A fan-made remake of Portal, titled Alive & Kicking, has been in development since 2011 from developers Rhubarb & Rhubarb. Retrofitting the original classic with the engine of its sequel, fans began worrying that the game was being abandoned after such a long gestation in the lab. Responding to posts on the Steam page, the developers confirmed the game is not only alive, but completed and ready to launch. The only reason it isn’t kicking as well is due to Valve, who have reportedly stopped responding to their messages.
“The game is done, but we do not have the ability to release it on Steam right now,” one of the devs, Dot Operator, responded on the Steam discussions page. “I have not had any updates from Valve since filling out a non-commercial license template a few months ago. I am grateful they initially gave us that option, but now we aren’t hearing anything.”
Valve has never been shy around fan-made projects using their properties, assets or code. Multiple Half-Life fan games exist on the Steam platform, such as Black Mesa and Hunt Down The Freeman, on top of Valve outright publishing Garry’s Mod. Portal itself originated outside of Valve as a student project from Kim Swift, given resources to become the dark horse hit of the already competitive Orange Box in 2007.
Surreal to think now, but there was a brief moment in time where Portal was Valve’s most renowned game, warranting a full, blockbuster sequel in 2011. Alive & Kicking remakes the classic with Portal 2‘s source code. Visual refurbishments and all. The page says on top of the original puzzles, they may introduce their own, new chambers to experiment in.
Operator said that initially, Valve was supportive of Alive & Kicking, giving them access to Portal 2’s source code, though required to sign an NDA for the opportunity. What wasn’t signed at the jump was a non-commercial release form, which Operator said was filed more recently. Since doing so, Valve has reportedly been non-responsive, putting the now-completed game in limbo for months.
The access that made the fan-game possible is now the same thing holding it back from release. With official channels unresponsive, fans are hoping that by raising enough noise will prompt the sought rubber stamp from Valve.