MaGL X2 - Cat Planet × Pokemon OTP

[Learning-Timebuster]

can't believe that luigi succumbed to the mind-altering spores that make toads believe theyve ascended and dont have to care anymore, while in reality the fungus just takes control of the host body, seeking to further spread the parasite

[CloudyCloud]

ravegg, is the Birdo modified by lunalua?
or is its NPC code modified a little bit to be able to work like a sword?
or is it COMPLETELY vanilla?

I am very curious.

[raocow]

can't believe that luigi succumbed to the mind-altering spores that make toads believe theyve ascended and dont have to care anymore, while in reality the fungus just takes control of the host body, seeking to further spread the parasite

:o :o

[Grounder]

I liked the second half of the level better than the first one, as it was less generic and more fun to watch.

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

ravegg, is the Birdo modified by lunalua?
or is its NPC code modified a little bit to be able to work like a sword?
or is it COMPLETELY vanilla?

I am very curious.

This seems to be completely vanilla... which make the level that much more impressive.
...What if you put BOWSER in such a grass pickup? Does the player just become a veritable death machine?

[tirakai]

birdo-bender is... somewhat of an unfortunate word, considering birdo's lore and what bender means here in the UK (it's why The Last Airbender was renamed The Legend of Aang)

[raocow]

WARNING

next video features someone who made a pretty dang good level, yo

[ravegg]

Finally! It's been a long wait but it was worth it for the score I got. Also this was my first completed level I've made in SMBX. I've made a couple SMW levels and done some stuff in other games, so I'm not new to making levels, just this engine. Also while I started on SMWC I didn't really do much besides do one contest and make one world of a hack . So anyways dev commentary.

About the level concept:

So I started making this level with the more obvious meaning of the title with Luigi going into an art gallery themed around Birdos. I made a super short cloud section totally unrelated to anything but then once I got to the art itself I didn't know where to go with the level and a lot of my progress got deleted. So then while searching for graphics I found the ruin tiles and got an idea of handling birdos being some ancient art form learned by monks.

1st half:

My goal with the first half was to make a sort of deconstructed building with Luigi having to climb all around the monastery without going in a straight path. I like it when levels wrap around themselves with the player having to go around and maybe even loop through the level. To me this feels more organic and like an actual place. The one thing I did keep from my first attempt at the level was the Birdos being locked in cages and shooting eggs you can ride. Like this I could use the Birdos like bullet bills and have the player avoid projectiles, or I could use them as a platform you have to time jumps onto. The level being cramped was partly due to my inexperience with Luigi's high jump . My style of designing is also more compact then others, but I think this gives the level some unique design. If I were to remake the level I'd raise a few ceilings. As for the red coins they started out as dragon coins. However I wanted the player to explore a bit more thoroughly, so i changed them to smaller 8 red coins. Since it's pretty well known that 8 red coins=star I didn't have to explain it like I might if I used dragon coins. The first half might benefit from a few less enemies in certain spots too, where it gets a little overwhelming. I provided a lot of mushrooms and powerups to balance it out. As for the turn block obstacle I did steal that idea from an a2xt level, because I thought it was a neat idea, and fit my level's theme. I changed around the setup though and added two blocks so it was the same.

2nd half:

The second half I had a lot more fun with and it seems like people really enjoyed it. Since I was given two characters I decided to use them both, Luigi in the first half, Toad in the other. Toad's way of holding birdo above his head makes for an interesting hat. I made this half a lot more puzzly than being exploration based like the first. Again I could use the Birdo two ways, kill enemies from underneath or throw the Birdo and use its eggs. From here I did what every gimmicky level does and found how many dumb creative ways I could abuse Birdos. Again I was fairly generous with the powerups and Birdos. I put in a bunch of Birdos so you could experiment with them and not have to reset. Also at the end I really wanted a long gap that you ride an egg over because reasons.

The intended way of doing things:

1. The fire piranha at the beginning is meant to be killed with the radish or some other thing, otherwise you get hit trying to get the red coin.
2. In order to get the 1-up you use the Birdo on the far left and ride their egg to the bonus. It contains a powerup and some coins along with the 1-up
3. In the room with all the spikes you can get the red coin above the pit if you just ride the egg until you get to the wall. Though using the snifit is a lot more clever and dangerous.
4. In order to get to the the fire flower in the second section you're meant to put a Birdo on the piranha plant pipe, then ride the egg to the alcove. I should have made this more obvious.
5. The bullet bill/switch puzzle at the end raocow did the easy way. I discovered this but never bothered to fix it.

Dialogue and "Plot"

All the text is meant to be really dumb and I accomplished this. I''m glad that all of this is canon now, congrats luigi on becoming an immortal mushroom being. As for the "I hope I don't lose" I don't know what made me put that in . 3rd place is far from losing in my opinion.

Music:

I should have made both music tracks louder, kinda stinks you could barely hear them. The first half is fun and upbeat, while I wanted the second half to be more serene.
1st half: Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze: Windmill Hills
2nd half:Tetrobot and Co. : Red Light Above
Final Room:Earthbound: Welcome to Your Sanctuary
Tetrobot and Co. is a really good game, check it out if you haven't.

ravegg, is the Birdo modified by lunalua?

Everything in this level was done with vanilla assets. Birdos act oddly when you hold them for some reason.
heck yeah 5 dollars

[alleightbits]

ravegg:
Good things: neat gimmick, solid level
Bad things: occasionally it was vague as to what you were supposed to do. maybe that was just me
Misc. comments: All glory to the pink creature of unknown gender!

[Willhart]

WARNING

next video features someone who made a pretty dang good level, yo

I'll keep that in mind.

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

I really liked today's level. It used each character's abilities well. It also had a lot of creative uses of birdos. Congratulations on getting 3rd place. Now I'm really looking forward to the next levels.

[Nathan the Talkmaus]

I had a pretty terrible day yesterday

(woke up at almost 2 PM to see slow all over outside, walked to work with what seems to be a sliver in my foot and holes in my shoes through slippery, slush-covered sidewalks for two and a half miles, various shenanigans at work itself, having to stay ten minutes late on a night where I'd barely have walked home by midnight if I got out on time and needing to get up early this morning anyway, some businesses leaving their sprinklers on to spray people on the sidewalk in spite of snow, etc.)

Today's level had a really pleasant atmosphere and cheered me up a lot. Looking forward to tomorrow's.

[Ignoritus]

That level was once again absolutely fantastic. Horikawa wasn't kidding when she said no one was going to be disappointed with these last levels.

Well.... good luck Arabsalmon. I recently replayed my level and found a bunch of flaws, so I honestly don't expect to win. And I'm not the type to devalue my own work either. Either way, second with Sturg's favorite is plenty nice in and of itself! Well, either way, can't wait to see what goes down tomorrow!

Will we be getting two levels tomorrow like last year seeing as it will be apparent who the winner was anyways, or just one with the winner left to wait?

[TaviTurnip]

I need sleep so I can't say much, but ravegg's level was awesome. Truly. Thank for make :3

As far as top 2 is concerned, I'm very happy with the way it already looks. One person wins, one person is Sturg's favorite. I honest-to-goodness expected 1st place to be Sturg's favorite, so this is an unexpected twist for me and it basically means both levels are sure to be amazing.

[snoruntpyro]

It's such a weird thought that tomorrow we will know what the winner is, after almost 5 months of this lp...

[Sturg]

I honest-to-goodness expected 1st place to be Sturg's favorite, so this is an unexpected twist for me and it basically means both levels are sure to be amazing.

So I kind of based my favorite on my own personal fun factor score, but since the top two scorers basically had the same score in that category it was a bit difficult to choose between the two. I ended up choosing the one that tickled my own fancy a bit more, but that's not to say 1st place doesn't definitely deserve 1st place.

[raocow]

ah, er, yeah, tomorrow only has one level/video due to recording length. I know it makes for something a bit awkward but, uhm, whoever wins the context in two days, please try to act surprised!

[TaviTurnip]

raocow: I don't know why but that last post is really cute.

So I kind of based my favorite on my own personal fun factor score, but since the top two scorers basically had the same score in that category it was a bit difficult to choose between the two. I ended up choosing the one that tickled my own fancy a bit more, but that's not to say 1st place doesn't definitely deserve 1st place.

I consider this the correct way to go about it. I've had a lot of arguments with people in my life who don't understand the difference between "Thing X is my absolute favorite" and "but I think Thing Z was way better" and it's been frustrating. Your favorite shouldn't always be the one you rank highest; it should be the one you liked or enjoyed the most :P The one you could play half a dozen times and have fun, no matter its flaws (if there were any).

[Imaynotbehere4long]

woke up at almost 2 PM to see slow all over outside

Yeah, I absolutely hate it when everything is covered in slow. Maybe I'm just impatient, though...

[ohmato]

Well.... good luck Arabsalmon. I recently replayed my level and found a bunch of flaws, so I honestly don't expect to win. And I'm not the type to devalue my own work either. Either way, second with Sturg's favorite is plenty nice in and of itself! Well, either way, can't wait to see what goes down tomorrow!

Likewise, pal. Coincidentally, I also replayed my level and found a few glaring ones, so at least the playing field is even.

[Crow]

i was watching over the maglx1 top 10 because i forgot most of them and totally forgot both sturg and quill were top 10'ers in the first contest, haha

oh yeah and today's level was super cool, good flavor + good level design + variety = a win in my book

both the #1 and #2 basically get a win anyways because one's a favorite and the other is 1st place and i think both of those are good things to be

[ano0maly]

I'll be honest, today's level was creative use of Birdos, but for some reason, I expected it to be... more creative than this? It just felt like a normal level with potential for more puzzlish obstacles to be desired.

Good job nonetheless.

[blue_kirby]

That Birdo level was really interesting - really liked the "Red Coins" gimmick.

Is it just me or have a lot of MAGLX2 levels this year become marathon levels? I noticed a lot of them were really long - heck, even the MAGLX Top entries seemed really long compared to MAGLX's Top 10 last year.

[Garlyle]

...Wait

Wait wait wait, it just hit me, we're at the top two and I have actually got both of the winning levels (or at least a prior version) sitting on my hard drive from testing them. And interestingly - and not out of insult to either level because they were fantastic - neither was my guess for first place contender (That was Ometeotl).

But I think at this point I'm used to not being able to successfully guess the order of the entrants!

Anyway though like... damn, congratulations to bloody everyone in this contest. I know I haven't been around (Suddenly being employed again will do that!) but yeah. This has been a wild, wild ride.

which technically isn't over yet we could still have a month of postgame bonuses

[blue_kirby]

Oh god the postgame.