MaGL X2 - Cat Planet × Pokemon OTP

[DoctorSponge]

Wait a minute, I don't remember resubmitting "Text-a-thon Laboratory with More Reading Than Gameplay" from MaGLX.

At least I learned my lesson from last year. Having too much text does indeed take away from the level (especially because SMBX text boxes are murder on the eyes)

[Money]

Im pretty sure those baby rexes are supposed to be living eeries

[Sebby19]

That's what I was going to say!

Eeries are the ghosts of Baby Rexes!

raocow, HOW COULD YOU!

[phencer42]

Wait a minute, I don't remember resubmitting "Text-a-thon Laboratory with More Reading Than Gameplay" from MaGLX.

At least I learned my lesson from last year. Having too much text does indeed take away from the level (especially because SMBX text boxes are murder on the eyes)

My thoughts exactly. I got a serious vibe of our level from last contest.

[Alice]

I think the palette in the pink level could have actually used a bit of work. raocow didn't seem to have much trouble with it but because everything was the same basic colors, background or not, I had trouble identifying things at points. There should have been a little bit more variety in the palette to avoid that.

That's what I was going to say!

Eeries are the ghosts of Baby Rexes!

raocow, HOW COULD YOU!

So you're saying raocow is an eerie generator?

[Ometeotl]

So, uh, what happens if you fall off the vertically moving pipe platform without hitting the Red switch?

[Redesignated]

I am days late on this comment and it's probably not worth mentioning at this point buuuut since people were getting harsh in the comments for the video and not a lot of it was constructive

Sad Military Base Level I Forget the Full Name The One With the Sad Cats by a Compounded Pokémon:
[spoiler]Compound Fraxure, I get that you were going for a respectful, touching memorial kind of thing with the intent of showing that people loved Gaston; I can definitely appreciate that goal, and it's very sweet! However, it would likely be a good idea next time to get the OK from the people related to whatever happened beforehand, so that you know you have their blessing! The way it was presented also threw off a good chunk of people. There was a lot of text and story in your level, and at points it got a tad confusing which character had done what and for what purpose.[/spoiler]

Now, for today's actual levels.

[OBSIDIAN INTENSIFIES]:
[spoiler]Outside exploration looked very fun. I was interested to see how the floating augment to regular jumping mechanics were going to come into play, but then right after they were introduced, they disappeared forever.

Then we got inundated with a ton of exposition text that, while technically optional, was mandatory to understand what the heck was going on — which itself seemed as if it was meant to be scary or shocking but given the context just came off as kinda cheesy. It doesn't help that there were a good few typos, the most obvious of which is "vulcano."

The outdoor segment built up some interesting stuff and I like it a good bit! The indoor segment's general lack of action didn't really live up to my expectations of where the level was going to go. The typos and general handling of the story detracted from the level's attempt at story-building. Then it ended and left me kinda wondering what was going to happen next, but not in an edge-of-your-seat kind of way.

The resprites were neat, and the opening cutscene was fun. Far from a bad level, but definitely lacking a lot of aspects of quality in what it tried to include.

Also obsidian isn't a metal, dang it![/spoiler]
can i eat these landmasses they look delicious
[spoiler]Visuals were great, and I liked the music of the main level! The boss fight seemed fiddly and some of the backtracking/revisiting segments were kinda haphazard. Having the mid-point as an aside room like that — one with a piranha plant that would be happy to snipe you, to boot — was strange. Power-up placement dispersal was incredibly lopsided in favor of the post-mid-point segments, and the level in general looked like it ran too long for what it was doing.

In retrospect I have a lot less to say about this level than the one immediately before it, whoops[/spoiler]

It should be noted that the Cotton Candy level didn't follow the naming or character gimmick.

Man, and those scores are from after deduction with that in mind?

[Emral]

It should be noted that the Cotton Candy level didn't follow the naming or character gimmick.

Considering it was released Jan 26th on the SMBX forums, that makes sense. (Harvey36Dice is andialifbatara)

[Redesignated]

It should be noted that the Cotton Candy level didn't follow the naming or character gimmick.

Considering it was released Jan 26th on the SMBX forums, that makes sense. (Harvey36Dice is andialifbatara)

I forget exactly when entries for MaGLX2 were happening (it's been a while!), but from inference I'm guessing that means he made the level before the contest was going, then just entered it?

[Dragon Fogel]

Level names didn't get sent out until February 1, so if the level existed and had a name before that, yeah, I guess that's what happened.

[CodeGorilla]

Okay, I don't comment on these levels often, but I have a bone to pick with that first level. You don't spend the entire level hyping up this Warden thing only to not fight the damn thin at the end! It's just bad storytelling, and given that you were going for more of a storytelling level, that really hurts the level. Combined with the way the level just sort of ended, I'm guessing you were going to make the fight and just ran out of time.

[Sorel]

Alright, time for some dev commentary. It's not much since there really wasn't that much development to it, haha.

[spoiler]When I got my level name list, I didn't find a good name until one week after the contest had started. Molten Mantle just... clicked, you know?
I decided to test out this then "new" CinematX thingy (or Lua in general) by doing a cutscene at the beginning of the level, but I had literally no ideas at that point, so I had to come up with a proper idea for the level first. I settled on a level that favours story over gameplay (although I am fully aware that most people think wall of text = boring = bad level/disinterest) and came up with a proper idea, although I did not expect the small cutscene to eat up all my time I used for working on my level, so in the end, it ended up quite rushed with a large portion of the Flying Islands and the boss cut out, although I redesigned the rest of the level to be a bit more gameplay focused so that the player is at least a bit challenged. Also, I tried to do something out of my boss concept and turned it into a story thingy that builds up to the part where the boss would have appeared... and seems like it worked. Anticipation is a strong design tool. Use it.

The original concept for the level was a complete level, with even more story than it is now that builds up to a bossfight with the spider-like Warden, but I had too many problems coding the boss. Maybe sometime in the future when I'm better at coding Lua...

Also, I just threw the lower gravity part in for shits and giggles but apparently that was a nice concept so... you might see me recycle it in a future level.[/spoiler]

It was a coincidence, I swear!

[Imipolex G]

The reduced gravity thing in the first level is an interesting idea. Unfortunately I'm not sure if anything was done with it, since I fell asleep during the endless text boxes.

I actually liked the weird cotton-candy vibe of the second level, but having it be that long with the inevitable Mother Brain + homing chickens boss is...well, there are some lessons the SMBX community just never learns.

[phencer42]

It was a coincidence, I swear!

Don't worry dude, I'm not mad, I simply found it amusing. You pulled off our idea way better than we did anyways. Where did you get the tileset? I recall Doctor Sponge spent quite a bit of time getting those assets together.

[ztarwuff]

Geez! raocow made it sound as if some kind of flame war had erupted over level length. However, all I see is people saying my idea for a contest isn't a good idea and in a very agreeable tone. I agree with some of what has been said, but ultimately, let's just leave it for now. When the time comes, I'll submit the idea and leave it to a vote.

Metroid Obsidian Lab: Wow, that was really text heavy in the second half. The gimmick in the first half didn't really make any sense in the context, but would have made a fun level on its own. I feel as if this level would have failed to adhere to the naming gimmick if you took out all the text.

Pink Colossus: I can understand why sturg thought this level didn't adhere to the naming gimmick. It's not entirely obvious that the level is made out of cotton candy.

[Sorel]

Also it should be noted that I rushed the text down in like 2 hours since I didn't have any more time, so typos are to be expected...

Except vulcano. Curse you Star Trek.

EDIT:

Don't worry dude, I'm not mad, I simply found it amusing. You pulled off our idea way better than we did anyways. Where did you get the tileset? I recall Doctor Sponge spent quite a bit of time getting those assets together.

I found it in a Graphics Pack, like almost all of the graphics I use in my levels. For this level, arabsalmon helped me out with the player resprites. (Thanks again, pal!) Apart from that, the only graphics I created were the SMB3 Door replacement and the obsidian recolour.

Also, yeah, that obsidian thing was a nod to Minecraft where you can miraculously create obsidian with 50% water and 50% lava. That sure as hell is how it works in real life. I mean, test it. You won't get obsidian if you just throw water on lava. (Also in real life, obsidian is brittle, which is why L can break it with his sword and why Warden got wrecked by a few guns.)

Is there anything else I can say about my level...
Maybe I will create some more levels about the misadventures of Agent T and L, with less textboxes but more gameplay.
That should wrap everything up I guess.

[CodeGorilla]

Pink Colossus: I can understand why sturg thought this level didn't adhere to the naming gimmick. It's not entirely obvious that the level is made out of cotton candy.

No, it didn't follow the gimmick as in Cotton Sky Colossus was not a name the author was given. In fact, earlier in the thread it was mentioned that this level was created and available for download before the contest ever started.

[King of GETs]

Pink Colossus: I can understand why sturg thought this level didn't adhere to the naming gimmick. It's not entirely obvious that the level is made out of cotton candy.

No, it didn't follow the gimmick as in Cotton Sky Colossus was not a name the author was given. In fact, earlier in the thread it was mentioned that this level was created and available for download before the contest ever started.

Doesn't it defeat the purpose of a contest if an author submits a level to a contest that not only ignores the level name gimmick but was made before said contest even started? Although, it makes me wonder how many authors spent months in advance making a level for this contest and then tweaking little things here and there once they received their level names.

[Nathan the Talkmaus]

I loved the way the second level looked (pinks and blues feel special to me) but it was really strange how the first half had so few powerups that raocow began to comment on it, then after the midpoint there were nice powerups all over the place.

First level I didn't get much out of all the text, but I liked Agents T and L (could their organization be associated with the one employing Umbra?) and the character-switching gimmick.

[DoctorSponge]

EDIT:

Don't worry dude, I'm not mad, I simply found it amusing. You pulled off our idea way better than we did anyways. Where did you get the tileset? I recall Doctor Sponge spent quite a bit of time getting those assets together.

I found it in a Graphics Pack, like almost all of the graphics I use in my levels

Huh, graphics packs are a thing. I don't think I've ever looked for a graphics pack. I basically did it all from scratch specifically for the level, involving an emulator and screenshots and photoshop (because I always end up finding the hard way to do something). In this year's level I ended up redrawing almost every sprite we used (hopefully it will be a while before we see that).

And about the text, I understand. In our MaGLX level, I had wanted to do more storytelling with graphics of frozen enemies that unfroze when you had to backtrack, but I ran out of time and ended up putting in waaaaay too much text at the last minute to explain what was going on.

[Zygl]

re: submitting a pre-made level into a MaGL
Not gonna go too deep into how much I hate it and how I believe it to be the single worst aspect of "SMBX Community Culture™" but I'm inclined to push for implementing the SMBX community's "you can't submit a level you've posted screenshots/videos of or otherwise already have released" rule next time because this is just egregious as heck and feels super gross. Like honestly. It's Make a Good Level, not Have Previously Made a Good Level. I know there's no way to entirely ban it because how do you prove when an unreleased level was made but at least curbing it a bit would be nice, jeez.

e: Also I like how "Text-Heavy Laboratory Level With Metroid Fusion Computers" is like a trope of these contests at this point.

[Clamestarebla]

And they say my level had too much text.

[Ometeotl]

Your level had too much text.

So did this one.

[Imaynotbehere4long]

Whoa, Cotton Sky Collosus was submitted? For me, that really puts into context just how long this has been going on; I remember seeing it on the SMBX forums back in January [edit: ninja'd by Emral]! At the time, it was andialifbatara's only level that another Level Judge reviewed before I got to it (this was back when I was a level judge, and none of the other judges did their job).

(75th) andialifbatra: Cotton Sky Colossus

You got it wrong; the creator misspelled it as "Collosus," and it was this typo that Sturg was making fun of when he wrote "What's a 'Collosus'?"

[KayhemMaus]

There's some craziness in the scoring here but this is certainly just personal preference.

Commentary, Day 98 [Week 14 completed @_@ Absolute certainty this will be the longest raoLP at this point.];

76th, FluffiMasta: 'Molten Mantle' - Too. Much. Text. WAY TOO MUCH TEXT.

75th, andialifbatara: 'Cotton Sky Colossus' <MISSING WARNING ON IGNORING NAMING/CHARACTER GIMMICK> - You'd have fared much better had you not just threw this in with disregard to the rules I like the colours you went with, but... bit too long and unbalanced a bit.