Portal 2's Wolpaw: 'I Do Not Want To Resurrect A Three-Year-Old Meme'

Any game developer would feel privileged to have released a game that generated as many oft-quoted lines of dialogue as Valve's 2007 action puzzler Portal. But Valve writer Erik Wolpaw tells Gamasutra that, with Portal 2, he has no interest in fueling the internet fires that years later still burn with references to cake and companion cubes. "If you thought you were sick of the memes, I was sick of it way ahead of you," said Wolpaw, who was the primary writer on Portal and one of two writing leads on its upcoming sequel, which was demonstrated this week at the E3 Expo. "For instance, cake," he added. "I've had enough cake jokes." Wolpaw said that, as a direct sequel, Portal 2 would revisit many elements of the original Portal, including its memorable antagonist GLaDOS, but that the team has been careful not to retread too much of the same ground. After all, the original Portal was received so well in part because it was such a surprise. "The cubes are in there because they're a gameplay element, and obviously, GLaDOS is back, but there's a bunch of new gameplay and we want to tell an interesting new story," he said. "We didn't jettison everything, but I absolutely do not want to try and resurrect a three-year-old meme. That seems like it would be kind of sad. It's not a good idea."