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File: Beethros Brain.hold (26.7 KB)
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My first hold!

Beethro has accepted a roach extermination contract, which proves to be far more trouble than he had expected. Levels are themed more by visual design than by room type, and a story is present but hopefully doesn't overshadow the puzzles.

igusarov
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 116
Registered: 04-20-2006
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Incredibly good hold is all I can say! I was enjoying every single room of it. Some rooms looked annoying at first glance ("oh, no, please, no cutting the snakes with decoy's sword!"), but that was false impression. Even these rooms turned out to be fun and quite easy to complete. Difficulty of the puzzles was exactly right - hard enough to make me think good ahead, and not too high to give up. Combined with the fun of solving such puzzles, this gives strong desire to solve more and more of this hold :-)

I can't help noticing the build quality of the hold, too. No backtracking issues, no problems revisiting the rooms searching for the secrets.

Verdict: 10 fun, 6 difficulty.

P.S. I still have to complete two secret rooms.

EDIT:
I nearly forgot to share my overall impression of the hold!

This hold made me think of IQ tests. Especially, "D&N: 1N". No explanation, no help. Just a goal. To win, the player must work out the rules first. This could have been evil, were it not for the rules to be perfectly guessable if you paid enough attention. I encourage the players to free their minds and, if stumped, give the puzzle a fresh thought. All solutions are logical. Have fun finding them! :-)

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[Last edited by igusarov at 01-28-2008 12:25 PM]

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1218
Registered: 05-12-2005
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My third hold to ever get a 10. This is great fun, and a return to the oldschool logic puzzle holds which I haven't seen for a while.

Great work... Thanks!

zaubberer
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 251
Registered: 03-29-2005
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yeap! a very funny hold!

but there's one thing i don't like: i have conquered 75% of all secret rooms, the "missing one" seems to be in Curiouser & Couriouser, 2N 2E. and if it isn't my mistake (i hope so!) this room isn't accessable at all...

however: Dischorran did a great job!

zaubberer

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 10-14-2006
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zaubberer wrote:
i have conquered 75% of all secret rooms, the "missing one" seems to be in Curiouser & Couriouser, 2N 2E. and if it isn't my mistake (i hope so!) this room isn't accessable at all...

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
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I have greatly enjoyed this hold. So far just conquered, no secrets, but I just wanted to register that it was extremely well-done.

I give it a 9 for fun and 6 brains of difficulty.

I didn't give it a 10 primarily because of Dreams & Nightmares: 1N. I acknowledge the cleverness of the puzzle, but I didn't really enjoy it very much.

Other than that:


Overall, an excellent first (?) offering, and I look forward to seeing more from this architect.

Josh

____________________________
"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck

zaubberer
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 251
Registered: 03-29-2005
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CuriousShyRabbit wrote:

zaubberer wrote:
i have conquered 75% of all secret rooms, the "missing one" seems to be in Curiouser & Couriouser, 2N 2E. and if it isn't my mistake (i hope so!) this room isn't accessable at all...

Click here to view the secret text

×You can go in there when you're swordless.

that's right, but there seems no way to do so. at least i played the room in the editor.

zaubberer

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
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zaubberer wrote:
that's right, but there seems no way to do so. at least i played the room in the editor.

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3414
Registered: 09-10-2005
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Thanks for the kind words! The hold had been incubating in the "vague ideas" stage for a few months before I finally decided to do something about it, inspired in part by seeing what Jacob did with "The Goblin". I'm glad to hear that it turned out well.

I'll admit to taking on a little too much in Reawakening:
Plus, about 10% of the hold's rooms already have unintended solutions (I'm not saying which rooms!), so I probably could have done a bit more in testing it. As for the other infamous room, I figured it might get a mixed response, but I liked it.

Right now, after seeing how much work even a smallish hold takes, I suggest that anyone who hears me say that I want to build another one should hit me with something heavy until I regain my senses. Maybe I'll change my mind in a few months once the idea pool replenishes itself.

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Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
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Dischorran wrote:
Right now, after seeing how much work even a smallish hold takes, I suggest that anyone who hears me say that I want to build another one should hit me with something heavy until I regain my senses. Maybe I'll change my mind in a few months once the idea pool replenishes itself.

Take as long as you need. I look forward to your next project, and I doubt this one will ever leave the top 5 ratings of the best holds ever published.

Always a good start

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
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Mastered. My rating stands -- the secret rooms were, in short, excellent.

____________________________
"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck

talund
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 95
Registered: 05-17-2005
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I haven't managed to find the way to three of the four secret rooms. I have only managed to find the Secret Room in the Reawakening.

As to Curiouser and Curiouser, I can see the entrance but every time I arrive in the room swordless my sword reappears. Is there something I am missing here?

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
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talund wrote:
I haven't managed to find the way to three of the four secret rooms. I have only managed to find the Secret Room in the Reawakening.

As to Curiouser and Curiouser, I can see the entrance but every time I arrive in the room swordless my sword reappears. Is there something I am missing here?

Not sure. That never happened for me.

What I did:




____________________________
"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck

talund
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 95
Registered: 05-17-2005
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That is what I was missing. I was using the sword token in 2N. And then I finally found the other rooms so mastered. Very fun hold, well put together. Another hold that makes me realize how clever one can be and that makes me sure that I want to leave hold building to others.

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[Last edited by talund at 01-31-2008 06:06 PM]

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
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talund wrote:
That is what I was missing. I was using the sword token in 2N. And then I finally found the other rooms so mastered. Very fun hold, well put together. Another hold that makes me realize how clever one can be and that makes me sure that I want to leave hold building to others.

Ah, yes. Disarm tokens are inherently room elements. Anything else (besides oremites) that takes away/gives back a sword is scripting, and so can be set up to carry over from room to room. (Obviously, you could set up a script that takes away the sword when you step on a disarm token, but then that's, well, scripting...)

Josh

____________________________
"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck

goldenferret
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 57
Registered: 10-08-2006
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Let me begin this post by saying:
THIS HOLD IS DELICIOUS, LIKE CANDY.

I can't remember how much fun I've had in a hold like this since the later levels of Journey. The puzzles are incredible and are tantalizingly lynchpin-based. Bravo for your first hold (I think).

This is incredible.

____________________________
Smiles are a universal language.

Would you like to listen to some music?

calamarain
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 933
Registered: 03-25-2007
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I am seriously impressed.

The puzzles are hard, but not so hard you lose interest. The environment is polished. The story is present but not overdone.

It's a really good hold

And for it to be your first hold as well? That's just amazing. I am impressed.

At the risk of preaching - to anyone who's reading this thread who's not designed a hold yet - this is the way to go. Not too long, well tested, well balanced puzzles and an original idea.

____________________________
My Holds

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[Last edited by calamarain at 02-25-2008 06:03 AM]

Terry
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 30
Registered: 01-16-2008
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Just wanted to post and say that I really enjoyed this one. The secret rooms in particular

Jatopian
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1842
Registered: 07-31-2005
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This is a wondrous hold.

However, I believe there is a backtracking problem in Reawakening:2N. If you have

____________________________
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Make your pressure plates 3.0 style!
DROD architecture idea generator

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[Last edited by Jatopian at 03-22-2008 01:42 AM : clarity]

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3414
Registered: 09-10-2005
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Huh. So there is. I blame Euler.

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NiroZ
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1302
Registered: 02-12-2006
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Great Hold

It was just at that difficulty that I didn't resort to H&S but wasn't mind bogglingly easy, while the concepts highly original.

OneMoreNameless
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 131
Registered: 07-31-2010
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This is a pretty fun little hold. The first few rooms are slow and rather unexciting, but once you get into the hold proper the puzzles are nicely varied and interesting. (Dreams and Nightmares, 1S was my personal favourite.) A couple could get a bit tedious even after you'd more or less figured them out (Curiouser and Curiouser 2N 1W and Reawakening 4N 1W, I'm looking at you) but for the most part you move on quickly. If anything, it's a shame the hold wasn't longer.

The plot/dialogue was eh but the aesthetics were excellent, plus there were a couple of amusing moments (CONGA!) and fun secrets (cracked-wall-hidden-in-darkness notwithstanding). My only significant issue is the scripted room at the end of Dreams and Nightmares; it's not a bad puzzle per se, but a large departure from the rest of the hold and REALLY needed more of a hint than "I recognise those colours, so ...?" as well as feedback while you're solving it.

Overall, I'd recommend this hold as a worthwhile distraction from any longer or more difficult holds you're stuck on - just don't be afraid to spoil that one stumbling block.

Panther
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 402
Registered: 03-19-2006
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Wow, loved it.

Very nice aesthetics, good premise, excellent puzzles, especially Dreams and Nightmares. I particularly admired that the scripting for the lights was functional as well as attractive. It's the attention to little details that really makes a hold shine.

In contrast to some previous opinions, I liked the idea for that level's exit, so clearly that's a matter of taste. Coming to drod from the puzzle world (through needing it for one of the puzzles in the Puzzle Boat) is probably the reason that my bias runs towards appreciating that sort of puzzle.

Hoping this bump inspires some people that haven't played this yet to have a look. It's definitely not to be missed.

west.logan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 608
Registered: 03-09-2011
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I would say that this is excellent for a first hold but that doesn't do it justice. It was well-polished and the puzzles were brilliant. I'm not sure I really understood the story but the atmosphere, puzzles, and aesthetics fit the theme of the dream-world. Oh, I also have to say that the secrets were very well hidden. Enjoyed that. So thanks!

I have to thank Pearls for his LP of this hold, I'd been beating my head on a couple of rooms until I saw how he did it.

____________________________
-Logan

martz
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 416
Registered: 08-19-2005
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This is a brilliant little hold. Extremely well polished, nice puzzles, decent story.

Nothing too difficult although the brain-room meta puzzle might put a few people off.

For a first hold this is an outstanding piece of architecture and anyone currently making or thinking about making their first hold should look at this to see how it should be done.

Difficulty: 6
Fun: 9

____________________________
Without struggle, there is no progress, so get up, get out, and go make the rest of your life the best of your life; you deserve to live the life that YOU want to live...

Progress - Gavin G