This evening we got tipped off on a strange video that appeared on YouTube showing a test build of a pretty convincing basic clone of Portal built in Unity running on an iPhone 3G:
It’s unclear what the future of this project holds. Normally I would say producing something like this is the quickest way to get a cease and desist letter, but Valve has had rather unexpected reactions in the past to spin-off projects.
For instance, from the blog fan-made Portal prequel, Portal Prelude:
Yesterday, we got our first contact with the french community manager of Valve. Yes, Valve. The marvellous company that brought Portal and so much more to us for years. Don’t take me wrong, I’m not trying to seduce anyone, but believe me, it was huge. I was so happy and so scared at the same time. For your information, they don’t seem to bother about us doing a prequel for Portal. They’re even sending us their congratulations and they seem to enjoy what we’re doing.
Will this demonstration of a Portal-like game running on the iPhone receive the same blessing from Valve, or is the project legally doomed? We anxiously await Valve’s response.
