Erik Wolpaw, co-writer of Portal and Portal 2 adores Burnout Paradise and has 1,500 hours in Slay the Spire: ‘This is the proper stage of technique’

Erik Wolpaw’s first encounter with laptop gaming was on a TRS-80 in his high-school library. “It was one of the Scott Adams adventures. I don’t remember the exact name, but it’s the haunted mansion one,” Wolpaw says. “They are very crude at this point, but at the time I couldn’t believe it, and that was it. That was my goal for years after that. I wanted to get a computer.”

Wolpaw’s fascination with video games would lead him to turn into a journalist, writing for websites like Gamespot and the legendary video games web site Old Man Murray, which he co-founded with Chet Faliszek. In 2004, Wolpaw joined Valve together with Faliszek, writing for video games like Half-Life 2’s episodes and Team Fortress 2, in addition to the brilliantly progressive Portal and its hilarious sequel.

Wolpaw is a former journalist and critic who, together with Chet Faliszek, based the web site Old Man Murray. He finally moved into writing for video games, first at Double Fine, the place he co-wrote Psychonauts, after which at Valve. Wolpaw labored on Half-Life 2’s episodes, Portal, Portal 2, Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead.

While he left Valve in 2017, he quickly returned as a contractor, and since then he is written for Artifact, Aperture Desk Job and Artifact.