Ok people, I have no idea how to judge this competition because of the dichotomy of having two types of levels. I've played all the levels and will try to comment on them, and maybe a solution will present itself. Before I get into that though, I want to explain something I wanted to do, but it didn't quite work out. I was going to post the comments on the levels on April 1st, but my real life schedule was impossible to reshuffle enough to make that work. I would have just bashed the levels and just pointed out all the little annoyances in the levels and made personal attacks on participants hygiene. I had to wait till I had all the entries too. Maybe I would have awarded an overall tie. Maybe in another time line that would have worked, but in this one you'll just have to settle on what comes next.
So these are just comments on the levels in the order they are in the currently available version of the set that collects the levels, which is approximately in the order the levels were submitted. I'm starting with Lynx, because those were the levels I played first. Also, I realize I haven't written stuff about February's levels so many of the newer participants in these competitions really can't have a reference of what types of levels I like and what types of things I pay attention to while judging these things. I also tend to point out many minor details about levels that I might build differently myself and many things are just design preferences. (Note also that I personally don't get around to making many levels and am just a mere critic who really might not know anything about level design.)
The Keys to Failure
- Cyberdog
The second half of this level is very disconnected from the first, and doesn't seem to have much to do with this competition. Maybe it's a fun way to fill up the level, so at least it's not terrible, so I'll concentrate on the first room and its puzzle, as that is where the Lynx-only stuff lies. So what makes this level Lynx-only is the erasing of two blue keys using the glider and then no troubles with controller and boss glitch (I guess that's what the second half was trying to do, I get it now!). A minor thing that could have been made the objective in the first room clearer (and the mechanism more elegant), was to have the bug behind the socket, instead of a button that releases it. Overall, the level feels just fine; not terribly exciting but not bad either.
eXceLleNcY
- geodave
I guess this name comes from trying to confuse me when I need to type it out for the results, nice try! *
I'm sad to see you missed the opportunity to connect the level name to the password, using XLNY or even XLNC. The level itself seems to be a collection of pieces that only work in Lynx. If the only goal was to fit the requirement of this competition, any one of these would have sufficed and the rest seem redundant. Even when playing, the blue key and the glider seem like extra parts that just happen to be there, and the toggling walls could just have well be done with a bug. The solution itself is pretty straightforward, and if you manage to not drown there isn't many things you can do wrong or need to figure out. Overall the level is not long enough to be dislikable, but the pieces don't gel together to make something memorable.
Delayed Post
- Ihavenoname248
This is a pretty tough level for its size. It explores the possibilities of re-routing teleports using splash delay. This could be interesting in itself, but I experienced three problems with the execution. Firstly, when a puzzle involves teleports the design should make it absolutely clear to the player how they work and where they take Chip. I don't just mean that they are all visible from somewhere, but that they would work in an intuitive manner. Here they don't, ad the result is that the player really needs to plan out what to do using a map. Secondly, the order of doing things is too strict without being clear as what to do next. This is to do with how complex the parts are. For example, I used the teeth to release the pink ball, but apparently it would also have been possible with the paramecium. Thirdly, this there are elements in the level that just seem to make it more complex without adding to the solution, or otherwise being too complicated. (Like getting the fireball to the bomb at the start, or using a cloner to press the first blue button, when a block pushed onto it would do just as fine.) For any series of puzzles like this, it would be better to narrow it down to the leanest version possible instead of adding all these things just because they fit. Overall the level tries things I have not seen elsewhere, but then again if I had, they were presented in too complex an environment to have interested me enough to solve them all.
Attack of the Keys
- Chipster1059
A quick look at this level in the editor made me think I'd be erasing a lot of blue keys, but luckily that was all done for me when playing. The first puzzle in the level is to get a blob to explode a bomb by manipulating some multidirectional force floors. The level would have been twice as good if the fireballs in the traps at the start would have been replaced by walls, so I wouldn't have felt so afraid of them. Just getting out of this first room either felt like luck or required a lot of thinking, and by using walls instead of the fireballs, I would have felt much safer trying either method. After this part the level was pretty fun. The dodging wasn't too difficult, and the pattern created by the monsters was unique to Lynx. The block slapping was nice, though it did go on for a tad too long, and the waiting at the end could also have been a bit shorter (or was the intention to run after the glider? I just waited for it to come around again and head straight up to the exit). Overall not a bad level, but it could have been shrunk down a bit to give it more focus.
Sea of Keys
- eric119
Another level with tons of blue keys, but here Chip gets to be the one erasing them. I like the focus of this level, in that it has a clear focus and there aren't millions of things flying at Chip at all times. The puzzle of how to push blocks in a room to get all the chips surrounded by blue keys is a fun one, though here there were a few aspects I didn't think lived up to their potential. Many of the keys were too far to see. And since this erasing keys with a block was a new type of problem to face, I could have used some guidance at the start. (Like I had three blocks, but wasn't sure if I could waste any, and in which directions.) There was only one area with two neighboring chips, and I wouldn't have minded seeing more of those. This all added to a level with a nice concept but one that I had to restart too many times.
...so that's how far I got for now, almost half way half of the level. I'll keep bashing your levels later!
So these are just comments on the levels in the order they are in the currently available version of the set that collects the levels, which is approximately in the order the levels were submitted. I'm starting with Lynx, because those were the levels I played first. Also, I realize I haven't written stuff about February's levels so many of the newer participants in these competitions really can't have a reference of what types of levels I like and what types of things I pay attention to while judging these things. I also tend to point out many minor details about levels that I might build differently myself and many things are just design preferences. (Note also that I personally don't get around to making many levels and am just a mere critic who really might not know anything about level design.)
The Keys to Failure
- Cyberdog
The second half of this level is very disconnected from the first, and doesn't seem to have much to do with this competition. Maybe it's a fun way to fill up the level, so at least it's not terrible, so I'll concentrate on the first room and its puzzle, as that is where the Lynx-only stuff lies. So what makes this level Lynx-only is the erasing of two blue keys using the glider and then no troubles with controller and boss glitch (I guess that's what the second half was trying to do, I get it now!). A minor thing that could have been made the objective in the first room clearer (and the mechanism more elegant), was to have the bug behind the socket, instead of a button that releases it. Overall, the level feels just fine; not terribly exciting but not bad either.
eXceLleNcY
- geodave
I guess this name comes from trying to confuse me when I need to type it out for the results, nice try! *
I'm sad to see you missed the opportunity to connect the level name to the password, using XLNY or even XLNC. The level itself seems to be a collection of pieces that only work in Lynx. If the only goal was to fit the requirement of this competition, any one of these would have sufficed and the rest seem redundant. Even when playing, the blue key and the glider seem like extra parts that just happen to be there, and the toggling walls could just have well be done with a bug. The solution itself is pretty straightforward, and if you manage to not drown there isn't many things you can do wrong or need to figure out. Overall the level is not long enough to be dislikable, but the pieces don't gel together to make something memorable.
Delayed Post
- Ihavenoname248
This is a pretty tough level for its size. It explores the possibilities of re-routing teleports using splash delay. This could be interesting in itself, but I experienced three problems with the execution. Firstly, when a puzzle involves teleports the design should make it absolutely clear to the player how they work and where they take Chip. I don't just mean that they are all visible from somewhere, but that they would work in an intuitive manner. Here they don't, ad the result is that the player really needs to plan out what to do using a map. Secondly, the order of doing things is too strict without being clear as what to do next. This is to do with how complex the parts are. For example, I used the teeth to release the pink ball, but apparently it would also have been possible with the paramecium. Thirdly, this there are elements in the level that just seem to make it more complex without adding to the solution, or otherwise being too complicated. (Like getting the fireball to the bomb at the start, or using a cloner to press the first blue button, when a block pushed onto it would do just as fine.) For any series of puzzles like this, it would be better to narrow it down to the leanest version possible instead of adding all these things just because they fit. Overall the level tries things I have not seen elsewhere, but then again if I had, they were presented in too complex an environment to have interested me enough to solve them all.
Attack of the Keys
- Chipster1059
A quick look at this level in the editor made me think I'd be erasing a lot of blue keys, but luckily that was all done for me when playing. The first puzzle in the level is to get a blob to explode a bomb by manipulating some multidirectional force floors. The level would have been twice as good if the fireballs in the traps at the start would have been replaced by walls, so I wouldn't have felt so afraid of them. Just getting out of this first room either felt like luck or required a lot of thinking, and by using walls instead of the fireballs, I would have felt much safer trying either method. After this part the level was pretty fun. The dodging wasn't too difficult, and the pattern created by the monsters was unique to Lynx. The block slapping was nice, though it did go on for a tad too long, and the waiting at the end could also have been a bit shorter (or was the intention to run after the glider? I just waited for it to come around again and head straight up to the exit). Overall not a bad level, but it could have been shrunk down a bit to give it more focus.
Sea of Keys
- eric119
Another level with tons of blue keys, but here Chip gets to be the one erasing them. I like the focus of this level, in that it has a clear focus and there aren't millions of things flying at Chip at all times. The puzzle of how to push blocks in a room to get all the chips surrounded by blue keys is a fun one, though here there were a few aspects I didn't think lived up to their potential. Many of the keys were too far to see. And since this erasing keys with a block was a new type of problem to face, I could have used some guidance at the start. (Like I had three blocks, but wasn't sure if I could waste any, and in which directions.) There was only one area with two neighboring chips, and I wouldn't have minded seeing more of those. This all added to a level with a nice concept but one that I had to restart too many times.
...so that's how far I got for now, almost half way half of the level. I'll keep bashing your levels later!