Portal co-writer Erik Wolpaw: “We’ve gotta start Portal 3”
“We’ve gotta start Portal 3. That’s my message to… whoever.” Those words from Erik Wolpaw, who co-wrote both Portal and Portal 2 along with such titles as Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Half-Life: Alyx, and Left 4 Dead, will no doubt whip fans up into a frenzy. However, Wolpaw is quick to constrain expectations. “I can’t do it by myself,” he says to Kiwi Talkz host Reece Reilly.
“I could advocate for it,” says Wolpaw, “It might help a little bit, but the problem is with 300 employees there’s a lot of opportunity cost to taking 75 people and getting a game made.” He goes on to speak about the workplace at Valve and explains that getting a new project spun up isn’t easy. “As much as it seems like Valve often is just a bunch of people sitting around sipping gin and tonics by a pool, everybody’s working.”
Wolpaw says that while Valve’s employees are constantly working on a variety of projects, people don’t always see the results – either because they end up not coming out, arriving years down the line, or are turned into something else entirely. He says that “everybody is accounted for… you’d have to stir up a bunch of people to leave what they’re currently working on and come work on something else. In this case it’d be Portal 3.”
Responding to Reilly’s remark that Portal 3 would be a money-maker with a wry smile, Wolpaw says, “You’re preaching to the choir here. The problem is, you would make money, but… are you going to make Counter-Strike: GO money? Probably not.” After pondering briefly, he continues: “Maybe every game doesn’t need to make Counter-Strike: GO money… Gabe, if you’re listening,” he chuckles, referring to Valve president Gabe Newell.
Wolpaw speaks in the interview about the process at Valve and several
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