This one was really good in my opinion. The puzzle with the connect button was extremely confusing though, and I couldn't tell what the idea behind it was. Were the sounds supposed to spatially indicate which buttons to press? If so, I couldn't really figure out which sound corresponded to which button because it seemed like the sounds were all coming from roughly the same place. Was the tone supposed to indicate which button to press? I think it would've been helpful to have the buttons play a sound when you press them. One thing about that puzzle that I really appreciated was it seemed like there was an invisible entity moving around and making subtle growling sounds while I was trying to figure it out, which totally distracted me from it. That was a very nice touch.

-The third battery was impossible to get. I tried everything to activate the "connect" button, and pressing the buttons didn't work, I even tried using debris to connect the 2 points on the nearby table thinking it might be a circuit. This puzzle is extremely obtuse and needs better guidance.
-How the hell are you meant to get across the chasm for the fourth battery without a long jump module?
-The puzzle you solve to get the fourth battery does not need to be timed. That just makes it horribly frustrating.

A unique and interesting idea, but horrendous execution i'm afraid. I hope you continue working on this map and improve the playability.

A few tips for this one.

- It might be better to start the player with the HEV suit, it's too easy to miss
- The numbered laser puzzle is annoying. The green indicator lights need to be outside the dome, not in it. Where they are it is not obvious that you have to press them in sequence to activate the laser unless you happen to go back into the dome between each press

(going to have to 2 part this thanks to Steam's 1K character limit, sorry)

Man. I found my way through the vent in the dark, found how to put the first blue 'battery' or whatever it was in the first socket, then got completely stuck when going to the basement.
Gave up and came here to write a review after , found out there was a HEV suit somewhere (What? How can the rest of the level be accessible without it?) - went back to the game a second time to pick it up and try again - got stuck again at the laser room and the room with the boxes. Gave up again.

As a general rule of thumb; if your map has an HEV suit to pick up, it should not be so easily skippable, or even optional in the first place.

Did nobody really find the HEV suit at the start of the map? Or was that added later

Great Attempt however not very enjoyable.

First, you could have given the player a hev suit and more shortcuts to the control room.
Tedious walking and putting every blue canister one by one so more paths and backtracking happens is very poor taste :(

Putting the player without a suit or flashlight in a vent is not very fun, had to fullbright that part.
First puzzle was not very obvious that the lasers have to be pressed in an ascending order.
Second puzzle with the pitch black tv screen collecting was miserable combined with the absence of a suit, fullbright that part also
The try-fail puzzle of having to find the right sequence to get the third canister is pretty frustrating, if you give the player hints or pointers somewhere in the map it would be much better.
Solution was: 4-1-2-4 i think.
The last puzzle is timed and also very difficult to execute without sprinting, could have left the timed part out of it altogether.

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

Unfortunately I couldn't beat this one, I had to give up VERY early on.

I think it was poor form to force the player to crawl through a completely pitch black vent without a suit/flashlight. It was completely impossible and I had to cheat my way out of it, because I literally couldn't see ANYTHING. I don't know if this ended up bugging the next section somehow, but I then got locked in a room with a button I could repeatedly press to toggle the door for the tram, but no way of doing anything further. It was then that I gave up!

So if I had 2 suggestions it would be 1) playtest! And 2) try and fill in spaces more? The rooms were extremely barren and lifeless. The rooms were just empty, large rooms with no purpose or design to them.

i would not mind playtesting also i may have skipped a part by jumping on the rails and going to another place. where there appears to be a repair dock for train cart.

Thanks for the feed back, it helps me see where i've gone wrong and what i need to work on to be a better mapper.

I enjoyed participating, i hope to join in on future events if/when they come around :)

(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: A reasonably simple map that, either due to insufficient telegraphing or broken map logic, unfortunately I could not finish. The visuals in this map are pretty basic, though the outside portion is decent enough, but there's no gameplay to speak of here and the eerie atmosphere is only achieved due to the lack of life throughout the level. The idea of grabbing power cores to evacuate in what I assume is a post-Portal Storm kind of level is interesting, but the puzzles are really obtuse and no matter what I did, none of them seemed to do anything beyond getting the first power core. I'd probably suggest you get someone to playtest in future to see if you can tighten things up - this unfortunately isn't cutting it.