Cool. What you studying?

Applied Physics in Delft.

To what end careerwise? I'm totally useless at all sciences, physics in particular. This is probably due to the educational dictatorship that my dad held me under, forcing ridiculously high level science down my throat. Upon reflection, the subject looks pretty interesting but I have no hope of catching up.  

I don't know yet. I don't like to plan that far ahead. In any case, I am going to follow a minor in Computer Science in my third year. That way I can follow a career in mathematics, physics, engineering, computer science or a combination of any of those.

Well, good luck with that; you're wisely keeping your options open. My strength is maths and my interest is computer science. In an ideal world, I'd be some kind of code monkey for a video game who works as part of a team. But the flow of life can move far off the track that you thought it would go. I might end up being a shelf-filler at Tescos. Or a goat-herder in Thailand. Who knows.

Perhaps Quirvy will help judge.

I doubt that. He says he cannot get far enough into caves/levels made by others to give them a fair rating.

1) Zichaci
2) Zero G III
3) Hatpc Hardcore
4) Triathlon
5) Critical Condition
6) Uprising

When I played Zero G III now, I thought "Oh man, there's no way the others can be worse than this. This just isn't enjoyable."

Well, neither were the others. The only cave I had fun playing was Zichaci.

We don't have to fill Jell's spot. We only have two things left: speed levels, and puzzle levels. both of which include caves that we have already judged so JUDGE NOW!!

and check the front page if you want to see the current rankings.

after we finish these two, it'll be time to decide the extra awards.

EPIC BUMP

I'll probably have the time for the Puzzle Category. I'll do that now.

Puzzle-themed levels:

Dissapointing there are only HatPC levels. Ah well.

Puzzle:
Holy cheatable cave Batman! You can use your invincibility to stop the arrows at the beginning. After that, it becomes a whole lot easier. There aren't really many places to go wrong here either. Most of the wrong arrows are pretty obvious you shouldn't touch them and the order doesn't really matter either. The only difficulty comes in the speed sections, not the puzzle part.

Legerity:
Is this a puzzle cave? It appears to be a hyper-linear cave with many speed elements to me. It could be that I haven't gotten far enough yet, but that is because this cave is bloody annoying to play with a keyboard where you can't press two arrows and jump at the same time.

Midnight IX:
Another Midnight. I know who gets the "least original" price.
The cave itself is just pure guessing. It is in most cases impossible to predict what will happen in the long run. And all the glitches he abuses here make it even more difficult to predict.
This cave isn't really as much a puzzle cave, as a guessing cave.

You Want the Candy:
I liked this one. It was pretty visible in most cases what would happen with each action you'd take. And the puzzle itself is still pretty tricky, yet the cave itself is easy enough to keep you playing.

1984:
Just like with YWTC, all the consequences of your actions are most of the time clearly visible in this cave. The cave itself is more difficult than YWTC and it is more linear.

The Hidden Path:
Either this cave requires a huge amount of luck, or it is very, very tedious. Either way, I don't like it.

My rating:
1. You Want the Candy
2. 1984
3. Midnight IX
4. Legerity (assuming it is a puzzle cave)
5. Puzzle
6. The Hidden Path

Huge rifts in quality between 1984 and Midnight and between Legerity and Puzzle.

Speed Caves:

Great Greens:
I could think of no possible way to get past the first trap.

Florida:
Most of the traps or of very high difficulty, but it is managable if you use checkpoints. I don't like the overuse of crawljumps, but other than that a solid cave.

Speed:
Many basic traps. Many traps where holding two buttons is enough to beat it. But he did use the fast boulder drop I used in Genesis, so he gets bonus points for that.

My Friend Boulder:
A roomy speed cave. Quite the opposite of Quirv's cramped speed cave.
This cave is quite easy, but you do have to keep on moving continuesly. That makes this level quite addicting.

Rocky Road:
Somewhat fun, but it isn't too special. You don't have to have fast reflexes for this either.

Queen of Spades:
WAY TO BIG! It is pretty discouraging to die from a random spike, only to see that massive, massive map again and realising you had barely started the cave. The traps themselves aren't really tightly timed. But because of the MASSIVE size of this cave, it is still very, very difficult.

Into the Jetstream:
This is a speed level? The goal is to slow down as much as possible to prevent the game from glitching up. It is really easy and really short too.

Rankings:
1. My Friend Boulder
2. Florida
3. Queen of Spades
4. Speed
5. Great Greens
6. Rocky Road
7. Into the Jetstream

It turns out I had some random uploader glitch with Great Greens, making that treasure not appear. I'm trying it again.

well, I just finished adding your results to the front page. I'll have to get to these soon. I'm not sure how much time I'll have this weekend.

...

OMG I forgot that I have a three-day weekend

Great Greens:
This level is just plain annoying. Spikes, secret areas and duck jumps everywhere. The only thing less fun than doing that same unoriginal "dodge the arrow in a cramped area" trap is doing that trap, with spikes all around, forcing you to do duck jumps or having those arrows shot at you in a way of two tiles high, forcing you to do duck jumps over them, and doing that several times in a row. And all that while constantly remaining on the look-out for secret areas, which are so inconveniently placed around the level and while doing accurate jumps out of crawlspaces.
The traps themselves are pretty badly timed. Some are very tight, while others leave you with oceans of time.
I'll move it to under Speed. As a speed level, it was still better than the FR levels. How those are speed levels, I don't know.

my results for speed levels:

my friend boulder - 7
queen of spades - 6
florida - 5
Into the jetstream - 4
great greens - 3
rocky road - 2
speed - 1

my friend boulder was the coolest speed cave in a long time. Queen of Spades was probably my favorite IO entry overall, but it just wasn't a true "speed cave", yet I couldn't resist putting it in 2nd place florida was a refreshingly simple speed cave with some interesting traps with some uniqueness. My Into the Jetstream was rushed and not as cool as it could've been but it was still cool Great greens wasn't all that bad. Rocky road was OK, and Speed wasn't too good.

my puzzle results:

1984 - 6
you want the candy - 5
midnight IX - 4
legerity - 3
puzzle - 2
the hidden path - 1

I enjoyed 1984 more than You Want the Candy, even though YWC was more revolutionary, I guess. After that, the next tough choice was between MIX and legerity. Both were very hard, but I guess MIX is slightly less intimidating. The last tough choice was between puzzle and hidden path-- which was worse? I actually liked Puzzle's look to it, but it just didn't seem to work. so I assumed it was impossible. If it was easier/more possible, then it would've scored higher.

now it's time for the easy stuff, so we should be blazing through this. but we will have to pick these through discussion, mainly, not by vote:

--------------------THE OTHER AWARDS--------------------

Overall Best Level:
undecided.

Most Creative Level:
undecided.

Most Enjoyable Level:
undecided.

Best Design:
undecided.


The following is a list of all of the levels (not videos) that were submitted to the IO: And b/c of the lack of decent FR2 entries, I'd like to suggest that Slackin in Free Rider 2 and Rocky Road replace Simple Start and Topsy Turvy in terms of getting awards in the Best FR2 levels category.

MOST ENJOYABLE LEVEL: You Want The Candy.
OVERALL BEST LEVEL: Queen Of Spades.
MOST CREATIVE LEVEL: Undecided.
BEST DESIGN: The 12 Waves.

My votes.

---

Puzzle caves:

1. You want the candy
2. 1984
3. Legerity
4. Midnight IX
5. Puzzle
6. The hidden path

---

Will judge speed levels soon.

MOST ENJOYABLE LEVEL: My Friend Boulder

OVERALL BEST LEVEL: Queen Of Spades, hands down

MOST CREATIVE LEVEL: not sure for this one, but some levels we may want to consider:
Compact V
Into the Jetstream (this isn't unintentional bias, is it? )
You Want the Candy (it's creative in that it's style is old school)

BEST DESIGN: not sure, but some possible ones:
The 12 Waves
HATPC Hardcore (I heard shos loved it; unless you want to say it's bad design for being evil)


something like that...

bump

Doing this fast -

My friend boulder - 7
Queen of spades - 6
Great greens - 5
Florida - 4
Into the jetstream - 3
Rocky road - 2
Speed - 1

There, all set and done. RELEASE!?

Oh no Isa! You caused a tie between Into the Jetstream and Great Greens. To break this tie as fast as possible I looked up how many times the judges have favored great greens over into the jetstream and vice versa:

great greens - 2
into the jetstream - 2

oh no! the tie still isn't broken!!! Even if we do a revote on solely these two levels, I have a feeling, the tie still won't be broken, unless jebby doesn't vote...

And looking at the old posts, holy cow jell, you sure were harsh on Into the Jetstream. You don't think it's a speed level? but look how fast you go....

Not yet, we need to figure out how we're gonna do awards. (oh and jebby still hasn't judged puzzle levels. should we spam his PM inbox?).

But remember my proposal? ???

Also, we need to come up with the other awards, so far we have:and

You don't need to do any fast thinking or have fast reflexes. The purpose of a speed level is that you must go as fast as possible to beat it. In Into the Jetstream, it is better to slow down as much as possible.

As you both have an agreement on the best Overall Level and Best Design, I'll only do the Most Enjoyable and the Most Creative.

Let's end this thing:

You Want The Candy - 6 points
1984 - 5 points
Midnight IX - 4 points
Legerity - 3 points
Puzzle - 2 points
The hidden path - 1 point

Although I thought my water tap red herring was cool, YWTC is just too well-balanced not to win. This part of the judging is over.