map lb_comp3_limbo

Gonna be real, the map isn't that great. It looks nice don't get me wrong, but the map design is confusing and I almost gave up after wandering around pointlessly for an answer. All that for a lackluster ending.

Honestly, the atmosphere of the courtyard was excellent, but after that it was a downhill experience for me. I honestly didn't know if breaking the wall with a chunk of brick was the right thing to do, and then I got stuck on all the physbox wall chunks and had to noclip inside to get the wheel.

The darkness on the map made it very hard to see what I was doing and, after getting the valve and entering the room it opened, I gave up after getting killed because I couldn't figure out what to do next.

Giving the player at least some hints about what to do would be a good change. I'd also go ahead and brighten the map up some, or give the player a flashlight. Again, visuals are a 10/10, gameplay is like a 3/10, which is an unfortunate trend for psychological horror Source maps.

@UndeadShadow64 Thanks for playing! I realized you missed a creepy event that happens after you use the crank wheel ;)

Just made and uploaded a video on your map for Halloween: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1LtJvTSTuc

@Whibbles There are 2 crates and a barrel laying on the floor in that room, if you pick them up and stack them over the broken fence you can jump out. I understand that the puzzle isn't very intuitive, I will be improving and expanding the map in the future. Thank you for playing!

Not sure what to do at the slowly-damaging room with the eye in the grunt... so dark and couldn't tell what I had to do there, so I dropped out. Atmosphere and sounds are very interesting, puzzles are not very obvious... (which can be a good thing, in some cases, but this one really has me scratching my head.)

@Lithium

I appreciate the feedback, I have taken these points into account and will update the map with new content in the near future. Thanks for playing and for taking the time to give your input!

Very talented creator here - the textures, lights and ambience in general was 10/10. Really good work in my opinion.
However, I did not enjoy the map. First, it was way too dark - I couldn't see anything and it was very frustrating. Second, it was unclear that the brick wall had to be broken by throwing an item on it. I found this solution on the comments below and even there, the guy asks if it was the right way to do it. I wonder as well. Third, there was multiple items that just created confusion such as the dark hole that kills you if you jump in it, and the fire lamp that kills you if you touch it, etc.
Creating a map with this texture/design creator skills but with better puzzle / story around it would result in an amazing map.

(I'm Chon, Lead Level Designer at Crowbar Collective and a judge for the competition!)

I enjoyed this entry! It was cool to see a really interesting theme with some slightly more wild ideas in play. I think you really nailed the visual style of the map and some of the weirdness you were going for.

The map was a little short and slightly lacking in substance, however. I also really didn't enjoy the very first puzzle with having to break the boards/wall with physics objects, it took me too long to figure it out and when I did, it didn't feel rewarding. I would've preferred just finding a Crowbar in the BSOD room, or something like that. And then using that. It also would've given those rooms a bit more of a purpose, other than the scary shadow in there.

Overall, a good effort! I have nothing else really to add other than I would've liked more!

@Kralich Thank you very much for the feedback, I'm really happy you enjoyed the style and ambience! I agree completely with everything you have pointed out, I was stuck for a long time trying to figure out exactly what happened with the quicksaving bug and unfortunately couldn't find a proper solution to it besides deleting that section of the puzzle all together (which I really didn't want to do). To this day I'm still scratching my head, I've been mapping for awhile and never encountered something like this.

Nonetheless, I had a good time designing my entry and I'm happy people could still get a kick out of it!

(Hey there - I'm Kralich, the organisation lead for this competition. I'll be leaving a little paragraph on each entry with my notes and opinion in lieu of posting on Discord given the nature of this competition.)

JUDGE'S NOTES: Limbo was a great atmospheric entry, on the shorter side (and we wanted slightly longer entries for this competition) but with a great style that I really enjoyed. This entry would have scored better but the progression bug with saving was pretty dire, especially as you can both a. die in this map and b. make progression more irritating if you accidentally throw your chosen physics battering ram through the brick wall before you've broken enough - both scenarios totally fine if you can save and load, but frustrating if it means restarting the map. Once you realised this bug was here, I think it should have been priority one to fix, assuming it didn't crop up after submission. A good entry all round besides this bug.

@Roboman I'm glad you enjoyed it! I do understand that the darkness might be overwhelming at times but that was intentional indeed. I wanted to make the player feel like they were in an actual nightmare - and like in most nightmares, you can barely make out or even remember the environments you are in or their details when you wake up.

Regarding the wheel, that's how you're supposed to get it, the bricks work the best for that section but you can pretty much use any physics object that looks heavy enough. I did have some worry that players would be confused because in general there's always a crowbar or some grenades around to blow things up - I wanted to make things play differently in this map.

Pretty good, but it's a bit too dark for my tastes. I understand that was the intention, but I was unable to almost anything, Although the important items were visible at least.

One thing I'm unsure of is how you're supposed to get the crank wheel. I got to it by throwing physics objects at the wall until it broke , but can't tell if that was an oversight or the intended solution.

Short but sweet and has great atmosphere, good map

Reminds me of the early silent hills.
Big recommend.