Deception LLC Thread - Beret

Well, here we are. I've published a new level set for Beret, entitled "Deception LLC". It's now available here:

Indiedb.com

It's obviously not as grandiose as the main game, but I think the puzzles I've made here are interesting and would serve as a good distraction from the Evil Corporation's first and second wings. There are three levels:

The first level, "Department of Public Relations, Lobbying Division" is pretty much just a warm-up with the elements introduced in the first four levels, but it might have some surprises for anyone who makes the mistake of thinking it's a tutorial level.

The second level, "Department of Manipulation, Coercement Division" is a bit tougher, still only uses the elements introduced in the first wing, and will require some "Ah-ha!" moments, but shouldn't be too tough.

The third level, "Department of Security, Irreversibility Division" borrows an element from the last two levels of the third wing, and has some tougher puzzles yet, but I think it should still be reasonable.

I've playtested these levels a whole lot, and did a complete run of them from start to finish, getting all 18 medallions, before I uploaded the level set to the forums. I think there should be some good challenges in here, and while I don't think I'll stump anyone for too long, you can feel free to ask me (or anyone else) for hints in this thread too.

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So, let me know what you guys think! We're advancing the art of Beret architecture here, and I figure we have to start somewhere. Let me know what you thought was awesome, and what you think could use improvement.

Edited by: Leylite

You've just made my day, by the way. (Which is good because I'm still at work at 8:00 PM and needed some day-making.) Those level names are awesome. I'm looking forward to playing through these and I'll definitely let you know my thoughts when I finish.

(About 4 hours later...)

Fantastic! These are quite excellently made! I just finished getting all 18 medallions, and there sure are some tricky puzzles in the Department of Security. It's a very odd experience being on the player's side of a Beret level, and I love how you used the basic elements (a subset of the elements at that!) in very original ways - it's definitely apparent that these levels are from a new architect, but at the same time they fit in nicely with the base game. It's the same from a stylistic perspective - your levels take the design aspects from the base game of having crazy patterns and random objects embedded in the walls and run with it in a pretty different direction. It's a very nice touch.

I can't decide whether the Department of Manipulation or the Department of Security is my favorite; the Department of Security probably has my two favorite puzzles in it, but the Department of Manipulation has some very clever stuff with link blocks that I really enjoyed.

Here's some more specific commentary about the levels that I'm putting in spoiler tags so I don't ruin anyone's experience:

Department of Public Relations, Lobbying Division

- The entrance areas to the department are a nice touch.
- I typically tried to avoid leaving the top of rooms open for indoor sections. It just looks a bit off to me and makes me think there's something up there. That's a super minor style thing, though, and possibly just a personal preference.
- The red herring block pit in the first room with telekinesis blocks was pretty funny.
- In the room with a bunch of teleseekers and one of the orange pieces, I didn't use the telekinesis blocks you provided to kill the teleseekers at all. It was easier to just set up the spikeball to hit the switch repeatedly and hold them in the switch blocks. The positioning of teleseekers in this room was pretty nasty though.
- The second to last room was pretty sneaky - the red herring block stack is very nicely done.

Department of Manipulation, Coercement Division

- You have some interesting link block contraptions in the first few rooms. That one-way link block idea could probably be used in some really nasty puzzles.
- The robot killing section in the third room is really clever.
- Is the intended solution for the orange piece in the room with the super robot with the link block attached to it just to use the spikeball and the ice block to get up? It seems like it might be possible to throw the robot and get the super robot to turn around, and you have a space to hold the super robot too... either I'm missing something, I just failed to execute it properly, or the super robot is a really clever red herring.
- Flying lessons from Mr. Link Block are always fun.
- Your weaponization of telekinesis blocks in the white medallion room is pretty awesome.
- The final orange piece in the large room was a pretty tricky puzzle, especially the last out-of-the-box-ish step to setting up the constant switch pressing. It was a little finicky to get the robot around the area with the spikes though. Some more transparency might help that area unless there was something easier that I was missing.

Department of Security, Irreversibility Divison

- I like the separate paths idea you had going in the first few rooms. The outright destruction of blue fragments if you took the easier path was pretty funny.
- That white medallion puzzle was just awesomely convoluted. So many things to keep in order and get just right!
- The whole multiple-switch-pressing room was very nicely done. Lots of cool ideas here.
- Nice usage of the current weird linked platform behavior in the last room. I'm a little surprised you used it though, since I'll probably be changing it to the more intuitive behavior.

This is an excellent first set of player-created levels - you certainly set the bar high!

Actually, I believe I set up the exit room in level 3 so that it should work regardless of whether or not the bug has been fixed with the linked platform behavior - once the bug is fixed, the platform should just end up two squares to the left of where it is now, but the jumps are still possible and the room is hardly changed at all.

I'll come up with a more detailed response to the response later.

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QUICK NOTICE (NOV. 18, 2011) :

I just played through the Level 3 exit room again in the 1.2.0 patch to see what happened. As it stands, the room is unsolvable and the exit is unreachable, since now the green blocks don't come down as far as they used to.

Unfortunately I'm quite busy at the moment, but I should be able to sneak in an update sometime over the next week that should fix this. I don't know yet how exactly finagle it so the puzzle works exactly the same in both 1.2.0 and 1.1.99999, so assume that I will fix it in such a way that it is guaranteed to work in 1.2.0, but not necessarily guaranteed to work in 1.1.99999.

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Right now, the puzzles I have for level 4 (which involve force fields!) aren't dependent on any 1.2.0 behavior, but I may end up taking advantage of the new behaviors as soon as I think of some new puzzles. So be forewarned!

If I end up releasing new levels that do depend on 1.2.0 behavior, however, I will be sure to clearly advertise this fact both in the level posting and in the level set readme file.

QUICK NOTICE (DEC. 3, 2011) :

Deception LLC has been updated to version 0.1.1! The fixes are detailed in the changelog, but the most important fix is that the level 3 exit room does work properly in Beret 1.2.0 now.

Edited by: Leylite

In case anyone else wonders, the correct link is here

Edited by: mizerydearia

Thanks, I've fixed the link in the topic header.

If anyone else has any commentary about the puzzles, I would really appreciate it! I've said it in about five different locations, but I find it helpful to have some reactions to look back at when designing new puzzles, and besides, I enjoy reading people's reactions.

Using a python script I wrote and issuing the following command:

./level2png.py l80r0.room --noberet l80r1.room l80r2.room l80r3.room l80r4.room l80r5.room l80r6.room l80r7.room l80r8.room --beret l81r0.room --noberet l81r1.room l81r2.room l81r3.room l81r4.room l81r5.room l81r6.room --beret l82r0.room --noberet l82r1.room l82r2.room l82r3.room l82r4.room l82r5.room l82r6.room l82r7.room

here are some images:

Edited by: mizerydearia