Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

To start off the new year nicely, I've played and compiled all homebrew levels from 2005 and 2006. These are the results of last year's level design contest. Thanks everybody for the creativity!

http://www.crystalshard.net/zip/LEVELPAK.ZIP

First place: Caterina Castellani (Orange Bazooka)
Second place: Henri Kareinen (Round and Round)
Third place: Stuart Rynn (Separate Ways)

Honorary mentions
*Joshua Taylor (Wonderland)
*Darkmatt (Towers Of Eizan Berthot)
*Teh Kwakstur (Firewall)

The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged

Bah, missed out on first place again... And I did really put a lot of effort into those later levels.
Guess I'll have to try really hard in this year's contest. There is a contest this year, isn't there?

Edit: Maybe you should post on the Spiderweb forums. And also don't you usually post explanations of why those particular levels made it?

---

[Last edited by The Stew Boy at 01-01-2007 10:21 PM]

BainIhrno
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 10
Registered: 06-26-2006
IP: Logged

The contest winners are just out of 2005, right? (Not that my levels would win anything either way, but still)

Anyway, congrats to all the winners and everyone else who made a level!

---

[Last edited by BainIhrno at 01-02-2007 01:27 AM]

The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged

Considering the topic title is "2006 contest level set" I'd say it was for both 2005 and 2006. And I've found levels from both years in there anyway.

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

BainIhrno wrote:
The contest winners are just out of 2005, right? (Not that my levels would win anything either way, but still)

No, 2005-2006. I didn't do the judging last year because of time constraits, unfortunately.

The Stew Boy wrote:
Guess I'll have to try really hard in this year's contest. There is a contest this year, isn't there?

Yes.

Edit: Maybe you should post on the Spiderweb forums. And also don't you usually post explanations of why those particular levels made it?

Posted. Do I do that usually? Really? Well okay, here goes.


Orange Bazooka - A long-time contender, Caterina usually focuses on linear levels, but this one is more complex than that. The puzzle requires clever manipulation of laser beams to perform several different tasks.

Round 'n Round - A difficult choice out of several very good puzzles by Henri, this one is very innovative with the repeated maneuvering of simple objects.

Separate Ways - Good two-character levels are rare, and this is one. Controlling two characters forces the player to think outside the box, and the cloner is a nice touch for a hazard.

BainIhrno
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 10
Registered: 06-26-2006
IP: Logged

For clarification, I knew there were levels from both, but (for some odd reason) I may have thought that the 06 levels weren't judged. I was wrong, I've seen some of the winners are 06 levels. How ignorant of me.

Well, I've just downloaded it. Looks like there's lots of new levels to play! Yay!

The Mystic
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 09-20-2006
IP: Logged

I downloaded the new set, and congrats to the winners. I'm surprised by the overall variety of these levels in the set.

What shocks me even more is that all the levels I've posted so far are included in the set. Truth be told, a couple of mine were slapped together in about an hour's time. (And before anyone asks, yes, all my levels work; I did manage to test them before submitting.)

____________________________
Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so.
If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you.
Oh well. Another day, another dementia.

BainIhrno
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 10
Registered: 06-26-2006
IP: Logged

Mystic, what name are your levels under?

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1218
Registered: 05-12-2005
IP: Logged

When I try and select one of the level packs in-game, the name of the levelset just disappears... Anything I'm doing wrong? I put the .lvl files in the data directory...

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

You're not trying to use the SubTerra 1 levelsets with SubTerra 2, are you?

The Mystic
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 09-20-2006
IP: Logged

BainIhrno wrote:
Mystic, what name are your levels under?

All 6 of my submitted levels were included in the 2006 levelset, and are titled are as follows:
Roulette Wheel
Slider Puzzle
Thirty and Out
Trigger Happy Super Nasty
Either Way
Whether Vein

They're all listed under my username, so if you see "by The Mystic" when you play a level, it's one of mine.

____________________________
Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so.
If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you.
Oh well. Another day, another dementia.

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1218
Registered: 05-12-2005
IP: Logged

Radiant! wrote:
You're not trying to use the SubTerra 1 levelsets with SubTerra 2, are you?

Maybe then... I d/l your link at the top of this thread and they do appear, just don't load. I'll try in ST1. Thanks

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

The Mystic wrote:
What shocks me even more is that all the levels I've posted so far are included in the set.

What can I say... sometimes simple elegance is best. A puzzle doesn't have to be big to be innovative (e.g. The Crushinator), nor to be difficult (e.g. Razzle Dazzle).

The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged

Or to be fun for that matter.

Pampaluna
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 13
Registered: 06-15-2005
IP: Logged

I am ABSOLUTELY happy!!! Thank you Radiant and thanks to whoever judges the levels with you! I can't believe I've made it at last! Wow, this new year is starting SO WELL! Best compliments to Henri and Stuart as well! I've just downloaded the expansion pack, and guess what I'm going to do when I've finished this message?! I'm going to PLAY my BELOVED SUBTERRA!
Best wishes to everyone and thanks again, I am really HAPPY and PROUD!!!
Caterina

The Mystic
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 09-20-2006
IP: Logged

Radiant! wrote:
What can I say... sometimes simple elegance is best. A puzzle doesn't have to be big to be innovative (e.g. The Crushinator), nor to be difficult (e.g. Razzle Dazzle).

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I don't really care to design big levels anyway. I tend to lose track of what I'm doing on them quite easily, so don't expect to see too many of those from me. My personal preference is to try and design levels that look much harder than they actually are (e.g. Trigger Happy Super Nasty).

____________________________
Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so.
If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you.
Oh well. Another day, another dementia.

Kwakstur
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 385
Registered: 05-05-2006
IP: Logged

Yay! I can't believe that a level of mine got an honorable mention.

Although, about some of the other levels . . . I didn't check through my levels when I sent them. I just made sure they were complete, so I wasn't expecting them to be part of the contest pack.

So I had some crummy levels like They See You, and I also had levels with odd names, like 001 Rock.


Can you change the names of my levels, or will that be too difficult to do at this stage of development? I want "Skull Fortress Revamped" to be renamed "Skull Fortress", and I want "001 Rock" to be renamed "Rock Carrier".

And is it okay if you remove "They See You"? It's rather embarrassing to me that it's there. If you want, I have a more recent level to replace it with: Flostown. I think I mentioned that one in my post, but I didn't attatch it because I didn't want the newer levels of mine in that folder.

____________________________
Also known as ExpHP everywhere else.

---

[Last edited by Kwakstur at 01-07-2007 08:20 PM : Made shorter, confirmed facts]

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

Sure, I suppose. I'll rename them when I next upgrade the expansion pack. I don't recall having seen a level called Flostown, though.

Kwakstur
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 385
Registered: 05-05-2006
IP: Logged

File: Flostown.SUB (953 bytes)
Downloaded 43 times.
License: Public Domain

You haven't gotten the level because I haven't submitted it yet. I was purposely holding it until I made about 10 more levels to submit with it, but I might as well submit it here.

In terms of quality and size, Flostown is most easily comparable to my Masquerade and Firewall levels. They're all 1-screen speed-based levels that focus on one element in particular. These types of levels are all in one place on my computer, so I found this one easily. I might have some higher quality levels in a remote folder among my subfolder-within-subfolder-within-subfolder complex, but I think this is good enough. I just gotta get rid of They See You.

____________________________
Also known as ExpHP everywhere else.

The Mystic
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 09-20-2006
IP: Logged

Radiant - While replaying my "Either Way" level, I found a slight design flaw that allowed two solutions; it's only supposed to have one solution. When you get the chance, could you replace it with this version? Thanks.

Edit: Removed post. The "fixed" version had the design flaw, not the original.

____________________________
Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so.
If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you.
Oh well. Another day, another dementia.

---

[Last edited by The Mystic at 03-18-2007 01:53 PM]

Darkmatt
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 51
Registered: 05-16-2005
IP: Logged

I'm surprised my year-old levels got featured in this year's contest. (Heck, even one of mine got an Honorable Mention.) Thank you Radiant.

The Mystic
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 18
Registered: 09-20-2006
IP: Logged

The Mystic wrote:
While replaying my "Either Way" level, I found a slight design flaw that allowed two solutions; it's only supposed to have one solution.

In a word: Oops.

I went over the "Either Way" in the levelset, and the fixed version I submitted, with a proverbial fine-tooth comb. As it turns out, the original one in the levelset was fine; my so-called "fixed" version was flawed.

Sorry to drive you crazy, Radiant, but could you ignore my request to change the level, and just keep the original?

____________________________
Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so.
If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you.
Oh well. Another day, another dementia.

NoahT
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1133
Registered: 06-17-2003
IP: Logged

I just downloaded the pack, and it seems when the demos start playing, some levels appear more often than others. Is there a reason for this?

-Noah

____________________________
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

My stuff:

---

[Last edited by NoahT at 03-28-2007 10:24 PM]

NoahT
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1133
Registered: 06-17-2003
IP: Logged

Uh, never mind. I think that was just how it turned out at first.

-Noah

____________________________
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

My stuff:

NoahT
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1133
Registered: 06-17-2003
IP: Logged

Radiant, if it isn't too late or too much trouble, could I submit a version of "Mover Survival" that takes up less space for the next time you upgrade the expansion pack? Currently it takes up more space than really necessary.

-Noah

____________________________
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

My stuff: