One of the best new characters in any videogame this year (or recent years) is, at least in my mind, Wheatley from Portal 2. He and Cave Johnson made for a hilarious cast of characters along with GLaDOS. Wheatley was especially good thanks to the performance of Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington pal Stephen Merchant. One Portal fan in particular loved him so much she went as far as to create a Wheatley puppet, the final product of which is nothing short of impressive.
When you hear the word “puppet,” it might not sound particularly exciting. But a lot of work went into Wheatley, as documented on the blog of deviantART user ~TRP~Chan. Work began on the Wheatley look-alike in July, with the final product coming together just recently. Besides looking exactly like the real (virtual) thing, it has a sound module loaded with quotes of Merchant’s voice from the game.
Following Portal 2’s release, Merchant talked about how surprised he was by the overwhelmingly positive response. Playing the villain wasn’t something he was used to (the agent in Extras isn’t such a bad guy, he’s just an idiot with a fun ringtone), and the entire process of recording was “really exhausting.”
