Ultimate Chip 2: (Released!)

[Ihavenoname248]

I figure this is close enough to finishing, especially with the progress I've been making lately, that an "official" announcement of its existence wouldn't be promising something that may never come to be. Anyway, I've been working on this on and off for the past...5 years or so, though mostly off. It's essentially a sequel to my first big set, Ultimate Chip.dat, in that I'm trying to make it outright better. Less (to the point of only a couple breather levels) throwaway levels, no invalid tiles, a lot more Lynx compatibility (though I got tired of designing around that after a point, I think level 70-80 is where), and generally better design. Here's some samples of what I've got so far:
Teaser 1:

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I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out, as a sort of open-ended puzzle level. Lots of options as to how to solve it, though currently it's untimed. Perhaps I should make the timer 999 just to see how it gets optimized...

Teaser 2:

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A simpler level a bit later in the set, more to focus on aesthetics. I know that brutal puzzle after brutal puzzle gets old fast, so I've been mixing in easier levels, simpler levels, even some action levels though for the most part I'm bad at designing those.

Teaser 3:

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Lastly, the top left corner of a level that I designed around the concept of having everything you need in the field of view from the beginning of the level...but needing to go to every extreme just in order to complete it.

No download link for now since I don't like releasing WIPs, though I suppose the first version with 149 levels will be version 0.9-people better than me at solving might find busts I missed, and I can't have that in the final product

[chipster1059]

That looks like a nice levelset. When do you except it to be finished?

[Ihavenoname248]

Hopefully before CCLP1 is released, but it really depends on how many ideas I come up with and how long they take to implement.

[Ihavenoname248]

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Had a series of level concepts come to me all in a row, wrote them down. This is what one of them turned into...it kind of took on a life of its own! Progress on the set as a whole should be pretty steady, and then it's public beta time! Just out of curiosity, would I want to make a different topic in the levelset discussion forum for discussing any suggested changes to the set, or would that all stay in this topic?

[chipster1059]

I suggest you stay in this topic while this set is in production, then create a new one when it will be released.

Also, nice new level.

[Ihavenoname248]

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Had a couple bursts of inspiration over the past few days, here's another level I'm pretty happy with the design of.

[Ihavenoname248]

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I'll be taking my "Spyro the Dragon" award now


For anyone who doesn't recognize it it's Vivi from FFIX.

[chipster1059]

This is really exciting!

[Ihavenoname248]

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So...this might be -slightly- over the line for reasonableness...but in the same token, I think I made it fairly varied. The title is fitting seeing as it's level 134, Slightly Less Painful. So I guess 15 levels to go, and I have 2 of those conceptualized at a low level. From there, some quick tests on my end to catch any major solvability errors, and then release (which will probably have minor updates to levels after that point if people find busts and such

edit: made a small change to the lower right not reflected in the screenshot. Cross-checking is no longer required, nor is going on the 2nd force floor.

[Ihavenoname248]

Alright, over the weekend I had a bunch more ideas and hit 149 levels built (yes I made like 60 in the last month or so). I'm current;y playing through the set myself to make sure everything is solvable, as well as tweaking balance on things. My design process is literally design all the things > test all the things. So far I've had a couple places where after the initial designing (years ago) I made some change for aesthetics that made the level unsolvable. Tests are done through level 31 all in the space of tonight, so I'll release the set after I get through the rest. Worst case, that's a week from today!

This means I meet my goal of getting this out before CCLP1, even though I technically began work on this before CCLP3's release...