Simple map I made on and off over 2 months. I introduced a simple mechanic, energy balls open doors and I have a couple puzzles using that mechanic. I would put the difficulty somewhere in the middle of Portal ( so medium? )

Here is a link to dl the map: dload.php?action=download&file_id=242


- Beditheory
Level Designer
The Guildhall at SMU

Upload to the thinkingwithportals database and post screens.

Sorry I didnt post screenshots. Here they are. I hope this is okay, if not just let me know what im doing wrong.

Screenshot 2

Screenshot 3

Screenshot 4

Wow this looks pretty good.

I can't see the screenshots...

I just see:

Screenshot 2
Screenshot 3
etc.

Dunno what's wrong... perhaps my computer is goofing off again...

argh sorry guys the screenshots where just there...im fixing it now

A fantastic map. Fairly easy, but the new mechanic is really interesting. The map looked great, and the I only had a single minor problem with one texture on a circular door, where it was in a modular concrete texture in the middle of a metal room, but that's probably just my problem. The end chamber was really enjoyable, although I thought that once I'd solved it for the first floor, I'd solved it for the remaining floors. Other than that, a truly great map, and it's nice to see so much effort put into a first release =)

Edit: The only other gripe I had was that the GLaDOS voices were a little overused? Could have just been me, though...

Thx for the feedback.

Yeah, I wanted to keep it easy for introducing a simple new mechanic.

Good eye on the texture. If I get time, ill update that.

Yeah, GLaDOS's voice was a bit overused in hindsight. I'll work to keep that to a minimum for future maps.

- Beditheory

Well built? Check
Cool new mechanic? Check
Fairly long? Check
Fun to play? Check

All in all, an awesome map. Cant wait to see your next one!

Great map and solid new concept but I couldn't figure out how to push the end switch on the ceiling

mazk1985 wrote:
Great map and solid new concept but I couldn't figure out how to push the end switch on the ceiling

just reach it by fling and push it on-the-fly.

Howewer, great map, i really enjoyed playing that.

I made a speed run on that, final time is 2:39:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTRUYuFRSy4

WoW. Nice speed run. I guess the way my map is designed its hard to get really short times like other portal maps. Hopefully, I can design something next time which wont require you to wait so long for energy balls, doors to open, etc.

Cool map + cool mechanic!
A couple of things I noted:
1. You know the timed buttons that open a metal door in front of a ball catcher? You should be able to turn them off once you have started the countdown. Because I pressed one at one point, found out exactly what it does, then waited for about a minute for it to turn off so I could begin with no delay. So...I believe being able to restart the countdown would be nice.
2. For some reason, GlaDOS was very loud compared with the rest of sound.
3. The first time I saw the very tall vertical room with the emancipation grids in the middle, I said "Wooooooow." out loud. It was pretty awesome.
4. Minor bug: When I first tried to fling myself up through the emancipation grids, I encountered this. I put one portal on the floor right under them, and then another one on some random floor. When I jumped in the random one, I got accelerated very quickly out through the one under the grids. I know you used some outside mechanism to accelerate the player or something, so I think it might have been that.
5. End was awesome, with invisible walls and all so you can't escape.

i haven't finished this yet. i got a massive headache (irl) and am working on my nephews computer... but i played till the part where glados says "cake and grief counseling...." so i assume i'm close to the end.

but so far i have 2 things to say
1) amazingly made (aside from the recessed lighting... which looks a little off)
2) what a cool new concept! fun and dangerous at the same time

very fun map, but there were a few weird things I encountered.

. The button is very easy to get to at the top of the ceiling. you can just land on the ledge of the door that opened and stay there and push it

. I thought it was a little "cheap" that you used a ?trigger push? to push the player on the fling at the last room. I think it should be all using portal's mechanics, not an outside force.

. the last tall room with the button on the ceiling. There is no point at all to have the middle "layers" or floors, or their portalable walls. I did this: I flinged up to the very top floor, put a portal up there pointing at the ball catcher, then I fell down through while the fizzlers were off. then I put a portal opening at the ball launcher, and it went straight in.

. I think Im missing something. at the end, I push the button, then fall through the floor and there's a bunch of turret lasers for a split second, and then the level ends.

Yeah I used a trigger push.

I wanted to use just momentum to fling the player, but for some reason the momentum/velocity the player gains seems capped in Portal. So, I couldn't fling the player high enough. Its not a great fix, but it seemed to the job alright.

You're right about the middle floors. Though, I did want to make it seem like there were multiple ways of solving the puzzle. With my friends testing the map, they never found the "short" solution. So, I dunno. Maybe they are not good portal players.

The end of level was meant to be sorta anti-climatic. I didn't intend for it to be confusing.

Thanks for the feedback.

well, I didnt know about the velocity cap. I guess that's ok then. cool to see that you made a long way and a short way. thanks for clearing it up

just finished playing it...
the style of the map was great, though, as I already said in some topic, I am not so good player (bad at flings), so I didn't like some puzzles (especially the end one). The end of the map seemed confusing to me too. Basically, noone would want to jump into a dark pit full of turret lasers I don't know, maybe it's just me.

Just played it, it was pretty good.

Some remarks:

In what I think is the second room difficult room (after the tutorial rooms), I was standing around looking for what to do, with energy balls flying all around, when one of them accidently opened a door way up at the ceiling. I quickly put a portal through it and I skipped more or less the entire room. At least it felt that way, I dunno.

Then in the last room, after I got to the top and opened the door to the ceiling button, I was a bit at a loss as to what I should do, because the pit before the room definitely didn't look deep enough to reach the ceiling button. Finally I tried it anyway, and it worked. I know about the speed cap so your solution to push is good, but you should probably make the pit deeper anyway to convince the player that pit-jumping is not an exercise in futility that shouldn't even be tried.

I just played it, the map was awesome, save for 2 things:

1. the GLaDOS voices were TOO DAMN LOUD! i think i burst an eardrum or two.

2. is the falling into the giant pit of turrets the end? because i jumped down there and it disconnected me, so i presumed it to be the end

Really nice map. Slick new mechanic, and you do a really nice job of teaching the player how it works. Overall, never frustrating, but a satisfying level of moderate challenge. The levels are visually very nice as well. I particularly loved flying vertically up through the grids, I didn't even really notice the "push" I got, although I was a bit surprised that the pit was deep enough for that to work.

A couple of notes from my experience:

I felt a bit like I skiped puzzles in a couple of areas. First, in the room where you must open up a door in the ceiling and pass through it, I directed an energy ball up through it before even figuring out how to turn on the second ball emitter (or even being aware that that was something I had to do.) I was a little surprised when I found myself at the next puzzle without really having "used" every element of the previous room, and ended up playing through again to figure out what I had missed. Also, at the last puzzle, I also skipped all the intervening rooms as my first solution. I will have to go back again at some point and figure out what the "long way" up was.

nice idea with doors opening only with ball...and the end...i did it the sohrt way too.at the end of doing again (because of turrets - that was looking like bad end) i noticed the doors in the middlefloors...

SEX!

This was a really fun map, and an interesting new play mechanic. Some really clever puzzles there.

The ending fling would probably be better without the artificial boost. It's unintuitive; I couldn't figure out the technique at first because judging by the height it seemed obvious that the fling would not reach high enough... I tried anyway after a while, and realized there was an extra boost.

By the way, I dare you try to do a speedrun with "portal funnel" off... I tried the ending swing 20 or 30 times, but always ended up a little off and hit a ceiling. When I switched the portal funnel setting on, I made the fling to the top on my first try...

I like maps like this. They offer multiple solutions to clever puzzles.

I enjoyed this map, i am rubbish at flinging, but didnt have too many probs here. Thought overall it was quite puzzly and textures/rooms were great, especially last room. Was a bit dissapointed by the ending tho' did it a few times as I thought my system had gone bonk!, would have been nice to end in a room full of turrents with minimal cover, i love shooting those little bas**rds !!
Thanks, great map