11-Sep-2024, 2:10 PM (This post was last modified: 11-Sep-2024, 2:21 PM by G lander.
Edit Reason: mention C2M replays
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One day in the Bit Buster's club, a Chipster interested in level design was walking between two rooms, carrying in both their hands little plastic snap-on tiles resembling the tiles in Chip's Challenge, meant to be placed in a grid for designing levels. Unfortunately, while walking, the Chipster tripped on a carpet, with the tiles dropping on the floor, mixing together, with the mess of tiles almost resembling a level. The tiles were originally separated by type, so when they fell, the same types of tile generally close by. After the Chipster themself recovered from the fall, the arrangement of tiles gave them great inspiration for the next level...
Indeed, this Create Competition is about having clusters of tiles together! More specifically, all non-floor tiles must be in clusters of at least 4 tiles. A tile cluster is a set of tiles of the same type, connected orthogonally or diagonally. The tiles do *not* have to all be next to each other to be considered a cluster, something like a line is valid and is considered as one cluster. Tile clusters of different layers may overlap (a cell with eg. a block on a gravel is considered to have two tiles: a block and a gravel), but each cluster must have at least 4 tiles. Chip/Melinda aren't required to be in clusters, but it's not disallowed in CC2 (or, I suppose, MS) levels.
You can submit up to a maximum of 3 levels, sent to my Discord DMs (@g_lander). All levels must be solvable in at least one ruleset (please specify which ones your levels are meant for!). If possible, please supply a solution in the form of a C2M replay, Json/Routefile, TWS, or video. The deadline is Oct 9th 2024 (00:00 UTC+2), my birthday! If you have any questions, please ask them in this thread or the Discord #competitions channel.
It's now October 2nd, a week before the deadline, and I've only received one submission. Because of this, the deadline will be extended by two weeks, to October 23rd (00:00 UTC+2)! Hope we get at least a couple more submissions!
31-Oct-2024, 4:45 PM (This post was last modified: 31-Oct-2024, 4:49 PM by G lander.)
Hi everyone! The competition's deadline has come and gone, and I have now received 4 submissions from 3 people! Let's see how they rank!
4th place [Click to Show Content]
Clustered Insight, by Miika
A fairly straightforward level, where you have to push all of the blocks to collect the chips underneath them. Much simpler than the other levels submitted, this was more of a relaxed breather level (in a good way!). While this level does follow the rules of the competition (as for the corner blocks, wrapping was technically never specified to not be allowed), the restriction isn't used very creatively and barely reflected by the layout. Not a bad level (I imagine it's interesting to optimize!), but I feel the other levels utilize the clusters better.
3rd place [Click to Show Content]
Four Tiling, by ChosenID
This level is quite different from others, as it's not really possible to solve casually! The mirror Chips, a critical part of the solution, are off-screen and have to be manipulated blindly (from the normal 10x10 camera point of view). This is not something I consider to be a design flaw, or a flaw at all. It's still a puzzle, but a bit more meta than the usual CC level. So, as for the actual contents of the level, you have to get the mirror Chips to open up one of the door squares near the real Chips, so they can cooperate with the yellow tanks (and possibly the mirror Chips!) to build a path across the water to the exit. The route that I made for the level was quite complex with a lot of player switching, with some of the mirror Chips going up, and one to the left, so that the mirror Chips could unlock all the doors, and prepare at least one block for the bridge. It was quite interesting to utilize CC2 optimization tricks (like in eg. The Village, desyncing the movement of the mirrors so I get to control them independently by bumping into different directions each tick) to get the mirror Chips to do what I wanted. I then watched the provided routefile, the solution of which was much simpler than what I had, which was honestly disappointing! I think levels which are designed around only being solved using an optimization tool have great potential, and this level is a good example of that, but I wish it was more aware of (and maybe utilized) the many extra tricks you gain by switching to SuCC/ExaCC/MVS. Completely unrelated, but the symmetry along the main diagonal is visually pleasing!
2nd place [Click to Show Content]
Overlap Square, by chipster1059
The main thing about the level is the "belt" around the "planet" you start on, with the "belt" being multiple overlapping chains of monsters, terrain, items, no signs and canopies. This is definitely a very interesting interpretation/utilization of the clusters! Right after the start of the level, most of the monsters go towards you/the "planet", and I suppose overlapping over each other in the square, giving the level title multiple meanings! After the monsters calm down (read: blow up or drown), you can start going around the belt, solving very small puzzles and collecting chips. Pretty good level, with my only complaint being that it takes a while for enough monsters to die so that you can start going around. I think a couple more bombs for the monsters to run into would make it a lot better.
1st place! [Click to Show Content]
Mel-quad, by chipster1059
A non-linear adventure through the square maze of square squares, where you have to plan how to equip your Melindas to travel through the obstacles in the way. No notes on this, a very enjoyable and replayable (there are multiple ways to get to the exit!) level!
And that's all the submissions! Thank you to everyone who submitted!
