As someone that got in to programming many years ago, primarily because video game design interests me so much, I'm always glad when a detailed look at the development process of a big game gets released online.

This time around its a video from Valve News Network (unrelated to Valve themselves) that digs deep in to the history of Portal and its development issues, triumphs and design challenges. Here's the video and if you're even remotely interested in how games are made I'd recommend you give it a look:

The one thing that really stood out for me, besides how awesome Valve treats their employees, is the sheer amount of time Portal spent feature-complete but constantly in testing due to it not being "good enough" just yet. Its the sort of insane attention to detail that wouldn't fly anywhere else but Valve not only accepted it, they encouraged it.

And given how Portal went from being completely unknown to a timeless classic within a single year I think its safe to say that they made the right choice.