Prerelease:Portal 2/Core hub

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

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article? Notes: There is more. Since much research happened, more content (also remnants) related to this stage has been found (although they aren't widely known yet). Also add sources on some things.

Starting in 2009, Valve moved away from F-Stop and began developing a true sequel to Portal. This iteration was focused on getting GLaDOS back online with various cores the player would find around the facility each time after solving test courses with the same puzzle elements from final game. They would then need to be returned to GLaDOS’s chamber, which acted as a hub area (hence the Core Hub nickname).

Test Elements

This section is a work in progress. ...Well, this section is here, in a way. But this one moreso, and this may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

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

Laser

Lasers during development originally reused the models of Energy pellet Launcher and Catchers as their launchers and catchers, but smaller. Also Reflection Cube was different, being a box with arrows aiming to the laser output in each sides, and the different output itself.

Catapult

Catapult is an self-explanatory test element, as it does appear in final game as the Aerial Faith Plate, although in this iteration it looked like a panel arm.

Self-Esteem Field

Self-Esteem Field (better and internally known as Slow Fields) was an element that would slow down the player. This test element would be scrapped after this iteration of game got scrapped.

Walls

Walls (internal name) is another self-explanatory test element that also appears in final game too as Hard Light Bridge.

Early Animations

Things seen in the Early Test Intro portion are:

• The intro was not made in the Source engine. It was made in Maya.
• The lighting was unfinished; It can be occasionally buggy.
• The laser emitter used a different model.
• An early version of the laser over goo was shown.
• A few lines from Portal were reused in the intro, including one not heard elsewhere in the game or its sequel. That line was: "You have been detained in the relaxation vault for..."

(Source: Lambda Core (Video))

Gallery

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

Prehub Test Chambers

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  Diorama

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  Ditto

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  Portal Gun Pickup

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  Test Chamber 03

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  Ditto

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  Test Chamber 07

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  Test Chamber 09

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  Test Chamber 10

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  Test Chamber 12

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  Ditto

Hub

GLaDOS Lair

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  Hallway

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  GLaDOS Room

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  Ditto

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  Ditto

Core Rooms

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  Morgan Freeman Core Room

Core Hub Room

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  Core hub room

Misc

MultiPlayer Futbol Test?

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Paint Test

In the summer of 2009, The developers of Tag: The Power of Paint were hired by Valve. During the early development of Gels (internally paint), game still used colors from their previous game and were developed as a separate project (game) from Portal 2. It wasn't part of the main campaign during that time.

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  Jump Paint (Repulsion Gel) test.

Characters

GLaDOS

From what was seen in test animations, GLaDOS would act much more erratic and unhinged. Her design also shows she would have been 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 courses.

Paranoid Sphere

This sphere would be in a 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 the game. The sphere would later appear as a cameo in Poker Night 2.

This core uses the curiosity core model from Portal as a placeholder.

In Poker Night 2, he speaks quickly and nervously while babbling about conspiracies. His appearance is identical to Wheatley's.

(Source: [1] Combine Overwiki)

Morgan Freeman Sphere

To do: Morgan Freeman was not wise about the room ingame as planned, and was the later version of Paranoid Core (reusing same voice lines) (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 detail. When the 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 the 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 primarily 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 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 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 being unable 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