Woman says 'I do' to evil robot: Sci-fi game villain pops question - but the vows won't be virtual



A video game fan delivered one of the most unusual proposals ever - by contacting the creators of his favourite game, and asking them to create a a 'proposal' delivered by an evil artificial intelligence from the far future.



Designer Gary Hudston, from Preston, Lancashire, contacted the makers of Portal 2, who recorded a proposal from the voice actor of a lethal robot who attempts to kill the player using lasers and other traps.



The 23-year-old then asked photographer girlfriend Stephanie Harbeson to play three hand-built levels - one of which looked like a wedding chapel - until a ring appeared on screen, and the evil robot popped the question.

Gary Hudston and Stephanie Harbeson: A love-struck computer game fan proposed to his girlfriend by making a game asking her to marry him

As she reached the final section an engagement ring appeared on screen. GlaDOS - a towering robot menace who speaks in a voice akin to the warning messages in cars when you haven't done up your seatbelt , asked her to marry Gary.



The sinister robot says, ' Stephanie Harbeson, as part of a psychological testing protocol, I am required to ask if you will do Gary Hudston the honour of becoming his wife. You can say no. I'm sure he'll get over it. Eventually.'



Stephanie, 21, turned to find her boyfriend of five years on bended knee bearing the ring and agreed to the proposal.

Fans who have watched an online video have since donated £500 pounds to fly the programmer to the couple's wedding next year.

Alex Simmons, editor-in-chief of UK gaming site IGN, says, 'Marriages in games are surprisingly common – especially in online games such as World of Warcraft, where many people have met in the game, been married in the game, then gone on to be married in real life. But very few gamers would go to this sort of effort to propose.’



Portal 2's heroine - constantly at risk of death from the evil robot GlaDOS, who delivered designer Gary's proposal

Hudston said he was amazed he got the game's developers to help out by using 'the lost art of asking for something politely.' He said: 'I first had the idea about four months ago.

'Steph's not a hardcore gamer but she knows I like them so we play them with each other from time to time. It ended up becoming something we really enjoyed sharing together. I decided I wanted to proposed to Steph and I wanted to make it a grand gesture.

'However, Steph is quite shy and would not have wanted me to have done something in front of loads of people so I thought this would be perfect.'

Hudston decided to create a level for the popular first person puzzle game, Portal 2, which has sold more than 4 million copies since it was released in April. The game also stars British actor Stephen Merchant.

He emailed the game's developer, Valve, and they agreed to provide an audio track recorded by the game's main character using a script Gary had written.

'I stayed up until 4am putting it together. The actress recorded it, it was about 10 minutes long and she did three versions of each line.'

The hit game Portal 2 has sold four million copies - game fan Gary used the game's villain to deliver his proposal

Hudston still needed someone to programme new levels - studded with hints that something romantic might be afoot, such as hearts on the floor. The rest of Portal 2's dark vision of the future is rather short on such romantic touches. The last level - where the ring appears - looks distinctly like a wedding chapel.

He placed an advert online for designers to help him for free. Doug Hoogland, a level designer for an independent gaming company in Missouri, America, and designer Rachel van der Meer, in Holland, got in touch.

The pair spent the next six weeks programming the level and communicating via email.

Hudston added: "They would send me versions of what they had done so far but I couldn't play very much because Steph was around.

'I would have to pretend to get up for a glass of water at three in the morning and quickly respond.'

'Eventually it was ready and it was just in time for Steph's birthday. After we did the normal things like opening presents I sat her down in front of the PC and told her to click the button that said 'play'.



Stephanie, who moved over to England from America to study five years ago, said: 'When I was taken to the computer the first thing I said was, "You're making me play Portal on my birthday?' "I knew Gary was up to something.