Portal 2 Catch-All

Agreed. The inevitable patch/expansion they release on the level editor must, MUST include the button functions AND/OR, so we can do stuff like you mentioned.

Totally forgot about the competition, even though I've had my map made for like a week

Here's mine if it's still valid.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=74975905

It's the wee hours of Saturday, but I didn't stay up over two extra hours designing, tweaking, and god, lots of polishing to not get this up. It really is true that once you've created something, and experienced it multiple times, you lose perspective. I can see that being especially true of puzzles. Anyway, hope you guys like it.

Here's Up, Up, and Go Away.

If you can believe it or not, that's the scaled down version I had to do because I knew I didn't have the time. It's a good thing too, because that puzzle would've been bloated and way too time consuming. My original idea was to make a spiral ascent, each side being a puzzle. I'm crazy.

You should post it in the jam thread, cyrax.

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

Saving this spot. Competition 1 finished, so I´m posting several maps once I get home. Work today is soooooo long, my god...anyway, stay tuned! I have 5!

kexx wrote:

Work today is soooooo long, my god...

posted the exploited youth at 3.02pm, local time...

Hobbes2099 wrote:
kexx wrote:

Work today is soooooo long, my god...

posted the exploited youth at 3.02pm, local time...

To quote your lovely avatar over there, GO SOAK YOUR HEAD!!!

Ok, I'm finally home, and here are the maps!

MACGYVER
IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/594721714895965653/25FDC67B0D424B21E257101D08A99DAF3DA46CB5/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=76846830

Started toying around with self-activated mechanisms. I thought a lot about the Incredible Machines, how once one thing is activated, the rest of the mechanism is put in motion by itself...
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QUADRUPLE ENGINE
IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/594721714896059141/4F4150EF1A9C844E3ADFF106BB0DC607DA120E2C/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=76847647

Here, I continued testing with self-activated mechanisms. What I focused on here was trying to nullify one mechanism once it had done its purpose.
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MALFUNCTION MANSION
IMAGE(http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/594721714896235162/086981ABEE43081C0137FC0C63753014BB83F9A2/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=76849240

What I found with Quadruple Engine, was a way to make "broken" mechanisms. This immediately put me thinking outside the box, and using that in the map's favor. I experimented with different types of "broken" mechanisms here: permanently broken, fast paced; permanently broken, slow paced; broken to self fixed; fixed to self broken; broken to player fixed; and fixed to player broken. All different types are present here, and I must say, I'm quite pleased with the results.
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INSIDE THE MACHINE
IMAGE(http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/594721714896364300/BEFAD945C79046121BB4606117F67EF338D3B766/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=76850173

As I was building Malfunction Mansion, I had to playtest a lot, and I found myself on numerous occasions inside the actual mechanisms, to see what was working, how it was working, and in some cases, how it was failing. This lead me to think of the original Portal, and how at first we traverse through the intended maps, but as we progress, we find ourselves behind the scenes, inside the machine, seeing how everything works. I thought this was an awesome idea, and tried to implement it here. I have a seemingly normal looking map, with access to the inner workings of the mechanisms putting the map to work. Happy with the results as well.
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THE RINGS TO HELL
IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/594721714896474757/D0B6FDF0A194265C84ACA966A3CEC061C79CDDAC/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=76850991

The Goodjer competition dealt with Verticality, and it kept me thinking long after I was done with my submission. I thought the most common approach was ascending, so I wanted to try a map were the point was to descend. Also, I love Tractor Beams. This is the result of combining those two...
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That's it for now! Should keep you guys entertained for some time I hope. At least until I come up with other crazy maps. I hope you guys enjoy them! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Now that the competition's over, I published the changes I had pending for Leapfrog.

Incorporates the feedback folks had (much appreciated, thanks). Fixes an exploit, should greatly improve orientation for folks.

IMAGE(http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/594721714896701813/395F57542CF91548B75D1A132307F96BAD98A672/600x337.resizedimage)

Here's some feedback, kexx: stop making the rest of us look bad.

Kidding aside, I hope to have time to play these later. You're a beast. Keep it up!

This has got to be the best DLC for a game yet. I've gotten 9 additional hours of play out of it, and that's just going to keep increasing.

But seriously, kexx, you're crazy!

Something happened with my steam account. I logged in to steam, fired up P2, and lo-n-behold, none of the maps I was subscribed to were in my queue, just one, and one of mine. I go into create a chamber, and only the map I was queued to was published, every single other one says LOCAL.

On the steam website, my profile says under workshop (0). I click on workshop, and all my maps are there. But according to P2, none of them are published.

What happened? Do I have to republish them? Are all the stats reset? That would suck because I was happy with one of my maps having 160+ subscribers...uuuugghhh..this blows...

Your maps show up fine for me. Maybe it's fixed, now? Valve likes their maintenance.

Yup, just checked. Everything's back to normal. Except for one thing. One of my maps, Aerial Velocity, wouldn't allow updates. Others I fixed, renamed, published, and worked fine. With this one, I did the same thing, but it would tell me that another map with the same name exists, please choose different name. It sucks. I had to unpublish it and republish it again, losing its stats in the process. Everything else is fine, though.

Just queued up a bunch of yours, sir.

By the way, I appreciate your feedback on my map but I'm not sure if you realize that was my contest entry I saw that you made a comment about it being simple, just wanted to let you know that's kinda the point

I actually published that one by mistake. I meant to just hit 'Rebuild' but hit Publish instead. Oh well, it's finished regardless.

Here's my latest non-contest related map for anyone interested:

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/542930348540091695/0F6137B99A0D586750E1098C69C9844314F1D892/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77143536

Even maps you've published you can change visibility on them to "hidden".

This is how I've had a couple of folks test my in-progress one for this week's challenge.

Omaha wrote:

Just queued up a bunch of yours, sir.

By the way, I appreciate your feedback on my map but I'm not sure if you realize that was my contest entry I saw that you made a comment about it being simple, just wanted to let you know that's kinda the point

Really? Oops, hahaha. Didn't catch that. Thought it was another non-competition chamber. Will replay it with that criteria in mind!!

OH MY GOD. ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod!!!!

I finally cracked the system. I've found a way to make an "OR" button, and not only the usual "AND"!! Allow me to share, though this might be a bit tricky without a visual.

Say you want a glass angled panel to act as a door, but you want to be able to open it from both sides, right? This is what you do:

1. DOOR starts DEPLOYED, and is connected simultaneously to 2 laser catchers, CATCHER A, and CATCHER B. (these mechanisms I usually keep hidden, in separate volumes outside my main chamber, for neatness, but also to avoid an over abundance of blue connection ant-lines).
2. LASER A hits CATCHER A, and LASER B hits CATCHER B, respectively. Both LASERS start ENABLED.
3. Place BUTTON 1 on one side of your DOOR, and BUTTON 2 on the other side of the DOOR (I used timed pedestals, so the door would close after a few secs, but you can also do it with weighted, cubed, or sphered buttons)

Here's where it gets a bit tricky...

4. BUTTON 1 is connected to the enabled LASER A, and BUTTON 2 is connected to the enabled LASER B.

How it works:

The door needs both catchers to stay closed. Pressing one button turns off one laser, same with the other button. The moment one of the catchers isn't getting a laser feed, the mechanism is broken, and the door can't remain closed, so, duh, it opens. Each button breaks one part of the same mechanism, thus giving us the "OR" mechanism!

You can do this with more than 2 buttons, if you so desire, go crazy. Just make sure that whatever you want to be activated (doors) by different buttons, has the same number of needed laser catchers as you're going to place buttons around. And you can do this with everything, not just doors. Tractor Beams, their polarity, angled panels, everything!

I like portals.

kexx wrote:

discovers Boolean math

I suddenly remembered a circuit class I had early in my college years.
My head would hurt after each class.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_gate

It's in the books then! I'm a genius! I discovered an existing discovery on my own! Woooo!! *eats cookie*

kexx wrote:

It's in the books then! I'm a genius! I discovered an existing discovery on my own! Woooo!! *eats cookie*

Niiice. It would be fun to go through and make some maps using some more advanced digital logic.

GWJ Competition #1 was such a fun success, #2 is already underway! So since many entries have been submitted, including mine, I now present you folks with some other creations I've devised:

WIND

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/595848075315693616/ED02250B836B1813E20112DADE430CB05F873AE2/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77641740

More experimenting with Tractor Beams. I love those damn things.

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THE OOP-DE-OOP

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/595848075315796576/929DA2432228CA434842E2C8476617C9231F4DAC/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77642471

Experiment: To speed jump to different heights depending on ramp being up or not. Also trying out some instances were a cube covered in blue gel is caged, and safe retrieval is key.

Couple more:

PERSIAN RUG

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/596974051312646382/EA5E32B32E6A127691D0EC4B95AD59B90D8BCBA6/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77801263

Experiment: Delayed mechanics to enhance visual aesthetics.

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THE SHRINE

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/596974051312731592/80A466C70B1DE370E775569CA7AF653A11AD94A3/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77801880

Experiment: Activate 4 timed pedestal buttons while catapult-flying, to activate mechanism that opens the way to the exit.

Wow...no one's posting! I hope the love for Portal 2's level editor isn't dying...anyhow, I have 2 more...So far, I'm proudest of these two. Visually, my most ambitious, for certain. And I've worked the visuals into actually being a part of the mechanics for solving the puzzles, not just for aesthetics. Hope you guys enjoy them as much as I did making them. Without further ado:

IRIS

IMAGE(http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/596974051334483967/CC5AED2BF0FBC2874D8E067BA19873DA1B02B8D5/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77967913

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THE VAULT

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/596974051334661886/BAD0AE174DE5C0D968A84CC57E52BC7B990D3A48/600x337.resizedimage)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77969426

Kexx, you post too many maps to keep up with

I'm trying to play them all because you make some quality maps, but my mind can only take so much portaling in a day!

I made a quick one just testing out an idea I had:

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/541804955946961857/EB88987D277340EEFF898D4A635BCEAC5A2C2AA7/600x337.resizedimage)
Science!

I'll just say first off that this isn't a puzzle. The end door is already open and such. I liked in the main game of Portal 2 how the wall panels would flip in certain orders and wondered if you could recreate something like that. The answer is yes and no. You can technically, but you can't do very many flips. Each one takes a flip panel, a laser catcher, and a laser emitter, which equals a lot of objects. This could have some pretty cool effects. In my example it's just spelling out part of a word one panel at a time by putting a cube on a button. The lasers are pretty great for making complex-ish stuff behind the scenes.

Agreed. I used that very same thing for my last 2 maps. The visual effects you can capture are simply awesome if you know how the timing works.

Agreed. I used that very same thing for my last 2 maps. The visual effects you can capture are simply awesome if you know how the timing works.