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The Box (out Now!)

Share great levels you've made or played.
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ThatOneFox
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The Box (out Now!)

Post by ThatOneFox »

Image

The box is a challenging puzzle, as each room will have no correlation to the last, and there will be very few hints suggesting how to solve each room. Some you may find easier than others, it depends on your mindset, but each puzzle will provide some sort of challenge.

So, set up a playlist of your favourite music, or load up a podcast, or just jump right in and enjoy whatever the box throws at you.

Good luck.
:skull: :bungee: Keith Keiser has a better ass than you :bungee: :skull:
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ElectroYoshi
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Post by ElectroYoshi »

Well, I couldn't figure out what the heck to do, I know that. xD

Looking forward to the finished product though.
I need a shot again, that sweet adrenaline.
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Post by Baufritz »

Man, I gotta design some box puzzles now. That is a nice concept, my friend.
If it's broken, fix it.
If it isn't broken, I'll soon fix that.
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ElectroYoshi
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Post by ElectroYoshi »

Just gonna say it...

WHAT DOES THE BOX SAY?!?!

The demo is kewl btw. :P
I need a shot again, that sweet adrenaline.
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ThatOneFox
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Post by ThatOneFox »

It says you should go back to 2013 where you belong.
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Entity
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Post by Entity »

StreetLights wrote:It says you should go back to 2013 where you belong.
^^ that's what it says
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Post by jhjoseph91 »

StreetLights wrote:It says you should go back to 2013 where you belong.
So much this.
i'm from another dimension!
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ThatOneFox
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Post by ThatOneFox »

The full level is now in the play browser! The final level features 6 puzzles, including a very challenging final puzzle.
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Phantomboy
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Post by Phantomboy »

Fantastic :) So, do I simply search for "The Box" and the full version will available?
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ThatOneFox
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Post by ThatOneFox »

It's probably the newest level on the playbrowser.
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Post by jhjoseph91 »

This is pretty exciting to hear. o3o
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papaya
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Post by papaya »

here let me review it

2 months. That's how long this level took to make. A 'puzzle' level, that alone should let you know that you're in for a wild ride. Atmosphir has always been about adventure and platforming levels, but the introduction of triggers made people suddenly think they could design complex puzzles up there with the most intellectually stimulating games ever made (bioshock infinite, pajama sam, call of duty, tha list goes on...). Of course, Atmosphir players and OMB users are not game designers. They don't understand the subtleties of game design. You don't have to be a game designer to understand it, of course, but it's very rare to see someone who demonstrates that they do.

So, here is a puzzle level. The game starts you off in a room. There's a box. That's it. Seriously. There's absolutely no indication of what to do. Do you have to push the box somewhere? Probably. Where? God knows. I, being a veteran designer, know how triggers work. With nothing else in the room, it's pretty obvious there's an area I have to enter to trigger an area trigger. So Ijump around. Nothing. It's worth reminding you that this is the first puzzle. After a minute of pushing the block around aimlessly, the door opens. What did I do? I have no idea. I didn't even notice it had opened at first. No noise to indicate HEY YOU JUST SOLVED THE PUZZLE.

So the next room has multi-coloured colour blocks (this is the future of gaming) and a repeated pattern in two separate areas. I'd left the box in the last room. Did I need it? No idea. After much jumping about and thwacking the bloody box, another box falls from the ceiling. Didn't know that was there. Why should I? Not like knowing there's a box in the ceiling would help me solve the puzzle to retrieve it. I'd just be jumping about trying to find out which block has been picked to be the trigger. I put the two blocks on the two red squares and the doors opened. Easy peasy.

Side note, when I replayed the level, I was able to open the door without even getting the second box. How, I have no idea. With the conditions for opening it being so unobvious, I assume I just managed to break the level.

Now, with puzzle games, one nice thing about them is the a-ha moment. You finally find the key. You finally work out the solution to the puzzle. It's satisfying. It's obvious what you were doing wrong, and you slap your forehead and go 'duh!'. This level has nothing like that. The past two rooms have just been 'push block until door opens'. Without even a hint, a block turned slightly to show you 'psst hey kid this is where the block goes' would be nice. But I didn't leave any of the puzzles feeling like I'd solved something. I'd smashed my head against a block until a door opened. I'm a rat in a cage (despite all my rage).

The third level, despite the claim that "woah none of the puzzles are linked" was, surprisingly enough, me trying to find the areas that triggered some blocks to make a staircase. I won't tell you which areas did it, because I have no idea which ones did. Was it obvious I had to do this? Had I not done the other puzzles, no. Having a puzzle level where every puzzle is different kinda defeats the object, doesn't it? Hell, that goes for any game. A game where you have a trick or technique thats useful for one whole stage and never again would be a pretty shit one. Despite streetlights' claims, tho, this does actually reuse the same puzzle gimmick three times in a row. So, good job there I guess?

The fourth stage had you rolling a football uphill. I literally shouted fuck you at the screen for this one. There is a very, VERY good reason as to why you rarely see puzzles involving pushing blocks around - It's because the physics sucks. It's atrocious. It doesn't even go into a goal. It just sits on a red square while the door opens, then pathetically respawns half a minute or so later. Thank you streetlights, for crushing this ball's dream of being kicked into a goal. Monster.

The final puzzle didn't even make sense. There's this giant block and these 8 moving platforms underneath it, and a coin worth nothing within jumping height. You like, jump into the coin and then eventually emeralds spawn and you get those and then I slipped off and the platforms formed a bridge. I got no fuckin clue how I solved it, and the info sticker (the only one in the level) giving the very helpful hint of 'You'll take a long time figuring this one out'. In actual fact I didn't even think at all. I just mindlessly collected this worthless coin like a hamster on a wheel, begging for more (I imagine street has thought about animals begging him for more quite a bit).

All in all, disappointing.
I can't even bring myself to give you points for creating an atmospheric feel to the level or making it look nice, unless you were going for the 'portal rip-off' look

0 stars

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ThatOneFox
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Post by ThatOneFox »

Disappointed. Not even a spoiler tag.
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papaya
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Post by papaya »

its not worthy of being spoiler tagged
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Post by jhjoseph91 »

papaya wrote:its not worthy of being spoiler tagged
Okay, you KNOW something fucked up if it isn't even worthy of a tag.
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ElectroYoshi
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Post by ElectroYoshi »

I liked it... >_>

You do get hints, is the thing. The hints in question are subtle, but they're there. I do think rooms 3 and 6 took it a little far, but time played a major role there (IE, the longer I stood around looking, the more I understood the hints).

Good work StreetLights!
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papaya
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Post by papaya »

please point out these hints to me
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Post by ElectroYoshi »

Gonna skip 3 and 6 (since, like I said, those didn't really have much in the way of hints)

(Spoilers ahead. If you have not played/beaten this level and aren't Papaya, I advise you just stop reading now)
Spoiler
Room 1: The way the ground is marked. The white portion forms a CIRCUIT. The box is a CIRCUIT board. See where I'm heading with this?

Room 2: Just like before, the way the ground is marked. Not to mention that one of these markings is directly below the compartment the box falls from. This (If my interpretation is correct) is an indicator that you have to stand on it for awhile, since there's not really much else you can possibly do.

Room 4: The way that one part of the ground is marked. It's basically the same as room 2, the only relevant difference is where the box is.

Room 5: This one doesn't really need explaining, as its pretty obvious, but the "ground marking" thing is still used here
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papaya
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Post by papaya »

Room 1: The way the ground is marked. The white portion forms a CIRCUIT. The box is a CIRCUIT board. See where I'm heading with this?
no actually
I thought street had just picked the ugliest possible texture for his box
Room 2: Just like before, the way the ground is marked. Not to mention that one of these markings is directly below the compartment the box falls from. This (If my interpretation is correct) is an indicator that you have to stand on it for awhile, since there's not really much else you can possibly do.
I beat the last stage by whacking a box around the room, so I'm gonna try that again. Standing still in a wide open room makes no sense. Also with no indicator that what you're doing is right, how am I supposed to figure it out? You have to wait WAY too long for the box to fall.
Room 4: The way that one part of the ground is marked. It's basically the same as room 2, the only relevant difference is where the box is.
had to play through the level again to remind myself what this one was. It was an incredibly frustrating 'puzzle' involving awful box physics. Not really a puzzle, since the solution (this time) is obvious.
Room 5: This one doesn't really need explaining, as its pretty obvious, but the "ground marking" thing is still used here
well yeah its fairly obvious you gotta take this ball up to a trigger after the last few stages. Doesn't stop it being a shitty puzzle
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Post by ThatOneFox »

papaya wrote:
had to play through the level again to remind myself what this one was. It was an incredibly frustrating 'puzzle' involving awful box physics. Not really a puzzle, since the solution (this time) is obvious.
Well you obviously didn't solve this one properly
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