Quote from shawy89 on July 28, 2011, 6:10 pm

Let me be the first to give you some feedback and what I suspect to be the first of many 5/5 rating for this map. I loved it!

The puzzle was execellent, it really made me think. Pretty sure I did a couple of sneaky solutions, as I didn't use the panel with deadly lasers in front of it (I suspect it was for a light bridge).

I actually recorded myself playing the map, took a good 20 minutes. I'm probably going to upload it to YouTube in the next day or 2 so I'll post it here once I've done that.

I really enjoyed the "Aha!" moment of how to get the lasers into the 2 receivers for the exit, that was great. [spoiler]Having both lasers go through the same portal crossing over[/spoiler] was genious!

Keep making maps, loved this one, looking forward to more. Thanks for making!

Quote from quatrus on July 28, 2011, 6:27 pm

Agree you created a very good single chamber map. Some thought was put into the puzzles and solutions. Everything worked fine. Well done. thanks for mapping.

Quote from Kiavik on July 28, 2011, 8:09 pm

Very brief but very sweet as well. The final solution is pure genius. Everything else was nearly flawless too. 5/5

Quote from satchmo on July 29, 2011, 2:07 am

Elegance describes both the visual style of the map as well as the puzzle elements.

This map took me 45 minutes to solve. Things that seem so obvious after the fact took me a while to figure out. I think it's quite challenging.

I love the texturing work you've done. The black and white tile pattern not only serves as interesting aesthetics, but they also mask the solution, so it's not so obvious that you have to portal through certain spots. There are also hints that subtly guide the player, but without giving the answer away.

Tremendous job! You must have spent a great deal of time designing the puzzles.

I noticed that you left the lightmap density at 16 throughout the map. I thought certain surfaces could use sharper shadows, but that's a minor point.

Quote from Will T. on July 29, 2011, 2:17 am

It's been too long since I had a rigorous mental exercise like that. It was very much needed after a particularly tedious week, so thanks for that!

I really had fun here. I saw the final solution long before I could actually complete it (about halfway through the puzzle as a whole), and it took me several tries before I finally got [spoiler]the second cube into place.[/spoiler] I liked that this puzzle was difficult and required a lot of observational skill, while at the same time avoiding feeling too busy or convoluted and managing to lack any "Who the heck would think to try that?!" moments.

I agree with Satchmo that the varied tile sizes/types are good. This is something that I think has the potential to add a lot to almost any map: a heavy mix of all sizes of tiles, with non-rectangular white areas if the design allows it, as it does here.

I found [spoiler]the Rattmann den[/spoiler] on my run-through. That was nicely hidden.

Well done!

Quote from smwlover on July 29, 2011, 3:05 am

Awesome! I really appreciate the solution to open the final door. It indeed gave me an "Aha" moment. 5/5!

Quote from Enryu on July 29, 2011, 3:21 am

pretty nifty map.

Quote from xdiesp on July 29, 2011, 9:03 am

Praise-worthy short map featuring one polished, vividly detailed chamber in Clean style. Puzzles come in the most logic guise you can imagine: but as in riddles, you get the meaning but still have to find your way through.

Basically perfect: familiar but grabbing, unpretentious but delivering - and that final solution is a first. Less spectacular but more intricate than my parameter for short maps, Infinifling.

Quote from clyder on July 29, 2011, 11:02 am

Thanks for the comments everyone. Seeing people enjoy the map is very rewarding.

I'm glad players (or at least those that have commented so far) haven't had too much of an issue with the final step. The testers and I tossed around a few ideas for trying to minimize the potential frustration of [spoiler]incorrectly aiming the lasers - committing to those final 2 portal placements and making a mistake requires some backtracking that I ultimately decided was acceptable given the speed/ease of reacquiring cubes. We settled on the raised floor tiles as a subtle "place the cube here" indicator.[/spoiler] The final step is really just a repurposed concept from Valve's single player campaign, but I'm glad it seems to have worked well.

shawy89: A video would be great, watching players navigate the map is often the most useful feedback. [spoiler]Did you manually toss the cube over the fizzler? I knew that could potentially be a shortcut, but figured since it only skips a couple steps, it wasn't much of an issue. Small reward for those confident enough to toss it, but I'd personally never require something like that in a level's design. The laser field white panel is intended to provide a high view of the second platform via the laser activated light bridge, while requiring the cube to be on the second floor button. It also prevents the player from simply dropping down to intercept the faith plate cube.[/spoiler]

satchmo: I'm afraid I'm still enough of a hammer novice to not fully understand the significance of changing lightmap density. I'll do some research.

Will T: [spoiler]Glad it has been found! I wanted to hint at it in the level description, but decided that defeats the purpose of a secret, even if it isn't very difficult to find. The small BTS area was added as a reward for those curious enough to go explore behind that fizzler.[/spoiler]

xdiesp: The kind words are appreciated, especially given your extensive and quality review work of the maps on ThinkingWithPortals.