Quote from Vordwann on June 25, 2011, 8:52 am

Any feedback guys? There are 50 of you.

Quote from anthony.j.deschamps on June 26, 2011, 3:33 am

Needs a lot of work. I couldn't figure out what to do on the first puzzle. I think I might have had an idea as to what the intended solution was, but the problem is that there are so many ways for the player to get stuck - at the base of the supports, for example. If you want the player to enjoy solving the puzzle, they should be able to experiment with relatively few consequences. Death traps should only be used when the solution is clear or in situations where the player is unlikely to fall into them. I know this seems to defeat the purpose, but it Portal, death traps are mostly there for atmosphere (this doesn't apply to co-op)

I think it's a bad idea to use the faith plate in the speed gel test. It doesn't stand out visually from the surroundings because the player is unfamiliar with your design, and probably will not have stopped to examine the first one. Notice that Valve spent some time getting the player to stare at a faith plate in their campaign. Because of that (and other reasons), they are recognizable throughout the game. If the player cannot distinguish what it is (which is made more difficult by the emancipation grid) then they will have difficulty figuring out how to proceed.

The old test spheres lend themselves to large puzzles. As this is a work in progress I won't criticize this yet, but make sure you make use of all this space. As it it, the map feels very empty.

Keep working on it though.

Quote from Vordwann on June 26, 2011, 9:37 am

I was just trying to get a couple puzzles done (i will do some work on making the puzzles more apparent and less places to get stuck) and it is my first map in hammer that I plan to release. I was just trying to get a feel for old aperture, since that is my favorite theme along with destroyed. I feel like one way to solve the aerial faith plate problem is to add a looping sound associated with it (like in lobster's map), put an arrow next to it, change some skins so it stands out more, and also:

-In that first room where it is encountered, have some junk drop from a hole in the ceiling that gets launched off to show that it is an aerial faith plate.

Quote from Vordwann on June 26, 2011, 11:07 am

Also, in the old aperture areas, there isn't ACTUALLY that much in the puzzle itself, they just spread everything out around the spheres. So I COULD spread out the beginning puzzle room... it might be less confusing... but I feel like the puzzle would have the same result... maybe move the second angled brush in puzzle 1 a few units towards the original room and create a catwalk below that leads back up to the main test chamber to keep deaths at a minimum.

Quote from Phitt on June 29, 2011, 1:40 pm

Personally I didn't think it was hard to understand what to do, didn't have a problem with recognizing the faith plates either. I agree that the map feels a bit empty though, the visual detail could also be improved.

I could solve the second puzzle (the one with the faith plate that leads to the exit elevator) without the white gel, don't know whether that was intended.

But overall nice, short map!

Quote from Vordwann on June 29, 2011, 5:03 pm

Can you tell me how?

Quote from Dilbao on June 29, 2011, 5:43 pm

You should fix that problem first:

Underground_1_test1.zip

Quote from yohoat9 on June 29, 2011, 6:23 pm

Just sayin', you double post a lot.

Quote from Vordwann on June 29, 2011, 6:48 pm

Dilbao, I'm working on the problem where you can skip the first test, but the second problem is a mystery... I've never seen it happen when I'm playing...