Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1638
Registered: 09-04-2014
IP: Logged

File: Infinite Puzzles.hold (44.2 KB)
Downloaded 89 times.
License: Public Domain

All right folks. We have all our entries compiled into one big hold and they're ready for voting. If you by any chance just happened to click on this thread and have no idea what I'm writing about, you can check out the original contest description here

You'll have fourteen rooms to check out. But don't panic! Unlike most architecture contests, you won't have a tough time solving any of these rooms. The rooms were solved before they were even built! A set of demos for each room in the hold can be found attached to the post below this one. So download the demos after you've downloaded the compilation attached to this post. Then sit back and enjoy watching someone else solve each room. Press F6 while in game to watch a demo for a room. You'll have to click on "Import Demo" to upload the demos from the demo file. After you've watched the demos, you may want to give each of the rooms a try too just for fun. And I might recommend checking out a few of the rooms in the editor as well just to see what makes them tick.

Notes: Most of the entries were for 1N (the Rube Goldberg room). There were three entries for 1W. The demo for 1W was based on a demo for King Dugan's Dungeon Level 15 1S,2W
None of the contestants knew that ahead of time, though two of them managed to guess. There was one lone entry for 1S, the room with an entirely made up demo. Lastly, there was a room submitted for the entrance as well. I know I said not to do that in the original contest thread, but I figured, what the heck, so it's included in the compilation.

Voting for this contest is going to be interesting. I would discourage you from voting based on the perceived difficulty of a given room since the solution to the room was specified ahead of time. It may be a bit difficult to compare rooms that were based on different demos. Feel free to discuss voting criteria below. Remember, 10 is the best possible score for a room while 1 means you thought the entry was absolutely horrid. As usual, please vote 10 for your own entry. Voting will be closed in about a week, or whenever the poll thingy says it will.

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[Last edited by Insoluble at 11-09-2015 03:58 PM : fix lots of typos and mistakes]

Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1638
Registered: 09-04-2014
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File: October Contest voting.demo (3.8 KB)
Downloaded 74 times.
License: Public Domain

And here are some demos. There's a very good chance I messed up recording and attaching these somehow. The demos for the rooms based on 1N are all pretty quick since I just mashed crtl wait until 150 moves was up. I really wish I could say I came up with a clever way to record the demos for the rooms based on 1W and that I did not, in fact, have to write each move down and painstakingly type them back in.

By the way, for those of you who didn't know this, you can use the left and right arrow keys by default to move one turn forward and one turn backward in a demo. I would strongly recommend this for the 1N based rooms so that you can enjoy the craziness going on in them at your own pace.

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[Last edited by Insoluble at 11-09-2015 08:30 AM]

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3734
Registered: 12-28-2004
IP: Logged

File: ThemBollocks.jpg (89.1 KB)
Downloaded 800 times.
License: Public Domain

Insoluble wrote:
And here are some demos. There's a very good chance I messed up recording and attaching these somehow. The demos for the rooms based on 1N are all pretty quick since I just mashed crtl wait until 150 moves was up. I really wish I could say I came up with a clever way to record the demos for the rooms based on 1W and that I did not, in fact, have to write each move down and painstakingly type them back in.

You should've told me, I'd have prepared the demos for you easily.

Insoluble wrote: The demo for 1W was based on a demo for King Dugan's Dungeon Level 15 1S,2W [...] None of the contestants knew that ahead of time, though two of them managed to guess.

I call bollocks! Screenshot done in private mode so I wasn't logged in:




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Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1638
Registered: 09-04-2014
IP: Logged

skell wrote:
You should've told me, I'd have prepared the demos for you easily.

Well, thanks for the offer at least skell. I figured someone with admin powers would probably be able to do it, but it was pretty late when I put this together. It was already way past the artificial deadline I stupidly set for myself and no one was logged in to chat. Now I know for next time at least!

skell wrote:
I call bollocks! Screenshot done in private mode so I wasn't logged in:

Hunh? I could have sworn I put unhidetime tags in there but now they appear to be missing. ????
EDIT: Now that I think about it, I don't know if I updated those tags when I pushed back the deadline. But I'm certain they were there in the original post.

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[Last edited by Insoluble at 11-09-2015 02:03 PM]

jamesdenem
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 203
Registered: 07-03-2006
IP: Logged

I can attest to the room being hidden until the original time for puzzle submission. The room name was not hidden when the extension was added.

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skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3734
Registered: 12-28-2004
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My comments. Please try to not read them before voting to not influence your own vote and to not learn which were my entries:


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scorched
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 10
Registered: 10-19-2011
IP: Logged

I cleared the 3N1E, but got into the trap of the "exit" at the left. Don't repeat my mistake!

LeoS
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 276
Registered: 04-02-2015
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File: IP Infinite Puzzles 3N Victory alt 1.demo (1.8 KB)
Downloaded 40 times.
License: Public Domain

Did I understand the scroll in 3N correctly? If so this demo and the following may suffice, but I'm not sure they're in the spirit of the challenge.

LeoS
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 276
Registered: 04-02-2015
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File: IP Infinite Puzzles 3N Victory alt 2.demo (1.8 KB)
Downloaded 40 times.
License: Public Domain

second demo attached

Someone Else
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1300
Registered: 06-14-2005
IP: Logged

In 2N1W, Beethro still speaks at the exits if the room is clear.

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[Last edited by Someone Else at 11-09-2015 11:46 PM]

Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1638
Registered: 09-04-2014
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And that's a wrap! Congratulations to all the contestants, there were some very interesting entries, and I certainly enjoyed watching all the demos. Thanks also to everyone who checked out the compilation and demos and who voted. Here are our winners:

First Place (along with 100 rank points and a prize from the Prize Pile) goes to Someone Else for 3N. This room pulls off the magical feat of both being fun while simultaneously using a stalwart! Totally amazing job Someone Else, your first place prize is well deserved.

Second Place (along with 50 rank points) goes to jamesdenem for 1N2E and a clever room in which you get to follow the hi-jinks of some roaches and mud babies as they wander around and eventually all get themselves killed in spike and fire traps.

Third Place (along with 25 rank points) goes to Dragon Fogel for 3N1E for a room with quite a few fun things going on that ends with a terrifying gentryii chasing you down.

In addition to the prizes above, this was the first official contest for Xindaris which is worth 10 rank points. We didn't have any 8-timer prizes this time around, but hey, everyone who entered is one step closer! Nice job to all!

Here's the full list of contestants and rooms going counterclockwise from the entrance.

Entrance    Dragon Fogel
1S          LeoS
1W          LeoS
1N1W        jamesdenem
2N1W        skell
3N          Someone Else
3N1E        Dragon Fogel
3N2E        King Cookie
3N3E        LeoS
3N4E        Xindaris
1N4E        skell
1N3E        LeoS
1N2E        jamesdenem
1N1E        Disoriented

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Dragon Fogel
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2434
Registered: 06-21-2014
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Neat, third place. Glad people liked my room!

I never really intended the Entrance to be an actual entry, though I don't mind it being included. It was just a thing I whipped up quickly as a bit of a warm-up.

I wanted to do something for all the rooms, but I ended up finding it hard to wrap my head around a moving player. Then again, the second room I tried was 1E and nobody else made an entry for that one, so maybe I just picked the hardest room to work with.

Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1638
Registered: 09-04-2014
IP: Logged

Dragon Fogel wrote:
I wanted to do something for all the rooms, but I ended up finding it hard to wrap my head around a moving player. Then again, the second room I tried was 1E and nobody else made an entry for that one, so maybe I just picked the hardest room to work with.

I think you're not the only one to have difficulty with this. Almost all of the entries were for 1N, so very few people actually designed rooms around a demo in which the player actually moves around. In retrospect, I think the idea of designing a room around a specific demo is more interesting in theory than it is in practice. I didn't actually attempt to build anything though, so I would love to hear more about the experiences of those who actually entered in the contest. Especially those of you who worked on the 1W and 1S demos.

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Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5381
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Rank points have been sent out for those who earned them. Thanks for playing, and thanks to Insoluble for hosting!


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Someone Else
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1300
Registered: 06-14-2005
IP: Logged

Thanks everybody! I admit to being kinda surprised that I won; the trickiest part of designing my room was devising the lock that kept the player from moving and I honestly thought that you would be incapable of turning your sword. The 'intended' alternate solution was bumping the orb on the one turn you could before it was destroyed.

Also, there are some seriously weird things in the Stalwart code; I would add unrelated walls and the stalwart would change his mind about what he was doing.

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Thank you, Matt, for awarding the points, to all the contestants for participating, and congratulations to all those who placed!

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LeoS
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 276
Registered: 04-02-2015
IP: Logged

Hello everyone - Here are some comments based on notes I made while scoring the entries and before voting (secreted for space):

Skell, I agree that the defining feature of a Rube Goldberg room should be one thing happening at a time and, ideally, 'completable' by just imagining the sequence of events.
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Now for some of my thoughts/experiences on building 1w & 1S (more space secrets)

As far as the idea that building around a demo being "more interesting in theory" goes, I can see this theme revisited but with shorter demos, like 50-100 moves, and possibly having some elements already built into Beethro's path (or not, like a monster you have to lure into the demo's path). I also like the idea of using a demo from an existing room as the template; I was eager for 1W's reveal, to see what kind of (presumably) simple, normal room it really was.

Insoluble, thanks! This was fun.. Cheers!

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[Last edited by LeoS at 11-26-2015 12:11 AM : what's in a (screen)name?]