ASMBXT; Journey's end

[Isrieri]

It still would have been better to start off with a few screens of flat ground. Just to establish that you are autoscrolling. Just starting off the player like the stage did, with almost no time to register what's going on, then it may as well be a guaranteed death. (One still could magically beat the stage their first time if they were fast enough, but I don't buy that as an excuse to let things slide)

I liked the level though. The reaction time to deal with the obstacles as they came to you was perfectly alright.

[Paralars]

that's what I meant. THE FIRST time you enter the level. It's like an action game where a cutscene suddenly has QTEs, you're not ready for it.

[BobisOnlyBob]

It still would have been better to start off with a few screens of flat ground. Just to establish that you are autoscrolling.

Provided there are sufficient doodads/bushes/blocks/clouds etc. to give the appropriate speed indication. I've seen fast-autoscrollers make the mistake of just having flat ground with no appropriate reference objects before. That said, GGF had enough let that raocow handled the first three hazards fine on his initial life.

The Firelands were certainly a series of references to a game I don't play! The Heroic Mode toggle was neat and the three-axe Bowser battle was a good take on a Bowser fight too.

[AUS]

Well, Hourglass was built to TAS Cavestory, and then refitted to TAS VVVVVV..soo..

No it wasn't what the fuck are you talking about

The program used to make this run, Hourglass, was also developed by nitsuja—with the creation of this run in mind.

I'm not sure about the VVVVVV thing now, but I thought I read somewhere that the creator had to update Hourglass for VVVVVV to work. Though, what I said about Cavestory wasn't wrong so u mad bro?

[The Doctor]

It still would have been better to start off with a few screens of flat ground. Just to establish that you are autoscrolling

But then every time you restart the level you would have to sit through those boring few screens of flat ground.

[raocow]

Honestly yeah, I personally prefer it the way it is now.

[jayScribble]

One level video video hideo today.

Looking at the author had though of everything in each room in "Everything Switch Palace", all of it is placed hard no matter what order you did first. The lob-sided midpoint didn't really help in this case, as the individual sections are really long to do, and 3/4 force backtracking back to the door with only the green being the least difficult backtracking and the yellow one being the most. That yellow part with the "love frog" and the mistiming of the roto-discs and the platforms themselves is the most problematic in the first half.
Seeing that the author designed the second part so that even if the "boss" is killed, the last part is still unwinnable if you timing is wrong or you missed the switches, and seeing Iris passing through that last section is really difficult by itself due to her slipping, as opposed to Demo who has better traction, but no height in her jump.
A neat concept; just a hit-and-miss execution in level design.

Hope a level with less frustration and life-eating will pop up, especially for tomorrow.

[HarmfulGravemind]

Hm, tbh here, I do believe that only the boss room would have been enough here. Also I really liked how that segment was designed around the boss. Of course raocow didn't want to get a game over because of the midpoint. Getting rid of the Koopaling is really the only option if you are low on lives and if you don't want to do the not really good and tedious first part again.

[kil3]

That level never did anything for me until I played it a couple of times and realized how clever the design behind the blocks turning off and on in each area was. Figuring out the best path and strategies for each was room was fun to me. As far as normalish platforming levels go, I ranked this one the highest in the game. The fact that this video is 24 minutes is worrying though.

[Mata Hari]

Man raocow, if you'd just used Iris you could have totally cheated that button!

[Sebby19]

She has poor traction, making the section before it more difficult.

I would definitely get rid of the lava frog in the yellow section. And I really don't see how you would not get hit by the thwomps in the red one.

[Duker]

The lob-sided midpoint

I would personally not say it's lob-sided when it's the only place it can be, as I'm fairly certain the switches would reset breaking the gimmick of the first half.

That said each half could easily be it's own level, but since they share the gimmick of switches it still makes sense to have them together.

[kil3]

She has poor traction, making the section before it more difficult.

I would definitely get rid of the lava frog in the yellow section. And I really don't see how you would not get hit by the thwomps in the red one.

I think what I was doing was quickly grounding myself on the ! blocks and then running on them before the thwomp came back down, instead of just straight crawling.

[Validon98]

Well, that level happened. I honestly don't get how you're supposed to do that part of the yellow section with the lava frog without taking a hit, but there you go. This level also reminded me of that Shy Guy Pinball level, which was also annoying because if you screwed up after getting most of the switches, you have to go back and get them all over again.
This postgame is pretty hard, huh?

[Eathanu]

The lob-sided midpoint

I would personally not say it's lob-sided when it's the only place it can be, as I'm fairly certain the switches would reset breaking the gimmick of the first half.

The switch sections could have been about half as long each. Still pretty long and lopsided, but it wouldn't hurt the design.

[S.N.N.]

The author of this level needs to learn how to avoid things like blind drops (5:00ish) and random enemy placement (in regards to the massive amount of shells and seemingly random Roto-Disc placements in the yellow room). I can tell there were some good ideas here, and the boss was well done, but there are a few flaws that really kill the level.

Looks like the midpoint has already been mentioned too, so I don't need to say anything about that. I would have stuck one right in the first area so you can grab it after you complete two switches, and then offered a Kil-styled shortcut to the boss door (e.g. THOUST ENTER LUNA'S ARMPIT NEAR THE RED SWITCH TO ASCEND TO GREATNESS) or something. I guess the only problem, as mentioned earlier, is that the switches would reset. Eh.

[The Doctor]

Well, that level happened. I honestly don't get how you're supposed to do that part of the yellow section with the lava frog without taking a hit, but there you go.

If you hit the switch fast enough to start the platforms moving, the left platform will merge into the middle before the lava frog lands on it. He'll then fall into the abyss making the rest of the section so much easier.

[SAJewers]

She has poor traction, making the section before it more difficult.

I would definitely get rid of the lava frog in the yellow section. And I really don't see how you would not get hit by the thwomps in the red one.

Can't you spin jump from the net onto the thwomp?

[Redbone]

A lot of neat and clever ideas explored in today's level, but the longevity and some of the haphazard design certainly pushes it down. I can appreciate the thought put into the usage of the switch blocks, so as to never trivialize the sections entirely, at least. Ultimately either shortening the sections or making the level give more let for error (I'd personally drop any insta-kills and recharge the player in the hub section) would certainly help the level to be more fun.

Boss was super interesting and clever, at the very least. Probably the most enjoyable part of the level.

[cheez8]

Eh heh, looks like I got some tweaks to make.

-First and foremost, the love frog in the yellow section... That is actually the result of not pressing the red switch first. If the red switch WAS pressed first, the frog would be trapped offscreen and not a problem at all. That's the only change I never managed to make obvious, though, and it's also probably the one that has the greatest impact on any part of the level. I need to make it obvious, clearly.

-I guess just because I figured out a way to sneak under those thwomps in the red room doesn't mean anybody else will (except kil.) I'll lower the platforms to provide a tad more time.

-The boss can be broken with a hammer suit. Okay! I'm perfectly fine with that. (Sorry that it kind of became necessary, though.)

The lob-sided midpoint

I would personally not say it's lob-sided when it's the only place it can be, as I'm fairly certain the switches would reset breaking the gimmick of the first half.

That said each half could easily be it's own level, but since they share the gimmick of switches it still makes sense to have them together.

Oh, it's absolutely lopsided. Thing is, there isn't anything I can do about it aside from shortening the segments, and... that's a lot of work, man! Terrible excuse, I know, but I like how it is anyway. If the rooms were too much easier, the switches wouldn't matter nearly as much.

A lot of neat and clever ideas explored in today's level, but the longevity and some of the haphazard design certainly pushes it down. I can appreciate the thought put into the usage of the switch blocks, so as to never trivialize the sections entirely, at least. Ultimately either shortening the sections or making the level give more let for error (I'd personally drop any insta-kills and recharge the player in the hub section) would certainly help the level to be more fun.

Boss was super interesting and clever, at the very least. Probably the most enjoyable part of the level.

I already put two mushrooms in the hub for whenever, and the player gets another after each switch! That's a lot! Also, two of the rooms having prominent instant-death hazards and two of the rooms having almost no instant-death hazards was a conscious decision, to make the player think about their route even more. If you all really think that's bad, I'll see what I can do, but I don't think it's bad right now.

I'm really glad everybody liked the boss room, though! Thank you all for the feedback.

[MrDeePay]

I already put two mushrooms in the hub for whenever, and the player gets another after each switch! That's a lot!

However, the player still has to trek back tot he entrance to each room before moving onto the next one and (more than likely) will only have that one mushroom to work with until the next switch and the process repeats again. One solution would be to pepper the rooms with a couple more mushrooms at most or to do something above each door like this quick mockup I did in SMW.

If you all really think that's bad, I'll see what I can do, but I don't think it's bad right now.

The rooms and how everything is set up is too unforgiving even for "postgame" standards. You are doing a massive gauntlet level in basically one go and constant failure will be incredibly taxing on the player and just drags everything on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on... In cases like these- typically the best solution is to strip everything down and rebuild it from scratch with a clearer focus in mind.

[SL the Pyro]

That green switch at the end that raocow couldn't reach. I like to believe that somewhere during that time, Iris was laughing at him.

Everything Switch Palace had a number of good ideas. I liked that hitting one switch would make every successive switch room easier, and the switch maze at the end with a Koopaling taking potshots at you was cool. The challenges laid out in the switch rooms were okay too. Their length, however, was a little unforgiving for a pre-midpoint area, and that last section of the maze had too little margin for error; even moving the green block "ceiling" up a tile or two would've been okay so you're not entirely screwed from missing one jump. A mushroom-dispensing system like MrDeePay's might mitigate some of the frustration too.

I would've also suggested making the stage less breakable with a Hammer Suit, but the Hammer Suit breaks everything, so I can't really say anything about that.

[kil3]

-I guess just because I figured out a way to sneak under those thwomps in the red room doesn't mean anybody else will (except kil.) I'll lower the platforms to provide a tad more time.

I had a lot of fun coming up with strategies to conquer the level and thinking about switch order. The only things that were a bit much were the bottom of the yellow path and shell catching at the end of the green path. I still have no idea how to do the yellow path without tanking hits. I unconditionally like everything else in the level and find it all ingenious.

[cheez8]

I already put two mushrooms in the hub for whenever, and the player gets another after each switch! That's a lot!

However, the player still has to trek back tot he entrance to each room before moving onto the next one and (more than likely) will only have that one mushroom to work with until the next switch and the process repeats again.
...
The rooms and how everything is set up is too unforgiving even for "postgame" standards. You are doing a massive gauntlet level in basically one go and constant failure will be incredibly taxing on the player and just drags everything on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on... In cases like these- typically the best solution is to strip everything down and rebuild it from scratch with a clearer focus in mind.

While I still don't want to make things too easy, I've added a couple mushrooms to the hub that open up after hitting certain switches. I've also built in a bit of a safety net or two in the instant death areas. If the level still ends up too aggravating, I'll take more drastic measures, but I don't want to resort to that quite yet.

Everything Switch Palace had a number of good ideas. I liked that hitting one switch would make every successive switch room easier, and the switch maze at the end with a Koopaling taking potshots at you was cool.

Actually, the switches only make two rooms easier. Every switch makes another room harder, too!

-I guess just because I figured out a way to sneak under those thwomps in the red room doesn't mean anybody else will (except kil.) I'll lower the platforms to provide a tad more time.

I had a lot of fun coming up with strategies to conquer the level and thinking about switch order. The only things that were a bit much were the bottom of the yellow path and shell catching at the end of the green path. I still have no idea how to do the yellow path without tanking hits. I unconditionally like everything else in the level and find it all ingenious.

Glad to hear that, and to hear which parts you had issues with. I'm definitely changing the love frog thing- not only am I making it clearer that the red switch causes a change there, I've replaced it with some immobile poison mushrooms, to reduce the amount of room available to work with. Dealing with that plus the pollen is just too unreasonable.

[Deidara Iwahara]

I'll be honest i skipped over a good few minutes of the video in the switch level (seeing lots of repetition can bore me whoops) but wow what a great boss fight!