My entry in the contest.
UPDATED.

Click here to download Outskirts Testing

Click here to download Outskirts Testing

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This overall great quality outdoor map is marred only by the fact that the final jump is really buggy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

EDIT:
So I just played it again, and I got to the end without running into the bug that I mentioned before. I'm not sure what I did differently, but the test worked properly.

EDIT EDIT:
Well, I just played the problematic section of the map about five more times, and had a successful conclusion each time. The bug with the trajectory seems to occur with the crossbar that the player collides with right after flinging. In later releases of your map, just remove that one brush, and you probably won't have any more trajectory errors.

Yeah that brush was for blocking the funnel so you cant use it for getting outside but I know how I will fix it later.

It also caused this very hilarious bug.

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Aesthetics
By setting itself outdoors, the map has set itself up for a new visual style. While we can see giant girders and structures supporting the chamber, the interior is largely the same as a clean style chamber (with some grass for good measure). It's different, but not entirely! The chamber felt open, with a lack of 'complete' walls and ceilings. There were some nice touches such as the metal beams, pipes and walkways running around the outside of the first chamber. The second chamber could have benefitted from a little more texture variation, however: almost everything is made of 32*32 small tiles.

There's plenty of opportunities to peer through metal gratings and sneak a glimpse of the outside. I think it was lacking some detail - as I was travelling up the final funnel ride, I thought "I could use more stuff to look at!". It would have been nice to have a (2D) skybox that wasn't completely white - but of course you were building the map under a time constraint.

Gameplay
The puzzles were straightforward - I found them easy. The turret in the first chamber was a nice touch, preventing me from pressing the button and giving me an intermediate obstacle to deal with. The light bridge was quite high, meaning I had to crouch to get through. It was a tiny bit annoying, but I suppose it's to stop redirecting the laser with a cube on the light bridge.

I was a bit confused that the first chamber exit didn't work, and that we had to go round the side. After that I was pleased to see that the tower (which I'd noticed previously) was part of the puzzle. The funnel ride up built tension (although it was higher than neccesary for the fling), and it was satisfying (if a little fiddley) to pull off the final fling. You could consider speeding up the funnel, too, since it doesn't serve a purpose other than transport.

Bugs and Mapping Details
* The second faith plate has an arrow pointing forwards but instead it flings you upwards
* Near the first chamber exit door, some pipes are visible which clip (overlap)
* The fog cloud was maybe a bit too intensive, I felt my framerate drop ever so slightly
* The ending of the map killed me. Was that intentional? Certainly it should have opened the Workshop vote dialogue afterwards.

BEARD! wrote:
* The ending of the map killed me. Was that intentional? Certainly it should have opened the Workshop vote dialogue afterwards.

That is a glitch with the final fling off of the tower. When you hit that crossbar right after flying off of the angled panel, it sometimes adversely affects the trajectory. You're supposed to sail across the map, and land on a clearly-defined landing pad, then walk to the exit. Watch this video for the intended conclusion.

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Oh wow that's a much more impressive ending! A shame that it didn't work out for me

BEARD! wrote:
Oh wow that's a much more impressive ending! A shame that it didn't work out for me

No joke, I tried the final fling no less than ten times before it worked properly. I believe it has a lot to do with the orientation of the portals. Placement helpers would have gone a loooooong way for that section of the map.

I'll do my best for fixing those things on my map, also my map doesn't want to render water, if someone know something about a similar problem...

eladiozro wrote:
I'll do my best for fixing those things on my map

Try using portal placement helpers in the ideal positions that you know will yield the correct result. Specifically, I am referring to the panel at the base of the tower, and the angled panel that is on a timer. I really enjoyed your map, and I would love to see it polished off after the contest.

Heh, that was cool! Outdoorness aside the puzzle was pretty good, and I really liked that final move
Thanks

My feedback:
Do not read if you are judge!

||This was an above average map with good puzzles. There was a couple of major things I didn't like about the map such as the very long ride on the funnel and the start where you are overwhelmed with all the test elements in front of you.
You couldn't reach anything because you were stuck on a platform separated by goo from the other side the chamber. I eventually found out that you had to drop the cube and fling it onto a button which activated a lightbridge. (I found this out because I noclipped around and pressed buttons and the such to find out what they did). I then reset the map to reset the elements.

Visually it was interesting, mainly because it is very rare to see an 'outdoor' map in portal 2 (it was a really foggy day) but other than that, it didn't really stand out to me in any particular way.

This was a pretty good effort.||

Man can people be picky.
"Funnel up should be faster, tower does not need to be that high" - sorry but that is just ridiculously picky.

First room was good, not great.

But then came the best ending to a map, ever.
I loved the concept - the clouds - the "gradual" funneling up to the high, HIGH Tower !!
What a unique and fresh idea.
LOVED IT

My comments are similar to previous bits mentioned in this thread.
I appreciate the outdoor scenery, but personally I think the whole idea and "feel" of Portal should be the player is biding his/her time before an opening presents itself so you can escape. This level was full of escape options and I felt reluctant to get back in that elevator to take me sub-surface. Also the lack of interaction between any "outside instruction / voice" But I am nitpicking, I'm not even close to this level of map creating in Hammer myself (I just want to be able to compare all the contenders, and have to scrutinize everything)

Puzzle was ok-ish to good, I liked the goo and no clear path to get across, nice mechanic to get the cube the light bridge being at the awkward angle was not great, and that second areal plate was not needed imho. The final tower was very nice, but due to the bug I had to re-do the jump I think seven times - that should be easy enough to fix like you indicated.

I don't know how to score this, being critical of myself I know I rate difficult puzzles without shortcuts higher than levels that show loads of graphic splendor but have an average puzzle element. Drat, I am stuck, I don't know what to give -also because I might have rated previous puzzles in this competition too high... I'll make it a 4.2, thanks for sharing this level with us all