Explorer's Delight

[H2O]

This is the feedback thread for the level set Explorer's Delight





The levels are:

01 ABANDONED MINESHAFT

02 FIERY CAVES

03 SUBTERRANEAN ADVENTURE

04 PATTERN ISLANDS

05 1234

06 CASTLE WINDOW

07 WEAK HYPERCHARGE

08 POWDER MONKEY

09 SCATTERED

10 SMALL OBSTACLES



Any feedback or review would be appreciated.

[Joshua Bone]

Glad you're back, albeit under a different profile

Some really cool concepts here. I love the large levels! They truly are an explorer's delight, and really capture much of what is often a neglected aspect of the game.

ABANDONED MINESHAFT was an easy, fun level. I liked how open-ended it felt despite the very linear design. The three block puzzle was the crux of the level for me, even after all my tinkering I still didn't know you could push a dirt block with a directional block.

FIERY CAVES was similarly enjoyable. The fireball manipulation had a few different surprise elements that took me a couple of repetitions to get right, but it was fair.

SUBTERRANEAN ADVENTURE was simultaneously the best and worst of the lot. Best, as in the most interesting puzzles, but worst due to the length of the level compared to the puzzle placement. The mimic at the start was cool, and I LOVED the ghost puzzle. It was early enough in the level that it was easy to arrive at the solution by process of elimination. The other four major puzzles (directional block, recessed wall/ice block, doppelganger, and railroad) were all individually excellent, however it really sucks when you cook one of them and have to replay the entire level. Also the 1K flag under the dirt block is unfortunately placed--if a player is holding UP and RIGHT to blaze through that passage they'll not only find the flag by accident but also end up stuck on the RR tracks. Another unfortunate cook late in the level.

Overall I love the big levels. They are a lot of fun to explore. I think the challenge is figuring out how to add a difficulty curve while avoiding the frustration of cooking a long level.

Thanks for sharing!

[H2O]

Thank you for you feedback, it's really helpful and motivating to hear about playing experience

Yeah, silly me forgot my password, and since the password recovery doesn't seem to work, I'm back as H2O

Blocks pushing other blocks is a really interesting mechanic. I first discovered that dirt blocks can be pushed around when designing INFINITE MOTION and either by coincidence or based on this level Tyler included it in BLOCKSMITH as well.

SUBTERRANEAN ADVENTURE is now updated, if you step <span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">accidentally on the mentioned tracks, you can get of them again. That late in trapping the player was of cause not the intention...

I agree, the challenge almost all longer levels have is balancing out difficulty, fun and the potential frustration of cooking...



With the update of SUBTERRANEAN ADVENTURE the final three levels with different design approaches towards the exploration theme of the set are included as well

With hopefully a lot more interesting puzzles.

[Joshua Bone]

Reviewed the full 6 level set in a post on my blog . Thanks for uploading!

http://cczone.invisionzone.com/index.php?/blog/18/entry-100-cc2-custom-set-review-explorers-delight-12/

[H2O]

Thanks a lot for your review

Even though initially planned to consist of six levels, after seeing the LP, it felt like the set should have some more easy to medium difficulty levels in it, and concerns about the difficulty where definitely a part of the feedback, so I worked hard to update the set again, and include the levels PATTERN ISLANDS, 1234, CASTLE WINDOW, and WEAK HYPERCHARGE, which are all on the easier side, less puzzle heavy and more focused on concepts, as well as shorter than most of the other levels in the set even though trying to be exploration type levels. Most parts are on the experimental side, so I'm definitely curious to hear about the player side, how those parts feel, and hope they are as much fun to figure out and or play with than intended when designing them