Adam's Level Pack 3
for the Jetpack Retrofit Contest 2010
by Adam Dobay (formerly known as DobaySoft)
Contact address: adamdobay [at] gmail [dot] com

Dear everyone,

	Here is my final set of levels for the Retrofit contest. Originally I was not going to submit more than ten or fifteen in this final set but the unanimously positive response to the first two level packs have made me jump in with even more enthusiasm and rework many of my old designs that I have rejected before, as well as creating brand new ones, resulting in 27 brand new designs. Again, all levels were subject to constant and meticulous reworking, tweaking and thorough testing, although one or two levels like The Core and Ziggurat do need more testing before finalisation.
  The difficulty scale this time is divided as follows: 1 easy, 12 medium, 8 hard and 6 expert, with two levels having an additional variation each. Because of the large number of levels, I've put a star in front of my personal favourites.
	
	Have fun!
	
Adam Dobay


Easy levels
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1. Early Morning Jog (D-E-JOG.JET)
The plan was to make a very easy level that also teaches as many skills as possible. So there's the mechanics of jumping, phasing, special blocks, ladders, and harder to get places. Originally it didn't contain any monsters at all, which made it quite dull, so I added the three springs in strategic places.
I'm envisioning a nice outdoorsy theme for this.

Medium levels
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1. Cavesdropping (D-M-DROP.JET)
A pretty convoluted level which I like because of the many paths you can take. Some paths will be easier coming in from one side and vice versa. The rock theme was a given but the block design I'm still not sure about.

2. Crate house 1
A level built around the random button originally and enhanced based on that. Gem placement actually hints safe zones, so you're only unsafe when you're standing where the treasures are.

3. *It was a dark night
I had the bottom part of the design for two years before I figured out what to do with it. More gems could be added in the new game, but here I went for the dark design instead.

4. Garbage dump
This level was also made originally by pressing the random button many times, now it's much more streamlined. I like it because you have to sort through what is a hindrance and what you can use to your advantage as you go along. I also like that you get the jetpack later in the level, but before that you can almost get anything just by jumping.

5. Ode to a Factory Wall
This level was actually inspired by the pattern the water made on my bathroom floor one day. To keep this a medium level, I've kept the spike monster out of the right middle area and made the two small areas in the left treasure-only ones.

6. *The Icy Bridge
Again, a design I had the base of but then had no idea what to do with it. I really like how it turned out.

7. *Mania Marblovich, Jr.
A long level with switches and altering marble paths. You can choose to go for the switch option early and see where it gets you, or just go straightforward and collect all the gems you can.
This probably goes best with a forest/jungle theme.

8. Meet the Monsters
This was meant to be an easy level originally, but I wanted to use all the monsters and added the gold man puzzle at the end so it's harder now.

9. *The forgotten ruins
I wonder how this will look with the new type of columns. You can take a number of paths again, and not worry about anything you've missed as you get a lot of jetpack fuel later on.

10. Things to do with stone
I like how this level looks like one had a big stone slab and then carved into it. Or possibly like an ant hill. Either way, there's three optional areas in the level, two for gold and one for the gold man, one involving Trackbot luring, the other quick skill, and some good timing for the third.

11. *The switch challenge
I love how this one turned out. How difficult the level is really depends on how many springs you can trap with the switches, although your fuel's limited so you can't go back and adjust everything you want.

12. Ziggurat (D-M-ZIGG.JET and D-M-ZIv2.JET)
I got this level design in my mind one day before falling asleep, but then when trying to build it into an actual level it was hard to fit it into the current proportions. So this level had five different designs, the last two I put here. Surely, with the go-through blocks the level is easier than if you have to free the robots from tight spaces, that definitely puts the level into the hard category.

Hard levels
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1. *No more candy before bedtime (D-H-CAND.JET)
A rare full-puzzle level. It breaks one out of five times because the marble falls too low. I tried experimenting with the design but couldn't find a solution, so give a shout if you have one.
Intended theme: candyland.

2. *Control Chaos (D-H-CC.JET)
I had like five of these back in the day, I picked the original and tweaked it for weeks until it came to its current state. I like how the player can actually take multiple approaches to the level, either choosing to race the marbles to reach every part of the level as soon as possible, or to break the cycle and do the level out of the originally intended order, which may be slower but it can also be done.

3. *Crate House 2 (D-H-CRAT.JET)
The use of boxes, rockets and the occasional pink blocks is the same as Crate House 1, but this time the point is to fool around with removing the boxes and get those rockets out of where they are while staying alive.

4. *Crocodile dentist (D-H-CROC.JET)
Poor crocodile, he swallowed stuff he couldn't handle. Time to help him out. A challenging level that needs you to time your phases. Do take the time to remove the springs while you're up on the top, it'll make your escape from the belly of the beast much more safe. The gold man challenge is another thing you can take on in a number of ways.
Intended theme: jungle.

5. Set me free (D-H-FREE.JET)
This pack really has a lot of phasing-centered levels. I actually removed some spikes and added a ditch for the Trackbots to fall in because I deemed the level too long and too hard otherwise.

6. Maze of Gold (D-H-GOLD.JET)
Oh, this was made from perhaps one of my oldest levels ever, so it has a sense of nostalgia associated with it. Not much to comment.

7. *Get your own room (D-H-ROOM.JET)
Many small areas, some need to be revisited when you get the jetpack fuel, a tight design, so it's another signature work.

8. Concentric squares (D-H-SQUA.JET)
Not one of my best work but I liked the pattern and the unique puzzle aspect so I kept it in the group.  


Expert levels
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1. Leave your comfort zone (D-X-COMF.JET)
I really wasn't sure about this level, but I decided to leave it in and leave the decision to you instead. I like the many different types of things you need to do with the springs, but the design just doesn't seem to come together.

2. *The Core (D-X-CORE.JET and D-X-COv2.JET)
My wife and I are fans of the music group Lemon Jelly, but when we got hold of their 2005 album '64-'95, we didn't really like it because it was so much different in sound. However, the beat of one of the tracks, a very strong techno one, put this design into my head in the course of about five seconds. And I still don't like the tune, but I like the level I made out of it. Funny how you get inspiration sometimes.
A long and tedious level, intended for very late in the game, as it requires skill, timing, and jumping and jetpack expertise as well. This is actually the easier version, there were four more springs in the level which I removed because while they made a good challenge on their own, adding them to the already hard level made it unbeatable. I still included that original version in the pack as D-X-COv2.JET if you want to give it a try, but you have been warned.

3. *The Master Puzzle (D-X-PUZZ.JET)
Not much to comment here, a tightly designed puzzle with many elements that I really like.

4. Quick and Dirty (D-X-QUIC.JET)
The original, old design had about five rockets and no gems in it. I decided what the heck, the level is hard enough on its own, let's give it a little twist. My challenge: beat the level in 10 seconds.

5. No rest for the wicked (D-X-REST.JET)
No stops pulled, this is a truly expert level.

6. Just take the robot (D-X-TAKE.JET)
A switch puzzle. It has gone through a number of changes to make it beatable by anyone other than myself, so now I hope it's more accessible. :) It's still pretty hard.