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Turret Bowling/Race Against Time

Sorry I'll be blunt.

This is less a Portal map then just engineered griefing. Everything about the map rubs me the wrong way. The unfocused sandbox at the start. The small timers. The lack of signage. The lack of visual connection between cause and effect. The parkour, platforming (wrong game I'm afraid). And so on.

The job of the designer is to present the player with a problem, it's then their job to figure it out. This isn't so much a construction of a problem as much as a mess.

IF you make more maps I hope you step away from the darkside and try to present your puzzles in a clear, more focused, and concise manner.

well designed for this style of test...but not one I personally enjoy. I knew what to do and had the cube positioned and the ball ready and knew what sequence I would push the buttons and where I would place my portals to make everything happen within the time but just couldn't execute it. Guess I like the thoughtful puzzle aspect rather than the fast reflex shooter platformer aspect of the game. The lift/angled panel thing was super annoying. Making the lift go a hair higher would be nice just for a couple extra shot attempts on that panel. I swear sometimes I hit it but the portal wouldn't take...grrrr. Despite not being my cup of tea I could tell that it was thoughtfully put together and some out there will surely enjoy it.

Sorry, I was talking to toncica, I was making comments about his map. I guess I can see the confusion there.

PS If you want frustating, I dare you to give his a try lol.

Execuris why are you talking to yourself? You are the one who made this chamber right?

btw, this is a good chamber except you have to do the same thing over and over again. It is not a test of patience or skill, it's just plain frustrating. Like the part you have to push the button then shoot the portal and then jump down to get to the other side. It is just very frustrating

I'm still struggling with it, but I finally made progress. You've done an amazing job on it. One mind-numbing roadblock after another. After another hour of fiddling around I finally have both cubes on the buttons, and now I stand there staring at that open door just wondering how to get to it.

I don't want to watch your walkthrough because I feel like being shown how to do a puzzle is worse than giving up. I find no satisfaction in solving a puzzle in which I was told the solution lol. I haven't even read the comments because I want nothing given away. I'm so close... you made such an amazing, elaborate puzzle.

You are not alone in finding that puzzle hard to solve. That wasn't exactly the intention, my first playtester said it's not a hard puzzle so I was quite surprised that everybody was struggling with it. I've added a video walkthrough for those who can't take it anymore.

Yeah I had no idea what I was getting into when I took a shot at your puzzle. I worked on it for nearly 2 hours last night. Before I knew it, it was 4:15am so I decided to go to bed and I'll keep trying tonight. It is a very intriguing and difficult map and I'm dumbfounded on it because I keep thinking I figure something out only to find that it really didn't get me anywhere at all lol. Definitely the hardest one I've ever done, and I'm looking forward to the satisfaction of completing it. =)

I'm worried about you being worried about the time it took to solve your chambers. In my opinion it's fine. Solving a test in five minutes does not give me satisfaction. It means I have not been forced to start thinking when going through lots of elements like a knife through hot butter. Maybe I should have warned you when I recommended my map for you to play. I don't expect you to solve it faster then I did yours, in fact it might take a lot longer. Being worried about that I took the opportunity to expand the tutorial section at the beginning to perhaps soften the confusion in the main room.

Your solution to the upper laser catcher was rather interesting. My intended solution for that was to have the reflection cube on the track platform, redirecting the upper laser emitter through portals, and the track platform would move up and down, causing the laser to hit the catcher for a fraction of a second, with the intention of the player being on the weighted switch.

I agree with you about the bowling alley not fitting well. I wasn't really sure what to do with it, because I had originally made that first to entertain my daughter. When she asked me to publish it, I said I didn't want to just publish the bowling alley, so I just whipped up the puzzle room that night.

Anyway, I talk too much, I'm going to do yours now. =)

Thanks so much for the very informative comments! I especially appreciate the video of your blind run. It gives me a lot of perspective on what potentially goes on through the minds/eyes of those playing my maps, and it's also quite fun to watch others play my creations. The length of your videos makes me worry that perhaps my two maps are indeed too complicated.

I wasn't even sure what you meant about the placement of the relay until I personally watched you fall on the cube multiple times. I hadn't even thought of that being a possibility, because during my own runs I had just gone off the side, as you had done in your final "plummets."