1. First-time puzzle designer? Take it slow.
If you are submitting puzzles for a first time, please don't submit many puzzles at the same time. Submit one, and wait to see what kind of feedback you get.
2. Listen to the feedback.
If a puzzle you submitted got downvoted, try to understand why people didn't like it. Read the comments for the puzzle, ask clarifying questions, and look at popular puzzles.
Then, keep the feedback in mind when designing future puzzles. Please don't continue to submit similar puzzles, despite the negative feedback you are receiving.
3. Check for naive solutions
RoboZZlers tend to be very clever, and will often find ways to solve a puzzle that the puzzle designer didn't think of. If a puzzle intended to be hard has a naive, uninteresting solution, RoboZZlers will know. Such puzzles tend to get downvoted.
Please make sure your puzzle cannot be solved with a solution of the form "turn right on some color, turn left on another color". There are already too many such puzzles, so please don't submit any more.
Also, if your intended solution takes a complex path to pick up the stars, check that there isn't a much simpler path that works as well. A good way to prevent simple paths is to add more stars along the intended path, and ensure that there are gaps between tiles that the robot path must carefully avoid.
4. Puzzles of all difficulties are welcome.
Many RoboZZlers are casual players who don't have an hour for a particular puzzle. On the other hand, some RoboZZlers are hardcore players, happy to spend hours breaking down a complex puzzle.
So, don't be shy about submitting easy puzzles. However, please try to make the puzzle should be at least somewhat interesting. Most importantly, it should not be a duplicate of existing puzzles.
Puzzles that add a little twist to an existing puzzle, combine two techniques, or introduce entirely novel ideas all make good puzzles. (And the former two are usually a lot easier to come up with than the last one.)
5. Guessing the pattern should not be the focus.
Guessing the robot path tends to be less fun that coming up with a program that guides the robot along a tricky path. Guess-the-pattern puzzles still have their place, and many RoboZZlers enjoy them. However, when designing new a puzzle, try to reduce the guesswork.
If there are many seemingly feasible paths, consider providing a hint in the puzzle description to reduce the number of dead ends the players will have to explore.
6. To delete or rename a puzzle after submitting, email "dev" @ this domain (robozzle.com).
Currently, there is no UI for managing puzzles after a submission. If you accidentally submit a poorly named puzzle, or there is another problem, the dev can edit things for you.
We generally do not delete puzzles after they have been submitted, unless someone say submits the default design puzzle template. People may be in the process of solving the puzzle or commenting on it, and deleting it from the database will cause them to get errors.
If you submit a puzzle and find out that there is a boring solution much easier than you intended, it is probably better if you just submit a fixed version of the puzzle.