12-Mar-2013, 7:18 PM
I played your levels as soon as you last updated the set, and it took me two weeks to manage the extra effort of writing some of my reactions to the levels. But here they are now!
#1. The idea of a 'table of contents' level is nice, but it easily gives the wrong impression of your set. At least I thought at first that your set would contain lots of death traps, blind teeth leading, and such, as these kept killing me on the very first level. I think you could reference these levels in a better way, without having to kill me so many times. And besides, if you solve the teeth part at the lower right, #15 is pointlessly easy (on the other hand, if on #1, the teeth was visible, it would be a good hint on what to do when you actually get to the level where it isn't). So the first impression of your set was not great.
#2. A fine second level. It renewed my interest in playing forward.
#3, Telementary. A clever arrangement of teleports. It took some time to get my head around where I was. A higher time limit would have been welcome, or something. Maybe one of the corners could have some other tiles arranged in the same pattern as the teleports, as a hint to how the thing works? I don't know, just an idea.
#4. Basic. Not bad.
#5. Wasn't that interesting, but haven't seen this elsewhere really.
#6. A bit too long I think for the concept. And with bad luck the fireballs got in the way on the way back. It would be better if you had to stop the fireballs from coming down at all after getting the chips, or if they couldn't kill you at all. Right now it's just a bit random.
#7. I like pop-up puzzles like this.
#8. There was something I didn't like about this one, but can't remember what it was. Maybe it had to do with the thief and how you could go through the teleport at the start to get the keys there, and there were two pairs of flippers and fireboots even if you only needed to pick up one of each. Maybe there's a way to force getting all of them? (as I write this and think about the hint, I finally get it !! Yay! I like it, though at first it just didn't make any sense and felt odd.)
#9. A memory game? Ok, though the timing could be stricter for it to work as one fully. (Now there was time to pick stuff up in more than one order.) You could also expand the mechanism to rely on how the player moves and not just timing. (Not totally sure how that might work to be honest.)
#10. I guess you had to get it out of your system.
#11. Not sure how I like this. I just tested stuff and solved it. Not sure if there was some logic to it or if it could have been done another way. At least the name was original
#12, The Chamber. Ok, this was enjoyable, and the name is very fitting.
#13. The word "ekakin" means "even the first one" in Finnish. I wasn't first aware that the trap buttons each only worked once. An easier clearer way to do this would be just have toggle buttons there and you could push a block onto them. (Like (28,26) is toggle button, and (28,27) a block.) It would also be nice to be able to come back to the exit without having to walk all the way back, as it's right below where you get the last chips. You could also expand on this idea in more ways than just pointing the tanks in different directions, if you wanted to. I guess I didn't yet say how I actually liked the level. Well, I thought the puzzle part was nice, but once I got the hang of it became easy. So a nice concept you could still work on and create something great, or at least a sequel.
#14. I think more levels like this were made years ago (with traps under chips), and you can imagine if they were still being made in larger numbers, this would not be fun. At least this was short, so it wasn't too bad. I didn't find the route clever though, and judging by the hint it could have been. Now that I think about it, levels like this also have an impact on other levels in the same set. If I get stuck on some level and the solution avoids me, I start thinking if I missed something hidden under a normal floor tile in some corner earlier. Is this really what you want your player to get distracted by? Ok, so that's stretching it a bit, but the point is that using invalid tile combinations in a way that is not inferable from surroundings has baggage.
#15. The first level spoiled this one for me and it was very simple.
#16, Hourglass. This one worked very well. Nice job.
#17. Another hit. The appearing walls work well at the end (there's not too many of them).
#18. I remember playing through this way too many times. The reason was that I wanted to get the pink balls trapped on the left side of the cloning room, allowing me to come back and clone more stuff if needed. This obviously took several tries. Now I look at the map and realize that I only needed to stop one of the cloners! Funny. Wait, was I supposed to stop the tank pressing instead? No, that doesn't work. I don't understand what all the suction boots are doing either. A decent level with some aspects that I don't understand.
#19, Xtal. I like ideas like this, but found this execution to be a bit easy. Would be interested in seeing a smaller, yet more difficult version of something like this.
#20, Achilles Last Stand. I like the first room a bunch. The others are fine too, though they were more repetitive and the last one is a bit tricky too that far into the level. Points for exit corridor.
#21. I don't like this.
#22. I liked this.
#23. A bit boring. I killed the glider. Maybe some pop-ups somewhere to make it tougher to bring the blocks down.
#24, The Shaft. I got to the hint and then looked at the map.
#25. I've played this level. No wait, it was called Morton and it was better than this. You need a rejects set for levels like this. Though to be fair, everyone needs to get their bluewall maze out of their system, so hopefully you've done that now.
#26. You probably meant the player to go through the trap and the thief to get the yellow key at (18,2). The extra chips are for fun? The tank will bump into the ball half the time, so a toggle wall mechanism would work better. Also don't like the misleading yellow door, but fix those things and otherwise this should be an ok level.
#27, Path to Mahimah. This was a cool use of invisible walls (though I usually prefer appearing walls). I liked this.
#28. At the end, was the teeth supposed to free the gliders? I just did it myself. An ok level.
#29. Don't like this. Don't even get the clue really.
#30. This was way too repetitive. Why not just have half the level? Also wasn't sure which buttons connected to which traps. Besides it's confusing that you can pick up all the needed chips in the bug rooms and just skip the other two corners. (And even if you go to those corners you can pick up 25 chips from the bug corners, though the chip count would suggest you only planned for 19 to be taken). Ultimately I think the puzzle would work even in a much smaller scale.
#31, The Plight of Icarus. This would work fine without the hint, and the water would be a nice thing to discover yourself. It should also be harder to lead the fireball there, maybe using more walls and some fire here and there.
#32. This felt strange, as I wasn't sure when to use the blocks and when the fireballs to do stuff past the teleport. But that's fine. The walker section caught my eye as pretty clever. A fine level I guess.
#33, The Shaft Revisited. Would have actually preferred to have played this first and then get to the joke one. On this one you can reuse the lower buttons, but I see this as a plus. Would still prefer a non-random cloning mechanism personally.
#34. This was pretty hard. The exit area was very easy. Another block in the tough room would have come in handy several times when all remaining monsters got stuck in an unsolvable pattern.
#35. So I just blew up the bomb guarding the exit with the block from (15,18). No clue how the rest of the level would play.
#36, Spiral?. Cool runnings. My solution time: 11.
#37. I looked back at the first version so this didn't really feel any different. Nice concept though.
#38. Did this without a map, and didn't catch on to the hint. Stupid me on both accounts.
#39. I don't do insane levels.
#40. Or unsolvable ones
So yeah, I had fun playing your levels. I actually like this length for a set very much. It allows me to play all the levels without committing several weeks of my life. Though my comments above might not reflect it, I enjoyed playing your levels quite a bit. Thank you. Nice names on some of the levels. The time limits worked on most of them too. I'm glad to see some uses of invalid tiles, but not happy with the unfair death traps. I don't think you need to make a completely lynx workable version of the set, as the levels with invalid tiles just won't play in lynx. (In my mind having several versions of one set is more cumbersome than it is worth.) Was hoping for more mathematical puzzles, but that was only because of your name. Too bad the set is not in CCLP1 voting, as I'd be willing to vote a few of these in! Keep the ideas coming!
Till next time,
-Miika
#1. The idea of a 'table of contents' level is nice, but it easily gives the wrong impression of your set. At least I thought at first that your set would contain lots of death traps, blind teeth leading, and such, as these kept killing me on the very first level. I think you could reference these levels in a better way, without having to kill me so many times. And besides, if you solve the teeth part at the lower right, #15 is pointlessly easy (on the other hand, if on #1, the teeth was visible, it would be a good hint on what to do when you actually get to the level where it isn't). So the first impression of your set was not great.
#2. A fine second level. It renewed my interest in playing forward.
#3, Telementary. A clever arrangement of teleports. It took some time to get my head around where I was. A higher time limit would have been welcome, or something. Maybe one of the corners could have some other tiles arranged in the same pattern as the teleports, as a hint to how the thing works? I don't know, just an idea.
#4. Basic. Not bad.
#5. Wasn't that interesting, but haven't seen this elsewhere really.
#6. A bit too long I think for the concept. And with bad luck the fireballs got in the way on the way back. It would be better if you had to stop the fireballs from coming down at all after getting the chips, or if they couldn't kill you at all. Right now it's just a bit random.
#7. I like pop-up puzzles like this.
#8. There was something I didn't like about this one, but can't remember what it was. Maybe it had to do with the thief and how you could go through the teleport at the start to get the keys there, and there were two pairs of flippers and fireboots even if you only needed to pick up one of each. Maybe there's a way to force getting all of them? (as I write this and think about the hint, I finally get it !! Yay! I like it, though at first it just didn't make any sense and felt odd.)
#9. A memory game? Ok, though the timing could be stricter for it to work as one fully. (Now there was time to pick stuff up in more than one order.) You could also expand the mechanism to rely on how the player moves and not just timing. (Not totally sure how that might work to be honest.)
#10. I guess you had to get it out of your system.
#11. Not sure how I like this. I just tested stuff and solved it. Not sure if there was some logic to it or if it could have been done another way. At least the name was original
#12, The Chamber. Ok, this was enjoyable, and the name is very fitting.
#13. The word "ekakin" means "even the first one" in Finnish. I wasn't first aware that the trap buttons each only worked once. An easier clearer way to do this would be just have toggle buttons there and you could push a block onto them. (Like (28,26) is toggle button, and (28,27) a block.) It would also be nice to be able to come back to the exit without having to walk all the way back, as it's right below where you get the last chips. You could also expand on this idea in more ways than just pointing the tanks in different directions, if you wanted to. I guess I didn't yet say how I actually liked the level. Well, I thought the puzzle part was nice, but once I got the hang of it became easy. So a nice concept you could still work on and create something great, or at least a sequel.
#14. I think more levels like this were made years ago (with traps under chips), and you can imagine if they were still being made in larger numbers, this would not be fun. At least this was short, so it wasn't too bad. I didn't find the route clever though, and judging by the hint it could have been. Now that I think about it, levels like this also have an impact on other levels in the same set. If I get stuck on some level and the solution avoids me, I start thinking if I missed something hidden under a normal floor tile in some corner earlier. Is this really what you want your player to get distracted by? Ok, so that's stretching it a bit, but the point is that using invalid tile combinations in a way that is not inferable from surroundings has baggage.
#15. The first level spoiled this one for me and it was very simple.
#16, Hourglass. This one worked very well. Nice job.
#17. Another hit. The appearing walls work well at the end (there's not too many of them).
#18. I remember playing through this way too many times. The reason was that I wanted to get the pink balls trapped on the left side of the cloning room, allowing me to come back and clone more stuff if needed. This obviously took several tries. Now I look at the map and realize that I only needed to stop one of the cloners! Funny. Wait, was I supposed to stop the tank pressing instead? No, that doesn't work. I don't understand what all the suction boots are doing either. A decent level with some aspects that I don't understand.
#19, Xtal. I like ideas like this, but found this execution to be a bit easy. Would be interested in seeing a smaller, yet more difficult version of something like this.
#20, Achilles Last Stand. I like the first room a bunch. The others are fine too, though they were more repetitive and the last one is a bit tricky too that far into the level. Points for exit corridor.
#21. I don't like this.
#22. I liked this.
#23. A bit boring. I killed the glider. Maybe some pop-ups somewhere to make it tougher to bring the blocks down.
#24, The Shaft. I got to the hint and then looked at the map.
#25. I've played this level. No wait, it was called Morton and it was better than this. You need a rejects set for levels like this. Though to be fair, everyone needs to get their bluewall maze out of their system, so hopefully you've done that now.
#26. You probably meant the player to go through the trap and the thief to get the yellow key at (18,2). The extra chips are for fun? The tank will bump into the ball half the time, so a toggle wall mechanism would work better. Also don't like the misleading yellow door, but fix those things and otherwise this should be an ok level.
#27, Path to Mahimah. This was a cool use of invisible walls (though I usually prefer appearing walls). I liked this.
#28. At the end, was the teeth supposed to free the gliders? I just did it myself. An ok level.
#29. Don't like this. Don't even get the clue really.
#30. This was way too repetitive. Why not just have half the level? Also wasn't sure which buttons connected to which traps. Besides it's confusing that you can pick up all the needed chips in the bug rooms and just skip the other two corners. (And even if you go to those corners you can pick up 25 chips from the bug corners, though the chip count would suggest you only planned for 19 to be taken). Ultimately I think the puzzle would work even in a much smaller scale.
#31, The Plight of Icarus. This would work fine without the hint, and the water would be a nice thing to discover yourself. It should also be harder to lead the fireball there, maybe using more walls and some fire here and there.
#32. This felt strange, as I wasn't sure when to use the blocks and when the fireballs to do stuff past the teleport. But that's fine. The walker section caught my eye as pretty clever. A fine level I guess.
#33, The Shaft Revisited. Would have actually preferred to have played this first and then get to the joke one. On this one you can reuse the lower buttons, but I see this as a plus. Would still prefer a non-random cloning mechanism personally.
#34. This was pretty hard. The exit area was very easy. Another block in the tough room would have come in handy several times when all remaining monsters got stuck in an unsolvable pattern.
#35. So I just blew up the bomb guarding the exit with the block from (15,18). No clue how the rest of the level would play.
#36, Spiral?. Cool runnings. My solution time: 11.
#37. I looked back at the first version so this didn't really feel any different. Nice concept though.
#38. Did this without a map, and didn't catch on to the hint. Stupid me on both accounts.
#39. I don't do insane levels.
#40. Or unsolvable ones
So yeah, I had fun playing your levels. I actually like this length for a set very much. It allows me to play all the levels without committing several weeks of my life. Though my comments above might not reflect it, I enjoyed playing your levels quite a bit. Thank you. Nice names on some of the levels. The time limits worked on most of them too. I'm glad to see some uses of invalid tiles, but not happy with the unfair death traps. I don't think you need to make a completely lynx workable version of the set, as the levels with invalid tiles just won't play in lynx. (In my mind having several versions of one set is more cumbersome than it is worth.) Was hoping for more mathematical puzzles, but that was only because of your name. Too bad the set is not in CCLP1 voting, as I'd be willing to vote a few of these in! Keep the ideas coming!
Till next time,
-Miika