Building comparison
head to head
CocoonvsPortal
Portal asks more than Cocoon, and the gap is execution.
Cocoon
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A surreal puzzle-adventure about nesting worlds inside orbs.
Portal
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.
Cocoon leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
CocoonPortal
Axis by axis
Execution2 vs 4
Portal leans clearly harder on execution.
Cocoon
Inputs are simple movement and a button.
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Cocoon
Puzzles are fixed designs.
Portal
No adversary modeling player.
Variance1 vs 0
Cocoon leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Cocoon
No randomness.
Portal
Deterministic chambers; no randomness.
Optimization7 vs 8
Portal leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Cocoon
Pure puzzle logic, solvable by reasoning.
Portal
Pure puzzle-solving optimization.
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.