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

[ft029]

I couldn't really get multiple message blocks working, and I had my Dagadon Coins glitching out.

addmusick: There is a readme.html that is super useful. It's really easy to follow, and the music will be in the level in no time.

multiple messages: In level 104, both messages display the same text. I'm not completely certain, but I think if you go to the overworld editor, go to extra options, then go to "special messages", then change the Yoshi's house to a different level. Then the messages in 104 should have different contents. Again, not compeltely sure if this works.

Yoshi coins: Press F2 on your keyboard while in Lunar Magic. Any Yoshi Coin on a subscreen boundary will get glitched when Mario collects it.

[TaviTurnip]

OH MAN CATS

This reminds me of the artist bird level in A2MT for obvious reasons.

[Reecer7]

i can see how willhart got so low. making the player go RIGHT, into level 106??? that's almost grounds for disqualification!

Edit: Also I played Sanct's level so here's a review.

There really wasn’t any coherence in the design of this level. It’s basically just a single appearance of some random enemy that you could place, followed by another one, and another one, making this series of discontinuous challenges that doesn’t really present any progression. Very vanilla, very lightly experimental.

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

No problem.
..Next time, you won't be likely to see a rompy level from me. Just throwing that out there. There's nothing wrong with them, but they aren't my specialty.

EDIT: Even though I didn't get SNE9x working in time, I do know about how those message blocks work. They call a message depending on their X position on the screen. This is also true for star/vine/1-Up regular blocks. Now, I don't know WHY they do that, but it's there.

Anyways, the levels from today.
A LEVEL WITH BULLET is a bit of a strange one. The first half is just kind of... there. The second half is better about challenging, but stuff I just kind of there. It's a good variety, but not really the interesting kind. I like that you made an effort, though.

A CHILLY FLIGHT... this is actually my least favorite level so far. I just do not enjoy flying levels, particularly those that make you try to stop flying. The first part of the second half is kind of bad, too. Those triangle platforms are absolutely strange, and are no way to make a vertical ascent over a bottomless pit. Beyond that is some pretty solid execution, though. even with the P-Balloon. ...Mandew, can you help out finding something truly great about this level? I don't see it. (Sorry, ParmaJon. Just voicing out my thoughts here. You're a pretty cool guy still.)

TRAMPOLINE HEIGHTS. I really, REALLY like that sprite edit. It gives this level a bunch of flavor it wouldn't have otherwise. It's also a romp, but as I said, there's nothing wrong with that. Willhart being there himself gives this level even more personality. FrozenQuills has some explaining to do with this particular score. (I thought Pyro would be the one that gave this level a low score, but no. They surprised me)

[FrozenQuills]

FrozenQuills has some explaining to do with this particular score. (I thought Pyro would be the one that gave this level a low score, but no. They surprised me)

I mean, it may be flavor town USA, but it didn't really have much of any interesting gameplay elements aside from the springy jumps. I also wasn't a fan of the palette.

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

FrozenQuills has some explaining to do with this particular score. (I thought Pyro would be the one that gave this level a low score, but no. They surprised me)

I mean, it may be flavor town USA, but it didn't really have much of any interesting gameplay elements aside from the springy jumps. I also wasn't a fan of the palette.

I had a feeling that this was related to gameplay. Still though... does this really do worse than my level? The one that didn't even get the coins and that paratroopa right? Well, I'm not terribly bothered. It's tradition at this point to have at least one level like this in every contest. And for one judge to look solely at the gameplay. Speaking of coins, they did seem a little concentrated in Willhart's level.

[Mandew]

...Mandew, can you help out finding something truly great about this level? I don't see it. (Sorry, ParmaJon. Just voicing out my thoughts here. You're a pretty cool guy still.)

I liked the suggestion of a flight level not relying entirely on flight - like, the flight segments having some in-between parts. I liked the part where you could bonk Chuck on top of the muncher column and glide to next-safety town.

The second part had some good ideas but the fact that the post-midpoint area doesn't give you a cape probably would have made it much more difficult than it needed, if raocow actually did die.

[TaviTurnip]

I have a feeling that the "oh man flavorful smuhbex level thiS IS THE BEST" versus "but the gameplay was dull/amazing" comparisons and preferences will really start appearing later in the contest with the really good levels, since I think talkhaus generally prefers the flavor side of things.

I'm kinda glad Willhart's level was this far down to give as a bit of a taste of that, to be honest >_> (I still loved the level, so.)

[Grounder]

Couldn't tell you much about the first level.

Parmajon's level honestly struck me as bad, though I think that rao could have scrolled the camera to the right to mitigate the blind spot in those flight segments.

Willhart's level was cute. I'm assuming that he was unfamiliar with Lunar Magic at the time of making the level and so he chose to do something simple.

[FrozenQuills]

And for one judge to look solely at the gameplay.

I consider flavor as a supplement to gameplay in a good level. If a level only has flavor without much of anything interesting in terms of its level design then it's like eating maple syrup without the pancakes to me, lol.
The graphics also need to look good enough in order to help with the immersion.

[Zygl]

I'm given to understand Parma was explicitly trying to do something VIP-y, and that in mind I can't help but love his level in a way - it's not 'a good level' but dude absolutely nailed the VIP feel with those triangle jumps and whatnot.

[Willhart]

I'm okay with my placement. it'd definitely have more of both platforming and flavor, if I was more familiar with the engine.

[SAJewers]

I have a feeling that the "oh man flavorful smuhbex level thiS IS THE BEST" versus "but the gameplay was dull/amazing" comparisons and preferences will really start appearing later in the contest with the really good levels, since I think talkhaus generally prefers the flavor side of things.

I'm kinda glad Willhart's level was this far down to give as a bit of a taste of that, to be honest >_> (I still loved the level, so.)

From what I've seen in the years I've been here, talkhaus generally prefers non-conservative gimmick levels that may or may not be janky and/or fall flat in execution.

At least, this was the way it was with SMW levels before the SMBX became a big thing here.

And for one judge to look solely at the gameplay.

I consider flavor as a supplement to gameplay in a good level. If a level only has flavor without much of anything interesting in terms of its level design then it's like eating maple syrup without the pancakes to me, lol.
The graphics also need to look good enough in order to help with the immersion.

Same here.

[FPzero]

I love the talkhaus brand of humor but I have a definite preference for levels that feel good to play. These two things aren't mutually exclusive either; Sturg's level in MaGLX2 felt like the perfect blend where the whole level was full of really tight and interesting gameplay and then after beating the boss a bunch of funny stuff happened with cubist paintings and Link the Cop. It felt like a perfect way to end the series being the best of both worlds.

[ParmaJon]

I'm given to understand Parma was explicitly trying to do something VIP-y, and that in mind I can't help but love his level in a way - it's not 'a good level' but dude absolutely nailed the VIP feel with those triangle jumps and whatnot.

This is 100% what i wanted. While the level could have just been designed better i was at least satisfied that it got the vip feel down. This was also the first few days where i got the palette and just the last few days in the contest to make the level.

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

And for one judge to look solely at the gameplay.

I consider flavor as a supplement to gameplay in a good level. If a level only has flavor without much of anything interesting in terms of its level design then it's like eating maple syrup without the pancakes to me, lol.
The graphics also need to look good enough in order to help with the immersion.

Yeah, that checks out. I understand your score completely now. I didn't mind the palette too much myself, though. While I'm not as big as flavor as some of the other people here, it goes a long way into making a level interesting. Yours is a solid viewpoint to have, and I completely respect it.

Ah, the VIP feeling. No wonder why I disliked that level quite a bit. Emulating them is a respectable decision. Seems you caught some of their bad design in the mix, too. (At least it isn't that White Rabbit Level, which would place terribly in a contest like this)

[leod]

The flying level was definitely the best level out of any shown so far.
It had gameplay! And a theme!

[Arctangent]

I've never really thought about it, but stopping to talk to random NPCs that don't really have a reason to be there is an incredibly SMBX thing and it feels kind of surreal for it to happen in a regular ol' SMW level.

[xfix]

Willhart, just a piece of advice for you, because I have a feeling this is a reason why your entry is lowly placed.

Carry-able springboards are persistent sprites (which means that they still count as sprites even when you leave the area near them). This matters, because Super Mario World is an old game, and it cannot process more than 10 sprites at once. I'm pretty sure your level design was heavily limited by being able to have only three sprites at once (I counted sprites in a video, after I saw casually using three carry-able springboards).

It's possible to have non-persistent springboards by using Tweaker (included with Sprite Tool). I'm pretty sure there may be springboard custom blocks too, but ah well.

That said, neat first level :).

[Willhart]

Willhart, just a piece of advice for you, because I have a feeling this is a reason why your entry is lowly placed.

Carry-able springboards are persistent sprites (which means that they still count as sprites even when you leave the area near them). This matters, because Super Mario World is an old game, and it cannot process more than 10 sprites at once. I'm pretty sure your level design was heavily limited by being able to have only three sprites at once (I counted sprites in a video, after I saw casually using three carry-able springboards).

It's possible to have non-persistent springboards by using Tweaker (included with Sprite Tool). I'm pretty sure there may be springboard custom blocks too, but ah well.

That said, neat first level :).

Ah interesting. I did have trouble with a lot of npc not spawning too, which is why there aren't that many enemies on the level.

[lolyoshi]

I've never really thought about it, but stopping to talk to random NPCs that don't really have a reason to be there is an incredibly SMBX thing and it feels kind of surreal for it to happen in a regular ol' SMW level.

I wonder why talking to NPCs on SMBX is so common.

[leod]

Because how else will you make waAaAacky jokes?

[lolyoshi]

Because how else will you make waAaAacky jokes?

The wacky text is what actually makes a good SMBX level.

[ParmaJon]

The flying level was definitely the best level out of any shown so far.
It had gameplay! And a theme!

Thaaaank you

[Reecer7]

I've never really thought about it, but stopping to talk to random NPCs that don't really have a reason to be there is an incredibly SMBX thing and it feels kind of surreal for it to happen in a regular ol' SMW level.

You know, there's probably something to be said about how the incredible ease with which you can just throw down talking npc everywhere in SMBX, as opposed to the two message boxes ONLY you get in SMW (per room), kind of devalues comedy. Any rando can put a funny talkhaus-approved joke in an X level, but if you really want a jokey World level to shine through with charm and humor, you gotta integrate it into the assets in a way that communicates intrinsically more obscurely than simple text, and that makes the funny levels just that much more impressive.

Of course, I've mentioned how I really dislike SMBX in comparison to Lunar Magic, so that's probably just that resentment of popularity and accessibility coming through.