The main deadlock here is extremely subtle, and finding a way to avoid it subtler yet. Spent ages working in the editor before managing to rule out what was impossible, and then finally out of the ashes a solution emerged.
I am proud of this level. Pretty complicated to reach the exit and basically none of it was broken despite minimal testing. Not really convinced 549 is optimal, but I found it surprisingly doable now that I am better at optimizing. I'll probably keep looking for more just in case it's possible for me to take the record back.
The flavor of this level is pain. It looks like a demonic blob of intricacy and chaos. In this case, the chaos mostly functions as obfuscation and intimidation. I spent a long time in the editor replacing blocks with walls, and after doing so had a fairly nice time reaching the exit. DM me on discord and I'll send you the level code for the cleaned version of this level in my drafts.
I found the process of figuring out which blocks I was allowed to push to be quite enjoyable. This is probably my favorite PP1 level so far, might even inspire me to try making something similar.
This pipe used to break my brain, but after making the level “train intersection” I have started recognizing it everywhere and understanding it better.
Insights