A compact test featuring spheres and a light bridge. It should provide some challenge for experienced players, but is still solvable for the rest of us. It was designed with the Puzzle Maker, but most of the work that went into it was done with Hammer.

Have fun and remember to think outside the sphere!

CHANGES
Version 1.10 - Added a button in a place you could get stuck to stop you from being stuck

Direct download of Thinking Outside the Sphere for weird people

Click here to download Thinking Outside the Sphere

Click here to download Thinking Outside the Sphere

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I really liked it! I think the puzzle was pretty clever and pretty different. Sphere went where it should easily and it worked great.

Grate covering the angled portal surface allows the sphere to go through it for some reason. Also you will get stuck down at the companion cube easter egg.

I didn't record my blindrun for some reason but here is my solution video:
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I hope I see more maps from you.

Can you post a direct link please ??...

I've just updated the file with a button in the place where you could get stuck to stop you from being stuck. I've also added a direct upload link to the BSP file at the bottom of the description.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback and video Shakky! I'm glad you liked it. The sphere going through the grate was a known issue. I tried fixing it a few days ago... but it's easier said than done. Physics are very glitchy(/nonexistant) around portals which is why it's happening. I'm out of ideas on fixing it, I'll need some help. It's not too bad a problem though... it's not too annoying and it doesn't break the puzzle.

This was quite a nice little puzzle. Just when you think you've got it all solved, there's still more to do. I had no problems or issues except that being killed for finding the easter egg seems a little odd. Very well done.

Blaizer wrote:
The sphere going through the grate was a known issue. I tried fixing it a few days ago... but it's easier said than done. Physics are very glitchy(/nonexistant) around portals which is why it's happening. I'm out of ideas on fixing it, I'll need some help. It's not too bad a problem though... it's not too annoying and it doesn't break the puzzle.

Try adding a func_clip_vphysics with a clip texture few units in front of the portal surface. I'm not sure but that should prevent any passage from physics objects.

RogerL wrote:
I had no problems or issues except that being killed for finding the easter egg seems a little odd.

You jumped down a clearly-labelled hole. What did you expect?

Wow, cheers, I really love tight little puzzles like this! I've played a few hundred workshop maps, and there aren't many this good ^^

Very clever puzzle, thanks!

4/5. This one had me stumped for a good while. I liked it so much I've added it to my collection
KennKong's Favorite Puzzle Maps

A superb, well-crafted puzzle. Visually the map was a little plain, but that's due to having most of the chamber plated in black metal. Normally that would be a complaint, but you make that part of the puzzle. Instead, you could spice things up a bit by using some different metal panels here and there - maybe style the two halves of the room differently? I'd also suggest adding more glass, so you can see more of the 'bowling alley' from the top of the light bridge. Watching the ball trundle towards the laser beam, knowing that the puzzle is about to be complete would be a nice moment for the player.

The puzzle definitely benefited from being touched-up in Hammer - I appreciated the additional overlay signs and the angled end of the 'bowling alley' which forces you to summon the ball and not just roll it. [With that said, the circle icon on the button which raised the floor button was mysterious and didn't seem to have a point.] It was genuinely fun to get through one stage at a time, meeting some kind of problem ("hmmm.") and then develop the solution ("aha!") again and again. The best example would be getting to the top of the light bridge and being unable to fall down. "Oh, I have to turn off the light-bridge - how? Oh right, kill the sphere. But I left the panel lowered into the wall! So I have to backtrack." Now that I think of it, that's genius - make the player use the previous solution of disabling the bridge.

Easily one of the better maps on the workshop - thanks for mapping!

P.S. Your download description hasn't been parsed by the forums - if you edit it in this thread, it should fix itself.