[WIP] [WIP] Tower of Hanoi Demo
This is a very small map that I have been working on that is a portal adaptation of the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. (Google it, or better yet http://www.mazeworks.com/hanoi/) It is going to be a room in a larger map and everything is essentially in running order (I hope). There isn't an entrance elevator, or an exit, the goal is just to get all the check marks on the exit wall lit up.
Basically I used three different style cubes to represent three different size discs, and instead of pegs holding discs I have cases holding cubes. That, and it's upside down...Hard to explain, easy to see.
What I really need help with is making this more user friendly for people who walk into this room and have never heard of the tower of Hanoi or what the rules of it are.
For example: One rule is that you cant put a larger disc on top of a smaller disc. Simple, but how do I best illustrate this to portal players? (In the case of my level it would be "You cant put cube B below cube A in the glass case" because it is upside down)
I put one of the basic rules of the game on the wall of the room, but I think it borderline kills the "portal feel" of the room, and I don't think I should really write out all the rules of the game.
So if I could get some feedback on what would make it easier to figure this particular puzzle out, it would be much appreciated.
File Name: tower_hanoi.zip
File Size: 1.86?MiB
Tower of Hanoi Demo
I'd take a step back from worrying about players not knowing the tower of Hanoi. I am very familiar with the towers of Hanoi puzzle but I am still having trouble figuring out what I'm doing.
I'm being thrown by several different factors. First and foremost, which way is up? The variable gravity is confusing. If there needs to be variable gravity, then there needs to be more visual cues. Having the floor and ceiling the same texture is not helping. Same sort of thing for the entrance and exit ends, more visual difference between the them would make it much easier to quickly orient oneself.
Related to that is the order the cubes go in. Once I started taking the stack apart I realized I'd forgotten which one went where and because the other set is upside down I didn't know if it matched or mirrored the one I was working on. Speaking of which, is there a purpose to the second set?
After a couple of restarts I did solve it - got all the checkmarks on the exit lit up, though nothing happened and I never used the second set - by simply ignoring most of the feedback from the map and going through the steps to solve the towers of Hanoi. I basically only looked around to see if I was in the entrance or exit side and did my best to just focus not looking at the map otherwise.
If you want to make it easier for players to know what they're doing I strongly suggest getting rid of the variable gravity; it doesn't work well with a puzzle that involves vertical ordering. If you really want it because it looks neat I'd suggest using the second set and only flipping gravity between the two sets. You could place the second set in a chamber above the first and have them share a glass ceiling.
If you're not using the second set I'd also strongly suggest removing it. It adds more clutter and distracts from the relevant elements, not to mention the tower of Hanoi has three pegs and sticking to three strengthens that association.
As for conveying the rules without much text I think the towers of Hanoi is well enough know you'll just have to strengthen the association with it. For me I'd pretty much automatically associate anything with three containers or pegs and a stack of disks or objects ordered by size with the towers of Hanoi. In the case of this map the containers are very clearly the pegs, but you could present them little better so the player sees them all together. Looking lengthwise down the line of pegs is not as good as viewing them perpendicular to their line. The second element, stacking the disks by size, is obviously harder since you can't widen the cubes, but maybe you can widen the container they're in to give the same association. Maybe even having the triangular shape in textures on the wall behind the first peg would help. Maybe you could use more oblivious sequential set of colours too, though I guess you're kind of limited there by the models again.
For the few people who don't know the rules there are a few things I'd suggest to make them easy to learn. For this puzzle I'd see if there isn't a way to prevent a cube from falling past its initial position even if there isn't anything below it. If the laser cube never falls into the companion cube's place it'll create an association between that cube and that location. That will help the player know something it wrong if they put a cube above a smaller one and it can't fall into its normal position. When the player dose try this I'd also only drop the larger cube back out and leave the others in place. It should help make it more clear the cube they're trying to place won't fit rather than dropping all the cubes.
I'm not sure how I'd do the restriction of moving only one cube at a time, but you already make it impossible to do that. I think you could gain a little still by having a clearer indication that the button is locked until you replace the cube you took out.
Oh and I am so stealing the idea of using the towers of Hanoi in a Portal map. 
Firstly, thanks a million for the feedback, exactly what I was wanting! After over 100 downloads and not a single comment I was getting a little discouraged.
As far as the gravity, I think that I will try to keep it in there if I can, because I cant help but feel that without it all you really have is the Tower of Hanoi, which isn't very "portaly". I will however heed your advice and try to make it easier to distinguish entrance from exit, ceiling from floor, because in the final version there will not be giant "ENTER" and "EXIT" signs plastered on the wall.
This map was originally made for portal 1. In it, I had custom skinned cubes that were each colored differently, and numbered 1, 2, and 3; much easier to distinguish the order. I've been trying to keep from using any custom content at all in this map, so I tried to help show which cube was which by using the flag pole next to each case. I think I'll try moving it right up on the side of the case so it's right there in your face and the association is easier to make.
I like your idea with only letting the cubes go as far as their respective slots. It's not really inline with the Tower of Hanoi, but neither is anything else I've done and I think it would make it clear as day that you cant put a "bigger" cube over a smaller one...brilliant. It shouldn't be hard, just need to tweak a few relays.
The second set was there to show what order the final cubes should be in when you complete the puzzle. I thought that by not putting any buttons over on that side of the room it was obvious that there was nothing to do there, but the final version will be set up so that you wont even be able to get to them, so I'm not too worried about it.
The lack of anything happening when you finish the puzzle is because this is a WIP, and I do apologize for that. It will be part of a larger map and there will be a door that opens and what not.
Since you were so helpful, I'll try to help in return, to only move one cube at a time, I had to set up a math_counter combined with numerous triggers, logic_branches, logic_branch_listeners, and 3 filters. Basically you want to be able to detect when a cube is moved into or out of a slot using triggers combined with filters. Then count how many cubes are in slots with logic_branches, logic_branch_listeners, and the math_counter. If the math_counter is 2, the launch buttons are unlocked, the others are locked. If it is 3, the launch buttons are locked, the others are unlocked. Ok, I know that is probably very vague, but I basically ended up writing a mini program in portal...
Anyways, thanks again.
Yeah I know how hard it can be to get good feedback. Your map is interesting though and I couldn't help but comment on it.
I loading it up again to see what how the flags on the cubes looked again. The first entry chamber actually looks good, but after moving a cube I got to this point
and I just don't see the towers of Hanoi. The flags do help but I can kind of understand why I didn't really see them the first time though since the visual feedback I'm getting here is not matching with what I know the towers of Hanoi should look like, so to solve the puzzle I tuned out most of the visual feedback.
I do find it kind of cool to have this map that can actually confuse and disorient me, but that will probably make it harder to get new players in. I even thought it was unpleasant the first time though due to this effect. Still I was able to keep playing this long enough to more or less get past the unpleasantness so maybe others will too. Some polish and presentation will go a long way here; maps that look good can get away with stumping and confounding me for a lot longer before I give up on the map as not worth the drive space.
I think there is a lot you could do with this map and I'm actually eager to see what the final version will be like. Any idea how long that might be?
I can see from your screenshot how the gravity does definitely throw off the feeling of the towers of hanoi. I may end up removing that after all. I think I'll just try to make some sort of a more interesting way players have to transition between the three areas. Nothing hard, just something to give it a little life.
As far as when the map will be ready, This is one room out of roughly four planned rooms. The first two are done, minus a final run through to do the super detail work. This is the third, and I haven't started on the fourth. Unfortunately I'm a very slow mapper. Since I've already posted this room here, what I'll probably do is repost the final map version of the room when I get that done. I'll have to tweak considerably to get it to fit in with the theme of my map, and to incorporate the changes we've talked about, but it shouldn't take me more than a week or two.