[mini contest] Minimalism or Zen and the Art of Zeta Flow

[Redsatori]

Zen and the Art of Zeta Flow

Here's the deal. I think we should have a small competition. The rules are as follows:

• Maximum number of weapons: 10, chosen by the level designer.
• Maximum number of non-weapon parts: 30
• Invisible parts do not count. Just try not to have 400 of them, as we are trying to make lag as small as possible.
• No ship following lasers. Period.
• Must be a beatable level.
• You may only enter one level of your choosing.
• All levels need to be marked: 'Minimalist:' plus the name of your level.
• You may post immediately. All levels must be posted here no later than midnight, 12/08/2007 to qualify.

Post your Minimalist level in this thread. On 12/08/2007, I will add a poll to this thread. It will include all valid entries. The poll will last for three days. After which, the highest vote-getter will receive endless Zeta Flow fame.

Now get out there and get designing!! You have two days.


Here are the levels::

Deceptive Droid by MD
The ZetaFlow by Mouzi
Four Corners by Geiss
Flutterby Squadron Alpha by Redsatori
Triple Flinger by trickstapriest

[swartzer]

I like the idea. I'll have to think about what to actually enter.

[Mouzi]

• Here is my level \o/
  
  The ZetaFlow
• 7 Weapons
• 17 Visible parts

Got any suggestions for lives?
(I am going to change the infinite to something more difficult)
I don't know how this one works on better computers :S
I hope it is at least playable. Feedback would be nice so I
can try to fix it, if it's too... something.

[swartzer]

Nice one! I'm going to have to ponder a while to figure out how to do the X-shaped path, though I think I know the general idea.

[Geiss]

This is an excellent idea, Redsatori. Curious how many parts I used in Four Corners.. *edit* appears I use 27 including weapons, so I could bump up the weapon count to 9 if I add a spread launcher. Decisions, decisions. I'll see if I can come up with a new level, though entering Four Corners into the comp is tempting.

That is a great design Mouzi, except that I spawn right on top of the lower part of the Z. Move the lower bar up 1 cm and it should be fixed. I'm learning to use mouse aim/keyboard move and sometimes I forget to move right away while I have the shields up. Mouse movers probably won't have that problem I think.

*edit* I think 3 lives for a mouse aimer should be enough on your level Mouzi. Once I figured out how the best way to play the level that was about all I needed to win. I gave it a rating of 5.

[Geiss]

Interesting, just noted that Centripetal Bond by MD fits the criteria for the competition:

• * 14 Parts
  * 7 Weapons

Would be cool if MD entered the comp

[Geiss]

I have decided to enter Four Corners into the competition with a slight modifcation.

• * 8 Weapons
  * 20 Parts

I added another invincible circle and shrunk the original invincible cirlce to inside the radius of my "circle core". Now the last switch will destroy the new invincible circle instead of the old one so that I can keep my rotating trapezoids to sweep up some of the player's shots. I had considered adding some parts to slow down the fastest destruction route for the switches but decided against it for athestic reasons. I had also considered adding a spread shot in the middle but also decided against doing so for the benefit of the Auto Aim players.

[trickstapriest]

Hmm... I'm in the middle of my exams, but I'll see what I can toss together. There are some definite possibilities...

[MD]

I have exams coming up, but I might find some spare time this weekend.

By the way, I renamed this thread to "[mini contest] Minimalism or Zen and the Art of Zeta Flow" and gave it the announcement status.

~MD

[trickstapriest]

Bringing this up here even though it was brought up on another thread; what about invisible parts (size = 0?). I have been counting them in my design, but Mouzi has not... and I certainly wouldn't complain given the necessary complexity of some rotator sets if invisible parts don't count to the overall total...

[Redsatori]

I have updated the rules of this contest to reflect the invisible part question. Hopefully that fixes everything up for you all.

[Redsatori]

My entry into the Minimalist contest is:

Minimalist: Flutterby Squadron Alpha

Enjoy!!

[Geiss]

Did you intend for there to be only one life? With randomly swinging lasers thats kinda rough.

[Redsatori]

No, it was supposed to be infinite lives. I don't know what happened, and I can't change it until I get a chance to talk to MD, since I have had issues when going in to an already completed level and the script that I had written not loading as well. And I don't remember what all the piece's numbers are...

[trickstapriest]

Ok! This level is much "noisier" than I wanted for an "Art of Zen" level, but I had been experimenting with this one and it comes to less parts if you ignore the invisible bits. Here's the breakdown, although there might be a +/- 2 error in count.
Visible: 25
Weapons: 10
Invisible: 19

This level is much more 'noisy' than I wanted for my submission, but I didn't have the time to come up with a better zen level. I figured this would be worth a submission based solely on the cruel use of weapons on the map, and it's quite challenging for me to beat...

The other reason I was nervous about this is it's loosely based on Res's Dragonfly level... well, mark me down for originality if you must.

This is actually an edited map of mine that I was using as a 'test' center, so it doesn't come near the front of the list at all. You can check up on my user name 'trickstapriest' to spot it listed. This is my first map, so if nothing else this will be a good way to spit out a vague attempt of mine. I could have scripted it better and removed at least 2 rotators, but I didn't have the time or want to tear into it's structure anymore.

Triple Flinger