Alright, voting was really hard this time for me; I thoroughly enjoyed each and every entry for one reason or another (my own because I enjoyed making it
)
1 Point to: Sammy_P
I have pretty much the exact same thoughts as Ash. Nothing is wrong with this puzzle, it's one of the best ones I've played in a long time (along with Ash's), and that sneaky little trick (the one that fooled me for so long, you know which one I'm talking about) was genius, and the dialogue amusing as all heck.
But, much the same with Ash's praise, I sing its faults. For sure hidden elements were a bit of a bafflebutt when it came to me realizing how to get those gems (and thus solve the puzzle), but that I could ignore if it weren't for the simple fact that this adventure didn't use the flowers in any way other than amusement purposes — which, if you ask me, sort of detracts from the point of this contest.
That said, nothing was explicitly against the rules — I've even specifically said that flowers may be used simply for dialogue purposes,
although I knew going forward with that that that (3 lone thats challenge) would be an issue for the creators and voters to decide.
Even with all that in mind, this was still a difficult decision to make. As I've told you three times now, and you're probably sick of me saying,
this would honestly make a better Uo puzzle than almost any of the actual Uo puzzles.
2 Points to: Cookie
Cookie, you actually used your flowers. [/lobbingsalt] jk jk
Seriously though, you did use your flowers in a very interesting way, and the rest of the puzzle was pretty darn solid. I still find it amusing that I solved the turtle thing without using the intended mechanisms.
Overall a really decent puzzle. The others were really good too, hence why I had trouble voting for second-place, but I think yours surpass the others just enough to warrant second-place in my books.
3 Points to: Ash
The only one I wasn't sure about giving points to was Ash. Amusing story, cute level design, excellent and flawless puzzles all glued together with a unique mechanic that I envy not coming up with for my own hub.
Absolutely deserving of 1st place without a single doubt in my mind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The other contest entries were good — yot yot's a very challenging puzzle I have yet to even begin to get a clue on, Wonderman109's the opposite end of the spectrum being a cute little reprieve from the madness in the other submissions. If I could, I'd probably have put Sammy's, and Yot Yot's in a tie (sorry Wonderman109).
In the end, it was difficult to rank these. Where one adventure might have lacked in one element (be it solvability, humor, flower relevance, brokenness of solution, etc.), it excelled in another. But despite yot yot's being the far more beautiful and having a deceptive sense of looking simple, it's not just difficult — it's downright dumbfounding, or perhaps "unstable" is another way to describe it. [99% sure half my hub adventures fall in this category]. It's absolutely a work of art, but I think I have to say that Samuel's was more "fun to solve", so to speak. Again, it was an extraordinarily difficult decision to make though, and I did enjoy everyone's adventures for at least one reason or another.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now an announcement: Voting will be pushed back to November 16th, simply so there's more time for people to vote.
That said, unless a rush of folks suddenly vote wildly differently from expected, I suspect at least one winner will be clear-cut far sooner than that.
)
