November 2020 Create Competition - Spooky Scary... Ghosts

[Ihavenoname248]

It's been too long since the last competition here at all. Time to fix that. A Create Competition is a level design contest where anyone can make a level or levels from a given prompt or theme, which are then judged and ranked, with feedback. Whether you're a veteran designer with hundreds of levels or have never made a level before in your life, your submission is welcome here!

For this month, I want to see a ghost level in CC2. You may use any map size or settings you'd like, and additional themes beyond that, but at its core the level should be able to be described as a ghost level. Ghosts are very flexible and can be used for a lot of different types of level, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with :)

Some administrative details:

• Submit your level(s) to me at IHNN#3459 on Discord or by PM on the forums before December 1st. Extensions will be granted for up to 1 week if a designer has let me know that they're working on something.
  
• You may submit up to 3 levels to the competition: if you submit more, only the most recent 3 will be judged. You may update your submissions at any time. These levels should be new, or at the very least unreleased.
  
• Levels should be solvable but do not require a replay. If you do not have CC2, you can still use CCCreator to create a level- let me know if you can't get anyone to give it a test and we can work something out.
  
• New for this competition: I will be taking a look at maps as I receive them and striving to respond with some quick first impressions and potential thoughts for ways it could be improved, unless asked not to. I'm going to try this based on some Discord discussions to try to help everyone create the best levels they can. I will not be playing the levels before judging, and will hopefully be able to stream the judging process either on my Twitch stream or to Discord.
  
• If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to ask either directly or in this thread.
  

[Ida]

Cool! I will try to make something

[Ihavenoname248]

Hey everyone, I've received a request for an extension and so levels will continue to be accepted for an additional week, until December 8th.

[Calica]

Hey everyone, I've received a request for an extension and so levels will continue to be accepted for an additional week, until December 8th.

Does that include edits to existing levels?

[Ihavenoname248]

Alright, entries are officially closed.

I received 16 levels from 7 designers, with 1 designer submitting a 4th level that will not be ranked, but is still included with the rest. I'll hopefully find time to stream playing through these within the coming days, and final results within a week. In the meantime, here's a pack containing the entries! If there's anything amiss with your levels here or I missed something, let me know ASAP.

  November 2020 Create Entries.zip (Size: 16.66 KB / Downloads: 208)

[Ihavenoname248]

I don't think that the results for this competition need much preamble, beyond the fact that I really enjoyed playing through these levels. A couple could use some extra polish or consideration for the blind experience, but that doesn't stop them from having some really strong and interesting ideas. On to the rankings!

7th place [Click to Show Content]

Sharpeye468 - WILL YOU TAKE A BRIBE REDUX
Congrats Sharpeye, you placed last in the competition like you wanted to! Compared to the original this is actually a lot more playable, due to the fact that there are less ghosts and what feels like a larger play area. There just wasn't a lot of chaos, or a lot of interest here.

6th place [Click to Show Content]

geodave - GHOST BOWLING
Also submitted: GHOST GAUNTLET, OH MY GHOST
Ghost Bowling is a level where you do the same thing four times, while managing to be reasonably fun. The bonus is completely trivial and I wish that the yellow teleports were actually used for something. The block is also unneeded and can be used to skip one of the bowling runs. Overall, it's not a bad level, and is missing one or two pieces to be really nice.
Ghost Gauntlet is a ghost mod of Gauntlet from CCLP2 and features a crash if you teleport wrong. There's also a notable lack of polish from the black button/wall combo by the exit, as that wall can never be entered.
Oh My Ghost is extremely short and chaotic, and not in a fun way. The use of a second character doesn't even add anything to the level- a way to improve this would be to have some of the chips only accessible by each character. Though, that might make it worse from having to deal with the chaos more.

5th place [Click to Show Content]

jbone - OUR DEARLY DEPARTED
Also submitted: Knotted Bedsheets
This hurts to rank this low, but the level is too clever for its own good. Even without accounting for the busts with wall slapping and extracting the foil, there's just a bit too much going on everywhere. The first section with the hook ghost is a strong start that I really liked. The dynamite room, however, I didn't like- there's an element of timing in the solution that difficult to visualize from the clutter of the room. Even if it wasn't necessary for solving the puzzle, I wish there was a third block here just for the options. The obvious solution comes up 2 blocks short, so I don't think it would break anything. The boot room dodging is also a bit noisy, and I found it difficult to parse where was safe and where wasn't safe. It's also the least interesting of the rooms that mostly solves itself. The sokoban puzzle is quite clever with a catch that I think is a bit mean, as it relies on solving another room (the top one) first, and seeing that. Speaking of the top room- it's intimidating in size, requires taking a blind slide, and then takes about a minute to clear when you know what you're doing, most of that time waiting. The bonus is almost a redeeming factor here, but it trips when it turns out there's an element of blind timing to it. Overall, there's not really anything inherently bad in this level, just a lot of sections that didn't click right with me.
Knotted Bedsheets is a really cool idea and the first of two levels showing the potential of ghosts, recessed walls and foil. However it's too big for its own good and can be made easier by exploiting the fact that they're trap buttons and don't need to be held down. Both of these levels are better than all that came before, and it ended up being quite close between this and the next placement.

4th place [Click to Show Content]

chipster1059 - THEY THOUGHT IT WAS THE GHOST
Also submitted: IRON FLOWERS, WHOST
This level uses a single ghost with speed boots in a series of redirecting puzzles- I actually really liked most of this level despite some weird choices with the no signs (which block ghosts) and clone machines (not thin walling them off so they clone in the indicated direction) The dirt room is the least interesting of the bunch, while the first two rooms were great puzzles. This level trips across the finish line with a dirty trap at the end, requiring a switch to Chip due to a strange behavior with ghosts on ice corners. If that trap wasn't there or had the mechanic shown/hinted, this would have easily been 3rd, and in contention for 2nd.
Iron Flowers is a level that's kind of there. The fire boots may look like a ghost could take them, but due to that ice corner behavior they can't. Reaching the last few trap buttons isn't difficult either, it just takes the right angle of approach. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't much like it either.
Whost is a maze, and not a particularly interesting one. And, you even have to walk back through it all the way to the start at the end. More branching paths and more opportunities for shortcuts on the way back (or having the level end at the bowling ball!) would have both been improvements, I think, though not by enough to overtake TTIWTG.

3rd place [Click to Show Content]

calica - Uzumaki
Also submitted: Twirl
Uzumaki has some very strange decisions and multiple ways to get around, and somehow despite being confused on what was expected of me at nearly every step turned out to be a fun level. The bonus can be cheesed (which is fine) and some of the intended backtracking can also be avoided, though in a way that feels like rewarding the player for understanding the layout rather than following the "obvious" next step. That said, there are two main drawbacks here: the start and the very end. The start has some blind, poorly telegraphed ghost manipulation while the end has a nerve-wracking dodge at the end of a level not focused on it. It can be cheesed with a boot drop, however, and ultimately neither of these are a huge issue.
Twirl suffers from a lot of missing polish- there's a blind 50/50, no way to check your progress, a 15 second start, and no way to go back and try again short of a restart. It's also scaled quite large (due to area buttons) and switching to wired pink buttons would be an improvement. As I said on the stream, the idea is a solid B, while the execution is a D.

2nd place [Click to Show Content]

Flareon350 - Metal Navigation
The better recessed wall level, and the better 10x10 level too! There's a lot of potential approaches including one that uses timing to get past the flame jets and I really enjoyed iteratively working out a method of getting everything sorted out. I wouldn't change anything here, other than maybe adding a third flame jet chip in the bottom left, as the left side felt a little underutilized. Though it's hard to say how much of an impact that would end up having on the level.

1st place [Click to Show Content]

Ida - Ghost Buster
Also submitted: Help!, Broad Daylight Ghosts, (Ghost Master)
Ghost Buster was actually the first submission I received for the competition, and it turned out to be my favorite of the bunch. I received a couple of updates to the level during the submission period and looking back, they were all excellent touches. The only thing that's a bit unclear is that there are items hidden under the blocks. At that point there's no other reasonable options and it quickly just works- in fact everything in this level has a very nice flow to it, with the main puzzles coming at the start and having just enough edge to make you think. A really fantastic level and a well deserved win!
Help! was also a very fun level with a neat bonus. The ending wait being a bit long is my only real gripe here- it's hard to say if this would be my second favorite level if that was shorter.
Broad Daylight Ghosts is my 4th favorite from the competition and focused on bowling ball demolition. The bonus really tests you on your understanding of the mechanics at play here, and I wish that the ghost with two bowling balls had to be used to take out the one with the key as that would have made this idea really stand out. As it is, this level is a solid fun one with no real issues, only held back from being a stronger favorite by its simplicity compared to some more interesting levels.
Ghost Master was the second submission but was retracted as an unranked level for being a less interesting version of Ghost Buster. Not much to say here other than ghosts and railroads are a good mix, and the necessary blind inventory gain is a bit iffy.

If you'd like to see the stream, I've uploaded it here, though my commentary is unfortunately lost as my recording didn't pick up my microphone. :(
Most of my thoughts are thankfully captured above, however.

[chipster1059]

Congrats Ida on the win!

Regarding my levels. Your comment about thin walls in TTIWTG rather confuses me.  Ghosts can go through thin walls, so I'm not sure what this would change.  The purpose of the item blockers was to prevent the ghosts from returning to previously solved rooms, although I probably could have found another way to do this. You make a valid point about the ending though.

Your opinion of Iron Flowers rather matches my own.  I may revisit the Whost concept at some point with your suggestions.  Thanks for hosting the competition Jeffrey!

[Calica]

Congrats Ida on the win!

Regarding my levels.  Your comment about thin walls in TTIWTG rather confuses me.  Ghosts can go through thin walls, so I'm not sure what this would change.  The purpose of the item blockers was to prevent the ghosts from returning to previously solved rooms, although I probably could have found another way to do this.  You make a valid point about the ending though.

Your opinion of Iron Flowers rather matches my own.  I may revisit the Whost concept at some point with your suggestions.  Thanks for hosting the competition Jeffrey!

The thin walls I think was just forgetting that fact; as for the item blockers, they prevent the ghosts from touching those squares no matter what, because of weird interactions in CC2.  Also, as for the ending...

TTIWTG [Click to Show Content]

You don't actually need to direct the ghost into that clone machine, making the ending a lot easier.  You can also just take the boots for yourself and skip the dirt section, in effect.

[chipster1059]

...whoops.  That thing in the spoiler is a bust.  Thanks for the report Calica!