Level intended to be of Medium difficulty and possibly foolproof in terms of unnecessary deaths. No ninja skills required, but there are moments where you have to hurry.

Version history (CONTAINS SPOILERS!):
1.0 - Initial release.

1.1 - Fixed the unintended solution where player could reach the turret by simply using a cube as a shield. I totally forgot about this simple trick. Also some additional small tweaks in the level's design.

1.2 - Notable alterations in the level's design. Two problems I had with the original setting was that there was too much going back and forth between two areas just to press a timed button, and that it was very unclear what is the purpose of the button guarded by the turret. Now this button activates gel droppers, there is no fizzler guarding them, and the laser field at the exit is controlled by a separate button close to it.

1.3 - Another bunch of notable changes after getting some feedback from a friend. First area got another substantial redesign in order to avoid player's deaths: goo has been replaced with a small pit, and the part with the laser field was completely replaced with another pit; that second change was done because previously, player could trap himself between the laser field and the light bridge, and even then it couldn't stop him from trying to just throw the cube at the faith plate. The column inside the area with faith plates was removed, so we can easily see the cube flying, and there are also stairs added so we can quickly follow it. There are also some changes in the second area: getting cube is now a bit harder, since the task is much more timing based; the goo pit close to exit is replaced with pit with stairs, and the laser field is replaced with a light bridge.

1.4 - Most likely the last set of changes. All goo pools have been replaced with pits that can easily be accessed and you cannot get trapped in them. From now on, the only possible way to kill yourself is to let the turret shoot at you. This version is probably the closest to the initial intention of avoiding player's deaths.

Click here to download ZuTS001 - The Ball And The Cube

Click here to download ZuTS001 - The Ball And The Cube

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I don't want to push it, but are there any chances that I can receive some feedback? I tried my best to make the map as good as possible, playtesting it multiple times and polishing the details in an attempt to make it perfect. The newest version gets rid of two biggest problems in the gameplay and now I think it's about as close to perfect as possible. I would really appreciate having some feedback.

Alright, your earnest plea for feedback warmed the caverns of my icy heart....

In general, I thought it was an okay map. Taking out the turret was really satisfying and it's obvious you put a lot of effort into getting everything set up nicely.

I did think it was a little too busy, though. You have all these elements thrown at the player all at once, and it's a bit overwhelming at first. Then you have loads of buttons, all on a timer, and three separate ball buttons, all of which makes you think that it's going to be super complicated, when actually it's relatively simple. Still, I managed to work out roughly the order of things after about five minutes of wandering around checking everything out, and I know there are some players that enjoy that kind of map.

I'm not a huge fan of timing-based puzzles (like your cube puzzle here) so I guess this map just wasn't really suited to my tastes anyway, but I think with a less complex, more focused map you'd probably be able to make something I really would like.

Thank you very much for leaving your feedback. It's always great to get some constructive critique.

Yes, one of my friends did comment that everything looks very complex at the first glance, and I noticed that myself when I was taking a critical look at the general design. I guess it's my usual way of doing things, because I always go with "no, no, that's too simple, let's complicate things a bit" when making puzzles (I had similar thing happening when I was making levels for the Gruntz game), resulting in maps that have lots of stuff thrown in just to ensure that they won't be too simple and too easy, possibly in an attempt to make them more interesting. I may try to avoid this in future levels, but I don't know if I'll be able to.

I don't know if you played the older or the newer version, but I tried to possibly minimize the use of excessive or confusing items (like removing that laser field over the faith plate and that fizzler in front of gel droppers, and also replacing the second light bridge with grating (because I learned that I can add it), so hopefully it removes the complex factor at least a bit. Also, since the fizzler next to gel droppers is removed, the only real timed challenge is the one to reach the exit before the laser field reactivates; it should be an improvement, considering that previously you had to do this repeatedly because it was the gel droppers' fizzler that was timed.

Anyway, I'll try to do better next time. Once again thank you for feedback.