Are you starting to see a pattern? At the beginning of each month there will be a new contest, and this month is no exception.
So here we have a new contest for people who want to author holds. You make one level based on a random reading from the I Ching. Note that I am neither promoting Taoism here or doing it proper justice. I don't really believe in the applicability of I Ching readings, but I do think they will serve as an interesting basis for creation of DROD rooms. Here is one sample that I generated from
http://members.home.nl/hfl/it/iching.htm?eh :
The Judgment
Youthful Folly has success.
It is not I who seek the young fool;
The young fool seeks me.
At the first oracle I inform him.
If he asks two or three times, it is importunity.
If he importunes, I give him no information.
Perseverance furthers.
The Image
A spring wells up at the foot of the mountain:
The image of Youth.
Thus the superior man fosters his character
By thoroughness in all that he does.
So let's see... if I were making a room based on this...
"
Youthful Folly has success."
- Beethro has to recklessly charge across a room full of queen roaches to reach a point where he can strike a toggling orb ( "
the oracle"
) that affords some safety by enclosing the roach queens.
"
If he asks two or three times, it is importunity."
- It would seem that Beethro could continue using the orb to toggle the doors that enclose the roaches. This would be the conservative strategy, however things are engineered such that using the orb more than once will make it impossible to solve the room. Perhaps there is a roach somewhere that will get stuck on the wrong side of an arrow if you toggle the "
oracle"
too many times.
"
A spring wells up at the foot of the mountain"
- I use some tile art to show a big mountain-shaped thing. At the base of it is a tar mother ( "
a spring wells up"
).
So you see how it could work then?
Further Rules and Details
Anyone interested in playing should e-mail erikh@caravelgames.com before April 15th. I will e-mail you an I Ching reading from which to base your room. You have to use that reading and can't ask for another one. I'll try to filter out the less useful readings, so don't worry so much about what reading you get. I will only meditate on DROD rooms before consulting the I Ching, so you should not use the reading to solve your life problems.
Holds should contain one level with no more than eight rooms. Eight is enough! It is perfectly fine to just have one room, if you like. I suggest that a level which elegantly depicts the reading with a minimal set of rooms is more pleasing than a level with extra rooms thrown in for more puzzle-solving fun. You should provide some clever interpretation of the reading, and also strive to include good puzzles that will make the hold fun to play.
All holds should be submitted prior to April 15th Midnight PST. Submit your hold by e-mailing the exported .hold file to erikh@caravelgames.com . Avoid sending me anything except your final submission. Holds should be solvable, so be sure to test them before submitting.
We will open the polls pretty soon after that. Voters will be asked to judge both the cleverness of the reading interpretation and the enjoyability of playing through the hold. A more difficult hold is not necessarily better than easier one.
Prizes
The Red Hawk wants runner-up prizes so I'm going to indulge him. First-place winner gets any item of his or her choosing from
The DROD Store and 100 rank points. Second and third-place winners, get 50 and 25 rank points, respectively, but no material manifestations of the physical realm. Fourth-place winner gets a nagging sense of self-doubt that subsides when he is around other people.
-Erik
[Edited by ErikH2000 on 04-03-2004 at 01:48 AM GMT: Additional comments on submitting holds.]
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The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
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) people expressed intent to compete and requested an I Ching reading. Two people have actually sent me holds. My point is not to guilt people into making holds; I'm just saying it is hard to predict how many entries we will have. If I get eight or more holds, I'm going to try a different voting system than the one we've used previously. The "ballot" will be a private e-mail with a score for each hold. I'll explain it in greater detail if we use it.