Stefan
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Rabscuttle wrote:
Restricted Resources (#3) 1W

Click here to view the secret text

×I can't get the goblin past the SE serpent. Has anyone completed this room?

Tim wrote:
About #4 entrance: I would not be surpise if it is set to required. (This is a common bug that can exist when holds are being copied, besides the stairs bug.) So I hope gamer_extreme_101 can confirm this.

I've completed all rooms in all holds, so it was possible to complete this hold as well (the room was not required, at least not before all holds were updated).

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gamer_extreme_101
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I can indeed clarify, even without the hold near me, that the entrance to number four, if it is the one with the snakes following you, is not required.

But yes, I am currently away from DROD whilst I install Linux, but I should be back to it soon (As well as going back to a graphical browser ).

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gamer_extreme_101
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With one week left, I've giving a reminder to all authours to make sure you play all the holds and, of course, to vote on your own. Good luck to all!

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stigant
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I've played one room in one hold (hold 1, 8S) but I have to say, that is one of the coolest rooms I've ever played. The thought process to get through it is so logical (hmmm, I have to do this this and this first, but that won't work... when all the obvious answers are gone, there's only one possible answer) and I've never seen any other room that had that sort of a trick to it. It may not be original, but its the first time I've seen it.

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Tim
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Please don't comment on the holds until after the poll is finished.
Use [untiltime] if you must.

Only one day left!

[Edited by Tim at Local Time:01-08-2005 at 12:29 PM: Wow! My 300th post!]

gamer_extreme_101
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19 hours left! All hold authours who have not voted should now vote, but please, at the very least, wander around all of the rooms and get a feel for difficulty/fun/monster usage. Ideally, play all rooms, but I doubt you can do that in such short time.

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techant
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My copy of #6 has the final stairs taking you back to the begining instead of the end text. Has anyone else had this problem?

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Stefan
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Now, this took me a looong time to write. I was going to write and post this about a week ago, but I just didn't find the time or the inspiration to do it (mostly because I've been installing Gentoo Linux, but that is all off topic).

Here are my comments on the entries:

I will begin by apologizing greatly. I've been quite harsh on the comments sometimes, and I'm not surprised if some of you would want to whack me in the head with a large heavy object. Feel free to mod me down if you feel this way.


I judged the entries based on implementation of elements, fun, creativity, design and replayability (with emphasis in that order). I penalized holds where you weren't able to access every room easily and also holds with trivial solutions (where it was obvious that it was indeed an unintended solution). However, no entry received a lower rating solely because of these punishments (I certainly didn't put the emphasis on this). Also, as you may have noticed: for me difficulty usually equals fun...


Some of these comments aren't very interesting, but I wanted to say something about every room, even though I didn't always have anything to say...

UAE #01 'The Level':

This hold was good, but not astounding or especially great. Also, I didn't really like the design of the hold - it was functional, but not very pretty.
The Entrance: Ugh, orb puzzles...
1S: This room was fun. You had to plan ahead very carefully to get it right. Noticing that I didn't have to drop all trapdoors was less nice, but it was a fun challenge.
2S: This was fairly easy once you figured out some kind of technique to do it. The opening was a bit of a finger-torture, it could have been made shorter.
3S: Very minimalistic, but fun. It took some figuring to find out the trick.
4S: I was expecting something a bit more interesting when I first saw the room, but I guess you don't always get what you expect. Enjoyable, but not particularly interesting.
5S: There's nothing really special about this room. Quite easy. A fun challenge, however, is to kill all the eyes before you leave the middle section.
6S: Well, what is there to say? It's a straightforward tar-maze.
7S: A nice way of restricting movement, but not a very difficult room.
8S: Once you've figured out what to do it was easy. On the other hand, figuring out what to do wasn't very obvious (it had a very logical solution, though).


UAE #02 'The Dungeon':
This hold didn't really appeal to me. You could tell that the monsters did have purpose, but there weren't really any new or creative ideas presented.
1N1W: A simple, quite uninteresting room.
1N: Not particularly interesting. There are lots of rooms like this.
1N1E: Dodging serpents is usually fun, but I'd say that the western part of the room was a bit too easy.
1W: Of all the rooms in this contest this room has got to be one of the most annoying (if not THE most annoying). There's nothing even remotely difficult with it, but it's very tedious.
1E: The force-arrow-maze seemed promising, but was somewhat disappointing.
1S1W: Standard goblin slaughter, nothing fancy.
1S: I actually had some problems with this room, before I realized that the mimic was above the force-arrows, not on or below them...
1S1E: This was ok, but a bit ordinary.


UAE #03 'Restricted Resources':
This was my hold, originally named Architects' Dilemma. Sorry about the two updates (I'm not going to apologize for the other three updates (four, actually), because those were not my fault...), but the bug in 1S1E was quite severe.
I admit that this hold had a quite narrow target group, so I'm not very surprised about its success this far (I'm actually quite surprised about how high scores it has received). I didn't really enter this contest with any hope of winning anyway, I just wanted to try to improve my hold-building skills. I'm very happy with the result myself, so in that sense I succeeded.
1N1W: I was never really happy with this room, but I guess it turned out to be quite ok in the end. I was a bit worried that there wouldn't be enough different solutions for the separate sections, but I've found at least two different ways to do each of the four sections of this room, so that shouldn't be a very serious issue.
1N: This was the first room I made in this hold. My intent was to make a puzzle where you were under movement restictions and the monsters weren't, and I think I managed to do that quite nicely. The solution is pretty specific, but when the room is this small, I don't see a problem there.
1N1E: Getting the queens / serpent puzzle to work was difficult. I found trivial solutions all the time and had to redesign it several times. There's still a trivial solution: The wraithwing puzzle was an attempt to use wraithwings in a way that hadn't been used before (and before the contest entries were released, I had never seen this type of puzzle before).
1W: I think that this room pretty much uses every goblin manipulation trick in the book (and some unwritten ones as well). This room and 1S1E are the rooms I'm most happy with. Unfortunately, these were also the rooms that had bugs (this room has still got an unintended solution, but I don't think there is a fix for it).
The puzzle with the 7-square long serpent in the NE corner was actually a puzzle originally featured in A Quiet Place by jdyer. He never got it to work, so it wasn't included in the final product.
1E: The idea was originally featured in Hazardous Halls by Mikko. However, this modification is a bit more difficult.
1S1W: This was kind of a quick solution (I was completely out of ideas), but it turned out quite alright.
1S: If anyone can find an easy way of handling the goblins, I'd be happy to see it.
1S1E: I came up with the idea for this room when I made a (miserable) attempt to enter the Dungeons of Snoll contest in October 2004. The only thing I really finished (after building for about one and a half hour) was the tar puzzle at the end of the room. I was quite horrified when I realized that there was a very trivial solution to this particular puzzle, as this kind of nullified the idea of the room. Therefore, I had to make an update.


UAE #04 'Limits':
This hold had a few nice and creative ideas, but it also had some less good ones. I had a very hard time deciding how I should rate it.
1N1W: Quite evil room, especially if you were stupid enough to kill the brain... *smacks forehead* I liked it.
1N: This room was quite interesting to me, because it featured the same idea as 1N1E in my hold, even though I've never seen this type of puzzle before.
1N1E: I'm not sure how this room is supposed to be done (I've done it in at least two different ways), but it was rather fun nonetheless.
1W: If there was a point to the maze-like thingie I certainly can't see it.
The Entrance: After a few retries it became clear what had to be done. Clever!
1E: This was a fun room (if you're doing it right). However, I think I see an easier solution (testing... yes, there is a trivial solution to this room).
1S1W: An interesting concept, but I would have liked it better if the timer had been shorter and there had been no tar-covered walls.
1S: Very nice use of mimics here. I liked it.
1S1E: Kind of uninspired, but the goblin puzzle to the south was fun.


UAE #05 'Christmas Dungeon':
I was wondering if anyone would make a christmas-themed hold, and indeed here it is! The puzzles, however, weren't that good (and I judged based on the puzzles, not on the theme). The implementation and use of the monsters seemed very random sometimes, which consequently made the puzzles less creative.
1N1W: A classic serpent-trapping-and-gradually-releasing-monsters puzzle. Not much to tell.
1N: I can't figure out any specific use for the invisibility potion. Otherwise, this room was one of the best in this hold.
1N1E: I don't understand the scroll, were I supposed leave any eyes unharmed?
1W: Dropping all the trapdoors was quite tedious and somewhat boring, as it was quite hard to make any errors.
The Entrance: I don't think that I would want that kind of decorations in my christmas-tree...
1E: Hmmm... not very special. Some randomly placed monsters.
1S1W: Again, some quite randomly placed monsters.
1S: Not a very new concept, but it was enjoyable.
1S1E: Again, some randomness...


UAE #06 'Contest Entry':
I apologize if I may sound harsh, but I didn't like this hold. There were very little puzzle involved, and not very thought out use of the elements. The complete lack of checkpoints didn't make it any better, either.
1N1W: A checkpoint would have been good here.
1N: I'd say that this was the only "puzzly" room in this hold, but you are free to disagree with me.
1N1E: Very easy if you've ever played a room like this before.
1W: Quite easy (from all directions) and not very interesting.
The Entrance: Choosing the right entrance (if at all) is the only thing to worry about here (and that is not very hard to do).
1E: Most serpents are unnecessary as Surprisingly uninteresting.
1S1W: Not very interesting eye-placement.
1S: Straightforward massacre. Quite boring.
1S1E: The potions make this room trivial. It's much more fun without them.


UAE #07 'A Total Conversion':
After I had played through all the holds for the first time, I predicted that this hold would win, and it seems (right now: 06.01.2005 05:13) that my prediction was pretty correct. However, anything can still happen, so I'm not declaring Doom the winner just yet (this was your hold, wasn't it?). It wasn't very easy, but most of the puzzles were highly creative and lots of fun. The design of this hold was also very nice (I gave it full points for design - it's just so... beautiful).
2W: I can't seem to find any use for the invisibility potion. What's it for? Decoy? Otherwise a very fun room.
1N1W: Finding out the trick wasn't very easy, and it was tricky even when you did. I liked it.
1W: This was a very fun room, but the northern puzzle with the wraithwings felt a bit misplaced and detached from the rest of the room.
1N: It seems that you were supposed to place the mimic on the square surrounded by three orbs, but you don't need to do that. You don't need the goblin, either.
The Entrance: A very minimalistic, but fun puzzle.
1S: One of my favourite rooms in the whole contest. Very creative and muchos fun.
1E: Not very innovative, but fun nonetheless.
1S1E: The solution to this room was quite obvious, but I've never seen the idea before, so I'll give it credit for that.
2E: Quite fun, but I think that there should have been more than one checkpoint. Is the intended solution to


UAE #08 'The First and The Last':
Not a bad hold as such, and most puzzles seemed thought out, but it just didn't provide anything special to rememer it by.
2N1W: A quite common way of using mimics.
2N: There's not much to say about this room.
2N1E: Not too easy, but not difficult enough for my taste.
1N2W: At first sight it looked kind of promising, but it was disappointingly easy.
1N1W: Incredibly boring room. I mean, waiting for 1078 moves... what was he/she thinking?
1N & 1N1E: These rooms were quite similar in nature, but I liked 1N better.
1N2E: Fun, but not very original.
The Entrance: The invisibility potion isn't really necessary.


UAE #09 'Snakey Geniuses!':
This serpent-themed hold was pretty fun (many of you probably know that "Serpents are fun!"), but I weren't very impressed by it. Is there a staircase missing in the entrance?
1N1W: After having played IE, this looked promising, but it was disappointingly easy.
1N: This was a pretty low trick which I don't particularly like. (I thought it was low already when I saw it for the first time in Simon's Dungeon)
1N1E: This room was quite difficult when I first played it, but on my second time through I realized that
1W: I liked this room, even though the timer could have been shorter.
1E: Creative design and fun to play. I liked it.
1S1W: It was quite obvious what you had to do, but doing it wasn't too easy.
1S: A bit tricky, but not very difficult. Good, but not great.
1S1E: A quite fun room, but I couldn't find any use for the mimic potion.


UAE #10 'The Organized Dungeon':
Organizing the available elements in this way was interesting, because I didn't realize that there were actually nine types of elements we were allowed to use. This was also one of the few holds (#07 is the only other one) that didn't have any 'extra monsters' (such as roaches or tar babies), even though they were allowed.
Playing this hold was fun and quite challenging, and there were some very neat puzzles.
1N1W: Interesting setup, but not very difficult.
1N: A quite ordinary trapdoor-puzzle. Medium difficulty.
1N1E: Surprisingly difficult, but fun.
1W: Clever room. The south section had me stumped for a while, but then I realized that
The Entrance: This was quite tricky and quite fun. The fact that it relied on mimic placement order didn't bother me.
1E: A good way of using the eyes, and I liked that you didn't have to draw a map (like in some other similar rooms, including one of my own rooms).
1S1W: The SE puzzle was clever, but otherwise it wasn't particularly interesting.
1S: I still don't know what the orbs to the north are for. Synchronizing the serpents? What for?
1S1E: A highly creative way of using goblins. I enjoyed it very much, even though the goblins sometimes moved a bit unpredictably (I know that this isn't true, but it felt that way).


UAE #11 'December Contest':
This hold bears a striking resemblence to the author's previous hold, Bavato's Dungeon (Yes, I'm convinced that this hold was made by Wesley). However, I don't think that this hold managed to reach the same high standard as Bavato's Dungeon. The puzzles are just too... easy (most of the rooms, anyway). It was fun to play and has a high replayability value, but as most puzzles in it weren't 'new', it didn't really get an extremely high score.
2N: A standard brained roach slaughter. Not very difficult, but quite fun.
2N1E: The beginning was pretty difficult, but then it was just cleanup (almost, anyway).
1N: This one was just too easy. I wonder if I've found a trivial solution...
1N1E: This was a fun room that I enjoyed very much. You had to be careful, and the solution wasn't very obvious.
1N2E: This was quite an entertaining room. I liked it.
1E: This room is great, I enjoyed it a lot. However, the scroll should be removed. (Why spoil the fun of realizing you've screwed up?)
2E: Fun, but not very special.
1S1E: Oh, joy! Challenging (almost evil), but fun. There could, however, be more than one checkpoint in the first chamber (for backup purposes).


UAE #12 'The Level':
Of all the entries, I'd say that this was the most challenging. It was also very creative and fun. I didn't really like the design - it was functional, but not very pretty (however, this didn't really affect my rating). The only thing that really gave this hold a lower score was the filler puzzle (The Entrance).
1N1W: It took me quite a while to figure out how to proceed from the large clearing. This was a really fun room.
1N: It's difficult even after you've figured out the 'trick' (if you can call it that). Wonderful!
1N1E: One of the most difficult trapdoor-mazes I've played for a while. I liked it. Should there be one unused 'surrounded orb'?
1W: Very nice use of wraithwings, but were you supposed to
The Entrance: This was obviously a filler puzzle where the author put all the leftover elements, and thus affected my rating somewhat.
1E: Very creative use of evil eyes. Finding the right path and at the same time being efficient was lots of fun.
1S1W: This was one of my favourites. Great use of the goblin / invisibility potion combination.
1S: Whew, what a room! Took me a long time to finish (not as long on my second time through, but here's my stats from my first victory-demo: 28:20, 3572 moves). Anyway, the opened doors are a bit inaccurately placed (in some places you need to destroy more tar than indicated, unless you
1S1E: It's quite clear what you're supposed to do, but there's a trivial solution:


UAE #13 '9 Rooms':
An ok hold, but I didn't really find it particularly remarkable. The only thing I really liked about this hold was 1S.
1N1W: An ok room, but nothing fantastic.
1N: Took some figuring. Fun room.
1N1E: This room was quite fun, but nothing new was really presented.
1W: The timer was pretty tight here, but it was fun. Yes, some things are worth repeating.
1E: This room was entertaining. Dropping the red door wasn't very easy.
1S1W: What was there to be quick about? I weren't in any hurry.
1S: This was definitely my favourite room in the hold. The SE corner was tricky. Is there a scroll missing here (to the east)?
1S1E: A quite easy room. What was the strange arrow formation for?


UAE #14 'Blueprints':
There were some fun rooms in here, but nothing that really stuck to my mind. It was a good hold, but not great.
3N: A quite enjoyable room, but not very special.
3N1E: My favourite room in the hold. Manipulating the goblins was fun.
2N1W: This was fun. You had to be quick to succeed.
2N: Not a very new idea, but it was well implemented.
2N1E: A quite fun massacre.
1N1W: I'm not sure how many wraithwings you are supposed to use, but you only need one.
1N: If it weren't for the eyes in the corners, this would be a pretty boring hack 'n slash, but now it's at least a little more fun. Hmm, I just realized, you don't even need to worry about them.
1N1E: A minimalistic, fun room.


If I had to choose my favourite hold (not taking the contest into consideration), I'd choose entry #12, but the hold that received my highest rating was entry #07.

[Edited by Stefan at Local Time:01-09-2005 at 08:05 PM]

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gamer_extreme_101
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1939
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techant wrote:
My copy of #6 has the final stairs taking you back to the begining instead of the end text. Has anyone else had this problem?

Well, there was no ending text for that hold, so you won't be missing out on anything.

And good luck on your Gentoo installation. See my off-topic comments in the Linux thread.

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Mikko
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 276
Registered: 02-04-2003
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Now that the voting is over, I can reveal that I'm the author of entry #1. It looks like I finished third, which I'm very happy with as I only have computer access during weekends (and recent holidays). While I could plan some things on paper, it still meant that I had very little time to test the rooms. As a result, there are some unintended solutions.

In 5S, you were meant to kill all the eyes before leaving the central area. In 8S, the intention was for the player to prevent any tar babies from forming by blocking all the relevant squares with the serpent. I also believe that 1S can be done in the "proper" order, but didn't actually manage to do it myself. 2S originally had normal walls instead of crumbly ones, but I could only solve it from the south entrance that way.

And since it was mentioned earlier, 8S is only partially an original concept. The idea to block tar with a serpent is from another hold (I can't remember it's name, but think it was made by bibelot).

agaricus5
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1838
Registered: 02-04-2003
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Stefan wrote:
UAE #11 'December Contest':
This hold bears a striking resemblence to the author's previous hold, Bavato's Dungeon (Yes, I'm convinced that this hold was made by Wesley). However, I don't think that this hold managed to reach the same high standard as Bavato's Dungeon. The puzzles are just too... easy (most of the rooms, anyway). It was fun to play and has a high replayability value, but as most puzzles in it weren't 'new', it didn't really get an extremely high score.

Actually, I didn't author that hold, although it got my highest rating (apart from my own).

UAE #12 'The Level':
Of all the entries, I'd say that this was the most challenging. It was also very creative and fun. I didn't really like the design - it was functional, but not very pretty (however, this didn't really affect my rating). The only thing that really gave this hold a lower score was the filler puzzle (The Entrance).

I did, however, build this one.

I realised it was the central room that brought the score down, but I couldn't think of anything else, and cramming the monsters into already crammed rooms didn't seem like the right thing to do.

Oh, well, I'll know better next time.

1N1W: It took me quite a while to figure out how to proceed from the large clearing.

Click here to view the secret text

×I was being hasty again.

This was a really fun room.

Originally a chase room, in which you needed to block off chasing monsters in each section before advancing to the next, I had to dilute the difficulty in order not to overuse the queens.

1N: It's difficult even after you've figured out the 'trick' (if you can call it that). Wonderful!

This was a leftover room from Bavato's Dungeon that disappeared during the reshuffle (very unintentionally) from the old L10, which should still be there if you go and get the old alpha/pre-beta version. I also reduced the roach queen number here to a lesser number in order not to go over the limit.

1N1E: One of the most difficult trapdoor-mazes I've played for a while. I liked it. Should there be one unused 'surrounded orb'?

Not really. I intended all to be used, so I'll remove one of them for the final version, or change the room layout slightly.

1W: Very nice use of wraithwings, but were you supposed to

Click here to view the secret text

×put the mimic directly in the opening in the center?

Originally no, but making it work how I wanted it to would take a lot of time and tester help, which I didn't have, so I decided to allow the mimic to finish the job (although I hoped that people might have tried to use the wraithwings there too).

1E: Very creative use of evil eyes. Finding the right path and at the same time being efficient was lots of fun.

This idea I borrowed slightly from a room in JtRH, although it is a bit more sparsely populated than it could have been.

1S1W: This was one of my favourites. Great use of the goblin / invisibility potion combination.

Thanks. I was originally going to have a slightly similar puzzle to Entry 1, 8S, with using a brain and invisibility to get a monster to go around an area to kill some serpents, but I couldn't get it to work, so I changed it.

1S: Whew, what a room! Took me a long time to finish (not as long on my second time through, but here's my stats from my first victory-demo: 28:20, 3572 moves). Anyway, the opened doors are a bit inaccurately placed (in some places you need to destroy more tar than indicated, unless you

Click here to view the secret text

×block the tar from growing with babies)

That was the intention, which would have been a little more efficient, although your method probably is a little easier.

1S1E: It's quite clear what you're supposed to do, but there's a trivial solution:

Click here to view the secret text

×You can manipulate the roaches (exploiting roach placement order) to be placed in two neat columns just to the left of the arrows.

Oops. I guess I require more roaches then.

I'm a bit short of time now, so I'll post some feedback later. It was definitely a great contest, with some great holds in there. Well done to all who participated, especially if you've got a top three ranking.

Edit: I came 6th, in spite of it being the only hold with an obvious filler entrance room. Yay!

[Edited by agaricus5 at Local Time:01-09-2005 at 10:13 PM]

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Doom
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3303
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I was the author of #7 and it seems that I placed second in this contest

I leave the commenting about other holds a bit later because I don't have that much time right now but I'll say something about my own entry.

Stefan wrote2W: I can't seem to find any use for the invisibility potion. What's it for? Decoy? Otherwise a very fun room.

I really didn't find any uses for the invisibility potion and unfortunately it's there just as a decoy. You can't even complete the room with it.

1W: This was a very fun room, but the northern puzzle with the wraithwings felt a bit misplaced and detached from the rest of the room.

This room could propably use some adjusting. A little bit same as with the invisibility potion. I could've propably moved those wraithwings to 1E instead.

1N: It seems that you were supposed to place the mimic on the square surrounded by three orbs, but you don't need to do that. You don't need the goblin, either.

I didn't see that... Just put the mimic to those 3 orbs and try to complete it then. It should be a lot more difficult

1E: Not very innovative, but fun nonetheless.

This room wasn't actually like how it was supposed to be. My original idea was to have a have a goblin that should've been killed in the beginning because you couldn't make the wraithwing part with a goblin. Well, that didn't work completely.

2E: Quite fun, but I think that there should have been more than one checkpoint. Is the intended solution to

Click here to view the secret text

×shorten the serpents by one and then kill the queens?

Exactly.

gamer_extreme_101
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1939
Registered: 03-07-2004
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The time has come. With the poll finishing just over an hour ago, I get the honors of declaring winners, and revealing who held rights to each of these holds.

But first, a little recap. I give you my experience running the contest. If you want to skip to the results, just search for the word "Funky":

On November 29, I released my idea to the forum. Shortly after, 6 people expressed their interest in submitting holds. Of those 6, 4 actually submitted. Less than a week later, I received a hold from a person who had started building their first hold, but modified it for the contest. I was amazed and, after they made some revisions, Kunzite became my first entry.

Shortly after, I received the first of about 5 versions of Doom's hold. As with Kunzite's, I was happy to see people not use the traditional 3x3 square I expected most people to do. Doom's hold was very interesting, and I can say that I got to see a lot of it. Glancing at my inbox (Thank goodness for Firefox's tabs...), I can see about 8 different conversations, with about 5 of those holding attachments (I had to make some fixes based on his descriptions).

Then came Stefan's hold. For reasons that I don't know why, I'm positive that the hold cursed me. Being the infamous Entry #3, anyone who visited the forum found about 4 fixes I had to perform...all of which were my fault. Ouch. His hold was high on my list of "Visually stimulating" holds. However, his fell short to another entry I had high hopes for.

Techant's hold, best described as the 'Christmas Tree' hold, incorperated beauty with funtionality. I, however, didn't include the storyline at the beginning and end of the hold. There was a good reason for this too, and to this day I still thank techant for pointing out. The day I was supposed to release the holds, I ended up having another engagement. Since I was worried about how much time people would have to complete 14 holds, I edited all of the long storylines. Kunzite's story was edited, but because techant's occured higher up, I was planning on writing that the text had been deleted on the rest of them. To my dismay, I didn't, which to some made me look anti-Christian. I'm not. I was in a rush, and I didn't intent or expect people to become offended. With that, I asked Erik to reset the holds and I made sure all storylines were intact. The ending texts, however, weren't on any of the holds, simply because, well, I forgot about ending texts.

Abbyzzmal was next to give me a hold, and I have to thank him for all of the Christmas names he gave me for the contest. I still regret not being able to have the time to use all of them, but you did have some funny ones along with ones that I had completly forgotten about. If you'd like a piece of useless info, his hold's authour was going to be "The Grinch's Heart", but he gave others such as The Little Drummer Boy, Jesus Christ, The Moon Goddess, Belthazar, Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Good King Kong, and Chanukah Harry.

Mikko's hold was one I never expected to see done. Rathe than making his romms form some sort of box-ish shape, he made his hold in one straight line of rooms. Judging from all the comments about his hold, a lot of people enjoyed the rooms. I, personally, wasn't good enough to beat the hold (I actually have a few to beat), but I'm still working on it.

Luckily for me, two members had planned on getting their entries in late, around 2-3 days after the deadline. I allowed them to, but, in hindsight, that would have lead to even more hassle for me. I'm extremly happy that both Agaricus5 and Tim managed to get themselves in before the deadline. Mucho thanks!

All the rest who submitted - Cheese Obsessive, Bdwing, Rabscuttle, Slug, Jacob and Stuwy, all had very clever room design. Heck, one of these people received first for their hold. Intriqued? Read on...

I'd also like to thank wackhead_uk. When I was about to reformat my computer for Linux, he stored my Anonymous player file for me. I ended up having to retreive it a couple of days ago. Without it, I would have lost editing permissions on the entries, and those had all of the bugfixes in them. Thanks a lot!!!

(Funky)Before I announce the winners, I would like to blatently point out that running a contest is NOT as easy as it seems. Many a time during this I was extremly annoyed and frustrated. I kept feeling like I wasn't giving it my all, and that's why the contest wasn't going as smoothly as it should have been. In an email to Erik regarding something else, I made these comments:

Patrick Fisher to Erik:
...With that, I can fully say that I have a new-found respect not only for you, but for Matt and Chris Marks (DiMono) as well. Never in a million years would I have guessed that a contest would be as stressful or as complicated as this. With all the bug-fixes and questions that I thought had been answered in previous posts, I can honestly say that it has been both a nightmare and a blessing.

When I wrote this, the contest was closing down, and I was fearing the worst in the polls, such as a 14 way tie for first. However, I did write this in the next paragraph:

On the bright side, it was a lot of fun. I ended up with, from what I know, about half the people entering a contest for the first time, and I had 2 people enter their first hold into the contest! Little things like that just seem to make it all worthwhile. Thanks for the oppertunity!

I can say that, right now, if Erik asked me to run this month's contest, I would, without even thinking about my scheduale. This has been a blast!! This contest set a record for the most people participating (The old record was 7 or 8 in I-Ching), and being able to see 14 creative minds in action was a thrilling experience. With that, I'll now reveal both the winners and who had which entry.

The Results - I checked and double-checked the entries, so I pray that there isn't an error. Regardless, I'll make sure Erik doesn't hand out the points until mid-week in case of any errors.

Entry #1 - Mikko - 7.3076923076923
Entry #2 - Cheese Obsessive - 4.9230769230769
Entry #3 - Stefan - 6.8461538461538
Entry #4 - Abbyzzmal - 6.0769230769231
Entry #5 - Techant - 5.4615384615385
Entry #6 - Bdwing - 3.4615384615385
Entry #7 - Doom - 7.5384615384615
Entry #8 - Kunzite - 4.3846153846154
Entry #9 - Tim - 6.5384615384615
Entry #10 - Rabscuttle - 6
Entry #11 - Slug - 7.2307692307692
Entry #12 - Agaricus5 - 6.6923076923077
Entry #13 - Jacob - 7.7692307692308
Entry #14 - Stuwy - 4.6923076923077

(Bold means they placed Top 3. Italics means it was their first contest.)

Jacob, today is your lucky day! Be sure to email Erik to claim your prize from the DROD Store. Better yet, hold onto that credit to receive a free copy of the JtRH Deluxe CD-ROM!! You're also leaving this contest with 110 rank points (100 + 10 rookie). Congratulations!!

Doom, you fell short by just a touch. Still, we're gonna send you 50 rank points for being the number two ranked hold. Being second isn't so bad...and I'm sure you had a fun time. Let's give Doom a loud cheer! Hip-hip hooray!!!

Mikko, you get a loverly 25 rank points along with the knowledge of acheivement and bragging rights of making a clever holds that was one straight line. Let's give him a round of applause!!

Kunzite, bdwing, techant, abbyzzmal, and cheese obsessive all leave with an extra 10 rank points in their pocket. I looked on the forum for Stuwy's past involvement, thinking he had been in a contest before. Finding nothing, he's also getting 10 rank points baring me being wrong. Good show!

Sometime around the middle of the week, I'll pre-release the compilation hold with all of the entries included. Around that same time, everyone will receive their points.

For now, it's time for me to step out of the spotlight and shine it back on all of our winners. Thanks for the experience, and I hope to see all of you return to participate in more contests!

[Edited by gamer_extreme_101 at Local Time:01-09-2005 at 10:58 PM]

[Edited by gamer_extreme_101 at Local Time:01-10-2005 at 12:03 AM]

____________________________
--That guy with a million different aliases since he doesn't like this name anymore.

techant
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 854
Registered: 06-08-2004
IP: Logged

Stefan wrote:
UAE #05 'Christmas Dungeon':
I was wondering if anyone would make a christmas-themed hold, and indeed here it is! The puzzles, however, weren't that good (and I judged based on the puzzles, not on the theme). The implementation and use of the monsters seemed very random sometimes, which consequently made the puzzles less creative.
1N1W: A classic serpent-trapping-and-gradually-releasing-monsters puzzle. Not much to tell.
1N: I can't figure out any specific use for the invisibility potion. Otherwise, this room was one of the best in this hold.
1N1E: I don't understand the scroll, were I supposed leave any eyes unharmed?

Click here to view the secret text

×I finished off the serpent in the tar.

1W: Dropping all the trapdoors was quite tedious and somewhat boring, as it was quite hard to make any errors.
The Entrance: I don't think that I would want that kind of decorations in my christmas-tree...
1E: Hmmm... not very special. Some randomly placed monsters.
1S1W: Again, some quite randomly placed monsters.
1S: Not a very new concept, but it was enjoyable.
1S1E: Again, some randomness...

Well I can now admit that the Christmas Dungeon #5 was mine. Thanks for the feedback. This was my very first attempt at making a hold. I found that making one was alot easier than I thought it would be, and that was a nice surprise. I did not think that my entry would be that great because I had no experience and I am surprised that it did so well. Thanks to everyone who entered and to all the others who tested our holds.

I could hardly wait for the contest to start because I wanted to see all the other entries. Boy, some of you created really tough puzzles, I am still trying to beat those rooms. I think that they would be level 30+ in the original Dungeons.

After I looked over all the entries I saw where my puzzles could have been better. I saw where I could have made them tougher or more complicated, then I used my hold (with some changes) on Christmas as a treasure hunt for my Mom's Christmas gift, (she introduced me to DROD in the first place) and found out just how hard some of my rooms were for the not so savvy player. So I guess I learned alot from this contest, the main thing being that I too can build holds and second use that Architecture forum and have others test your hold. Feed back is good.

My favorite hold was #13 I sure would like to know who made it. So speak up and take a bow...

Congradulations to Jacob for #13 ( if I had read more I would have seen that you were the designer).

Also, I forgot to thank the most important person, without whom I would not have found a truly intresting new hobby (i.e. hold design) . Patrick, (gamer_extreme_101 )you ran a really great contest and I felt you did an excellent job, I hope you run more contest in the future. You deserve our heartfelt thanks and two thumbsup.

[Edited by techant at Local Time:01-09-2005 at 11:36 PM: If I had read more I would have found the list of winners.]

____________________________
DROD RPG Released!! You must try it out it is Great!!

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

Well, I didn't participate, because I neither had time to submit, nor to play all the holds (I played only about half of them). But I was uniformely impressed by all the holds I saw - a lot of very interesting room ideas, and, given that there wasn't time for proper beta-testing, these ideas were wonderfully implemented.

So, thanks to Gamer Extreme for running this contest, and to everyone who participated. It was a lot of fun, even if I didn't get to do as much as I wanted to.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Stefan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2119
Registered: 05-25-2004
IP: Logged

gamer_extreme_101 wrote:
Then came Stefan's hold. For reasons that I don't know why, I'm positive that the hold cursed me. Being the infamous Entry #5, anyone who visited the forum found about 4 fixes I had to perform...all of which were my fault.

You're joking, right?

[Edited by Stefan at Local Time:01-09-2005 at 11:20 PM: Changed smilie]

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0.099³

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

gamer_extreme_101 wrote:
The time has come. With the poll finishing just over an hour ago, I get the honors of declaring winners, and revealing who held rights to each of these holds.

Nice job on the contest, fella!

Kunzite, bdwing, techant, abbyzzmal, and cheese obsessive all leave with an extra 10 rank points in their pocket. I looked on the forum for Stuwy's past involvement, thinking he had been in a contest before. Finding nothing, he's also getting 10 rank points baring me being wrong. Good show!

These are all correct. I'm sorry you had to go back through all the contests. That was too much work for me and I ended up making a list a while back. Will post that in a separate topic.

-Erik


____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Stefan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2119
Registered: 05-25-2004
IP: Logged

An interesting fact about the results: Four authors of the five highest ranking entries are from Finland.

____________________________
0.099³

Abbyzzmal
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 348
Registered: 07-03-2004
IP: Logged

So, as revealed above, I am the author of the confusing entry #4. I never thought I'd be so proud to come in 8th. Excellent work from everyone. Most every room was interesting, and there were a lot of rooms. Inspiring.

Just in case anyone's curious, I will now reveal what, pray tell, I was thinking when I made each room in my hold. I tried to use basic DROD concepts that I hadn't before seen implimented, and I tried to make each room fun. I probably failed on both these accounts, but I've never released a hold before, so I can't be judged too harshly, right?

Anyway, specific rooms:

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

Before saying anything, I want to thank Patrick for organising this contest Well Done! And I will send you some modifications I want my hold to be changed some times later...

Here are my comments for the entries:

Note that these are written just after I read Stefan's comment. So most of it were guesses. Also I will also apologise greatly to everyone because I might be very harsh sometimes. And sometimes I can be really inconsistent, I'm sorry about that.

Also, note that I have some different metrics when judging. I judge holds by Easiness, Cool rooms, Nice Design, Easy Accessibility and Bonus (in that order).

General Comments

I must applaud to everyone that can make a hold under this kind of restrictions. Note to the less experienced architects: please do not judge this one the same as your future ones. In a normal situation, we can give you more hints, playtesting and help than it is now. Even you get a low score now, don't be disappointed.
One of the surprise was that some of the puzzles are really hard and challenging, so one of the thing I did was give more points when the puzzles are not too difficult. I really want to penalise the much harder holds, but in the end I did not do that.

#1: The Level

A very interesting hold. Even though the design is clever, it feels like if the room is being more restrictive than it should be.

1S: I don't know about this one. I think I've walked around for a few times and decided to give up.
2S: Oh, this room need a savepoint somewhere in the middle of the room! I don't know how many times I got killed. But I did finish it. Very tedious...
3S: This is a snake concept I still do not understand. I did solve it with a lot of clues. Very nice room though, but I find it illogical.
4S: One of the easier, but fun room in this hold. Very nice.
5S: A very tricky room with the eyes and the tar timer. But cool.
6S: A standard tar maze.
7S: A easy mimic room. But very enjoyable.
8S: I really don't like snakes. I think I've restarted a lot of times just because the strange walks of the snake. But I did finish it. I don't know, but I don't like this room really that much as some other people.

#2: The Dungeon

A very cheese obsessive hold. You might call me strange, but I like this hold very much. Not too hard, but I also used a lot of swear words with that tar room...

1N1W: Lots of cheese! I must say, when I reread the scrolls, I really laughed out loud
1N: A really decent room. It was very calculating where not to go.
1N1E: I died a lot in the first part of the room. Yeah, snakes are fun...
1E: One of the slower rooms in this contest. (Brains only...) It could be a lot harder though...
1S1E: This is the best room in this hold I think, an eye-only room in which I get killed a lot. Especially the NW part. I like it.
1S: I was a bit stumped with this one, but this is a case of how to make a room with lots of roach queens, but is still easy. Nice.
1S1W: This room was really tricky. And no, I still don't know how goblins work. I should not skip goblin levels in KDD in the future...
1W: It looked so easy but is so horrible... I don't want to talk about it...

#3: Restricted resources

I understand that Stefan made it, so if I have to resubmit my scores again, I would give it a better score. Not because the hold suddenly becomes easier, but erm... more of a consolation prize? [ Mmmm.... He did get more points than I have... ]
But since I haven't completed any one the rooms, I will refrain myself from giving comments here.

#4: Limits

This hold is rather strange... It has really good puzzles, and the answers are really ingeious, but somehow I find it annoying because it also has some really unfair rooms.

The Entrance: Really nice room, cool trick. The only problem is, this is the final room I should solve, and I am not that far yet.
1N: Really nice puzzle, (not that I'm going to finish it, but it is solvable)
1N1E: I think I've got stuck here for some times. I do think I know how to solve it now, but I'm too tired to do it again...
1E: No comment. I think I can guess the solutions to this one.
1S1E: This room is very simple, if the goblins weren't there...
1S: It took me a while to understand how to solve this room, but since I haven't finish the other room, I can't do this as well...
1S1W: Why does everyone like to hide things under tar?
1W: A very nice room. I don't know why.
1N1W: A great "maze" room! Something I might want to do. Not now though.

#5: Christmas Dungeon

A Christmas themed hold! Another not too hard hold! I've rated this as one of the better ones. Why? Because it looks good. (Although 1N1W and 1N1E don't fit in very well...)

1N1W: A snake room with roaches. A bit simple, but nice.
1N: Goblins, Tar and Potions. Good looking.
1N1E: I did not undertand the scroll either. But I find the solution really strange. (Don't know how to put it.)
1W: A trap door room. I think I've used the save points lots of times just in case.
The Entrance: Easy eye room.
1E: Lots of monsters. Very tricky.
1S1W: A simple room, really.
1S: Mimic room. Tricky.
1S1E: A much harder version of 1S1W... I don't know how many times I died in the SW corner...

#6: Contest Entry

This is hopefully, another starting architect. Really easy puzzles. But not too bad. 1S1E is really cool.

1N1W: I can't remember a room having tar babies inside a tar (strange). So it is a bit original.
1N: A simple puzzle, but one that I did not solve the first time.
1N1E: Finally, an really easy snake room! A bit boring though.
1W: The W-Wing room. It looks very easy, but I died many times in it.
The Entrance: A simple room, and a bit tedious. Too much tar...
1E: A simple room with roaches tar and snakes. Although if you come from the north it is a bit hard...
1S1W: A simple eyes room.
1S: Another tar mother room with roach queens this time. Note to architect: You don't need tar mothers to make a room hard, you know.
1S1E: The best room in this hold. Goblins, Brains, Roach Queens and Potions. This room is cool!


#7: A Total conversion

One of the hardest hold in this contest. And no, I haven't got any of the rooms. Therefore I will make no comments other than that I have given a really low score for this. Next.


#8: The First and The Last.

This was a very competent made hold, and not that hard. I guess we will see a lot of hold from this architect in the future. (At least I hope so.) One of my higher scores. Great design as well.

2N1W: This was one of the harder rooms in this hold, and yes, once in a while it is really worthwhile.
2N: A room that I thought was really hard, but it turned out not to be. Cool.
2N1E: Exact the same comment, even though it is a completely different room.
1N3W: A maze, and a really nice one as well.
1N1W: I guess I'm not the only one who hates snakes
1N: A nice tar mother room. But I did died some times.
1N1E: This is the hardest room in the hold with the goblins and queens. I like this one.
1N2E: Did you know you can kill the snake in the long door? Was that your intended solution?
The Entrance: The trick in this room was very nice.


#9: Snakey Geniusses!

Whoever says that a snake hold is fun should be shot! (Just joking.) Next.

[ Note: I will comment on my own hold some time later... It's really late now and I want to sleep... ]


#10: The Organised Dungeon

A very cleverly designed hold. Very funny, clever and interesting. Is it Doom's?

1N1W: Okay, not that interesting this one. But at least okayish.
1N: I don't really liked trapdoored rooms. (I skipped level 15 of KDD anyway.)
1N1E: Great room! Any hints please?
1W:
The Entrance: I haven't finished this hold yet... So I can't do any blue door puzzle.
1E: Lots of eyes! Very nice room, although I think the hardest part is the first sets of eyes.
1S1W: It took me a while to kill the SW queen. Until I realised I used this trick before in my own hold. Doh!
1S: This was a really nice trick, but somehow I'm still not sure what your intended solution is for the central part of the serpents.
1S1E: This one looks impossible, so it must be good... I think I would rate this hold higher if this room was easier...


#11: December Contest

Actually, I think this one could be Doom's as well. It is definitely built by a competent architect. The only problem is that it is too hard for me... So I will only comment on the ones I have tried.

2N: It took me a while, but I solved this one. Although the east part of the room is so much hard than the left one.
1N: This eye room is cool, althugh like 2N, it suffers from the same problem (East side tough, West side easy.)
1S1E: This mimic room was cool! I think I was stuck in there for lots of times, and I still completed it. So it must be a good room.
1E: I still have no idea how to let the ww survive the first part, but otherwise I know how to solve this room.


#12: The Level

I must say that, when I saw 1N, and I did not hear Wesley screaming, I figure that this hold is from agaricus. (Well I do still have that test version of the hold ) But before I saw 1N, I did manage to get some rooms done, so I've actually gave this hold one of my highest scores.

1N1W: Am I supposed to keep on killing all the spawing monsters all the time?
1N: I can't even finish the first part...
1W: This one was easy, as long as you can keep that one monster out of sight. (Was this room intentionally made easy?)
The Entrance: A filler room, but still hard.
1E: A really nice trick, and I think I would have finished this room if there were more savepoints...
1S1W: I can understand the trick in this room, but I seem not to be able to get the goblin into the NW snake room.
1S1E: I've also finished this one after a lot of tries, nice room! Although I must say that the hardest part was really when the snake finally reached his destination.


#13: 9 Rooms

This diagonal pattern... it seems like Maurog's?

1N1W: A nice timing room at the beginning, and a lot of w-winging in the rest of the room. Nice.
1N: A mimic room with a trick. Cool!
1N1E: A also very nice room, the only thing I still cant do is killing the snake. I can't get a monster that way... Any Hints?
1W: A timing room with a defined order. Nice.
1E: Getting the snake killed was hard. The rest was just very easy
1S1E: This was a nice trapdoor room. Was is your intention to let me kill the snake a bit early?


#14: Blueprints

I've actually managed to finish this one! I really want to give this one a better score if it wasn't for 3N.

1N: It took me some time, but when I realised how you should be moving, this one became easy.
1N1E: I had a lot of fun in this room, and it also took me a lot of time to finish this room. Don't make it harder though...
1N1W: This room is also really nice. Great trick!
2N: I don't like rooms where I should be thinking of two completely seperate things. I just don't like interruptions, that's all. Especially when it is only one monster every 30 turns.
2N1W: A very tight timing room. Interesting.
2N1E: A very hard roach queen room. Although when I found out the solution, it was fun.
3N: I really, really don't like this room. Much too hard, and too much mindless killing. I'm not sure if I would ever want to play this room again.
3N1E: This was a nice room. Shame that it is located behind such a hard room.

[ PS. Now that I see that I'm not really that good, I think I should be the one who should be stopping with making holds ]

-- Tim

[Edited by Tim at Local Time:01-10-2005 at 12:28 AM]

____________________________
The best way to lose customers is to let little kids running loose on a forum with too many mod points.

techant
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 854
Registered: 06-08-2004
IP: Logged

Stefan wrote:
An interesting fact about the results: Four authors of the five highest ranking entries are from Finland.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Noticed you were from Finland too. Thanks for your review.

____________________________
DROD RPG Released!! You must try it out it is Great!!

Slug
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 122
Registered: 11-08-2004
IP: Logged

Stefan wrote:
UAE #11 'December Contest':
This hold bears a striking resemblence to the author's previous hold, Bavato's Dungeon (Yes, I'm convinced that this hold was made by Wesley).

Hmm... maybe the fact that Bavato's Dungeon was last hold I played might have something to do with this. Wasn't what I tried tho.

1N: This one was just too easy. I wonder if I've found a trivial solution...

If you mean entering the room from middle and standing still etc. then no, that wasn't how I meant it to be done. When I noticed this myself it was too late to update the hold. Oh well...

1E: This room is great, I enjoyed it a lot. However, the scroll should be removed. (Why spoil the fun of realizing you've screwed up?)

This was first room and I didn't want to annoy people right away by making them play whole room again because of it. Atleast personally I hate playing room all over again (depending how long it takes of course) when at the end I notice that it can't be solved anymore.

Anyway, this was my first hold

techant
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 854
Registered: 06-08-2004
IP: Logged

Tim wrote:
#5: Christmas Dungeon

A Christmas themed hold! Another not too hard hold! I've rated this as one of the better ones. Why? Because it looks good. (Although 1N1W and 1N1E don't fit in very well...)

1N1W: A snake room with roaches. A bit simple, but nice.
1N: Goblins, Tar and Potions. Good looking.
1N1E: I did not undertand the scroll either. But I find the solution really strange. (Don't know how to put it.)
1W: A trap door room. I think I've used the save points lots of times just in case.
The Entrance: Easy eye room.
1E: Lots of monsters. Very tricky.
1S1W: A simple room, really.
1S: Mimic room. Tricky.
1S1E: A much harder version of 1S1W... I don't know how many times I died in the SW corner...

1N1E - This was an attempt at a candy cane, but I guess I did not get it right. The scroll was in reference to keeping the tar mother alive and using tar babies to kill the 2nd snake. If there was another way to kill the 2nd snake I didn't think of it. So I would like to know what you did.

1N1W - This was more like Christmas lights on a string.

The Entrance: Easy eye room. I had the exit in tree trunk in 1S but then found out that the exit had to be in the same room as the entrance. I didn't like sticking it in the center of the tree like some giant ornament but to comply with the rules I needed to, moving the entrance was just to hard to do and still meet the access requirement. Now that I understand that access means you only have to kill off 2/3 of the room to get to another room I probably could have moved it to 1S and still met the access rule.

--Thanks for the feed back

By the way on your(#9 Snakey) 1N how do you do it - I know it is solvable but I just couldn't figure it out. I could not get how to kill both the wraithwing and the roach queen without getting stuck.

[Edited by techant at Local Time:01-10-2005 at 01:05 AM]

____________________________
DROD RPG Released!! You must try it out it is Great!!

Kunzite
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 28
Registered: 11-28-2004
IP: Logged

Hi, I'm the #8 "architect," as it were. I had been working on this, my first hold, before the contest, and had one level with nine rooms and some "creator's block." When the contest was announced I thought, since I didn't really intend to release it as a real hold, wouldn't it be fun to try to enter the contest. I ended up having to change up the rooms and story text and such quite a bit more than I originally realized, and many of the failing of the hold result from that.

Stefan wrote:

UAE #08 'The First and The Last':
Not a bad hold as such, and most puzzles seemed thought out, but it just didn't provide anything special to rememer it by.
2N1W: A quite common way of using mimics.
2N: There's not much to say about this room.
2N1E: Not too easy, but not difficult enough for my taste.
1N2W: At first sight it looked kind of promising, but it was disappointingly easy.
1N1W: Incredibly boring room. I mean, waiting for 1078 moves... what was he/she thinking?
1N & 1N1E: These rooms were quite similar in nature, but I liked 1N better.
1N2E: Fun, but not very original.
The Entrance: The invisibility potion isn't really necessary.

Thanks for the feedback, Stefan. The only things I can really explain are 1N1W and the entrance. In my original hold, the "turret" room with the arrow maze on that side was meant to be missed. A player would be watching the shrinking snake and anticipating going up by the scroll, and not see the crumbly wall until the (deleted) stairs room was inacessible and Beethro finds a scroll about it. Perhaps a bit stretched on the psychology, and certainly a vestigal part that could have been (probably should have been) changed, but I was too in love with my joke (and the idea of the biggest possible snake) ^^; Sorry. For the Entrance, I had originally hoped it would make the room either easier or harder, and give the player a chance to choose to use it or not (Hence the ellipsis in the opening text.) That didn't really work out and it was more of a story element.

Tim wrote:

#8: The First and The Last.

This was a very competent made hold, and not that hard. I guess we will see a lot of hold from this architect in the future. (At least I hope so.) One of my higher scores. Great design as well.

2N1W: This was one of the harder rooms in this hold, and yes, once in a while it is really worthwhile.
2N: A room that I thought was really hard, but it turned out not to be. Cool.
2N1E: Exact the same comment, even though it is a completely different room.
1N3W: A maze, and a really nice one as well.
1N1W: I guess I'm not the only one who hates snakes
1N: A nice tar mother room. But I did died some times.
1N1E: This is the hardest room in the hold with the goblins and queens. I like this one.
1N2E: Did you know you can kill the snake in the long door? Was that your intended solution?
The Entrance: The trick in this room was very nice.

Tim, thank you very much for your encouragement. I had not intended to do any other holds, but if you really liked it, then I'll keep tabs on any ideas I come up with and slowly will try again. In the east turret, you're supposed to have to figure out how to get just enough time between you and the snake to hit the orb under the brain and kill it in the long lower passage. I'm not sure if this is what you did?

My favorite idea in the hold was the tar room, which was originally roaches, and having to figure out that blocking in three sides of the middle mother was the solution. My "style" is rooms that don't take hideous amounts of guessing or slashing, and I think is more suited to novice players than those looking for an ingenious challenge.

I had fun making it, though my inexperience clearly shows in the comments and votes. I didn't vote on any of the holds because I didn't feel I could make a very good judgement. I'll try harder in the future! Thanks to everyone who played it.

Stefan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2119
Registered: 05-25-2004
IP: Logged

Abbyzzmal wrote:
1N1E:

Click here to view the secret text

×This room was made really quickly. The original premise was that you had to wait until you had a long row of roaches before you could proceed through the rest of the level. You can also wait until the right moments to get single roaches into more than one chamber. I thought it was fun either way, so I left it flexible.

1E:

Click here to view the secret text

×I've always wanted to see a room like this, but while it is fun to chase the roach so freely, it may be a little too freely. I kept finding new ways to foil the maze design, so eventually I just gave up. I have since figured out another way to implement this concept, so you'll see it when I release a real hold.

A trivial solution to this room is to

1S1E:

Click here to view the secret text

× I came to like this room more the more times I played it, as every time I played it, I played it slightly differently. My original objective was to make a room where you have to stop a flow of roaches with a goblin, but I failed at that miserably. The first time I played it, I stopped a flow of roaches with a roach queen, and that was the most fun way, probably, although most difficult. It probably would have been better had I prevented access from the lower entrance, as that made the room sort of trivial, but I did want one slasher room. Perhaps if I had made the lines of trapdoors into dotted lines it would have been more interesting? Who knows. The little goblin puzzle down there was a result of needing to place five more goblins.

Tim wrote:
#10: The Organised Dungeon
1N1E: Great room! Any hints please?

It's hard to give hints for this room without supplying a demo, as there isn't really any specific trick to it, you just have to be efficient. Very efficient. The order in which you should hit the orbs are:

#13: 9 Rooms
1N1E: A also very nice room, the only thing I still cant do is killing the snake. I can't get a monster that way... Any Hints?

techant wrote:
1N1E - This was an attempt at a candy cane, but I guess I did not get it right. The scroll was in reference to keeping the tar mother alive and using tar babies to kill the 2nd snake. If there was another way to kill the 2nd snake I didn't think of it. So I would like to know what you did.

By the way on your(#9 Snakey) 1N how do you do it - I know it is solvable but I just couldn't figure it out. I could not get how to kill both the wraithwing and the roach queen without getting stuck.

There are a couple of hints on this room in this thread, so you should look there first. Here's a spoiler:

Kunzite wrote:
(and the idea of the biggest possible snake)

The biggest possible serpent (that you can kill) is actually 1215 squares long...

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Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2494
Registered: 09-10-2004
IP: Logged

I created entry 10, The Organised Dungeon.

I'll just give some not-so-brief comments on my hold, I'll give my thoughts on the others when I have some more time.

Originally, this was going to be a non-serious entry, but after creating a couple of room, I realised that it was turning out not so bad. Having decided to divide up the elements did make it easier to come up with ideas - instead of thinking "What should I do in this room?" it's "What should I do with goblins in this room?"

1N1W (Wraithwings):

1N (Brains):

1N1E (Invisibility Potion):

1W (Tar Mothers):

Entrance (Mimic Potions):

1E (Evil Eyes):

1S1W (Roach Queens):

1S (Serpents):

1S1E (Goblins):

Stefan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2119
Registered: 05-25-2004
IP: Logged

File: UAE10 The Organised Dungeon 1S1E Ending.demo (981 bytes)
Downloaded 48 times.
License: Other
From: Unspecified

Rabscuttle wrote:
1S1E (Goblins):

Click here to view the secret text

×The part in the 11 uses the fact that you can't kill two goblins in a two-width north dead end.

What do you mean?

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techant
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 854
Registered: 06-08-2004
IP: Logged

Stefan - Just downloaded your demo. Wow, do you have one of the whole room? I just gave up on it myself.

While you are at it could you help me with you 1E - I get 4 eyes in and then can't figure out what next. I just need a hint and then maybe a spoiler for that next 2 moves. I really wanted to work this one but i just keep missing it.

[Edited by techant at Local Time:01-10-2005 at 09:28 AM: Another question]

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Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2494
Registered: 09-10-2004
IP: Logged

I mean killing them at the top.

Stefan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2119
Registered: 05-25-2004
IP: Logged

File: uae03_1e_map.JPG (71.6 KB)
Downloaded 97 times.
License: Other
From: Unspecified

techant wrote:
do you have one of the whole room?

I sent you a PM (you might already have noticed that).

While you are at it could you help me with you 1E - I get 4 eyes in and then can't figure out what next. I just need a hint and then maybe a spoiler for that next 2 moves. I really wanted to work this one but i just keep missing it.

I'm assuming you mean 1E in my hold. In that case, you should:

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