The set begins with this massive untimed 99x99 bonus level which is unique in that it contains all of the other levels in the set. I call it a bonus level because the solution is trivial - just walk in a westerly direction and find the unguarded exit. However, there are bonuses everywhere and I'm sure finding an optimal route would be a challenge. I really like the pixel art (the trees and the path) at lower right, and it is interesting to be able to get a preview of the levels to come. However, I think it would be more interesting if there was at least a little bit of challenge in the level, and it was also pretty confusing on first play because I didn't know that all these rooms were previews of coming levels. I didn't 'get' it at first, but once I figured it out later it was a cool moment.
02 RED INK
A nice little puzzle, fun to solve, feels like it's over too quickly though!
03 HOT WATER
Also a cool concept, dodging the yellow tanks is easy but interesting. Again, the level is over so quickly! I could see combining this + RED INK + maybe a compressed version of GREEN THUMB all into one level. (I guess after my review of Explorer's Delight I must sound like Goldilocks-- "These levels are too long... these levels are too short..." Sorry.)
04 GREEN THUMB
The central puzzle is awesome, and very fun to figure out. I'm less of a fan of the level's layout, but it works.
05 OFF THE TRACK
I enjoyed this one. Short enough it's not terribly frustrating, pleasing to the eye, and a unique gameplay concept.
06 CUT TEETH
Wonderful level with an unique, engaging theme. The length is perfect, just enough to be quite challenging, but not so much that it's a chore to restart the level after a mistake. Felt very satisfying to solve.
07 CUT THE ICE
My favorite of the set. I like the use of the one-way teleport mechanism to create three separate, similarly themed teamwork puzzles. The top left puzzle did feel somewhat trivial compared to the other two (which were excellent!). I might consider starting Chip and Melinda off within sight of each other to emphasize that this is a teamwork level. The teleport mechanism plays pretty well! There are ways to drastically simplify the circuitry, but since it's not visible during play maybe it's irrelevant.
08 DIRT FILE
A lengthy maze level using blue tanks, green toggles, and... a three-way toggle mechanism! This was actually the most frustrating level in the set for me, mostly because I didn't quite understand that each of the pink buttons was actually controlling the state of all the pink walls, i.e. I thought that each pink button was only responsible for the pink walls in the immediate vicinity, and so it would confuse me to find a door open where I thought I'd left it closed, and vice versa. A hint might help. But overall it's a quality level and satisfying to solve.
Posted by: M11k4 - 05-Apr-2017, 1:47 AM - Forum: Solution Maps
- No Replies
Here is one of the routes that was submitted to the March 2017 Time Trial that scored bold. Can you find a way to improve two more moves and score a new record?
Get out your map editors and turn on your design instincts! This time we are making a collaboration task like none other!
Your job, should you accept it, is to outfit five rooms with something interesting for Chip to adventure through. The rooms are given in a template form in the file below (levels #7-11). Each one has it's own shape and item restrictions. Once I have rooms from all several designers, the idea is that we can combine any of the rooms with each other to make a larger level. In essence you are designing several pieces of a jig-saw puzzle that can be combined with the designs of others! You may enter with just filling in one of the rooms, but of course I would love to see what you do with each room, and how these all combine to make the level with all five rooms.
Here are some guidelines of what you can do with each room:
Room 1. This is the starting room. Use four chips and a blue key. The time allotted for this room is up to 30 seconds.
Room 2. This is the next room and it is visited twice on our journey. Include five chips, a red key, a yellow key and a yellow lock (which is opened after losing the red key). If possible, make it so that Chip leaves the room on the first visit with a yellow key and that this is obvious to the player. You may include toggle doors in this room, but note that their state will be swapped once Chip returns here. The time limit for this room is about 70 seconds, but as this is the most complex room more might be needed.
Room 3. Include five chips and a red key. You may use tanks and a tank button here. The time estimate for this room is 50 seconds.
Room 4. Include six chips and a blue key. Please include a toggle button that may or must be pressed an odd number of times. You may include toggle walls and teleports. Forty seconds might be enough in here.
Room 5. This is the ending room and it's shape is the simplest. Is it the simplest otherwise? At least it does not require any chips, but the rest is up to you. You may move the exit. Be careful in including items that are parts of mechanisms elsewhere. Is thirty seconds enough to reach the exit?
For each room, be mindful that you include the correct amount of chips. Keep the time limits the same as they are unless you really need to adjust them. You may edit the name and passwords if you like. Only edit the contents of one room at a time, meaning you may move the items in the room, but the mechanisms leading to the exit should still work. You may move the locks that lead to the next room, but be careful not to allow the wrong keys to be taken out. (It's safest not to move these doors.) Don't use some items in other rooms that are reserved for specific rooms, like the teleports, tanks and even toggles. Please don't allow any boots to be taken from one room to the next and be careful with other items as well. Basically, keep in mind that your rooms are supposed to work in conjunction with the rooms from other designers too, so making mechanisms that hinder this is permitted but might not work well in the bigger picture. Comment below on any unclear situations or for any cool ideas you may have that we should all do!
The file you submit to me (by sending it to my email valeosote at hotmail dot com) would ideally have six levels, one for each room and possibly one where they are all combined. I would like it if all these levels were solvable. I will accept up to two versions of each room from a participant, but please take into account that this will increase my workload as well, so have some restraint on which ideas are your best. I think I will accept levels that work in just one of the rule sets, but would prefer that they work in both MS and Lynx. You may send in name suggestions for the combination levels that result once I combine rooms from several sources.
I fear this one will be a hard competition to judge, but I'll figure out some way to evaluate each participants efforts. I hope to combine my favorite versions of each room into a level I like a lot, but it will also be interesting to see how each designer's rooms all join together by themselves. In any case I am sure we will see some cool creations! I hope you aren't scared away by this high concept but rather take it on as a challenge.
Let your creative juices flow! Enjoy!
-Miika
Notes:
-Submissions are open through May 7th where you live!
-I like it when you keep things simple but not simplistic. It's a tightrope act, I know.
-The level(s) must be solvable, but do(es) not need to work in both MS and Lynx.
-The level should preferably be new, and I'd be amazed if it had been released before.
-Please only submit your best ideas. If this is hard for you to judge, then I'll accept at most two versions of each room.
-Points may be deducted for late entries, but will be accepted until I judge the levels.
-Entrants receive the normal prizes: the "You're Winner!"-award, Chip Cup points, and "Tool Box"-award for first time entrants.
-Please ask about other unclear situations.
An 8-level set inspired by Super Meat Boy. You play through 4 light worlds, and then you play through 4 dark worlds which are all partial tile inversions (i.e. the walls become the floor and other such things) of their respective light world levels. The order is the same, so dark world 1 is the inversion of light world 1 etc.
The levels are all medium to long in duration and on the harder side difficulty-wise, though none are super hard. I've tested them all and recorded solutions to them as well, so if you really get stuck you can check the editor and see how it's solved (something I didn't do for my previous two sets).
Let me know if there's any weird stuff I've missed. Otherwise, please enjoy ;P
You may notice something a bit odd about the levels. First, they may seem familiar. This is because they are heavily based on previous Time Trial levels. I took two levels with heavy random components and edited them to something a bit more predictable. Thus they feel a bit different than ones I might have built myself from scratch, but also they have a quality that is hard to capture in new levels.
The other odd thing is that the set does not just have these two levels. First, there is more than one version of both of these Time Trial levels. This is to provide simpler still simpler versions if you don't want to combat the boosting and monster timing. The competition is about optimizing the first two levels, Not Random
and Dissenter
, but if you can score a better time on the alternate versions (levels #3-5), then we'll count those as your score for that level instead. So instead of Not Random
, you may solve either Simply Not Random
or Still Not Random
; and instead of Dissenter
you may solve Simply Dissenter
. Note that the time limits for the alternate versions of the levels are slightly lower than that of the main two levels, so the optimal should not be better on them (even without taking into account stuff like boosting differences). If you provide solutions for all the levels, we'll just count the one that gives you the best score, but I may post your other scores too.
I realize that this is the last month of CCLP4 voting, so I hope you can juggle your time between all these interesting activities. The deadline for this competition is May 3rd. Please send your submissions, either in tws or avi or some other form, to me at my email valeosote at hotamail dot com.
Finally, what about levels #6-11? You'll have to check the April Create Competition thread for info on that!
Enjoy!
-Miika
UPDATE: the first level (and it's other version, #3) has gotten an update. Solutions from the original will still be accepted, but discouraged. Details below in a new post.
Other technicalities and details:
[Click to Show Content]
A participant's highest remaining time on any of the levels #1, #3, #5 will count as their score for "the first level" and likewise for levels #2, #4 for "the second level". The person with the highest combined remaining time on these two levels wins! There may be a tie in overall score.
This competition is primarily meant for MS rules. You may send in a Lynx solution too and we'll try to combine all the scores in one category in a reasonable way.
Please send your solutions (either the tws file or avis) to my own email valeosote at hotmail dot com. I will strive to respond to your message by a confirmation that your score has been recorded.
The levels aren't incredibly hard to solve and picking the easier versions makes them even easier. Don't be afraid to send in your solutions even if you sense they aren't perfect, and simple casual solutions are also appreciated. You may enter if you solve at least one of the levels, but solving both will obviously place higher.
Submission deadline is May 3rd, 2017 where you live. I will judge the submissions without warning during the following days but will accept submissions until I do. If you need a more specific time, you can always ask. To avoid losing on time (it is a time trial after all), get your solutions in early rather than later! You can send in improvements while the competition is running, so there is no downside to sending in something you know might not be your best effort if you had forever to work on it.
This is part of the 2017 season of the Chip Cup. The winner will be awarded 15 points, second place 12, third 10 points, and so on. If you win a competition here for the first time, you receive the "You're Winner!" award. All participants who haven't participated in a Time Trial earlier receive the "Run, Chip, Run" award.
The designer of the levels may enter the competition, but won't.
The levels may receive an update within the first week of their release. This will only be done if there is some significant problem with the first versions of the levels. Please contact me if you suspect something is off. First level updated!
Do not post your solutions or solution times or share them with others before the competition results are announced. All times will be published at the same time, and the quickest solutions will eventually be released.
As an exception to the above rule, a participant may 'freeze' their scores at some point after submitting their own solutions. They will not be able to submit any more updates after this, but they may talk about the levels and their times with other people who have frozen their entry. I may update a public list of people who have frozen their score.
Not Random
- by SugarHue123 and Miika Toukola (three versions of this level, #1, #3, #5)
Dissenter
- by Miika Toukola, inspired by Tom Patten (two versions of this level, #2, #4)
Also, the templates for the April 2017 Create Competition are included in this file (levels #7-11).
Check the competitions subforum for threads on both these competitions!
Enjoy!
UPDATE: the final room in the first level proved to be too annoying, so the update removed two of the pink balls there from the monster list. Previous solutions should not be affected, nor anything in Lynx, but now in MS the level is slightly more reasonable.
![[Image: lDNKG9N.png]](http://i.imgur.com/lDNKG9N.png)
