Portal Developers React to Multiple Speedruns (Valve Software)

Portal was released 14 years ago, and to this day, speedrunners are still finding new ways to get through the game as fast as possible. Ride along with original members of the Portal development team from Valve Software as they watch their game get completely broken by speedrunner CantEven.
Presented by Metro. Rule your day with 5G.
Participating in the commentary from Valve are: Erik Wolpaw (writer), Jeep Barnett (programmer), and Garret Rickey (programmer).
Check out more from speedrunner CantEven here:
/ cantevenclick
/ canteven
/ @canteven
#IGN #Gaming

[@laroid1638]

writer: "he's skipping a lot of dialogue tho" to be fair, he's skipping a lot of programming too

[@anarchybreed]

dialogue, programming, level design, art... the only people who should take it personally are the testers :P

[@adventures_w_otto1370]

and if you truely loved dialogue they would of read under the heart rate it says ''world record is 8:56:29 by me''. psh amateurs

[@nionxtreme4113]

1K

[@matiasreyna8032]

​@@anarchybreednah we just try to mahe sure that the experience is great for the normal players

[@s.p..smdness8748]

Don't worry Eric, I'm sure he listened your beautiful dialogues a few dozen times before doing this speedrun.

[@midohatem57]

Nice moon knight pic

[@LeoStaley]

Really is fantastic writing too

[@8strate8]

Erik

[@HuffGLaDTem]

i’m pretty sure all of us in the speedrunning world have heard all the lines so many times that we can recite them by hesrt

[@yg12341234]

llk

[@harrifongostudios]

It’s hilarious having Eric act like a wounded puppy every time he skips the great dialogue. Hilarious.

[@CrissCrossCA]

true

[@felicitymunns7070]

EriK

[@DaEpikMan]

Eric is a puppy confirmed

[@WhoThisMonkey]

Erroricko-san

[@k3salieri]

Feel like they needed a speed runner or someone with them to explain what was going on.

[@mark_medina_ign4725]

Check back in tomorrow! They interview the speedrunner!

[@k3salieri]

@@mark_medina_ign4725 Oh awesome!

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

Like with the DoubleFine devs reaction to the Psychonauts speedrunner who did his run alongside them.

[@LyrelGaming]

Exactly lol

[@edisontrent618]

@@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive Yeah, basically an AGDQ with Devs, like the BattleBlock Theater 100% speedrun.

[@themcnaughty736]

When he save/loads, you'll notice he's always next to a portal. This is because the game gets confused thinking he's through the portal, whilst the camera stays in the same place, allowing them to clip through the walls. Basically, his body and camera are in two different places at the same time

[@camponotus219]

so your telling me he uses time manipulation to split his body and soul?

[@Pillar_of_Salt]

@@camponotus219 well when you put it that way

[@ItsJoKeZ]

OMNIPOTENT GLITCHING

[@Delta9Church]

Someone tell Cixin Liu, this sounds like a whole new hard scifi trilogy to me

[@LyrelGaming]

Was waiting for their Eureka moment when they would actually get the bug but none :C

[@EpicGamer94500]

It's 2021 and IGN is making portal content. What a time to be alive

[@gamekiller9053]

Yes

[@Adam_Wilde]

A truly great game 💯

[@FirestoneX]

Still alive. Still alive

[@Mediumpimpin69]

If only Valve would.

[@lumpy4278]

What a time to be still alive

[@annson24]

*Out of bounds starting in:* Me: Oh man, these devs are in for a ride.

[@MINECRAFTLOVER4000]

honestly wish they also showed them the tas and maybe the least portal tas runs because those are even cooler

[@solsystem1342]

@@MINECRAFTLOVER4000 minimum portals is 0 if you use airboats. Pretty sure that's not allowed in anything outside airboat% though

[@MINECRAFTLOVER4000]

@@solsystem1342 normally minimum is 15 sadly

[@solsystem1342]

@@MINECRAFTLOVER4000 ok, and if you aren't familiar with it /airboat was left in the game but doesn't require cheats to be turned on and it turns out you can actually beat the game without picking up the portal gun with enough airboats lol

[@gorgeousfreeman1576]

Eric trying to praise the dialog is just perfect

[@peterschultz573]

Deserved too, between those three gods representing Portal's devs, I'd say Eric is Zeus.

[@gorgeousfreeman1576]

@@peterschultz573 true

[@8strate8]

Erik

[@gorgeousfreeman1576]

@@8strate8 im sorry, the whole sentence is ruined now, im done

[@gorgeousfreeman1576]

@@purplebinocularsofficial im sorry, the whole sentence is ruined now, im done

[@figgusx2196]

Imagine finding out half of your game can be skipped because you defined what walls cant be portaled onto instead of what walls can

[@joelcomer]

More than half 😂

[@Viking2575]

These would be more gripping if they had a speed runner on commentary to answer questions about how things are done

[@jstewart_1]

Agreed.

[@paperwasp2378]

Yeah it was such a waste doing it this way. They have no idea what is happening and can’t appreciate the strategy or execution

[@11omit]

@@paperwasp2378 look up “Portal Speedrunner Explains to Valve How He Broke Their Game”- it’s a continuation of this video

[@fredrik7411]

dont agree

[@raze_]

@@paperwasp2378 naw its fun seeing them trying to guess whats happening.

[@infrabread]

"He looks pretty calm". Yeah, that's just how Red Man be.

[@quddussalam8593]

He is no stranger to wr pace, that's why

[@zentryii]

cnta ven

[@dylanflynn1895]

"Max" heart rate is 220 - age so 140 for him is high but not problematic

[@QuantumCatYT]

hey infrabread, fancy seeing you here

[@jadenpeterson2865]

It's crazy how they have no idea the portal gun and the camera can be separated. It's impossible to guess that's happening.

[@HandsomeLongshanks]

That explains a lot for both the speedrun and their confusion

[@rmeng3]

Every writer during the Speedruns: Look how they massacred my boy

[@Simp_Zone]

😂

[@meapyboy12345]

🤣😂yeah

[@BaldMancTwat]

To be fair, when you're in the elevator you can totally tell thats it's actually moving, so it's still a nice touch.

[@n646n]

It's extremely easy to fake that, and would've solved tons of bugs.

[@RexusprimeIX]

My favourite part was "Ah, so this is gonna be interesting, cus there are a lot of elevators that you just has to walk on, so to speed this up it's gonna be... oh, or you just skip the whole section that's fine too"

[@fuego09esmeralda]

9:15. x2...

[@magma5267]

we need a “Half-Life: Alyx Devs Reacting to VR Speedruns”

[@Komegatze]

same with portal 2 and l4d

[@FatCatCooper]

It would just be spinning through walls lol

[@magma5267]

@Z Z wdym

[@MrBruh281]

It would be really cool if we could see devs react to portal 3 speedruns

[@Karminnn]

Ilr

[@MrBruh281]

@@Karminnn what

[@joelcomer]

*game

[@camoningerland8212]

You not only get to see the game, but you also get to not see the game at 120mph.

[@Telruin]

Speedrunning. Playing the game for a long time, in order to be able to play it as little as possible.

[@joelcomer]

Weird right?

[@frankg7786]

Easy there Socrates

[@slowen4918]

Glados : *makes a serie of puzzles for testing* Chell : *zoomin in the walls*

[@rocketpunchgo1]

Dude completely dismantles their game and they are absolutely beffutled the entire time. Love it!

[@Stonnin]

That writer seems super proud of his work and he should be, inbetween levels are a joy thanks to him

[@gloveman0]

It's cool seeing Valve react to cool speedruns. Would love to see them react to Half-Life 21. Surprised they got Jeep after he left Valve.

[@MrMasterKeyboard]

Yeah, Valve please watch Half-Life done in 21!

[@ahorserunning]

they did a 'devs react to half life 2' speedrun video last year look it up!

[@uhrguhrguhrg]

@@ahorserunning half-life 21 is a segmented speedrun of the first half life in 21 minutes.

[@Bootleg_Jones]

I'd really like to see these guys react to the airboat% speedrun. I'm just really curious what they would have to say about spawning in an airboat not being locked behind sv_cheats.

[@SirHaxe]

100% Seems like a case of "wtf how could we forget it?"

[@justinisaac7570]

For anybody curious, the save loads are done to offset the camera from the players actual position, making what you see not actually Chell's POV. To save computational power, portals have weird physics around them, which often messes with collision. Runners use this to desync the camera from the player, allowing portals to be shot through walls.

[@AllDayBikes]

"is this the fastest or just a random speed run?" says world record right by the heart rate monitor they mentioned lol

[@clairevoyanceSLA]

the inbounds one is no longer wr (though it was at the time). the out of bounds one is the current world record.

[@AllDayBikes]

@@clairevoyanceSLA ah, my mistake

[@esquared722]

This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS

[@GanerRL]

it skipping over the companion cube credits portal fall kinda hurt ngl

[@ridwanquick]

Save-load tech to detach pov so you can shoot through walls, knowing when and/or where to aim during that time is a whole bunch of levels ahead. Simply amazing.

[@NithinJune]

this would be great if y'all had a Speedrunner on the call explaining and answering the Dev's questions

[@LC-hd5dc]

they did, next video

[@amyshaw893]

Im actually surprised that the devs didnt know what was happening with the SLA. saving and loading in certain situations near a portal kind of "disconnects" the camera from the player itself, so the portals are shot from the other portal, which allows them to be shot from out of bounds

[@silverhusky7993]

Hearing them find that out when talking to the speedrunner was fascinating

[@phillipbannister8068]

@silverhusky, was there an interview after this video? Do you remember where you found it?

[@LC-hd5dc]

@@silverhusky7993 it disconnects the portal gun from the player* (at least according to the wr holder)

[@HowieRaps]

The guy upset about dialogue skipping is about to implement unskippable dialogue in later games 😂

[@DeltaEntropy]

Created a monster

[@TheDudeSmashTrash]

they didn't even notice that the out-of-bounds guy just broke his previous WR lol

[@veralapsa]

On these Devs React videos you should also invite the speed runner you are showcasing, or at least a runner who is familiar with the current tech so it can be explained.

[@adamsheppard7959]

Glad they’re doing more of these

[@depressedpotato5361]

GLaD

[@mikejr7727]

Valve actually showed up for their community for this, I'm satisfied.

[@unr34L-]

I’m so glad IGN has a soft spot for Valve, so we get glorious content like this.

[@foureye7058]

"We fixed that later." Sorry to say, but there's definitely video of accb-hopping in the engine Alyx uses kicking around.

[@GrizonII]

I’m not sure what movement tech still works in Alyx’s engine or not, but ABH specifically doesn’t work in every version of the Source engine after Portal and HL2E2 as far as I’m aware. B-hopping works to varying degrees of success in later games but ABH doesn’t, which is what they were referring too.

[@rockomundo]

It's always so funny how fast developers and creators of a game forget everything about the game when shown how to destroy it in seconds lol

[@MrDrBass]

can we have this same team rewatch this but with a speedrunner explaining everything going on?

[@btarg1]

These guys need to watch the Msushi / Can't Even explanations on how these runs work, it would blow their minds.

[@GermaphobeMusic]

Erik learning about accelerated backhopping was hilarious

[@josepharte]

They sounded just a teeny little disappointed when he skipped incinerating the Companion Cube at 8:16 😂😂

[@lukemimnagh4185]

Note to self: don’t try to stop speed runners, they ALWAYS find a way

[@jappperon7012]

whenever a speed runner sees all green on his cuts the tension rises fast. most of the portal speedruns look the same up to getting the portal gun.

[@thelastmuchacho6524]

Shout out to the writer adding all he can to the video

[@Bladeballer57]

They literally do not know what to say 😂

[@lunaryyx]

LMAO YEAH

[@saser11]

16:50 "it sped things up.. which mattered in 2008" Oh my that made me feel old.. Portal is 13 years old now...

[@SweatiestDegree]

This show is one of the best things on YT

[@Leons-Online]

It brings a special joy to my heart every time one of these videos are made, but a little more of a special something when they involve Valve devs.

[@sadas3190]

"Now you're thinking with Port-" no no wait not like that stop please no

[@chickenbob562]

0:45 seconds in, and you know he is gonna be hurt the most from this speedrun

[@WhiteZelda]

Hope they do the glitched one too, the one thats like 5 or10 minutes, their minds gonna blow.

[@yeetyateyote5570]

Wait do you have a link?

[@forlackofawetterbird]

you mean a TAS?

[@willb5278]

On the heartrate thing. 140 is high for sitting still, but it's not super bad. That'd be mostly normal if he was excersizing. iirc its 180+ or 200+ when you worry about strokes/cardiac problems. Probably not healthy, but pretty reasonable.

[@dopero]

Those videos are always fun to watch, waiting for portal 2 now!

[@stephenwilds9328]

Its amazing how incomprehensible portal speedruns look

[@thealarm7057]

The Devs should watch the explanations of the tech used in these runs. I'd love to hear what they think of how people "broke" the game.

[@Kevin_Hewer]

Poor Erik. Hes just like us, clueles about everything

[@normalichu]

Oooooh, it could have be so funny to see them react to the airbot category xD. But very cool they saw those speedruns :D.

[@CloudyMason]

This was a triumph, I'm making a note here- huge success.

[@emilybirt4814]

Love that man said he hasn't found away of way off skipping the lifts yeah but he did skip all the stuff you spent your hard time on

[@mrmidnight32]

You’d swear these guys have never seen this game before the way their cometary went 😂

[@LucasCunhaRocha]

You guys need to also invite someone from the speedrun community to help explain some of those tricks because it's not that much fun when the devs get completely confused to what is going on the screen, like the save/load portal glitches they used on this run.

[@freezeYT-]

Can't believe they got in contact with these guys

[@lasvegasmiddlebetslots]

These are the best, great videos and content when the Developers watch Speedruns (ninja edit: also when gamers show their inputs, love that stuff)

[@dingojo]

Hahaha the script writer saying, well he's missing a lot of dialogue. Haha

[@spacer6494]

I’ve been waiting for this

[@m4rt_]

The stuff he did with the portals and the cake at the end of the Inbounds run was after the run had finished, so that out of bounds stuff is allowed, it's just something some speedrunners do for fun (and to flex their skills).

[@Kyle-fy1tb]

Cool, dev reactions to speedruns are fun to watch. I'm just as curious as them as to why save/load functionality on a keybind is making an absolute mockery of the collisions

[@chonkychookie6949]

This pretty much turned into elevator simulator with brief intermissions of frantic movement

[@joan_of_craft4690]

140 is perfectly survivable. Saying this as someone who has anxiety and regularly has heart rate over 100 because of it.

[@Sillimant_]

it's fine so long as it isn't for a prolonged period of time, and you're under 80

[@aether4156]

Dev's a lil message: an Accelerated Back Hop (short ABH) is a way to duplicate the velocity up to 3000. The save load is being used to clip (go through something). And to be more confused watch a TAS playing portal 1

[@SibrenFetter]

It's called devs react but they are too flabbergasted to react. Fully understandable

[@lastfaith7819]

wouldve loved if you guys showed them the airboat speedrun

[@jacobknowles5266]

hell yah ive been waiting on this one, if they watch tas itll be like 8 mins long

[@clairevoyanceSLA]

if they watch all fullgame tases so far it would be around a half hour

[@MasthaX]

The first move is iconic, it actually makes you move faster walking backwards in source engine.

[@ryanschindler923]

Haha, love how the guy throws out Earthworm Jim, old school represent!!

[@joelcomer]

Earthworm Jim was awesome

[@jarthvons2539]

They should also invite a speedrunner to these sessions to explain some tricks to them

[@_frixx_746]

Looking forward to this

[@sleepydragonzarinthal3533]

iirc, the no clip state gets corrected, but saving and loading can bypass the correcting, keeping you in a state where you can clip through walls

[@joshuafriedman2ndchannel979]

More of this please

[@bluegizmo1983]

I'm sure someone said it already but the crazy portal shooting just looks crazy because he uses a glitch to separate the camera and body of the player so he's actually shooting portals in other places of the map that he can't even see, just out of memory.

[@PancakeHunter29]

Been so much fun watching canteven beat himself again and again

[@PancakeHunter29]

they missed him with his companion cube easter egg with the end clip :(

[@cofiddle]

YES I've been wanting this for so long. This run has come a VERY long way. Some of the tech in this is just absurd

[@hoschi367]

there were a lot of "what?" and "wait" lol

[@1leggeddog]

A lot of these skips are by shooting portals through the level and save/loading quickly to prevent them from disappearing due to the fields

[@dmtdeadman]

Please ign can somehow get these guys to talk, please try to get them to do some kind of interview or something similar because we all love hearing the developers and previous developers of Valve talking about their games

[@HECKproductions]

actual devs not knowing that the backwards jumping thing exists in source after more than a decade is strange

[@PhreakinJ0nny]

Man's name is Jeep

[@ilyshelly]

es ist so schön zu sehen wie die gehirne hinter portal auf sowas reagieren... alle valve developer sind so sympathisch und lustig drauf. wirklich klasse

[@weirdkd54]

One of my favorite series

[@throwaway569]

Cool! After this, next on the list would be Devs react to Portal 3 Speedrun right?

[@TheWunderWaffelShow]

The way they thought the runner was bored in the elevator even though his heart rate spiked. Truly can’t comprehend what a speed runner is thinking lmao

[@Mentohs]

Makes me appreciate the elevators a little but more, especially knowing they were notorious for the devs haha

[@PresidentKony]

the time it took for Eric to write a page or someone at Valve to make a one new texture and someone already completed you're entire game

[@hunternorris9548]

They def should have had a speedrunner on to explain what's happening

[@YourSeriousDev]

the save load ting when combined with portals allows you to shoot portals through walls

[@yeetyateyote5570]

Where’s the reaction to airboat% speed runs reacts?

[@artisiole]

they better react to most meme categories wr

[@clairevoyanceSLA]

@@artisiole get sub 6 mmc nerd

[@Alex-zi1nb]

devs reacting is the best thing to happen since covid

[@Paguo]

Imagine watching someone completely demolishing your child. Bro this is brutal

[@kenneth.topp.]

This sounds like the navy pilots discussing UFO they see on radar.