Secret Squirrel is a very creative man who has made 1000+ levels. Most of them looks nice and interesting. He is also good at hunting GHS and is the champion of Ch-IV.lvl file.
Q1: What do you think about this game?
A1: I think it�"s a great game and it is one of my favourites. I play other games that require both precision and fast reflexes but this is enjoyable both to both play and to create new levels.
With the introduction of ice and tunnels in version 4, I think it achieved a perfectly-balanced mix of terrain-types and objects. The only objects I would still like to see introduced are coloured doors and matching keys that you have to go and collect to open the doors.
Q2: It is seemed that You started to play the game around 2000,and more than 15 years have passed. How did you insist?
A2: I obtained version 2 of the game on a CD collection and, after playing the included 78(!) levels, I started �Sfixing⬝ some of them to block shortcuts or add additional elements. I then made about 150 levels over a 9-month period before temporarily exhausting my enthusiasm.
Home internet connectivity was expensive in Australia back then so I only had a time-limited dial-up connection which was sufficient for email but not regular browsing. I did nothing further with LaserTank until I got a broadband connection in September 2005 and decided to see if the Yahoo group still existed. I discovered than Donald was now running things, the game was up to version 4, there were some new objects/terrain, and thousands more levels! It�"s been a fun ride since.
Q3: You have made more than 1000 levels. Where did you get inspirations when creating the levels?
A3: I find inspiration from many different sources. My early levels often looked like something; eg a castle, the Australian flag, or a Christmas tree, while other levels had a strong pattern or repetitive structure to them. I also liked giving myself challenges such as only using one of each object type or making a level entirely out of movable mirrors that you had to shift out of your way in a particular order.
Other times I would have an idea for a particular mechanic such as needing to shuffle a whole bunch of objects past each other to get the one thing that you want (which was always unhelpfully right at the back) or using a timing trick to trigger the correct Anti-Tank to shoot at exactly the right moment to hit some other object (which might be sliding across ice).
And of course sometimes I play a level created by someone else where I can make some changes to create a modified version with a different solution.
Q4: Many of your levels look lovely. How could you combine �Slook⬝ & ⬝logic⬝?
A4: Thank you. While I don�"t think that the look of a level should take precedence over function, I generally try to give my levels a clean, balanced appearance rather than look as if someone just tipped a bucket of LaserTank tiles onto the playing field and then went off to lunch and didn�"t come back to tidy up.
I also like to leave many of my levels fairly open to encourage the player to look for different or especially creative solutions. (Sometimes they find unintended shortcuts but that�"s part of the fun!)
However, sometimes there just isn�"t enough room to do what I want neatly and I end up cramming things in and making an unattractive level that people hopefully still find fun to play.
Q5: Which are your favorite levels that were made by yourself? (You have sent a list to me before. Would you like to keep it the same?)
A5: With well over a 1000 levels, that is a difficult question to answer properly, especially as I will undoubtedly forget some without trawling through them all. I will defer to the list and reasons which I have previously sent to you.
[Then I found the list as below. ]
Ch-III 1728 Guard of Honour � an early level, my first one to be rated �SHard⬝, and my first attempt at playing with altering the timing of the shooting of the ATs.
Ch-III 1939 The Crooked Path � another early level. This one forces you to complete several circuits where you have to keep adjusting some blocks
Ch-IV 0208 Combination Lock � my first level to properly implement this �Scounting in binary⬝ process that undoes your past work by resetting ��ones�" to ��zeroes�". I have used this general technique in a number of my later levels.
Ch-IV 0295 Code Reader and Copier � it looks bit of a mess but it implements a nice idea where it �Sreads⬝ a code that you create on the red tunnels and then selects the correct piece (�Scopies⬝) for the green tunnels.
Ch-IV 0443 Musical Chairs � it�"s not a hard level to solve (there is not much to it) but if you move your tank up at the start you will see that I was able to have 5 blocks continuously moving between the 4 vertices of a square. I don�"t think even 4 had been used before.
Ch-IV 1168 Your Rotary Nightmare � I think that this is probably the first level which I modified that would qualify as a favourite, altho�" that is possibly as much to do with the quality of the original level.
Ch-IV 1217 Escher�"s Staircase � based on the Penrose Impossible Stairs, where you walk round and around but keep walking upwards.
Sok-II 0643 Shortcut Soko � My first Sokoban type level that�"s good enough to list here.
Ch-IV 1825 Through Seaming � another modification, this time based on a Beginner level, that just about makes the grade.
Sok-II 0979 Wiggle Room � I just liked the idea of making the player weave the blocks past the ATs whilst having to ensure that the ATs remained available for use at the end.
Sok-II 0983 Keystone � only just been solved. I think it�"s prob difficult to work out exactly what is required which makes it harder to decide how you will go about doing it. The GHS is quite a bit shorter than my score so it might have a small hole.
Sok-II 1041 Open Door Policy � an �Sold school⬝ type level with (I think) some nice ideas.
Sok-II 1074 Side-tracked III � a relatively easy level but hopefully fun to play.
Sok-II 1124 Interference III � another relatively simple level that implements what I think is a nice idea.
[Among these excellent levels, personally my favorite is Ch-IV#1168.]
I did make non-playable extended versions of some of the �Smachine⬝ levels that I made, plus a binary adder and a couple of real-time clocks (1 hour and 12 hour). These are in the Simulations.lvl file in the �SMore Levels⬝ section on the website since they can�"t be played like regular levels.
Q6: People may be afraid of timing tricks. As an expert of timing tricks, could you give some advice to LT�"ers?
A6: Hm, ok. The first thing to understand is that LaserTank is completely deterministic. This means that every single game state (position and orientation of static objects, position and direction of any moving objects or laser beam) always leads to exactly one other state � ie given the same starting position and key press (Up, Down, Left, Right, Shoot) the exact same things will always happen in exactly the same sequence.
The second thing to understand is that, when there are multiple objects (plus possibly an Anti-Tank laser beam) moving, the game moves them each individually one space at a time in a rigidly determined sequence, even though it might look as if they are moving simultaneously. This means that if you have two or more objects sliding toward the same square, one of them (the last one to start moving) will always arrive first (and then possibly stop the others in their tracks). My level �SBlock Meeting⬝ � Challenge IV 441 � demonstrates this fairly well.
There are also some game quirks which are not intuitive which must be learned. Things such as being able to safely pass through an Anti-Tank laser if you are in the correct �Sphase⬝ or the extra �Skick⬝ that you get when you first start moving or sliding (or slide from Ice to Tank-mover), which can get you safely past an Anti-Tank that would otherwise shoot you.
The important thing to do if you�"re unsure of how things work is to make a test level with the built-in editor and try putting Anti-Tanks in different positions and objects to block their lasers at different times. This is what I did to learn what was going on. I still do this to check my understanding or try out different things.
The first level that I made which explicitly used the changing of the timing of Anti-Tank shots in the solution was �S+Guard of Honour⬝ back in June 2000 (Challenge-III 1728). Of course, you can do a lot more interesting things now that we have Ice as well as Tank-movers
Q7: You keep such a lot of GHSs. Would you like to share some experiences?
A7: I have less fun with this aspect these days, partly because there are less players submitting LPBs, but mainly because I have less time to play LaserTank, so I can�"t commit to being a GHS Hunter to the same degree that I used to. It�"s also harder because I prefer to put most of the relatively little time that I do get for LaserTank toward making more levels and I am not able to get the GHS for my own levels.
There have been some levels where I traded GHS scores with someone back and forth for a while. Each Monthly Update I�"d check to see if they�"d beaten me again or if I still held the GHS. However, I can�"t keep track of all of them and sometimes someone will beat my score years after I first got the GHS.
I used to find it fascinating that just when I thought that a solution had been fully optimized, someone would find a 2-move saving.
I�"ll let you into a secret. I often find that when I make a Mod of someone�"s level, it affords me greater insight into how it all fits together which can sometimes lead to discovering a new (and shorter) way to solve it. I recommend that everyone try their hand at making levels, even if they think that they won�"t be very good. What you might consider to be of insufficient standard could be just the diversion that someone else is looking to play for 15 minutes.
Q8: Which kind of levels do you like to try, and whose levels do you prefer?
A8: This has changed over time. When I first started playing LaserTank again, in 2005 (we were part way through Challenge-III), I found �SHard⬝ levels to be very hard (and time-consuming) and �SDeadly⬝ to be virtually impossible. Then, as I played more and got better, I found that I mostly enjoyed playing well-crafted upper-�SMedium⬝ and �SHard⬝ levels. However, I still found that �SDeadly⬝ levels usually required too great a commitment of time, even if I knew how to solve them. I could spend 2 hours playing one �SDeadly⬝ level or I could play two �SHard⬝, five �SMedium⬝, or fifteen �SEasy⬝ ones.
These days, with such limited playing time, I tend to focus on �SEasy⬝ and shorter �SMedium⬝ levels. I have a pretty strict equation � my enjoyment/interest must be proportional to the amount of time that I expect to spend on the level. Naturally, more difficult levels usually take longer to solve so they must also be more fun/interesting for me to play. Often, when the Monthly Update comes out, I will skip a �SMedium⬝ or �SHard⬝ level, intending to return to it later but then I don�"t because I am usually creating levels later in the month.
Q9: What do you think about your opponents, like Iron, AL, jojo, etc, and what�"s your feeling if your score was beaten?
A9: They, as well as Jay, Ihab, LFE, yourself, and some others are very good players. Jojo was king of the Easy levels when I first joined the group in 2005 � he was very good at finding the minimal solution. Many times I thought that my submitted LPB was as efficient as it could be only to find that his score was 2 or 4 (or sometimes 24!) moves less than mine.
Jay was (and still is) the king of Sokoban and Ihab is the Master of Manipulating Mirrors (especially Rotary ones). AL and I have traded GHSs for a lot of levels over the years and we were competing to be #1 in Challenge-IV many months after Challenge-V was started.
As much as I do try to obtain and retain GHS�"s, I don�"t mind if someone finds a better solution. Of course, I will usually try to see if I can find or beat it. Sometimes I�"m surprised to see that my score has been beaten by a large margin. This usually indicates that the other player has found a different, often interesting, method of solving the level (or that I was drunk when I played the level).
Occasionally I am beaten by a few moves or shots because I missed something simple or took a detour that I didn�"t need to. That can be disappointing but I know that it will sometimes happen � I just don�"t know on which levels.
Sometimes it is me who finds the 2-move saving and I can feel like a Champion for a few moments!
Q10: Do you know any interesting stories about LT?
A10: 1. It is the National Game of Mongolia and also quite popular with the Danish Royal Family.
2. Charles Babbage was the first to invent a mechanical version of LaserTank before the creation of the vacuum tube transistor.
3. One of the novels shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize � A Tale for the Time Being � mentions LaserTank several times.
4. Garry Kasparov, World Chess Champion 1985-1993 said that if LaserTank had been around when he was young he would have played that instead of chess.
5. I�"m not actually a squirrel.
*Only one of the above stories is true and it�"s not particularly interesting.
Q11: LT�"ers may want to know more about you in the real life. Could you say something about your real life? Is anything of LT helpful for your life?
A11: I live in Perth, Western Australia and have a dense unruly front and back garden. The birds (and rats) love it and it helps keep my yard and house cooler.
I provide advice and technical support on all aspects of IT (information technology � computers, servers, networks) to small businesses and community organizations.
My favourite number is phi, the Golden Ratio, which doesn�"t come up in Lotto very often, and my favourite colour is all fifty shades of grey. Actually, I�"m sure that there are a lot more than 50 shades, possibly as many as 90. Ok, exactly 96.
I once got to meet Tina Fey because I play LaserTank. Wait⬦ no, that was a dream. Actually I can�"t recall LaserTank ever being helpful in my real life. It has sometimes meant that I�"ve not done housework, so that�"s sort of good except that the housework still has to be done later.
Q12: What do you think about the future of Lasertank? What should be changed to attract more people?
A12: That�"s a very good question and I don�"t really have an answer. Clearly, LaserTank is not as popular as it once was. You only have to look at how many messages used to be posted in the forum, how many people were submitting levels, and how many different initials cropped up in the GHS tables.
It has a lot more to compete with these days, with so many free games of varying types that are easily obtainable, and younger people tending to favour mobile platforms rather than desktops. We�"re also located in a very uncool part of the web (Yahoo) with phpBB-based forums and Facebook having long surpassed the clunky Groups platform.
People seem to stumble upon LaserTank and I imagine that the very low level of engagement means that most of them will probably simply leave and not come back, let alone get around to submitting GHS�"s or making levels.
Another part of the problem is also that the people who seem to like LaserTank the most, would rather spend their time playing LT (or making levels) instead of talking about it. I�"m not referring to the inane chattering which makes up most of Facebook and almost all of Twitter, but to scholarly discourse on ideas or techniques or even just plain old feedback.
I assume that almost all of my levels are liked by someone but have no idea by how much or by how many because nobody says anything. Perhaps they�"re mostly stinkers and people are too polite to mention it? I�"m happy to keep churning them out as long as I keep having ideas but I think that a lot of people like to get some sort of more visceral response to encourage them to keep producing.
What we really need is someone, perhaps in their twenties or early thirties, who would be willing to run a Facebook page and possibly a Twitter account (or RenRen and Weibo in China, and VK in Russia) and who is able to engage and interact with people the way that those people are used to doing in this day and age.
Otherwise, as the current regular players and creators get older and drop off the perch, I�"m afraid that LaserTank will just slowly fade away.
[To Donald: Sorry that I made some mistake of the title in the last message, which also is the interview with Mr Squirrel. Could you help me delete it? Thanks!]