My first attempt at making a level with Hammer. Not the prettiest, but I hope the puzzles are somewhat interesting!

This is more a test of reaction, puzzles aren't really too tough.

Please leave any bugs or problems you may find and any constructive feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

UPDATE 5/30: Hopefully fixed the major issues, added some tweaks.

File Name: playingwithspheres.rar
File Size: 2.5 MiB
Click here to download Playing With Spheres

Not bad : )

But hmm what are we suppose to do after killing the sentries when your trapped in that black box?

Dr_D1cK_H4nDleR wrote:
Not bad : )

But hmm what are we suppose to do after killing the sentries when your trapped in that black box?

This.

Great start otherwise. Also, I think some parts of the map are a bit haphazard. In other words, in big maps like this, you need a sense of where to go next. For example, when the first funnel disappeared on me, it kind of caught me off guard. Also, the part with the sphere, it took me a bit to figure out that I had to get it in the corner of the map.. Again, it's not really imperative, but maybe some indicator lights would help.

Super Mario with quicktime events.

very decent job on the map. i like the tubes you made for the spheres. just a few shortcuts/different solutions i found:

1. You can skip quite a bit of the map by jumping out of the first funnel onto the glass wall.

2. you can also jump from the hard light bridge into the floating part (prop gel #2). not a shortcut, but might be confusing for some people.

3. on the little balcony where you stop yourself with the light bridge, you can portal yourself onto the grey wall of the balcony and then portal directly to the button that opens the door. although that seems to be there on purpose.

4. you can push the button and leave the room before the door closes. you can also knock over the turrets before dying.

just pointing stuff out

as SeriousMoh said, this map is pretty much broken due to the possibility of jumping onto the glass wall

7dn0g3YrAyQ

you dont even need to jump on that glas wall you can simply go with 2 portals on that jump board that leads you to the end

Sulfaras wrote:
you dont even need to jump on that glas wall you can simply go with 2 portals on that jump board that leads you to the end

you need a ball to open the end door

Great map if solving how its supposed to be solved. Couple things: shortcuts, there are quite a bit, the most notable youtubed above. However, during my first run I didn't hit the portal after the first launch from falling out of the funnel. From there I didn't see where to go and noticed I could portal to another part of the map. I don't have anything to record what I did, but basically you can port over to the ramp used to launch the sphere into the funnel, jump on top of the gel dropper and then jump on top of the glass to the hallway where you launch the sphere into the funnel. It's also using part of the glass wall.

Wilco wrote:
as SeriousMoh said, this map is pretty much broken due to the possibility of jumping onto the glass wall

7dn0g3YrAyQ

Oh my lol, that was cool.

Thanks for all the great feedback, I'll try and fix the walls and other issues.

Dr_D1cK_H4nDleR wrote:
Not bad : )

But hmm what are we suppose to do after killing the sentries when your trapped in that black box?

That's the end, unfortunately. I quite haven't figured out how to actually end the level, still getting used to it.

This map me quite thinking for awhile, because i just didn't know what to do with the beginning after the funnel goes out. This kind of "puzzles" are never good my friend, because they kill you if you don't solve them in 1 second.
I found a shortcut too, though longer than the others. Once the funnel goes out you shoot one portal below you and one to the block next to it, so you fly for a bit. Then you land on that white part, if you're lucky you won't fall into the water(or just swim out of it, the water won't kill you if you're head is still a little above it) either way, from that point on you can shoot yourself, with a few portals here and there, just to the other half of the map.

Hello there!

I really had much fun playing this map. Puzzles are kinda easy though it's very funny to jump and fly all over... placing portals and thinking quickly. Very nice!

My only suggestion (apart from all other players above... that must be corrected in order to avoid tricks) is to indicate where should you place the ball after being stopped by the light barrier in the high plattform... because it's difficult to figure out and continue from that part on...

Good job!

SeriousMoh wrote:
very decent job on the map. i like the tubes you made for the spheres. just a few shortcuts/different solutions i found:

1. You can skip quite a bit of the map by jumping out of the first funnel onto the glass wall.

Wilco wrote:
as SeriousMoh said, this map is pretty much broken due to the possibility of jumping onto the glass wall

7dn0g3YrAyQ

ROFL! Gj with the idea and the video!

I'm not sure if i solved it the correct way.
After i obtained the last ball after using the lightbridge to get me there i found myself trapped. So after a while i jumped down on the trigger for the blue or orange gel, jumped over to the final ball slot which then opened the door.

I think it looked pretty right, but i'm still wondering why there's that 45? shaped wall above the last sphere slot. (which i think can only be reached to place a portal but standing on a sphere anyway?)

Nevertheless, loved the map .... gj

can someone post a youtube of how its supposed to be solved. I don't have a clue. Can get on teh glass easy enough but no idea what's really supposed to happen.

I'm playing custom maps and record my first time of playing them. So the run is not perfect and may not use only intended ways, but maybe it can let you see how other people may understand the map or you could just enjoy someone playing this map for entertainment.
Anyways, here is the recording:

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(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS2h5hcoHDM)

Also note the video description for more feedback and my signature for additional project information.

Thank you: turns out in my game the flipping action of the block I needed wouldn't flip.

Great level: I liked it alot.

Also, there is one last step not in your video if you care - probably not. You need to get the ball (at the last possible are to do so) then get on top of the ball then jump to the top of the glass (you did this once in your video) so you can put a portal behind the mesh metal (by the door. Then you need to hit the switch to make the ball spawn and arrange portals so ball will come out by the door then quickly rearrange portals and drop yourself onto the springs to get to the door.

I noticed this because there is a fizzle that you go through with the ball (and it should disintegrate) in your video.

portal 1.jpg
portal 2.jpg
portal 3.jpg

I thought i'd share my own 'solution' to this puzzle, which seems to bypass most of the chamber. I couldn't figure out any other way to do it

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Yep just the map for offroaders like us

Here's another way to go, enjoy:

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I can't believe this map is getting so much praise. There's much better maps out there that get way more criticism. This map feels like it was designed by Pee Wee Herman, for Pee Wee Herman. Every time you solve a portion of the test you can't really figure out if that was the intended solution or not. Then you make it to the three turrets and for some reason you can't pick them up cause that would... make it unfair for the turrets? I don't know. But you monkey around with them for a while hoping to do whatever it is you're supposed to do with them so you can continue to the next portion of the test but nothing happens so are you supposed to assume that's the end of the test? No idea but that's what I'm doing. This is the kind of test where it seems like the creator didn't care so why should you? Since they didn't care you might as well run on the glass walls, take all the shortcuts, or even noclip straight to the end. Or better yet don't even bother downloading this map and move on to the next one. Or don't even do that much, just stop downloading maps all together. Give up all these pointless dead end distractions, turn off your computer, lie on your bed and quietly await the inevitable extinction of all life on this sad pitiful planet. To put this another way, I didn't care for this test.

Also the fizzlers don't fizzle the edgeless cubes.

mouse wrote:
I can't believe this map is getting so much praise.

Keep in mind that this map is from may 2011... that's before the official sdk came out, where maps were very spare. Portal 2 has been out for over a year now and people have been able to learn to map for portal 2 and obviously maps have been becoming better since.

This puzzle got me for quite a while; there are some exploits that can still be fixed and some graphical tweaks but all in all I think it's still a pretty decent map.

lpfreaky90 wrote:
mouse wrote:

I can't believe this map is getting so much praise.

Keep in mind that this map is from may 2011... that's before the official sdk came out, where maps were very spare. Portal 2 has been out for over a year now and people have been able to learn to map for portal 2 and obviously maps have been becoming better since.

A valid point. But consider this. A long time ago doctors used leeches on their patients because they believed there were evil spirits in the blood that were making people sick and if they drained the blood out then the spirits would leave and the person would recover. Looking at those practices now makes people chuckle or maybe shake their head in shame. We naturally grade the past by the standards of the present and honestly why should you do it any other way? That would be going backwards. And even if that wasn't the case, I've seen better maps for Portal 1. But anyways I hope you can see that most of what I said was tongue in cheek.

What makes it worse that there's no real ending, I hate this map. Also the fake ending is about 2 jumps from the start.