Valve Releases New Portal VR Demo, Moondust

Valve's virtual reality adventure continues, with the company's latest invention, a VR controller called Knuckles EV2, heading to developers this week. To show off the controller, the company has made a tech demo named Moondust, and it's set in the Portal universe.

Moondust is an interactive experience set--you guessed it--on the Moon. It sees you crushing rocks with your hands--designed to showcase the pressure sensitivity of Knuckles--as well as driving buggies, throwing objects at targets, and assembling space stations.

It's not yet clear if Moondust will see a commercial release; right now, it's simply intended to show third-party developers the kinds of things the controller can achieve. For more on the demo, check out the Steam blog or the short trailer above.

Even though we haven't seen a full Portal release since 2011's Portal 2, there's been a number of tie-ins and bonus content from the series since then. Last year, we got a crossover with the Bridge Constructor series, named Bridge Constructor Portal. Before that, Rocket League received Portal-themed DLC and Valve's series also made an appearance in Lego Dimensions (including one Easter egg never seen in the main Portal games). A Portal movie is also in development from Star Wars: The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams, though there has been no update on that since September 2016, when Abrams said he hoped the film would be fully revealed soon.