×
Walls tab:
wall, broken wall, secret wall
floor (and all variations: grass, dirt, etc.)
stairs
water, shallow water
pit
trapdoor (over pit and water)
platform (over water)
room clear gate (but not sister gate)
level clear gate (but not sister gate)
trapdoor gate (but not sister gate)
yellow door
bridge (used as floor, not as an element)
tunnel
pressure plate (on and off only)

Checkpoint tab:
force arrows (but not disabled force arrows)
checkpoint

Orb tab:
orb, cracked orb, broken orb
obstacle
light
scroll
withered briar (used as wall, not as an element)
bomb
fuse
soldier horn
squad horn

Roach tab:
roach
soldier
guard
roach queen
clone (but not clone potion)
rock golem
brain

×I rather liked all of the entries, and it felt like everything was at least pretty close to the intended mark on teaching and difficulty stuff, so my scores wound up pretty high for everyone.

Stone Canyon:
It's a little weird to introduce rock giants considering they're already introduced in Gunthro and the Epic Blunder. But, OK. This level's pretty fun, probably 9/10.
I found 2N1E to be the toughest room, maybe a 5 at most in that room with the rest being 3-4 so the difficulty is well enough balanced. The various aspects of giants get covered pretty well here. I liked this one alright.
Total: 9/10

Orthogonal Road:
My level . I've sort of wanted to make an orthosquare-themed level for a while now, and this felt like a good opportunity. disoriented was helpful in doing a bit of testing for me, resulting in 3S1E being made much easier and the harder, original version of the room becoming the room's challenge instead.
Autovote: 10/10

The Warm Place:
Bridges. Pretty good tell-by-showing stuff, easy but not trivial (well, the Entrance is trivial but feels like it's just an "exploration check" room mostly). I think this one's pretty solid overall, fun with the right level of difficulty and teaching.
Total: 10/10

Immersed Sanctuary:
I found this one to be a bit on the hard side, maybe 5-6 rather than the desired 4. It contains the only room I really got stuck on, which is probably not a good sign, and the manipulations needed in 1S1E are a bit much for a newbie to aumtlich. It does try to tell-by-showing the various traits of aumtlich, but I would've preferred at least a little bit of dialogue or narration explaining to the player what's going on mechanically, or at least what Gunthro is even doing here narratively. It's still pretty fun overall, which is tough to do sometimes given how frustrating aumtlich are able to make a room.
Total: 8/10

The Commander's Crypt:
The only entry other than mine that tried to create a level which might believably appear in an alternate reality version of Gunthro and the Epic Blunder, with a proper level introduction explaining what he's even doing there in the first place, some narration and dialogue, good stuff like that. Overall a good introduction to spikes, not too hard at all. I was going to write here that 1S2E was a bit tougher than the rest, but just now realized it's actually a secret room, so that's pretty appropriate I guess.
Total: 10/10

Running the Rapids:
Pretty good level. I think it could've used a few more rooms to fill it out, or maybe stood to be slightly more difficult in a couple of places. It does a good job of introducing the half-turn pressure plate mechanics but not as good a job of emphasizing the horde-fighting capabilities of the speed potion. 1N3W is extremely easy to do without the potion, and feels to me like it needed a brain or wider passages to really be interesting; 2N2W feels more like it's about teaching guard manipulation than it is about the speed potion at all, though I guess that technically isn't a bad thing. Then again, if I didn't already know how guard dancing works even the guide floors might not have been enough to help me understand why the guy was sometimes moving and sometimes not; I feel like guard turning mechanics is the kind of thing that really needs some text to explain what's going on somewhere.
Total: 7/10

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.

×I enjoyed these entries for the most part and think they were all pretty solid. I had a bit of a difficult time assessing Gunthro-ness of the entries since it's been a while since I played that hold. When it came time to vote I basically based how Gunthro-y an entry was on how close it came to Gunthro's difficulty level (4 to 5ish brains?) and how much the level aesthetics reminded me of Gunthro. and In general I thought the entries did a very nice job hitting the Gunthro level of difficulty. The aesthetics were more varied, and that aspect of the critiquing is probably more subjective anyway, but it probably only played a very minor role in my overall vote. I also will admit that I probably weighed my voting slightly more towards the "fun" than the "Gunthro-ness" since that was just a whole lot easier to evaluate. Probably more 60-40 than 50-50. Sorry mauve!

Stone Canyon
Choosing rock giants as an element was a bold move as Gunthro already had a pretty solid rock giant level. I think this level compares favorably to that one and did a very nice job with the theme. It also had a good Gunthro feel to it. I really liked the use of custom image walls. I'm not sure if that was an intentional callback to the lovely use of custom images in the beginning of Gunthro (Glum Cove 1N and 1N1E) but that's what it reminded me of. Either way, this one ranked very high on the Gunthro-ish scale.

There were some nice rooms in this one too. 1W and 2W were a bit tutorialy for my tastes, but most of the rooms after that were nice little puzzle rooms. 1n1w was probably the best of the entry, with a fairly simple puzzle that was still a lot of fun to execute. I'm usually not into rooms like 1n, but it wasn’t super fiddly at least.
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Orthogonal Road
This one felt more JtRH-ish than Gunthro-ish to me for some reason. Not just because of element selected, the layout and puzzle types also felt this way. That being said the level layout was nice and I enjoyed the bit of story this included. The difficulty also felt like it was pretty spot on for Gunthro with the possible exception of the overly fiddly 4s1e.

There were some nice rooms in this entry, but there were also a few that didn't do it for me. A lot of the early rooms felt a bit like tutorial for fighting on ortho squares. One thing I appreciated about Gunthro is that it never felt overly tutorially. The set of rooms in the 3S row was really nice though. I really enjoyed 3s1w and 3s due to fun brain pathing puzzles. 3s1e also nice, with some interesting manipulation challenges with the rock golems. 4s1e, a cute interaction but was a bit too fiddly to set up for my tastes. This type of behavior is interesting to see, but is maybe better material for "demo" rooms where the player doesn't have to dance around with soldier and guard manipulation to set it up. Lastly, how does one gain access to 4s1w? I had to play that one in the editor since I couldn't find a way to access it from the rest of the level.
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The Warm Place
This was one of my two favorites and probably the one that I hope would win between those two. The level layout was neat and reminded me a bit of some of the level designs in Gunthro (though I can't quite place why). The only thing holding it back I think was the fact that the Caldera room style just doesn't feel Gunthro-ish. That style fits the level nicely though so I can't say I'd want it any other way. The puzzle difficulty level was about right for Gunthro too.

I feel like this one did a good job of avoiding rooms that felt like tutorials. I never felt like the level was trying to "teach" at me.
There were a lot of nice rooms in this one, but I think my favorite was 1S (I like rooms where the puzzle is creating a workable setup then watching things unfurl.) 1N1W was another nice one, it does a good job of being both low difficulty and still interesting. 1S1W was also neat. All these rooms did a great job of staying relatively straightforward and not too difficult while still being interesting and fun.
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Immersed Sanctuary
This was my other favorite entry and probably the one I had the most fun with overall. The main thing holding it back was that it was probably slightly more difficult than the contest was aiming for. It's tough to decide since some of the later levels in Gunthro had tricky rooms in them too, but in the end I would probably rank this one slightly behind Warm Place for that reason. The aesthetics were nice though and somehow vaguely called to mind Englos Keep.

As I mentioned, this was probably the one I had the most fun with, and that's probably not entirely unrelated to the fact that it was a bit more on the tricky side than most of the other entries. Rooms like 2s1e and 3s1e were absolutely terrific. They weren't devilishly difficult, but the linchpins were just tricky enough to be interesting and satisfying while not becoming a brick wall at any point. The introductory rooms at the top of the level are a bit more straightforward, but never devolve into feeling tutorially and generally manage to remain interesting. Some of the rooms had what I imagine are unintended solutions, but that's pretty much inevitable in contest entries and I can't fault the architect for that.
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The Commander’s Crypt
This was an okay entry. It definitely felt like it was a bit too heavy on the basic combat rooms. Sure, those were heavily represented in some of the levels in Gunthro, but it still managed to detract from the overall fun of the level. A bit more variety and some more puzzly rooms would have been welcome. That being said, there were some nice rooms here and a few that I enjoyed quite a bit. 1S3E was possibly my favorite. Though the solution wasn't too hard to figure out, it was still fun working out exactly how to get everyone in the right place.

One thing I liked about this entry is that the level's aesthetics felt very Gunthro-esque. It reminded me a lot of the level in which bombs were introduced, which I think is quite appropriate for a level that introduces another kind of immobile hazard. I also thought the plot room at end of the level was a really nice touch. That definitely felt like something straight out of Gunthro.
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Running the Rapids
I wasn't sure what to make of this one. Was very short with only six rooms. On it's own, that's perfectly fine, but I definitely felt like many of those rooms were underdeveloped. The first three felt like basic speed potion tutorial rooms and possibly could have been either condensed into one room or expanded a bit. Next two rooms after that didn’t require speed potion at all (one of them acknowledges this with a challenge at least.) The final room, 2n2w, was interesting though. I feel like the level could have done with some more rooms like that and a maybe cutting out some of the earlier rooms.

The Layout definitely felt like something that could have been from Gunthro though, and I think the architect did a good job of capturing the feel of some of the Gunthro levels. The difficulty level in the last room also felt spot on for Gunthro.
------------------------------

×Skell's idea generator: http://forum.caravelgames.com/ideasGenerator/view
Challenges Scoreboard: http://forum.caravelgames.com/challenges.php
Level map viewer: http://forum.caravelgames.com/map.php
Tactical DROD game: http://forum.caravelgames.com/tsspreview.php
(Note: Requires Flash)
Room Element Search tool http://forum.caravelgames.com/roomsearch.php
(Search through all published holds for rooms with various elements.)
Room position Heat Map http://forum.caravelgames.com/heatmap.php
DROD has a wiki! http://drod.wikia.com/wiki/Deadly_Rooms_Of_Death_Wiki
Skell's super cool list of turn sequence stuff https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QS9Vk3xsd4jlGF23J8p7c2IM5cmhwmoe6eCEaaAn8jY/edit#heading=h.ocovx14zokm4

It's not listed in "help", but [attachment] will embed the whatever image is attached to a post.

×Stone Canyon

Very nice image walls A pretty good selection of low-difficulty rooms, although 2N1E depends too much on soldier unpredictability (interfering with his path so he makes the correct stab). Most rooms show one aspect of rock giants in a fairly straightforward way, as expected for a GatEB level.

Unfortunately, rock giants are already used in GatEB, which goes against the contest rubric. This could be tweaked into a stepping stones level easily enough, but at the moment not all rooms use stepping stones. So I have to take a point off for that.

Score: 4 + 4 = 8

The Orthogonal Road

Some good ideas here, but execution was hit-and-miss. Even the starter room, 1S, doesn't teach how to fight on orthosquares, but rather "often it's a good idea to get off the orthosquares!" Similarly, I could only solve 2S1W by retreating to the entrance corridor, which felt a bit cheap.

2S is broken. 3S was okay until it came to killing the roaches at the end, which got very hairy (fortunately the soldier helped out here!) In 4S1E I quickly realised I had to get the soldier and guard in an endless dance, but actually pulling that off was pure trial and error, and there was no checkpoint 3S1W was similarly fumbling about until something worked.

Score: 3 + 3 = 6

The Warm Place

Really nice rooms! This was my favourite level in terms of the variety of puzzles and linchpins, and they all felt appropriate for a GatEB level. My only complaint was a bit of poor checkpointing (fuse end in 1N1W, no-return force arrows in 1S and 1E, inaccessible tiles in 1W).

Unfortunately, I have to take a point off for the presence of decoys

Score: 5 + 4 = 9

Immersed Sanctuary

Aumtlich are tough. This level took me longer than any other, and I've had a lot of experience from other holds. I think someone who was new to aumtlich would find this nearly impossible. Key concepts such as avoiding beam intersections, the sidestep, the 2:1 dance, freezing aumtlich, and guiding them to desired locations are all present, but they're thrown at the player so rapidly that it's easy for the rooms to become very frustrating.

2S and 3S1E are good puzzles (although 2S needs better checkpointing) but way beyond the GatEB range. 3S is sadly broken.

Score: 3 + 2 = 5

The Commander's Crypt

Some nice rooms illustrating timing with respect to floor spikes, with a good range of puzzles and linchpins. This felt very appropriate for a GatEB level.

Score: 4 + 5 = 9

Running the Rapids

My entry. I think the rooms are okay, but it was clearly rushed (the bare minimum number of rooms and no intro text). Fortunately, mauvebutterfly has said it's okay for me to finish the level for the compilation.

×
As the contest coordinator, I did not vote in this contest. As such, I will not be providing scores for any of the entries, but I will comment on how well they fit in with the theme of the contest as I envisioned it.


Stone Canyon
First off, the rock giant was an element used within the main Gunthro hold, so this entry technically breaks the specifications. As an introduction to the rock giant, however, this was a pretty good entry. It showcases how giants break down into golems and that golems make stepping stones in shallow water (this is never used in GatEB; closest thing is with mirrors in the secret spider level.) I also loved how soldier horns were used in a bunch of rooms. Soldier horns definitely give bonus points in my book, since that's perhaps the most iconic part of the Gunthro hold. Shallow water sees lots of use elsewhere, but the horns don't. Using a soldier as an instructor to show how the element worked in the first giant room was pretty funny.

Overall, this was a pretty entry. It was fun, the element was introduced nicely, and the difficulty was at a good level. The only big issue is the use of the rock giant.

The Orthogonal Road
I was really happy to see orthosquares picked as someone's element. They are such a simple thing that has a lot of potential. I also really liked the use of soldier horns in this entry, showing that the horns are a cool element that should really be used more often. I thought that the aesthetic of this level was really cool, and the puzzles were interesting and fun to solve.

Really, my only complaint with this entry would be the difficulty. It's not unreasonable by any means, but a few of the rooms have some tricky manipulation required. Fortunately, aside from making the guard partner with a soldier in a dance (I didn't even know you could do that! Orthosquares are weird.) most of the trickier manipulation was left to challenges. I still felt this entry was a little bit above the expected difficulty for this contest though.

Is the secret room broken? I found it to be pretty trivial, and would have considered the "brained guard" room to be a better candidate for the secret, since that's the only room that really gave me any trouble in this entry.

The Warm Place
Bridges! Another simple element that was used to make some good puzzles. I've never been a fan of bridges, but this entry showed a number of ways to make interesting puzzles with them. The entry introduces them in a clear way and uses them in a bunch of simple but fun puzzles.

Difficulty-wise, this level felt perfect. Nothing was trivial, but everything could be figured out without too much time or effort. I don't have much more to say other than that this entry did everything pretty much perfectly.

Well... it did use pre-placed decoys in a few rooms, which were an unknown element. I felt that what the decoys did in those rooms was pretty obvious, and obviously the complexity of the decoy largely comes from the huge problem space created when drinking a potion and needing to place the decoy somewhere, which pre-placing them gets around nicely. I would have liked to see Gunthro or Beethro comment on the roach being stuck because of the first decoy though, just to really call it to the player's attention and to name the decoy for what it is without the player having to right-click on it.

Immersed Sanctuary
This was an impressive effort for an introductory aumtlich level. The three introductory rooms blew me away with how carefully everything was set up to force certain player interactions. Forcing the player to get stunned in the very first turn was a good idea, since the player needs to realise that they can still rotate to protect themselves and break the stun. Showing the aumtlich getting stunned by a reflected beam off the sword was especially clever.

I thought that this entry had a pretty cool aesthetic too.

The difficulty here is frankly unreasonable for a Gunthro entry. The room with the three golems was clever, but well beyond what could be expected in GatEB. I never found out what the intended solution to the normal/secret pair of rooms was, since those rooms are broken, but they looked like they would have been a lot more demanding than I would have liked. Finally, while the aumtlich dance is familiar to most of us by now, expecting a player to get an aumtlich to stand still on a single tile pressure plate while backing away from it is really a skill that required an introduction before being used in rooms that were largely supposed to be demonstrational. Puzzles that didn't require fine manipulation of the aumtlich would have fit the contest a lot better I think.

The Commander's Crypt
This is my entry. My original concept actually would have broken the rules by introducing two separate elements: floor spikes and Halph. The Misremembered Crypt was going to start with Halph complaining that Beethro was retelling his most boring story, Beethro challenging Halph to tell it better, and Halph taking over as narrator and inserting himself into the story while Beethro heckles him for his inconsistent storytelling.

When compiling a list of floor spike interactions I realised that I didn't need to use Halph at all, and figured it would probably look bad if the contest organiser couldn't even follow the rules, so I ended up cutting Halph out. I tried to keep this entry as simple as possible, so I restricted myself to elements that appeared before the Glum Cove hub. The main puzzle idea that got cut by this decision was guiding a roach through floor spikes so that it would step on a pressure plate, since pressure plates hadn't been introduced yet at that point in the story.

Running the Rapids
I was never a big fan of the speed potion (as in it might actually be my least favourite element in all of DROD) but there were some good rooms here. My issue with the speed potion is that it feels like a cheat that lets you do things you shouldn't be able to do, and since I assume that this is why most people like the element, I'm glad to see that this was put to good use in this entry. Manipulating a roach queen into a specific place is so much easier with a speed potion. Dealing with hordes is another case where the potion shines, although the horde room in this entry was really easy even without taking the potion.

The stand-out room here is of course the room with the guard. Unlike with the aumtlich dance in the aumtlich entry, I felt that the guard dance was much more appropriate here. There are two main reasons for this: the floor tiling making it really obvious how the guard will react, and the potion making moving around quite forgiving. (I also removed the potion in the editor and played around with this room a bit, and am pretty sure the room is impossible without the potion.)

I felt like the room dealing with the timing of pressure plates popping up was a bit unfair, and the entry was short by one room to meet the contest specifications. Difficulty-wise I think the entry was good for the most part.

×
My Published Holds
Smitemasters' Selection - Finding the First Truth
Smitemasters' Selection - Treacle Stew
My YouTube Channel - Leylite

Holds I contributed levels to

Advanced Concepts
Advanced Concepts 2
Blind Race #1: On Your Marks
The Custom Element Contest Compilation
Doorless Hold Contest Compilation
DROD Flash Project Audition
DROD History Month
Elemental Showcase
Elemental Showcase 5.0
Good, Bad and Ugly Contest Compilation
King Dugan's Alternate Reality
Labyrinth of Mellenfral (unpublished contest compilation)
Lunchbreak Special
Lunchbreak Special 2 (unpublished contest compilation)
Take Five
The Mining Business
Twelve Days of Christmas
Way Forward

Holds in the Making

...MYSTERY PROJECT

Styles

Workshop - DROD 5.0
Voids - DROD 3.0
Cavern Redux - DROD 2.0
Laboratory - DROD AE
Snakepit - DROD AE
Twenty-Sixth Level - DROD AE

× Orthosquares make it easy to stand in one place and have the guard pace uselessly, and from there the movements to get out from under him and leave the pair of other swordsmen in a dance never really seemed that hard to me. I don't really consider myself very good at manipulating guards, so I suppose it's just a matter of being the architect and building a room based on something I stumbled into and the assumption other people also would do the same, when apparently it's not as easy to discover as I thought.

×take another look around the level after you clear it.

×MyScript Primer and Reference!

My First Hold, also the first published!
Persistence, a mini-hold about returning to rooms.
The Spacetime Kerfluffle, a mini-hold I made once.
Variations, a collab hold I'm managing.
Beethro's Awakening Preview, Zelda and DROD?!

Alphabet Stream info, about my stream thing I do sometimes.