Fans of the Portal series may be familiar with the name F-Stop. On one hand, it’s the number denoting the size of the aperture opening in photography. But on the other, it’s also the title of a cancelled Portal prequel. While the game was conceived – and cancelled – all the way back in 2007, recent leaks have allowed those with pieces of the game to assemble it in a mostly playable fashion.
F-Stop was one of five games designed during a three-month video game jam at Valve that Gabe Newell dubbed the Directed Design Experiments. As the name suggests, puzzles are solved using a camera to play with perspectives. While it was well received internally, the same can’t be said for playtesters, who asked things like why a Portal game does not have the portal gun or GLaDOS. The game was shelved as a result, with some elements being reused in the sequel, Portal 2, instead.
