starwed
Level: Delver
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File: Snake Gardens.hold (7 KB)
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License: Public Domain

Over winter break, I tried my hand at making a hold. Since schools back in session, I probably won't make much more progress on it, but I thought I'd post the one level I'd completed.

Most of the rooms involve maneuvering enemies to kill snakes. I'm worried some are a bit frustrating, but I guess I'll let you guys tell me whether they're /too/ annoying. ^_^

larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

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File: SG Snake Gardens 1S Victory.demo (982 bytes)
Downloaded 52 times.
License: Public Domain

This was pretty fun.

Entr- maybe add a couple checkpoints.
1S- Unintended solution, see attached demo.
1W2N- I think it'd look better to put edge walls in the ne corner.

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

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I'd also say it's quite ok, (except for 2W which I'm not going to play).

But defintitely not bad for a first hold.

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starwed
Level: Delver
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Thanks for looking at it. Any suggestions on how to improve it? (And what, if anything, was good about it?)

1S- Unintended solution, see attached demo.

That was one of the first rooms I built, and I actually tried to ensure that such a solution wasn't possible. Guess I didnt' try hard enough. ^_^ I think I see how to fix it, but I'm not sure whether it's really worth it. (Which would you say is easier to find?)

except for 2W which I'm not going to play

Really? That was actually the room I like the most; what put you off it?

larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

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I must say that I was just going to skip the room with all the orbs because in general it's annoying to have a ton of orbs. Luckily there was a pattern to them and the room could be solved pretty easily by hitting all the orbs and seeing what adjustments were needed. In the end this was a fine room.

As for 1S, yes you could certainly leave it as is if you want.

An improvement might be adding a theme/story and visual things like obstacles and floor colors.

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

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starwed wrote:

except for 2W which I'm not going to play

Really? That was actually the room I like the most; what put you off it?

I think I just didn't like the trapdoor snake part... Or perhaps the red door.

It's also harder than most other rooms, as well...

But it's okay. I guess.

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Sergenth
Level: Master Delver
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I definitely liked the theme of killing snakes with monsters. The entrance and the little, gray serpent traps in 1S1W were my favorites of the concepts. 1S2W was a really good wraithwing/serpent room too.

2W is a bit anticlimactic as it goes from a very difficult trapdoor/rattlesnake manipulation to some simple evil eye sight dodging. Snake movement manipulation + trapdoor path completion + ortho square limitations is like 8x more brain power required (for me)! Thank you for not adding brained movement to that!

2N2W only requires 1 goblin to complete, so having the other goblins behind locked doors simplifies their presence to goblin group manipulation after the serpent is gone. Ideally, they should be worth more to the room OR to the continuance of a story theme. "You's be puzzle-part-makings uss'm goblins next puzzle times," they are saying.

Also, the arrow path on the bottom edge of the level confused me for a bit since it looked like I was expected to emerge from a more southerly room.

starwed
Level: Delver
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2N2W only requires 1 goblin to complete, so having the other goblins behind locked doors simplifies their presence to goblin group manipulation after the serpent is gone.

I wanted part of the puzzle to be figuring out how many goblins to unlock in order to kill the snake. (I found it easiest with 3 goblins, but there are a lot of ways to approach that one.) But it always bothered me that you then had to do a lot of repetitive work to kill the rest of the groups. However, I just now realized I can solve this problem with a bomb trigger behind a 1-way arrow, so that'll make the room less annoying.

Snake movement manipulation + trapdoor path completion + ortho square limitations is like 8x more brain power required (for me)! Thank you for not adding brained movement to that!

Originally I tried it with a red serpent, but it seemed impossible to actually reach the solution I had in mind. ^_^