The Sparring Continues...

Cruising Through

This week I reviewed another Portal level, one designed by James Simpson, a man with an unhealthy fascination for Cruise Missiles. When playing through the level, I noted James' design considerations, constantly questioning his reasons behind his choices in certain areas and why he thought it would be better to use one mechanic over another. On my first playthrough, I asked James about several elements that I didn't make use of at all, and some that I quite frankly forgot about by the time I solved the puzzle. He gave me a short and simple answer, "There are many different ways of solving the puzzle, what did you do?" This fascinated me and got me started on all the various paths that were potentially possible in his level design. I found one, there are maybe 3 or 4 more ways to figure it out.

This blog is going to breakdown James' level and might even help you solve it, but was primarily intended to give you an understanding of the design elements in play here and the potential for greatness to be harnessed. To understand what I'm talking about here, it's probably best to check out the level itself, play "Cruising Through" here. 

All systems engaged

Walking into the level, your attention is immediately drawn towards the lazer beaming from the wall and the pedestal button standing right beside it. I didn't find myself wondering "What does this button do?" so I assumed that wasn't what I was supposed to be asking. No, the real question was how to portal the beam over to the flipped panel in order to guide it to its receptor? As many people do, I looked to the sky for the answers and was pleasantly surprised when I saw an angled portable panel guiding my line of sight to exactly where the beam was hitting a blank wall. There were no signs or antlines surrounding the wall (which was not portalable) so I assumed that I had to portal something from another area in the level over to the current room through the panel on the ceiling. My first thought was a reflector-cube. 

The other side was clearly blocked off by two light bridges which I assumed were needed to solve the puzzle, but they weren't ending in portalable surfaces so I wasn't sure what the plan was for them. Turns out their just gates and are used for exactly what it looks like, to restrict access to the next part of the level. The player isn't naturally inclined to think of light bridges in this manner so maybe James was planning to confuse the player. Still, I think he could've done without these and placed a lazer wall there instead. This is more in tune with what the player knows to be restrictive as attempting to get through a lazer wall will kill you. Turning to the left I noticed the only place I wasn't restricted from entering so I moved forth figuring that I would find an answer to my ceiling panel conundrum. In a room connecting two, I looked up to find a gel dropper of some sort that seemed to be dried up. Activating it was probably the objective here.

Houston, we have a problem

As I walked through the winding tunnel, I noticed a drop to a level below. I jumped down but realized that it didn't lead anywhere it was a simple passage used to get back up to the main floor should the player fall down there at some point. I immediately knew that this could have been avoided altogether if this was its only purpose. 

My first reaction when stepping into the room was relief in knowing that whatever this puzzle was, it was contained and didn't carry on into another room. My immediate feeling right after this was one of overwhelming uncertainty on how to figure out this puzzle. James did a great job of focusing the player's attention on what needs to be done here - the button in the middle must be depressed. Unfortunately, the sheer number of elements in the surrounding environment intimidated me and made me feel unsure about how to work this out. There was a sphere dropper, an excursion funnel, blue and clear gel on either sides and pedestal buttons - one reversed the polarity of the funnel while the other dropped a new sphere.

My immediate reaction was to find a way inside the box because the button had to be pressed. I used a momentum jump to get in but then realized that I was stuck and couldn't get out without restarting the level. What made it worse was that there was no way of knowing what the button did due to the lack of indication. I feel like the box should have been designed to allow people to get out when testing showed that individuals were inclined to get stuck inside on their first attempt at the puzzle. The emptiness below certainly helped accentuate the button in the overall design of the room but made it an annoyance to drop down and traverse the small passageway every time I fell down there (which was quite often) when trying to figure out how to solve the puzzle.

Getting out of the passage way below.

I know what I'll do, I'll jump in!

Well, I had a good run.

It soon became monotonous trying to figure out how to solve the puzzle, especially when simply getting a portal onto the surface where the gel was falling or the funnel was ending became a test in how fast I could aim and shoot. Eventually I got a portal where I needed it (under the blue gel) and then began spraying the stuff everywhere because I had no idea where it was supposed to go. This is where the mechanics of using gel in you level becomes very tricky. In the the Portal 2 campaign, gel is meant to be an "experimental" element and is used in very controlled environments. Personally, I don't like using gel unless it's very clear as to where it's supposed to go. This is the caveat of using gel in your portal level - don't give your player the freedom to do what he wants with it (especially if it's portal gel). As players, we need to be told that there's a definite solution here and that there's one way to solve the puzzle. Of course, not all of us are like this and often people enjoy the challenge of figuring a way out on their own that breaks the game and gets them where they need to be faster than expected. But in a level where so much freedom is given to the player, any kind of gel means absolute chaos, usually when the player has no idea where it's supposed to go. 

After traversing countless Portal levels where sphere cubes were being used for the specific purpose of being fit into sphere-buttons, I was at once looking for a button to place the sphere and had no idea why there was an emancipation grid placed under the dropper when I could very easily catch the sphere with my Portal Gun before it hit the grid. It took me a bit to realize that the sphere was the only cube present for the button in the middle of the room. So, clearly, that's how it needed to be used. At this point, there were several different methods of getting the cube in there. I was NOT going to risk another momentum jump to get it inside the glass prison. Since I took the liberty of spilling blue gel all over the place, I figured I'd use it to my advantage. I jumped up, dropped the cube in and bailed before I got stuck in the glass prison as well. Still no idea what the button did. Returning to the main room in search of what changed in the level, I came back across the dried up gel dropper, only this time it was spewing portal gel...oh no.

Portal gel quite literally means that your possibilities are limitless and that there is now a makeshift way to solve the level. But I chose to go with my better judgement in attempting to understand how the gel was meant to be used. It didn't take long to figure out that the gel would be reflected off the ceiling panel, allowing me to portal the beam in the original room to its receptor. So I got the gel to where it needed to be, reflected the beam and got through the light bridges ready for where the level would take me next. 

 Reflecting the beam and solving the first part of the puzzle.

Nothing's getting through THAT grid!

I love jump pads - no control, just airtime. 

Up, up and away!

Getting into the next room all I could see was swamp water and a huge ditch with a portalable tile on the bottom. Clearly momentum was required. Looking to the skies once more revealed rising platforms held up by...well, they really didn't seem to be held up by anything. 

I knew I had to launch myself up and in doing so the way out was revealed. The basic premise of this puzzle was for me to maintain my momentum while ascending the platforms, a really great mechanic that I haven't seen done before. Shooting out portals from the height of every jump and bouncing from one platform to the next eventually got me to the top where the exit was waiting. Short and sweet.

Mission accomplished!

Review, remarks and suggestions

Overall, "Cruising Through" was a fascinating level which had it's "ups and downs". I thought that most of the mechanics were used well and that there was solid contrast between the light and dark areas of the level (portalable and non-portalable surfaces) with an even balance struck between both. James did a great job of highlighting certain parts of the level like the light bridges that blocked your progression forward which were outlined by the light of the observation room turning on as soon as you enter. The entire level is placed in controlled areas which limit the player's movement in a good way. The change of pace from one area to another was refreshing, avoiding boring and repetitive design. The button in the middle of the puzzle room was portrayed well as a strong center, immediately directing the player's attention to what needed to be done in order to solve the puzzle. 

Now let's move on to some remarks and suggestions. 

One of the most important design considerations that wasn't very welcoming was the amount of freedom given to the player as soon as they come across the first puzzle. There should have been a limit to the number of ways in which a player was allowed to solve the puzzle because with all the possibilities available the objective was fogged and the sphere dropper might as well have been another possible alternative and not the primary means to the goal. Since all the elements were spaced out in each corner, the natural line-of-thought for the player is that all elements are equally important and that there has to be some connection among them. Instead, two elements could be used for the purpose of solving the puzzle (blue gel and excursion funnel), one is key to figuring it out (sphere) and one is just there in case you make a mistake (clear gel). The button that reverses the polarity of the funnel could have been discarded just as the emancipation grid below the sphere dropper and the clear gel used to clean the sphere. If the player were to use funnel, the placement of the white tiles make it possible to only need a single polarity, the placement of the dropper makes it possible to grab the sphere before it dissipates and a sphere covered in blue gel may simply be re-spawned, thereby eliminating the need for the clear gel. I think it would've been best to solely focus on a single mechanic being used to solve the puzzle or making use of multiple mechanics in succession to get the sphere to the button. 

I also think that James should have chosen a cube instead of a sphere. A cube not only has "good shape" but is intuitively connected to weighting down a button. Besides this, a way to get out of the glass prison would be a welcome addition, as would the negation of the lower level. The light bridges being used to block off the second part of the level should be replaced with a lazer barrier because the bridges can be misleading and had me thinking that they would be required later in the level at some point. The use of portal gel is very dangerous to me and is something that needs a completely open playground closed off from the rest of the level to truly experience its potential. But James did a good job of controlling its use. He made sure that it was only available towards the end of the first puzzle where it didn't really matter how the player used it as long he got to the other side of the barrier. In fact, it seemed to take longer using the gel to somehow portal over to the other side of the light bridges than to simply use it as was intended. 

Looking at James' level overall, a couple of suggestions would be to use some sort of level of scale just as far as the difficulty and intensity of the level goes  (the second puzzle seemed a lot easier than the first). Strong centers were used well and boundaries were clearly defined though occasionally confusing (light bridges, rising platforms in terms of where to go). The use of AND and OR gates would have also been nice as would simplicity in limiting possibilities and not-separatedness in feeling that the level comes together and not like the player has to progress from the start to the end, one room at a time. I found my goal constantly changing throughout, from pressing the button to re-directing the lazer to ascending the platforms. Keeping the player's objective consistent would have definitely been considered a merit in this situation.

I really enjoyed James' level from a player's point of view but didn't agree with all of his choices from a level designer's perspective. Either ways, there's no denying that he brought something new and unique to the table and managed to accomplish what he had set out to do. 

Cruising Through