Little Inferno Level Creation Contest Results
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Before I go into too much detail, let me just say that all of these levels were really really awesome. Good job, all of you! I was very impressed; I haven't seen such high-quality levels in a while. Here's my level-by-level breakdown:
Out Of Your Chimney (kirdneh):
Very long, but quite relaxing. The music fits well. (Machinarium OST, maybe? I think I recognize this from someplace.) OCD is easy to get, it just requires a bit of extra work, which also fits great. By the time you get to that part of the level, you're sufficiently relaxed to want to get the OCD, so it isn't tedious. Collision rectangles (especially for clouds) are a bit unclear, but the choice of using that image, rather than the standard dirty cloud images, was a very cool and fitting design decision. It's slightly nonobvious how to get past the fire in the beginning, so I just built through the wall. I'm not certain exactly what I was supposed to do there. Overall, very good. The music choice really makes this level. Without a track this ambient and relaxing, the level may have gotten tedious by the end, but as it is, it's very relaxing. And relaxing is a pretty interesting take on what Little Inferno may be about. Definitely not something I would have thought of, and this level pulled it off brilliantly. I was quite stressed when I started playtesting this level, and was sufficiently relaxed by the time I finished. Overall, a very nice level.
Up The Chimney (puggsoy):
Wow, just wow. This level design and technical knowledge is absolutely fantastic. My jaw literally dropped twice in this level. Once when I saw the custom Fuse Goo Balls (an absolutely brilliant idea), and the second time when the walls blew out and I saw what was up up out of the chimney. An awesome surprise for what could be up there, and very well thought out. The white fire was also a really neat-looking touch. My only complaints would be a few technical problems- The holders that hold the flingable Fuse Goo Balls should be material = machine or similar, so you don't have to aim at a particular angle to throw them out, and also in a few places the original images were used stretched. Custom images may have been slightly better, and I really really like the custom images that were used; they fit the original World of Goo theme so well. The fireplace shape is a bit hard to see at first, but overall, simply amazing.
Feardrop (Peter B):
My first impression was that this level is quite hard. But the level design is quite good. Quite a lot to the level is figuring out exactly what everything does, and once you figure it all out, it runs quite smoothly (There is some randomness involved that puts the level in unwinnable situations fairly often, but you lose often enough anyway due to your own mistakes that it isn't much of an issue). Definitely a hardcore level. Technical knowledge is absolutely brilliant. There's some creative new Goo Balls, and they all fit the level perfectly. It's also probably the most... disturbing take on Little Inferno I've seen. Quite more dark and creepy than I would have imagined myself. I don't think I'll ever quite think the same way of the helicopter noise in “Reporting from the Weather Balloon” again...
My complaints here would have to do with the difficulty of the level. While difficult levels and games are completely fine, they're offset by a really fast reset when you die (like VVVVVV and Super Meat Boy – you get to retry almost instantly). The longish cutscene in the beginning gets tiresome after you've seen it several times in a row. I'm not certain how it would be possible technically to only show it once, since it was probably nontrivial to set it up in the first place, but that's just an observation. Failure can often feel random, as mentioned above, even if you do everything right. Some of the steps necessary to complete the level aren't obvious, but they do add to the sandbox feel of the level. And the clue idea was great in helping people along in that aspect. Overall, a really excellent level.
Virtual Little Inferno (Mygod):
Very nifty little level. Technical knowledge is very neat; I like how the toys burn. It's a bit nonobvious at first, but I figured it out fast enough. The new bomb is a pretty cool addition to the level, and the intro cutscene is timed well. “Little Inferno Just for Me” fits all right, and playing casually I can beat the level in about one iteration of the song, which is good timing as well. Some custom sounds for the “Toy” Goo Balls dying would have been ideal, but it's all right as it is. Overall, a great little level.
I was very impressed with the quality of these four levels. All of them are really cool, and each focus on one small facet of what Little Inferno might possibly be like, from creepyness to surprises to calmness to burning toys. There's a lot of imagination here, from burning logs to toys going to heaven – really cool stuff. All four of them have excellent level design and cool surprises, two have nifty stuff above the chimney, and none of them are the slightest bit similar. Unfortunately, there can only be one winner, so the prize goes to...
Up the Chimney!
This level is very simple, but just has so many cool things packed into a small area. I've played enough World of Goo levels that it's fairly hard to surprise me with something cool in a level, but this level absolutely succeeded in that. It made me feel like a kid playing a really cool game, which I haven't felt very often since playing World of Goo for the first time. Great job, all of you, and congratulations to puggsoy for the winning level!
You can play the contest entries here.
Wow, I have to say I didn't expect to win. But I am glad that I did, and I'm very happy that you enjoyed the level so much.
Also thanks to everyone who participated, I'm glad to have been able to compete in such a great contest with you guys. From MOM's description each of your levels sound awesome, I'll be sure to play them straight away.
About the level: yeah, I don't really use materials too much, I rarely care about that attribute on geometry since I've never thought about the effect it has. I'll have to look into it though.
Also, all the images I used were from the original game, none were custom. The most "custom" images I used were some edited or flipped versions of originals. I rarely make my own graphics for levels since whenever I try it it always turns out horrible
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ohhhh, I lost.
I thought mine was the best out of the lot after playing the others, but I suppose the only opinion that matters is the judge's. Well done puggsoy. 
I've addressed that issue now regarding the long wait at the start; I'll request publication of the improved version now. I ran out of time to fine tune it, I realised that the start would be annoying but it was too late. I've changed the name back to the original title of Teddy Vengeance.
I'd be interested to know what level the other entrants thought was the best. I thought the winners was too simple really, it didnt involve much effort at all. The flinging fuse is just like any other flingable, and there wasnt anything of interest at the top. Also, it didnt use the inferno theme, so if you didnt know about this contest when playing it you'd just think it was an ordinary WoG level. I dont mean to be harsh, its just what i think.
I thought Mygod's was better, although it didnt quite fulfil its potential, it had a cool idea.
I was quite surprised that no one had a level where you actually picked up toys and played with them, I thought that was the obvious route so i did something different.
I liked yours, Peter, but I thought it was a lot darker than Little Inferno will probably be, and I couldn't figure out how to do anything except light a stack of logs on fire and throw them.
Another Planet finally has an official release! Download chapters 1 through 3 here! Thank you for waiting so long while I kept starting over.
I think that says more about you than anything, how could you not experiment about a bit, like exploding the shelf or burning the rope.
Also, if you thought it was dark already, you should play the improved version waiting for publication.
You could have played them for the past few days, if you'd looked at your account you'd have seen the LI LCC unpublished addin.
Yeah, but I prefer to play them after the contest has finished. Anyway I gave yours ago, to be honest I'm struggling with figuring out what to do (same with Virtual Little Inferno), but I'll try your improved version. In any case it looks interesting, simply those ropes are awesome.
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With Virtual Little Inferno: What will you do in Little Inferno?
Also, Peter: Blowing up the shelf? I didn't see anything explosive. But I'll try burning the rope. A bunch of arrows point offscreen, but the camera cuts me off.
Another Planet finally has an official release! Download chapters 1 through 3 here! Thank you for waiting so long while I kept starting over.
I've done what it looks like you're supposed to do in VLI, but nothing happens after that. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with that bomb either.
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@AP, you should be able to figure it all out, mess around! Fling the coal, see what happens. The arrows are to tell you where to send the girl.
@pugg, you carry it into position and let it do what it does best.
Ah, it's supposed to be coal? I wasn't sure if it exploded or anything, I assumed it just acted like a Bit. I'll try again.
Another Planet finally has an official release! Download chapters 1 through 3 here! Thank you for waiting so long while I kept starting over.
Bits explode. :3
@Peter: Yeah, I agree with most of those points. As I said, the contest was really close in my opinion. All of the levels were fantastic, and choosing one pretty much just has to boil down to personal preference. I tried to be as objective as I could. Now I know how the Olympic judges for gymnastics and diving and such feel, I guess.
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Oh, I lost too.
Nice job, puggsoy. 
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Good thing I didn't participate. I would have been smashed to smitherenes! Well from MOM4Evr's description. I'll have to try these for myself.
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sorry i cant submit my level I'm on vacation when the contest started
( and lazy 
)
oh yea by the way, nice job Puggsoy
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Actually, I played them; I think I may have had a chance, whatever since I wouldn't know what to do with a second key (another LCC maybe?
). It would be unfair to those who didn't already have a key. Anyhoo, I'll finish off the graphics and post it anyway!
Check out my SoundCloud, MomoSoundWaves
@MOM, the thing that would have swayed it for me if I were judge would have been lack of theme.
So, who came 2nd, 3rd & 4th?
I wasn't originally planning on a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, but I did rank the levels mentally:
1st: Up the Chimney
2nd: Feardrop
3rd: Out of Your Chimney
4th: My Virtual Little Inferno
This is unofficial of course, and 2nd and 3rd were interchangeably close imo, but that's what I thought immediately after playing the levels.
Like I said, all the levels are technically competent and really really good. All I really had to go on was my gut reactions to each level, and I tried my best to find my reasoning behind each. As for theme, I think Up the Chimney is just themed differently than the others. While the others took a literal approach to theme and used graphics from the Little Inferno website, Up the Chimney just used original World of Goo images, which fits the criteria of "what do you think the game would be like if it were a World of Goo level". It just fits it differently, taking a more literal approach to the World of Goo aspect of it. The only real difference I can see is that it uses original World of Goo images only. It has the distinctive fireplace shape, a secret out of the chimney... how is that not themed?
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*I withdraw the comment I made here as it was quite rude to the judge and others. My apologies to all involved.
EDIT: Oh wow that's a whole lot harsher than I intended. Sorry.
Another Planet finally has an official release! Download chapters 1 through 3 here! Thank you for waiting so long while I kept starting over.
Peter B, I played your level and just a few things made me want to end level and move to the next:
-Everytime I played it again, a different bug appeared, such as the flingable gooballs spontaneously disappearing, or the rabbit thing trembling berserkely or logs not always catching on fire or the helicopter being to easy to whack around.
-The graphics. Some of them were awesome, when the rest looked like something you got from google images.
-Last but not least, there were too many possible ways to try things at the beginning, due to the fact that there is no change of scenery. And whatever I did, the effects seemed to come out random.
However, there are things I did like:
-The hanging! >:D Even though it was a little dark.
-The idea of using the hand to hold the log.
-The music
-The marbles
Bear this in mind: even though this might be a genius design, some players would just be like "Err, what the heck is this?", toss a few logs and exit the level. So the aspect to work on is presentability.
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I agree that my level is a bit slack. I could have done better, especially with the end, but due to the deadline and having other stuff on my shoulders I couldn't really invest too much time in creating something spectacular. To be honest I actually had to make a workaround ending it with endoncollision (endonnogeom ended it instantly which looked bad). I would like to point out though how much work was put into the rest of the stuff above the chimney, for example covering the goo balls and fire with the blocks required a whole workaround (discussed here).
The reason I didn't make my level too difficult or complex is because of the 5th point in the contest guidelines: "I prefer short, awesomely cool, polished levels that I can beat in a minute or two, like the original levels." So that's what I did. When I played the level it did seem a bit too easy, I mean there's practically no challenge, but I'm not that good at judging the difficulty of my own levels, so I played it safe and decided not to risk making it too hard.
As I said, I'm surprised I won, to be honest I feel slightly guilty because now I've won both LCCs. If another one comes along I'll probably help with judging or maybe even supply the prize.
But in any case I think that all of you had just as much chance as me of winning this one, if not more. Each level has its ups and downs but they're all great.
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Congrats puggsoy! good job everyone else.
@Peter B: It's ok if you hate my level, I honestly thought it would be at the very bottom of the list
@mom: for music i put the minecraft "fire.ogg" on loop and played "13.ogg" also from minecraft for the music. It seemed to fit at the time.
-_-@momo, the flingable can only disappear if you knock in to one side, it cant move by itself.
The trembling rabbit, yeah I suppose that could be improved, but it doesnt really spoil the level.
The logs dont have to catch on fire, if they do they do. The short ones arent meant to anyway.
Your not supposed to whack the heli; I've tried to stop it moving in the improved version.
I did use google images for a few, so you're right.
And, it can be confusing as to what to do, but signs werent allowed.
Also, take into account that I had only had a few days to make the level.
Signs weren't allowed? Hmm, well there's one in the level I was going to enter, so good thing I didn't! Well I posted my level so if anyone is interested in playing it, be my guest!
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Testing now...
Another Planet finally has an official release! Download chapters 1 through 3 here! Thank you for waiting so long while I kept starting over.
May i have my individual level posted after changing the name?
-_-That's what Peter B did, I'm also wondering if we're "allowed". That way we can improve the level, etc, maybe even add signs. Then the contest pack can be there for people interested in playing the original entries.
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I don't see why not, it's your level. MOM4Evr, do you have a problem with it?
Another Planet finally has an official release! Download chapters 1 through 3 here! Thank you for waiting so long while I kept starting over.
Of course not. It's your level. You can do whatever you want with it; keep improving it, make it five gazillion times worse, whatever.
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Awesome, just checking. Thought you might prefer we keep it in the contest pack or something crazy like that
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*Throws logs around...nothing happens*..hmm....*takes log play with marble* yay marble!....hmm...*burns rope girl falls down the hole*...Time to give up on peter's level again.
I dont see much difference in feardrop and teddy vengeance.Feardrop the roof explodes but in teddy vengeance I just can pull out the ear and nothing happens.
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