A2XT: It's Over

[Isrieri]

I love Dyin' for an Electryin' and its indicative of why World 5 marks the beginning of higher quality levels. The design is improved over other "hard" levels in the game - it doesn't rush you along or surprise you with anything, and it gives you a lot of safe-platform-space to plan your next move and provide breather points. But it's simple gimmick makes for very tense gameplay that demands a lot of timing on the player's part. Atmospheric to boot.

Nevertheless, it has absolutely no business being in World 5. Let alone the very beginning. But a lot of levels in this game have the same issue, so at this point I'm just being nitpicky. The game still seems to be turning out very well.

AND THAT'S
WHAT I THINK.

It wasn't Electrifyin' that made me angry though, it was the next level (and the one after the one after that).

Is it

the Science fight?

Did anything end up getting changed for that?

[Willhart]

It got changed after almost every time it was tested.

[Isrieri]

That's when you know you've got a keeper.

EDIT: I'm kidding.

[Lunikyuu]

I think the line about things starting to pick up would be better placed in World 5, but I can see why it was placed before World 4. Also yeah... Dyin for an Electrifyin took 50 lives off me when I played it... so much for the life recharger preventing game overs! I still thought it was a pretty neat level though.

Also I forgot to express favoritism for World 4 so here we go:

World 4 Favoite

Fahren- "What?! A Town?!?! A town ain't an actual level silly, this is blasphemy!" Too bad, I'm putting it in anyway! Shameless copy-paste time:

Fahren is probably hands down my favorite town in the game. I loved some of the ways you actually found the furbas like following the Ninji to get to the wackytown room (kinda disappointed raocow didn't actually show that off), and figuring out you need to break the bridge in order to lure the shy guys away from the door. All of the furbas I found due to my own curiosity and desire to explore making it feel a lot more fun. I also found the layout of the town rather interesting which further helped my drive to explore. More towns and sidequests need to be like this instead of sidequests being all "hey can ya beat up 5 random blurbablurbadons for me kthxbai". I also really liked the atmosphere and the relation to the plot, and the house that gave you free onions because Marisa-Demo is my favorite Demo.

World 4 Runner Ups

Johnson McCain and the Communists- Pretty solid level and pretty difficult for world 4, though not frustratingly so. I thought the rising and falling structure in the second half was pretty neat, and I liked the level's relation to the plot of the world.
Swimming in the Rain- Pretty neat, albeit simple gimmick, along with pretty nice music and atmosphere. The only thing that really gave me trouble was that I kept forgetting that the purple mushrooms weren't solid, maybe that part could be improved by making them a bit darker so they don't stand out as much, though it's probably partially my fault as well.
Rainy Day- Once again, liked the atmosphere, thought the invisible platform gimmick was pretty neat with the rain giving you an indication of where the blocks are, and had a pretty solid boss which was pretty difficult, but not overly so.

World 4 Least Favorite
(edited out because I hate the reasoning I used here and I don't really dislike the level all that much)

Sorry if the runner ups aren't as detailed by the way, they're mainly just levels I kinda liked and wanted to mention anyway.

[jayScribble]

I would consider this world more of "Modern Architecture" world than city world, and a bit of science and technology in there as well.

"Parc du Debonair" is a good introductory of what the sibling fights are like (and to an extent Science himself).

"Crazed Circuit" Is a visually unique level, and with a good difficulty as well. Other than it has good balance of length and difficulty, I have nothing much else to say.

"Fun Times at the Laundromat" is a fair level, but both exits at the end is a bit of a concern for me since you need to play the level at least twice to clear it, but that experience is migrated to a certain degree with the multiple paths.

[Menshay]

Isn't the "spider thing capsule" just a horned cyclops skull? Also are those eyes in the grass?

Laundromat had great flavour. Is the background from somewhere?

Science still looks kind of annoying. By the way, I honestly find it funny how my higher resolution graphics for him became a running joke.

Developer commentary for Crazed Circuitry

It's kind of an easy-ish level, I guess, mostly because I don't think I can make actually long and hard ones. Which I'm sure is fine especially after that Science battle. It's kind of based on giving each screen its own obstacle, though maybe it ended up being all over the place for it.

The "woodland creatures" part in the sign is a reference to Kirby 3. Credits to someone in the testing group for the "potato receptacle". (The ceiling in the entry room is blocked, by the way.)

Like Edge of the Night, every custom graphic is completely original. At one point the mechanical eyes (glad raocow liked them!) were Exchikkes from Copy Kitty and so was the music, but I later changed them because having such an half-assed reference to that game didn't feel "right" (these would've been the sprites, in case anyone cares). Kind of like that one Pokémon-themed SMW hack with random Homestuck/My Little Dinosaur references. Speaking of Homestuck, the original music I used, before the Copy Kitty ones, was Inner Depths from the fan-made SBURB OST.

I ultimately settled for Challenge Chiptune from A2MT when it was included in the base game, mostly beacuse it fit nicely and I didn't want to waste further space with custom music (seriously, give the default music some credit, it's really nice).

Main changes from older versions:
- the part with the tofu blocks and the Thwomps originally required spin-jumping over Eeries, which I changed to make the level beatable by every character. Same for the raft ride area. About the tofu blocks, while they look kind of out of place I didn't want to replace them due to them having a very specific behaviour which could lead to unfair deaths if their graphics were changed with no explanation. Plus laziness and running out of ideas.
- the part with the net was a twisting Rinka corridor, though not a really frustrating one if just rushing. The net is also the reason why mounts are filtered out
- the Copy Kitty version had a boss room with six or so big boos (Magna Exchikkes) that had to be taken down using a propeller gun. Which might have been fine now that I think about it?

[S.N.N.]

That Big "Boo" looks like something that would be right at home in Copy Kitty.

[pholtos]

Wow that science fight was different from what I had tested. It's now a lot easier.

[Crow]

Parc du Debonair is a sibling fight and it's pretty okay.

Especially since it's a joke compared to the later Science fight.

Crazed Circuitry is a level I really like both aesthetically and gameplay-wise; it's not overly easy but it's not too tough either, and it's just... really fun, I dunno, I liked it a lot.

Fun Times At The Laundromat certainly is a level. The lower path is a bit easier but you're not *supposed* to get the secret exit from that way, raocow's just the master of breaking things. It's short enough that replaying it two times isn't a huge issue, especially since multiple paths and all. A midpoint in the secret path would've been appreciated though because the "suddenly sinking platforms" thing can kind of catch you off guard and it's a bit of a drag to replay the entire main level just because of that.

[Sebby19]

Hah, I never noticed the flesh lord on the map. It's appropriate, with the level that is next to it.

[sedron]

Some interesting stuff today. Some of which is much, much different than it was at various points in testing.

Parc du Debonair- Wow, this is different. Science looks like a much more fair, intuitive boss now. The appearing spikes are totally new, and that arrow wasn't always there. The fight itself is heavily improved, though I do think that the non-custom graphics are really boring and uninspired. Surely something more than a flat expanse of wood and the SMB3 Forest background could have led to the first sibling fight, right?

Crazed Circuitry- Here's a level that looks really cool. I love the circuitry aesthetic. Challenge Chiptune fits well as a song, but I might have chosen something else simply because it get's used so often in recent Talkhaus levels. Gameplay here mostly comes down to standard platforming shenanigans with Thwomps, Boos and Bullet Bills, but that's not really a bad thing. The level is set up well with it, and the super-square land layout looks great in this tileset.

Fun Times at the Laundromat- This is one of the most imaginative ways this could have been handled as a level, so bravo for that. The inside of a washing machine is surprisingly pretty. Everything looks really nice here, honestly. I like the multiple paths one can take (including the intended method for getting the key that raocow just missed entirely several times,) as they help diversify the level and make reaching the end twice for both exits more fun. I don't know why there wasn't a midpoint, though. There's no real reason for that. Overall another neat level.

[Voltgloss]

The idea and creation of the Science battle were all Septentrion_Pleiades. Originally, there was no arrow indicator; there were no "warning signs" or spikes appearing periodically on the platforms; and the timing of Science's pattern was different (he spent less time in his slower states and more time in his faster and hyperspeed states). I think Science's shots might have been larger as well (by the time I joined beta testing they had already been shrunk). As set up originally, the battle was... divisive among testers.

The main issue that came up in testing was testers (i) not knowing how they were supposed to hurt Science and/or (ii) thinking they had to try to stomp Science while he was moving at hyperspeed, which is close to (but not quite) impossible. Someone (docopoper, I think) added the "Kood arrow" (meaning "jump here") and the large exclamation point "warning sign" when Science went into hyperspeed. But the warning sign was still ambiguous - there was only one, it appeared in the top center of the screen, and players still tried to stomp Science while in hyperspeed. So I went in and applied the warning sign to the platforms, along with the spikes that appear during hyperspeed. My goal was to make absolutely clear to the player "you're not supposed to attack during hyperspeed; wait for Science to slow down and THEN attack." The spikes aren't so much a hazard as they are a signal to the player.

I also tweaked the sequence of phases and their timing so that Science spent less time "invulnerable" (in hyperspeed) and was in his "slow and vulnerable" state more frequently and for longer at a clip.

I'm pretty pleased with how the difficulty finally balanced out. I expected about 5 or so deaths from raocow and that's almost exactly what we saw. Most importantly, there didn't seem to be any significant issues with rao not knowing what he was supposed to do.

[ano0maly]

Cool battle against Undefined Fantastic Object there. I like that even the bullets wrap around the screen to have things consistent, though I think that they could have also been made to expire after some time so they don't clutter the screen for too long.

When I saw "Laundromat" I was expecting a reference to this:

[Septentrion Pleiades]

My goal was to make absolutely clear to the player "you're not supposed to attack during hyperspeed; wait for Science to slow down and THEN attack." The spikes aren't so much a hazard as they are a signal to the player.

I actually didn't know about the spikes appearing until a couple of days ago. I would have just had the platforms disappear to give the player more freedom to dodge.

A lot of changes were constantly being added. What I did was make Science do what he does. I wasn't informed about changes and had to check up on it constantly.

Science was the first sibling to be designed and that lead to other sibling fights being created by others.

The final battle version of the fight

was also submitted early on before most of the siblings.

Edit: Here was my original pitch about these battles: http://youtu.be/le0CE9rwSNY

[SAJewers]

That Big "Boo" looks like something that would be right at home in Copy Kitty.

IIRC, Copy Kity was the Author's Inspiration.

[Menshay]

That Big "Boo" looks like something that would be right at home in Copy Kitty.

IIRC, Copy Kity was the Author's Inspiration.

Not really, as I've already said as a theme it was more tacked on than anything, though looking back I guess the current mechanical eyes look a tad similar to those laser-shooting spheres whose name I don't know.

[Axon]

Stuff about Fun Times at the Laundromat:
- The music inside the washing machine originally was Take Five, but once again ContentID had to ruin my ambitions.
- Yeah, so I wanted to make a laundromat level, but well... There's only so much you can do in a small building filled with washing machines. And so that's how I decided that the washing machines should be connected to a parallel universe that, as a result, is slowly filling up with an unhealthy bubbling mix of bleach and detergent. The ruins are the tragic testament of the mortal agony of a once glorious ancient civilization being submerged in the vile liquid. Or something, I don't know.
- My first serious attempt at multiple significant paths. The idea is taken much, much further in another level I made (for episode 2 or 3).
- Yeah, maybe I should have placed a midpoint after the locked door. However, I would have had to make the secret section longer, and I wanted the level to stay relatively short.
- Truly, the best (and only) laundromat in town.

Fun Times At The Laundromat certainly is a level. The lower path is a bit easier but you're not *supposed* to get the secret exit from that way, raocow's just the master of breaking things.

I actually noticed this during development, but I wasn't against giving the player more choices in how to do things.

Laundromat had great flavour. Is the background from somewhere?

It's "SRA Sky Babylon (Ni) - SilverDeoxys563" (Sonic Rush Adventure, I think?) from the SMBX gfx pack by Red Yoshi + Supermarioman but with altered colors.

[Joseph Staleknight]

Demo has an argument with her Definitely Identified Flying Brother, then blows off steam by breaking into a cyber-security firm and stealing a digital leek. Somehow, she ends up getting her clothes dirty, so she then heads to the laundromat to get them washed. That last part takes the whole day to do, which is a problem when there are no hotels nearby to stay in.

Parc du Debonair (vs Science

Round 1

) (Septentrion_Pleiades & Voltgloss): Wow, what a way to ramp up the difficulty with a (possible) first sibling fight! And of course, because SepPlei's involved, it's a danmaku fight against Science. While you're dodging shots and attempting to get up and hit him, he's also trying to psyche you out by cruising at near lightspeed so that you can't reliably hit him until he slows down. At least he's not being too spammy with the shots, otherwise this would be a complete asshole of an awakening. I'm glad it got toned down since the beta.

Crazed Circuitry (Menshay): I really like the aesthetics of this level; it all looks like the innards of a cyber-security system, complete with quarantine drones and neon garbage-dump lava. That said, it's quite a challenging run because there's plenty of obstacles to navigate (more so for the RaoCoins). Still, it's a neat package since I can imagine Demo as an elite hacker raiding the firmware and servers for leek data, dodging the security measures and whatnot. Kinda like Copy Kitty, except with very different goals.

Fun Times at the Laundromat (Axon): Now this level is pretty nifty. Sure, it is a minor challenge to find the key to the secret exit (unless you're raocow and you exploit seemingly inocuous design decisions), and there are some tight spots here and there (especially against the king duck on the road the the intra-laundromat). Yet the wonder of seeing an entire world within something as unremarkable as a clothes washer--and the pathways you can take early on--really sold this level to me. It also helped that this level had quite the sense of humor; besides the laundromat-in-a-laundromat and Luigi's presence, there's also that incident with a certain alchemical substance that happens while you're exploring WasherWorld. Better hope the manager remembers to put up signs warning against such antics in the future!

[docopoper]

he's also trying to psyche you out by cruising at near lightspeed so that you can't reliably hit him until he slows down.

Now that would be a hard boss

[tigermoon]

Lost track of how many levels I'd have to comment on, so I'm just gonna not bother until tomorrow's levels.

Still, Favorite and Least Favorite for World 4:

Favorite: This was a close one between Rainy Day and Swimming in the Rain. I'm gonna give it to Rainy Day due to the fact SitR fell a little on the short side.
Least Favorite: World 4 is probably the most solid, consistent world in the game, so it's really hard to find a level I didn't like. Gonna abstain on this one.

[AuraLancer]

Hey raocow, you enjoy those elevator rides the other day? :D

[Ditocoaf]

(for episode 2 or 3).

Christ, haha, there's already a third one of these in the works? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

If there's one thing I know about the modern Talkhaus, it's that we have basically no restraint when it comes to collabs.

[Leet]

its in the works as in the plot is apparently being planned. from what ive gathered people basically submit levels and they get put into the episodes as needed - a buncha levels that are going to be in ep2 were submitted long before ep1 released.

and there may in fact be eventually an ep4.

at least this is what ive gathered, i may have some inaccuracies.

[Doctor Shemp]

Some people are planning the plot because apparently that's the most important part of A2XT. If Episode 2 actually happens and is anything like Episode 1, whatever they come up with will eventually be run through a filter of what is actually sane first and then through another filter of what other people can be bothered to make when they aren't prepared to make all the cutscenes themselves in a reasonable timeframe (which is fair enough, even a technically basic cutscene like SoW2 is a pain to make, let alone something like SoW3).

As for the Science fight, Voltgloss has already said everything I have to say on the fight, or at least everything polite I have to say on it. I commented in the beta testing process that there were quite a few levels that were changed so heavily by other people that they should be given co-creator's credit for those levels. I don't know if it was done on my suggestion or not, but in the end three levels did get that treatment. They were all Sept's boss battles. While I think that was warranted, there were a couple of other levels - namely Sloppy Sands and Plant Zone, and possibly others - that I think should have been changed to dual credit too.

[Leet]

well what else is there to plan other than the plot? levels are in supply already and being made regardless, and you can't really do much overworld-ways until levels are sorted out, so making a plot has gotta be done sometime. that said from what ive heard far too much detail has been put in but whatever

speaking of overworld, this is getting off-topic, but how do you guys plan to manage overworlds for the other episodes? the graphics for Analog Funk's are hardcoded into the engine's graphics instead of being an episode-specific set of graphics, and i assume this is because using too many overworld graphics apparently makes worlds crash, so how will future overworlds be done without basically doing the same things over and over?