4 single player maps designed to be above average in challenge. Chamber 4 has been added and updates were made to chambers 1 and 3.

File Name: PurpleSkyChambersV1.1.zip
File Size: 30.34 MiB
Click here to download PurpleSky Test Chambers

Where is the .bsp file?

The bsps are in the .vpk file. This file needs to go into your addons folder. Please see the ReadMe.txt file for more details.

Puzzles are well-designed, but the ambientation don't look so convincing..

Three short maps with a definite outsider aura, mostly because of the Quake-2-reminiscent level design but also for its uncommon puzzlemaking. Expect to walk a lot in huge, blocky avenues with giant machinery (like the first PMK6) not really resembling any test room.

Personally I can praise the good will of trying something different, but the final result is too unpolished: too many pixellated custom textures and banal mapping mistakes such as the guardrails mounted backwards. Epsilon Alpha was as eccentric as this one, but had a firm grip on the delivery which didn't leave undefended flanks. Puzzles aren't loose however.

Glitches of sort: the portable wall behind the fizzler in the first map, looks just like any other concrete (unportable) one; in the last map, the platform on the water close to the start is extremely dark to see; the floor button there could use a dotted line. Worth of note, is that you can skip the catapult in CH1 (portal from above the fizzler to inside) and that CH3 becomes inordinately more difficult if you don't paint around the floor button before placing the cube (and then move elsewhere, so that the orange funnel becomes your enemy).

I found the aesthetics not to my liking, but the puzzles did make me think... a little. However these are my favourite type of puzzles, where you have to pause, think hard, and then execution is fun. CH1 was definitely good, ch2 was interesting, but I feel the moving laser could've been modeled a bit differently, more realistic perhaps. CH3 was challenging and took me almost to the brink of giving up, when I found a way go get over the pit - then it was all solved. In ch3 - remember you can destroy the first cube you've used

I think these puzzles are absolutely amazing. 5/5

just played your puzzles, they were nice, but still need lots of work.
The mapping style is different from anything that we've seen in aperture labs, i dont really know if it fits with the whole portal theme, still you did execute the "style" you chose pretty well. It reminds me of old quake and unreal games. Also i noted lots of textures being misaligned, that looks very sloppy actually.

Another thing i noticed is lots of zfighting along the edges of the frosted glass lights, you probably placed them too close together.

In ch1 all the guardrails are the wrong way around... they are supposed to attach to the outer edges of platforms, now they just stand on top while being rotated 180 degrees the wrong way.
Also in Ch1 the lightcube gets fizzled on quickloads.
This was really annoying since i tried to drop the cube on the faithplate though it kept bouncing back into the fizzler, except the first try i did, though there i ended up in the goo myself, only to discover upon loading my cubes kept being fizzled.

Also i got stuck in ch2 after pressing the button high up in the first part and falling down with no way to get back up to open the door to the second part of the puzzle.

The last chamber was nice, though the final "solve" involved peeking over the edge of the paintdropper platform and shooting a paint portal up the white surface to paint the other side, that way i could jump into the orange funnel. i dont know if that is supposed to happen or if it is a exploit.

I really liked the second and third chamber. I didn't get the proper solution to the first one but it can be solved like this by flipping the cube http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/i352/Reswitch_123/2011-07-07_00001.jpg.

I wasn't so keen on the style, I thought it was a bit bare and characterless.

Sooooo.. nice to see maps with more than one chamber, although your first seemed excessively simple laser 90 up to catcher with unused stuff...? Two and 3 were more challenging...Thanks I look forward to your next map series....

I don't think I can be as harsh a critic on these three maps. Maybe because I was playing them after work and was in such a really relaxed mood. You say the maps were above average, so is that in map design or difficulty solving them? I would say close for difficulty solving. I was able to solve all 3 maps within 30 min, including load time and sitting back looking at the feeling and artwork of the design. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed playing the maps, even though they did not have the "testing chamber" Portal touch.
In chamber one I did use the launcher, then I was aware that the only way out was to use the walls which turned out to be portable, so from then on I knew the type of walls you use would be portable.
Chamber two, I enjoyed moving back and forth between the two rooms. However, I will always state my dislike of having to go through portals or doors with laser going through them. At least the door is much wider than a portal but still... Yeppers a fun puzzle to solve.
Chamber three, was my favorite. It had a little less of puzzle element and more skill based, but then again, if it was another day maybe not so. The solution became very easy to see once one travels around in the space. Carrying out the solution, took most of the time.
So conclusion, the maps are worth playing and were fun to play. Challenge level is about intermediate. I look forward to more of your promised maps.
Eastward
P.S. As I'm working on my first ever map, and I see it's not so easy designing and then building. But learning this Hammer editor is fun...

Thanks everyone for the comments and feedback. I'm working on Chamber 4 right now
and I'll be fixing some of the problems noted on the existing maps. FYI, yes flipping the
reflective cube ubside down and placing it under the laser catcher in Ch1 is an exploit
That is not the correct solution but it is kinda funny . That'll be part of my fixes.
Expect to see the fixes along with Chamber 4 in about a month. Thanks again for the great feedback!

Also @MissStabby: Your solution to ch3 is correct, and no you're not stuck in Ch2.
That is part of the puzzle and there are ways out of each half of the chamber.

I enjoyed a lot your chambers, though in ch1 I got stuck because I didnt notice the wall on the right of the high platform (with the cube-breaking barrier) that you could put portals on there. I think the main idea of each room is very original maybe u could work on changing the colours to improve the sense or the important things that must stand out.

looking forward that ch4 youve mentioned!

Here's a demo of the solution I used for Chamber 3. I didn't use cube destroying or edge-peek-portaling. Of coarse this demo isn't from my first play through, but it's the same solution I used with out all the wondering and backtracking. pstc3.rar

That is the correct solution, but I'll be making an adjustment to make it easier to get around the level once the box is on the switch. Thanks for the demo, chamber 4 is almost ready.

Awesome, fund set of maps - I love the large size too.

NOTE: this next part is not a spoiler since I am describing only a failure to get anywhere in this level . . .
But - I cannot make the ramp followed by big bounce in Chamber 4. I tried every combination of Orange and Blue gels. When I put a small strip of blue at the top of the ramp I just bounce straight up vertically. When I paint the entire ramp Orange and the floor blue then I make a nice bounce but not high or far enough. Seems impossible ?
You really should post a walkthrough since the only available one (the Demo file posted here) is for Chambers 1, 2, and 3 only.

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:

fC975Ch5UU4
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC975Ch5UU4)

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

Yet another small puzzles in huge rooms affair. The first three chambers were OK except for the size. I never could get the final fling to work in chamber 4. My probably unintended solution was put two portals in the floor, one near the exit, one backwards just past the end of the blue gel. Bounce into the first one and the fling out of the second just barely made it.

I'm sorry that the hours and hours of work spent detailing this monstrosity were ulitmately a waste of time and effort. 3/5 from me.

As puzzles, I really liked these maps, except for Chamber One which practically solves itself because there is so little to do and so few places to go. The puzzles were original, challenging, and easy to execute once figured out.

KennKong, I went back and tried your solution to Chamber Four, but I could never get white gel to stay on the floor near the blue gel, it was always washed away. My solution was similar, though: white gel on the wall in front of the ramp, orange on the ramp, blue on the floor, white on the floor near exit. Then place portal at top of wall, do ramp, bounce, hit exit wall, place portal on floor under you as you fall, then sit back and enjoy the monsterous fling. Made it with plenty of room to spare.