Shortly afterwards, we were invited to dinner with the developers. This was a nice place where the appetizers aren't fried mozzarella sticks and more like aged cheddar on table water crackers. It was a really nice place and I got to sit with people from Tripwire Interactive, Two Tribes, and Hidden Path Entertainment.

I got to talk to Michael "Echo" Austin from Hidden Path Entertainment, the people that make the rather good game Defense Grid. I had got to say hello to Jeff Pobst earlier, but I didn't get to really talk to any of the developers in detail about anything. Michael said that he's actually been to Texas and --true to his last name-- he likes the Austin metro area and he was one of the few people that knows about my silly hometown of Pflugerville. He said that nobody really calls him Echo, but that's his user name on the forums and so people outside the company identify him with it.

In the game Defense Grid, the only character in the game is the A.I. computer. If you beat the C.H.A.S. level, the last part of the ARG, then GLaDOS apparently takes over and powers him off. I thought that this was shocking personally. I asked Michael if that was the last thing that they planned to put into the game. He laughed and said that it certainly would make for a depressing game if the game ended on that note. He said more things were coming for Defense Grid. I didn't ask if this meant more expansions or a full sequel was coming.

I also got to sit with John Gibson, one of the co-founders of Tripwire Interactive. He talked about gaming in general. I said that I didn't think that I was smart enough to do what they did. He responded that it didn't require intelligence, but the job required a lot of work and passion. The others seemed to agree. I still think that there's more to it.

John said that he was the fourth game on Steam (Red Orchestra) that wasn't a Valve title. He said that the first game was actually Rag Doll Kung-Fu. I remember that game, and it was pretty mediocre to be honest. However, the developer that made this game later got paid one million dollars by Sony to develop a custom game for them: Little Big Planet. I didn't know this, and I got the impression that the others at my table were a little sore over this fact.

Listening to the stories, I inferred that independent game companies chase after their dreams and put everything on the line. Most people in this world seek to get a relatively stable job, clock in hours along with colleagues, and then you collect your paycheck every one or two weeks. When you're an indie developer, you don't know what will come. John mentioned that there were many times that the company was "down to the Tripwire", as he liked to call it. It meant that sometimes they had to work without any income, developing the game to a critical deadline --the point when the company would be bankrupt. Once a game shipped, he had to rely on hope that the game would sell or the company would have to close. Sometimes people would mortgage their homes just to raise capital to pay for staff members. This is how serious some were about doing what they do. The rewards can be extreme, but only for those that dare to risk everything.

I also got the impression that most independent game developers really hated consoles. One of the problems is that all console games require certification from rating review boards. Believe it or not, digitally distributed PC games don't require a rating review, but they voluntarily get them in certain cases to avoid complaints. Each attempt to review a game requires a lengthy audit that costs literally thousands of dollars per submission, and you have to get certified by four different organizations if you want to sell across the world. Major publishers like Activision and EA can simply throw the money like it was loose change, but the fees are brutal for a small company that's already strapped for cash. The process is very grueling and often the review boards will make demands to change content. For example, Australia's review board can deny a rating for a game if a title is too graphic. This is a serious issue because it means that that game can't be sold anywhere within that continent, and that only punishes a small developer. From what I can tell, indie game developers wouldn't go through the hassle at all except that consoles have such a big audience and the lucky can make a lot of money.

Finally, there's been talk about how Valve doesn't treat developers well, especially with some of the negative statements said by some sources at Gearbox Software and the like. Nobody at the table would agree to these things, and many said that Valve essentially saved their companies. I think this shows that any issue has its share of supporters and opponents.

While I was there, John Gibson was asking the folks at Two Tribes what were they planning to do next. He got so carried away with the discussion that he slipped what he was doing for his next game, and I was very surprised.

"You're doing that game for real?" I said. John suddenly became aware that I was sitting right next to him.

"Did I say that? Ummm... Wait, I was talking about something else," he said, shifting his eyes conspiratorially.

"I won't tell anybody," I said. I will say that I was really glad to hear that they were making the game.

That evening, they had a party downstairs. While Valve has been trying very hard to avoid mentioning any cliches of the first game, the folks that run the largest Valve game wiki sites made a giant chocolate cake that resembled the cake from the first Portal game. Because the cake was so large, to keep the visual appearance the same, the cake decorator replaced the cherries with cherry tomatoes.

As an aside, the cake seen in the first game was actually black forest, but this tasted like a standard chocolate cake. The cake was delicious and moist, however.

One interesting note was that the plastic utensils by the cake were made by a company called --and I swear that I'm not making this up-- PotatoWare. It's biodegradable plastic made from 80% potato starch and it's eco-friendly. Even now, I can't tell if this was the final punchline in the "Portal 2 Potatoes" meme or this was just hilarious coincidence.

A large computer monitor was setup and people could watch the live updates of the GLaDOS@Home page, as it counted down the potatoes and people continually tried to idle or use any other tactic to max out the power meters in the game.

As an aside, some people speculated that people didn't really need to play the games and it was just a cheap ploy to get people to buy games. I asked this to Jeep directly and he said that the "power up" sequence was indeed tied into player activity and the potatoes and game time mattered. Over the course of the ARG, Valve did have to change the algorithm roughly four times, but each time it was to accelerate the countdown sequence to an earlier start time.

Leveraged and several others hijacked the computer to bring up the Portal 2 ARG IRC chat and they began spamming messages to fans. Several people didn't believe him and figured that he was just a troll, but I guess that's to be expected.

Next to the computer screen was the official Valve Launch Center. This is a rather unusually large box with three old school throw switches and a huge red button marked "Launch!". According to Valve, the term they use is "push the red button" for any new product launch, but for a long time it was just a figurative phrase. Eventually one of the engineers built an actual box so games would go live with an actual button push.

There's a USB cable running out the back of the box so when the button is pressed, then it sends a signal to the main Valve servers to allow a game to be streamed and gamers can download and play the game.

I'll make a confession here: I don't like parties and crowds usually as I'm not a charisma magnet. I had to go back upstairs to get batteries for my camera, however, and I saw that two people were still in the room. Technically this means that I got to see the first two people that ever played the Cooperative Testing Initiative on the non-beta servers.

They were playing the co-op mode rather furiously in the quiet and dimly-lit room, and it looked like a lot of fun. I debated about just opening up my Steam client again and playing the game also, but I decided against it.

I walked back downstairs and saw that most of the ARG members were still furiously typing on the IRC chat. I wandered aimlessly in the crowd, and eventually things got a little dull as I'm not talented at the mingling thing. I decided that I was going to go full lame mode and quietly sneak away upstairs to go play the game for a bit.

I had been entering and leaving the party now several times, and the only path that I knew to get upstairs was the center staircase which actually was taped off with caution tape. They had turned off the main lights as it was a dance hall atmosphere with disco balls and colored lights, and so they didn't want people like me constantly using dark stairs.

I decided that there had to be other stairwells that I could use so I could slink away quietly. However, as I was wandering around on the fourth floor, I couldn't find any stairs anywhere. (They are all behind magnetically-keyed doors and aren't visible by wandering the halls).

I must have been meandering for some time because I heard a voice.

"You must have found something really amazing because you've been wandering back here for some time."

I turned around and saw that it was Ichiro Lambe, the creator of Dejobaan Games. I was very shocked.

"I'm Ichiro," he said, and held out his hand.

I shook it and said, "I'm Kevin", forgetting that I was wearing a giant name tag. "I know who you are. You're the face of Dejobaan Games."

"Unfortunately," he said. He said it so plainly that I couldn't tell if he was sarcastic.

"But.. Aren't you the owner of the company?"

"Well... I guess." He said it with sheer indifference, as if being the owner of a game studio was not exactly a big deal.

He asked me how I got here, and I told him my "origin story" about Defense Grid and all. I said that I was a little embarrassed because I got an awesome trip and got to meet cool people and see so many amazing things, but all I did was just play video games.

"Don't say that," he said reassuringly. "You're one of the first people to figure out the ARG and get the ball rolling. I think that you deserve it."

I said that I was an older gamer and there is a bit of stigma based on older people playing games. He seemed surprised when I told him that I was 40.

"I bet that it's the Asian genes," he said. "I look pretty young too," he replied. I couldn't believe his real age when he told me. I'll just say that he's younger than I am.

Then he commented on the idea that older gamers shouldn't be playing video games: "That's just bullcrap," he said, using somewhat harsher language than what I wrote. "Do you know what the fastest rising video game player base is? It's actually women the age of 30 and older. The rise of casual gaming has made it more acceptable for everybody to be playing and it's no longer the realm of teenage boys."

I paused and said, "You know, I'm really terrible at your company's video games."

"I am too," Ichiro said. In retrospect, I think that he was exaggerating, but he said it immediately with a straight face.

We were standing by a wall of artwork. This is the artwork that had a science-fiction theme and it has been photographed as a "scoop" in a German gaming magazine and other people that came to Valve earlier. Somebody had put a sticky note by one of the pictures that said, "Please remove ASAP! Super secret project!"

"Do you think that I can photograph it?" I asked Ichiro. I remember that Valve didn't want me photographing any of the artwork for Dota 2. And I have to emphasize this: There's a LOT of artwork that they made for Dota 2, and it was a shame because it would have been nice to look at the artwork again.

Ichiro saw the sticky note and said, "When somebody puts a message like that, then I think that people want you to look at it."

But I decided to ask Jeep or another staff member that I knew later.

"Where were you going anyway?" Ichiro asked.

I said that I was going to go upstairs and maybe play Portal 2 again. I really like the game.

"But don't you want to be down here? You don't want to push the launch button?"

"They... they are going to let me push the red button? The one that activates the Steam servers?"

"They didn't tell you? We had a meeting yesterday..." He saw the expression on my face. "Ummm... You didn't hear it from me." Then Ichiro's eyes shifted rapidly, just like John Gibson did when he accidentally said his classified game project.

"I won't tell anybody," I said. And I didn't tell anybody until just now.

I went back into the crowd and I heard two Valve employees asking me if I was having a good time. I turned around and they saw that I was wearing a name badge.

"Oh wow, you're one of the champions!" they said. They said it as if they had accidentally run into a Hollywood celebrity.

I repeated what I've said since the morning--that I just played games and I didn't really do anything special. In fact, many gamers worked really hard on the ARG and weren't here, and I was still in shock that I was invited to come to Valve.

They waved their hands as if I had said some pure nonsense. They looked at me and said with absolute seriousness:

"We had to schedule four meetings to discuss which candidates would be invited to Valve today. Each meeting we had to narrow down the candidates to fewer choices. Your name, along with the other eight, came up every time. You absolutely deserve to be here."

That was one of the nicest things that anybody has ever said to me.

"If we did have to invite only one person," the Valve employee said while smiling, "then we'd have to invite Jake."

"Well, duh," I said, smiling back.

In the crowd of people, I found Eric Wolpaw, Alesia Glidewell, and Ellen McLain in the crowd posing for pictures. For those that don't remember, Alesia is the face model for Chell, and Ellen McLain is the voice of GLaDOS and the turrets. I took a photograph myself, but I was too embarrassed to talk to them.

The time on the GLaDOS@Home clock still read 25 minutes, but I could tell that Valve didn't want to wait anymore. They started the launch ceremony, and Eric Wolpaw and Jeep Barnett were invited to throw two of the switches. I know that there are three switches, but I couldn't remember who else was on stage. All I could think about was the red button. Eric mentioned that he wanted all nine "champions" on stage, and I felt butterflies swirling in my insides. As I walked up to the stage, Ellen McLain patted my shoulder to congratulate me. I walked up and my hands had to be trembling slightly in excitement, and Eric told us that we deserved to push the launch button.

I glanced at the clock and it said that there was still 20 minutes left on the clock but we all put our hands over the button. On the count of three, I felt the other person's hand come down on top of mine and I squished somebody else's hand underneath it. Several people in the crowd shot party poppers and streamers and confetti flew around the room. Leveraged and the others hijacked the computer again and said that the downloads were live. I think that the Steam servers ramp up slowly so it only got distributed for a few users and then it quickly ramped up after 20 minutes. Within a few hours after launch, over 20,000 people around the world were playing Portal 2 and the number was rising every minute.

I ran into Jeep in the aftermath. I asked him where was Gabe Newell. He said that Gabe had to attend his brother's birthday party and they were having a private party on the lake. He wanted to come but he couldn't. I nodded my head. Jeep seemed to think that my silence was immense disappointment, and he quickly added that he really wanted to make a streaming video feed, but his laptop ran out of batteries.

I asked about the (in)famous artwork on the back wall of the building. I asked if this was just something that Valve was trolling fans or if it was a real unannounced product. He looked at me strangely and didn't know what I was talking about. I said that I would show him and I took him to the wall of art.

When we got there, he frowned and said, "Oh, it's THAT. We... haven't been told any instructions about what to say about that yet." He asked another Valve employee for advice, and the other person shrugged.

"Can I photograph it?" I asked.

"If you do it then I wasn't here and you didn't see me," he quickly added. That's when I knew that it wasn't a joke and it was a new IP that Valve hadn't announced yet. I still don't understand why Valve has it on their walls in such an obvious place.

"I won't tell anybody about what I saw," I said. Jeep looked away as if he wanted to change the subject very badly.

"Can I see the Meet the Medic video?" I asked. I hadn't forgotten about it.

"Oh yeah, sure," and he waved his badge at the mag reader which unlocked a stairwell. As we went upstairs, I cannot deny that I was as giddy as a five year-old that just drank too much soda: I wouldn't just see one secret Valve project today, but technically three if you include Dota 2. This was going to be the icing on the Portal cake.

We went to the Portal 2 testing chamber and he went to my computer. However, he couldn't start up the video. Then we went to another computer in a different development lab and he couldn't start it either. Finally, we went to Jeep's cubicle. A few other developers were still there working on some other project and they saw me and seemed a bit surprised that I was there. Jeep tried to start it and he couldn't.

"I think that the servers are completely bombed because everybody is downloading Portal 2," he said. He wasn't kidding. The Steam servers were going full blast and barely anything was working.

I can't say that I wasn't a little disappointed, but I was more impressed by how Jeep seemed to wander all over the building to try to show me a seven minute video that, quite frankly, I didn't have any right to preview anyway. When everybody got to see the video in July, I watched it for the first time too.

We did see some development art, but at the time I didn't understand the context. There was a medic talking to a heavy on an operating room table. Interestingly, the concept art didn't have the heavy's chest open like in the actual video.

I think that if I had to say what I liked the most about the trip, then it wasn't the brilliant swag or the fancy meals or the hotel room. That's not to say that I didn't love those things, because I did. But for me, I was blown away by how nice everybody was. I was sitting with development leads, head writers, and company founders. These were people that lived a different life from me, because they were in the entertainment business, and game development has several aspects that are similar to movie production and Broadway plays. For me, those people are like demigods because the work is so different and so challenging from what most people can do.

When you're sitting down with a the CEO of a company, then you'd expect them to just narrow their eyes and sneer at some old dude that played too many video games. But that's just it... Everybody that I met seemed to treat me like I was just like them, when in reality they could have just laughed in my face. Even if it was just for one day, it felt really great to be called a champion.

(Yes that's the end of the story.)