Quote from
Idolon on July 6, 2014, 7:25 pm
An interesting puzzle, but unfortunately vague in a few ways that don't work well from a design perspective. I'm going to go into detail why (spoilers, obviously)
design analysis
[spoiler]The entire purpose of the puzzle is to get the four blocks near the "EXIT" sign to all make the right sound, via manipulation of various levers in the map. The four blocks are a bit strange, as they function as both a display and a button. This implies that there is some importance to which buttons you press, but all of them actually just function as the same button. A bit strange, but not horribly misleading.
What is a bit misleading about them is that the two voice-overs of "Aperture!" don't really imply a positive or negative state, just a difference. If you were to use red and green lights, or sounds better associated with "yes" and "no," it would let players better focus on the actual puzzle. I know you want things to be vague, but whether or not a player is making progress on a puzzle shouldn't be a puzzle in itself.
The launching mechanic to access the second floor is really strange and adds another unnecessary layer to the puzzle. It also means that the trial-and-error bit I'm about to cover takes even longer to trial-and-error your way through, which is kinda annoying and just gets in the way of letting the player solve the puzzle.
One of the squares is made "right" by controlling two levers on the second floor. There doesn't appear to be any logical way to deduce what state those two levers have to be in to activate the square, meaning you just have to try until you get it right. Forced trial-and-error like this isn't a good puzzle, or really even a puzzle at all.
The first square is activated by releasing a crate from a hidden panel in the ceiling and exploding it by jumping on it, and I... uh... this part's weird. This is so completely out of left field and bizarre that I'm not sure that I can really explain why it's bad in design terms. It's a complete non-sequitur from the rest of the level.
Overall, a pretty shoddy map. The idea of using toggles about the map for one singular door is interesting, but it isn't applied well in this case due to a lack of any real theme or cues. It's good that you're making the player interact to understand a puzzle, but the interaction should lead to understanding rather than bewilderment.[/spoiler]
EDIT: I felt kinda shitty after writing this, so I wanted to add that I think it's really kind of you (and awesome) to make a map inspired by something of mine! I don't mean any of this as a discouragement, but as a constructive criticism. I hope you don't take it too hard, and I wish you the best of luck with whatever maps you come out with next.
