Just wanted to point out that those gel gameplay mechanics were already made in a great freeware game Tag: The Power of Paint. 
 
Everyone stoked for Portal 2 should check it out. 
 
Did you guys know this and what do you think about  Valve taking ideas like that? Come to think about it, those guys are now probably working for Valve anyway.

its always a struggle : 
 
to hate rip-offs and strongly protest them 
or to accept them and just appreciate the original source ? 
 
Anyway, should be fun.

As you said, a number of those guys now are working on Portal 2...a similar thing happened with Portal 1. Anyway, I guess I should play this game sometime before Portal 2.

I must say this is VERY similar to what Valve are doing in Portal 2.

" I must say this is VERY similar to what Valve are doing in Portal 2. "

It would be nice to fantasize how there are game development agents that scout new talents on  colleges and the internets, and they come to you so you don't have to start small and work your way up the chain. 
Not gonna happen here in Croatia thou. "Hey CroTeam, hit me up sometime ; )"