Map-Puzzle Escape room: Obelus #1

BookWyrm

Terrarian
I've been working on this escape/adventure map for a few months now and have finally decided to stop feature-creeping and upload it.
I'm not going to write another paragraph about this thing so here it is:

If you would rather download the world file, it is attached.

This map is in dire need of a re-upload, and I will be remastering it soon. In its current state it is unpolished and odd. It still works, and is completely playable, but it is not on the level of quality I would like.

- In the event some unforeseen update or other cause renders parts of this map useless, feel free to contact me and I will re-upload it.
- If you have any questions about this map, including Wiring, puzzle design, building, steam workshop stuff, etc., you may ask them here and I'll get back whenever I see them.
 

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I managed to craft the giant ruby before I had to quit for the day. I'm excited to see what happens next.
This map is challenging and high-quality, I've been waiting a while for a good puzzle map that uses 1.4.4 mechanics.
 
TIL the phrase "feature-creeping" and i relate to it so hard that i briefly broke the fabric of space time and reality because i do this way too much lmao
so yeah thanks for introducing me to that lol 👍
 
I just beat it! Nothing like a good puzzle map to make me feel smarter than I actually am. That was probably a little over 2 hours of playtime.
Hoping for a sequel because the title has '1' in it and the ending was kind of anticlimactic.
Whole thing was definitely thoroughly tested, I found only 2 problems but they didn't halt progression.
Portal gun station in the dropper area will continue to fire forever, making portals kind of annoying to use. You can exit and re-enter the map to get it to stop though.
During the end sequence, the Shroomite Digging Claws were just out of reach and fell out of the area. I also got sniped by Torch God right after but that might've been my fault for not using the Torch God's Favor.
 
I just beat it! Nothing like a good puzzle map to make me feel smarter than I actually am. That was probably a little over 2 hours of playtime.
Hoping for a sequel because the title has '1' in it and the ending was kind of anticlimactic.
Whole thing was definitely thoroughly tested, I found only 2 problems but they didn't halt progression.
Portal gun station in the dropper area will continue to fire forever, making portals kind of annoying to use. You can exit and re-enter the map to get it to stop though.
During the end sequence, the Shroomite Digging Claws were just out of reach and fell out of the area. I also got sniped by Torch God right after but that might've been my fault for not using the Torch God's Favor.
Portal gun station can also be re-aimed, but the claw is a problem.
Unfortunately it's rather tedious to change the Workshop entry, so I'll only re-post it if I have a significant list of fixes to make. Please tell me of any new problems as they arise.
 
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Having played through the map, what puzzles and elements were your favorite?
Which ones do you never want to have to do again?
What would you like to see in my next project?
Which visuals did you like, which ones could use some work?
Did you enjoy the thematic elements?
What puzzles/effects should I try to add?
How could the map be improved?
Any other suggestions, notes, etc.?

Please mark your response as a spoiler to avoid spoiling.
I'm just trying to get ideas now before I do too much work on #2, It won't be done soon.
 
Having played through the map, what puzzles and elements were your favorite?
I thought a few of them were particularly creative, like the invisible maze where you must use the shadowbeam staff to see the path.
Which ones do you never want to have to do again?
The dropper was really hard at least. Master difficulty making respawn time super high made it a lot more frustrating, but I don't know if there's much to do about that.
What would you like to see in my next project?
Hoping to see the story continue.
Which visuals did you like, which ones could use some work?
I liked the sort of dungeon/tech theme, but some areas were too dark.
Did you enjoy the thematic elements?
Yes
What puzzles/effects should I try to add?
Maybe something that utilizes the fishing rod/Shimmer interaction?
How could the map be improved?
It's not very clear that you're meant to run past the Shimmer after it begins falling at the very beginning of the map. I had to restart the map because I didn't know what I was doing and just went past when the Shimmer was deactivated.
Any other suggestions, notes, etc.?
If the map will take a while, keep in mind that the release of 1.4.5 (which might have useful new mechanics) is ever approaching, however I personally wouldn't count on it to release very soon.
 
I thought a few of them were particularly creative, like the invisible maze where you must use the shadowbeam staff to see the path.

The dropper was really hard at least. Master difficulty making respawn time super high made it a lot more frustrating, but I don't know if there's much to do about that.

Hoping to see the story continue.

I liked the sort of dungeon/tech theme, but some areas were too dark.

Yes

Maybe something that utilizes the fishing rod/Shimmer interaction?

It's not very clear that you're meant to run past the Shimmer after it begins falling at the very beginning of the map. I had to restart the map because I didn't know what I was doing and just went past when the Shimmer was deactivated.

If the map will take a while, keep in mind that the release of 1.4.5 (which might have useful new mechanics) is ever approaching, however I personally wouldn't count on it to release very soon.
Thanks for reminding me about the fishing rod thing.
I completely forgot about it but it has significant potential.
 
Can somebody send me the world file? I want to play this map, but I prefer playing Terraria on my iPad rather than on my computer.
 
See if this works
 

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See if this works
I played it for about an hour, and WOW some of the puzzles are hard.
Especially the one where you have to flip a switch and jump at the same time; it's not that bad on its own, but right after it, there's a parkour area that goes over wooden spikes, and the lack of a spawn point in between exponentially increased the difficulty of both.
It was really satisfying to complete though, and for that reason, I actually really like how hard that puzzle was.

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@BookWyrm I just beat Obelus! It was AMAZING.
I have one complaint though; all of the parkour that involves wooden spikes usually feels either easy or absurdly hard.
Either I can dodge all of the spikes, or there are a few spikes that I get hit by, which occasionally makes it necessary to get back to full health using health regen in between jumps.
And health regen is SUPER SLOW in Obelus, so it usually takes at least 3 minutes. And since most traps one shot the player,
and there aren't any areas with meteorite or hellstone, giving the player a health regen accessory would be a really useful QOL feature, while not breaking the map's balance.
 
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I just beat Obelus! It was AMAZING.
Glad you liked it!
I have one complaint though; all of the parkour that involves wooden spikes usually feels either easy or absurdly hard.
Either I can dodge all of the spikes, or there are a few spikes that I get hit by, which occasionally makes it necessary to get back to full health using health regen in between jumps.
And health regen is SUPER SLOW in Obelus, so it usually takes at least 3 minutes. And since most traps one shot the player,
and there aren't any areas with meteorite or hellstone, giving the player a health regen accessory would be a really useful QOL feature, while not breaking the map's balance.
Yeah, it's already on the list for when I re-upload it, thanks
 
This was meh for me. A few of the sections just felt like they were there for the sake of making you walk back and forth a bunch. I didn't really like this map but I can appreciate the effort that went into it.
I did discover a way to teleport through walls entirely on accident though during my playthrough, that was fun.
 
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This was meh for me. A few of the sections just felt like they were there for the sake of making you walk back and forth a bunch. I didn't really like this map but I can appreciate the effort that went into it.
I did discover a way to teleport through walls entirely on accident though during my playthrough, that was fun.
Thanks for the feedback, I will be re-uploading the map soon, so I'd appreciate it if you could point out where on the map any issues (like teleporting outside) took place.
I'd also like to know which places felt like they were designed for walking, as that was not my intention.
:)
 
Thanks for the feedback, I will be re-uploading the map soon, so I'd appreciate it if you could point out where on the map any issues (like teleporting outside) took place.
I'd also like to know which places felt like they were designed for walking, as that was not my intention.
:)
Alright. Here's my critique of the whole map. If I don't mention something, it means you probably did it well :)
Spoilers for the whole map obviously.
Alrighty, so my first issue with this map comes up in the second room:
Capture 2024-08-05 15_15_40.png

This room was mostly fine and really clever, but I think telling the player "I wouldn't want you to do the previous room again" and then making the puzzle solution going back to spawn and making them doing the previous room again is a bit silly. I would honestly just replace that part of the puzzle entirely.

Next few rooms are great, actually. The reuse of the red and green hint in multiple puzzles for different solutions was probably my favorite part of the entire map.

My next issue is mostly a nitpick so don't worry about this one too much:
Capture 2024-08-05 15_23_51.png

The whole "Flip the world thing" is interesting but can be interpreted in three different ways: Horizontal Flipping, Vertical Flipping, and Color Inversion. This results in the player spending up to 3x as long inputting a solution they already know as what was probably intended, but there's not really a way to fix this and it's not a frustrating puzzle or anything so long as you keep all 3 of those interpretations in mind, so that's okay.

next up is the portal gun section, where we immediately open with a possible softlock.
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This could reasonably be interpreted as the "correct" solution (I assume the actual correct solution is using the teleporter far to the left as a portalable surface or using the portal gun station above this section) which would result in the player teleporting the gem past the gate into the section filled with wooden spikes and losing it there. You may want to slope some of the tiles on this chlorophyte gate to prevent this.
Next up:
Capture 2024-08-05 15_32_53.png

Get baited I actually really liked this room lol. The solution felt unintended and made me feel really smart for figuring it out which is a sign of great puzzle design.

this is where I discovered the bug, fortunately there's nowhere in the map you can actually abuse it.
1722897346607.png

Right clicking the sleep half of bed in this spot phases you right through the teleporter. Pretty fun stuff and you can take it a lot further but that's neither here nor there.

Next up we have this section:
Capture 2024-08-05 15_37_41.png

Mazes aren't particularly fun. They don't really present challenge and just end up being time wasters, especially with the player's lack of movement accessories to speed things up. This one's random flickering was also pretty headache inducing and I'm not even bothered by flashing lights. Also, the pressure plates can be accidentally triggered multiple times which makes things even more annoying. If you like I can teach you how to make pressure plates only work once.

1722897598696.png

My resolution also revealed these bubbles everywhere due to not being fully out of echo sight range, not sure if that was intended.
Next room.
Capture 2024-08-05 15_41_01.png

This maze is even bigger than the last one and you can't see any of the walls directly. This idea is really cool, I get it, but it's not fun to actually play or solve in practice at all. I don't really know how to save it. It's ridiculously tedious.

Next up is another minor nitpick:
Capture 2024-08-05 15_43_17.png

This room should probably just have not had any puzzle in it unless it was intentionally there to waste your time. judging by the sign here I'm not sure if that was intended or not though. There also seems to be echo sight bleeding into this area again.

Dropper next.
Capture 2024-08-05 15_46_00.png

Is this first platform supposed to be completely undodgeable? You literally can't fall past it from the top without landing on it.
1722898070088.png

I get the intent behind this but it's not very feasible to actually pull off in practice. You basically need to pause buffer with autopause as the portal gun makes you fall so fast when held that you can't reach the center in time without autopause.
Rest of the dropper is fine so let's continue on.
Capture 2024-08-05 15_51_41.png

These things aren't fun to mess with. They're extremely precise to trigger and very finicky to work with even as someone experienced with hoiks. I kinda groaned the next time they showed up.

Next.
1722898397062.png

This room was one you could solve by eyeballing it for less than a second and was basically just running back and forth once you actually figured out how to do it. It felt a lot lazier than the rest of the map.

You probably already know how I feel about this next room, then.
Capture 2024-08-05 15_55_14.png

Yeah, didn't like it.

Next up is the worst section in the entire map by a longshot imo.
Capture 2024-08-05 15_56_13.png

Pick a path is horrible design as is, but with terraria's excessive respawn timers the problem becomes even worse. Please change the spear traps to invisible teleporters or something so you're not spending several minutes doing nothing in this part just because you chose wrong.

Next up is the minecart section.
Capture 2024-08-05 15_58_28.png

This section really is nice in theory but you can literally just step off the minecart to cheese 90% of it. There's not a sign or anything saying you can't do that either.
You can also... just hold up or down to switch directions on the junctions. That kinda cheeses most of the early part of this section.

Next issue is after you get the gravity globe.
1722899036674.png

Why is this section so long lol. The question is easy to answer but this section has nothing to offer gameplay wise.

There's really not much else to talk about for the next several sections as they were mostly just boring gravity globe gameplay which was pretty easy to get through unfortunately.

My last issue with this map comes from the win screen.

I really would have loved to explore this map with the shroomite digging claw, but I can't. You put the claw's item frame too far away from the spot you trapped the player in, so there's a 50% chance it goes left and a 50% chance it goes right. If it goes left it falls all the way to the bottom of the room and you can't pick it up :(

Anyway, this map is better than I remember, but the weakest parts of it are the later ones which left a negative impression on me.
 

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This room was mostly fine and really clever, but I think telling the player "I wouldn't want you to do the previous room again" and then making the puzzle solution going back to spawn and making them doing the previous room again is a bit silly. I would honestly just replace that part of the puzzle entirely.
I'm already going to redesign most of the first part of the map, but this helps me decide what I'm going to carry over, thanks.
The whole "Flip the world thing" is interesting but can be interpreted in three different ways: Horizontal Flipping, Vertical Flipping, and Color Inversion. This results in the player spending up to 3x as long inputting a solution they already know as what was probably intended, but there's not really a way to fix this and it's not a frustrating puzzle or anything so long as you keep all 3 of those interpretations in mind, so that's okay.
Good point, I may change the wording on that
Mazes aren't particularly fun. They don't really present challenge and just end up being time wasters, especially with the player's lack of movement accessories to speed things up. This one's random flickering was also pretty headache inducing and I'm not even bothered by flashing lights.
This maze is even bigger than the last one and you can't see any of the walls directly. This idea is really cool, I get it, but it's not fun to actually play or solve in practice at all. I don't really know how to save it. It's ridiculously tedious.
I've got mixed feelings about the mazes, they're probably not going to make the re-upload, but I'll keep something similar in, just so the mechanics are used.
Also, the pressure plates can be accidentally triggered multiple times which makes things even more annoying. If you like I can teach you how to make pressure plates only work once.
I know how to do that now, of course, but back when I made it I had no clue. If that maze does stay, the pressure plates are definitely getting an upgrade.
This room should probably just have not had any puzzle in it unless it was intentionally there to waste your time. judging by the sign here I'm not sure if that was intended or not though. There also seems to be echo sight bleeding into this area again.
Good point. The whole Shadowbeam Staff bit is honestly more trouble than it's worth. There are much better weapons with bouncing projectiles.
Is this first platform supposed to be completely undodgeable? You literally can't fall past it from the top without landing on it.
If you stand on the right side of the hole and walk left, you can dodge it.
I get the intent behind this but it's not very feasible to actually pull off in practice. You basically need to pause buffer with autopause as the portal gun makes you fall so fast when held that you can't reach the center in time without autopause.
I never had much trouble with it, but I also practiced it dozens of times during testing, so that doesn't mean anything. I'm definitely going to keep something similar to this, but putting it after an already difficult portion of the dropper is brutal.
These things aren't fun to mess with. They're extremely precise to trigger and very finicky to work with even as someone experienced with hoiks. I kinda groaned the next time they showed up.
Yeah, didn't like it.
Fair. Another one that isn't going to stay.
This room was one you could solve by eyeballing it for less than a second and was basically just running back and forth once you actually figured out how to do it. It felt a lot lazier than the rest of the map.
I'll fill that extra space with something else, I agree it's a little big.
Pick a path is horrible design as is, but with terraria's excessive respawn timers the problem becomes even worse. Please change the spear traps to invisible teleporters or something so you're not spending several minutes doing nothing in this part just because you chose wrong.
I'm probably just going to ditch this entirely and replace it. I added a similar version to my second map, but it's at least shorter.
This section really is nice in theory but you can literally just step off the minecart to cheese 90% of it. There's not a sign or anything saying you can't do that either.
You can also... just hold up or down to switch directions on the junctions. That kinda cheeses most of the early part of this section.
I still like the idea of a water level, but I didn't do any justice to the potential here.
Why is this section so long lol. The question is easy to answer but this section has nothing to offer gameplay wise.
The point is to disorient the player, though it doesn't really work that well. I'm probably not going to change this, just because there isn't really anything else to put there.
I really would have loved to explore this map with the shroomite digging claw, but I can't. You put the claw's item frame too far away from the spot you trapped the player in, so there's a 50% chance it goes left and a 50% chance it goes right. If it goes left it falls all the way to the bottom of the room and you can't pick it up :(
I do have to figure out something with the win screen. I'm probably going to use the same teleporter to move the player out after a few seconds. I can't physically place the item frame any closer, because the wiring for the light effect (with three stages) takes up so much space in junction boxes.
Anyway, this map is better than I remember, but the weakest parts of it are the later ones which left a negative impression on me.
I'm glad it wasn't all bad :)

Thanks for the feedback, this really helps.
Most of what you said probably wasn't going to get fixed in the re-upload, but now that you've pointed it out I can see the issues.
:)
 
One of the first Adventure Maps I've played, it was sooooo cool!
 
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