online

Tricone Lab is single-player but also has a community server called Tricone Lab Online.

Statistics

Tricone Lab Online tracks various statistics:

Custom maps database

Tricone Lab Online also has a database via which players can share their custom puzzles with each other. It works like this:

  • Create a Tricone Lab Online user account linked to your email address.
  • This account allows you to download or upload any custom maps.
  • You can see how many people have played your map’s levels, and whether it was too hard or too easy.
  • Any map can be uploaded but initially each map is “unapproved”.
  • You can submit your map to the admins to get it approved.
  • Approved maps appear on the web site and are more likely to be downloaded.

Approval process

A few notes on the approval process:

  • Getting your custom map approved is optional — you can just leave your maps unapproved if you wish.
  • However we do reserve the right to delete any map with content we think is inappropriate.
  • Submitting your map for approval means you will get some feedback on the design, even if it is not approved.
  • Getting a map approved means more players should play it.
  • Approved maps and their play statistics will be made public on the website, with the author’s user ID.
  • After a map has been approved, you can no longer update or delete it, except with our agreement.
  • Exceptionally good maps will get a “recommended” tag in addition to being approved.

Approval criteria

We are looking for the following basic criteria to approve a map:

  • The map must contain at least 3 levels.
  • The map and its levels should have names consistent with the Tricone Lab style.
  • At least one level must be unlocked initially, but you can also have more than one unlocked level.
  • All levels must have a solution!
  • You can be inspired by other levels but please don’t just copy them!
  • An approximate difficulty score should be set on each level.

Recommendation criteria

We will occasionally add the “recommended” tag to custom maps:

  • To be recommended, the map’s levels should require an unusual or challenging solution.
  • It’s also generally better if a map is focused on a small set of element types, rather than a broad mixture of elements.