THE DOOR CHALLENGE: Voting

Really enjoyed this competition, and there are some great entries here. Some thoughts on my favorite entries here.

• [*:245vz8p7]bluedude86 - The Door: Loved the Prey-style playing with gravity you used here. I was also a fan of the mini-story going on this one (

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especially the part where you commit suicide by completing the puzzle

). The puzzle to open the door wasn't too difficult to figure out, but figuring out how to actually get through the door was quite the challenge. Good job!
[*:245vz8p7]insta - Decoy: Hilarious as always, dude! I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when the trick to open the door actually worked.
[*:245vz8p7]CampaignJunkie - Secret Mission: This was the most unique entry. The "meta-style" game of physically setting up the scripting to solve the puzzle as the player was awesome and incredibly creative!
[*:245vz8p7]Puddy - This is really dope! You not only made a fun door puzzle, but created a good-sized level complete with story and a custom dialog system. I was afraid of getting lost trying to figure this out on my own with how large the level was, but you put enough clues in to keep that from happening. The atmosphere you managed to create without adding complex visuals was also most excellent. Put some art detailing on this, and it would be an awesome portfolio piece! If you were to expand on the idea and make it a standalone game/TC, it would be excellent.
[*:245vz8p7]Chimeray - The Vault: This one was pretty damn funny, and a great twist on the idea by letting the player walk right through the door with no real problems from the onset, but then adding in a tense sequence to try to get back OUT through the door.
[*:245vz8p7]Soleval - The Door: This one was surprisingly amazing, as the screenshot really doesn't do this level justice. Download and play it, or at least watch the video. I loved how you mixed elements of God of War/Tomb Raider with the block puzzles, Geared, and first-person platforming. The art style had a great vibe to it, and the atmosphere was very chilling (a nice contrast to the pleasant starting area). If you turned this into a standalone game, I'd play the hell out of it.
[*:245vz8p7]JamesKing3d - Daedalus' Revenge: This one had a great God of War feel to it, and I can definitely see the influence from the Sisters of Fate palace in this one. Really cool custom effect with the ice melting!

It should be noted: my map, "Secret Mission," is pretty buggy -- so much so that I wouldn't even recommend playing it. You have to solve it in the way shown in the video or else you'll likely break it and make it unsolvable. (Sorry, I was in a rush to build it and all)

And here's my feedback on everyone's video (if I can't play one of them, then I won't play any of them!)

SPOILER ALERT!

Bluedude: I like the intuitiveness of not being able to reach into the boxes / having to turn them upside down. I don't like the arrow buttons though, mainly because they have nothing to do with the act of rotating and gravity. Maybe use weighted buttons ala Portal instead, or something that intersects with rotation and gravity.

Insta: cute, as always

Serenius: I like that the car didn't go through the gate, even though I would've thought it would. I don't quite understand why the button on the roof would make the gas station explode -- and if the explosion was enough to destroy those strong-looking metal props, why it didn't blow a hole through the ground and such either.

Drokarn: that would be a cool central mechanic for an entire level, where you have to draw different things on a canvas to activate different things... and maybe the AI would draw some stuff too, and you have to ruin their drawings too

sarge mat: more visual connection is good, I guess it makes sense in a weird game-logic sort of way... good improvements but I think the van was a bad idea in the end... in the video you waste time trying to drag the propane tanks through the van, which can be discouraging enough to a player so they won't even try it.

Zoltan: I don't understand the solution at all... why was the metal door to the basement suddenly unlocked? what did disabling that sparking wire do? I like the idea of a doorbell though. I'd add more windows and visual indicators as to how these pieces all connect.

vfig: I like the idea of this, of spawning different props to use... I'll admit I'm just judging this by the video though, which suggests you need 3 explosives to open the door? if I had played it, I would've just used 1... and if that 1 didn't work, I would've assumed that was the wrong thing to use and tried something else. It's also annoying to carry props all the way from the spawner to the door, back and forth, all the time.

Puddy: very large, expansive and impressive... I can't help but think you chose the wrong game engine for dialogue trees though. the "conversations" don't feel very satisfying, but tracing the wire in the basement / inputing a keycode felt much more natural / better in comparison. I think it was good for a scripting experiment, just to see if you could pull it off.

Chimeray: I like the idea of something going wrong when a door opens. Not sure I understood all this business about gas though.

Youme: I like the idea of an alarm. I'd provide more feedback about this alarm though: a sign warning about an alarm, some visual cues as to what is protected by the alarm rather than some insta-fail stuff I have to blindly commit to, etc. As a player, I'd also be frustrated / pissed off about having to climb the stairs a 3rd time after having failed unfairly so many times before.

Soleval: delightful, you should expand this into a short 20 minute game that's like 20 rooms deep. great sense of humor and cool color schemes. very traditional puzzles, but that's okay. this would be great for kids.

Mr. Happy: I like using the battering ram as a platform (real phallic, huh) but I didn't understand why the 2 (now empty / burned out?) laser coils would open the door

JamesKing: cool theme, I think you need to work on how to communicate that something is made of wax; maybe those pillars should be giant candles that are melting?

skysilicox: short and sweet. I don't understand why the door closed the first time though; did the crow turn it off? Shouldn't it have just stayed open? what's the point in making the player go back to push the button again?

Quote from Campaignjunkie

sarge mat: more visual connection is good, I guess it makes sense in a weird game-logic sort of way... good improvements but I think the van was a bad idea in the end... in the video you waste time trying to drag the propane tanks through the van, which can be discouraging enough to a player so they won't even try it.

Thanks dude. I don't think I thought enough about the "workings" of it early on so even though I managed to improve it, it kind of suffered over all.

Just like campaignjunkie shows, feedback is always good, even if we can't modify our entries.

Keep it coming! I can't really speak for everyone but I sure appreciate it.

Quote from Campaignjunkie

Puddy: very large, expansive and impressive... I can't help but think you chose the wrong game engine for dialogue trees though. the "conversations" don't feel very satisfying, but tracing the wire in the basement / inputing a keycode felt much more natural / better in comparison. I think it was good for a scripting experiment, just to see if you could pull it off.

It's definitely not the right engine. It was a fun experiment. When the challenge was put up I was immediately compelled to think in terms of wires, boxes, buttons, levers and typical HL2-puzzle mechanics.

I did not want to. So... I decided to create a narrative-driven puzzle where you're dropped into a world with only question marks, and you have to keep your eyes and ears open to get your bearings.

And you are absolutely right with the dialogue. I wish I could've had time to rework it more. A lot of the dialogue is pretty bland (especially speaking to the clerk, lol).

I think the end-result was okay if you are interested in the story. You want to hear all the details and fill in more pieces of the puzzle. But I could've done a much better job.

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skysilicox: short and sweet. I don't understand why the door closed the first time though; did the crow turn it off? Shouldn't it have just stayed open? what's the point in making the player go back to push the button again?

Thanks for the feedback! Gave me something to think about. Dramatic tension vs reasoning. Appreciated!

Campaignjunkie: Cheers for the feedback, I appreciate it. The idea was that you have to switch off the main electricity source before that 2nd door opens, however the prop that I've used to indicate that it is open / locked is not visible ingame (visible in the editor). Unfortunately I had no time to replace the prop because I was in a rush.

Here's the video, I had a dickens of a time making the darn thing.

Campaignjunkie: Three cheers for your feedbacks! It's nice to see that the mechanic worked, even though the level was quite simple. I'm just starting to work on UDK, so for this challenge, I decided to stick with a simple layout. Nonetheless the door idea was a great creative guideline, I think I'll stick around here for my level design needs.

hey all, thanks for the Crit! this was my first real attempt at any type of scripting/interaction in UDK, and I feel that I learned quite a bit, and I'm not at all displeased with how my little scene turned out. I actually haven't played any of the God Of War series, as I don't have a ps3, and I traded my ps2 before those games came out... so I never have gotten around to playing them. I do love that a series has taken advantage of the rich and gory details of those old classic myths using todays tech though.

I can't watch the videos at work, as the firewall blocks youtube, but I'll check them out this weekend and leave a bit of my thoughts for each solution, but thanks again for the crit, and for a fun, challenging challenge!

Thanks for your feedback CampaignJjunkie, I appreciate it..sort of..I mean...phallic?!!? Really?!?! lol Thanks

Here's my feedback on everyone's puzzles, I played almost all of them though I did just watch the video for insta's, serenius, and drokarns

-100 points to everyone that didn't make their level disconnect at the end

-1000 points to everyone that didn't name their map GC_Door_

+10000 points to everyone that made theres in a game engine

Bluedude86 - you made a fun little puzzle. It took me a bunch of tries to get out, sometimes gravity puzzles like that are really easy, yours was perfect since it took multiple steps each way and sometimes I felt tricked. One of the gravity buttons was broken though.

stuckasns - I tried to play yours but couldn't finish it. I liked how you took the player out of the game ( to your blog ) for the clues HOWEVER, you then have to go to facebook - BAD IDEA. FACEBOOK IS EVIL and I don't want to use it. Seriously.

Insta - very funny. I watched the video instead of playing (sorry). Clean, simple, good. Maybe too simple. Maybe

serenius - nice progression, I like how you tricked the player a couple times as to what would happen when doing the different actions. Also the cans are a nice cue that you need to kick the car.

campaign junkie - very creative, though it doesn't really focus on the door itself. very buggy though (as I let you know). funny too. good work

drokan - very creative, though a bit obvious in the solution. I think the idea is good but would be better if in a larger level where different patterns on the same panel performed different actions

sarge mat - its a nice setup but the solution is VERY obvious and somewhat tedious to actually perform. I found I could drag the propane tanks out of the gate without entering the van so that was ok. Also it doesn't make any sense but isn't very surreal either, your 'realistic' area is conflicting with your 'strange' solution.

zoltan - completely nonsensical. Why do each of the elements do the things they do? What opens the lower door? I played this one for real and couldnt figure out what effect any of my actions had. Then I reloaded the level and pressed use on the main door and it opened without me doing any thing else!!!

vfig - your puzzle is more awesome than words. very funny. I tried using one tank at first, work, but I knew I was on to something so I piled like eight of them up and that made a BIG bang

puddy - pretty cool level you got going on there, but there are some major logical flaws in how the story and puzzle design intersect. For example, the two buildings share the same security grid. This would NOT happen if they were a defense contractor and also, if they share the same grid, why doesn't your friend know the security company name? Also, in one of the emails they specifically say "my friend at the CIA told me this secret information..." well I think their email would be monitored so I can't imagine he would specifically state that he has an informant at the CIA, because his friend would be executed for disseminating state secretes. Also, the basement puzzle isn't a puzzle. It's not really about following a wire since you aren't told which wire to follow and there aren't any negative consequences for following the wrong one. I liked how I had to leave the game and lookup the code on the internet. Also I like your dialogue system.

chimeray - I loved this one, no real crits here. The timing of the music and the door closing you in and everything..brilliant!

youme - I felt cheated a little bit while playing this one since there wasn't any indication that there was an alarm. I thought I was being a ninja going through the vent, then figured that the other vent was the one I needed. After awhile it was a little annoying that I kept failing but didn't have any way to know I was about to fail. When I picked up the spear I cut the wires but that wasn't intentional so I didn't have any feeling of agency when solving the puzzle. Finnally, why is there an ibeam going through the door like that? I've never seen anything like that IRL. Oh, and make the pushable move faster Other wise it was interesting and I liked the architecture.

soleval - wow. fantastic! bug free too! It was VERY easy though, with the exception of the first puzzle it was just execution rather than thinking. for example, when turning the wheels to move the bridge pieces I just turned them a couple of times and suddently they were in the right place. that would have been better if you had to use multiple arrangements to traverse the space in different directions before finnally getting to the key in that room. however it was interesting how the puzzles got easier and changed from thinking to jumping. I like jumping puzzles in my first person games

mrhappy - probably the worst entry of the lot, I don't know what you were thinking, moron, but it's not even a puzzle, its not even clever, just a big pile of shit! apparently its phallic too you shouldnt have even tried, since your a complete failure anyway

jamesking3d - an interesting little puzzle but its kind of finnicky. the lens started rotating freely but after awhile the lightbeam would dissappear when not pointed at the wax (why?) and I just had to wait for it to come around a bunch of times, almost like it was solving itself. in other words, I solved it, and then had to wait for too long while it finished itself. I wish I had more control over the lens. I'm also not sure why the fire doesn't melt the wax, if it's specifically because the sun was what melted icarus' wings then thats ok

skysilcox - that was fun! I didn't think that Im would be able to solve it, because I thought I had to place the exit portal wall flinging from the wall, but then I started cyvcling between the floor portals (which I should have realized could happen) and the solution was so obvious! 1 bug - approaching the door while the bird is still there causes the door to open before closing again.

chopium - VERY cool idea, but very simple and not even a puzzle really, more of a "follow the instructions." why is there a camera? too much art!!!!! too much art!!!!! very short!!!!! but AWESOME idea. I liked how it was an "impossible" door not in that it was hard to figure out but rather in that it couldnt exist.

slowdevelopment - I portaled into the room below the door (ceiling portal) and it said "puzzle solved" !! Maybe most people are judging by the videos, but you should still fully test it! You say this is a musical lock, but activating each not doesnt play a note, theres no in-game direction as to the tune you have to play, and theres no way (it seems) to play the wrong notes, only failure to play the right ones. Also, since the beams rotate I can't see what effect my placement of the cubes will have without trying over...and over....and over....again, which got boring. in the end I just couldn't figure it out because I don't know anything about music and there just wasn't enough direction. But I think it's a cool idea.

Thanks for the feedback everyone; glad people have enjoyed this

Mr. Happy - you're right about the level gradually getting easier as you progress. That's mostly because I was overambitious in that first puzzle room and had to dial back the complexity in order to get everything wrapped up in time for the deadline. I think I spent more time wrestling with the Kismet for that sliding block puzzle than I did on everything else combined, and I'm sure there's still some way to break it.

Quote from Mr. Happy

puddy - pretty cool level you got going on there, but there are some major logical flaws in how the story and puzzle design intersect. For example, the two buildings share the same security grid. This would NOT happen if they were a defense contractor and also, if they share the same grid, why doesn't your friend know the security company name? Also, in one of the emails they specifically say "my friend at the CIA told me this secret information..." well I think their email would be monitored so I can't imagine he would specifically state that he has an informant at the CIA, because his friend would be executed for disseminating state secretes. Also, the basement puzzle isn't a puzzle. It's not really about following a wire since you aren't told which wire to follow and there aren't any negative consequences for following the wrong one. I liked how I had to leave the game and lookup the code on the internet. Also I like your dialogue system.

Even though I will explain how I thought, I have still failed as it doesn't matter how I thought, but how players perceive things. Still:

About the security grid:

I think it's plausible that they are connected to the same. They don't have to be a high-level defence contractor. In fact, it can be one of the reasons why the agency assumed control of their project; it was above their "league" (and in effect, their security level). About your friend not knowing; it possible that your companies could be connected to the same grid, but use different systems. Or he forgot, for example.

About the "CIA friend":

Yes, it wasn't a smooth way of telling it. They would probably me a bit more sneaky and talk about it in person (their desks are like 3 feet from eachother). But there are constraints like the fact that the game is too short to weave more mystery around it and that, you know, they weren't hanging around. Also, their "CIA friend" could be code for a leak they have; not anyone he knows personally and officially.

About the wire and code:

There's actually a right one. It's the one connected to the ALTOR box. It changes colour on the way though, but you can track it step by step.

Also... why don't you know when WW1 started??!?

Quote from Mr. Happy

solution was so obvious! 1 bug - approaching the door while the bird is still there causes the door to open before closing again.chopium - VERY cool idea, but very simple and not even a puzzle really, more of a "follow the instructions." why is there a camera? too much art!!!!! too much art!!!!! very short!!!!! but AWESOME idea. I liked how it was an "impossible" door not in that it was hard to figure out but rather in that it couldnt exist.

Thanks. It was very very frustrating through its playtests because no matter how many steps I took to make players see the solution, I just couldn't get them to make a connection. The reason for the last bit of speech I added on was to prevent frustration in the voters who took the time to play the game. In the video it just seems really redundant. If I got the chance to do the puzzle over again, I'd have to rethink its design.

Some very creative ideas coming out of this challenge. I liked it much better than the last couple of challenges.

Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to play any of the UDK entries, so I judged them all on their videos.

Insta's is definitely my favourite. The puzzle is simple (and constrained) enough that I ended up bumping into the solution after flinging various objects at the camera in a vain attempt to break it. When the bucket stuck to the bin I thought at first it was a weird physics bug--but then the answer struck me, and I couldn't stop laughing.

Zoltan's puzzle confused me. I was able to walk up the stairs and open the door without doing anything, whereupon it faded to black and said "Woohoo!" Is that the win condition? I doubt that's the intended solution

Slowdevelopment: I completely failed to figure out how to activate the lasers, let alone what order they should go in. But I jumped past the angled portalable wall to where the far laser receptor is, and must have touched the win trigger, cause again it said I had won, when I hadn't really done anything.

Campaignjunkie: entertaining idea (though the task bar was even more entertaining). I like the "Output OnFucked" sitting by the turrets as a warning. FWIW I didn't encounter any bugs while playing it. Also, thanks for the feedback on my puzzle. I probably did myself a disservice by only recording the direct solution, rather than going through the different spawnable objects--but if I had it would've spoilt the surprise halfway through. It also doesn't show the different feedback when you use only one or two canisters. But exploding the door is only one of three ways to solve the puzzle anyway

Soleval: I really like the setup for the puzzles, with the key dropping into the grate--then going through endless trouble (albeit simple puzzles) to retrieve it.

Puddy: Blown away. Doing a conversation tree like that is brave (or foolish); it did get a little tedious because the text was small, and it wasn't always obvious when one of the options had changed. I also found it odd that I didn't get the choice to thank any of the people who helped me. I enjoyed tracing the wire through the basement the most, even though it was hopelessly contrived.

Thanks for the advice and approval. I'm surprised I only had one broken trigger considering I built this version of the gravity puzzle in two days (about 10 hours total) with no one play testing it. I had another version that was a 3x3x3 cube that took me a majority of the month development time to finish, only to find out it was almost impossible for people to solve.

I wanted to rotate the cube like campaignjunkie suggested to give people a sense of movement but had to resort to the arrow teleporting in UDK rather quickly. And for those who were able to read the story, I actually had dialog that I forgot to pack with the game with a funny british robot voice. I think I'm going to polish this a bit to see if I can get actual rotation going on, make it look pretty.

I really enjoyed insta's "Decoy" and it reminded me of Machinarium's third level. Though I didn't play "Decoy", I could see how it would be difficult to solve if you didn't put everything together. And when you did figure it out, I enjoyed the way the solution punctuates the "a-ha" moment with a laugh for the feeling "did that just work?"

Soleval's "The Door" was another favorite. I like the onion-like puzzle that, along with the art style, reminded me of playing Zelda. And while the puzzles got easier, they also got more physically demanding instead of mentally: you started with a puzzle that required a lot of thought, then one that required thought and then jumping, and then ended with a pure platformer.

After those two, I enjoyed Campaignjunkie's "Secret Mission" due to the meta nature but wish it wasn't as buggy and Chimeray's "The Vault" for the way it turned the tables on the player but wish there were more hints (maybe the gun misfired into the toxins and one of the hydraulics sparks out).

StuckAsNS: did anyone solve your puzzle? I sent you an email but haven't heard anything.

Serenius, maybe this is what you were going for but I felt more frustrated that everything kept falling short of blowing that door up (and I so wanted that door to blow up). If this is what you intended, great job! It was awesome that Marcus Fenix, a badass locust fighter, couldn't open a door.

Drokarn, I agree with the others that I needed something more. Maybe multiple keys with one right one and only one key can be active to open the door.

Zoltan, I get it and I like the door bell. I think the only change is to move that metal door to ground level so the player can see the door open.

vfig, I agree with campaignjunkie that a smaller level would have made this more fun. Otherwise it was a great idea.

puddy, dialog really dragged for me and if the level's pace was a bit faster I think I would have really enjoyed the experience.

Youme, I think I would have figured it out if I could have found the stick on the roof, but I did enjoy that getting in won't work unless you cut the power.

Chopium, amazing visuals and sound, I only wish it was a little more difficult.

Quote from Campaignjunkie

Serenius: I like that the car didn't go through the gate, even though I would've thought it would. I don't quite understand why the button on the roof would make the gas station explode -- and if the explosion was enough to destroy those strong-looking metal props, why it didn't blow a hole through the ground and such either.

Between the pipes and the turbine on the roof, I was hoping to clearly convey that pressing the button turned on the flow of gasoline. Unfortunately, the gas spraying out of the pipe by the burning car was covered by the smoke from the fires particles and I didn't have time to fix it for the final submission (was out of town all weekend). The lack of a crater in the ground was also purely from lack of time to meet the deadline.

Quote from Mr. Happy

serenius - nice progression, I like how you tricked the player a couple times as to what would happen when doing the different actions. Also the cans are a nice cue that you need to kick the car.

Thanks! That was what I was hoping for. Also, you were way too hard on MrHappy. I thought he did a good job!

Quote from bluedude86

Serenius, maybe this is what you were going for but I felt more frustrated that everything kept falling short of blowing that door up (and I so wanted that door to blow up). If this is what you intended, great job! It was awesome that Marcus Fenix, a badass locust fighter, couldn't open a door.

Frustration was definitely not the goal - comedy was. Especially with the deadpan way the propane tank fell out and the gate fell at the end with a simple nudge after all the dramatic events.

Quote from vfig

Puddy: Blown away. Doing a conversation tree like that is brave (or foolish); it did get a little tedious because the text was small, and it wasn't always obvious when one of the options had changed. I also found it odd that I didn't get the choice to thank any of the people who helped me. I enjoyed tracing the wire through the basement the most, even though it was hopelessly contrived.

Glad to hear

Yeah, the dialogue system is not the greatest. Also, yes, I thought about it after the deadline that you really should have a "thank you"-dialogue, at least for Wilson.

Quote from bluedude86

puddy, dialog really dragged for me and if the level's pace was a bit faster I think I would have really enjoyed the experience.

Sorry about this. I really could've dropped some shitty and boring dialogue to keep the pace higher.

Stressed writing is not the best