Thanks for showing new ways of breaking the prison. I appreciate your creativity and skill. It's funny to watch, at the same time I'm glad I didn't waste more time updating this failure and built a new Prison instead with increased safety measures. I guess we'll see how well that works to limit the captive's freedom. :)

We can already appreciate your crazy brain in your very first test.
With a healthy dose of good will, I managed to finish like this :
https://youtu.be/3lxzqdSkQfQ
All means are good to break the prison .. I'll play your remake later :)

See, I try to feel normal, very similar.

This is the first map in my workshop, I do things now differently. And there is a new version of the map, look in the description.

you said no kengdie....but i use one day cross this puzzle,this is very very kengdie!!!

Since there was so much to change I decided from the start to publish it as a new map. The new version still needs playtesting but I hope it has the potential to be a much better map and to compensate the mistakes I've made with this one.

Prison Break 2013

Thanks to all for playing and commenting. I used to be quite happy with this map. The demo from cracked_magnet showed some major problems though so it was inevitable to look at it again although I had a bad feeling about this. When I opened the map in the editor I was truly shocked, what a mess! The editor did not have options back then to set visuals for the connections and I have done things in this map that I frown upon today. The final solution annoyed the hell out of me and I almost couldn't do it myself. Everybody who enjoyed this map must be a masochist.

Great chamber! Very hard indeed. Probably even harder than mine! Not only was it difficult to deduce what to do, but also to actually do it. I think I repeated the final move three or four times before I succeeded. Thumb up!

Thank you very much, it was very insightful. Part of your solution looks very nice and part of it looks almost brutal. It's some food for thought. I was aware of some flaws and chose to ignore them because it wasn't a big deal. Now I'm forced to think what useful changes could be applied.

After finally completing this map, I was surpirsed to read through the comments and discover there was a franken cube room that I wasn't aware of. So it appears I havn't completed the level as expected. I've recorded a demo to show how i've done it. Not sure why its so large as i've never recorded one of these before. Anyway here it is [http//url%3Dhttps]

But that's how the concept works. Nothing is hidden. You will face the consequences when you do a silly thing. I never claimed that it is idiot-proof, as this ambitious map was not made for idiots. I understand that it will not appeal to people who prefer the clean style of Aperture test chambers. It's different from that. Usually I avoid all circumstances which could trap the player and force him to manually restart the map. There is a little back story to the turrets though. It started with the predecessor map. People kept finding ways to kill the turrets early on in unintended ways because I would always provide an escape route. At one point I was sick of it and went: fine, keep killing the turrets if that is so important to you, but you will obviously trap yourself and what then Sherlock?

First time around I avoided the trap of getting stuck with the turrets. Second time around I had the presumption in mind that the player can never get trapped in this test, and lo and behold I got trapped (which means that this test chamber is not idiot-proof).

True the player could kill themself in the first room, but it's incredibly annoying to have to do it manually.

Was that by accident or did you deliberately go down to kill the turrets without thinking how to get out? I need the turrets to be safe until a certain point, they can be killed later. To protect the turrets I had a laser field above them initially, then decided it would be apparent enough that jumping down would offer no way back, so the turrets are better left alone. I could add that laser field back, but I felt it was too much already with all the other fields.
Your scenario for the companion cube would not get the player trapped in my opinion. If he was stranded there he could kill himself by stepping on the faith plate.

Unfortunate news: I managed to get trapped in the area with the turrets (and no, I didn't die there). I also saw the potential to get trapped in the starting room if the player lauches the companion cube off the faith plate and it doesn't get fizzled. This could be due to the lack of a button for the companion cube dropper.

I absolutely love that you appreciate obscure techniques. I do too. However there's a balance between getting focused on the puzzle, and accounting for any errors the player may make (i.e. getting trapped).

I've only played the map twice. The first time, I got stuck because I collected the sphere before I put a cube in the socket. Once I put a cube in the socket, I couldn't find a way out. I doubt that I could play the map again the same way, because I spent a lot of time recovering from mistakes. But when I play it again, I'll record it.

Seeing your solution might be interesting nevertheless. It would give me a reason to put my hands on it again if I'd see a very unintended solution. This map is the heavily edited and expanded version of my first ever published map, which was horrible. I can still see some of the old map shining through. It is probably ok the way it is but I keep thinking that a little makeover might not be a bad thing.

I finally got through it, then watched your video. Hoo, boy, did I do it differently. For example, the companion cube was in the socket to drop the death grille at the exit. In fact, about the only thing I did the same way was getting the sphere past the fizzler. However, I used no exploits, and your solution is much more elegant, so I won't bother to record another wacky solution video. I'm adding this one to my Favorite Hard Maps collection, too.

I was aware of it while I made the map. Actually it was very helpful because it makes it impossible for the player to trap himself, while not harming the puzzle.

I found an odd little glitch in the frankenturret room. If you're in the cage with the turret dropper, and you place a portal behind the bridge under the dropper button, you can walk right through the bridge. It doesn't break the solution, or trap you, so it doesn't need to be fixed.

I haven't finished it yet. This one is quite complex Back to work.

TOTALLY GREAT CHAMBER... thx toncinca... thx again^^

Why you do it wrong all the time, WHY? ;)
Alright, it's not a big deal. The field got moved because falling down from above got me fried sometimes while testing, so I changed the alignment to have a little more space there. I think it's better to leave it that way.

I skipped pretty much the whole thing where you have to ride up the funnel and move the cube then fall down and fly up to push the button. I discovered that I can fit in the gap on the balcony behind the laser grid so I used that to drop and fling myself up to push the button which made it a lot easier

Congratulations! In the final act the player has some freedom how to perform the solution. Compare the video from XLR8br with mine, that's all fine. I hope you stuck to the plan roughly and didn't bypass something vital. I'd like to know if you found something else.

I finally did it. Though I don't think the way I did the end was intended. The very last puzzle ended up being by far the hardest.

I was like 'yesssss I did it! oh my god don't step on the faith plate, just CAREFULY go out the door'.

Nice level with creative use of stuff. Haven't finished it yet but I have a feeling I will at some point. Up rated it.

Thanks for the new video. I'm very pleased to see that the updates payed off. Yours and a blind run video from BlumCole have helped me a lot to make the map better. While you were recording the latest video I was still searching for how to remove some alternative ways but it wasn't really possible without major drawbacks (like possibly trapping the player), and I just accepted the fact that some things can be done differently. So you basically played the final version. You did not skip any important step, you perform the final act merely in a more time efficient way. I'm cool with that. My video shows some actions I would like to see the player perform, but in the end the result is the same and it comes down to personal taste which actions one prefers.

Wow, lots of changes, much more challenging now, I like it! Here's another run (version Jul 20, 2012 @ 1:01am GMT) I must have broken something as usual. That's it for me, I'm done with this map, looking forward to your next maps!

Changes, they have been made. Unless they open up other holes I think the solution fits now better in the final act. It was a bit on the obvious side before. The player has now a new option to kill the turret in the franken cube room while the old method is still valid. Advice to avoid problems with the franken cube: shoot the portal so that it touches the ground. Don't force the franken cube to lose touch with the ground or else it will jump high in the air, fall to the ground and stay there helplessly with his legs struggling in the air, like an italian football player.

The way it is now, it does not seem to work too good for the players. That's just the way I see it. I'm the third guy with problems in that room.

Yes, that is the annoying part and by doing so you have be quick and precise. The player has to grab the franken cube, let it go, turn around, shoot a portal and step on the button and sometimes the turret shoots you too. I don't really know how you are going to improve that because you grab the cube so close to the portal that it leaves only few seconds to react. As for freeing the franken cube, I did not know that. The way I did it felt legit so I did not bother.

I played a couple to times to record the video, kind of a warm up. What if the player had a bit more time to shoot the portal and walk to the button ?

@XLR8br, thanks for the video. I wasn't planning on editing this map anymore but your video shows some shocking holes in my map. What to do...
Do you have suggestions for the franken cube room? Grating doesn't work because the cube goes through. Earlier versions had different portal surface placements which made it hard to see the path of the franken cube, so that got fixed. The handling can be quite annoying as I have seen in the demo from derula. I don't have an idea how to make that better. You seem to handle it pretty well in the video though.

Great map! I believe I solved this differently as the companion cube never left home. I suggest you optimize the franken cube room, it's harder than it should be, quite annoying. Other than that, wonderful job, thumbs up! video

Interesting. But I shudder at the thought of how much disk space has to be available to record uncompressed Video in 1920x1080 with moderate lenghts.

Nah, that was a live demo. Maybe it felt smoother because it acted by itself or something. I dunno. I was talking about this: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Demo_Video_Creation

I was wondering about that too. The game felt a lot smoother while watching the demo.

Yeah, I thought I had grabbed without crouching before, but somehow it didn't seem to work then . Anyway, pretty interesting that this works. I also found out that you can use demos to render a video at constant framerate and perfect graphical settings, even if your PC sucks (like mine, for example) and you could never record that video in realtime. I will make videos like that in the future o.o

Watched your demo and it works like a charm, thank you! It's pretty cool, saves recording some videos. It's amazing to see the ways people find. I've added my own demo file to the description in which all turrets survive. If someone wants the sphere to remove some turrets the fizzler has to be disabled before.
I see now how Franky can cause frustration. Two points: 1. you can grab through the light bridge, no need to crouch; he will drop to his feet if you let him go while holding him in normal height 2. Franky can't jump, the portal mustn't be above the ground
I just got it right from the beginning and didn't imagine the problems that it might give.

Here's your demo... or... as close as it will get: http://www.mediafire.com/?9xxh9v336clmmnf

I actually made a complete playthrough, including killing the turrets and getting back from there... but then I realized it stops recording when I die and it only recorded several dozens of hours of me trying to place the cube right so I can drag it over with the funnel. Then I retried, and when Franky derped out for the four hundredth time, I thought it's best to just commit suicide.

Will try to remember to record right away next time.

Good to know he didn't dissapoint. I always cheered when he did it on his first try, with a little chuckle and a little bit of feeling creeped out. :)

I agree with everything. And LPChip will be mad at me now, but I solved the franky puzzle the intended way and actually really liked that part. (As a side note, he told me that he thinks franky ALWAYS misses on its first attempt; while I failed to disprove him then, in this version the tough little soldier hit its target right away.)
I've never recorded a demo, but I'll look into it, and add that other map to my queue.

Still would like to see how another player proceeds through the level. I never tried demos before but it should be rather simple. I was most worried about the franky part. When I told LPChip how to solve that part he had it with this map and refused to continue because nobody would think of doing that, he claimed. If that part was no problem to you I would be interested to see how you perform on "Preparations Three".
Overall I'm quite happy with the way the map turned out, there is some resemblance left with the old Franky version though. Fortunately not very much. It was a bad map I realized later, a map typically produced by someone who had just started using the puzzle editor.

The screens only show off stuff that may be unintended (getting trapped by cube climbing / flinging; getting the companion cube to the other side with the funnel; climb cubes to take out turrets and even get back out of there; the hint that with the same method, one could try to get the sphere close to the sphere button; and the last one is just to show I beat it in the end). Pretty sure I got Franky the intended way.
Overall I liked the level, and had fun trying to break it. Was much more fun to me than "unleash the franky". I liked the overall design much better, too.

Well done! I was aware that a player who goes turret hunting could trap himself. You could call that almost intended, because the turrets play a minor role. Only one time you need to worry about getting shot at while moving to the upper stage. So my message was: leave them alone, you monster!
Your screenshots tell an incomplete story, it's hard to tell how much, if any, you followed the intended path and many loop holes you found. For example how did you get the frankencube? Have you thought about recording a video or a demo?

:) http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561197986036043/screenshot/596975235268550213

Overall, this wasn't so hard. I don't like timed puzzles that much, but the time they gave you was plenty. Could have done the puzzle around the second timer twice in the given time.

Of course, I didn't have any annoying turrets to worry about any more at that point.

WE'RE COMING TO RESCUE YOU, SPHERE! http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561197986036043/screenshot/596975235268426645

(Sadly, this failed, because the sphere got fizzled immediately after that, and then, the turret tower collapsed and I was stuck. But in theory, it could work.)

Build a tower... http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561197986036043/screenshot/596975235268075571
...kill ALL the turrets!... http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561197986036043/screenshot/596975235268085687
...and go back. http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561197986036043/screenshot/596975235268095306

Oh man, if I'm solving this as intended, you are insane.

Well that was certainly tricky! http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561197986036043/screenshot/596975235267621611
What now? http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561197986036043/screenshot/596975235267625106

Again :(
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561197986036043/screenshot/596975235267464710

I got trapped :(
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561197986036043/screenshot/596975235267405261