ChromaGun

ChromaGun

Not enough ratings
Guide to the BEST Chromagun Workshop Levels
By Kron Kyrios
This guide honors the creators of exceptional levels in various categories.

Playing these levels will add value to the game.

Non-Standard Mechanics are well represented. These are why I believe the Steam Workshop is so great. It expands the game into areas the developers likely did not envision.

Standard Mechanics are also highlighted here when they were outstanding examples.
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Guide Description
I played through all of the community levels available at the time of the writing of this guide. Many of them weren't that great.
  • Some were so simple that they could have been played before the tutorial even started. Probably 10 of them involved nothing more than simply walking to the exit door. (I did include one of these overly-simple levels in the guide as it was done quite creatively.)

  • Others either couldn't be finished, or were easy to see what had to be done but doing it would be so hard that it would just be masochistic to continue. I didn't include those because I consider the difficulty to be artificially inflated.

  • And then there were some which were just tedious iterations of basic game mechanics.
I don't think that those kinds of levels add much value to the game, and having to wade through these in order to get to the good ones can be a deterrent to even playing the community levels available in the workshop.

Also, I noticed that most of the community levels have not received enough votes to get star ratings, so it can be hard to figure out what to play.

This guide is intended to showcase the best community levels which I believe are worth playing by anyone who enjoyed the game.

Please play the following levels and rate them so that it is easier for people to see what is worth playing.
Best "Walk to the Exit" Level
Auto

The Rube Goldberg machine of Chromagun!
Best Variety of Standard Mechanics in a Single Level
Crian's Revenge

This level seems to sum up the main game, and would have fit well in the last chapter.
Best Non-Standard Use of Mechanics
Face, B.A., Murdock, let's sync our watches

There is one over-arching mechanic here that is very well done, requiring a variety of solutions to complete each of it's parts.
Best Variety Series
F.# series

The F.# series of levels (F.1, F.2, etc) offer a variety of mechanics which are fun to play. It's clear the author enjoyed making these as there are 9 of them and each one is completely different from all the others.
Best Logic Puzzle (#1)
The Day of the Machines (Extinction), Part 3

All 4 of the levels in this series are great logic puzzles which push the limits of color coding solutions.
Part 3 is clearly the hardest, but it might seem easier if you get good by playing Parts 1 and 2, first. Part 4 is not as hard, but can still be challenging in it's own way.

Note: On the level selction, these levels are listed as "Extinction". On the workshop pages, they are listed as "The Day of the Machines".
Here is a list of all of the "Extinction" / "The Day of the Machines" levels
Best Logic Puzzle (#2)
Simply Complicated

It is quite difficult to determine the order to do things in this level. It is even more difficult to figure out how to do some of those things. Brilliant puzzle construction!
Best Level for Careful Guidance of Droids
Camara Blanca 22

This level involves a lot of careful "nudging" of droids to get them to the right places. Wrong moves can often be fixed, but sometimes they are punished harshly.

All of the "Camara" series levels are well done and worth playing. There are 6 levels in the series, each featuring a different color. Each one uses a different mechanic, and many of them non-standard.

Here is a list of all of the levels in the "Camara" series
Best Lethal Maze (#1)
Nexus

I wish it was dark on this level! It feels like a horror movie. There are JUMP SCARES which make you empty your clip into the wall, lol!
Best Lethal Maze (#2)
Blind Maze

This level uses a non-standard mechanic which makes what would be quite simple end up being dangerous. It is easy enough once you know what to expect, though, so no spoilers here.
Best Non-Lethal Maze / Casual Level
Bot Fun Park

The difficulty level on this is pretty low, and the mechanics used are pretty standard, but it never felt boring or tedious to play this one. It was indeed like fun in a park... with bots.
Hardest Fair Level (#1)
Love is a Dangerous Maze

This took me dozens of tries. I gave up and deleted this twice, and I even down-voted it because I thought it was either unfair or unfinishable (I retracted that and up-voted it since then). This is easily the hardest level I was able to complete.
Hardest Fair Level (#2)
Door after Door...

This level is well rounded with standard and non-standard mechanics. Every locked door is also locked in a long hallway of doors leading to the exit. There are glass walls along the sides of all those doors, so you can see your progress.

In my first 8 or 10 tries, I completed about 80% of this, got frustrated, gave up, and deleted the level.

When I decided I was going to write this guide, I figured I should give this level a fair shake, so I tried again. After another half dozen times through, I had found ways to make the hardest parts much easier on myself and was able to complete the level.
Hardest Fair Level (#3)
Droid Factory 1

Another well rounded level with standard and non-standard mechanics.

There were several points in this adventure where I was left scratching my head. Nobody had said they had completed it, so I wondered if it was even possible. It is indeed possible, and quite satisfying when you do solve it!
Best Level I Have Personally Constructed
Heavily Shielded

After playing all of the community levels, I wanted to showcase some of the better ideas in other peoples levels, and try out some of my own ideas. It is intended to be hard but fair. There are some places which require timing, but you should always be able to plan ahead if you are careful and pay attention.

If you have played the "best" levels listed in this guide, then you will see the parts where I have taken inspiration from other's levels.
Conclusion
Playing these levels will add value to the game.

ENJOY!
3 Comments
HereBeBeards  [developer] 15 Sep, 2022 @ 1:06am 
This is awesome, thank you!
Kron Kyrios  [author] 26 Aug, 2022 @ 6:17am 
Not sure how I missed it, but Puzzel Map 2 is another great casual level
jk7201 26 Aug, 2022 @ 2:00am 
A nice guide for a nice game.