Gamernode: Features - Halortal: When Portal and Halo collide

Halortal: When Portal and Halo collide

(tl;dr? All of the puzzle download links are on the last page for you!)

At this point, I'm sure you've played Halo 3, and I'd sure hope you've played and beaten Portal already. (It's only, like, 3 hours long. Go get that cake!) But what if you could take the shooter aspects of Halo and combine them with the puzzle-solving of Portal? Thanks to Halo's Forge feature, anything is possible, and one particular gamer has decided it's time to combine these two first-person experiences. KAEBERS, the inventor of Puzzle Play, is responsible for spilling the mind-boggling aspects of Portal into the action-packed FPS world of Halo, and the result is just phenomenal.

The primary goal in Puzzle Play is to escape, very similar to Portal. Using a combination of barriers, crates, weapons, and preset teleports, you're instructed to plow through each level in a strategic and thought-out manner. Your character starts out with only the sword as a weapon, but eventually encounters new artillery to use throughout the map. While the maps are often linear, they're extremely mind-boggling and, at the end, very rewarding. Now, the actual game-type is Oddball, and finding the skull means the completion of the puzzle, but once you exit the puzzle and find the skull, KAEBERS will throw in a little extra satisfaction for a job well done. Each puzzle takes anywhere from one to three hours to complete, even for a Halo enthusiast, and manipulates the stages in ways thought impossible.

I recently got the chance to sit down with KAEBERS and discuss the intuitive puzzles he created.

Dac: KAEBERS, first I'd just like to say that the four Puzzle Play maps you've created are just inspiring. It's great to see an average gamer really shifting the way the Forge feature was meant to be used into something so innovative.

KAEBERS: Thank you! I'm just happy people are having fun with the things I've created, and that it's inspiring people to take the idea and make things of their own with it.

Dac: I caught a few Portal references, like the radio, in your puzzles. Now, besides Portal, what was your primary inspiration?

KAEBERS: Well, Portal wasn't really my inspiration. I actually didn't even get around to playing Portal until the first map was completed and released. But I guess it's just that puzzles are one of my favorite ways to pass time. The creation of a puzzle map was actually thought up by accident, kind of. When I helped people Forge maps, all that I would end up doing to their map is add traps. So, I just decided to make a full map completely dedicated to traps, and I guess the creation of a Puzzle map was just waiting to happen with me, it just needed the time to be thought out.

Dac: Your puzzle names all include "K&B" in the title. Can you tell us what that stands for?

KAEBERS: K&B stands for KAEBERS, myself, and Bob. He's my best friend in real life, grew up together since 1st grade. The puzzle maps are created by the both of us. Most of the time it's me creating the ideas for the puzzles, and he helps me bring them to actuality and build them. Though, he does come up with some puzzles of his own. Forging with two people is a lot easier than forging with one, the way Bungie set it up. To put things in a fixed area, you practically need two people. It saves a lot of time.

Dac: So, your maps have reached extremely impressive download numbers so far, and it seems like your only advertising has been on Bungie's forum and through word of mouth. Did you expect your maps to be so well received?

KAEBERS: *Laughs* Well, yes and no. It was something new to Halo 3, and it hasn't been seen before. It was a puzzle, on Halo. That's new to people, and I thought people would have a lot of fun with it. People like new things. However, I did not know how will it would be taken in by people. I didn't know if the puzzles were too easy. Since I created it, I was never able to play them with the ignorance other people have when they do. I kind of knew that the idea would be a big hit, which is why I was so anxious to release it.

Although, we needed rapid testing phases, going through the puzzle over and over again, trying every possible thing people might try to see if it works right. Then we had some people come to my home and play through them with me watching. This allowed me to see their reactions to what is there, and see what the common action is to try and solve each puzzle. I can change things afterward to alter the difficulty of the puzzle. And, you know, just to keep them fun.

Dac: I know I certainly have fun with them. Not that Halo 3 has been getting stale, but puzzles certainly keep the game fresh. Now, speaking of keeping Halo fresh, Bungie just recently added three more maps available through Xbox Live's down loadable content. Do you have any plans to create puzzles using those?

KAEBERS: Yes, I sure do. There are a few reasons why. First, Foundry is a blessing to me. There are basically endless possibilities, I basically can create the level. Second, Walls! Oh my gosh. Walls. No more Barriers, Crates, or Teleports! Third, they're new canvases. And there are things that can be done with them, which is more than I can say about some other levels. Like Narrows. *Laughs*

Dac: So is it safe to say that Foundry is really the ideal situation for creating puzzles?

KAEBERS: Well, not super ideal, but it's pretty close. It doesn't offer you much of a uniqueness of it's own, you create what you want to. It's basically a blank canvas. There are no little areas unique for that level, or little buttons to activate the openings of anything, such as the door on High Ground, or on Last Resort. I like people to play through the maps I've made my Puzzles on (after they've played) and think of this and that area as you know. "The Ghost Room." or "The Rocket part."

Dac: I guess all we need now is a Halo 3 companion cube!

KAEBERS: *Laughs* And a really really good ending song. And some cake.

Dac: *Laughs* Now, Halo 3 obviously wasn't meant to be a puzzle game, so you really had to twist the Forge tool to make it work. What was your biggest challenge?

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