snacks.dat

[snacksforsale]

awesome, thanks so much for your feedback. there's a revision to this levelset at the bottom of this post based on the feedback i've received here and on discord.

Level 1.  Bloc Quebecois
What was the purpose of the block clone machines?  I solved the level by moving the blocks with boots underneath straight downwards, and then stepped through the fire to turn the last block around and open all three traps.  Speaking of that last block, the chip under it is not required to open the socket, but that doesn't really matter as the chip is unavoidable.

yeah, this level is definitely busted. the idea here was that you would be "forced" to push the block into the water, but that didn't work out. i actually think the intended solution for this level is interesting, so i've made an attempt to fix this level.

Level 2.  Dallas Toggle Tournament
Did you mean to not give this level a time limit?  It seems that every other level in this set has a time limit, so I'm not sure why the exclusion on this level specifically, since it didn't seem particularly harder than the rest of the levels.  In fact, I managed to solve it in just 1 in-game second, with only 2 presses of the toggle button.

i decided to make this level untimed since i am personally not super comfortable with monster manipulation. i'm not happy with how this level turned out, tbh, but i know my judgment isn't perfect and duds are still part of the learning process so i wanted to get other people's thoughts on it anyway.

Level 6.  Tank Destroyer
This level is heavily busted, because two blue button presses on the same move cancel each other out.  If Chip simply goes LLURU from the start, he can win in less than one in-game second.  Even disregarding that, though, the chip socket can be opened without collecting any of the 3 chips, and the suction boots could also be skipped in MS with a backwards boost off of the left force floor.  To fix these issues, I would suggest: (1) setting the "chips required" count to 3; (2) changing both force floors to point upwards; and (3) removing both of the blue buttons by the exit and having the tank be controlled externally by another monster, for example, a pink ball outside of the player's view that presses a blue button every 2 moves.

thanks for the advice on un-busting this level! a few people in the discord also told me this level is ridiculously busted in several ways, which is a shame because i thought i was being clever with this concept. on the bright side, though, i did learn this advanced technique about tanks that i can maybe use to solve other people's levels, which is nice.

Level 7.  Elements Placement Exam
Here we have a slightly larger all about the "elements" of Chip's Challenge: water, fire, ice, and force floors.  Despite its haphazardous design, I think it's a neat little level, and a fun ice boosting challenge for more seasoned players.  May I ask if there is any pattern to the placement of the tiles in this level that I do not see, or is it simply a case of carefully constructed randomness?

i tried to make it in such a way that someone who wasn't super experienced with ice/force-floor movement would end up collecting all 4 boots in clockwise order. you can of course fudge it with clever and well-timed use of ice and force-floors to finish the level faster, hence why i called it a "placement exam." i had this concept in my head of an elemental maze where you can start by choosing any boot but then you're forced to collect the rest of the boots in a prescribed order. it has proven to be a tough concept to execute properly, so i might spend more time designing levels like this until i get it right.

Level 8.  Entomology
What a strange level this is, and one I barely even remembered the second it exited my mind.  The bug is not challenging to avoid as long as you don't get greedy with collecting the ice skates, and making it drown at the end doesn't really feel like it makes the level stand out any more.  This may be my least favorite in the set, because I just don't see the point in it.  Maybe I would appreciate the level a little more if you could explain your thought process when designing it.

i imagined this level would be part of a larger itemswapper, which is probably where it should have stayed since it doesn't seem to be interesting on its own. i sort of got a little too excited when i figured out that you can exit before the bug drowns, but that alone doesn't make the rest of the level all that interesting in retrospect.

I would like to see more levels like this - small, compact, yet also deceptively hard levels - from not just you, but from Chip's level designers in general.  It seems to be quite an underdone genre; I can think of only 3 levels in official sets with a size of 9x9 or smaller, those being Tiny (CCLP1 #17), Breathing Room (CCLP1 #72), and Once Upon a Troubadour (CCLP3 #50).

also vague dream (cclp3 #33)! the deceptive difficulty of blue and brown was also vaguely inspired by bummbua banubauabgv (cclp1 #142).

i will say the whole reason i did these small levels was because of a piece of advice i read from bill wurtz who said that a good way to get into making stuff is to start as small as you can and then work your way up. it was super useful to test concepts out in small levels that i may want to use in larger levels in the future, and i enjoyed poring over the details of these small levels (whether they were successful or not). i think i will continue to make small levels in the future even as i become more comfortable designing levels of all sizes.

as promised, attached are the revisions to snacks.dat. my final semester of college starts tomorrow, so i'm thinking this will be it from me for now until i have more levels to show off. here's the list of changes:

• bloc quebecois - removed the block and water tiles at (4,4) and (5,4); changed fire to a recessed wall; increased chips required to 1
  
• key moves - increased chips required to 8, by suggestion of flareon on discord
  
• tank destroyer - made the changes indy suggested in this post