Joshua Bone's level design feedback thread thingy

[_H_]

045: I had another look into it, I guess it is some kind of weird memory leak in cc2, triggered by the hints, which are not properly processed. They should just use capital letters, to work correctly, which they don't in this level.

051: I hope it's an easy fix, since I really like the idea of the level. Via circuits instead of cloning this problem should be avoidable.

[mobius]

On the Walls of CC1: I've neglected to mention any time I thought a level was too big because I know it's an adaptation of the level from CC1 which is likewise big. But I must admit I had this thought on quite a few levels. But then I usually prefer smaller levels regardless.

051 WALKING ON EGGSHELLS -- forgot to mention I like this one a lot too. I didn't discover the bust! Surely there is a simple fix. I actually made some similar set ups in levels of my own a while ago. I'll look into it though I'm sure you could find a better fix then I could.


On your misfits set which I play now and then:

Darpa Challenge: A really cool concept and fun level to work out! This is another one of those where the time spent designing the level must eclipse the play time like 10 times. It must have been fun though. Again, these types of levels are helpful for designers learning about logic gates.


The Full Monty Hall:
Luckily for me, I'm familiar with the monty hall paradox . This is one of those things that even after you understand it it still amazes me.
This makes more sense than the level with similar title from the game, although that level wasn't bad; it's not one of my favorites. Frankly I didn't understand it and could never get some of the bonuses.

Extraction: Insanely difficult! Haven't solved yet.

[_H_]

First, I added some of the missing levels in #19

And to avoid misunderstandings, as it perhaps happened in another thread, especially some of your levels totally blew my mind, and to distinguish them from really great levels, the letter ones got lower scores, which doesn't mean at all that they are not great levels

And this goes down to all the scores, but there was not a single level which was bad by any means, all are at least good...

The problem I had in level 45 doesn't seem to be related to the level, it happened in a completely different level yesterday, but doesn't seem to be reproducible easily, perhaps my computer is just trying to annoy me sometimes, who knows.

[Joshua Bone]

No worries! I've actually had to come to terms with the hard truth that every level in the Walls of CC isn't going to be a masterpiece, especially given that I've been working on the set for 8 months and am only 1/3 of the way done. Your feedback is extremely valuable and is usually more-or-less in line with my own feelings on the level.

[Joshua Bone]

Walls of CC 1.3.0 is released!

Change Log:

• Removed bonus from Level 22 EVER PASSING MOMENT
  
• Remade Level 31 PRETZEL so chips don't hide information
  
• Fixed major bust in Level 51 WALKING ON EGGSHELLS
  

Added Levels:

Replaced Level 23 with PERFECT SAFETY RECORD (walls of BLOBNET). Fairly easy, use the blocks to keep the teeth away.

44 NEW YORK FASHION SHOW (walls of REFRACTION). This is the evil twin of BUTTON SMASHER. Sorry if it's maddening.

52 UPTOWN DECISIONS (walls of THE LAST LAUGH). Pretty proud of the puzzles in this one.

53 DISTURBING THE PEACE (walls of TRAFFIC COP). The blocks become very deadly once set in motion. Planning ahead is very important here!

54 RULE OF TINCTURE (walls of GRAIL). Fun puzzle level. I wonder if the optimized solution will involve skipping the eyeball and running blind through the canopies.

55 OBFUSCATED AND INTERRED (walls of POTPOURRI). No hidden information in this level, however it represents everything I've got as far as hard puzzles go. Intended for placement near the end of the set along with TELEBLAST and GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY.

56 UNDERSTUDY (walls of DEEPFREEZE). Spiritual sequel to DISCIPLE. I'm really proud of the design.

57 GREEN INVERSIONS (walls of STRANGE MAZE). Simple level, didn't know what else to do with the maze walls...

58 DOWNTOWN HESITATION (walls of LOOP AROUND). A few discrete puzzles separated by some zippy walkers.

59 PART AND PARCEL (walls of HIDDEN DANGER). Straightforward puzzles but a really tricky bonus.

60 SEPTIMAL MINOR (walls of SCOUNDREL). Some easy puzzles with a VANISHING ACT type maze up top.

62 I MOVE YOU MOVE (walls of SLO MO). SLO MO was a really difficult level to convert 'faithfully'. I tried a few different versions out and think this one is playable.

63 SLIMEYARD (walls of BLOCK FACTORY). More of a casual filler level.

64 PHOENIXVILLE PENNSYLVANIA (walls of SPOOKS). Again paying tribute to the design of the original. Blobs are deterministic. I like the gameplay concept.

65 CENTRAAL STATION (walls of AMSTERDAM). A full size railroad maze.

66 BEFORE MY VERY EYES (walls of 67 CHIPMINE). Similar to my 40x40 level OPTIMAZE. Choosing a good early route can significantly shorten the rest of the level.

67 MULTICHIP (walls of 85 TELENET). People on the Skype group have probably seen this exploitation of one of the weirdest bugs in CC2. Time limit is extremely short to encourage alternative chip-collection techniques (although I may up the time limit a bit if people think I need to).

Thanks for playing! I appreciate positive feedback as well as constructive criticism.

[H2O]

A lot of creative concepts in a lot of well designed levels which are over all a great playing experience - but to be honest, I didn't expect anything less

Let's have a look at the individual levels:

23: A well designed level, not the necessarily the type I personally like the most, but it's a fine one.

44: An interesting concept, I think it would be a really good and fun to play level, if it would a bit smaller, it starts to feel a bit long and repetitive after a while.

52: I like this level a lot, the helmet area is really creative and fun, as is the level over all The revolving door I pointed out already in the pm, but in the end it didn't feel like it is necessary, it is an interesting puzzle as is. The ball which starts next to the green door is fairly hard to spot with the male tile and the movement of the blocks - personally I think that it doesn't add anything to the level, it might be better without it.

53: A cool concept and really nice level, not to hard yet it starts to get a bit tedious after a while, if it would be a bit smaller it would probably make it a great level.

54: A nice fun puzzle level, really like it

55: A nice difficult puzzle, and as the in the title, obfuscated is the right word, for some parts, even though it felt relatively linear to solve, you have to think ahead a bit in several areas and figuring out how to control the toggle was the hard part, though it's not necessarily one of the hardest levels of the set, and several areas are not as strict as shown in the replay - I didn't use all the buttons available, and I'm pretty sure I got all the chips, so the extra one felt a bit odd for this type of level, it's fine, but I think it would be fine as well if all chips are required.

56: A really good idea, overall the level might be a little on the long side, especially since almost every single misstep will lead to being completely screwed, and the time limit feels way to short, it could be 900 or more. Even though it is relatively linear, it's not clear at the start how everything will work out. It might not be that hard puzzle wise, but you have to explore a lot and at least to me it felt harder than the last level over all.

57: An interesting level, probably not necessarily the most fun to casual play, as the automatic switching even though sometimes helpful, can be a bit annoying. The time limit of 200 feels unnecessary short as you don't have any information about the structure, or where the chips are and therefore have to explore on your first play through.

58: Yes, trial and error with walkers killing you if you make the wrong choice in a maze like structure you don't know (looking in the editor makes it easy, but no). This part feels more like a horrible troll. Removing the walkers on ice however makes it a really nice puzzle level...

59: Under straightforward I do understand something different , however I really like the fist puzzle, it's creative and interesting to solve The blue tank one is easy, but fun, (in theory you can kill several tanks and make the level unsolvable). What I don't liked too much are the invisible walls, why include this trial an error by removing essential information from the player? At least for me it ruined the puzzle on the left without any reason, normal walls would imo be way better choice (or filled traps or something if it shouldn't be a wall).

60: The start of the level I like a lot, the maze is fine as well

62: Yes, trial and error, not my thing, again a level you don't know the structure and you get killed by making the wrong decisions.

63: The slime part includes some guess work but with educated guesses you will have no problem to solve it, and there are not to many options how to go about it in the first place - it's not difficult - the paths you have to take however are relatively long, overall, but not a bad level by any means, but not necessarily the best level of the set either.

64: To me it wasn't at all clear at the beginning what you can do with the yellow teleport, I think this should be explained on a hint, as it's a really cool idea; sadly the level includes a lot of waiting if you want to play it save, and regardless if deterministic or non-deterministic, which anyhow doesn't effect the casual game play at all, it's not my favorite level, but definitely a cool idea for a blob level.

65: A little tedious but easy enough to be a nice relaxing level.

66: Really cool, I like it a lot, it looks great, to watch the tanks drive in place, and fun to play

67: Really clever use of empty clone machines, the idea of the level itself however really similar to a recessed walls maze with a interesting but weird gimmick, and for such a level type I don't really see how a really strict time limit is necessary or even a good idea. Imo the time limit can be way higher, as this level type by nature has already the requirement of planing a path which you have to figure out through some try and error especially as the vast majority of the structure of the maze is not visible to the player at the start (even though not that complex).

[Joshua Bone]

Thanks for the feedback (9 months later). I would be very interested to know what your solution was for OBFUSCATED AND INTERRED. If you ever feel like recording a video I'd love to see if it is busted

[H2O]

Your new levels are really well designed and from those I played already, a lot of fun to solve (with the exception of conquest, a new test of patience and tedium) and I like the updates to your older levels
Probably some time next week I'll have time to play the rest, and give feedback to each of the new levels.

I personally like the difficulty of the levels, some are a bit on the long side, yet it is probably a good idea having more easy and medium difficulty levels in the final set to make it accessible to more players

OBFUSCATED AND INTERRED

The level might be a bit easier than you thought because it is pretty linear, for the most part you have just one option at each point in time of how to proceed, but it is not busted as far as I remember my solution, you have to solve every part, just some details are easier than shown in the replay.

[Joshua Bone]

Thanks! CONQUEST is what it is, I think it might be possible to expand the starting areas a little bit, but I think it's legit to have a couple of campaign levels in the set.

I'm definitely switching my focus to easy levels now.

On OBFUSCATED, I intended it to be a 'misdirection' level, where if you do the one 'obvious' option all the way through you end up stuck, sort of like on DETECTIVE STORY but with more noise. The fact that it felt linear with one option at each point makes me feel like it might be busted. Dunno, I haven't really looked at it in a year or so.

[H2O]

Here the some more details to the great new levels

MARKTKANAAL

Most of the areas are pretty easy by them self, with the ice maze on top of everything, and some areas you have to visit from different sides at different points, this level gets quite long and therefore time limit could be longer. Other than this, a nice and fun to play level

CONQUEST

With all the blobs a real test of patience if you want to play it safe. This type of level, especially that big should imo be untimed.

MY MOTHER SAYS

The constant pining noise starts to get annoying after a time (is it really worth to have this bonus room?). The opening puzzle is interesting, yet I don't understand why you are hiding keys under blocks for no reason, a secret eye would make the puzzle better. The gimmick, the logic gate delay setup is relatively simple for those who knows wiring in cc2 works, for other players probably difficult to figure out. With an eye I like the starting area and especially the basic idea of the puzzle is really cool, the rest of the mandatory part of the level is is essentially just chip collecting but does fill the space in a walls of level quite well

DISINTEGRATOR INTEGRATOR

Really cool, great level. Especially the starting rooms are nice well designed puzzles. The rest is relatively simple, yet slightly lengthy. I think the time limit could be 900 instead of 600 without harm

HOOPLA

A nice easy to medium difficulty level, just the time limit is too short. 800 or 900 sounds good, otherwise players might run out of time on their first try, and have to replay the whole level for no other reason.

SALMON RUN

A good medium difficulty level, I really liked the puzzles , and are not too sure if the dodging with the ball and walkers is actually necessary for this type of level.

THE AMAZING VORTEX

The first part due to limited vision a bit of guesswork, but that's fine, since it is the first part of the level, the rest are creative mazes. Just the time limit should be higher again.

A MAN OF MANY LAYERS

An interesting idea for a maze, however there is a lot waiting for monsters which is partly why it was not necessarily my favorite to play.

NURSERY GAMES

Pretty easy fun level, in the first section death is possible, in this regard I wish there would be an indication to go right first, but since it's pretty short, it doesn't matter too much.

GREENLIGHT

A push up wall maze with toggle and slightly visually confusing aesthetics, it took me several tries to finish it, even thought it's not that strict, but there are bottle necks, especially if you don't know how many chips and bombs there are, but it's short enough to be fun.