Welcome to the first episode of a series dedicated to helping you create brilliant and rewarding test chambers in Portal 2. I’m Demon Arisen, and over time I’ve received countless comments from fellow players asking how I design puzzles that feel polished, clever, and satisfying to solve. So, it felt like the right moment to give back to the community with a proper breakdown of how I approach chamber creation—from concept to complexity. Let’s dive in.

Major vs. Minor Test Elements: A Crucial Distinction

Before we get into design strategies, we need to define two key categories of mechanics in Portal 2: major and minor test elements. This distinction is fundamental and will be referenced throughout this series.

Major test elements are the core gameplay mechanics you build puzzles around:

• Excursion funnels
• Hard light bridges
• Aerial faith plates
• Lasers (including laser cubes, relays, and receivers)
• Gels (repulsion, propulsion, and conversion)

These elements form the heart of most compelling puzzles because they have wide-ranging utility and can be creatively combined to produce dynamic and layered gameplay.

Minor test elements, on the other hand, are crucial for structure and support but aren’t meant to be the stars:

• Weighted cubes
• Buttons
• Goo (as an obstacle)
• Glass/grating
• Panels
• Fizzlers

Think of these minor elements as seasoning: they shape how the player engages with the major mechanics but shouldn’t be the central focus. Good puzzles typically revolve around a few major elements with minor elements used to support or constrain them in interesting ways.

Starting with the Hardest Part: The Central Concept

Contrary to expectations, we’re not beginning with simple setups. No hand-holding here—because the hardest and most important step in designing a test chamber is figuring out how to start. Specifically, this means creating a central conceptaround which the entire chamber will be built.

A central concept is the unique interaction or mechanic that defines your puzzle. For example:

• Using a light bridge to suspend a cube over a laser, then dropping it to trigger a button.
• Employing a laser to systematically destroy turrets before proceeding.
• Launching yourself via propulsion gel into an aerial funnel to cross deadly goo.

This concept will act as the anchor of your puzzle. It’s the move that makes your test feel distinct and clever. But how do you come up with one?

Start by selecting a few major elements—just two or three. Don’t overwhelm your design early on. Then, think about how these mechanics interact. For example, if you pick bouncy gel and a funnel, that’s already ripe for interaction. Funnels can carry gel, which introduces mobility and placement puzzles.

Expanding Complexity From a Simple Idea

Let’s say your central idea is transporting bouncy gel using a funnel. That’s a solid foundation. Now you can layer complexity:

1. Reverse the funnel to collect the gel.
2. Move the funnel to another location.
3. Reverse it again to drop gel on two surfaces.
4. Use the gel to bounce across a pit.
5. Land in the funnel to reach a raised exit.

This chain of events still rests on your original concept—but now the player has to engage with it multiple times, in different ways. That’s how you evolve a simple trick into a meaningful experience.

Working Backwards: Designing from the End

One powerful technique is to start with the final move of the chamber and work backward. This helps you build logical steps that naturally lead to that finale. For instance:

• Final move: aim a laser into a receiver to open a door.
• Now, raise the exit platform.
• Add stairs that must be activated by another laser receiver.
• The player now has to open the exit while in the raised section.

That one small change—elevating the exit—turns a basic setup into a multi-layered challenge. Designing backwards gives you a structure to build around, ensuring every step feels deliberate.

A Practical Summary of How to Start

To wrap things up, here’s a step-by-step approach to get you started:

1. Study the mechanics. Understand how each test element behaves and how it interacts with others. Think about their uses both in isolation and in combination.
2. Pick a small set of major elements. Limit yourself to no more than four. This keeps your design focused and manageable. The goal is meaningful interaction, not chaotic variety.
3. Craft a central concept. This is the core trick or mechanic that defines your puzzle. Ask yourself: what’s the clever moment you want your players to experience?
4. Layer on complexity. Break the solution into smaller tasks. Make the player revisit the central concept in different ways to reinforce it and deepen the challenge.
5. Consider designing backward. Start with the final objective and reverse-engineer the obstacles that lead to it.

Inspiration to Get You Started

To help spark your creativity, here are a few sample concepts you might explore:

• A test where the player must bounce gel into a funnel, then ride that funnel across several broken platforms.
• A setup where a laser must travel through multiple portals, reflectors, and a moving platform to hit its target.
• A challenge where two buttons must be activated simultaneously using clever cube placement and a timed gel bounce.

This first episode has only scratched the surface, but it’s a foundation. If you take away one thing, let it be this: great puzzles don’t just happen. They’re engineered from thoughtful interaction between elements, anchored by a central idea, and refined through creative iteration.

If you’ve got questions, ideas, or just want to insult me creatively, drop them in the comments. You can also check out my Portal 2 Workshop in the description if you’re in the mood to have fun and feel clever.

Until next time—keep designing and keep thinking. Goodbye for now.