CC2 Custom Set Review - Explorer's Delight 1.2

[H2O]

Wow, thanks a lot for the Let's Play, it was incredible interesting and helpful to watch and I definitely learned a lot about level design in general, and playing experience of these specific levels.
You did a great job in the LP, and I'm thankful that you did not give up, despite the frustration of the last two levels, since this really showed where I made horrible design decision and what has to be changed and especially where I have to pay way more attention in future level designs.

I will write in detail about the things when I've watched the whole LP another time and fixed some of the major design mistakes in the levels, since it might be interesting and even helpful for other designer, to not make the same mistakes.
Perhaps first some words in general. I really like to play longer more difficult levels, even though there is the potential frustration one can encounter on the way, it's often outweigh by the feel of accomplishment after beating them. Regardless of how good or bad they are designed, they might not be for everyone, yet almost always the most memorable (probably already based on the time you spent on them). However small design mistakes can easily add up, and decisions about the level which wouldn't be to bad in a short one, can ruin the playing experience. So those levels need play testing and feedback, and I have to say, you did an incredible job in this regard. So again, thanks a lot. Most of the design problems will be fixed, and future players hopefully will have a better playing experience - and future design can avoid certain problems completely. As a designer you will never have the blind first play experience of one of your own levels, which means certain problems in this regard are really hard to detect. That said, I might have underestimated how difficult the last two levels are a little bit, and will focus more on easy and medium difficulty levels in the future, and pay way more attention to not make levels to long.

04 POWDER MONKEY - The red key/door issue is indeed a small bust, I will change this, more to avoid confusion about having two red keys obtainable without needing than the bust itself.
05 SCATTERED - There are several smaller problems I obviously didn't pay enough attention to when designing, which will be improved. The general crux as well as some other parts probably will stay as they are, and are more things I learned for the future. Over all recessed walls as a major element of an exploration type level was at least for me a design experiment, most likely there are way better approaches for future levels.
06 SMALL OBSTACLES - The best example of small mistakes adding up to destroy the huge parts of the playing experience. I'll probably go into the details when fixing them, but for in some part they where caused by designing a way stricter and even longer level (you had to make three rounds, where certain now optional solutions to save keys were required), some bonus puzzles, a lot more uses of the ghost (getting the dirt boots back at a later stage,...) - and simplifying after realizing that it was probably to complex, to make it a playable level. Yet I obviously underestimated how difficult the remaining puzzles, even through way more linear, are quite a bit. I think you might have overestimated while playing how strict the level is, I removed a lot the initially required setups for doors and blocks, which made you reset the level even when not required. I made a rough count of your restarts, 25, and the reasons for them to identify the sources of the problems. The biggest reason, 10 times, for restarts was without the level requiring it, 3 times they were related to reasons outside the level itself, 7 times you might have thought you cooked the level, but you would have been totally fine, as the level is not that strict. 5 times there were random cooks, those occurred mainly towards the end of the LP, with 3 times the most frequent reason caused by the level, was collecting or better said not collecting the chip above the ghost. Up to a certain amount I would conclude, that part of the main problem with the level is being a long level, especially coming after a long level (based especially on my own experience with sets), and small design mistakes leading to frustration which than leads to errors. Some small fixes and especially removing the last puzzle entirely, removing the thieve bribes completely, redesigning the blue tank section completely or removing it completely (this will eliminate the confusion with the blue keys, which I didn't expect, and probably the single biggest design mistake in the level, I just removed the requirement to get the blue key, without changing the puzzle and/or removing the key itself, and indirectly was responsible for a lot of frustration) will hopefully address most underling reasons for the level being not a great playing experience, as especially being less confusing and slightly shorter. Splitting the level up is definitely a possibility, but hopefully I’ll come up with new puzzles for new medium difficulty - especially shorter - levels in the future.