New Hub: The Curse of Blackwood Isle

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yot yot5
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New Hub: The Curse of Blackwood Isle

Post by yot yot5 » Sun Apr 02, 2017 12:41 am

Hello, fellow Wonderlanders!

...

Hello?

...

Anyone home?

...

Huh. Well, never mind. I'll just begin, shall I?

I feel like Wonderland has pretty much run its course. I've designed over 70 megabytes of Wonderland content over the last six years, and I simply don't think I can squeeze any more adventures from my brain. Furthermore, it's evident that the Wonderland community is almost entirely dead. Heck, it's been almost two months since the last post on this subforum, and the adventures most recently released only get around ten or twenty downloads! Six months of hard work on my part, and the finished result is only seen by ten or twenty people? That's just not a smart way to be spending my time.

In other words, consider this hub to be my swansong. It has 25 adventures spread across three areas. It exemplifies some of my adventures' best qualities: an intriguing (though unfinished) story, beautiful scenery, and unbelievably difficult puzzles! It should take you around 15 hours to fully complete, though that depends greatly on how good you are at solving puzzles. It's also only been tested once, so expect a few bugs and kinks (and always save your game!)

Thank you to everyone who supported me by playing and reviewing my adventures in the past. I hope you enjoy this hub!



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

This hub requires a unique music pack, which can be found here. Unzip the contents of the downloaded file into /Data/Music.

Level textures designed by Pawelec
Music tracks 65532 and 65534 composed by Derek and Brandon Fiechter
All other music tracks composed by the folks at Runescape
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Last edited by yot yot5 on Wed Aug 23, 2017 7:46 am, edited 9 times in total.
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Wonderland King
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Post by Wonderland King » Sun Apr 02, 2017 4:32 am

Yes, I'm afraid the forum is dead for the most part - hopefully that'll change soon, though barring an announcement from Patrick, I'm not really sure how that would happen. :?

Anyway, I do fully plan to play through this hub (assuming I can figure out any of it - your levels are quite difficult!). Though if you're leaving for good (which I assume is the case :(), take care, and thanks for all the adventures you've created over the years.
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Post by Wonderland King » Sun Apr 02, 2017 6:33 pm

And, uh, DP, but if you ever see this, I think you forgot to update your level list. :P
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Post by FinnThor » Tue Apr 04, 2017 9:10 pm

The only reason I don't post here that often is because I'm too shy. :P

I wait for somebody else to post, then I follow through. :oops: :oops: :oops:
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Post by yot yot5 » Sun May 28, 2017 6:35 pm

Hello again.

So it's been a while since I released this hub and it somehow seems to have attracted even less attention than I thought it would. I decided it would be a good idea to start uploading some solution videos, to help out those who were finding the puzzles a bit too tricky. :wink:

I'm planning to release the solutions to three or four adventures every week or so. The solutions to the following adventures are currently available:

The Campsite
The Shipwreck
The Lair
The Ridge

Oh, and I also found a few major alternate solutions in some of the hub's best adventures. If you haven't made much progress in the hub, I strongly recommend you download the new version for the best experience!
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Post by Jutomi » Sun Jun 04, 2017 12:43 am

Oh... for some reason I presumed this was still a work in progress. :oops:

I'm sad to see you going, yot yot. :(

You have been a wonderful member of this little forum. I fear, I too am even beginning to face a similar fate as you,
in that I've found less time and intrigue for Wonderland compared to my past.

THAT BEING SAID I'm still staying for as long as I can/want, but I'm just saying that I can understand - and I'm not even that busy!

Plus, yes, the forums are close to dead...
Hopefully a new generation of Wonderlanders will rise - and hopefully summer will show the full sweep of them,
but in general, yes, I can understand the "why am I working on this anyways" aspect as well. :(

Pretty much none of the epicorders - group of old WAers for those who don't know them - play Wonderland anymore.
Having said that, many of them, while inactive, at least show some interest in it. :)

Anyhow, back to this hub, I... I might give it a try? Although, my time in
Wonderland probably ought to be making some things I've set my goals towards first...
plus, I'm aware of how hard your puzzles are... after all I played through RFD :shock:
... yeah, I might be a while to play this. Still, hopefully I'll come around to it :lol:

Uh... tl;dr version:
I'll probably play this, and also farewell yotyot. :)
Your only little stinker that's absolutely NOT a z-bot by this name,
Jutomi~ :mrgreen:

Also, if you want to see my level list, here it is! :D
(Also: List of Hubs, WA Manual)
Oh, and my YT wonderland channel. Forgot about that.
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Post by Jutomi » Sun Jun 04, 2017 12:44 am

Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask; is this a complete hub or is it incomplete but still finished? :?
Your only little stinker that's absolutely NOT a z-bot by this name,
Jutomi~ :mrgreen:

Also, if you want to see my level list, here it is! :D
(Also: List of Hubs, WA Manual)
Oh, and my YT wonderland channel. Forgot about that.
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Post by FinnThor » Sun Jun 04, 2017 12:49 am

Jutomi wrote:Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask; is this a complete hub or is it incomplete but still finished? :?
It's finished; I think it says in either his post or in the hub itself. I don't remember.

Edit: WHY AM I REPLYING TO EVERYTHING TODAY?

Edit2: I KEEP SMASHING THE ENTER BUTTON.
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Post by yot yot5 » Sun Jun 04, 2017 3:01 am

Jutomi wrote:Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask; is this a complete hub or is it incomplete but still finished? :?
It's incomplete, but I don't recommend waiting for it to be finished (you'll be waiting a looooong time).

And personally, I still think it's a pretty good hub even with its unfinished story. :wink:
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Post by FinnThor » Sun Jun 04, 2017 12:24 pm

yot yot5 wrote:
Jutomi wrote:Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask; is this a complete hub or is it incomplete but still finished? :?
It's incomplete, but I don't recommend waiting for it to be finished (you'll be waiting a looooong time).

And personally, I still think it's a pretty good hub even with its unfinished story. :wink:
Oh; I was wrong, apparently. :oops:

It is a pretty good hub though. :)
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Post by FinnThor » Tue Jun 20, 2017 5:21 pm

yot yot5 wrote:Hello again.

So it's been a while since I released this hub and it somehow seems to have attracted even less attention than I thought it would. I decided it would be a good idea to start uploading some solution videos, to help out those who were finding the puzzles a bit too tricky. :wink:

I'm planning to release the solutions to three or four adventures every week or so. The solutions to the following adventures are currently available:

The Campsite
The Shipwreck
The Lair
The Ridge
Bump & DP.

Are you going to upload solution for the other adventures? :?

I was only able to complete the lair and about 2-3 other adventures without cheating. (Sorry about that, by the way. I plan to play this again without cheating.) They really were hard! :shock: :evil:
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Post by yot yot5 » Thu Jul 06, 2017 6:33 pm

Here are another four solution videos. Hopefully they help anyone who's having trouble. Sorry they took me so long!

The Chase
The Spirit
The Test
The Hole
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Post by FinnThor » Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:31 pm

HOLD ON

HOLD ON ONE SECOND

JUST WAIT FOR ONE SECOND


Image

Is this some sort of april fools that you've been able to pull off for so long? :shock: :wink:
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Post by yot yot5 » Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:44 am

FinnThor wrote:Is this some sort of april fools that you've been able to pull off for so long? :shock: :wink:
Uh... no. I'm in the UK, and it was the 2nd of April for me when I uploaded it.
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Post by FinnThor » Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:55 am

yot yot5 wrote:
FinnThor wrote:Is this some sort of april fools that you've been able to pull off for so long? :shock: :wink:
Uh... no. I'm in the UK, and it was the 2nd of April for me when I uploaded it.
Oh. :P

One could dream that it was an april fools joke, even though it wasn't...
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Post by Jinx133 » Tue Jul 11, 2017 4:46 pm

This was literally a masterpiece. I can't believe such a project could be that fun to play, even though it is incomplete. Not gonna lie though; I had to skip some of your adventures because they were quite difficult for me. :'(

I am really sad to see you leaving. I really hope you will do great in your life. :)
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Post by Pawelec » Tue Jul 11, 2017 7:03 pm

I feel honoured by the fact my textures were used in this masterpiece hub. I'm glad they could prove useful to such a skilled person.

I admit I was the one who downloaded others' works, played them and didn't even comment. Now I see it was a mistake. If the community is indeed dying, I've been among those responsible for the process. Shame on me. I've been playing Wonderland since I was 7 years old. Now I'm 21 and it hurts me that this chapter is coming to an end.

But let me leave my depressing thoughts aside. English is not my mother tongue but I'll try my best in the next paragraph.

The Master decided to leave, abandoning a hub which was a pinnacle of the art & craft of WAE level design, a proof of their extraordinary skill and taste, just like true masters used to do.

If you are going to leave, yot yot, please accept my sincere gratitude and respect. You deserve a medal, sir.
"Let us return to the past; it will be progress."
by Giuseppe Verdi
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Post by yot yot5 » Wed Jul 12, 2017 10:27 am

Jinx123 wrote:This was literally a masterpiece. I can't believe such a project could be that fun to play, even though it is incomplete.
Pawelec wrote:The Master decided to leave, abandoning a hub which was a pinnacle of the art & craft of WAE level design, a proof of their extraordinary skill and taste, just like true masters used to do.

If you are going to leave, yot yot, please accept my sincere gratitude and respect. You deserve a medal, sir.
Thank you very much for the kind words. And thank you for designing such great textures, Pawelec! I wanted to give my hub a unique look, and you were the only person I found to have made such high-quality custom textures.
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Post by yot yot5 » Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:45 pm

Almost finished!

Here are the solution videos for six of the adventures in the Skomperous Marshes. I skipped over The Ghoul and The Nest, as those adventures are almost entirely action-based.

The Pool
The Hut
The Glade
The Lab
The River
The Watchtower
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Post by yot yot5 » Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:25 pm

Here are the solution videos to the adventures in Spectropolis. I skipped over The Countdown, as it only contains action.

That's all of them! These videos didn't really attract as much attention as I thought they would, but I'm still glad I finished this little project. I hope these videos continue to help out anyone who's stuck!

The Tunnel
The Incinerator
The Warehouse
The Wall
The Cliffside
The Library
The Graveyard

On a side note, I spotted two small alternate solutions while playing through these adventures and updated them. If you haven't played the hub yet, I recommend downloading the latest version.
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Post by Jutomi » Wed Aug 23, 2017 2:14 am

Sweet! I'll take a looksy, then; just give me a few months and I'll possibly have done it. :lol:
Your only little stinker that's absolutely NOT a z-bot by this name,
Jutomi~ :mrgreen:

Also, if you want to see my level list, here it is! :D
(Also: List of Hubs, WA Manual)
Oh, and my YT wonderland channel. Forgot about that.
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Re: New Hub: The Curse of Blackwood Isle

Post by Wonderland King » Sun Jul 22, 2018 5:23 am

Not bad.

Quite incredible, actually.

I know you're pretty much done with this project, but seeing as it somehow hasn't had a full review yet, plus I seem to have a thing for bumping your old topics and I'm just finishing this one up (I only got so far originally, but I started anew not too long ago), I thought I'd go ahead and share my thoughts. I'm not 100% done yet - I haven't collected the fiery key in the marshes, plus there are a few coins and gems left for me to collect. (I've figured out what the signs in the marshes are referring to, but not how it helps me - don't give me any hints yet, though.) Even though I'm not all the way done, I'm pretty close, so I can say that all in all, it is a beautiful swansong for one of Wonderland's greatest minds. And without further ado, my review:

Audiovisuals/Environment: Using Pawelec's textures was an excellent choice. The new music (the Runescape tunes are solid, but the Fiechter ones are irreplaceable) combined with similar-to-Wonderland but not quite the same textures reinforced the notion that I was still in the same world, but at the same time in somewhere very new, which I think was exactly what you were going for. This strange new land also had a lot of variety - throughout each of the three main areas, you incorporated a lot of variety into where each adventure took place - for example, despite all being by the cliffside, the first four adventures manage to take place in wildly different settings. This is also especially true of the Spectropolis adventures. (One tiny thing I'd change would be using white null magic instead of Z-Bot null, but that's just my preference.)

Difficulty Curve: Worst I've ever seen. 0/10. :P

Alright, to be fair, there was that first wlv. Fine. 1/10. :P

Gameplay: The meat of any hub, and yours does not disappoint. Many of these puzzles are indeed unbelievably hard, and quite frankly, I'm not even sure how you were able to perfect some of them. Though I didn't 100% either without help, my two favorites are "The Tunnel" and "The Glade" (or, more specifically, its Pop section), both of which are extremely simple yet beautifully delicate and complex. I'm still a little irked that I didn't figure out "The Tunnel" without your video, but like you said, they're unbelievably hard. :) Fortunately, I was able to solve some (such as "The River"), which always felt really good. I did find alternate solutions in a few levels ("The Pool", "The Cliffside", and "The Wall"), but I think the majority of them are foolproof, so I wouldn't be too worried. It's clear that you also aimed to avoid having 24 of the same type of puzzle - from dragonturtle to faint magic to 1D to action, the variety was pretty good.

In my opinion, there are two main spaces for improvement.

1) It's very unsatisfying to get through a section despite having barely completed some adventures; a small few of them are hard to get gold on but extremely easy to complete (the most extreme example being "The Lair"), so I'd move on but feel a little unsatisfied with my progress. I realize that's mostly on me, though, so this is probably one of my more objectionable points. It wasn't even that common, but I personally think it's worth avoiding.

2) Though like I said, the adventures have a lot of variety, there were still elements that I don't think I ever saw (such as burstflowers and tentacles), though to be fair, there were only 24 adventures, so I guess that's understandable. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but another feature that limited the adventure variety was that the levels goals were all the same: to collect the star. Okay, "The Test" is about collecting gems, but there are only two, so it just barely counts. A few adventures to rescue wee Stinkers, destroy Power Cubes, or do something else would've spiced things up nicely.

Overworld: Some really nice design here. My main gripe is the small size of Cliffdale; I would've preferred a bit more in terms of both size and Stinkers. Some secondary complaints are a) that there's only Pop on one side of the marshes, so if after you take the Spectropolis tunnel you find yourself on the left and the transporter is on the right, you have a lot of walking to do and b) a way to fail in the hub as blatant as standing on a timer gate in Spectropolis spoils the area a little. That being said, the distribution of adventures is good, with a fair amount of variety: a good mix of necessary adventures, partially necessary adventures (collecting keys), and side quests. The layout of the hub itself isn't too shabby; the path to the fire key in Spectropolis is especially clever. I also figured that out on my own my very easily, so yay me! :D

Storyline: Certainly a departure from RFD! Though a lot more serious than most of your previous work, there was still plenty of dialog, such as the merchant's, that definitely gave me the feeling that I was in the same world as Wonderland. And of course, the more serious dialog still reinforced the idea that I was somewhere distant. (Like I said about the audiovisuals/environment, I think that's pretty much what you were going for.) The story had it's funny moments, as always, but the suspense is done extremely well; you crafted a great setting and plot, and it always left me wanting to know what would happen next. The dialog in "The Hut" is downright chilling. Aside from the fact that it leaves so much hanging, the storyline is pretty darn good. :wink:

(Also, poor Cooney!)

A true masterpiece.
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Re: New Hub: The Curse of Blackwood Isle

Post by yot yot5 » Sun Jul 22, 2018 12:16 pm

YES. SOMEONE HAS PLAYED IT. IT ONLY TOOK 14 MONTHS.
Gameplay:I'm glad you were able to enjoy the puzzles! I'm not too bothered about alternate solutions to The Cliffside (it's probably my least favourite adventure in the hub), and The Pool was always a bit too open to have a unique solution, but I would be interested to hear how you solved The Wall.

Good catch on the adventure objectives too. I really tried to make each adventure unique in setting and gameplay, but a few wee stinker adventures definitely wouldn't have gone amiss.

Overworld: Whoa, I can't believe I missed out on those hub deaths in Spectropolis. I think it's because I used doors instead of gates - for some reason it's tricky to realize that they can still crush you. :lol:

Storyline: Ohh, boy. If you thought this was more serious than my previous work, you probably haven't played any of my WA1E adventures. That storyline was painfully grimdark. There's also that time I adapted Amnesia: The Dark Descent into Wonderland. For some reason. Ugh.

I'm glad this hub managed to retain some levity - I tried to make it more "Halloween spooky" than "18+ horror", and it sounds like I succeeded for the most part.

And yes, poor Cooney. I would say his death was not in vain, but...
Seriously though, thanks for playing through this hub. It really means a lot.

And I know you asked for no hints in regard to the firey key in the Skomperous Marshes, but here's one just in case you need it in the future:
Revisit the adventures on the signs and search for further clues in the shrubbery (or on the walls, in The Watchtower's case).
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Re: New Hub: The Curse of Blackwood Isle

Post by Wonderland King » Sun Jul 22, 2018 11:02 pm

I've been meaning to download and figure out Bandicam lately, so this gave me a good chance. I decided to upload all my solutions (not just "The Wall") because why not. Enjoy.

"The Pool" without 1 Floing and 1 Brr, with gold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilqspkiRU70
"The Pool" without gold but smuggling a red key (I'm not sure if you can smuggle both): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eYyWjphl9s
"The Cliffside" simpler alternate solution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqx3oMpjjqQ (I liked this level; I'm not sure why you didn't.)
"The Wall" simpler alternate solution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9VYgbOO690

Also, thanks for the hint. I'll check it out if I don't have any luck.
yot yot5 wrote:
Sun Jul 22, 2018 12:16 pm
Seriously though, thanks for playing through this hub. It really means a lot.
No, thank you for sharing the progress you made and for still being here even long after the end of your levelmaking career.
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Re: New Hub: The Curse of Blackwood Isle

Post by yot yot5 » Sun Jul 22, 2018 11:28 pm

Ohhhhh no! The alternate Wall and Cliffside solutions are fine, but allowing stolen keys is a big no-no. I'd better fix that. :shock:
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Re: New Hub: The Curse of Blackwood Isle

Post by Wonderland King » Tue Jul 24, 2018 1:39 am

yot yot5 wrote:
Sun Jul 22, 2018 11:28 pm
Ohhhhh no! The alternate Wall and Cliffside solutions are fine, but allowing stolen keys is a big no-no. I'd better fix that. :shock:
If you're fixing things, you may also be interested to know that 1,1 in "The River" is a wall, so the game crashes if you Flash/re-Flash the MooBot.
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Re: New Hub: The Curse of Blackwood Isle

Post by ab-47 » Fri Oct 06, 2023 2:37 am

5 years later...

...I'm not late, right? :oops:


I finally completed your hub (attempted twice) with all the bonuses and coins collected, that means the fire keys and the ending as well!

Here's my review:
1- The campsite: very simple design, but beautiful trick to set off the indigo star button. I say this is one of the simpler levels that I managed to figure out in less than an hour. Very fun!

2- The Shipwreck: Ughhh, I have mixed feelings about this one, I figured out pretty much all of the level except for the bonus, and it turns out I missed a step which softlocked me every time. It's alright, but I just hate conveyers.

3- The Lair: This one is just spicy, it all comes down to the trick moving off the transporter to a certain direction before the chomper eats you, I love this one.

4- The Ridge: Pretty cool, I like the design and the decoration here, neat trick you used for the gold as well.

5- The Chase: Action! I think this one was okay, not too frustrating or too boring. Good work!

6- The Spirit: I used to think rainbow bubbles are the worst monsters to use in Wonderland Adventures. That statement remains the same, I still despise rainbow bubbles, but I also hate grow wraiths too now, the puzzle itself is clear. You know what you need to do, it's the implementation part that made me want to slam my hand against the wall. With that said, It's a great puzzle.

7- The Test: One of my top 3 puzzles from you, it's just so elegantly designed that makes it so satisfying to solve. Well done!

8- The Hole: This one is just awesome, if it weren't for the slight luck (which isn't that much of a big deal) I would have considered it one of my top 3 favorite puzzles, but it's just there are other puzzles that are just way spicier. This one was amazing and I love it.

9- The Pool: I broke this one, I skipped a few elements and ended up using the leftmost chomper instead of the top one, I don't remember exactly the steps, but I'd be willing to replay it and give you the written solution if you'd like since my memory is still fresh. It's fun, I like the usage for the flipbridge.

10- The Hut: Although slow-paced, the action/puzzle hybrid was really enjoyable and tense, I love it!

11- The Glade: If there's one thing that left me in awe, it's the simplicity of the transporter puzzle on the left, it feels like it's straightforward but you need to use 200% of your brainpower to figure out how to get both transporter along with GOLD. Unfortunately I did have your video solution on just to get a hint and what's going on for the spikeyball part, as I didn't really enjoy that.

12- The Lab: Uhhh, this one is broken. I like how you bragged about the insanely difficult puzzle design you've created for that level, only to be cheesed with using grow on top of the star rainbow button, then flashing the green moobot on it. I don't know what was the actual solution, but I'm assuming you need to form some perpetual motion machine, I will check out your level solution later and see what's it like when I can.

13- The Ghoul: This one was nice, not much to say about the action levels honestly.

14- The Nest: Oh hell, this one was insane! it was really fun but one part was way too tight for my liking after pressing the green button, still, I enjoyed it!

15- The River: Looks like I broke this one too, I didn't use half of the elements as you can just grab the key and then teleport yourself out. GOLD was easy to get with a spare blink too. Not interesting, but not bad.

16- The WatchTower: This one is very tedious, I realized you have a thing with mazes (The Maze, Blink / darkness maze in RFD) and this one was such a headache to solve. I'm glad it's out of the way.

17- The Tunnel: The puzzle itself is easy, but MAN THE DARKNESS JUST MAKES IT SO ANNOYING. I think throughout time, the community has started to despise puzzles overwhelmed by darkness because it fakes the true difficulty of the puzzles. A shame, the puzzle was good nontheless, and the bonus was a nice trick with the brr/ blink.

18- The Incinerator: this could have been my favorite puzzle you've ever designed, but it had 0 lighting which ruined it. You have created one of the best puzzles I ever played in such a long time, but the darkness ruined it for me that I ended up using CMD6 to actually play the puzzle, and let's face it, I don't see why this level out of all levels is in the dark. I hope that if I play something similar to this, I actually get to see the level. Impressive and elegant puzzle that has been thwarted (not a pun) with an outdated feature.

19- The Warehouse: lmao broken puzzle I solved it in like 3-5 minutes without using all the buttons. indigo moobot is your friend.

20- The Wall: Although a lot of red herrings, this one was complex and beautiful, definitely one of my top 3 without a doubt in my mind, the ending made it worth it having the player to lure the chomper back. Wonderful!

21- The Cliffside: I broke this one too by not using all the metal bridges, it took me probably 15 minutes at most. I like the puzzle idea nonetheless!

22- The Library: This one uses the brr / Floing glitch, I hate glitches. What's funny is that I managed to smuggle out a brr and used it for the conveyer area instead (I had to check your solution because I genuinely thought the level was impossible until I saw you set up a floing / brr glitch). I like the trick you used for the scritter, well done!

23- The Countdown: Cool action level, looks horrifying at first, but can be done in 30 minutes. Thanks for making me walk for an hour though. :(

24- The Graveyard: If I want to forget playing a level, it's got to be this absolute work of art. This is the best puzzle I have ever played for this year because of the way it's designed. The lineups of the wraiths, the trick with the floing, the way you need to lure the ghost out and then back in, and the brr compromise for the indigo button is just out of this world. You said this hub was your swan song to Wonderland, I think this puzzle is YOUR swansong to all of your puzzles. I have no words, this is a masterpiece and I'd do anything to play something that comes close to this!

I did figure out how to get the fire keys. What's funny is that I got the second key by luck because of the insane stinker hinting about the graves, I did see the true ending eventually and all I have to say is good luck to your career. I've seen people talking about their top puzzle designers. To me, I think you are the best puzzle designer I have seen (yes alt solutions but it happens to everyone) in this community!


Thank you so much for the experience that I won't forget, this was such a great journey and I wish you the best of luck to your future endeavors, who knows, maybe you'll come back and hang around again! :stinkyhappy:
LEVEL LIS1
The Hidd3n Archive, Part Four: [33%, Paused]
The Hidden 4rchive, Part Three (Redeemer's Edition)
The Apocollab [0%, Confirmed, Planning]
Are Cookie and Ash Gay? [Cancelled]
User avatar
yot yot5
Rainbow SuperStar
Posts: 2294
Joined: Sun May 22, 2011 1:24 pm

Re: New Hub: The Curse of Blackwood Isle

Post by yot yot5 » Wed Oct 18, 2023 1:34 am

ab-47 wrote:
Fri Oct 06, 2023 2:37 am
...I'm not late, right? :oops:
NEVER TOO LATE!

Seriously, reading this was a delight! I know the difficulty of my puzzles could sometimes get out of hand, but I could always count on you to figure them out (often with methods I hadn't foreseen!)

It's fascinating to see where your tastes agree with mine and where they differ. I was super proud of The Glade and The Graveyard, so I'm glad you appreciated them too. And I was never really satisfied with The Cliffside or The Warehouse (I was getting kinda lazy toward the end), so it makes sense you'd breeze through them.

On the other hand, I never really cared for The Lair or The Incinerator. It was a nice surprise to hear you enjoyed them. And yes, I'm a maze lover - The 3D riddle of the Watchtower is one of my personal favorites!

Your alternate solutions were mostly were I expected them to be (The Pool and The River especially). I'm super pissed about the cheat for The Lab though - I can't believe I forgot moobots can weigh down star buttons! The intended solution is one of the craziest things I've ever designed, although I definitely needed to add some more checks to the final corridor of gates...

Your point about the dark levels is a good one. I remember adding darkness to The Incinerator because I thought it was too easy otherwise - but geez, I have no idea what was going through my mind when I made The Tunnel dark. That adventure is already a challenge!
Thanks for making me walk for an hour though. :(
Fun fact: The original version of that adventure had a chomper hidden in a wall behind a gem, with the intent to kill you and force you to do the walk again... in the end, I figured that was masochistic even for me! :twisted:
To me, I think you are the best puzzle designer I have seen (yes alt solutions but it happens to everyone) in this community!
Thank you so much. That means a lot, especially coming from a master puzzle solver like yourself.

It's been a long time since I last designed a puzzle, but reviews like this have always been my best source of motivation, so who knows? Maybe I'll pop back on my adventurer's hat someday... :wink:
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MyNameIsKooky
Rainbow Spirit Master
Posts: 9711
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:18 pm

Re: New Hub: The Curse of Blackwood Isle

Post by MyNameIsKooky » Wed Oct 18, 2023 5:44 pm

yot yot5 wrote:
Sun Apr 02, 2017 12:41 am
Furthermore, it's evident that the Wonderland community is almost entirely dead.
I would say there's been somewhat of a Wonderland Adventures renaissance lately. Having a more powerful and modernized editor helps quite a bit.

Check out Cookie Crumbs, Wonderland Endeavors, and samuel's stuff! New boundaries are being pushed even to this day.
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