×First Level:
So..I guess the idea is "
make a terrible KDD-era style "
copy and paste level 1 then change it radically"
level, but with briar, then make plot to blame all the bad design decisions on a dumb character while the player character is just as annoyed by all of it as the player is"
. As far as that idea goes, I guess you executed it well? There were some decent puzzles, although I generally found it aggravating just how much some of the rooms force you to do one specific sequence of movements in exactly the right amount of time Or Else. I gave up at trying to do the 2N trapdoors, which just seem impossible, and explored the rest in the editor; even past that I have absolutely no idea how the spider room is supposed to work. I guess the joke is sort of funny, except for when it becomes a little too tedious to really enjoy anymore. Also, it's very irritating that it's missing a way to just go back to hub, though I can sort of understand how the ultra-linear design of the level would make this difficult.
7/10
Twentieth-and-a-Half Level: My entry!
The description/exit text contains a reference the Mathologer video "
How not to die hard with math"
, or at least to the techniques/concepts explored in that video. I figured shallow water theming fit well with the whole fluid filling/rearranging puzzle concept, and I thought Beethro deserved to finally have his leaf juice just how he wanted it in this alternate reality.
In building the level itself, it was amazing just how often I found snakes to be the best answer to "
how do I build this enforcement mechanism with these elements?"
2S2E also gets special mention for being a room where I really wanted a black door, but couldn't have it, so instead I had to make something that I knew someone would probably break. Well, at least the breaking isn't *too* trivializing.
Auto: 10/10
Rusted Out:
"
Aren't you an odd case of a threat"
is a really bizarrely constructed sentence. Apart from that, I loved this level. Nothing overly taxing, just some solid, simple construct puzzles. I may have broken the goblin room; I just pushed him out of the 'cage' and killed him when he stepped on a diagonal force arrow.
10/10
Slivlet Keep:
Overall a pretty good level; I'm generally impressed with the variety of requirements you managed to impose with such a limited set of elements. Some of the rooms are a little "
unnecessary horde and THEN real puzzle"
-ey for my tastes, and the loop in 4N2W is just way too long, made it kind of tedious to repeatedly catch up the rattlesnake in it. I appreciated the joke/reference in 3N2W. I solved all but 1N1E and 3N1E, and
then discovered that you forgot to put in stairs back to the contest hub
9/10
Deadly Rocks of Death:
Just lovely. An excellent step-by-step "
tell by showing"
introduction to rock golems, with low to moderate difficulty throughout. Notable in that this seems to be the only entry that
exclusively uses its introduced monsters, as opposed to placing them alongside other ones like snakes, roaches, etc., although it's possible this further limited the opportunity to make enforcement mechanisms for a trickier puzzle or two.
10/10
Staffing Problems:
Pretty interesting puzzles all around. You managed to make a puzzle out of multiple wraithwings that wasn't horrendous in 1W, which I consider an accomplishment in itself. I don't like 2N much, and I don't think I get how 1E is supposed to work, but overall I liked the rooms. Some of them maybe could've used a point after the puzzle is effectively solved at which the player can take the sword back, such as 1N2W. Also, missing exit to hub stairs.
9/10
Seven-Point-Ninety-Ninth Level:
A bit of a mixed bag for me. Some of the rooms like 1S are clever with nice ideas or at least a good "
gotcha"
somewhere; others like 1S3E are just sort of tedious but not hard to figure out; still others like 1S2E just sort of "
exist"
. Also, I just happened to choose room exits in such a way that 1S was all that was left once I was waaay at the east end of the level, and the trek to 1S and back was kind of a pain. If the ordering of the rooms is intentional, I still wish there were slightly more "
green door shortcuts"
to prevent this sort of thing.
7/10
King Dugan's Service Staircase:
Absolutely amazing. I love the clever uses of open green doors throughout, the references to the "
original"
descriptions of all the levels, and the puzzles are all pretty nice. I'm stuck on all of the ones that involve "
doing some manipulation on trapdoors"
, funnily enough.
10/10
I enjoyed it, and it certainly gave the right feel.
