Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2513
Registered: 09-10-2004
IP: Logged

(Apologies to those who read the board by e-mails - third time's the charm)

Instructions:

1. Read the instructions.

2. Entries should be judged by two main criteria
* Was the room appropriate to the theme?
* Was the room fun to play?

3. All entries should be anonymous. Do not take the author into account when voting. (And tell me if I've left in some tell-tale sign of authorship)

4. Authors must vote 10 for their own room(s)

5. If you want to comment on the entries before the poll is over, put your comments inside the following unhidetime-tags:

[unhidetime=27 November 2005 8:00am]Your comments here[/unhidetime]

like this!

6. Link to the hold

Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2513
Registered: 09-10-2004
IP: Logged

Restarted the poll for technical reasons. If you just voted in the last five minutes, apologies, you'll have to vote again. If you vote prior to the last five minutes, then you should know about it

Doom
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3323
Registered: 07-05-2004
IP: Logged

A few quick comments of the entries:

1.
What an imaginative name for a level. I found it difficult to use any kind of logic in solving in this room, so I just rushed through it with tedious trial and error with lots of undoing. A little uninteresting and repetitive room.

Backwards
One of my 2 entries in this contest. I'd guess personally that there will be people who didn't like the rattlesnake part. I agree, it can be a little annoying... The room isn't as pretty as "Wrong Way!", but I think that the content should compensate for that.

the room
Not a bad room normally, but I didn't really get how it room fits with the theme. It's also a bit too easy to kill some of the serpents without using goblins.

Way to go?
The design of this room is rather poor, because you can access both stairs quite easily without killing more than a few monsters. Also, I think that this concept wasn't used as well as it could've been. I'd like it more if there were less ways to solve this room. It's pretty loose at the moment.

I liked figuring out how to get the roach queen in the top west. Nice use of golems and spawned roaches there.

Damn Stairs
Quite interesting room with a few small flaws. Once you get started, it's very straightforward all the way to the end. It was also cool that the room didn't end right after you killed all monsters. That's something unique. One of the better rooms in this contest.

Wrong Way!
Very larrymurk-stylish room. I think it's the prettiest entry in the contest. There were some small things that lowered my score a little such as similarity between top and bottom areas (same strategy works for both), but overall this was a nice room.

Arrow Spiral
The other one of my entries. I had originally much more roach queens, but decided to make the room easier so most people could actually finish it.

Monster Traffic
One of my favourite entries. The concept of rattlesnakes going against serpents was one of the best ideas in this contest. The room itself was a bit too simple, though.

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[Last edited by Doom at 11-20-2005 10:29 AM]

Yellow_Mage
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 267
Registered: 05-19-2004
IP: Logged

Backwards nearly made me cry because of the damned serpents. Even the method I used I lead one out and trap all the other serpents and have one free at a time, but there was several occasions when I spent a good 10 mins hacking at them and they all get trapped and you can't do anything about it, or they all decide to get stuck by themselves with me casually sitting in the corner. A little bit too movement specific for my tastes. If it wasn't for that mini room, I would undoubtedly made it the best level.

I believe that one was Doom's, and I think Larrymurk made 2 levels.

*bets 10 camels and 2 horses*

____________________________
"Sit and daydream, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Chalks
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 267
Registered: 04-17-2005
IP: Logged

could we have a zip file of all the demos posted here after the polling? I couldn't beat a coupla these (so I ranked em higher)...

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
IP: Logged

First, I'd like to throw out a special kudos to "Parting of the Ways" by Rabscuttle, which included eight ingenious ways for a room to be solvable from one direction but not the other.

Arrow Spiral: high on thematicity, but "slow and tedious" was a decent description. More of a killing-fest than my tastes run. (The arrow-shaped walls, however, are a lovely touch.)

Damn Stairs: A nice twist on the "wrong way" theme, and infuriating only in the good way. Ultimately tractable with some careful thought, which is how my tastes run.

Backwards: Some very interesting stuff here; my main objection was that the section with the rattlesnakes seemed to involve more luck than reason. (Also true, to lesser degrees, of the guards and the mud babies.)

Way to Go: not bad, but a little straightforward, perhaps; to its credit, I did indeed go the wrong way a few times.

Wrong Way!: also fairly straightforward, but pretty.

1 (bomb maze): well...it's a bomb maze. Not my favorite thing in the world, and I'm not sure the inverted mimic had a huge effect on it.

Monster Traffic: basically OK; I didn't have strong feelings about it.

the room: Again, to its credit, I did go the wrong way the first time. (It took me a while, in fact, to notice the lower left roach.) Much of it was fairly standard, though, I thought (guide wraithwings into snake cages; maneuver through a trap-door area...).

...as for the Indecisive Poppy, I don't even want to talk about it. :-)

Pardon the lengthy commentary from a newly-uncovered lurker; I hope it follows board etiquette.

Stefan
Level: Smitemaster

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

Quick, short comments about the rooms:

Arrow Spiral:
Pretty straightforward room. Not really any tricks involved and not very much to tell (except that I didn't really like the superfluous potions). Architect: Doom?

Damn Stairs:
It was pretty obvious what the objective was (that is, where to start), but I would have liked some kind of indication of where the stairs were leading (now you just had to guess and retry if the choice was incorrect). Hm... perhaps that was the idea. Architect: TripleM? (I really have no idea)

Backwards:
Fun room with some very nice tricks. I would have liked a checkpoint in the rattlesnake chamber, though. Architect: It looks like Jacob, but feels slightly like Doom.

Way to go?:
I'm pretty sure I did this room the wrong way. (But hey, that fits the theme perfectly). I never broke the secret wall and I didn't need to hit the orb in the tar chamber. Architect: Tahnan? (wild guess)

Wrong Way!:
Pretty fun room. Resembles some other rooms by the same architect. Architect: larrymurk. No question about it.

1:
Not a very inspiring room, and pretty easy (some shortcuts were probably overlooked). Architect: ?, but I'll guess Chalks.

Monster Traffic:
This was my room. It was created primarily as a joke, and I built it almost entirely (everything except the stairs ) between 3:00 and 6:00 (one hour before the deadline) after I came home drunk from a party. I had planned on something completely different, but too little time and too much booze made the room what it is. Well, at least some people liked it. The 'intended' solution (any solution where you to lead a rattlesnake tightly behind you into the outermost loop is intended) is to (nearly) always walk in the opposite direction to the flow.

the room:
Pretty fun, but it seems that the intended solution was to keep both goblins alive (you don't need to). Architect: Yellow_Mage? (crazy guess)

The Indecisive Poppy:
Nice trick. Not a very bad room either. Architect: Rabscuttle, obviously.

____________________________
0.099³

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

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

Well, I knew I wasn't going to win - my room was sort of rushed, since I didn't have time to work on it properly. Basically, I just figured that the mimic flipped was cool so I sent it anyway, even though the rest of the puzzle sucks. But even though I've only played half of the other rooms so far, I can see that I clearly am the worst by a noticable margin - which I'm very happy about. There are really good rooms in this contest.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2513
Registered: 09-10-2004
IP: Logged

Voting closes soon!

votevotevotevotevotevotevotevote!!!

Chalks
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 267
Registered: 04-17-2005
IP: Logged

Aw! I'm going to have to wait till tomorrow to read all the comments. (time for bed here...that is, it was about four hours ago)

Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2513
Registered: 09-10-2004
IP: Logged

Polls are closed!

Here are the results! (and my brief comments on the rooms)

1. - eytanz - 4.6

Backwards - Doom - 7.2

the room - dali - 6

Way to go? - Chalks - 6.2

Damn Stairs - Yellow_Mage - 7.7

Wrong Way! - larrymurk - 7.4

Arrow Spiral - Doom - 6.8

Monster Traffic - Stefan - 6.7



Congratulations to all architects. As I got a whole buncha mod points dumped on me, prizes will be 20 for 1st, 15 for 2nd, 10 for 3rd, as well as 2 per hold.

If you haven't already posted, then post here.

1st: Yellow_Mage : 20 + 2 = 22 (done)
2nd: larrymurk : 15 + 2 = 17 (done)
3rd: Doom: 10 + 4 = 14 (done)
eytanz: 2 (done)
dali: 2 (done)
Chalks: 2 (done)
Stefan: 2 (done)

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[Last edited by Rabscuttle at 11-28-2005 03:34 AM]

larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1917
Registered: 12-09-2004
IP: Logged

First off, thanks to Rabs for coming up with the fun contest and doing a fine job of putting everything together.

Arrow Spiral:
This was one of my favorite rooms to play. I'd of liked one more save pt. in the outer spiral.

Damn Stairs:
No doubt an extremely well done room. The only room I needed a hint on. In a case like this it sure would be nice to be able to click on stairs to see where they lead. Definitely extra credit for the surprise when you "complete" the room but still have to play more to actually exit.

Backwards:
My favorite room. I liked having save pts before each section and most took some thought and trial to solve. The mud area was especially fun!

Way to go?:
I'd say the highlight of this room is the roach queen in the corner. I'd have liked it more if some of the loose ends were tied up.

Wrong Way!:
My room, hope it was fun.

1:
Nothing too exciting. OK.

Monster Traffic:
I wish there was a quick note at the beginning just to say what was scripted and what wasn't. Also, I apparently solved this the wrong way so I missed all the dialog.

the room:
A lot of good ideas but very loose. I didn't use an orb, the goblins, the top-left corner ..

The Indecisive Poppy:
Quite fun and interesting. I assumed from the start that the guard was scripted to move in the pattern unless you're trapped. I believe that would make the room unsolvable or extremely difficult. At the last second when I was giving up I accidentally found the solution and thought there was a bug in the scripting. I was surprised later when I looked in the editor and saw there is no scripting. Very cool indeed.

Dali
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 174
Registered: 02-05-2005
IP: Logged

Ok, for my room, I admit that there was a lot of errors and to kill the serpents with goblins weren't necessary.
Well first I built that room from Ae edition, I did it very quickly because I saw that contest only 1 day before.
I must say that I don't deserve to win, and that's why I didn't rate 10 for my room.
Thanks for those who tested my room and I promess I'll do a lot better using Jtrh elements.

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

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

Yeah, I had no idea that the level name I used would be the final level name, or I would have chosen a meaningful one...

Though, as mentioned above, I had no illusions about being able to win this contest. I'm pretty glad I came in last - my room was pretty mediocre, and it was competing against good rooms.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Yellow_Mage
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 267
Registered: 05-19-2004
IP: Logged

I thought some people might be frustrated with my hold, and with that I felt it was boardering the line of hit or miss. Afterthoughts, I could of had 9 stairs which could of been better, and I didn't need to use as much space as I first thought, so I just ran with the first idea because I thought it would be too time consuming to change. I'm happy people enjoyed it.

Big up Rabs!

'Twas an excellent competition. I wonder what the next one would be like...

____________________________
"Sit and daydream, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Swivel
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 236
Registered: 09-14-2005
IP: Logged

Could we put this hold on the Holds Board?

Please...

Do it for the anthromorphized yellow circle. If not for me, for the anthromorphized yellow circle. It's so sad. Help make it happy.

EDIT:
Look! It's happy!

____________________________
"Write a wise saying and your name will live forever."
-Anonymous

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[Last edited by Swivel at 12-02-2005 01:15 AM]

larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1917
Registered: 12-09-2004
IP: Logged

Rabs is working on it.

Mr. Smiley can wipe away those tears

Rabscuttle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2513
Registered: 09-10-2004
IP: Logged

I am back in town, it'll be holdified in a day or two.