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Trying Something New / GLASSACRE Review - Joshua Bone - 20-Jan-2016
So I've got this problem called Life (capital L) which continually manages to get in the way of my CC2 time. Wife, daughter, work, home improvement, photography, reading, artwork, etc. I keep meaning to contribute to the community but lately I'm realizing that it will never happen if I don't figure something out. So, this week I've been trying something new.
Every day, no matter how busy, I'm trying to spend 10 minutes playing through someone else's levels and 10 minutes designing my own. (I'm using the extremely useful app Habitica lately, and these are marked as daily tasks. Since I've come to terms with the fact that I'm unlikely to ever have the discipline to LP anything, I think the next best thing is to share short blog reviews every time I beat a level. It's something at least!
Today's level is (drumroll)...
GLASSACRE by Josh Lee, from Flareon1 v1.7.1.
Chips: 72, Time: 750
(SPOILERS, obviously)
Concept (3/5): It's a pretty basic idea, a 32x32 maze where the walls are all ice blocks sandwiched between thin walls. There are numerous short ice slides as well, many of which have bombs that need to be cleared. Gameplay consists of pushing blocks into bombs to collect chips, and is about as fundamental as it gets. The yellow and red keys open up rooms to a few more chips but they are trivial. And then there's the glass eye right at the beginning which, unless I'm missing something, does nothing at all, except to reveal that there are force floors under all the ice blocks.
Puzzle Difficulty (2/5): It's a casual play experience. The sokobans are easy but not trivial; my first time through I cooked the level by using a block on the wrong bomb, but overall it's pretty obvious which blocks go where. I particularly like the upper and lower rows of 6 bombs each, and for thematic continuity I could wish to see the yellow key placed at the end of the upper row to match the red key at the bottom.
Action Difficulty (1/5): There's plenty of time and no reason to rush. That's not to say I didn't totally and stupidly run into a bomb on my 2nd attempt.
Fun (4/5): I really enjoyed the level. It was fun and methodical without requiring a lot of focus. I liked the look of the ice blocks/thin walls. The ice slides through and between rooms really add interest to the maze. And I've always liked pushing blocks into bombs. I was a little disappointed by the secret eye. When I saw all the force floors under the blocks I was expecting some sort of grand finale or bonus area, especially with the missing thin wall at (18, 6). I also felt like the keys didn't add much to the level. But overall, I enjoyed it. Thanks to Josh for the experience.
Finally, here is a zero-commentary, completely unoptimized
of my solution.
Please let me know any comments, recommendations, or thoughts on how to make these short level reviews useful and informative!
Trying Something New / GLASSACRE Review - M11k4 - 26-Jan-2016
It's really cool that you are doing these reviews! I watched the video, and your evaluation of the level seems spot on, even though I haven't played it myself. Thanks for brightening my day
