×Entr (oremites,goblin,serpent)-
ok

1N (ww, tarstuff, tarstuff changers, broken orb)-
great. Thought it was impossible, but just nice and tricky.

1N1W (fuses,potions)-
good. Solid, fun room.

2N1W (briar,conquer token,fegundo)-
good. Took a little thinking.

1N1E (hot tiles,water skippers)-
good. Fun.

2N1E (eyes,decoys,mirror,extra monster)-
good. Nice, solid effort. Spider works great w/ room desc.

2N (rock giants,aumtliches,pits)-
ok. as much as i tried to break this room and solve it from the outside edges, i just could not.

OVERALL-
10
Awesome entry. Rooms fit descriptions to a tee. No unintended solutions. Nice aesthetics. Good difficulty. I wouldn't change a thing. Great job!

×Entr (oremites,goblin,serpent)-
great. i'm not sure why, but I really liked this room. Not sure that the eyes were needed.

1N (ww, tarstuff, tarstuff changers, broken orb)-
ok. fine, but nothing special.

1N1W (fuses,potions)-
i whimped out and skipped this room, just watched the demo

2N1W (briar,conquer token,fegundo)-
ok, accurate to room desc.

1N1E (hot tiles,water skippers)-
ok.

2N1E (eyes,decoys,mirror,extra monster)-
good. I loved how the slayer appeared which fit the room desc perfectly. I had the slayer step on both pps which is an US i see. I'm not sure if i'd have ever solved it the right way.

2N (rock giants,aumtliches,pits)-
very nice. I enjoyed this room.

OVERALL-
7
Rooms were very accurate to descs. Enjoyable to play. Nice aesthetically and no unintended solutions.

×Entr (oremites,goblin,serpent)-
ok. US. I started by pushing the goblin south a couple spaces then just ran up and ended the room as intended.

1N (ww, tarstuff, tarstuff changers, broken orb)-
argh. I tried this room for a good while. Even after reading all the hints i still found myself grinding through this slowly and eventually giving up

1N1W (fuses,potions)-

2N1W (briar,conquer token,fegundo)-

1N1E (hot tiles,water skippers)-
good. The only other room i solved. Yeah. I didn't do it the same way you did. The desc said waterskipper nests which you didn't have. The use of disarm tokens and decoys made for agreat twist.

2N1E (eyes,decoys,mirror,extra monster)-

2N (rock giants,aumtliches,pits)-

OVERALL-
7
Rheb, I just don't know what to say. I remember way long ago when i saw this hold on the architecture board named 'the underground civilisation'. I couldn't believe the detail, intricacy, and precision of the rooms. As a matter of a fact, I couldn't solve most of the rooms. Unfortunately a lot of your rooms are too difficult for me. I still love how you can use elements in unique ways (like the decoys and disarm tokens here). This hold looks like an amazing work, but I'll basically have to abstain and give you an average score of 7.

×Entr (oremites,goblin,serpent)-
ok.

1N (ww, tarstuff, tarstuff changers, broken orb)-
good. Worked well.

1N1W (fuses,potions)-
ok.

2N1W (briar,conquer token,fegundo)-
ok.

1N1E (hot tiles,water skippers)-
fine.

2N1E (eyes,decoys,mirror,extra monster)-
very nice. I thought it was going to be too tough with the nasty rattler timer until i got the trick i love that you colored the tiles where the mirror can not be placed and think everyone might color their corresponding rooms similarly.

2N (rock giants,aumtliches,pits)-
good.

OVERALL-
8
Solid effort that fit the room descs well. Solid construction. Average aesthetically. No unintended solutions.

×Entr (oremites,goblin,serpent)-
nice. I like this room in all aspects. The mirrors aren't needed.

1N (ww, tarstuff, tarstuff changers, broken orb)-
nice. For a long time i couldn't solve this room at all, then i managed to do it only using the tarstuff switcher once. Still fun.

1N1W (fuses,potions)-
ok. i'm sure my solution is unintended. I used a clone to exit the room in the end.

2N1W (briar,conquer token,fegundo)-
ok.

1N1E (hot tiles,water skippers)-
ok.

2N1E (eyes,decoys,mirror,extra monster)-
good. Maybe too hard? I had to map out exactly how to get past the final two aumtlich beams. That was tough (unless i missed an easier way).

2N (rock giants,aumtliches,pits)-
good. I killed the roach and hit the orb first. You might have the arrow point west instead of nw to prevent this. Fun room though.

OVERALL-
7
Good hold. I really liked about half the rooms, but then the others were just so-so. Aesthetics look good to me.

×Entr (oremites,goblin,serpent)-
ok. i'm not sure what the intended solution was, but there were plenty of places to kill the snake and then the goblin is no problem.

1N (ww, tarstuff, tarstuff changers, broken orb)-
ugh. I never hit a second tarstuff changer. I imagine one could solve the room hitting any of the tarstuff changers at the start. Maybe a fun room for optimisers?

1N1W (fuses,potions)-
ok.

2N1W (briar,conquer token,fegundo)-
ok. i pretty much just used the west edge of the room.

1N1E (hot tiles,water skippers)-
good. This room was very tough for me to solve. Every other room seemed easy and had unintended solutions. I finally solved the room with pretty precise timing at the beginning. Well done room.

2N1E (eyes,decoys,mirror,extra monster)-
ugh. Unintended solution, i walked around the yellow doors (walking on the pps).

2N (rock giants,aumtliches,pits)-
ok.

OVERALL
5
ok entry. Rooms so-so. Followed room descs. Aesthetics good. I'm sure you put a lot of work into your entry, i can tell you did. I hope some of the unintended solutions might be removed if a compilation hold is made.

×Larrymurk: Nice and clean, but still a bit dependent on serpent timing in a non-fun way.

Jacob: Really nice effort! Not too hard, not too easy, not too hard to manipulate the serpent. The best entrance room.

Doom: Another solid effort.

Rheb: Also nice, but I find it a bit disappointing that most of the room is just a red herring.

Boyblue: Nice.

Penwielder: I found this really innovative!

Techant: An okay room. Why the red door, why are the serpent so big? It makes it harder to predict it’s movements.

My favourites were Jacob, Pennywielder and Doom.

×Larrymurk: Nice and easy.

Jacob: Nice room with a lot of use for the WW.

Doom: Felt a bit like it should have been a lynchpin room, but it didn’t feel that way to me.

Rheb: Really nice, hard room. On the minus side my US were you use the switchers three times doesn’t fit the room desription.

Boyblue: Nice, easy lynchpin room.

Penwielder: Another nice room.

Techant: Quite messy, and you could use the switchers as many times as you liked.

Hard to pick any favourites here.

×Larrymurk: Nice, but a bit messy.

Jacob: Very nice.

Doom: Reminds me a bit of other skipper nest rooms. A good room, but I didn’t particularly like it.

Rheb: A really good, innovative room.

Boyblue: Very clever, and not too messy.

Penwielder: Nice, hard and messy. More brilliant than fun, though (it still was fun, mind you).

Techant: On this I feel a bit like I did on Penwielders room. A good room

My favourites were Jacob, Rheb and Boyblue in no particular order.

×Larrymurk: A real Larry-room! A fun, innovative lynchpin room! My favourite.

Jacob: An okay room. I think it lacked a bit of trickiness for me. I tested what happened if I exploded the bombs, and then it felt a bit obvious what to do.

Doom: Nice and hard, but too me it became a bit trial and errorish.

Rheb: I really liked this. Really nice trick were you forced me to think outside the box. On the minus-side there were a bit too many possibilities to analyse. I think I would have liked this room a bit cleaner, but it’s hard to specify how you could have done that. Still one of my favourites though.

Boyblue: An ok room. It felt a bit too easy and straightforward to me.

Penwielder: This really didn’t work the way you intended, I think. That is because you can place a clone outside and ready to leave the room.

Techant: This felt trivial, yet still a bit messy. Not a very good combination in my book.

My favourites were Larry and Rheb.

×Larrymurk: Very nice!

Jacob: I did the US that Larry didn’t manage. I feel kind of stupid now, but I can say this is not a favourite.

Doom: Very nice!

Rheb: The scroll says it all. It looks terribly hard, but really isn’t. Another really nice room! A problem with Rhebs hold though, is that while the individual rooms are quite brilliant nearly all of the rooms are quite messy, meaning that the hold as a whole is a bit heavy to play through. Combining this hold with e.g. Larrymurks would produce a really nice hold, as I see it.

Boyblue: Nice and quite straightforward.

Penwielder: Nice idea, but quite messy to play. An okay room.

Techant: Not very fun. If it weren’t for the trivial trapdoor-dropping it would be an okay room.

My favourites were Larry, Doom and Rheb.

×Larrymurk: Nice idea, but the end was just horrible. Some bombs taking out the eyes once you had completed the challenge would have been nice.

Jacob: Nice, trick, hard, fun. I really liked it!

Doom: Eee! I’m not all that good at slayer-manipulation. I solved it like Larry. A really good room, but not more than good to me.

Rheb: Are you crazy? How on earth am I supposed to solve this? Since you didn’t provide a demo for this room I can only say it looks quite brilliant, but it’s too hard for me. Perhaps not so good for this competition though.

Boyblue: Nice touch with the rattlesnake!

Penwielder: Hard, but still very nice.

Techant: This really doesn’t work, since the doors activated by eyes don’t block the player from getting to the eyes.

My favourites were Jacob and Penwielder.

×Larrymurk: Tight, good, and not too messy. Good job!

Jacob: Nice lynchpin, but it felt a bit as if the room-description was just a red herring, and that bugs me a bit.

Doom: Really nice challenge! Good job!

Rheb: My favourite! You had to do everything perfect, and really analyse the room to find what you could improve! My solution was quite different from the solution provided by Rheb, though.

Boyblue: Quite straightforward and nice. It felt a bit odd that the orb had no function.

Penwielder: Nice and innovative!

Techant: An okay room. The character was quite confusing, since it didn’t do anything, but Beethro said that it ought to.

My favourite here was Rheb.

×All in all I most liked Larrymurks hold, even though I felt Rhebs rooms were strongest on a room for room basis. As I previously stated I would have liked that hold a lot better if the tough, messy rooms were mixed up with clean, quick solution-rooms like those in Larrys hold. My favourite room was the rock-giants/aumtlichs room (2N). I would also like to point out that I think all the architects did a really fine job. There were lots of quality rooms to play through.

×I really could have used beta testers. Do me a favor and send me demos of your victories so I can see what I missed. By the way on the tar room I missed that we could just start with one tar type until I saw what others did, lol.

×
I have been continually playing contest on the forum since Dec 2004. Having often been addressed as a he my new avatar shows that I am a "Lady". And one with a very sharp sword, too.

I love the monthly contests but it took me a long while before I even placed. 21 contests in fact.

Virtual Burning Man was the first contest I took any place in and I got 1st, wow!. Yes, I have received my prize, a sweatshirt from the DROD store, and I love it.

It took 14 more contest but next I took 1st prize in Media of the Eighth Nov07, followed by a win in the Secret Santa 2007. Check out my entry: http://www.gailswebplace.com/NightSky/index.html

Suddenly I was a winner but, still the goal of a winning hold based contest eludes me....

I keep trying so come and join me.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewboard.php?BoardID=83

×
Winner of the Erik Hermansen Award for Lifetime Architectural Achievement (2008)

Smitemasters' Selections:
Beethro and the Secret Society
Smitemastery 101 (A Hold for Beginners)

Other Holds

Layout and Aesthetics Award Winner (2006):
Figure or Ground (Multi-entrance room maze)

Most Promising Hold Award Winner (2007):
The Goblin (Monster-less puzzles)

Hold of the Year and Technical Design Excellence in Concept Award Winner (2008)
Advanced Concepts - I made the Goblins, Fegundos, Eyes and Potions levels
(Tutorials and Challenges involving specific DROD elements)

Creative Design Excellence in Entertainment Award Winner (2010):
Uncle Arable's Rooms (Bite-size lynchpins)

Technical Design Excellence in Concept Award Winner (2010):
Going in Circles (An infinite loop)

Technical Design Excellence in Concept Award Winner (2012):
Advanced Concepts 2-I made the Mirrors, Stalwarts and Hub levels
(More Tutorials and Challenges involving specific DROD elements)


The Grinfidel Quadrilogy:
Labyrinthitis (DROD:AE and JtRH versions available.)
The Domain of The Grinfidel (DROD:AE and JtRH versions available.)
The Hunt for The Grinfidel
The Final Confrontation

Easy/Moderate Lynchpin Puzzles (playable in DROD:AE)
Aurora's Palace

Tough puzzles and Shapeshifting:
Choose your adventure

Reflected Rooms and Mirrors:
Reflections

More challenging puzzles:
Beethro's Generic Quest

Tar-switcher and arrow-rotator tokens.
Token Effort

Pressure Plate based puzzles:
Deconstructed Dungeon

Rooms differing by just one tile (Contest compilation):
Missing Pieces

Fun with scripting:
Beethro's Bad Dream

Other levels in Collaborative Holds
DROD 5: The Second Sky
DROD 4: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder
DROD History Month Compilation
Way Forward
Copycat Contest Compilation
Doorless Hold Compilation
Invisibility Compilation
One Room Hold Compilation
Unfortunate Architect Compilation
Lunchbreak Special
Cheap Tricks Compilation

×I don't actually understand this point, or at least how it relates to my previous post.

I was saying that only 10 people voted total (according to the question about the favourite *room*). But when you total up the votes for a particular *level*, there are only 7 votes.

In other words, some people voted for their favourite room, but not the individual levels (which is kind of odd).

The specifics of the voting (e.g. that Larry voted 10 for whatever), are not relevant to my point.

Or am I missing something obvious?

×Entrance:

Boyblue: OK. 7.
Doom: OK. Much of the room lacks oremites, so it's less challenging than some other entries. 7
Larrymurk: OK. Nice minimalism, but it was not much fun manipulating the snake. 7
Penwielder: I like this. Though I couldn't see the US which did not use the mirrors. 8
Rheb: OK. Some clever elements. 7.
Techant: As pointed out, there are a number of places to kill the snake and goblin. Red door was not needed. 5.

1N:

Boyblue: Good puzzle. No wraithwings, but technically did not need any. 10
Doom: The intended solution was really good. However, there's another one. (let tarstuff grow once as gel, change to tar and cut some of it, then finish off with tar). Either way, it's a good room. Maybe you could correct the US for the final hold? 9.
Larrymurk: I liked this idea, but it doesn't seem to matter what the second tar switch is. 8
Penwielder: Quite good, but it's mostly a wraithwing manipulation puzzle. 7
Rheb: Didn't really get this one. Mainly wraithwing manipulation. 6.
Techant: Quite messy, and the switchers aren't integral and can be used more than once. 4.

1N1W:

Boyblue: Good. 9
Doom: Good. 9
Larrymurk: Elegant. 10
Penwielder: Clever use of mirrors, but quite messy and involves unintended solutions. 8
Rheb: Way too confusing for me, sorry. 6.
Techant: There's not really too much of a puzzle here, and bits work in unintended ways (e.g. In the bottom left section you don't need to use the hot tile). 5.

2N1W:

Boyblue: Nice. Fits description and has a simple lynchpin. 9
Doom: Not very forest-like. Not a bad room otherwise. 7.
Larrymurk: I liked the solution a lot. The description says the only "creature" in the room is a fegundo, but I'll let you off using a guard as it is used in a clever way! 10
Penwielder: Good. Clever misdirection with the lit-up path. 9.
Rheb: Cool, but quite hard. 10
Techant: Most of the room is not really involved in the solution. Just go up the left hand side. 6.

1N1E:

Boyblue: OK. 7.
Doom: OK. 7.
Larrymurk: It's immediately clear which direction to face, but it was still a fun room. 8.
Penwielder: Good. 9.
Rheb: Very clever. 10.
Techant: Very good. 8.

2N1E

Boyblue: Nicely done. 9,
Doom: I'm not a big fan of slayer manipulation and had to watch the demo, but some clever ideas used. 7
Larrymurk: Good solid room. Agree with the previous comment that clearing up at the end detracted though. 7
Penwielder: Pretty tough, but nice idea. 8.
Rheb: Too hard for me. Will give you the benefit of the doubt! 7
Techant: Didn't really work as intended. I don't think the decoys do anything useful, do they? 4

I liked the rooms that had the eyes starting on pressure plates. More elegant than starting next to them.

2N

Boyblue: Clever. 9.
Doom: Nice room. 9
Larrymurk: Straightforward idea (though not necessarily straightforward to solve). 8
Penwielder: Very clever – finding something to put on the pressure plates stumped me. 10.
Rheb: Pretty good. 8..
Techant: The rock giants and aumtlich weren't really used for anything, other than things Beethro had to kill. 5.

Each hold had some really great rooms and I enjoyed them all, so it's hard to pick a favorite.
Doom, Larry and Penwielder were all let down somewhat by some unintended solutions and areas that didn't really match the descriptions. But still liked them all, overall.
Some of Rheb's rooms were a bit too obtuse for me.
I agree that Techant's could have done with some more testing and was also let down by room tiles not connecting, unintended solutions etc. The highlight or hers was the waterskipper room.

×
Winner of the Erik Hermansen Award for Lifetime Architectural Achievement (2008)

Smitemasters' Selections:
Beethro and the Secret Society
Smitemastery 101 (A Hold for Beginners)

Other Holds

Layout and Aesthetics Award Winner (2006):
Figure or Ground (Multi-entrance room maze)

Most Promising Hold Award Winner (2007):
The Goblin (Monster-less puzzles)

Hold of the Year and Technical Design Excellence in Concept Award Winner (2008)
Advanced Concepts - I made the Goblins, Fegundos, Eyes and Potions levels
(Tutorials and Challenges involving specific DROD elements)

Creative Design Excellence in Entertainment Award Winner (2010):
Uncle Arable's Rooms (Bite-size lynchpins)

Technical Design Excellence in Concept Award Winner (2010):
Going in Circles (An infinite loop)

Technical Design Excellence in Concept Award Winner (2012):
Advanced Concepts 2-I made the Mirrors, Stalwarts and Hub levels
(More Tutorials and Challenges involving specific DROD elements)


The Grinfidel Quadrilogy:
Labyrinthitis (DROD:AE and JtRH versions available.)
The Domain of The Grinfidel (DROD:AE and JtRH versions available.)
The Hunt for The Grinfidel
The Final Confrontation

Easy/Moderate Lynchpin Puzzles (playable in DROD:AE)
Aurora's Palace

Tough puzzles and Shapeshifting:
Choose your adventure

Reflected Rooms and Mirrors:
Reflections

More challenging puzzles:
Beethro's Generic Quest

Tar-switcher and arrow-rotator tokens.
Token Effort

Pressure Plate based puzzles:
Deconstructed Dungeon

Rooms differing by just one tile (Contest compilation):
Missing Pieces

Fun with scripting:
Beethro's Bad Dream

Other levels in Collaborative Holds
DROD 5: The Second Sky
DROD 4: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder
DROD History Month Compilation
Way Forward
Copycat Contest Compilation
Doorless Hold Compilation
Invisibility Compilation
One Room Hold Compilation
Unfortunate Architect Compilation
Lunchbreak Special
Cheap Tricks Compilation