Narbacular Drop

Valve is a unique company. The only game they developed entirely on their own is Half-Life. That’s it. All other games – CS, Day of Defeat, TF2, Portal – are successful investments. This fact makes Valve unique – they recognize potential and realize it.

It’s hard to believe, but the concept of Portal appeared in 2005. Moreover, it was created by simple students as their thesis project. The project was called "Narbacular Drop".

History

Once upon a time, there was a tech institute called DigiPen. And there, a group of students proudly called themselves Nuclear Monkey Software. When they formed, they had 7 members and "one additional crazy person" (if I understood correctly, this is Eric Brown, whose exact role I’m not sure of, but he didn’t participate in the development). They remained with this composition, excluding the "crazy person".

During their student years, the team had a peculiar sense of humor

Jeep Barnett and Kim Swift. Can you find them in the picture above?

Who came up with the idea of portals is unknown to science. The team wanted to create a 3D game with an intuitive and original gameplay experience. With the use of portals. Thus, "Narbacular Drop" was born. What does this name mean? Nothing. "Drop" means "to fall", and the word "Narbacular" is entirely meaningless and was chosen so that... the game would be easier to find in search engines. However, after all these years, it's already difficult to find it. But some copies will remain for history =) And don’t forget about additional maps!

In the Game

The plot is simple and straightforward. There is a princess named "No-Knees". Her name is a joke by the developers, which can be translated as "without knees" – a hint at the heroine's inability to jump. There’s also an evil demon, one in total. A sentient castle named Wally (Уолли or Волли), also just one. On top of that, there’s Tortilla the turtle, who peacefully swims in the lava. Absurd, right? But these are just the characters. The plot is another matter – the demon kidnapped our princess, and the castle was so fed up with its owner that it decided to eliminate him. It offered the princess a deal – it will provide portal services, and she will eliminate the demon and then have the right to leave the castle.

And the gameplay? Well, imagine Portal. Remove the cameras, turrets, energy spheres, and GLaDOS. Instead of deadly water, imagine just lava. Increase its amount. Add a turtle swimming in the lava. Replace the white walls with dull brown brick blocks. Nail down the image. Got it? That’s it, Narbacular Drop turned out that way. Oh yes, just remember, the portals are still square, and you can’t move the cubes with your hands – only with portals. And don’t forget that there are only six levels, and the extras are definitely not as many as in Portal.

The Invincible Tortilla

A Stone

Hard to imagine? That happens. For such cases, I have a gameplay video with commentary. A walkthrough review, in simpler terms. Let’s take a look:

Are your inner Artemy Lebedevs crying bloody tears and banging their heads against the wall? That’s normal. You’re not the only one. And what, do you expect mind-blowing graphics from students? ^\_

Back to Reality

DigiPen, the institute where our heroes studied, holds an annual exhibit for graduates. "Narbacular Drop" was a thesis project and it also participated in this exhibition. DigiPen usually invites a lot of developers to the exhibit, and fortunately for all of us, a couple of people from Valve stumbled upon the stand of our students. They pointed out a bunch of mistakes. Later, the team leader mentioned that two main mistakes they made were related to game design. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Jeep Barnett:

In Narbacular Drop, there are many situations where you can get yourself stuck. You can drop your box into the lava, and you’ll have to restart the level. And this contradicts Valve’s design principles. You should not lead players into a dead end. And that was our biggest mistake. The artistic style – everything was too brown and muddy. And when people first see the game, they say [...] that it’s a first-person shooter. So, there were many things we did wrong in that direction. You couldn’t distinguish the ceiling from the floor, there was virtually no tutorial.

However, after mentioning all the mistakes made, the folks at Valve said "Actually, this is an interesting idea", left business cards with their phone numbers, and asked them to call. Our heroes called and were invited to the office for a presentation. They didn't manage to finish it – according to Doug Lombardi, Valve head Gabe Newell, not waiting for the end of the demonstration, jumped up from his chair, virtually embraced the students and declared they should immediately become part of Valve. The American dream in action – to get such a good job so easily without even showing a resume – and they all had, and quite a good one too. The guys could hardly process the shock from their good fortune, but a new chapter in their life had already begun. Meanwhile, somewhere in the gears of the Great Machine of the Fates of All Games, something clicked, and a whisper in the air sounded - "The Cake is a lie".

But that is an entirely different story...