Portal 2 Catch-All

Science!

Really though, I don't think hard size limits are really needed. Some maps tend to encourage larger or smaller sizes. Something focused on the Faith Plate or Propulsion gel would trend much larger than something focused around lasers.

Science!

The only limit should be your own creativity. And maybe the rules for the week. Science isn't exclusively chaos, after all.

Half-Science!

Half, because I'm not sure I'll be able to get down on making maps. My creative juices are rarely flowing at the end of the day, so the maps would almost certainly amount to jump here, get box, win. I'd much rather spend that time playing. Your maps, hopefully!

Non-competition talk:

I've completed 2 maps, tried publishing them, but I'm getting a "servers are too busy, try later" message. Anyone else getting this?

Competition talk:
- What's everyone's thoughts on submitting already existing maps? Say the challenge this week is White Gel, and I have a map already that deals with White Gel, acceptable? or should we submit only new, unpublished stuff?

- Clarkatello: ...computing...
- Cyrax: Science!
- Demonbox: ...computing...
- Hyetal: Half-Science!
- Kannon: Science!
- Kexx: Science!
- Mantid: ...computing...

Also, might as well, to start the ball rolling, I'll put up some ideas on what the challenge could be, and we can vote on one from there, or obviously, submit new ones to the vote:

Snow, Snow! (White Gel)
Tangerine (Orange Gel)
Bubble Bobble (Blue Gel)
Milk (All Portable Surfaces)
Empty Oreos (No Portable Surfaces)
Black and White (One chamber all or mostly Portable, adjacent chamber all or mostly Non-Portable)
Soda Popinski (Fizzlers)
The Drink (all about deadly water goo)
High and Dry (Angled Long Jumps)
The Soaring Eagle in a Blimp (Speed Running Jumps)
X Slice Pizza (X amount of Chambers 3, 4, 5, etc.)
Iron Man (Survival of Death Traps)
The Final Countdown (Timed Pedestal Buttons)
Jungle Gym (Parkour Skills)
Ride the Wave (Tractor Beams)

Feel free to add, or vote, or whatever!!

Hmm, me thinks you don't get the idea of your own idea, kexx.

Of course it's only original maps! Not only do old maps not make sense for competition, but they also disregard the spirit of creavity these restrictions and rules should generate.

As for voting, randomizer ftw!

Also, one for randomizer. And original maps only. They don't have to be fantastic maps. They're game-jam maps, we don't expect them to be awesomely polished. Though reworking a favorite submission map after the fact and polishing it and tuning it to be awesome is always encouraged.

Science!

Also picking a random one out of the suggestions might be a good start. Though we might need to nix some of the crazier ideas. Like mine!

Checkerboard: Every other panel portable
Tunnel vision: Test chamber no wider than 3
Catapults!: Themed Edge-less Safety Spheres and Faith Plates
House of glass: Tests featuring rooms/tunnels made of glass panels
Laser Marathon: One laser beam, many bends
Tower of Knowledge: Vertical test chamber
Grate Expectations: Test chamber is divided by a grate

Good! I was just asking, cause I saw on the portal 2 forums competition thread people saying that already existing maps are allowed. Just wanted to clear that out.

Choosing at random one of these would be awesome! I'm loving Tower of Knowledge myself.

Oh god. I can't properly explain how MUCH I LOVE VERTICALITY.

Non-Competition Talk:

More crazy maps! I give you:

DISCHORDIA

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/596972170431012971/5466E92CF01A089D43302890273E304CA6EBD98D/)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=74398107

And:

CORKSCREW

IMAGE(http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/596972170431065377/B23E25B7A6F12715E4DF1D7ADC3C3D4DF8B381D5/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=74398426

Enjoy!

Hi, everyone! I'm back! And I brought gifts! 10 test chambers!

MechaSlinky Collection 01

I put them in a collection because I wanted to and also because it would be a lot easier than filling up this space with 10 pictures and links. Even though they're in a collection, I would love to have them in the GWJ collection if you want to put them in there.

I wanted to keep it somewhat in line with the difficulty of the main game. They're mostly pretty easy, and I'm hoping they gradually get more difficult as you go. It's hard to tell when you only have yourself to test your chambers. Also, chamber 1.4 is one I'm really not sure about. I can't really say why without giving away the solution, but it shouldn't be very difficult and if people are okay with it then I'll feel better about it.

Anyway, I'm down for chamber jams! (Jambers)
Perhaps for the first one, it can be anything goes, and then each one after that will have a specific whatsits. Or whatever, it's all good to me. If we go with something specific for the first thing, my vote would also go to verticality. I didn't play with it nearly as much as I had intended to in my first ten maps.

Finally, haven't gotten a chance to play any of the test chambers anyone else has put up yet, but I will soon and I'll let you know how much they make me hate my own work once I do.

Welcome back! I´ll start on your maps today when I get home. Looking forward to them! Also, glad to have one more for our competition!

Alright! Looking forward to doing this. My only concern with very large map is in the time it would take to build. I have no concerns if someone wants to build a 25x25x25 map, I'll play it to be sure, but if a full size map is the requirement, I just can't guarantee that I'll have it ready on time. As that does not seem to be the case...yet, I'm good. I was warned that you were all a bunch of lunatic gamers, you know (thanks for the warning, lexx), so I feel that I'm in good company.

MechaSlinky:

I subscribed to your collection. I'm saving this spot to edit later with my review. Starting chamber 1.0 now!!

EDIT:

1.0 - I HATE laser maps, but the overall idea was well thought out, and simple enough once you see what can and must be done.

1.1 - Liked the vertical aspect of it. Also, the cube there for the ramp, nice touch. Had me a bit confused there for a sec.

1.2 - I love, LOVE running jump maps...BUT, i'm stuck. I can't get across! I've activated the angled pannels, but I kept falling in the water...gonna try again later on. Don't spoil anything.

kexx wrote:

1.0 - I HATE laser maps

Then you're really not going to like some of the later maps.

THIS JUST IN: I tried a few of the maps, so here's my impressions. Bear in mind that I'm tired as hell so I made some really stupid mistakes along the way. I'm not faulting the maps for my stupidity.

Jumping by [GWJ] Norfair: This one was really easy. I didn't even use most of the big ledgy-platformies. Felt like I bypassed most of the map, so maybe I didn't do it the way that was intended.

Spoiler:

I just went down to the lower area off the left side and then used the excursion funnel to raise myself up, then dropped myself back down and came flying out a portal on the slanty bit and landed next to the exit.

Jump 2 by [GWJ] Norfair: I actually didn't finish this one yet. I'll go back and give it another shot, but

Spoiler:

I got frustrated because I was trying to get a box up to the area where the reflective box happens, but when I jumped down to the lower platform, it didn't pull me far enough towards the portal that I had placed so I ended up hitting the floor right next to it. Trying to get back up to where I was with that stupid box was just too much hassle, although I just now realized I could have just created another one instead. Look, it was a long day, okay?

Anyway, I liked it so far.

The Long Jump - Mk. I by [GWJ] Nimcosi: This one was really good, although

Spoiler:

I kept making stupid mistakes and throwing myself into the water in the first part, so I had to keep re-doing that part. When I finally got the part with the turrets, before I even got a chance to have a look at the situation I was launched through the air and landed where I couldn't possibly escape and was killed. To be honest, I don't even remember if I was just impatient and rushed into the jump pad without seeing it or what, but I gave up right there because I just didn't feel like doing the first part again for the 5th time, especially when I knew I only had a little while to play.

Overall, though, I liked it, so when I have more time I'll go back and finish it proper.

Repulsed Accelerant by [GWJ] Omaha: Really nice, but

Spoiler:

I feel like this one may not have been tested quite enough. I was able to complete this without even using one of the switches or the orange gel. I tossed the blue gel up to where the turrets were, and one of them pushed the spherical cube down to me. I left it alone for a while and used portals and the jump pads to get up to the area overlooking the button where the spherical cube needs to be placed. I placed a portal on the wall facing that area, then ran back and placed another portal at the bottom of the pit. Took the spherical cube, jumped through the portal, placed it on the button, and used portals to make my way back to the main area where the exit lies.

Maybe I just got lucky with the spherical cube getting pushed down to me or maybe it was intentional that there was stuff there that wasn't meant to be used or was there to keep the puzzle open to multiple solutions. My solution felt like the conclusion to a satisfying puzzle, but the other elements being present made me question whether I had done what you had in mind or if you had just missed the fact that your intended solution could be bypassed by something much simpler.

Well, that's all I had the chance for, but I enjoyed what little I got to play so far. Looking forward to the rest.

Stuck on 1.6 myself. Not sure what I'm missing.

Thought 1.1 (the orange and blue gel long jump one) had a pretty cleaver solution. I think the tower one is 1.2, right?

Edit: On 1.6, not sure if that was intended...

Spoiler:

with the white surface hidden by the lighting. Not a big fan of just spamming everywhere to see where a portal will stick.

Edit 2: And stuck again...

Edit 3: And done with 1.6

Spoiler:

Getting lost in the glass cage, not sure if I was going forward or backwards, I took the cube in as a marker to better orientate myself. Eventually I found the hole in the roof I had been by who knows how many times. Then had to go through the maze again to get the cube. A little lighting to draw my attention to it would have saved me quite a bit of time.

Since the button is set to ∞, the dropper won't respawn a cube until you destroy the old one. After killing the turret, I followed the path back up to the dropper, only to find I had no way to get a new cube. Some cleaver backtracking got the cube back, but it didn't feel like it was what I was suppose to do. A careless portal or dropping of the cube could leave you stranded in that first area with no way to progress.

Managed to get the timing down on throwing the cube past the fizzers, just to have it fall short and not land on the edge. I stepped on the faith plate watching it drop, leaving me stranded at the exit it no way I could find to get back to where I could get a cube (due to the fizzer and laser field combo). Not sure the laser field is necessary. Removing it would prevent someone from getting stuck like that.

Mantid wrote:

Thought 1.1 (the orange and blue gel long jump one) had a pretty cleaver solution. I think the tower one is 1.2, right?

Yeah, 1.1 is the orange/blue gel room, and the vertical one is 1.2. I accidentally uploaded 1.2 before 1.1 so it's possible they might show up out of order, but whatever.

Mantid wrote:

Edit: On 1.6, not sure if that was intended...

Spoiler:

with the white surface hidden by the lighting. Not a big fan of just spamming everywhere to see where a portal will stick.

At the very beginning? Thought I fixed that. I'll have to check.

EDIT: Ok, so apparently I either didn't save after fixing it or didn't fix it. Either way, should be fixed now.

EDIT 2: Alright, I'll put some lighting by the maze exit to make it a bit easier to figure out that you've come to the right place.

I totally didn't even realize I set the button to infinity. I'll fix that.

And finally, there's actually another path somewhere that isn't entirely apparent at that last point so you can go get another cube, but you're right, that lazer field isn't needed. I'm also going to move the landing spot for the jump pad and put up a bit of safety fun cagings to keep it from bouncing off the walls and into the pit.

Thanks for the feedback. It's a huge help.

EDIT 3: Okay, I think I may have finally fixed it completely. I may go back into it and make some other changes to make retrieving a new cube at the last point a bit quicker, but it'll require a bit more restructuring than I really want to do right now. I did move the entrance to the final tunnel to a much more obvious spot, so that should help a bit.

This one was fun to make, more fun to test! Hope you guys enjoy! Hell, while we set a start date for the competition, might as well continue bringing them in, right?

Here is:

KISS ME TWO TIMES

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/595846361384870657/050BB338917CB9ECB17DAF8D370CA60F078957E4/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=74502073

I love how easy it is to subscribe to maps.

Next time I open Portal 2 there's going to be upwards of 30 new puzzles for me to solve.

I find that a lot of the time the maps don't show up in my queueueueueeeuuuueuueeu. Usually it's just the GWJ collection, though. Anyone else ever have that problem? It's not really a big deal. All I have to do is jump into the workshop and hit "Subscribe All" again and it instantly puts them in my list. Just weird is all.

I'm finally caught up on the thread now, and hoping to get some time in with the in game editor and maybe join in the first round of the competition when it comes along. Played through some levels, liked Jump 2 more than Jumping from Norfair and got really stuck on the first couple Kexx did. Seeing the later ones makes me want to play those instead, they seem to have much better mechanics than the couple I tried.

Science!

It starts today!

No?

Since I'm pretty much over Diablo III, I may actually get to spend some real time on this over the weekend. I don't know if I'll be able to come up with anything interesting, though.

Ok, I agree with cyrax, competition starts today. Let´s vote on the challenge. I for one, nominate Mantid´s idea of Verticality. Thoughts?

kexx wrote:

I for one, nominate Mantid´s idea of Verticality. Thoughts?

That sounds like a fun idea to me! It should at least cause some crazy designs.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
kexx wrote:

I for one, nominate Mantid´s idea of Verticality. Thoughts?

That sounds like a fun idea to me! It should at least cause some crazy designs.

As good a place to start as any.

kexx wrote:

Ok, I agree with cyrax, competition starts today. Let´s vote on the challenge. I for one, nominate Mantid´s idea of Verticality. Thoughts?

I prefer a randomizer outcome over votes, faster and impersonal. Down for any result. Since Mantid's this week's organizer, let's hear what he has to say. Mantid?

edit: Wow, Mantid's fast!

Let's rules!

I am? I thought Kexx did all the heavy science on this one...

Yeah, but he nominated you, which means you're the pretty face everyone looks to for confirmation.

You've got a cushy gig, man, don't blow it.

Edit: Wait, is it seriously "cush"? f*ck that.

Ok, so what then? Are we all in scientific agreement that the 10 day countdown starts today, 7 day build ends Thursday, and that the challenge involved this time is Verticality?

All in agreement, say Chariots Chariots!

Chariots Chariots!