Difficulty balance is especially hard for puzzle games, I guess. You can get a good estimate with lots of testing (ha!) with many participants, but even then you or me personally can be outliers.

I guess something Portal 2 lacked was the element of surprise.

I’d say that Portal 2 even improved the first one in every aspect.

I personally consider Disco Elysium very much a game (a way better role-playing gamer than most), because an “interactive story” is a game. Combat shouldn’t be a necessary condition. Planescape: Torment should have had the guts to scrap its lackluster combat and focus on its strengths.

probably non-existent

Honorary mention of Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, which existed as a fan documentation hub since the mid 90s.

KotOR

Pillars II, he did minor work on Pillars I and was not the only person working on their other hits.

Don’t act like Avellone was the only talented creative at Obsidian, it’s one of the best AA teams out there.