The [Revised] version of this level is here: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2421481707 Don't play this old one.

[h1]!!! WARNING: READ THIS BEFORE PLAYING !!![/h1] Taking into account the criticism received and expressed in the comments below, I'll work on a better, revised version of this level and will post the link to that new version (when it's uploaded) here so that people can be redirected towards it. I might even have to remove this current version after a short while to avoid confusion. In the meantime, feel free to play this version if you're ready to potentially experience some frustration but you might as well just wait for the newer version which shouldn't take too long to arrive (I'll do my best to achieve that).

But I'll work on that too. Finally, thanks a lot for your compliments and encouragements and taking time for the screensots. Also, your comment about how you enjoyed my signs means the world to me as that's the part I enjoyed the most in designing the level. ^^

[3/3]

About the stairs, that's precisely to make people understand it's there that it's where I placed the camera (and the pun is to indicate, while in-game, to look slightly up). Happy to learn that, despite that, you were still surprised. ;-)

About OOB, I was initally not planning any OOB but a minute before posting the level, I realised it was possible to go OOB (and not even with grabbing any object - I'm realising just now I never thought about using an object to OOB when "prooftesting" my level just before release) and thought, what the heck, I'll reward/punish those who will venture there hehe (but that was thinking all the rest of the level would be clear enough to avoid players having to resort to try OOB.

[2/3]

SeaBass, thank you for your constructive criticism as well and, of course, for having played my first level. Though you seem to have enjoyed your play significantly more than Furdabip did, I'm not blind to the fact you've experienced the same frustrating moments and be certain I'm planning to fix that asap. About the cheese going between the anti-object walls, that's entirely because I didn't know this object from the editor didn't include the casing for the windows. I was gobsmacked when I saw on Furdabip video how the casings were non-existent. I'll fix that, of course. About climbing onto the blocks, I'm also very surprised as I did try from different angles myself during the construction to make sure it was impossible... but failed, apparently as it turns out to be possible. But the solution will be easy: just raise the blocks even more and that should do the trick.

[1/3]

Furdabip, I replied in the comments section on YT. Thanks again for your time and for allowing me to pinpoint exactly what needs to be changed.

Here's a description of stuff as I play through the level to help better explain what I'm talking about; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrgWpBZamlU

Other than that, two bugs I encountered were smuggling cheese between the anti-object walls [imgur.com] and getting stuck when climbing on top of the center blocks in the cheese-search room [imgur.com].

But it's an overall good map! Most issues didn't affect my enjoyment and I was able to look past them. Hope to see more maps from you!

(4/4. thanks for reading!)

6.) Ease of getting OOB. I understand it's a fun gimmick and it's fun to add little easter eggs outside, but the lack of direction and encouragement to go OOB made me think it was the right way to go, only to be softlocked and have to restart the map. My recommendation would be to add the hints Furdabip or I suggested and/or make OOB less punishing (for example, instead of falling all the way to the floor after climbing the map border, add a platform to land on so that you can just jump back in-bounds after exploring.

7.) I'm a sucker for signs that talk to me in a map and you did those well! Kept me smiling and excited to read the next one.

(3/4)

4.) I also really enjoyed the "dysfunctional" room! It was so fun to look through, and the "dysfunctional corridor" at the end made me lose it. A wonderful easter egg and treat (though it wasn't hard to find).

5.) I really enjoyed the ending sign that pops up when you put the chess piece on the final button. But I was also clueless as to where to go next. I agree with Furdabip on adding some sort of hint as to where to go next. I only figured it out when a black board popped up with the sign (which didn't consistently happen every try) and remembered the blocked doorway in the second room. But my first thought was that I had to go down the chute the sign popped out of, but that was just OOB, which leads me to my last criticism:

(2/4)

Had a lot of fun playing your level! Here are my thoughts:

1.) The pallet mountain climb was a little odd. Made me think that I needed to find the stairs first and use them.

2.) The button to put the chess piece on to open the little door is completely hidden without cheesing your way up (which I did with the chess piece). I personally would add some sort of indicator that a button is there, as I'm wary of putting grabbable objects in places I might not be able to grab from again.

3.) Absolutely LOVED the stairs behind the little door gimmick. When I first saw the door it was so small I quickly overlooked it as mere decoration. When it opened up I was like "huh??? how is that supposed to help?". But then if you look inside just right you can find the stairs...ugh, love that. Favorite trick of the map.

(1/4)

Conclusion: I gratefully accept your comments but prefer waiting for maybe one or two similar complains before changing anything to the level as it is now. If you happen to be willing to try again the level now that I told you how it was supposed to be beaten, I would be very grateful as that would be the only way to confirm (or disconfirm) my hypothesis about why the 3) didn't work at all. And, if, during your playthrough, you didn't find the dysfunctional room or even the super secret OOB message and how to reach it legitimately , that might be the right time to go search for them. ;-)

4) The absence of final indication: I thought that seeing from where the aforedmentioned mechanism came from would be enough for the player to visualise it corresponded to the starting area. If not the case, the level is not big at all to go through entirely to see what changed. But I understand that, as the mechanism didn't work for you, you literally had no clue at all.

1- No offense but are you sure you hit "Play" to play the level? Because if you don't, things will of course not work properly.

2- The level didn't load properly. In which case, just re-starting it should solve the problem. It happened to me once or twice during the construction phase, for some reason, the mechanism didn't work and, after a restart of the dream, worked like a charm.

3- When placing the cheese (instead of the pawn but that can't be the reason it didn't work) on the final button, it might have fallen from too high and bounced a bit on reaching the button, changing the normal pace at which the door should open and blocking the intended mechanism. Or maybe the cheese was too big as compared to the size of the button and that had the same kind of effect on the mechanism (the cheese might have rocked back and forth a bit).

2. Can you venture to tell me what made you think the anti-objet windows were broken? And, above all, how you did manage to get passed through them with the cheese???

3. The ending: This one puzzles me the most. It perfectly works on my game, as much when I'm loading my level from the "Personal Collection" board as when I'm loading it from the "Workshop" board. I can only see three possible reasons it didn't work for you:

Hence the mechanic of turning left while jumping to go round the pallets and do that twice to reach the opened space on top of the highest tower, some action which, I thought, an observant player could want to do when noticing, from the far-right front tower, that the edge of the next tower to reach is visible and then, when noticing that, from there, below is a protruding area that they can reach with the same turning movement, and from there jump straight towards the open aperture; or an action I thought any player would eventually start doing to reach anything they could) . I made it clear at the end of that section (with the message on the sign) I was not sure if that would remain still too obvious or not. You told me your opinion about that. If more people think the same as you about that specific section, I'll have my answer.

1. The pallet room: to be honest, I didn't know if this part of the level would be felt as too hard or too easy, as I had no possibilty to experience it myself without knowing (in real dev teams, testers are there to adjust that kind of things but I don't have testers ready before the publication, sadly - nor after, besides players like you). I can argue the idea itself of a pallet room might not be the greatest one in terms of level design and might even be considered as somewhat cliché but, to comfort myself that this idea could positively work, I planned to make it less obvious than just a clearly visible high up entrance.

Hi! First of all, thank you very much for playing my level and for taking the time to leave your comment. I'm planning to make other levels (as I still have a few ideas in my head) so any constructive criticism like yours is very meaningful. I'm sorry your experience didn't quite reach my expactations for what players would feel playing it and I'm receiving with great bewilderment the news that one of the mechanics that works perfectly fine with me didn't work for you. If you don't mind, I'd like to reply to each of your concerns one by one in hope that, maybe, you will better sense I didn't disregard their conception at all, though I can admit I might have failed their making in some way:

I got frustrated and annoyed with the level design multiple times and there was no indication that the last button opened up the exit way back at the start of the level and I had to backtrack. That was the biggest problem. You need to tell the player, either blatantly or by subtle signposting where they need to go and what is expected of them. The pallet room needs to be redesigned to better show where the pawn is and the end button needs to tell the player to go back to the start.

[2/2]

I really wanted to like this map... but it was not fun. Everything was fine up until the pallet room. I could see the hole just fine but I couldn't fit in it through normal means, so assumed that wasn't where I should be going. I had to freecam the level to find that it was indeed where I was supposed to be going, and even then it was finicky to get into it and get the pawn.

I initially thought the anti-object walls were broken on purpose, so I brought the cheese with me (which is very much possible and easy to do) and used that to go where the green stairs are supposed to lead you. I then placed the cheese on the ending button and... nothing. I used the cheese to jump 'out of bounds' and into the congratulations sign chute too... I could see the goal flag but didn't know what was expected of me.

[1/2]