Completed Portal Fan Remake Alive & Kicking Is Finished But Valve Won't Respond

Alive & Kicking, a fan-made Portal remake built on Portal 2's engine, is done and ready to ship — but it's stuck in limbo because Valve has gone silent on the developers. The project has been in development since 2011 by the team Rhubarb & Rhubarb, making this a 14-year labor of love that's now finished but can't actually launch.

Dev Dot Operator confirmed the situation directly on the Steam discussions page: "The game is done, but we do not have the ability to release it on Steam right now. 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 originally gave the team access to Portal 2's source code — which required signing an NDA — and was reportedly supportive early on. The non-commercial release form, however, was only filed more recently, and since then communication from Valve has dried up completely. The game rebuilds the original Portal's puzzles inside Portal 2's engine with visual upgrades, and the team has also hinted at adding entirely new test chambers beyond the original campaign.

Valve has a long and generally permissive history with fan projects built on its IP. Black Mesa, the celebrated Half-Life remake, launched on Steam and eventually went fully commercial. Hunt Down the Freeman, a much rougher fan project, also made it onto the platform. Valve even publishes Garry's Mod, a sandbox built entirely around its own assets. Portal itself started life as a student project by Kim Swift before Valve picked it up and shipped it as part of The Orange Box in 2007 — so the franchise has fan-project DNA baked in from the start. That history makes Valve's current silence on Alive & Kicking all the more frustrating for the community.

Fans are now hoping that enough public attention will push Valve into responding and granting the final approval needed to release the game. The Steam page for Alive & Kicking is live, the game is sitting there finished, and all it needs is a green light that Valve hasn't given — or even acknowledged.