Now before mappers go raging on me, stay calm-I know the ways of Hammer editor, I have used it in the past and still use it to this day. Even though the Hammer editor is not difficult to learn, it is a time consuming process that spans across several weeks or months. If one wants to create a map on the spot, well you can’t really… you have to learn mapping techniques, you have to learn the I/O system, you have to learn how to optimize the map so that VIS or RAD doesn’t compile forever or have low fps in-game… for an enthusiast this is surely not an obstacle, learning is fun. But for somebody that is just a Portal 2 fan and would really like to experiment with creating a puzzle and nothing else, this is tedious.

Valve announced a free Portal 2 DLC that will be available for download on 8th May.

Details were posted next day on the Portal 2 blog. It seems that the puzzle maker, as they call it, will actually be implemented in the Steam Workshop system. This means that it will be easier than ever to try a custom map made by somebody else. This reminds me of the Gmod ToyBox, a feature that greatly simplified the way a user can download custom content, without the hassle of downloading and manually copying the files.

And about the puzzle maker… well, I think the puzzle maker itself inspires creativity. It just looks gorgeous, simple, modern, functional. Here’s the official video with it:

And here’s somebody playing with it:

Frankly, I can’t wait to try it.