Steam Community Design Challange!

slayer20

<div class="IPBDescription">Balance theme!</div>Hello UWE dudes and girls! I have posted a contest over at the Steam Community forums for a level design challenge. Please be sure to check it out and give it a try! If you have any questions, please post them in the link that is given at the bottom of this post.

Thank you!

<a href="http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=865946" target="_blank">Link to thread.</a>

Crispy

"Challenge" with an 'e'; "partake" isn't hyphenated.

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Simple. Just design a level based around the theme Balance. All you have to do is come up with the hardest puzzle you can think of and create it in Valve's Hammer Editor. You don't have to be an expert to enter this contest, so don't be afraid to join!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->So the winner of the contest is the one who makes the hardest puzzle as decided by you, or the one that best fits the title 'Balance' as decided by you?

I would suggest you limit the size of entries or you are going to have trouble judging them. Restrictions are generally a good thing in challenges because they both level the playing field while also forcing entrants into overcoming their constraints.

On another note, your deadline of 'the end of June 20th' happens to recur across multiple timezones. You may want to be more specific.

slayer20

Thanks for the reply!

The winner is decided by who makes the hardest puzzle and overall design of the level. So far, it's me and Tony Sergi (valve employee) that are judging these maps.

I don't think limiting the size of entries should really matter, since I don't expect there to be tons of entries either.

And I'll update the deadline to my time of June 20th.

TychoCelchuuu

Is "the hardest puzzle" really a good way to go about it? I mean, I could make a puzzle that requires you to memorize a 2 minute long series of flashes and beeps and then compare this to arrangement of elements you get if you look at the bottom half of the periodic table upside down in a mirror, which would probably be the hardest puzzle, but it doesn't seem like I should win because of that.

slayer20

I'd be surprised if you could even pull something like that off...

But you see, this contest has to do with a certain theme, so you can't really make some complicated puzzle like that up without including the theme somewhere in it.

TychoCelchuuu

To solve that puzzle, you first must solve a VERY SIMPLE puzzle on the other side of the room. You see, it is ridiculously unBALANCEd.

slayer20

Um...are you guys getting the right idea of Balance?

The balance I'm talking about is like a balance board...you know in Half-Life 2 when you are running through the sewers and everything, then you come to this one room where you have to stack cinderblocks on one end of a board to raise the other end? That's what I'm talking about.

lolfighter

Don't confuse "us guys" with Tycho. Ever since Depot disappeared, he has been our resident grumpy old man. You'll get used to him.

spellman23

nooooooes! The grumpy old men are coming for meeeeeee!

TychoCelchuuu

As the resident grumpy old man at the ripe old age of 19, I guess I'll have to be the first person in the world to tell you that balance has multiple definitions and that you appear to have chosen one without telling anyone except yourself.

That said, the hardest puzzle I can think of relating to balance would require someone to balance a board using 65 out of 76 pieces, all of which weigh a different amount and none of which weigh an amount proportional to their size. Each piece has a paired piece which looks nothing like it, and every time you use both pieces on opposite sides of the balance board, they swap their weights. Finally, each piece weighs a different amount depending on how it is rotated, and there is only one correct sequence of rotations that will perfectly balance the board.

Under your "hardest puzzle you can think of" criterion, I'm pretty sure I'd have a good chance of winning, but I imagine you'd like to have a different outcome. Maybe you should change the rules so that difficulty isn't the only thing we're judged on.

slayer20

Good luck getting all that done! If you can actually manage to do that in the given time, I'll be impressed.

spellman23

<!--quoteo(post=1707328:date=May 21 2009, 01:10 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TychoCelchuuu @ May 21 2009, 01:10 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1707328"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As the resident grumpy old man at the ripe old age of 19...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

.....

Kid, you've got waaaay too much time on your hands.

locallyunscene

<!--quoteo(post=1707350:date=May 21 2009, 01:48 PM:name=spellman23)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (spellman23 @ May 21 2009, 01:48 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1707350"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->.....

Kid, you've got waaaay too much time on your hands.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hey at least he isn't out on the streets.

Crispy

<!--quoteo(post=1707298:date=May 21 2009, 03:48 AM:name=slayer20)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (slayer20 @ May 21 2009, 03:48 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1707298"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Um...are you guys getting the right idea of Balance?

The balance I'm talking about is like a balance board...you know in Half-Life 2 when you are running through the sewers and everything, then you come to this one room where you have to stack cinderblocks on one end of a board to raise the other end? That's what I'm talking about.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->As Tycho pointed out, when you set a theme for a competition you choose it carefully so it doesn't tie you down to one specific meaning. If you had wanted to be specific, you could have called it Equilibrium, but even then you'd end up with oddities. I thought Balance was a good theme simply because it encompasses such a broad spectrum.

Have fun spending all your waking hours waiting on downloads when 1,000 people enter averaging 10MB of custom models and textures each because of one guy who creates his own universe just for the competition.

slayer20

I highly doubt there's going to be 1000 entries, let alone more than half of them having custom models. It's just something for fun, not "Get first place and win a new car!"

Thaldarin

For once I agree with Tycho. Balance is defined by the interpretation, the design challenge of a balancing board is totally uninteresting to a mapper as there isn't an amazing amount of variation and difference. It's pretty boring.