units, and a white skin tone.

When Mel was still the main protagonist, it was found that playtesters became disappointed at the fact that GLaDOS didn't recognize them. After being changed to a multiplayer character, the consequence of dying without respawning often made playtesters afraid of experimentation. Thus, Chell was re-introduced as the main protagonist. Chell and Mel would later be replaced by Atlas and P-Body in the multiplayer mode, and were shown being taken apart and re-assembled in different areas to help players (and playtesters) overcome any fear of not being able to respawn. This also creates a reasonable excuse for being able to respawn.

A possible early version of Mel is seen in Portal 2: The Final Hours as a random character in an early jumpsuit design for Chell in Portal. This character had a different face and overall younger appearance than Chell, and is therefore assumed by many to be Mel. Her placeholder texture is still in the game and separate from those of Chell, but lacks animations (although they are specified, they don't exist anymore).

(Source: Portal Wiki)

References

• The Final Hours of Portal 2 by Geoff Keighley