Yesterday, 3:09 PM
In a world where Walls Of levels are abundant, one set will attempt to do the impossible. One set will go back to where it all started, the original Chip's Challenge 1, and transform everything. This winter, coming to a computer near you - a set that spans three designers and three years in the making: Walls of CC1! /movie trailer voice
Okay, in all seriousness, this set is one of my favorite level design projects I've gotten to work on. Collaborating with Josh and VT over the past few years has been a blast, and the levels we came up with have tested us as designers in ways that we weren't expecting. Unlike many modern Chip's Challenge community sets where levels of different scales and sizes are abundant, CC1 stands apart with its plethora of giant layouts that extend to nearly the entire map. We weren't expecting this to take as long as it did, but I hope the results are worth the wait!
Like any CC set, the context of when this started at the end of 2021 is a reflection of where the CC community generally was at the time. I had been away from designing levels since finishing up with Walls of CCLP1 in 2019. Walls Of sets were in abundance, and CCLP5 wasn't even realized yet. Some CC veterans were hoping to see an increase in difficulty with the next community pack akin to CCLP3's. In many ways, Walls Of sets were a fun playground to make those dreams a reality - taking a layout that may have housed a simpler level and building something more complex within its constraints.
This set was no exception to that rule, especially since the original CC1 is one of the simplest official sets out there. Originally, we set out to make something even more difficult than what we ended up with. We even started a spreadsheet where we rated each other's levels to track the overall difficulty curve so we didn't go too overboard. Eventually, as CCLP5 materialized and became a difficult set in its own right, we started realizing the curve needed to be more reasonable and made easier levels or nerfed existing ones toward the end of the set's development.
I love looking back on the final makeup of the set and reminiscing about what went into these conversions, especially the really challenging ones. It's also neat to see how this set compares to the original Walls Of trailblazer - Joshua Bone's Walls of CC1 set that was built for CC2 - and how our takes on these wall templates differed. My first level for the project, Strip Mine, was meant to be a test concept for a maze with block walls and traps at the intersections. Chipmine from the original game felt like a natural fit for this with its rhyming title and already tight layout. The final level ended up feeling very different from Joshua Bone's Before My Very Eyes, which used the same layout in a more open way and was featured in CC2LP1.
Some of the conversions attempted to do more than just bring wall layouts over. Josh's first level for the set, Sanitation Station, was a perfect example of what one can do by focusing on bringing over a different element into the layout - in this case, the ice corners from Southpole. One of my favorite conversions, Neon Vessels, took the tiles of Lesson 7 and jumbled them all up to form something entirely new. The Lost Ruins of Arnak (which, if you haven't played it, is an excellent board game), took The Marsh and inverted its water and blocks. And Battle of Hedge Row eschewed walls altogether and converted the original ones into toggle doors for a frantic teeth melee challenge.
At the end of the project, our last two designed levels were deliberately meant to be collaborations. We aimed for these to be a credits level from the layout of Thanks to..., and a medley level from the layout of Memory, which led to Where Credit Is Due and Time to Make History, respectively. The latter level references 44 different levels from across this set and was a fun retrospective on everything we had built together.
At this stage, I'm ready for a shift back toward easier material in my level design journey. I've already begun work on a new Walls Of set based on CCLP5, which is intentionally going to take a step back in difficulty to stand out from its source material - the inverse of what most Walls Of sets have done so far. Josh has continued designing levels for his current CC2 set, Flareon2, which is looking fantastic. But until those are finished, I hope you enjoy this set!
What can you expect to find here?
This download contains a .zip file with two versions of the set. The "unlabeled," vanilla version, Walls_of_CC1.dat, is the intended way to play through the levels and is ordered mostly by difficulty. Walls_of_CC1_A.dat is the "wall order," in which all the levels are ordered by where their originating counterparts appeared in CC1.
Enjoy playing, and be sure to leave a comment! I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Okay, in all seriousness, this set is one of my favorite level design projects I've gotten to work on. Collaborating with Josh and VT over the past few years has been a blast, and the levels we came up with have tested us as designers in ways that we weren't expecting. Unlike many modern Chip's Challenge community sets where levels of different scales and sizes are abundant, CC1 stands apart with its plethora of giant layouts that extend to nearly the entire map. We weren't expecting this to take as long as it did, but I hope the results are worth the wait!
Like any CC set, the context of when this started at the end of 2021 is a reflection of where the CC community generally was at the time. I had been away from designing levels since finishing up with Walls of CCLP1 in 2019. Walls Of sets were in abundance, and CCLP5 wasn't even realized yet. Some CC veterans were hoping to see an increase in difficulty with the next community pack akin to CCLP3's. In many ways, Walls Of sets were a fun playground to make those dreams a reality - taking a layout that may have housed a simpler level and building something more complex within its constraints.
This set was no exception to that rule, especially since the original CC1 is one of the simplest official sets out there. Originally, we set out to make something even more difficult than what we ended up with. We even started a spreadsheet where we rated each other's levels to track the overall difficulty curve so we didn't go too overboard. Eventually, as CCLP5 materialized and became a difficult set in its own right, we started realizing the curve needed to be more reasonable and made easier levels or nerfed existing ones toward the end of the set's development.
I love looking back on the final makeup of the set and reminiscing about what went into these conversions, especially the really challenging ones. It's also neat to see how this set compares to the original Walls Of trailblazer - Joshua Bone's Walls of CC1 set that was built for CC2 - and how our takes on these wall templates differed. My first level for the project, Strip Mine, was meant to be a test concept for a maze with block walls and traps at the intersections. Chipmine from the original game felt like a natural fit for this with its rhyming title and already tight layout. The final level ended up feeling very different from Joshua Bone's Before My Very Eyes, which used the same layout in a more open way and was featured in CC2LP1.
Some of the conversions attempted to do more than just bring wall layouts over. Josh's first level for the set, Sanitation Station, was a perfect example of what one can do by focusing on bringing over a different element into the layout - in this case, the ice corners from Southpole. One of my favorite conversions, Neon Vessels, took the tiles of Lesson 7 and jumbled them all up to form something entirely new. The Lost Ruins of Arnak (which, if you haven't played it, is an excellent board game), took The Marsh and inverted its water and blocks. And Battle of Hedge Row eschewed walls altogether and converted the original ones into toggle doors for a frantic teeth melee challenge.
At the end of the project, our last two designed levels were deliberately meant to be collaborations. We aimed for these to be a credits level from the layout of Thanks to..., and a medley level from the layout of Memory, which led to Where Credit Is Due and Time to Make History, respectively. The latter level references 44 different levels from across this set and was a fun retrospective on everything we had built together.
At this stage, I'm ready for a shift back toward easier material in my level design journey. I've already begun work on a new Walls Of set based on CCLP5, which is intentionally going to take a step back in difficulty to stand out from its source material - the inverse of what most Walls Of sets have done so far. Josh has continued designing levels for his current CC2 set, Flareon2, which is looking fantastic. But until those are finished, I hope you enjoy this set!
What can you expect to find here?
- 64 levels by Josh Lee (Flareon350)
- 64 levels by J.B. Lewis
- 19 levels by VT (vortex178)
- 2 special collaborations between Josh and J.B.
This download contains a .zip file with two versions of the set. The "unlabeled," vanilla version, Walls_of_CC1.dat, is the intended way to play through the levels and is ordered mostly by difficulty. Walls_of_CC1_A.dat is the "wall order," in which all the levels are ordered by where their originating counterparts appeared in CC1.
Enjoy playing, and be sure to leave a comment! I'd love to hear your thoughts.