30 SEPTEMBER EDIT:

Ok, I finally finished sending all the keys, and added everyone who won a gift copy. So maybe accept if you want to get your game... :)

IF YOU GET A BAD KEY, TELL ME! :)

Seriously, a lot of these games were from dodgy developers, the sort of people who revoke unused keys on a whim, just because they can... What to do? Well, if you get a bad key, tell me and I'll send you some of my spares... If none of those work, I'll buy it from the Steam store. Yay.

DON'T WORRY, YOU WILL GET YOUR SHOVELWARE! :)


So this ZIGGURAT OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ was a huge pile of bundle leftovers, with some non-bundle games hiding behind mazes or puzzles or whatever. Now, purely by accident some of those bundle leftovers were actually good games, but most were, umm, not. It was the sort of stuff I'd use in other puzzles for key dumps that hide messages. This time, they became a bunch of giveaways instead. No special reason.

To save time:

TUTORIAL, IN THE CAR PARK OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - 4 bundle leftovers.

TUTORIAL, IN THE QUEUE OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - super ultra removed game! Woohoo! :)

TUTORIAL, IN THE QUEUE OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - first itstoohard puzzle!

THE CUBICLE FARM OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - 8x8 = 64 bundle leftovers.

LEAVING THE CUBICLE FARM OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - Call of Cthulhu® preorder! Woohoo! :)

LEAVING THE CUBICLE FARM OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - second itstoohard puzzle!

ASCENDING IN THE ELEVATOR OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - Assassin's Creed® Odyssey preorder! Woohoo! :)

THE WAREHOUSE OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - 17x17 = 289 bundle leftovers.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN THE WAREHOUSE OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - third itstoohard puzzle!

AT THE BREAK ROOM OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - Metro Exodus preorder! Woohoo! :)

INSIDE THE SADISTICALLY OVERSIZED MAZE-LIKE FORGOTTEN UNDERGROUND STORAGE AREA OF DISAPPOINTMENT™ - 24x24 = 576 bundle leftovers.

Also some boobie games in a pity wormhole, because I felt sorry for all those boobie hounds:

ChronoClock! Dunno what it is, but Boobies! Woohoo! :)

Club Naughty! It's garbage! And Boobies! Woohoo! :)

Fate/EXTELLA! No idea what it is, but Boobies?!?! Hopefully! Woohoo! :)

Foto Flash! No clue what this is either, but Boobies! Woohoo! :)

Hentai University! It looks like a pile of crap! And Boobies! Woohoo! :)

Ladykiller in a Bind! It's awesome! And Christmas Sweaters Boobies! Woohoo! :)

Porno Studio Tycoon! I ain't paying 20 bucks to find out, but probably Boobies! Woohoo! :)

Treasure Hunter Claire! Over 50 people entered, but nobody said a word! Probably because everyone hates RPGMaker but loves Boobies! Woohoo! :)

Back to the puzzle:

So very close to the ZIGGURAT OF DISAPPOINTMENT™, NORMAL END - fourth itstoohard puzzle!

THE ZIGGURAT OF DISAPPOINTMENT™, NORMAL END - Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice - preorder! Woohoo! :)

THE ZIGGURAT OF DISAPPOINTMENT™, BRIEF INTERLUDE - final itstoohard puzzle!

THE ZIGGURAT OF DISAPPOINTMENT™, TRUE END, starting with

DARK SOULS™: Can't Purchase This™ Edition - My last gift copy! Woohoo! :)

Passing through some other things, some great, some good, some ok, some ehh, I dunno... Spoiler: games I won on Steamgifts.

And finally, one more chance for:

Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice - preorder! Yes, another one! Because I don't care about Total War, and you can't buy Cyberpunk 2077 yet! Woohoo! :)


Lazy puzzle explanation:

The giveaways are arranged in a square, two boring areas and two mazes. You walk north, south, east or west, making a map and looking for the exit.

Additionally, in some of the areas you see an extra thing. When you have walked through the entire area you should notice they are all the same sort of thing, part of a set, but one is missing. The first four itstoohard puzzles are "Here are a bunch of things, with one missing. What is the missing thing?"

Spoiler: the maps were important, not only to avoid getting lost, but also to mark the location of the "extra things" for the final part of the puzzle.

So, because I'm lazy, here's the solution links:

A 2x2 square, http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/cVkdZYdA/7RmCTKtD

A 8x8 square maze http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/h7EAeXNT/VLaDcshb

A 17x17 square, http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/NS2454GN/LkQIEWeg

A 24x24 square maze, http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/gDnG4CMu/MLoPF4zt

Finally you reached the last itstoohard puzzle, where you had to look at your maps. If you made a note on your maps every time you found an "extra thing" you probably noticed they were pixels, drawing something. If you didn't do that, you were screwed, sorry!

By the way, the last time I did one of these it was a bit difficult to read, so this one was in a different font "Shaston 8" which was also difficult to read, but hopefully not as difficult... :)

The final puzzle, drawing dots on your maps, http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/R22Aq9Ky/i31WVkHg


I should probably say this was fun, but it turns out making 1000 giveaways is a massive pain. And giveaway mazes really suck. :) So let's just pretend we had a great time, ok? :)

Thank you for playing, everyone! :)


Original message:

Road trip, woohoo! To visit the ZIGGURAT OF DISAPPOINTMENT™. It's sure to be fun. What's inside? I dunno.

Oh, right, I do know. It's a steaming pile of bundle leftovers. And some dumb puzzle crap, hiding who knows what?

It's hardly worth the trouble, but if you insist... Bring along some of this, this, and maybe even one of these.

And seriously, everyone: MAKE A MAP. Just ask any of the people who didn't make a map, and had to walk through the whole thing all over again...

ENTER HERE.

5 years ago*

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5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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Bump

5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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got the first answer, but all lvl2 above after it. thx for the good puzzle anyways

5 years ago
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The part that's not created yet will be full of Level 0 stuff, so you may want to keep solving things to be ready... But it's up to you... :)

5 years ago
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I'm stuck on the 2nd itstoohard... so disappointed. oh well, maybe after some rest I'll figure it out

5 years ago
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Hope you've solved it by the time I catch up on my replying... :)

I did take someone's advice and make that question it a bit less strict, if that means anything. So if you think you had it, but it just didn't work, maybe try again...

5 years ago
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Woot. I hadn’t yet, but I’ll make sure to remember to do so. Laziness wins once again.

5 years ago
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Looks like a bit more than half the people who reach that puzzle have solved it, which is better than the one-third who get past the tutorial boss... :) Although, I would have expected everyone who passed the tutorial to breeze through it... :( Not a good judge of my own puzzles, it seems. :(

5 years ago
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And everything that I previously tried didn't work... but I did think of a component I might be missing

5 years ago
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Sounds like you're on the right track, so good luck! :) Hope your ears don't turn red when you finally get it... :)

5 years ago
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My ear is reddening. I was seeing unfortunately seeing the forest for the trees.

5 years ago
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Bump!!

5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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Bump :3

5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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The Ziggurat isn't even finished? How disappointing! P

5 years ago
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Indeed... :) Assuming I've done my arithmetic correctly, I will need two more days to finish adding all the giveaways - and that's assuming I will be able to instantaneously paste all the giveaway descriptions that I haven't finished writing... :)

Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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It only took an extra week, but it's finally finished... :)

5 years ago
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I bump for Ziggurats.

5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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The ziggurat is coming along nicely. You must have some kind of disappointing laborers building it for you, right?

5 years ago
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Only the most disappointing, to be sure... :) And they keep looking at the clock, wondering how it will ever be finished in time... :)

5 years ago
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The second itstoohard was actually too hard for me :P
Bump so other people can get lost in the maze!

5 years ago
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Bummer... :( Hope you solve it if you give it another try... :)

5 years ago
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I have enough disappointment in my life.
On the other hand, you never disappointed me.
Oh well, probably I need to go and check myself.

5 years ago
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Hmm, maybe you don't need a Ziggurat then, if you already have enough of your own... :) But you never know, it might be worth a look... :)

5 years ago
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LOL...you said "Ziggurat." 😅🤓

BUMP

5 years ago
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Is that you, Beavis? :)

5 years ago
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I am the great Cornholio! I need TP for my bunghole!

5 years ago
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Nice concept. Cool execution. Bump.

5 years ago
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You're too kind, thank you! :)

But somehow, I always feel the execution is lacking...: ( And I severely underestimated the time required to build this thing... :) Should be able to add the final giveaways today, though... Then I need to connect everything... :)

5 years ago
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Bump. Again.

5 years ago
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Thank you again! :)

5 years ago
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Bump for making it to the break room. Thank you for the disappointments!

5 years ago
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Woohoo, thank you! :) There's more to come, if I can just type fast enough... :)

5 years ago
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Added the rest, finally... :)

5 years ago
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Bump.

5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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Break room bump!! :3

5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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Bump for entering break room!

5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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5 years ago
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Sneaky bump disguised as a reply... :) Assuming anyone hasn't given up, yet... :)

5 years ago
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5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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I forgot to bump you yesterday...
so...
here I go....

Bumpity bump! :D

5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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lol, I've somehow only just seen this now. :)
Looking forward to jumping into it headfirst! (That's the best way to receive disappointment, right?)
Thanks fifty! :)

5 years ago
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Indeed, jump right in! Bound to be something in there worth entering, if you can dig deep enough... :)

5 years ago
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bump for aimlessly traversing the warehouse floor

5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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5 years ago
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Not terribly well... I have had to fix a few mistakes in the last part... For example, did you know there are 31 days in September? :) I blame hmm, I dunno. Someone else.

Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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almost 600 games

You're a madman.

Please share the way to solving the puzzles after it's all over! :D

5 years ago
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It's pretty mad, yes. But the solutions should be easy, check the new and improved hints in the tutorial part...

Basically, whatever you have to do to solve that part, you're doing that same thing over and over again in the rest of the puzzle. :)

5 years ago
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Dropping from level 4 to level 3 dampens my enthusiasm a little, but, since I did manage to solve the tutorial, I guess I'll try to solve what comes next. Having to scavenge for hints over hundreds of pages is going to be a horrible hit on my computer resources, though (too many pages to load). Still, thanks for the heads-up! :D

5 years ago
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Ahh, sorry to hear that... :(

There's umm, well the whole warehouse is Level 4, but it's about 300 pieces of junk so you're not missing much... :) The break room is Level 5, so you weren't going to get that one anyway. Everything after that is Level 0 or Level 1, so good luck if your computer can handle it... Maybe draw a map on paper, if you can find such a thing... :)

5 years ago
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Paper? What's that? Is it tasty? :D

5 years ago
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It's that thing you used to draw maps, before computers drew everything for us. :)

And even if you can't enter those warehouse giveaways, a map might not be a bad idea, for reasons that may become apparent later... :)

5 years ago
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There... was a time before computers did everything??? :D

5 years ago
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That's what I've read, anyway. But since I read about it on the internet, maybe it was all a big lie... :)

5 years ago
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Oh, but it must be true! Everything on the internet is always true! ;)

5 years ago
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Hmm, this sounds familiar... Now all I need is Harcourt Fenton Mudd... :)

5 years ago
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I'm in the warehouse. I've just done some calculations and, in less than a month, if all goes smoothly, I'll be 1 CV away from level 4. 1 CV! Can you imagine the feeling? At least I can't complain that I would be level 4 in a couple of weeks... :D

I'll try to crack my way into what comes next and get to the last lower-level rooms. As for the level 4+ stuff, well... maybe next time! ;)

5 years ago
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Yeah, sounds like you won't have time to enter any of the Level 4 stuff, but besides that I wouldn't suggest chasing more CV just to enter a specific giveaway - cheaper to buy that game directly, instead of gambling on it... :)

I don't know, I can imagine quite a bit. :)

Good luck in the next part, there's bound to be a Bad Rats in there, or something... :)

Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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But what about Skyrim Fortix? ;)

And nah, I'm not really chasing levels or CV, as I find that to be something of a fool's errand. I mostly want to contribute something back (however small my ability to do any real contributing might be) instead of merely leeching my way to hell and back. The ability to enter some GAs with slightly better odds is a welcome addition; it just happens that, sometimes, it can be highly welcome. :)

5 years ago
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You know, taking a look, there is a Fortix in the final part. Go figure. No Skyrim though, sorry. :)

There's usually very good odds in forum giveaways, especially the ones that require a bit of reading to enter. Just a private giveaway directly linked in a topic, though, receives oodles of entries from people who ain't reading a single word, so to speak...

5 years ago
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Couldn't go without at least one of the SG memes, right? secretly hoping it's Fortix 2 instead

5 years ago
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Oh, it wasn't for one of those meme things, just how it worked out... And there's no Fortix 2, sorry...

5 years ago
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No worries, I'm sure I'll find something that I want and don't have yet. :)

5 years ago
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Adequately disappointed at seeing several wishlisted games in those level 4 GAs, but such is life. I just need to make it to level 4 again before your next such event! I made it to the underground storage area, so now I'll rest again before tackling this insanity. Have a bump! :D

5 years ago
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Ahh, sorry about that... Good luck with the next part, sounds like you're getting close to whatever's next... :)

Thank you! :)

5 years ago
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Hm, quick question (a serious one this time), should I start the map to the underground area near the center, near a specific corner, or is that for me to find out? I should still have some of those papers full of squares for drawing excessively perfect graphs here, back from my first couple of years in university, but unfortunately not many, so I'd like to optimize the expenditure a little. :)

5 years ago
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You enter that area along the bottom edge of a 24x24 square, if that helps. :)

But maybe save your paper and use a spreadsheet - that's one great suggestion other people pointed out, didn't even occur to me. :) And maybe don't delete it when you're through, just in case you need it later... :)

5 years ago
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Yep, it does help. Thanks! :)

A spreadsheet, huh... Considering how much I use Excel all the time, I feel a little stupid not having thought of that on my own... :)

5 years ago
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Time for a weekend Bump Fiftykyu. That's a lotta games you're giving away :-)

5 years ago
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Thank you! :)

But I'd guess 95% of them fall into the category of "game shaped object" as Valve put it... :) Still a few real ones hiding in odd corners, though... :)

5 years ago
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Regardless, I am sure many people will appreciate the effort you made in doing this. Have a good one!

5 years ago
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Thank you, hope you have a good weekend also... :)

5 years ago
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