Overview:
A 30-minute level of intermediate difficulty with four chambers set in the destroyed Aperture Science facilities. Some puzzle elements include hard light surfaces, discouragement beams, aerial faith plates, and excursion funnels. Suggestions, reviews, praises, criticisms, and all other feedback welcome. Enjoy.

To Install:
Copy sp_patent_pending.bsp provided in the zip to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\portal2\maps directory.

To Play:
Double-click on the Play Patent Pending shortcut provided in the zip.
(Optionally, type "map sp_patent_pending" in the portal 2 console.)

Special Thanks:
Jared Daniels - Feedback
Winston Nicholson - Feedback
Demonz312 - Robo stairs example
Brits - Crusher example
animerunt - Modified transitions
madrapper - Portal 2 icon

Contact Information:
Name: Tom Chiu
Email: [email protected]

Image Gallery: http://imgur.com/a/jMJd4#XbOtp

File Name: sp_patent_pending_v1.1.zip
File Size: 20.61 MiB

Click here to download [SP] Patent Pending

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Very nice, just a few things:
Elevator videos were stretched oddly and scaled different then Valve maps (not a huge deal it requires a large amount of work to fix.)
In the puzzle with the crusher, timing was harder then figuring out the solution.
Didn't take me too long, I was expecting a really long map when I saw the file size and your length description.
First puzzle was very short and very easy, the other puzzles were more like what I expected as far as difficulty.

I liked it. I thought the last puzzle was quite clever. I didn't realy notice anything wrong with the elevator videos, but then I just walk right past those at this point anyways.
I didn't have a big problem with the timing on the crusher puzzle
Still this is very nice and looks good, it might even beat mine =) 5/5

For the uninitiated, ebola is our very first Portal 1 Community Spotlight holder for releasing one of the best (and one of the first) custom maps back in the Portal 1 days. And holy shit my friend, have you come a long way.

Amazing execution of the overgrown Aperture theme, and a rare example of a pre-GLaDOS bootup map. The "aha!" moment I had in the second chamber with the cubes, faith plates and hard light bridge was brilliant when I finally figured out that last part that pulled it all together. For anyone who thinks this chamber requires lighting quick reflexes, think again.

I really liked the last two chambers because of the use and reuse of the space. A lot of puzzles you solve a puzzle element or two and then move on, but in these two rooms you continue to go back to the main area. This sort of design is what really separates great maps from, well, Community Spotlight ones.

I noticed two somewhat minor issues. In the third puzzle, you can break the I/O for the final laser catcher if you quickly place and then remove the laser from the final reflectocube. I'm assuming the "success" case isn't firing after the catcher thinks the laser is removed, this sort of thing is pretty common it seems.

Then in the final chamber, I noticed a cubemap error when the cubemaps were generated while the excursion funnel was active. The cubemaps are painting the reflective surface blue, even when the funnel is deactivated (which it is by default when you enter the room at first).

I loved it, I want more. Great job.

Unexceptionably built, progressive difficulty and lenghty too for good measure. Particularly appreciated the coop-inspired cubes puzzle, but the very last jump could be forced - assuming I did right: use the catapult, output to the floor of the last room, portal to the highest wall and enter it (later use it as output).

Decay confirms again to be the home of the free and the brave, but I couldn't shake off one idea: that it looks and plays like a reskinned clean chamber. Sure, a decayed chamber is a formerly clean one! But nothing was really destroyed or abandoned here - planimetry and puzzle pieces were untouched. Anyway I digress, thumbs up.

xdiesp wrote:
the very last jump could be forced - assuming I did right: use the catapult, output to the floor of the last room, portal to the highest wall and enter it (later use it as output).

At first I tried using the catapult but could never get enough height. Then I used the excursion funnel and it was 100000x easier.

Another incredible map!

I loved how it was very long and none to simple either, and the asthetics were very nice. multiple times I got stumped, but I made it through. I didn't find anything particularly bad about this map save for some texture misallignments and some odd lighting in the chamber pictured on the preview image. (the glass on the interior is black?)

This map was well worth the download and well worth the time I put into playing it. 5/5

That was beautiful. Seriously, this was probably the best map I've yet played (and I've played a few). The chambers were complex enough to be interesting, and managed to keep me constantly thinking without ever feeling that I was getting stuck.

People talk about the "aha!" moments that make Portal so great; for me, this map was like one persistent "aha" moment. I can relate to what Xdiesp said about feeling like a re-skinned clean chamber however, what with all the neatly rectangular rooms. Still, I generally have a bias towards the overgrown style chambers simply because I find the atmosphere much more enjoyable. I wouldn't have this any other way. =P

Good luck with the contest - I can see this coming out in the finalists, at least.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and generous comments. If you have not yet done so, please do play my map and give me suggestions on how to improve it.

Omnicoder wrote:
Elevator videos were stretched oddly and scaled different then Valve maps (not a huge deal it requires a large amount of work to fix.)

The elevator panels came along with the destroyed_base12 instance from Valve. I'm surprised that it is stretched. I will have to check it out.

Omnicoder wrote:
In the puzzle with the crusher, timing was harder then figuring out the solution.

Could you tell me how you solved it? I have a suspicion that it was not the intended solution. The twitch solution is something I have been deciding whether to keep or not. Generally, my playtesters stayed away from the twitch solution.

msleeper wrote:
For the uninitiated, ebola is our very first Portal 1 Community Spotlight holder for releasing one of the best (and one of the first) custom maps back in the Portal 1 days. And holy shit my friend, have you come a long way.

I'm glad that you recognized me even though I disappeared for like 3 years, hehe.

msleeper wrote:
I noticed two somewhat minor issues. In the third puzzle, you can break the I/O for the final laser catcher if you quickly place and then remove the laser from the final reflectocube. I'm assuming the "success" case isn't firing after the catcher thinks the laser is removed, this sort of thing is pretty common it seems.

This is probably caused by me taking too much faith in Valve's I/O chain in their zoo mechanics example. I bet the fast retrigger flags are off. I'll look into it.

msleeper wrote:
Then in the final chamber, I noticed a cubemap error when the cubemaps were generated while the excursion funnel was active. The cubemaps are painting the reflective surface blue, even when the funnel is deactivated (which it is by default when you enter the room at first).

I missed that one, good catch. The cubemaps are baked with the funnel on, so I have to figure out a way to build two versions of the cubemaps and switch them. If not, I think building it with the funnel off probably makes it less noticeable.

xdiesp wrote:
Decay confirms again to be the home of the free and the brave, but I couldn't shake off one idea: that it looks and plays like a reskinned clean chamber. Sure, a decayed chamber is a formerly clean one! But nothing was really destroyed or abandoned here - planimetry and puzzle pieces were untouched. Anyway I digress, thumbs up.

NuclearDuckie wrote:
I can relate to what Xdiesp said about feeling like a re-skinned clean chamber however, what with all the neatly rectangular rooms. Still, I generally have a bias towards the overgrown style chambers simply because I find the atmosphere much more enjoyable. I wouldn't have this any other way. =P

This is actually a really interesting point, and I would bet Valve LDs ran into the same dilemma. Designers want the gameplay solidified in the whitebox phase before moving onto the aesthetic pass. So, in order to destroy the puzzle areas, the designer would have to take a lot of risk and do so early in the process. The alternative solution, which I took, is to build the gameplay first and ensure it is solid before moving onto the aesthetics and destroying it. After all, gameplay is king. So the destruction only took place in the transition areas and ceilings--places that do not affect gameplay at all. Most of the gameplay surfaces are left stained and marred rather than completely destroyed. The chances of the breaking the intended gameplay is too great to destroy parts of the gameplay area after the initial geometry passes have been done. So what I tried to do instead is to sell the player the atmosphere through the transitions and with dynamic environment effects like the water drips, the falling ceiling, the moving leaves, the distant explosions, the detaching cables and so on. This is the same practice you see Valve use in the destruction. As more and more mechanics are introduced in the game and chances of breaking a level increases, the destruction are gradually moved to only transitions and ceilings. The only significant full geometry destruction I noticed are during the initial levels of the game before the faith plate is introduced and during storytelling levels where the puzzles are few. Obviously this shortcut is something an observant player would notice, and that is why it's a dilemma. I'll have to sell you the illusion of the atmosphere better next time.

In short, geometry destruction is very time-consuming and inflexible for designs. If a fatal design flaw comes along and forces you to change the layout, it costs a lot of hours to redo. I think it is better to stay on the grid until the gameplay is golden. Even then, keep a copy of the original in a visgroup in case something breaks.

msleeper wrote:
xdiesp wrote:

the very last jump could be forced - assuming I did right: use the catapult, output to the floor of the last room, portal to the highest wall and enter it (later use it as output).

At first I tried using the catapult but could never get enough height. Then I used the excursion funnel and it was 100000x easier.

With regards to this issue, one way to prevent the attempts to use the faith plate is to make the final room's floor unportalable, which is probably a good idea. Having the player waste time and getting angry of barely not making the jump is not my intention.

Groxkiller585 wrote:
I didn't find anything particularly bad about this map save for some texture misallignments and some odd lighting in the chamber pictured on the preview image. (the glass on the interior is black?)

Could you be more specific or take a screenshot of these problems? This stuff is incredibly easy to fix and I would like to get to them first.

Thanks again everyone for playing the map and letting me know how you felt about it. It is the best way for a level designer to improve.

Great job! just loved it! Puzzles where really worth it to wake up my braincells again ;]

I really enjoyed this map, it had a sense of Valve-like quality the whole way through
The puzzles were well-engineered as well - I spent a lot of time on the final two, and eventually on the last I just ended up doing this.

The map was very fun to play through. Especially knocking down the turrets.
My favorite bit though, was the first excursion funnel puzzle, because it had me cursing at one point, before I noticed the devilishly obvious answer. The whole map was Very Valve-like, specifically in the way it makes you feel smarter. The design is very professional from a visual standpoint as well. I also enjoyed placing a portal behind one of the cubes in the last test to be able to turn it right. Not sure that's what I was supposed to do, but it was refreshing in a way. The use of the game speech files was spot on. The triple faith plate puzzle I actually solved with portal-aided timing the first time, but that's just me I guess.

ebola wrote:
So, in order to destroy the puzzle areas, the designer would have to take a lot of risk and do so early in the process.

Now, it's a conceptual thing so understanbly blurry. On my part, I consider it an aesthetical matter: just show it, that you are in some ruins. No need to actually break your plan.

I've seen these "appearances" to push the illusion in a variety of maps, Wavelet and Reconstruct to name two. Blackouts, falling debris, scattered puzzle items no longer useful, collapsed doorways, crumbling floor, holes in the ceiling to the sky, and more generally playing on top of collapsed structures.

i think i used an unintented solution for the last room:

i took the cube from the turret-room to get a portal high enough for the last faithplate jump
otherwise lovely design of the map and the puzzles, thanks a lot for the good time on your map!

Simply Awesome - if this had been a cut part of the game proper I would be unsurprised. Can only agree with what's been said above, great looking areas and properly clever puzzle mechanics without ever being too open/confusing nor too simplistic.

Most enjoyable portalling I've done since the game itself. Please make many more

Peem

Really nice work. Puzzles are though and well designed, there are not too much unintended way to solve them..

Excellent map, this is what I expect in a challenging and fun map, took some time to get the puzzles, didn't have a lot of back and forth activity and I got to burn turrets with a laser. The atmosphere and audio was perfect...thanks much for creating....

An exhausting but challenging and well made map. My only criticism is that I felt really stupid when I couldn't figure out one of the solutions for half an hour (nearly gave up and threw the whole thing in my stupid maps pile, glad I didn't though), but I'm not so sure that's your fault. I really shouldn't play portal when I'm super tired. Bravo. I hope to see this map as one of the semi finalists at least.

Probably the best entry I've seen. It's beautiful, challenging, long, and the interest level was kept high. When I look at this map I think to myself "Well this one has the best chance at winning" It was also great that so many different elements were used in so many different ways.

Also if there is one thing I can't thank you enough for it's that you used the announcer's voice with all of the lights in the observation rooms turned off, (many people over look that detail) which really helps bring back that feel of the "sp_a1" maps in the Single Player Campaign.

Thank you for this amazing map, and good luck in the contest my friend.

I appreciate everyone's time and kind embellishments. I'm just glad to see players enjoying my map. This is an excellent and thriving community for aspiring designers.