The forces of the planet roar to life.
One sleepless night now, ain’t it? With Risk of Rain 2 getting released a few hours ago and this contest ordeal being held, it is finally time to reveal who’ll be spending the next few hours playing Hopoo’s latest hit.
Straight to business, Puddin788’s “The Big Idea” is the winning submission!
This is the part where we fall into the more standard MotW formula, but hey, we gotta justify our choice.
To summarize, Puddin’s submission is a collection of trial-and-error-ish minigames with humorous remarks here and there and, even if the most frustrating, it is perhaps one of the better executed levels in terms of design and pacing, not to mention the obvious criteria – minigames being something out of the ordinary.
You’ll go through a mine-filled dropdown, a scavenger hunt and a trivia quiz, with questions of common knowledge and of concerning insight. I enjoyed it all the way through and was honestly surprised to see concepts like these arise in such a limited environment.
While we’re at it, let’s do a quick rundown on the honorable mentions – or, rather, the four remaining submissions, who’re getting away with a soundtrack code.
Honorable Mentions
Tahazzar's "Lost in Translation" is a puzzle that revolves around respawning with a different weapon each time, allowing you to progress further and further even when dying. The level handles this concept well, and only didn’t win because of its pacing - just as the most interesting part began, it was already over.
Classic_Cheese18's "In the Footsteps of a Reaper" is a heavily story-focused series of levels (six in total) with a bunch of different themes incorporated into it. Each of the gang-themed stages has you going up, down and inbetween two buildings and then lockpicking a safe. It is smart in terms of storytelling and shows that Classic_Cheese18 keeps improving in every aspect (decorations, overall ideas, just the levels being fun). It has some flaws like having too many enemies in a tight space and the fact that the keycard-based objective may get softlocked, but overall, it's so good it had me debating over whether to give this map the first place. Alas, while it does tell the story in a rather creative way, it's nothing super groundbreaking in terms of gameplay.
LittleHorn's "Creativity" (direct file download)
Again, a very promising concept with execution that leaves a somewhat unfinished feel, as so much more could be done with the “make your own level” gimmick in terms of variety and scale. Props for originality though – the approach was very clever and unique.
Taterazay's "High Dracula Nightclub" (direct file download)
While the level itself is pretty neat and the general idea of making a level that's level design is sort of expanding upon the idea of Madam Stela's level is cool, there isn’t actually much that breaks the boundaries or blows one’s mind. The vent system is great though, and it's one of the small number of submissions, so the level gets to be highlighted.
Aand that's it! I know, five submissions isn't a lot, but hey, it's a small community. Thanks to everyone who participated and even to those who were planning to but didn’t make it in time! It was like a breath of fresh air to see all the crazy stuff that you’ve managed to come up with.
Winners will be contacted shortly about receiving the rewards.