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MaGL 3 results: moral of the story: laziness always prevails

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ano0maly
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Re: MaGL 3 results: starting the top third

Post by ano0maly »

Kerkec' level is a simple concept, with the screen horizontally fixed in one screen width to add to the minimalistic approach. Yet it has a particular, focused style.
raocow wrote:hope you guys like DEATH MONTAGES
Oh boy!

Also a question. Are you going to have each level in its own video for the top X levels, and if so, at what point? Or is that confidential?
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Re: MaGL 3 results: starting the top third

Post by Crow »

lol

anyways i preferred the first level here tbh. the second level would've been better had there been a midpoint halfway up or something but it wasn't very visually interesting and while the platforming looked solid it didn't look especially great, especially with some really tight jumps

raocow didn't die beyond like the first third of the level so there was no real time for fatigue to set in but i'm sure if he had died near the top it would've been a slog to get back up

first level had wall jump which is always a bonus and used it pretty decently as well imo, so yeah
i've honestly never played a video game in my life
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Re: MaGL 3 results: starting the top third

Post by raocow »

ano0maly wrote: Also a question. Are you going to have each level in its own video for the top X levels, and if so, at what point? Or is that confidential?
normally I start doing this around the top 10 ish
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Re: MaGL 3 results: starting the top third

Post by Mandew »

After that first level tomorrow, it's gonna be Top 20 time!
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Re: MaGL 3 results: starting the top third

Post by Zephyr_DragonLord »

As per usual, I have no problems with these levels. Actually, this contest has had the least levels actually be offensive. Even the bottom ones were fine to play (if not well thought out on a certain level)

As for the levels today....
MeGL3 is a good joke name, but also a good level. The walljump blocks are a good mechanic, if a bit iffy in execution. They're used in pretty good ways, and not in a repetitive fashion. A job well done, Fausthieb.

BERRY Berrry IRC*gibberish is a level. I see why it's Quill's favorite, and good job with making something that clicked with him. It isn't mine, but I can see the appeal in a tough as nails ascent through a minimalist world. I still find it quite good, though I would have added another mushroom... and some more content, I guess? Good job with this one, Kertec.
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Re: MaGL 3 results: starting the top third

Post by EvilMariobot »

raocow wrote:hope you guys like DEATH MONTAGES
So, Morsel Marceau up next?
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Re: MaGL 3 results: starting the top third

Post by FrozenQuills »

I wasn't expecting such a drastic turn in environment for koplje's level lol. The second half is better than the first half too.

I only died like 10-15 times in Blue Podoboo's level, whether it is due to luck or just me being really good at barrels for some reason. I actually really liked how it tied puzzles and barrels together in the autoscroller and first room, and the layer 2 part of the rocketbarrel ride looked really neat. Unfortunately I'm mostly in a minority opinion here.
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Re: MaGL 3 results: starting the top third

Post by Arctangent »

raocow this is why you always make sure you ask for stuff you actually want before you open your mouth

Also honestly the first level's rampant cutoff really bugged me, because a lot of it wasn't subtle in the slightest. And the color of its lava. Seriously, that stuff looks like it was given the wrong palette.
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Re: MaGL 3 results: starting the top third

Post by S.N.N. »

Everything up until the midpoint in Blue Podoboo's level struck a chord with me - I thought the autoscrolling part in particular was really well crafted, but I can understand how people who aren't a fan of the barrel mechanics to begin with might not enjoy it. I am in fairly unanimous agreement with most people that the last portion of the level ruins a good portion of the experience. In retrospect, I should have probably rated it a few points lower, but alas.

JUDGES' COMMENTS AND SCORES FOR 21st AND 20th PLACE:

21st: koplje
-FROZENQUILLS-
FUN: 18/30
DIFFICULTY: 5/5
CREATIVITY: 6/10
AESTHETICS: 8/10 (4/5 GFX + 4/5 MUS)
FUNCTIONALITY: 5/5

TOTAL: 42/60

COMMENTS:
Pretty good and simple level.

The first half is a nice explorative romp outside in the
snowy night while the second half is a bit more action packed
with some interesting chuck placements and a fun skull raft
ride.

The terrain outside was well made, and I enjoyed looking around
the level. I also liked how the difficulty picked up in the
lava area, and dealing with enemies while trying to keep the
skull raft on screen was enjoyable.

Basically, nice level. It could have pushed far more on the
creative end though.

TLDR:
+ Nice difficulty curve
+ Fun explorative first half with neat action-y second half
- Could have pushed more in terms of creativity

OTHER:
u made level


-PYRO-
Fun: 17/30
Difficulty: 3/5
Creativity: 5/10
Aesthetics: 9/10
Functionality: 5/5
Total: 39/60
Comment: CUTOFF http://i.imgur.com/P6Nkh2J.png. GAWD. Jokes aside, I liked this level. The lava cave was not where I expected this level to go, and the skull raft ride provided some nice challenges with chucks and blaargs. The aesthetics were really nice as well, especially the outside ice part. The outside ice part wasn't really much, though. As I'm typing this I literally can't recall anything in the first section, the lava cave section is when the level picks up. The lava cave is still good and memorable though, and it's overall a solid level.


-KOOPSTER-
FUN: 19/30
DIFFICULTY: 3/5
CREATIVITY: 5/10
AESTHETICS: 7/10
FUNCTIONALITY: 5/5

TOTAL SCORE: 39/60

Not a bad stage, though the first half is really sorta uninteresting. It doesn't do much on the second half but I can appreciate the design, it was fun to play~ The tilesets are really nice, but the ice one was used in a kinda clunky way in the first half, and I had troubles seeing some of the volcaninos in the ceiling in the second.


-S.N.N.-
FUN: 23/30
DIFFICULTY: 3/5
CREATIVITY: 6/10
AESTHETICS: 8/10
FUNCTIONALITY: 4/5

TOTAL: 44/60

COMMENTS: This was a charming little level with a nice atmosphere. I thought the lava part was quite well designed, but the icy parts left a bit to be desired. Some sections, especially around the first two Dragon Coins, felt totally devoid of any enemies. This resulted in an odd difficulty curve as the level progressed. Aside from that, the aesthetics were rather pleasant and the level was a nice romp.


20th: Blue Podoboo
-FROZENQUILLS-
FUN: 26/30
DIFFICULTY: 5/5
CREATIVITY: 9/10
AESTHETICS: 7/10 (3/5 GFX + 4/5 MUS)
FUNCTIONALITY: 5/5

TOTAL: 52/60

COMMENTS:
Great challenging level!

The first half was really neat with its barrel cannon setups
and it introduced the gimmick pretty well. I also liked how
you combined the cannon with the turn block wall switches.
However, I'm not really fond of the part with the bullets, turn
block switches, and falling platforms cause it's awkward to
avoid getting hit.

The autoscroller was really nice though. It took me a while to
realize I need the disco shell, but it was still pretty fun to
figure out what to do and do it.

After the midpoint the level changes it up by replacing the
cannon with a rocket. While I really enjoyed this, it could
stand to be more lenient, but I loved how you placed enemies
and layer 2 to make it challenging but interesting. It also
wasn't too long, which was great since it's really hard already
lol.

I only found the aesthetics to be alright though.

Anyway, this was a difficult and creative level done right;
great job!

TLDR:
+ Great gimmick and design
+ Nice handling of difficulty
- Aesthetics are only okay
- A few parts could be more lenient/better designed

OTHER:
textboxes: widescreen edition


-PYRO-
Fun: 5/30
Difficulty: 5/5
Creativity: 7/10
Aesthetics: 7/10
Functionality: 5/5
Total: 29/60
Comment: Oh boy. What to say about this level. I really don't like. The barrels in the first half are WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too fast and it's basically an extremely high stress level because the barrels are everywhere all the time. Like. I can't stress enough how unfun it was to just constantly be firing myself into lava or red herring barrels because the barrels are just way too fast to even react to. The disco shell setup is also weird too, I thought the barrel you had put there to lead around the disco shell with was a red herring, like another barrel set in basically the same formation earlier. Second half is more """fun"" I guess...? The rocketbarrel accelerates a million hundred times too quickly (basically just holding A for fourth a second will send you rocketing into the ceiling) but I guess the section is short enough so as to not make it frustrating...? I probably would have had a lot more fun of a time if there were two midpoints, one before the autoscroller and one before the rocketbarrel. But as it stands it's just kinda not fun at all. I do applaud the ASM here tho, it's super neat.


-KOOPSTER-
FUN: 16/30
DIFFICULTY: 2/5
CREATIVITY: 8/10
AESTHETICS: 6/10
FUNCTIONALITY: 5/5

TOTAL SCORE: 37/60

This started really swell, but it suffers from unpredictableness in a bunch of parts, especially in the second room. It wasn't obvious at first that I had to avoid the top barrel, maneuver the disco shell - or have enough reflex to go back to avoid the bullet in the first room. What bothers me the most about this is how the punishment for nearly everything is death. You placed powerup blocks quite often but they weren't that useful since misaiming is death most of the time. Redoing the first room over and over was a bit boring. The second half was really different and really interesting, but I wish it didn't have so tight corridors. That thing isn't as terrible as Flappy Bird but it's certainly not 100% stable, and I think a less tight stage would balance things out better. But overall, this wasn't too unpleasant. Just took me a while I guess...


-S.N.N.-
FUN: 25/30
DIFFICULTY: 3/5
CREATIVITY: 8/10
AESTHETICS: 7/10
FUNCTIONALITY: 4/5

TOTAL: 47/60

COMMENTS: I actually thoroughly enjoyed a lot of this stage, especially the auto-scrolling bit. I can tell you put a lot of thought into the placement of the cannons so that you wouldn't get "stuck" anywhere. The life farm later in the level was a cute touch as well. Most of my frustration stems from the last section - I understand why you felt the need to use that sprite, but it's exceptionally finicky and I died numerous times, especially right near the end. Despite being a barrel, this section doesn't really feel like it fits with the rest of the level, which was ultimately well-designed.
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by Zygl »

I've never really been a fan of the SMW barrel cannons - their animations are janky and gross and they just don't feel good to me - but maaaaaan I can't help but at least appreciate the idea behind that autoscroll section with them. I've legit never seen that done, in the DKC games themselves or even in any of the freaking billion or so romhacks raocow's played, and it's conceptually such an interesting thing, taking a timing-based thing like the barrels and applying a time pressure to them via the autoscroll. I love it, I just wish the barrels themselves weren't hella janky in this engine.

SPEAKING OF "HELLA JANKY IN THIS ENGINE", I wholeheartedly disagree with the second half's existence. I already don't like DKCR, the rocket barrel is quite possibly one of the worst design decisions in the game, and here we have a janky port of that already uncomfortable mechanic. If they'd taken the Rocket Rush rocket barrel, or the Rocket Barrel Ride rocket barrels, or even the DKCR vertical rocket barrel segment rocket barrel and made a section with one of those we'd maybe have an enjoyable videogame experience not based on mechanics seemingly specifically designed to be cumbersome to control. Granted, those other, better rocket barrels probably haven't been ported to SMW so I can't rightly blame them for using this one I suppose - they I guess wanted more barrels and it was the only 'more barrels' to be had - but that doesn't exactly make the second half here any more fun. It does, however, raise the question of what all those ASM peeps on SMWC are doing that we have the DKCR rocket barrel but not any of the more fun ones. :p

(whoops I guess that level kinda drew out my Inner DKC Big Fan Person <:p sorry)
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by SAJewers »

Yeah, first half was definitely a neat idea that was ruined by the jankiness of the barrel sprite.

Anyone got a list of who's left?
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by FrozenQuills »

SAJewers wrote: Anyone got a list of who's left?
Remaining Peeps (top 19):
a guy
Cloaytonem2
CrappyBlueLuigi
ft029
gameguy888
idol
kuposan3
Lazy
Le Neveu De Rameau
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Mandew
MiracleWater
morsel/morceau (aka rUdEbOi4000)
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Roykirbs
SAJewers
SMCslevelengine
Sturg
Tyty & FPZero
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by Mata Hari »

And I think it's gonna be a long long time
Till touchdown brings me 'round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no
I'm a rocket man
Rocket man
Burnin' out this fuse
Up here alone
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by Zephyr_DragonLord »

Hah, I find it funny that my guess was off by only one day, AND that it's a controversial level.

A Chilly Night is good. Really, really, good. The inclusion of ice makes this level even better than it already is. The atmosphere here is just so amazing to me... easily my favorite level so far. I feel so... outclassed looking at it. The fire section wasn't quite as good, but the challenges down there were still very solid. A job very well done here.

BALLISTIC BARRELS tells us everything we need to know, just by the title. The challenges are pretty sound here, but the jank of the barrels interferes with it a good amount. You had a ton of guts making a level like this, Blue Podoboo, But I think you did well with it. I do like the rocket barrel sections from Returns (though that bat can stay frozen in that hunk of ice). I think the sensitivity of those barrels needed to be lower (and perhaps a riding animation added for Mario on those sections), and it would have been perfect. I also like this level, despite the irritating sections that resulted from it.
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by ano0maly »

It starts out with koplje's level. Not really gimmicky but a nice well-made level and a DKC2 atmosphere I dig. I agree with raocow that the tree branches didn't seem to serve any purpose. And at the end of the level, when it snowed, what was there (a koopa and a few shells) wasn't of any significance.

Then we get to Blue Podoboo's level. I personally like the DKC barrels, and these barrels in today's level didn't look as difficult as the 8-way barrels keeping you on your toes in DKC series levels like Snow Barrel Blast and Bramble Blast. Although, I don't know how much jankier these barrels are compared to DKC ones.

But then comes the second half. Rather than having what amounts to swimming controls, maybe it could have a floating barrel that is propelled equally in whichever direction you point it to, and not sink if it's facing horizontally? The other barrels in the level are all floating, so it's unintuitive for this one to suddenly be affected by gravity once you enter it. This would need a different level design, of course.
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by MECHDRAGON777 »

I want to know what the judges meant by "SA patch". I think FPZero and They will win

Edit: I got no lag when play testing, but knew about the cutoff on the triple platforms and it was half internet tonal to get that one single platform.

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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by nathanisbored »

im pretty sure there are a bunch of endless runner mobile/flash games with that rocket gimmick (even before DKCR), so theres definitely an audience for it. I guess it requires a certain sense of anticipation which not everyone has though
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by nothobz »

Mata Hari wrote:And I think it's gonna be a long long time
:cry:


I wonder how much better that barrel section would've played if you only hit B at the 45 degree angle and avoided the directions altogether. Looks like a lot of deaths were from changing trajectory and flying off.
Either way that section was a case of developer's syndrome, where the level creator got so familiar with the barrels that the rocket barrel part probably seemed like a fun little breeze. It had potential, but missed the mark
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by Divemissile »

that second level looked like it could've done with better coding on the barrels. it looked like every different direction lasted a single frame which isn't very good for a precision-based level like that. i won't blame the creator cause i'm guessing the barrels used were pre-made custom sprites and fixing them would require being a wizard or something

on a slightly unrelated note, i played two of the yet to be shown magl3 levels last night and man they were amazing. i won't spoil which ones they were. but they made me excited for the other levels coming up.
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by Le Neveu de Rameau »

raocow, you sound a little hoarse around the 14:50 mark.
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by FPzero »

no one ever remembers the lowercase "z" in my name. though i guess i have no one to blame but myself for the capitalization that I chose.

Speaking of, is there any way to request a username change on here? This is one of the only places online that I still have my super old username. I'd like to be "FPzero" for consistency.
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by ft029 »

I struggled a ton on the first half of Blue Podoboo's level (needed 2 savestates and like 35 minutes to finish), but by some miracle I did the second half first try. Whoops, completely opposite experiences!
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by nothobz »

Le Neveu de Rameau wrote:raocow, you sound a little hoarse around the 14:50 mark.
i knew exactly what i was getting into and i still laughed
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by raocow »

FPzero wrote: Speaking of, is there any way to request a username change on here? This is one of the only places online that I still have my super old username. I'd like to be "FPzero" for consistency.
Done!
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Re: MaGL 3 results: mario kong country

Post by FPzero »

Awesome! Thanks.
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