Let's get down to business: what's the best level of 2024?

It's too easy to just ask chatGPT, so instead I propose a process to figure out a worthy level that could be given this title.

1. Any level that was released this year can be submitted. (It may have been designed earlier.)
   
2. Any designer can submit up to three of their levels in CC1 and three levels in CC2.
   
3. We wait until the end of the year and then compile the submissions for voting.
   
4. During January people can play the levels and rank them.
   

I'm excited. I know I often write these announcements a bit tongue-in-cheek with an overly hyped-up tone, so just saying I'm excited might not mean much. But this time, I am excited for real. I think it's to do with the anticipation of finally releasing these levels and start this competition. I worked on them about a year ago and then I just sat on them waiting for the right time to launch, when it didn't overlap poorly with CCLP5 or a busy schedule in my own life. Hopefully that time is now.

The Time Trial for this month, this year in fact, is a collection of mazes. I am releasing a set with 50 levels, but fear not, only five of those are for this competition. If that's all you need to know grab this set and get to work:

  insight.ccl (Size: 49.43 KB / Downloads: 22)

I have too much to say about the levels to write everything here, so I will be uploading a video with those thoughts instead. Briefly, I thought it was time I built a maze for a TT and then I wanted to use the same maze structure to create several different challenges. Chip's Challenge levels come in many flavors and not everyone has to like every flavor, but I gave this concept my best shot and I do hope you can find some enjoyment in the set like I already have.

As for the scoring of the competition, I must also add a few words. Firstly, the competition levels are #2 - #6 in the set, but I do recommend you take a look at a few others too if you just want some casually playable levels (I recommend #9, #27, #43). Secondly, with five full levels to optimize for the competition (and we always love casual entries as well; they are awesome for getting a feel for how the level plays), I want to use a ranking scheme that does not require you to perfect all of these. The method I have in mind is to rank each level individually and only your three best ranks count towards your placement in the competition. Thirdly, I want to use a rule that incentivizes working on the level yourself, without banning computer assistance completely. If you do not use any computer assistance that does more than handle the inputs you make yourself into the level, you will receive a bonus second for that level. The intent is that you first can take a stab at each level manually, send in your score, and then, if you wish, you can use computational assistance to make improvements.

I'll probably say a few more things on Discord as I mention this competition there. If you have any other questions or comments, about the levels or the competition, all I'm doing this weekend is waiting by my screen to reply to you. (ah, I'm getting into that hyperbolic tone again...)

Enjoy!

-Miika

Hi. Long time lurker here. My “claim to fame” in the Chip’s Challenge community is that I was a Playtester for the first fan-made levelpack, the CCLP2.

I’m not able to play so much now because of my fingers aren’t what they used to be, but I still like to watch how other people play. That's why the “public tws” at PieGuy’s site is a goldmine for me.

My dream is that one day all the public tws’s are in bold and I think that now is the time to do so with the CHIPS public tws and the CCLP2 public tws. That’s why I want to ask the community: Can someone who has the ability update the non-bold levels in CHIPS public tws and the CCLP2 public tws so that those two levelsets are all bold?

The reason why I’m asking for those two levelsets is that CHIPS is the “original” for me as it came with Windows Entertainment Pack back In the days and CCLP2 I have a history with. Thank you in advance!

Regards
Hallgeir Flø

One day in the Bit Buster's club, a Chipster interested in level design was walking between two rooms, carrying in both their hands little plastic snap-on tiles resembling the tiles in Chip's Challenge, meant to be placed in a grid for designing levels. Unfortunately, while walking, the Chipster tripped on a carpet, with the tiles dropping on the floor, mixing together, with the mess of tiles almost resembling a level. The tiles were originally separated by type, so when they fell, the same types of tile generally close by. After the Chipster themself recovered from the fall, the arrangement of tiles gave them great inspiration for the next level...

Indeed, this Create Competition is about having clusters of tiles together! More specifically, all non-floor tiles must be in clusters of at least 4 tiles. A tile cluster is a set of tiles of the same type, connected orthogonally or diagonally. The tiles do *not* have to all be next to each other to be considered a cluster, something like a line is valid and is considered as one cluster. Tile clusters of different layers may overlap (a cell with eg. a block on a gravel is considered to have two tiles: a block and a gravel), but each cluster must have at least 4 tiles. Chip/Melinda aren't required to be in clusters, but it's not disallowed in CC2 (or, I suppose, MS) levels.

You can submit up to a maximum of 3 levels, sent to my Discord DMs (@g_lander). All levels must be solvable in at least one ruleset (please specify which ones your levels are meant for!). If possible, please supply a solution in the form of a C2M replay, Json/Routefile, TWS, or video. The deadline is Oct 9th 2024 (00:00 UTC+2), my birthday! If you have any questions, please ask them in this thread or the Discord #competitions channel.

You've been patiently waiting - and now the time has finally come! CCLP5 can be downloaded here.

On behalf of the CCLP5 staff, thank you all for playing! We hope you enjoy this set and the adventures that await in this new collection of challenges.

Attached Files

  CCLP5.zip (Size: 134.1 KB / Downloads: 47)

Hello, in order to satisfy my desire for more CC2 content I am holding a CC2 create competition. Item bestowal is a CC2 glitch that was discovered shortly before CC2LP1 submissions closed, so not too many levels have explored the concept yet. It allows dirt blocks and all monsters to pick up items they normally couldn't, e.g. a fireball could pick up flippers and be able to safely travel over water.

The only rule of this competition is to create a CC2 level that uses item bestowal in a creative way. Giving items to ghosts, rovers, mirror players, and bowling balls does not count as item bestowal since they can normally pick up items. You can read the Wiki article linked above for more details.

Send your submissions to me via forum message or Discord (my username there is quiznos00) by 2024-07-01 4:00am UTC. You may submit up to 3 levels which should all be solvable.

If you want some inspiration, check out these existing levels which use item bestowal and have replays available:
* Walls of CC1 #123 (The Iceworm Cometh): has dirt blocks (which transform into ice blocks) with hooks
* Same Coin #13 (Sharktooth Lagoon): has teeth with flippers
* TSBeta #15 (Cybernetically Enhanced): has a tank with suction boots, a yellow tank with a hook, and a teeth monster with flippers and a helmet
* C1059-CC2 #226 (Gifts for Gliders): has gliders with many different items
All four use the "force floor method" for item bestowal. TSBeta #15 additionally uses the "animation method" to give the helmet to the teeth monster and the yellow tank/block variant of this method to give the hook to the yellow tank. You can ask more questions in this thread or on Discord.

After a brief discussion in #sandbox on discord, I wanted to bring forward the idea of a big poll to determine what the best chips challenge levels are (both by set, and then overall). I wanted to avoid previous polls in the past that used a bracket system to determine the best levels in a head to head matchup as I figure they could be flawed in their methodology.

In this case, the polls are broken down into each of the CCLPs (lol I forgot CCLP5 originally which is why its 223, and the overall one is 224), and then there's a final one with all 870 levels in it. The concept is simple, the poll will show two levels at a time, you click which one is better, repeat.

Eventually (I'm not sure how the new "AI-generated analysis" works, but let's pretend it does) with enough results, the site is able to aggregate the results of all of the voting, to then predict which level would win in a random simulation. The level with the most picks should obviously have the best chance of winning.

CC1: https://all-our-ideas.citizens.is/group/217
CCLP1: https://all-our-ideas.citizens.is/group/218
CCLP2: https://all-our-ideas.citizens.is/group/219
CCLP3: https://all-our-ideas.citizens.is/group/220
CCLP4: https://all-our-ideas.citizens.is/group/221
CCLP5: https://all-our-ideas.citizens.is/group/223

All: https://all-our-ideas.citizens.is/group/224

finally got email activation to work and able to post @_@ been lurking for years (hence the secondary handle when the preferred "bobdabaron" didn't work out), I'm definitely not on the upper tier of competitiveness, but figure I might as well post some "pretty alright" casual scores for CCLP5, few if any bolds, just a respectable average :p I kept solutions that found the secret hints, because those seemed more "fun"/important than ultramax times

CCLP5 (Level Titles): MS/Lynx
001 (Lesson Zero): 181/178
002 (Multipurpose Tool): 291/287
003 (Paparazzi): 230/227
004 (Key Free): 237/235
005 (Fragmented Lamina): 191/191
006 (Choice Tools): 358/349
007 (Trading Post): 314/309
008 (Trick or Trap): 201/202
009 (Secret Jungle Laboratory): 299/287
010 (Ages Beyond): 243/242
011 (Pyramid Scheme): 180/179
012 (Vault Line): 202/197
013 (Cardboard Cutout): 264/260
014 (High Fidelity Flame): 219/213
015 (Heterochromia): 296/293
016 (Moving Day): 265/256
017 (There Goes The Neighborhood): 331/328
018 (Press Any Button to Continue): 237/236
019 (Hue and Saturation): 287/275
020 (Forbidden Island): 318/314
021 (Slime Sliding): 332/319
022 (Capim Town): 349/346
023 (Elastic Energy): 916/918
024 (Uphill Battle): 338/331
025 (Drops of Jupiter): 370/365
026 (Deephaven): 281/267
027 (Dumbbell Dichotomy): 322/320
028 (For Want of a Nail): 357/352
029 (Sandshaker): 209/200
030 (Ragged Mountain): 451/442
031 (Sealed Chamber): 237/232
032 (Socket Shrine): 388/380
033 (Terre Haute): 953/952
034 (Spirit River): 368/358
035 (Fortune Ravine): 395/389
036 (Charmed Ridge): 328/316
037 (Quantified Nerves): 369/359
038 (Exit Exaggeration): 314/304
039 (Mysterious Geoglyph): 414/406
040 (Wealth and Corruption): 398/393
041 (The Dividing Line): 335/328
042 (Instigate and Exfiltrate): 544/528
043 (Verdant Cavern): 328/328
044 (Thunderwave Cave): 386/376
045 (Insert Name Here Caverns): 244/234
046 (Axis Point): 328/329
047 (The Toggle Station): 288/279
048 (Tank Game Reborn): 453/449
049 (The Sound of Silence): 891/885
050 (The Unwinding): 836/798
051 (Nitroglyceryn Below 57F): 623/588
052 (Magma Cone): 244/240
053 (Reproducing): 887/877
054 (The Slaughterhouse Is Open for Business): 338/337
055 (Dauntless Extraction): 330/333
056 (Smoke Inhalation): 506/492
057 (Irradiated Radiator): 316/309
058 (Warehouse of Lost Hopes and Dreams): 465/448
059 (Clone Machine Factory): 310/306
060 (Fuego Ironworks): 521/510
061 (Snowbound): 396/376
062 (Unlock Block): 281/280
063 (Party Trap): 262/256
064 (Condemned Facility): 378/384
065 (The World Has Turned and Left Me Here): 317/303
066 (Tornado Alley): 523/513
067 (Manhattan Stoplight): 952/953
068 (PPPuzzles): 679/663
069 (Shady Oasis): 280/269
070 (Ski Resort Town): 651/604
071 (Amethyst Mine): 422/412
072 (Miner Setbacks): 692/689
073 (Three Boot Night): 504/480
074 (Dark Hollow): 294/290
075 (Canyon of Lost Color): 567/553
076 (Yellow Fever): 362/355
077 (Avenues of Zagreb): 624/584
078 (Salsa Verde): 445/433
079 (Drawn and Quartered and Quartered): 618/613
080 (Indigo Lagoon): 574/565
081 (Numbskull): 961/956
082 (Encrypted Malware): 342/335
083 (Polarity Isle): 363/359
084 (Piston It Away): 448/442
085 (Sokoban Adventure): 723/705
086 (Phantasmal Stalkers): 328/327
087 (Network Corruption): 321/309
088 (Flypaper): 737/740
089 (Hacking to the Gate): 371/358
090 (Decrepit Crypt): 464/447
091 (Airletter Shop): 414/400
092 (Glamorous Diamond Downs): 570/554
093 (Shuffling): 561/554
094 (Feat After Feat): 510/496
095 (Room of Requirement): 293/285
096 (Sour Apple Cider): 471/474
097 (Color Disaster Inertia): 523/513
098 (Closed Circuit): 883/882
099 (Cosmic Express): 67/58
100 (The Most Interesting Block in the World): 552/539
101 (Barefoot Bandit): 346/340
102 (Minimalist Art Gallery): 512/503
103 (Illicit Logging Facility): 521/500
104 (Escape the Monotony): 230/220
105 (Beyond the Facades): 474/456
106 (Slimefield): 429/429
107 (Bento Box): 403/387
108 (Brown Note): 579/577
109 (Let's Square This Away): 331/321
110 (Another Perspective): 827/817
111 (Aquatica): 475/463
112 (Melancholia): 363/362
113 (Power Plant Peril): 591/579
114 (A Love for Puzzles): 543/539
115 (Titanic Monarch): 415/408
116 (Sho Sheng Shui): 484/459
117 (Cluster Two): 656/620
118 (Lightning Before the Thunder): 651/659
119 (Unsanitary Waters): ---/479
120 (Fray Manor Isle): 776/763
121 (Lockjaw): 876/866
122 (Expanding Warehouse): 510/500
123 (Sandstorm Shelter): 603/602
124 (Dig Me Out): 450/445
125 (Holiday Spirits): 427/427
126 (Master Carpenter): 424/403
127 (Wastelands of Tabora): 727/704
128 (Fahrenheit Frenzy): 112/110
129 (Rundown Railyard): 788/774
130 (Apocalypse Wow): 626/609
131 (You Break It, You Buy It): 459/458
132 (Prism Concerto): 796/761
133 (Emblazoned Altar): 429/416
134 (Flotsam and Jetsam): 732/703
135 (Crux of the Matter): 725/695
136 (Molten Crater): 737/736
137 (Gravelways): (still stumped by)
138 (Eternal Engine): 672/647
139 (Udassa): 783/728
140 (Yet Another Perspective): (SO CLOSE to solving, but not yet)
141 (World Revolution): 729/712
142 (Crown Jewels): (still stumped by)
143 (Lagoon of the Low Tide): (still stumped by)
144 (Culmina Crater): 771/751
145 (Pardon Our Dust): 570/562
146 (Broken Paradise): 824/808
147 (Lounge Act): 681/666
148 (Brute Force): 683/656
149 (Shadow of the Day): 732/716

As some of you may be aware, recently an issue was discovered with Another Perspective (level 110) in CCLP5 and it was heavily discussed if it should be patched or not. The specific issue is that a recessed wall was accidentally added at (3, 14) in place of a wall, which made it so that the level was no longer a mirror image as it was designed. This was an error introduced by the original designer during the submission process that was not caught until after release, however it is an important thematic level and was one of the highest-rated levels in voting. Given opinions were highly divided on the issue, it was decided to hold a poll for one week and allow the community to decide what should be done.

The specific issue can be seen here, this is the bottom of the level where Chip starts:

and this is the top:

note the added recessed wall that breaks the mirroring.

Other issues to note is that this could change solutions to the level and cause incompatible scores in future, however it's currently believed that any score achievable by using this recessed wall can be easily achieved without it. Alongside other issues like the set update not reaching out the local community to others who have likely already downloaded and started playing the set.

Attached Files

  AP top.png (Size: 1.92 KB / Downloads: 581)
  AP bot.png (Size: 2.1 KB / Downloads: 594)

Greetings. It's Tuesday, which means it's time for another Create Competition. This is CC1-only.

A mosaicist takes pre-existing objects, breaks them up, and arranges them into something new. Your challenge is to channel this medium by making a level from pieces of levels of any of the five Chip's Challenge Level Packs. Think "Quantum Entanglement" from JBLP1, which I didn't find until after I had the idea for this competition.

Here are my capricious and arbitrary restrictions:

• You must take tiles from at least 5 levels.
  
• You must take 16 to 81 tiles (inclusive) from a level.
  
• The tiles you take from a level must be contiguous (i.e. connected at one or more edges to another tile from the same level). Your level pieces do not have to be perfect squares; if you use more interesting shapes, I will be more interested.
  
• You can't rearrange the tiles you take from a level, but you can move the entire set of tiles from its original location. For example, if the original level has a yellow key at (0,0) and a yellow door at (0,1), you can't swap the key and the door, but you can move the key to (16,16), the door to (16,17), and all the other tiles 16 spaces right and down.
  
• You are allowed to change trap and clone connections.