June 2024 Create Competition - Item Bestowal

[quiznos00]

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.

[quiznos00]

I've received a request to extend the deadline, it's now set at 2024-07-11 4:00am UTC

[quiznos00]

I’ve received messages from a few more people who haven’t completed their levels yet, so I will extend the deadline again to 2024-07-14 4:00 AM UTC

[quiznos00]

The competition is officially over. I've received submissions from 5 designers and results will be released within a few days.

[quiznos00]

Thanks to all who participated! The entries are attached to this post. Here are the rankings. Warning: my write-ups contain spoilers.

NOT RANKED:

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CARDINAL GRAIN - M11ka
Miika submitted this level to me with the admission that it didn't involve item bestowal, but he wanted to create a level with a concept he hadn't explored, which was ghosts picking up and dropping items. The level is very straightforward, so I don't have a lot to write about. It would feel at home in the main CC2 campaign, which didn't adequately showcase that ghosts can drop items and ignore thieves. A nice level for beginners nonetheless.

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WALK ON ME DADDY - chipster1059
This is chipster's second submission and the inferior one, in my opinion. This feels more like a proof of concept than a level where the item bestowal enhances the experience. The goal is to get the walker onto the force floor so you can bestow it with an item, but the unique properties of the boot aren't really relevant; it's just a means to allow the walker to pass to the next room. The unwieldiness of the walker does not help the level either and the level seems to deliberately troll you. The speed boots are a distraction, and I see no reason why the player couldn't have been given a helmet at the start.

 
RANKINGS:
4th place

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I AM TANK AND PLAYER BEST OF BOTH THINGS - chipster1059
This first level from chipster also singularly focuses on one of the distinct methods of item bestowal where the yellow tank pushes a block. While pretty straightforward to figure out for a seasoned player, this is still a good level to introduce core concepts to a player who may be unfamiliar with the implications of item bestowal, such as the yellow tank's ability to drop bowling balls. I'm glad the level isn't a trivial item swapper and that navigating the blocks to allow for bestowal and then to use later is explored. It's a bit too simple for me to rank highly, but I think it succeeds in what it sets out to do.

3rd place

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Swimming Fire - Flareon350
This level is a new twist on classic monster redirection puzzles. Instead of redirecting the fireball through dirt, you redirect through turtles, which you need to transform into water for the fireball to travel over. This means, in essence, the level is a dirt redirection puzzle where you can't step on the path you already created, but this only applies after you ditch the flippers. Josh sent me this stating he was thinking of refining it more but decided not to. The puzzle in its current state is quite easy to figure out, plus having the flippers in the first half makes it no different than a dirt redirection puzzle. The level is still solvable with turtles replacing the top left water spaces and the flippers removed, so that would be a start in making this level a bit tougher to figure out and more unique.

2nd place

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Pullcrap - G Lander
This level involves blocks with hooks, a concept which was explored in the Walls of CC1 level "The Iceworm Cometh", but this more focuses on the puzzle aspect of using blocks with hooks to extract more blocks with hooks and manually chaining them together. I like the progression of the puzzles in this one. The first and central room introduces using a single block to pull another, then you move onto chained blocks that the player needs to break apart. I enjoyed the spectacle of the ghost room and its aftermath. We're treated to many more variations of this concept continuing on in the level. My qualm with this level is its length, which is due to questionable sections that could easily be cut out without sacrificing the demonstration of any concepts. A small example is the lone block in the top left of the ghost room, but the main problem lies with the puzzle behind the blue lock. Creating your own chain of blocks is cool to show, but that section requires five blocks to be extracted, two of which the player put there in the first place for the sole purpose of opening the pink wall. I understand you need nine blocks to extract a block you originally shoved in a corner for the ending, which I think is a nice culmination, but I don't think it's worth making the rest of the level tedious over. Still an impressive breadth of puzzles and the most varied and innovative of the submissions.

1st place

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TRACTOR PARK - Joshua Bone
I haven’t seen any block puzzle like this before. The main concept is intriguing, and the puzzles created with it are fantastic and require whole new ways of thinking about block maneuvering. There's a nice and fairly obvious difficulty progression to this level, where there’s a tutorial section, then sections with 2, 3, and 4 blocks, which can be solved in any order. The tutorial section introduces you to all the concepts you need to solve the other rooms, but each of the next rooms ramp up the number of "chains" you need to use and lighting bolt spots where you need to place a directional block that the tank is unable to push. If I were to nitpick about one thing, it would be that the top room with 2 blocks doesn't bring a lot to the table. There's only one spot where block chaining is required, and I think the last room of the tutorial section serves the same purpose. The bottom right room with 4 blocks was particularly a blast to solve, and the whole thing is really top-notch.