What remains of canned Portal prequel white whale F-Stop is now fully playable thanks to modders and some big leaks
If you're something of a Portal or Half-Life head, you'll probably already be familiar with F-Stop, an unreleased Portal prequel that remained quite mysterious for many years. Back in 2020 , a much deeper look was revealed in a semi-official capacity, revealing a pretty neat concept (that isn't so dissimilar to that of Superliminal). Now, all these years later, assets and source code for the game…
F-Stop, an unreleased Portal prequel, has finally become fully playable due to modders and some significant leaks. This mysterious concept, similar to Superliminal, remained hidden for many years. Recently, assets and source code for the game have been leaked, allowing players to experience it firsthand. The game mechanics involve taking a picture of an object, which disappears and turns into a photo.
This photo can then be used to rematerialize the object, sometimes altering its scale to help navigate puzzles. Although Valve overlord Gabe Newell initially liked the early version of F-Stop, it didn't perform well in testing. Interestingly, bits of F-Stop were incorporated into Portal 2, so players still benefited from its existence.
The delay in playing F-Stop unofficially was due to crucial source code and map data, which were leaked in August through a 12TB Steam data leak. A modder in the Valve Cut Content Discord server managed to obtain the data for a fee, and thankfully, they shared it. This story highlights the potential missed opportunity, as Superliminal shares similarities with F-Stop and received positive reception.
Written by urgent.news from Rock Paper Shotgun's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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