First attempt at a true puzzle. Single room. Comments and critique welcome.
V 1.1
Removed Side armetures, added full plate glass for prevention of bypassing mechanics.
Lowered Far well to prevent premature portal placement.
Moved End map trigger away from door, and removed portal wall next to door to prevent premature end game triggering.

File Name: minimalist.rar
File Size: 656.4 KiB
Click here to download Minimalist

nice idea with the button, map could be a bit trickier for my taste. also, put the door a bit deeper into wall, it seems kinda out of place now.

anyway, what i found:

shortcut 1: when standing on the button platform, you can open a portal to the part behind the fizzler, making the funnel obsolete.

shortcut 2: you can catch the cube before it hits the faith plate, if you're quick (hit the button while running backwards...). making the light bridge obsolete.

glitch (ultimate shortcut): if you shoot a portal next to the door and walk through it, the game seems to think i am behind the door. screen fades to black and i'm back in the main menu. making the whole level obsolete. XD

I found the shortcuts too
Here is a pic to the first shortcut, you can easily remove this shortcut by making the wall a bit higher


BUT i didn't even realize that the button activated the lightbridge(the only way i was able to solve ith is by using the second shortcut), maybe make the lightbridge more obvious or that those cute little lightbulbs with those "x" things to show that the button activates two things.

Lowered the portal wall behind the fizzler.
Removed the side armetures to prevent jumping off to grab the cube, adding a full plate glass window (end still raises to prevent jumping off.
Moved end game trigger away from door, and removed portal wall near door.



This really started out as an exercise in learning basic Hammer tools and abilities. I will be working on prettier, more challenging maps after this.

Looks and plays indecently, imo you should convert this to WIP or risk it being deleted \ the worst. Talk with the people here, they can help you use the SDK.

No idea how to go back and change it WIP, if someone could direct me to that. Otherwise if it must be deleted that's fine. I'd far rather put up something cleaner anyway.

I'm not familiar with mapping communities in general, but from what i can tell, 90% of all the singeplayer maps here are just like this one, so i don't see any reason to do it in WIP.

Having shortcuts in it is not really a bad thing either(because this enables players to find different solutions to the same problem, which is a good way to make people play a map a second time)

Shortcuts are fine, as long as they aren't more obvious than the intended solution. The goal is to coach the player through the intended solution, if they do that the first playthrough then your map is a success, if on successive playthroughs they find shortcuts (or on the first, but also know they are shortcuts and not the intended solution) then they are good shortcuts.

The problem with this map is I didn't even see the light bridge turn on, so I assumed shooting a portal to the wall after the emancipation grid and running/jumping to snatch the cube before the walls raised and the faith plate ejected it was the proper solution. It wasn't until I saw the door open at the end that I realized the orange gel and the lightbridge were either A) useless or B) I didn't do it right.

Also, you need to rename your rar before uploading. rename it to like minimalist_v1.1.rar or something. TWP's system won't actually update the file if it has the name name as before.

Also, for future maps, look on youtube for videos on func_instance and arrival/departure elevators. There are a couple of good ones and you can use the instances to make real entrance/exit rooms in about 5 minutes.

Actually...
here's the one I watched
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I'm not sure what the orange gel is supposed to be used for. My best guess is that you use the funnel to spread it in a path, then use it to build up speed to vault the wall. The problem is that once the cube is over the wall, it's only a matter of positioning it properly, walking through the fizzler, placing your laser portals, and the door will open.

I think you could fix this by having the door close if the laser is turned off.

Most of my problems with this puzzle arose from lack of direction and poor texturing, that seems to be what i'm having the most trouble with is finding a good guide on texture, and instancing.

I started playing custom maps and record me playing them. It's neither a perfect run nor do I have to have solved the map in the way it's meant to solve it. I play the maps "blind", that means I've never been in them before and play them for the very first time. I also give a little feedback for the map in the video description.

Maybe you are interested in the fact, that I played your map: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZayQ4RR4fjk

The lighting seemed great for me.

Feedback:

* Sorry but the finishing door was terrible! I know you can do better than that.
* There was no gfx bug.

Djinndrache wrote:
I started playing custom maps and record me playing them. It's neither a perfect run nor do I have to have solved the map in the way it's meant to solve it. I play the maps "blind", that means I've never been in them before and play them for the very first time. I also give a little feedback for the map in the video description.

Maybe you are interested in the fact, that I played your map: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZayQ4RR4fjk

Man your videos are so dark.

This isn't really a bad test. It's just funny that it's named Minimalist when so much of the test is unnecessary. I don't really have to point out any of the shortcuts cause it looks like everyone else has it covered but after one quick playthrough I know the gel and the funnel aren't needed and that contradicts minimalism ideology.