As I go to vote on all the entries, I'm posting my comments/scores into a secret in this post. It shouldn't open until after the voting period ends, because of course it will contain spoilers.
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Overarching thoughts:
As this IS a "ZelDROD Dungeon" contest, I want to score entires not just as DROD levels, but also by how well I feel they capture the spirit of "a Zelda dungeon". In my personal opinion, being a good dungeon means that (1) You explore a portion of the dungeon without its item, solving some of its puzzles but encountering others that you can't solve yet, and then (2) you get a cool new item that recontextualizes some of the stuff you've seen before and makes those puzzles you passed by earlier possible. In the context of DROD in particular, I expect an item to recontextualize some amount of "regular DROD elements" in some way, so that even rooms solvable without the item could theoretically be played with the item and solved in some different way.
With that said, here are some scores and rambling thoughts on each entry, in alphabetical order...
Cave of Power: 8/10
I'll agree that the idea of an "un-powerup" that makes everything harder is clever, but I don't necessarily like it. It certainly does recontextualize DROD gameplay overall, although the fact that you basically need to get the item before clearing a single actual room cuts what I would consider the "normal dungeon experience" in half--no pre-item part for you to wonder what new tool you're going to get to solve certain puzzles or open pathways with. It makes the level feel less like a zelda dungeon and more like a custom element showoff level.
Grand Gallery / Shooting Gallery: 10/10 (by authorial obligation)
I think everyone will have guessed that this was my entry, so here's a little bit of "architect's commentary" for it. Throughout the process of building the currently-existing fraction of Beethro's Awakening, I've pretty much crystallized my own way of thinking about how "Zelda + DROD" ought to work. It comes down to my understanding of how a Zelda game itself ought to work. Basically, there's a combination of "nagivation" (finding your way around the dungeon and dealing with things that open/close paths while you do so), "puzzles", and "riddles". I distinguish puzzles from riddles like this: By "puzzle", I mean something that exists entirely in terms of the game's mechanics. You have a set of elements and interactions, and need to arrange them in a way that achieves your goal. By contrast, a "riddle" is more about information and concepts--interpreting a hint in a clever way, lateral thinking, bringing information from one room to an entirely different one. This contest entry doesn't actually have much "navigation", but spices up the puzzles with a few riddles here and there, such as in 1E. The quiz to get the dungeon item is the biggest instance of a "riddle" in the level, although it is built so that you can easily restore to look up answers, and mostly you can get through by trial and error too. I'm reasonably proud of how it all turned out, except possibly the boss.
As far as the puzzles are concerned, I tried for a light theming of "control/deal with something at a distance". I mean, of course the item has you shoot things from a distance, but I was going for this theme even for several of the pre-item rooms.
The whole entry is intentionally a little absurd. I mean--the item is just "here's a literal GUN, now go shoot things with it." The dungeon map is also a gun shape! Its "plot" and "lore" is also supposed to be more funny than meaningful, and the boss is the culmination of all that ridiculousness. I think the first couple of phases work reasonably well, but overall the boss is a big pile of jank that was only tested by me, and the third phase is definitely more obtuse than intended in a couple of ways. I'll need to make some probably demo-breaking fixes come compilation time. Uh, speaking of which--there was also an oversight with the key routing that can make 1E and, ultimately, the dungeon item and all the rest of the rooms, inaccessible if you spend keys a certain way. I'll definitely be fixing that, too!
Laser Hollow: 10/10
Oh, hey, someone took my stupid "KILL LASER" from that chainless gentryii contest entry and made some serious modifications to it! I mean--I know that's what it is because it's still using my awful image-overlay laser graphics and that buzz sound+explosion effect when it kills things. But don't get me wrong, what the architect did to make all these new laser variations is awesome! The new elements reach a level of ridiculousness that I highly approve of. And the puzzles are all fun too! If there's one thing I'm disappointed by in this level, it's definitely the item. It doesn't open up much puzzle potential at all beyond the maze of the room you get the item in. It certainly has no meaningful interaction with the lasers, which are the big draw of the level. Ultimately, I feel like the item--and any rooms that use it--was included out of obligation more than anything else. That knocks off maybe half a point in my book, but I like the level for what it is enough to kind of give it a half-point of bonus to make up for that.
Power Grab: 7/10
Reasonably solid effort to make "permanent power token" a powerup, although pretty short. It doesn't really recontextualize much of anything since it just uses an already-extant DROD element in ways that you could also use it if, say, you just populated the entrance tiles of a room with power tokens. I feel like a better version of this idea would've been something like "press special command to TOGGLE the powertoken state!". The level's brevity prevents there from being much mystery about using the item, but you do at least backtrack the once to be able to get to 2N1E, I guess. The north row of rooms were alright, the rest didn't impress me much.
Sinking Feeling: 8/10
Another brief level that I think is maybe a little too quick to give out the item, but at least it's an interesting one. Toggling the shallow water state between wading and hiding recontextualizes shallow water in an interesting way and has plenty of puzzle potential. I found some of the puzzles too difficult for me, but they all seem to be pretty clever uses of the idea, at least.
Temperature Extremes: 6/10
I feel like this architect misunderstood the contest prompt, and thought it was necessary to make the room containing the item (which is mandatory to complete the level!) an actual secret room, complete with an unseeable secret-wall passage as the only way to reach it. The level is pretty short, and overall I didn't find the puzzles in it all that compelling, but the item is somewhat interesting, at least--kind of an "explosion sword" effect.
Temple of Blades: 10/10
Now, THIS is how you make a custom element that works with your dungeon item! The whole level is themed around a custom element which already has its own puzzle potential, but then you get the item and it recontextualizes that custom element! The level isn't giant (like mine, pfft), but it's big enough to build a sense of mystery about what the item will be and how it will make some rooms solvable, to have some puzzles you need to solve before getting the item, and then to also have some fun puzzles post-item-getting. I like the puzzles in this level too, even if I couldn't quite figure all of them out. I think, if you're not going to go with my "navigation/puzzles/riddles" style of Zelda+DROD, then this is absolutely a great way to go about it instead.
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109th Skywatcher
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[Last edited by Xindaris at 02-12-2024 06:27 PM]
