DezzTech
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 327
Registered: 03-31-2009
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File: Boxed Roaches.hold (57.8 KB)
Downloaded 56 times.
License: Public Domain

So I know, right now everyone is probably playing TSS (and I can't blame them! It's soo good), but here's a little something I made, that I wanted to post anyway.

While working on a more "normal" hold, I've made a puzzle that involved shuffling roaches around one row or column at a time to get them into their designated places. And then I realised, that it would be a shame to have just a single room like that, considering how much puzzle potintial this has.

This is a really simple concept but I haven't seen anything like it yet. Although I have a feeling that someone had probably made something similar already, considering how simple the concept really is. (I hope not, though)

So as I said, the general idea of these puzzles is to move roaches around from one cage to another, shifting one row or column at a time. The thing that makes this more interesting is that you can only shift in one direction. So if you shifted the roaches north, you can't shift them back south. Same for west/east.

However, I understand that this is ought to get boring after a while, so I made some interesting (hopefully) variations to the idea. The most obvious one is to be able to shift roaches in all directions. And then being able to shift them diagonally, and then having some "gaps" in the cage grid, and more various things. You can see some of that (and more) in the hold already.

I'm bad at explaining so if you have no idea what I'm talking about, um, just download and play, it should be pretty obvious.

Also, if anyone is interested, the hold currently is set to "Anyone edit" and there is a level named "Templates" which contains guess what. If you want you can make your own puzzles like these and use in your holds. Or if for some reason you want that, you can ask me to add your puzzle to my hold (with credit, of course!).

Also I should mention that this hold is actually for GatEB, since I started working on it before TSS was released. I now kinda want to continue making in for TSS, but I really don't want to spoil any new elements for me in the editor. So I guess I will continue working on this hold after I finish TSS.

By the way, if you want to see the first puzzle like this that I made check out the "Packed Roaches" level in the editor. (Yes, the level names are intentionally that silly)

Soo that's about it, thanks for your attention, hope you enjoy my hold. Have fun!

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[Last edited by DezzTech at 07-08-2014 05:06 PM]

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5082
Registered: 02-20-2007
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First level complete

Very nice concept, and most of the puzzles were fun. 2W and 1S2W seem to be exactly the same puzzle, and anyway by this point I was a little bored of the "vanilla" puzzles - but the remaining puzzles on the western wing were excellent. (There should probably be a mechanism to suggest or enforce that the player do the easier eastern ones first.)

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50th Skywatcher

DezzTech
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 327
Registered: 03-31-2009
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2W and 1S2W seem to be exactly the same puzzle

Oh riiight, I completely forgot that I wanted to replace both 2W and 1S2W with different puzzles (since there's a secret room in 2S2W that's a harder version of these). Thanks for reminding.

Also, looking at the second level I just realised that maybe I made too many rooms? (And it's not even finished yet!) I don't really know, I just really wanted to explore the concept as fully as possible.

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johansl
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 13
Registered: 01-20-2006
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File: Boxed_Roaches_L2-2S.png (696.4 KB)
Downloaded 54 times.
License: Public Domain

L2-2S
Maybe I'm missing something but it doesn't look like Roasted Roaches - 2S is solvable...

I got all the roaches in the yellow boxes but when I release them, one get's stuck behind the middle bottom gate....

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[Last edited by johansl at 06-30-2014 07:48 PM]

DezzTech
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 327
Registered: 03-31-2009
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Oh, thanks for this, I totally missed that, I'll fix it ASAP.

EDIT: Okay, fixed. Hopefully there are no more embarassing bugs like that.

The download in the first post is updated.

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[Last edited by DezzTech at 07-01-2014 06:23 AM]

bomber50
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 872
Registered: 09-18-2006
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This is a well-designed hold with a fun wonderful concept and good execution. I agree with Nuntar that it might be best to get players to do the Eastern rooms first. I would also suggest that the first room explain the concept slightly better; when I first tried it, I got how I could move the roaches after about two orbs hits, but I didn't notice that I needed to put the roaches in specific boxes until about a minute later. It then took a few rooms later until I noticed the lighting effects which showed this.

Absolutis
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 10
Registered: 09-05-2009
IP: Logged

DezzTech wrote:
... bugs ...

hhhehehe

DezzTech
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 327
Registered: 03-31-2009
IP: Logged

Update!
Hold is now in 5.0!

Added some scrolls explaining things in FR: Entrance.
Finished RR.
In RR I changed the killing method from burning roaches on hot tiles to fire traps (Old method was too slow IMO and the new one still fits the level theme). Hot tiles are still present purely for aesthetic reasons.
Started ER. 13 rooms done so far.

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Jacob
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3754
Registered: 10-01-2004
IP: Logged

Have played through a few of these.

It is a nice idea and well implemented, with nice architecture, but I feel that this would probably work best as part of a larger hold, rather than an entire hold based around the one idea.

e.g. each level of the hold would include one or two of these puzzles amongst others, increasing in difficulty/complexity with each level (cf the decoy slider puzzles in GJL)

Edit: Also, since some players will have alpha blending turned off, you should have an alternative indicator of which the target boxes are, since that is an essential part of the puzzle mechanic.

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New to DROD? You may want to read this.
My Holds and Levels:

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[Last edited by Jacob at 07-08-2014 11:53 PM]