You were simply testing when sudden events lead you to an advanced test chamber. Do you think you can cope with it?

My contest entry for 2012 Heavy Duty Super Mapping Super Contest and my first release (not first map), so ...
feedback ...
Please?

Now with a solution video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLTF1tYgvDQ

V1.1 Added the map to the Workshop.
V1.2 Got disqualified (anyways though).
Fixed unintended solutions.
Better lighting.
Updated chambers.

Click here to download An Advanced Test Chamber

Click here to download An Advanced Test Chamber

Bit of a mixed bag, this one - some things I really liked and some I didn't at all. Some of the main thoughts I had:

• I liked the custom lines and the little bit of story you had going. Some of the more dynamic elements, such as how you get to the BTS area, were really cool.

• After the power goes out, you can get stuck in the pit under the panel that pops up to let you rip away the wall..

• As always, the white gel seems to break your puzzle. I didn't need the orange gel at all.

• Didn't like the crusher room. Did it on the third attempt, but still seemed a bit unforgiving.

• I didn't get the rotating arrow thing in the room with the laser - found it easier just to adjust where I placed the cube in the funnel from.

• The lighting isn't too hot - all looks a bit flat really.

Overall, not a bad map by any means, but needs work.

El Farmerino, thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. Now for the problems:
1. I had very little time building this map and I was in a rush. When I saw the contest on July 19th (Bulgarian time) I started mapping straight away. However on July 27th the power went out and all of my work was gone. From the next 11 days I wasted 3 playing games on my PC and the other days I had to do some painting around the flat which left me with a very little time causing me to make such errors. I submitted my map at 3:00 am. (Bulgarian time which was 4 hours before the contest was over)
2. I will fix all of these once the judging is over. For instance:
the panels that rip off the wall - simple player clip
the white gel breaking the puzzle - add func_portal_detectors and a math_counter + trigger_paint_cleanser
the crusher room - add a little timer that shows people when to jump
the Aperture Science Magnetic Portal Orientation Field - change the funnel to a horizontal one
the lighting - add global_ents (Y I forget ? )

My feedback:
Do not read if you are judge!

||Its good to see some custom content made for this map. It was generally visually appealing, it had obvious goals (except for the part where you had to use the diversity vent to break a solid wall in the previous room which I thought was sealed shut) and generally was good gameplay. Not to easy or too difficult.

The only thing I disliked incredibly was the crusher room. You had to quickly place both portals just after you were launched through a fizzler. It took me around 10 goes to do.

The best thing I liked about this map was the story. GLaDOS raises panels when the test chamber suddenly loses power, she gets impatient and says 'we don't have enough time', tricking the player. The music was also cued in all the right places.

However nothing in this really stood out to me. There wasn't anything incentive and if you create a puzzle with white gel, realise that the puzzle can be completely solved with white gel.

Good job on the credits though.||

Thanks for your feedback ChickenMobile. Both positive and negative-ish. When I fix the chamber after the contest I will take your notes into consideration. I have a few ideas how to fix stuff.
Music - make it into wavs with cue points instead of mp3s looped via a logic_timer. (It gets buggy when going out of an excursion funnel)
The tiles on the breaking wall are damaged to hint the player that later there will be something going on with it.
For the conversion gel (I like calling the testing elements with their Aperture names) and the crusher room see my previous post. For the crusher room I might also extend it to let the player have more time to shoot the portals.
For the credits I might make the text also fade out as the next fades in but I'm not sure.
Fact: The story line was thought of the first day before I started mapping. My biggest problem was the actual test not the story line

Awesome map! Overall it was really fun, enjoyed it very much.
Heres my blindrun:
Blindrun
1yEBnCKSmVY
Below is my feedback:
Feedback
-I don't know why but the button switches are hard to press.
-When the light power is being cut off, the room gets really dark. Kinda hard to see.
-What I need to do with the Diversity Vent was unclear, I roamed around for 3 minutes just to find out that you need to actually suck that wall in the first area.
-Liked the animation when the walls are being sucked by the Diversity Vent
-Good use of the ThinkingWithPortals.com overlays.
-Didn't get the rotating arrow thingy. What's it used for?
-Energy Ball (High Energy Pellet) room was too dark.
-Didn't like the crusher room, the crushers were too fast. You need to fire both portals really fast to get over to the cube dropper and button switch on the top.
-Loved the credits, good job! I loved how you chose "Robots FTW" for the credits, and let it continue after the credits end, it gives me some kind of encouragement because I completed the puzzle. xP
Overall, I'll give a 4/5, it was really fun, however it still can be improved. Great job!
I hope you make more maps in the future!

I'm going through all of the maps that I played for the contest and post my rating and comments.
It may be a bit out of date if you have updated your map since then, but hopefully it's useful feedback nonetheless.

judging comments
||Aesthetics: 1
Very bland. most surfaces are black, except the ones that need to be white for the puzzles. Lighting is also very basic and areas where the lights switch off are plain ugly. Most rooms are a tad too big.
The custom soundtrack is boring. (I like how it changes a bit when the power goes out however.) In the main area, the constant noise of the crushers is also very annoying.

Gameplay: 1
Puzzle quality is generally poor.
The first ("pre-advanced") area is not very interesting. The method of getting access to the second area is a bad case of moon logic. The moving panel in the first room only activates when you get really close, and there is no hint that you're supposed to use it to suck the tiles off the wall. (In the pre-release teaser video that was probably the inspiration for this, it is used as a gimmick, not an actual puzzle element.)
The paint puzzle is easy to solve by just whitewashing everything. Rotating the cube in the laser puzzle is a game of trial and error, and the portal alignment arrow is not necessary. The energy ball puzzle has fake difficulty in the form of strict timing. I did not manage to finish the crusher puzzle.

Difficulty: 1
This is a reasonably hard map, but that is almost entirely due to fake difficulty. (Strict timing + trial and error.) There is, unfortunately, no real intellectual challenge.

Personal score: 1||
This particular one will sound a bit harsh, but that's how things go in a contest. As with everything in life, making good maps takes a lot of practice, and for a first release this is not bad at all! It's just that many of the other entries are so much better, because their creators just have a lot more mapping experience, and we have to make a distinction somehow.

It is nice to hear that you already have some improvements in mind that will make the puzzles much more enjoyable. I'll be happy to try an updated version and give some more constructive feedback

Well I'm back from my holiday and it's time for a little work.
1. Thank you RectorRocks for the feedback and the blindrun.
2. HMW thank you as well. Your feedback sounds quite harsh but I don't mind it because it's perfectly true
3. I've already started fixing stuff so an update is coming at the end of the week...probably