8th VLDC: RIP Ningamer

[Ivy]

Still haven't watched VLDC2014 so I have zero context for Hostel, wooooooo.

Also, I guess there wasn't really a better place to put it, but Dark Dimension seemed like a bit of a stretch for "Fortress/Building World".

If the map icon wasn't a fortress it'd be a lot more fitting

[Lejes]

JUSTICE

[10204307]

I highly recommend that everyone who hasn't watched the VLDC7 Hostel level do so, since it's pretty important for context.

[Ditocoaf]

Oh, thanks for posting that link! I was kinda thinking of maybe going back to watch that, but didn't bother to search for it yet, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[yoshicookiezeus]

Blue Leaf - Cobalt Quarry

S.N.N.
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 24/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 24/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 22/25
AESTHETICS: 21/25

OVERALL: 91/100

COMMENTS: You've taken a simple concept and turned it into an interesting gimmick. I really like how the flashing stones gave the level a unique aesthetic while still being an actual gameplay mechanic. Your use of wall triangles + Grinders in the secret cave area was well executed as well.

Eternity
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 23/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 24/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 24/25
AESTHETICS: 23/25

OVERALL: 94/100

COMMENTS: The "electric ground" gimmick is used very nicely, and it feels great to play overall. The level has a nice sense of progresssion and while it's simple I like how it stayed far from the vanilla sprite combinations (Grinders + Volcano Lotuses).

MrDeePay
Creativity: 21/25
Curves: 25/25
Level: 22/25
Aesthetics: 23/25

Overall: 91/100

Comments: The flashing ground is a good appealing aesthetic that somehow makes some sense in the context of the environment it's in, while the level itself plays out respectably well (big surprise there). All in all a very solid job.

Retronom - The Dark Dimension

S.N.N.
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 16/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 15/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 15/25
AESTHETICS: 20/25

OVERALL: 66/100

COMMENTS: As much as I like the idea, I feel like the execution could have used some work. The first room was also totally unnecessary and did nothing but detract from the level. The difficulty was consistent up until the last room, at which point it got a tad unfair (Spinies getting obstructed by the tree graphics).

Eternity
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 17/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 18/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 16/25
AESTHETICS: 20/25

OVERALL: 71/100

COMMENTS: Design-wise this had some potential, but some annoying obbstacles bring it down, such as (rather frequent) bullet bills which blindly hit the player without any warning. The last section's trees also obscure the player's view a bit too much, specially when there's a Lakitu above you continuously throwing Spinies in your face. It also might have dragged on for a bit too long.

MrDeePay
Creativity: 18/25
Curves: 22/25
Level: 18/25
Aesthetics: 20/25

Overall: 78/100

Comments: The aesthetic works for what it's trying to do, but it does occasionally block enemies in the forest section. The second half also feels little easier than the first mainly because of a layer 2 jump the player has to make near the end of the red room and the cramped jumping segment with the Volcano Lotus and Chuck in the first section.

[ztarwuff]

Did raocow ever tackle that secret exit that required one of the Switch Palaces to be activated? I vaguely remember that a Yellow Switch Palace needed to be activated or am I mistaken?

[Koopster]

It was actually the blue switch, which is on kanji world

[Grounder]

Hostel? More like

[Mata Hari]

Factory music confirmed for still fresh

[10204307]

Sadly, butts.zip is the only level in factorycastleworld that uses the factory remix. (It does eventually make a return in the best world, though.)

[Zygl]

re: that one dragon coin
I threw them in as an afterthought and optional super-challenge thing before they decided they'd be implementing a counter for them, I never actually thought about what'd happen were one to do the level with the red switch pressed. Or any of them, for that matter, I meant for one to be able to stand on those blocks at the end and be safe from the layer 3 smasher but WHOOPS.

Also re: the layer 3 smasher
This level only exists because to my knowledge literally nobody had been dumb enough to put it in a sublevel with megaspikes doing their thing simultaneously and I wanted to make my horrible, horrible idea a reality. Naturally the stompy did indeed need to be there to do that.
(I did look into making it an autoscroller so everything would be timed perfectly and play super smoothly and be great but autoscroll doesn't play well with layer 2 shenanigans so)

Also for the record the layer 3 originally came in around the third dragon coin, not at the start of the level as MrDeePay seems to have misinformedly mentioned on the YouTube, that would just be super rude. I dunno if something broke in transit to the judges but yeah.
(There was also originally a saw on the ground in there with the Thwomp and that one dragon coin. Probably for the best that they cut that.)

(btw the name is itself because I crowdsourced my level naming to the skypehaus toward the end of the levelmaking. So uh, yeah.)

[morsel/morceau]

nobody had been dumb enough to put it in a sublevel with megaspikes doing their thing simultaneously

You can include raocow in your archive of butts (OK, they're not both smashing), but this isn't dumb at all.

[Taigiry]

Oh man, that new Hostel... I wasn't sure what to expect but it sure as hell wasn't that.

[Zygl]

You can include raocow in your archive of butts (OK, they're not both smashing), but this isn't dumb at all.

...Well then. Somehow I expected that somebody'd be all "hey you dumbface somebody totally did do that already" and sure enough, right there it is, layer 3 Hyperthwomp and layer 2... slightly less hyper Thwomps. And autoscroll, even.

[thatguyif]

I highly recommend that everyone who hasn't watched the VLDC7 Hostel level do so, since it's pretty important for context.

Wow, that vid was made this year?
Good hell, time had lost meaning the last few months :(

Also, I'm a stupid, but what's the music in Cobalt Quarry? I know it's a Mega Man, but I thought it was the MM7 select. Heelllllp

[10204307]

I recently went back and replayed a few levels to get the dagadons for them, and I realized that, even when replaying the levels, they're still super enjoyable. Like, playing Cobalt Quarry a second time felt just as fun as it was the first time. The creators of the higher-placed levels in this contest did a super good job.

[Piter Lauchy]

The creators of the higher-placed levels in this contest did a super good job.

I may be mistaken here, but I think that is the point.

[snoruntpyro]

Also, I'm a stupid, but what's the music in Cobalt Quarry? I know it's a Mega Man, but I thought it was the MM7 select. Heelllllp

The aboveground theme is Proto Man's Castle from Mega Man 5, and the underground theme is Cocoa Cave from Kirby Super Star. I recognized both tracks pretty fast, I was surprised that a Mega Man fortress theme was used for a mountain level.

[yoshicookiezeus]

That Hostel fakeout is kind of amazing. I also went into the level fully expecting it to be an extended version of the one from the last year, and then the actual level is pretty much as opposite from it as possible.

Giant Shy Guy - Hostel

S.N.N.
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 23/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 19/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 21/25
AESTHETICS: 25/25

OVERALL: 88/100

COMMENTS: A much needed improvement over last year's version of this level. I loved the general aesthetics and silliness of the whole thing, especially in the second half. I found a couple of jumps very obnoxious though (such as jumping to the second "Dino-Rhino block"). I wasn't a fan of how the reset doors started the whole room over again either.

Eternity
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 23/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 19/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 18/25
AESTHETICS: 20/25

OVERALL: 80/100

COMMENTS: A huge improvement when comparing it with your entry last year. I like how it's the complete opposite of the original one, and design-wise it's really solid as well, but some of the jumps were very annoying to do correctly.

MrDeePay
Creativity: 21/25
Curves: 17/25
Level: 17/25
Aesthetics: 19/25

Overall: 74/100

Comments: Well this is... not what I was expecting at all. Cramped platforming (ie: The "Dino Rhino" platforms in the first half, the hallway in the second half with Rip Van Fishes and Cootie-Peach) is the main offender here. The level is enjoyable especially for what it aims to do, however, But it's obvious that the gameplay/level design took a back seat to the aesthestics.

Other Notes: Yes, I do rule. Nowhere nearly as Maddox, though.

Zylgrox Odyssey - butts.zip

S.N.N.
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 20/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 22/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 20/25
AESTHETICS: 19/25

OVERALL: 81/100

COMMENTS: This is a really well designed level in the sense that everything was placed with a lot of care and timing (the spikes, falling platforms, etc), but you really ruined it by placing the layer 3 smasher. The smashing pattern is too random at times, and I often found myself in situations where the level was unwinnable and/or it trapped me with a Grinder.

Eternity
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 16/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 14/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 14/25
AESTHETICS: 16/25

OVERALL: 60/100

COMMENTS: A few interesting ideas there, but there's barely any safe space for the player in the level. The Layer 2 Smash + Layer 3 Smash can be very overwhelming at a few areas.

MrDeePay
Creativity: 15/25
Curves: 4/25
Level: 7/25
Aesthetics: 15/25

Overall: 41/100

Comments: This level overwhelms you with cramped obstacles from the very start with forces you to wait for things to line up too frequently. What makes matters worse is that there is also a Layer 3 smasher comes into play not far into the level AND there is an abusrdly low time limit. The only thing that really "saves" this level is that it's also on the short end. But even then, not much is saved.

Other Notes: It's quite fitting that this level is called butts, because this judging file is ordered by username and yours would be last!

[Grounder]

FINISHING A WORLD THE PROPER WAY?!

[morsel/morceau]

My theory is that nephe refers to the "clouds" (layer 3 mist), but since the Greek work should, of course, be nephele, some reprehensible work of on-line reference has led yet another smw hacker sadly astray.

[Koopster]

Good thing you went for this order, you've pretty much left the best for last that way.
Not only is kanji world beautiful on its own, but it's also the only world I remember not experiencing frustration with any of the levels. So while I don't exactly remember all of the levels in there I just really had a good first impression of it

So hey, I suppose no one has done this yet for today's video huh

Poloros; The Koopa Airfleet

S.N.N.
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 20/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 19/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 20/25
AESTHETICS: 19/25

OVERALL: 78/100

COMMENTS: I like the concept behind the level, and it felt like a nice SMB3 airship. The bullet generator that shoots bullets from every direction only spawned sometimes though, and there were a couple of odd design choices (e.g. the first ? block is almost impossible to get due to the autoscroll). On the whole, it was a nice, though not stand-outish level.

Eternity
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 18/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 18/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 19/25
AESTHETICS: 20/25

OVERALL: 75/100

COMMENTS: This one really feels like a SMB3 airship level. It makes a nice use of the special autoscroll, and I really like how the bullet generators were used as well. I'd say it could expand a bit more on the Thwomps, though, as they worked well to give the spriteset some more variety.

MrDeePay
Creativity: 15/25
Curves: 19/25
Level: 15/25
Aesthetics: 16/25

Overall: 74/100

Comments: Right off the bat, the player has to react immediately or else they'll take a bullet to the face. There's nothing overly wrong with anything else in the level. It just feels, "meh." So OK it's average- it sets out to do what it does, but most of the time it feels like I'm doing nothing.

PatPatPat; St. Patrick's Fort

S.N.N.
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 21/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 21/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 20/25
AESTHETICS: 21/25

OVERALL: 83/100

COMMENTS: A well-rounded level overall. I think the first half left a bit to be desired, but once you introduced the climbing net, some of your setups were rather excellent (e.g. the Thwomp blocking the path unless you go behind the net, the Thwimp going back and forth while climbing).

Eternity
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 23/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 22/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 22/25
AESTHETICS: 20/25

OVERALL: 87/100

COMMENTS: A very well made level. While it starts out pretty nicely, the second part's where it really gets interesting, with some more clever setups (specialy the ones involving climbing nets) and good challenges. I also like the level's little bonuses, such as the 1-UP hidden in the turnblocks near the end, the one where you have to go behind the Thwomp and the P-Switch at the start.

MrDeePay
Creativity: 17/25
Curves: 25/25
Level: 24/25
Aesthetics: 18/25

Overall: 84/100

Comments: Not bad. There are a few pesky jumps- namely when you're jumping from a fence to safe ground or jumping from a "pea" bouncer over a spike wall (tight jump to make). But this is still a solid, very well made level nonetheless.
Other Notes: This level still isn't to the level of being psychadelic and funky fresh as you promised in 2012, you lying swine!

Mechanic; I. C. Castle

S.N.N.
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 20/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 18/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 20/25
AESTHETICS: 18/25

OVERALL: 76/100

COMMENTS: This level has an interesting atmosphere, as well as a nice usage of sprites (the eating block portion is neat). Something that really hindered the gameplay is that the foreground palette clashed with the background far too much. I also found the second half very short compared to the first half.

Eternity
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 18/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 14/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 14/25
AESTHETICS: 14/25

OVERALL: 60/100

COMMENTS: Decent level, but it's slightly annoying how you have to wait a lot on the snake block section, as it's rather easy to go ahead of it a fair bit. Other than that it doesn't do much unique, and the very monochrome palette isn't very pleasing.

MrDeePay
Creativity: 5/25
Curves: 5/25
Level: 12/25
Aesthetics: 3/25

Overall: 25/100

Comments: Poor contrast with the FG/BG, bad BG setting on the midway entrance (garbage tiles at the bottom), inconsistent tile behavior with the "wood" blocks that often connect the Ball n Chain tiles together, and the gameplay itself is remarkably mediocre at best with it's redonkulously simple gameplay that do
Other Notes: Hi

Feenicks; Nephe Court

S.N.N.
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 21/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 21/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 20/25
AESTHETICS: 24/25

OVERALL: 86/100

COMMENTS: Nice work. I like how you switched the focus of the level from moles to Super Koopas halfway through, though I found that it was rather easy to get ambushed if you were high up on the screen (less time to react). That aside, the aesthetics were unique and interesting and the level flowed nicely.

Eternity
CREATIVE USE OF VANILLA RESOURCES: 20/25
APPROPRIATE DIFFICULTY CURVE: 24/25
OVERALL LEVEL QUALITY: 22/25
AESTHETICS: 23/25

OVERALL: 89/100

COMMENTS: Great. Some interesting sprite placements, well thought design and provides a nice challenge. Nothing special, but the overall design is fantastic. Even if built with simple sprites and uses no overly creative "how the hell is this vanilla" gimmicks, it still manages to be very memorable, due to both the pleasant aesthetics and fun gameplay.

MrDeePayCreativity: 15/25
Curves: 21/25
Level: 21/25
Aesthetics: 25/25

Overall: 82/100

Comments: Kinda standard in what it does, but in the end does it very well. Your use of Feathers in the first half is pretty questionable, however- and really gimps the difficulty of it and the side room with the Sumo Bros. Aesthetically it looks very pleasing, to boot.
Other Notes: Monty Moles are on a non-YI map, so they'll attack sooner. Design accordingly, OW designers!

[Pheonix]

re; the level name:

Nepheline... although to be honest I just needed something that was vaguely lava-ish and that sounded nice

also re; the secret exit:

yeah it's a bit of a throw-in, not going to lie; I guess it would be a bit more okay in a hack where the levels weren't standalone like they are here?j

But yeah even if there are a few more things I thought I should've got done aesthetically after the fact I'm pretty happy with how this thing turned out; maybe next year I'll do something that messes around with vanilla stuff a bit more?

[AlchemistHohenheim]

I was reminded through this video that the fence flip panels are quite possibly the single least utilized vanilla resource in SMW hacking. Or at least it feels like it.

[thatguyif]

Also, I'm a stupid, but what's the music in Cobalt Quarry? I know it's a Mega Man, but I thought it was the MM7 select. Heelllllp

The aboveground theme is Proto Man's Castle from Mega Man 5, and the underground theme is Cocoa Cave from Kirby Super Star. I recognized both tracks pretty fast, I was surprised that a Mega Man fortress theme was used for a mountain level.

I see! Cocoa Cave I knew. I just didn't know the MM one.