I just wanted to say that I very much enjoyed participating in this contest, (both as a contestant, and as an observer playing through the wonderful holds that were designed.) I liked all these holds a lot. Each one did a good job showcasing aspects of it highlighted element. Like many of you I was really surprised to see two holds focusing on thin ice, an element that I hadn’t thought much about. Even more surprising was how much I enjoyed these two holds. I’ve grown to appreciate some of the subtlety of this element.
I also find it interesting that the four holds focusing on constructs were all very different. Some of the same properties and tricks were used, but in very different ways. I like that these holds tended to be very different from the TSS construct levels. No one built rooms that depended on stalling constructs on a 1 by 2 obstacle (a trick used quite a bit in TSS) and there were very few rooms that depended on killing a massive hoard of constructs within the 30 turn limit (again, already thoroughly explored in TSS). Instead, we saw some more subtle construct properties exploited and mixed in interesting ways with the other new elements. I may be biased though since constructs were my favorite new element!
So looking back at some previous contests, it seems to be fairly common to offer opinions on the holds after the fact. I would love any feedback on my entry, constructive or otherwise.
So here are my thoughts (such as they are) about the individual holds (secreted for length.)
Click here to view the secret text
×
The 4 Great Ways to use it: 6/10
Three of the rooms had nice clear designs with a clear goal. The execution of said goal was enjoyable and overall it was a fun hold.
I’m not sure 1W did what you intended. It wasn’t too difficult to solve, but there seem to be a whole lot of elements that don’t really get used for much. The bomb seems to be completely useless. What was the intended solution? I feel like my solution was too simple or that I somehow missed something.
Favorite room: 1N. I liked the overall design of this room to look like a construct, and it was a lot of fun finding ways of herding the constructs around to where they needed to be. This was a very fun room. 1S was a close runner up.
Gears within Gears: my hold
This was my hold, so there's not much to comment about. Building this hold was quite a humbling experience for me. I did a lot of play testing, and was pretty sure the rooms did what I wanted them to, but it turns out about half of my rooms had unintended solutions! I’m a bit frustrated with myself for not catching these, but I guess I’ve at least learned a bit about designing a hold. I also wish I had been a bit more strategic in placing checkpoints. Two of the checkpoints in 1S are on precisely the two tiles you can’t step on if you want to solve the room! Oh well, I hope me next hold is better, and appreciate any constructive feedback anyone might have.
Even More Fluf: 7/10
I love the name/roomstyle/opening text combo! Hilarious! Overall the rooms were nicely laid out and pleasingly symmetric. I enjoyed everything but the hoard room in 1N but that may just be my short attention span for hoard rooms. The scroll on entry was interesting. I appreciate the advice on difficulty, but have to say I disagree about which rooms were the easier ones and which ones were harder. I suppose that’s pretty subjective though.
Favorite room: 1S1W. This was a nice linchpin room with the fun trick of multiple weapon swaps between Bethro and the mimic. It’s also a nice application of the fact that pickaxes can destroy construct corpses.
Fluffy Factory: 6/10
I thought this hold had two very solid rooms (1N and 1S) mixed with two rooms that were a bit too simplistic for my tastes (1E and 1W). Although 1E and 1W rather straightforward, they at least do a good job of pointing out some fluff immune monsters (I built a whole hold for constructs without realizing they are immune to puffs!) On the whole the rooms were tightly composed in a way that reminded me of peripheral rooms of the TSS More Fluff level.
Favorite room: 1N. Simple looking and minimalistic, but you have to solidly understand snake movement and time things precisely to account for horizontal/vertical preference and fluff growth. Nice room!
Frosty Cabin: 8/10
I liked the way this hold was laid out with tutorial puzzles in the middle to indicate how thin ice differs from trapdoors. The puzzles rooms encircling these were really fun too. I think this and the other thin ice hold really took “showcase” to heart and did a very nice job exposing me to some of the subtleties of thin ice. That earned it some extra points in my book. I look forward to your implied wraithwing follow up!¬¬¬¬¬
Favorite room: 1N2E was my favorite for having to set up the path just right for the roaches to come to you without trapping yourself. It took me a bit to work out the trick of having the first roach set off the top pressure plate for you again and having both roaches out at once. I’m also a sucker for snake puzzles and very much enjoyed 4E.
Interlude: Scorching Path: 7/10
On the whole I liked the aesthetics and plot of this hold a lot. It had a very nice cohesiveness to it. Some of the puzzles were just okay, but it made up for this with atmosphere, scripting, and plot (interestingly enough, I feel the same way about the original TSS level on which this is based.)
I liked the storyline and getting to play as 23rd engineer. I think it’s pretty cool that 2N and 3N1E both somehow manage to be very different rooms even though they can both be described as rooms in which an engineer guides fegundos through fire traps.
Favorite room: 2N. I enjoyed having to plan out the tight flight paths with precision timing.
Lord of Time: 8/10
I very much liked the scripting and who doesn’t love a Dr. Who themed hold! (DrwhOOd?) The puzzles were fun and quite tricky to carry out. The layout and atmosphere for each of the rooms was very nice too. A lot of thought was put into both the puzzles and the aesthetics.
I really wanted to vote this a 10/10, but Silence in the Library put me off. It relies on a somewhat gimmicky trick, and I would never have gotten it if I hadn’t read about it in the bugs sub-forum. I suppose that’s more on me for being less well informed of some of the more abstruse interactions in the game. But still, perhaps it would have been better to give some sort of hint to the player that tunnels and time clones work this way? I’ll admit though, that once you know the trick, it’s actually a very fun room. This was only a minor gripe and I still absolutely loved this hold
Favorite room: Fires of Pompeii. It took me forever to figure out the execution even once I figured out what I had to do, but it was still exceptionally fun the whole time. I love difficult rooms like this that are somehow very hard to figure out but never leave you feeling overly frustrated. I learned a lot about movement order & pushing with the staff.
Favorite episode: Blink. Weeping Angels were probably the best new monster introduced since the series was revived don’t you think! I’ll bet you could concoct an interesting scripted monster based on these (that will only move towards Bethro when he is facing away.)
Rise of the Machines: 9/10
These puzzles were terrific. Very nice linchpin puzzles with a nice layout on the whole. Most rooms had at least a couple of layers to the puzzle or task to be carried out which was a lot of fun. 2N 1 W was perhaps a bit too busy, but all the other rooms were very cleanly laid out. All in all, this is the hold that reminded me the most of TSS.
I want to mention one thing that I appreciate about this hold. The rooms were tough and many took me a long time to figure out. But due to their multiple component puzzle design, I constantly felt like I was making progress. I didn’t get frustrated the way I often do in excessively difficult rooms. I really appreciated this and thought it was terrific design!
Favorite room: I keep going back and forth between 1N and 1W. Both were loads of fun. I like the way 1N gives you a great feel for the similarities and differences between constructs and golems. But I also love the twist to 1W and the use of both oremites and pushable objects with the constructs.
Temperature Anomaly: 8/10
I absolutely loved the use of Caldera room style with snow weather effect for a thin ice themed level. It looked beautiful. The rooms were nicely designed on the whole too. I like that both paths started out with a demonstration to show how thin ice differs from trapdoors over water. The puzzles were quite fun, and there was a nice range in difficulty levels. As I mentioned before, I think both thin ice holds were very smartly set up so that I learned some aspect of the element then got to apply it to a puzzle room. I almost felt like I was playing the “Advanced Concepts” thin ice annex.
Favorite room: 1N1W. I love the way the room to the south both prepares you for this room, and completely gives you the wrong idea for how to solve it! I’m not usually into hoard manipulation rooms, but this one was a lot of fun given the mechanics of the golems and thin ice.
Gentryii Prizon: 6/10
Okay, looking back on things now, my rating for this is probably not reflective of the objective quality of this hold. There were some nice puzzles in this one, but most of them were just beyond my ability. I had a hard time rating this one. The first few rooms were not too difficult (perhaps they were meant to be tutorial rooms for what follows?), but everything after that was frustratingly hard for me. I think that’s more of a reflection of my skills than anything else though. I managed to finally complete all but two rooms in the end, but that’s with a lot of help and hints from others (EDIT: including as I just realized, the hold's architect! Thanks again for the help Crimson Moon!) I found a lot of these rooms to be frustrating, and when I did finally solve some of the more difficult ones; it was more just a case of trial and error. But again, I think that’s just a reflection of my skill level as a player and my personal tastes.
I liked the design and layout of the hold though. I also liked the way the three platform rooms followed each other and each one stepped up the difficulty level from the last.
____________________________
Links to neat forum tools that I always have trouble finding:
Click here to view the secret text
[Last edited by Insoluble at 12-10-2014 02:51 AM : Shout out to C.M for the online help]
