Overview
A co-op version of my guide on making semi-advaned chambers! My co-op chambers always come out extremely difficult, so I’ll try to make the chamber for this guide a little easier than normal! A big thanks to the community and everybody who viewed my previous guide. I cannot thank you enough!
Hello again 🙂
Hey guys! It’s me, Trexler, coming out with another guide for you! This one is on co-op chambers, because for the longest time I had trouble making them. I couldn’t decide what elements to make into a co-op puzzle, so this explanation may be confusing to you all. But I digress; let’s get on with the test! (See? I made it rhyme for you.)
Co-op Testing: The Basics
Alright, you astronaut, olympian, and/or war hero. It’s time to tackle co-op testing. Remember, you bots have 6 seconds of additional cooperation time, so make every second count! In this guide I hope to show you how to build an effective (and hopefully fun) testing chamber for you and your partner. So let’s go back to what we covered in the first guide: THE BOX!
Our favorite starting shape it seems. As before, change the box into your amalgamation first thing, or don’t. If you can find an innovative way to turn that box into a chamber without changing shape (and I have seen chambers like this) then by all means, go right on ahead. Again, I’ll test out anything you link in the comments, so make sure to keep em’ coming!
Anyway, here’s what I went with:
Rmember to change all portal surfaces by pressing “Ctrl + A” and “P” after everything has been selected, and to add in any hazards you might want. Note, however, that there is one main difference in a co-op chamber’s terrain, and that is, when you begin to vary the terrain, do NOT expect it to remain constant throughout the editing process. In a single player chamber, you can go with whatever you’ve created, with little to no editing. Not a co-op chamber. You need puzzles that require a second person, so there’s a good chance the terrain will have to change for more testing elements. Also, notice that floating platform? Rmember, you need a central puzzle, and I decided to mess with physics for this one… which I have no problem with doing. Floating platforms are a new addition to the Aperture Science Testing Facility.
My main puzzle is going to involve repulsion and propulsion gel to launch yourself accross an acid pit. I think we all know where this is going! Start by picking a place for your element. I’ll put my propulsion gel over in this annex i had to carve out:
Again, we don’t want to make this too easy! Let’s start off this co-op test by placing a button your partner will have to stand on to get the gel going:
Remember, it is not a requirement that you put signage on all of your buttons and switches. I just like to do it for less ease in identification of what the button operates. Save your map and continue!
Adding More Testing Elements
I’ve added in some portal surfaces so that the button is accessible and the partner can have the gel go everywhere! Because of the angle the gel is coming out of the pipe at, you will have to play around with the position of the portal so you coat everywhere you need to. So now you can run fast. Great. What now? Let’s add in the repulsion gel:
I put in the repulsion gel and thought to myself, what if I change the button activation scheme? So I did, and it ended up looking like the screenshot above. Now one partner must stand on the button(s) to activate the gel(s). Hooray! But wait, there’s more! You’ve probably noticed there are no portal surfaces on or above the floating platform. How do we get our gel over there? We add in timed flip panels, of course!
Notice how I put the connection visibility to “none”? If you have one button controlling multiple testing elements, I find it’s easier to work with. Plus, what the button does is seen pretty well from about anywhere in the chamber at this point, so it’s not a mystery as to what it does.
So we have our running and jumping down. Now where do we go from here? Well, I have the answer: Angled wall panels! I’ll set up a couple, and if physics are on my side, I can get this test to work:
So the plan is to bounce off of the angled wall panels into the annex on the other side. To do that, we’ll need to cover the angled plates with gel! This is kind of like using a home made faith plate to fly around… unless the gel won’t stick to angled plates. Hoping it will, I’ll put portalable angled plates accross from the others. This should hopefully shoot gel onto the angled plates:
Now we have our angled portal plates, let’s add a timer button (already done and shown). Goody! What next? Well, the annex up there needs a purpose, so why not impliment another co-op test: a moving platform.
After I had put the platform in place, I realized that there was no way for your partner to get back to you, so I put in two-way grating (highlighted above) so your partner could come back to the end with you. I’ll also add in a button that opens the exit door, so if a loophole is found during play testing, I’m at least forced to go press the button before I can leave.
You only have 16 seconds to get to the exit. Better hurry up! With that, I think there is just one last thing to do. Can you guess what it is? Good guess: LIGHTS!!!!
I lit up my test. I put portal surfaces wherever they would not interfere with the solution or create loopholes. Let’s test this test!
Playtesting Phase
Everything looks good, right?
Wrong. Always assume the test chamber has a bug.
I realized half-way through the test that I could not put any repulsion gel on the speed jump alley, and the floating platform would be too close for me to land on it because of my speed. Also, one portal surface was in the wrong place, and allowed a HUGE loophole that rendered the gels not required. So I needed to go back in and fix those problems:
So now I think it’s done. I’ll give it a final playtest:
That’s it! Congrats on a beautiful new co-op test chamber! Do remember to actually turn it to co-op by going on the drop-down file menu and checking the tick where it says “cooperative puzzle”. You’re done! I bet you feel great!
Final Thoughts
Now you have your test chamber, a friend, and an ASHPD (Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device), you can begin testing! I’d be happy to test with you, so keep the chambers coming. The test chamber I made is 100% possible with no loopholes, so go ahead and try it out for yourself! You can find it here: hereI don’t know what I’ll write a guide on next, but until then, keep calm and continue testing, dear reader!
~Trexler
P.S.: I brought you another kitty!
