The Cast of 'Aperture Desk Job' Features a Familiar Voice From the 'Portal' Franchise

Mar. 14 2022, Published 3:07 p.m. ET

Spoiler alert: This article incorporates spoilers for Aperture Desk Job on Steam.

Fans of the Portal series will surely need to try Aperture Desk Job on Steam. Touted as a "playable short," the transient gaming experience is basically a glorified tech demo for the Steam Deck's portable gaming features, even though it is still completely playable with a computer and a controller. If you're a longtime fan of the Portal video games, you might acknowledge a certain voice in the small cast.

Aperture Desk Job puts gamers in the sneakers of a new hire for the mysterious company Aperture Science. Your task is to check out the scientifically complicated toilets being produced by the company to make certain that every of them are as much as code and in a position for distribution. While that may appear precisely as mundane as it sounds, your robot overseer Grady encourages you to keep on analyzing as he makes changes to the unique design.

The Portal-based game features various nods to the series.

Who's within the cast for 'Aperture Desk Job'?

As a playable brief, Aperture Desk isn't this sort of lengthy experience, that includes a small cast of characters in a tale that may take upwards of 30 minutes to finish. As such, the voice cast is similarly tiny. While the cast of Aperture Desk Job might most effective quantity to a handful of folks, it still features some really extensive talent and heavy hitters.

The self sufficient persona core Grady is performed by comic Nate Bargatze. Mad TV alum Debra Wilson provides voices for a prison warden and an announcer.

In a big inclusion of megastar energy, famous actor J.K. Simmons plays a automated Cave Johnson, head of Aperture Science whose mind was once uploaded into a giant robot head for preservation. J.K. reprises his role from 2011's Portal 2, where the nature of Cave Johnson was once briefly depicted right through the sport as having a psychological breakdown leading to the downfall of Aperture Science. J.Okay. additionally revisited the role in 2015's Lego Dimensions.

Valve music fashion designer Mike Morasky expressed enthusiasm on Twitter about working with J.Ok. on the recreation, particularly at the creepy musical number between a still-active Cave Johnson robot head and a group of appliances-turned-killing machines. The track performs all over the top credits.

"Watching Erik and [Portal series writer Jay Pinkerton] direct J.K. as Cave Johnson was a career highlight for sure," Mike tweeted. "Like they’re born to it."

Is 'Aperture Desk Job' canon?

Whether or not Desk Job is canon to the Portal series at large is kind of debatable. Upon the sport's free up, a fan reached out to series creator Erik Wolpaw asking if the new sport was once canon. Erik gave the impression lovely obscure about his response, which was posted on Reddit.

"We think of these Aperture side projects as just fun non-canon things," Erik said in an electronic mail. "Which isn't to say some of it may not eventually become canon. But yeah, only the main Portal games are canon."

While that comes directly from a identified creator on the game, it's simple enough to suit Desk Job into the primary timeline of the video games. After all, the game depicts the invention of the Aperture Science Turret, that have been notable minor antagonists within the two main Portal video games.

Aperture Desk Job is currently to be had on Steam.

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