Overview
This guide will tell you all there is to know about making a good test chamber step-by-step and share some of my tips and tricks I use to make all of my test chambers.
Conception
For every test chamber you need to start with the idea. Yes, it’s the thing that makes your test chamber unique. Whether it be a new shape of the test chamber or testing a new element, tests are tests. It doesn’t matter if your idea hasn’t been attempted before just run with it, you can change it later on.
Planning
For this you’ll need to create a new chamber. Using your idea as inspiration, you need to visualize where test element will go and what steps you’ll what the tester to take before gaining access to the exit. These elements could be:
- Deadly goo
- Gel (speed, bounce or conversion)
- Lightbridge
Before you go building the chamber there are some dangers to building certain chambers you’ll need to know:
- Coversion gel tests – these tests are the most difficult to create because the gel can be abused to make an unintended solution to a chamber. Use emancipation grills or flip panels.
- Bounce gel tests – these tests can become broken if your exit is 2 blocks high so managing your portalable surfaces is priority here, try to use emancipation grills or flip panels.
- Speed gel tests (a.k.a Flinger tests) – these tests are pretty fun to build but can be broken if a speed gel surface can be used to jump to the exit or another test element. Again restrict portablable surfaces to a minimum.
[link]
*Tip: For these type of tests I heavily use deadly goo and grating/glass to restrict access to new areas. Also try to us emancipation grills to protect your exit or important test elements from easy access early on.
*Tip: For all test chambers the management of portalable surfaces is the most important thing so manage the testers access to important areas using: flip panels, emancipation grills, angled panels or glass.
- Lightbridge tests – usually these tests consist of a whole chamber full of deadly goo and the tester has to bridge across but beware of careless portalable surface placement because that can cause and unintended solution.
[link]
*Tip: In Lightbridge tests I use flip panels to restrict the testers options from the start, that can only be accessed later on.
- Tractor beam tests – for these tests try to avoid splashing walls with white or making your exit accessable via tractor beam. Use emancipation grills to avoid an unintended solution and also flip panels.
- Laser tests – these usually are used in conjuction with redirection cube but in BEEMOD it adds reflection gel. Again manage portalable surfaces.
- Cube ‘n’ button tests – I personally don’t really do cube ‘n’ button tests because they can be very easy but I use a drop to fling the tester across the test chamber. Restricting portalable surfaces using emacipation grills, glass, flip panels or angled panels is needed.
- Fizzler tests – these tests require the player to us the cube to travel through fizzlers to get to the exit portalable surfaces don’t need to be restricted.
[link]
Now you’re ready to start the building and testing phase.
Encyclopedia of Chamber Items
This is all I know about all of the standard testing elements:
Angled panels – these are commonly used for gel, goo and flinger puzzles but recently can be used in laser puzzles. It is not like the flip panel meaning it can either be portalable or non-portalable from the start. Needs to be connected to a button to work.
Button (pedastle) – this is the most basic and used element in any test chamber. It is used to activate an/many testing elements that can be put on timer or not.
Buttons – these come in many shapes including the: weighted button, cube button and the spherical button. All serve different purposes:
- Weighted button – this is used for player activation for example a fizzler but can be also activated by a cube or sphere. Not used for exit buttons.
- Cube button – not used all that much but is used to unlock some test element within a chamber usually mid-solution and requires a cube for activation. Commonly used for exit buttons.
- Spherical button – this is activated by a sphere and serves the same purpose as the cube button but not as commonly used in puzzles.
Cubes – these are either weighted, companion, franken, redirection or the edgeless safety cube (sphere) and are used for activation and all have different uses:
- Weighted cube – this is the standard in all cubes and only serves the purpose of activating buttons.
- Companion cube – this is the beloved cube of all of Portal 2 and should be used if you want the player to look after the cube all the way to the exit. There should be only one in any chamber otherwise it loses its power.
- Franken cube – this is a cube with a mind of its own and is used in laser field puzzles where the cube walks on the button or in goo levels where it can walk off the edge.
- Redirection cube – this is a cube that simply redirects laser/s which is really only used for laser puzzles nothing else.
- Edgeless safety cube (sphere) – this is the least used one of the five but is has its own challenges. It can really stand stil and can roll off good for goo puzzles and encourages the player to keep it on them the whole time otherwise it will roll away. Although it can be placed so it won’t go anywhere, it’s main purpose is for activation.
*Note: these come with droppers that will automatically drop a cube at the start but can be connected to a button so that it drops the cube when activated. You can also remove the dropper entirely meaning that it cannot respawn, annoying puzzles with fizzlers or goo.
Deadly goo – this is used in combination with any type of test and is a hazard, as in if you fall in you die and start over.
Faith plate – this launches the player or a cube at the point in which it is pointed using the target. Commonly used to get over goo pits or in flinger puzzle. Also note that if the traget is dragged on the faith plate the tragectory is straight up.
Fizzler – this would be one of the most annoying elements in the list as if passed through it can destroy cubes and removes portals when active. Try not to put it on a timer as this is extremelt annoying. Needs to be connected to a button to be turned off.
Flip panels – these are used to limit the players options of portalable surfaces and has to connected to a button to work.
Gels – these come in many types including:
- Propulsion gel – known as the speed gel this is used to accelerate the player using it’s slipperiness which is commonly used in flinger puzzles. Droppers can be connected to buttons or if dropper is deleted it splashes the surface with the gel icon on it with the required gel.
- Repulsion gel – known as bounce gel it’s used to bounce the player from place to place or can be used in flinger puzzles. Droppers can be connected to buttons or if dropper is deleted it splashes the surface with the gel icon on it with the required gel.
- Cleansing gel – this is clear and is used to clean off any gel off any surface including cubes. Droppers can be connected to buttons.
- Conversion gel – used to make non-portalable surfaces portalable, just be careful because this gel type is the most commonly abused, as in used to create unintended solutions. Droppers can be connected to buttons or if dropper is deleted it splashes the surface with the gel icon on it with the required gel.
Glass – an obstacle that cannot be portaled through but is transparent.
Glass angled panel – same as the angled panel but is semi trasparent an cannot be portaled through and are used as doors to the next test element.
Grating – an obstacle that can be portaled through but is hard to look through.
Laserfield – this is similar to the fizzler but this does destroy cubes it kills you instead meaning it is a extremely deadly hazard and needs to be connected to a button to be turned off.
Laser catcher – when a laser is foccused on it, it activates test elements like the exit door or another test element.
Laser emitter – fires a focussed laser in a straight line but can be redirected with a cube. It can kill like the laser if touched too long.
Laser relay – these are like laser catchers in that when a laser in focussed on it, it activates what ever is connected to it.
Light bridge – this is used for bridging across goo pits or hazards. It can be connected to a button for activation but if you want it activated from the start don’t connect it.
Light strip – this is used to light up a small area where the observation room cannot reach or would look silly. It is also a good aesthetic piece and is extremely important to make sure your chamber is well lit.
Observation room – this is compulsory to all your chambers and is the primary source of light. The best place to put it is where it can light up as much area as possible like on the main wall of your chamber. There are also small observation rooms but don’t over use them as the take up space behind.
Platforms – there are different types which can be either raised or side to side. These are used simply to carry the player from place to place or to the exit. The raised platform needs a button connection but the sided to side platform starts on anyway but can be toggled in its menu or connected to a button.
Stairs – used to climb one block high it takes up two blocks on the floor and can be connected to a button but it’s normal state is activated.
Tractor beam – this is used for traveling across the test chamber but if connected to a button can be reversed. It can either start activated (not connected) either pushing/pulling or off which needs a connection. Good for goo puzzles or gel puzzles but really can be used in any puzzle type.
Turret – everyones favourate pale spherical thing. This hazard simply just shoots you to death when in range. It can be blocked by cube, glass, lightbridge… and can be killed by knocking over, portaling underneath, laser, repulsion gel, fizzler, tractor beam, goo, faith plate or angled panels.
Building the Chamber
Alright you’re ready to start the building phase. This is the most important part because it’s all about trial and error. Try new things and most importantly you need to test them regulary so that it works and cannot be broken.
There’s an order that should be followed when constructing test chambers:
- Shape – building the rough shape of the test chamber including elements like: grating, glass, goo, emancipation grills. This is also where you plan where your entrance and exit will go.
*Tip don’t worry about the portalable surfaces but I always make the whole chamber non-portalable from the start so it’s easier later on when you start putting in test elements.
- Testing elements – now it’s time to place the test elements in their right places like: buttons, lightbridges, lights etc. Just note that this may change in according to a certain test element or the possibility of breaking the map. Now start to place the portalable surfaces and ensure the map works before proceeding to the next level.
- Increasing the difficulty – depending on your liking you’ll probably like to up the difficulty. This is done by using flip panels or angled panels to ensure that the test cannot be broken. Tweaking of the test chamber itself may be needed and make sure you’ve thorughly tested it.
Good maps I’ve seen have some steps like 1, 3, 5 clear but it’s the other steps that aren’t as clear and need to be worked out. This is what creates the real challenge in chamber but don’t make your solution to your chambers too obvious.
- Testing – it’s important that you test your tests yourself and go through all possibilities of breaking the map, some step is missing therefore cannot complete or you can become trapped. After this you should address whatever problem you come across through editting your map. For example you may want to remove a timer of a button that could make you trapped.
- Aesthetics – this is where you play around with your working map and I would say this is the fun part. You can achieving a pleasing feel through lighting, have a play around with your lighting. What I like to do is place decorative portalable surfaces like in the singleplayer campaign, just make sure they don’t present any unintended solutions. I find this brings another kind of difficulty to the chamber.
Publishing
This is pretty self explanitory just give it a name and a little description and publish it then your done. No, it’s not as simple as that. As my experience has told me the name is everything in the workshop. It’s the thing that shows off your chamber and it should be thought out and not regected.
If you’re new to building a test chamber I highly advise not naming your chamber “my first chamber” because the number of times that people do this is countless and I’ll tell you that your tests name should reflect on your test chamber, it needs to say something about your test chamber. For example a speed gel test could be called:
- Slip ‘n’ Slide
- Rush
- Cohesion
Now for the description, it needs to link to the name and the test chamber. For me just have a brief intro that says something about your chamber it doesn’t have to be long.
Modding – BEEmod & BEE2
If you want more stuff to play around with and incorporate it into your future chambers I really suggest getting BEEmod & BEE2. This mod adds more items and also gives you access to HMW’s PTI extension and Mark Kenner’s syle changer which makes you change the style of your map so it can be like the old aperture maps like this:
[link]
There are many items that this introduces but I’ll only go through some in detail:
- Mashy spike plates – if you’ve played the singleplayer you’ll know what these are. This is a type of hazard that is like a crusher. It takes up a 2×2 area and it comes out only 2 tiles and it’s really loud. I’ll suggest pairing these up with another one if placing it sideways but can be placed any where unless it has its 2×2 space needed.
- Pneumatic diversity vents – this mod includes the thing that Valve didn’t put in the final product these vents. These suck up any cube or turret in an approxiamate 3×3 area but has an annoying base.
- Triggers – these include triggers like: trigger once (to activate something when walked through), trigger multiple and trigger autosave (good for dangerous maps).
- Reflection gel – this is used to in conjuction with angled panels to reflect lasers. Note that this can at times look like conversion gel.
- Automatic portals – just like when you first start, these are now avaliable meaning that when activated it places a portal automatically.
- Drawbridge – this is like a angled panel but this can only be put at 90 degree angle when active and is 1.5 blocks long and can be activated by button.
Plus many more added in BEE2 and I mean a lot…
Modding – Hammer & PeTI Exporting
Hammer:
Now I’ve just told you the basics but if you are experienced with the tools and have already built lots of chambers and want to take this further, I suggest Hammer. Otherwise known as the, “Portal 2 Authoring Tools Beta,” Hammer is the program that Valve used to create all chambers seen in Portal 2. Although I can’t give you all the advice on how to get started TCJ has a whole series based on Hammer and PeTI Exporting.
Here’s TCJ’s guide to Hammer:
Here’s the series link if you want to watch more:
PeTI Exporting:
This is a tool that is good for people starting off in the Hammer editor and has helped me personally get started. It is used to exporting PeTI maps to Hammer by converting the file to a vmf. meaning that you can build a map in PeTI and export it to Hammer for tweaking, making your map better. Here’s a step by step guide to PeTI Export:
- Step 1: Check that you have enabled the “Developer Console” – this can be found by going into your “Options” and going to “Keyboard/Mouse” and down at the bottom it should say “enabled” but if not enable it.
- Step 2: Open it up by pressing the tilda key (~) on your keyboard – making sure that you are in the chamber editor in the map that you want to export to Hammer.
- Step 3: In the “Developer Console” type – “puzzlemaker_export (name_of_your_chamber)” – if the export was successful a group of messages should appear saying that it was.
- Step 4: Now go to Hammer and open up your test chamber under “File” and “Open”, it should be the same name you put in the “Developer Console.”
If you want to know more about PeTI Exporting check out TCJ’s guide here:
Modding – Installing the Mods
BEEmod – Install it here:
[link]
BEE2 – Install it here:
[link]
Note: BEE2 will be downloaded to this location: SteamSteamAppscommonPortal 2sdk_contentmapsinstancesBEE2
Hammer – Steps to install it:
- Highlight “LIBRARY” and a drop down menu will appear.
- Click on “TOOLS” (near the bottom) you should come to a list of tools.
- Scroll down and double click on “Portal 2 – Authoring Tools Beta” and it should begin the download.
Note: Hammer will be downloaded to this location: SteamSteamAppscommonPortal 2sdk_contentmaps