GAME
Portal
The cake is a lie
Valve · 2007-10-10 · ■■□□□ 2/5 · 9.5/10
Where are you with this game?
Press one and the game goes on your shelf. You can see it on your account page.
In three lines
Portal is a physics / pathfinding puzzle game released by Valve in 2007.
Puzzlebyrinth scores it 9.5/10, with a difficulty of 2/5. The cake is a lie
Its core mechanics are Portals / Physics Simulation.
Our Review
Rewriting space itself with a portal gun. The textbook for 3D puzzle design.
Mentions across our columns (33)
Design Roundup（6）
- 2026-07-30 · Tsumiki · 3 mentionsOne shared mechanic, two different games: Alan Hazelden reads Every Door a Portal against his own Fort Locks
- 2026-07-18 · Tsumiki · 3 mentionsTwo different games from the same prompt: Alan Hazelden on convergent ideas and divergent design
- 2026-07-16 · Tsumiki · 4 mentionsMaking "the spookiness of quantum mechanics" into a puzzle you can play without a PhD: the Schrödinger's Cat Burglar developer interview
- 2026-07-09 · TsumikiInvesting in “hard because you think”: what the 2026 Draknek New Voices grant's six games say about puzzle design
- 2026-06-27 · Tsumiki"We didn't want to make just another shooter": Capcom's Pragmata on the puzzle-shooter, and Draknek on what a puzzle game is
- 2026-06-03 · TsumikiTwo design decisions about not locking the player out — Pragmata running puzzles and shooting at once, and how to treat the player who can't solve it
Retro Revisited（5）
- 2026-09-07 · TokiLode Runner (1983) — The Allowance He Paid the Neighborhood Kids
- 2026-07-15 · TokiAuditorium (2008) — The Birth of a Puzzle That Paints With Sound, in a Browser
- 2026-07-09 · TokiMonument Valley (2014) — Walking Impossible Architecture in Mobile's Golden Hour
- 2026-06-28 · Tokiechochrome (2008) — A Puzzle Where Perspective Becomes the World's Physics
- 2026-06-24 · TokiSubmachine (2005) — A Door into the Subnet, and the Lineage of Flash Escape Puzzles
The Counter-Review（4）
- 2026-09-21 · MayoiCounterpoint on SUPERHOT — Reading Through the Negative Reviews
- 2026-07-13 · Mayoi · 4 mentionsCounterpoint on Superliminal — Reading Through the Negative Reviews
- 2026-07-06 · MayoiCounterpoint on Return of the Obra Dinn — Reading Through the Negative Reviews
- 2026-06-01 · MayoiCounterpoint on The Witness — Reading Through the Negative Reviews
The Designer's Philosophy（4）
- 2026-08-07 · Kizuki · 2 mentionsInside William Chyr's Philosophy — making infinity a place you don't get lost in
- 2026-07-12 · Kizuki · 16 mentionsInside Kim Swift's Philosophy — Manipulating the Player Into Feeling Clever
- 2026-07-05 · Kizuki · 3 mentionsInside Alexander Bruce's Philosophy — Doubt conventions down to their reasons
- 2026-07-03 · Kizuki · 3 mentionsInside Zach Barth's Philosophy — Leaving Behind Honest Problems, Not Answers
analog（3）
- 2026-09-26 · Sawari · 2 mentionsTabletop Simulator (2015) — They Ported the Table, Not the Games
- 2026-09-19 · SawariBaba Is You: The Board Game — In a Game Where Everything Is Rewritable, One Word Got Nailed Down
- 2026-09-12 · Sawari · 18 mentionsPortal, The Board Game (2015) — When a Portal Stopped Being a Hole and Became "Adjacent"
