(shouting)

VLDC9 - vanilla level design contest 9

this is the place where lps are being talked about. it's important to talk about games being played on the internet.
User avatar
Money
Posts: 467
Joined: 13 years ago

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Money »

Just because we inherently cant be completely objective doesnt mean that some things arent closer to being objective than others. We may never be able to reach infinity, but 10 is a bigger number than 1. If that weird metaphor makes sense.
User avatar
Lockirby2
Posts: 376
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Lockirby2 »

I think the closest that we can get to an objective judgement is to rank levels highly if they appeal the most to the largest number of people in the target audience of a contest. Obviously we can't have everybody in that target audience rank the levels, but a better set of judges (and rubric) should be able to give a closer approximation.

Turn Block Treeway is about as good as a romp can get, though I guess it's debatable how good a romp can get in the first place. It doesn't stand out as much as the other levels in Best World. However, unlike Stellar Garden and Stadium of Plants I don't have any doubts about its position in Best World.

Mass Extinction stands out a lot to me, on the other hand. Using each colour of Yoshi in a row gave the level a great sense of progression. The puzzles were really cool too; I find it a shame that raocow broke the secret exit puzzle. :P I also couldn't really care less about getting stuck in a level. Whether I die because I lost my Yoshi when I shouldn't have and need to commit suicide or I die because I stepped on a spike, the result is the same regardless. The real downside for me is the potential for areas where one mistake is death, but in this level they were necessary to facilitate a couple puzzles and didn't really detract from the level.
Kles
Posts: 43
Joined: 14 years ago
First name: h

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Kles »

This is probably a pain to compile, but what is each judge's average score? Bonus points if each separate category is totaled up. I'd be curious to see which judges tend toward higher or lower scores.
User avatar
Super Maks 64
Just your usual SMW hacker
Posts: 361
Joined: 7 years ago
Pronouns: he/him/his

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Super Maks 64 »

I REALLY like today's level and I think it's worthy of the first place (second place is solid, but first is a disappointment).

You start on a grey planet on which only Dry Bones, Eeries (and Ninjis for some reason) live giving it kind of a desolate planet feel and then there's an underwater and autoscrolling part in which you avoid asteroids and it is fun. The next planet is a fiery planet full of fire creatures (Sparkies and Hotheads may be electric but let's assume those are made out of fire) and lava geysers after which you go through another asteroid section to finally land on Earth.

Overall the level has a great atmosphere, creative parts (fire planet and asteroid sections), and solid design.

Oh and raocow could you please stand on the Best World's Star Warp and disable Layer 3 visibility, it's an interesting easter egg.
User avatar
morsel/morceau
Posts: 401
Joined: 14 years ago
Location: exotic horse island

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by morsel/morceau »

If I was a judge (God forbid), I would have given INTERPLANETARY a good score, but it's gameplay is too unfocussed and there are too many trivial or 'down' areas for me to love it unconditionally (like that final completely unnecessary grassland area). The best gameplay levels in the contest were those of Blue Leaf, lolyoshi and worldpeace. Since worldpeace's level wasn't quite as good as his level which won the contest and Blue Leaf's level was much better than his level which won the contest, I would of course have awarded first place to lolyoshi. But these levels were all a bit derivative of other things I've seen in the past (even if worldpeace was copying himself); the most original level in the contest was certainly MATTERHORN. (In giving this retrospective I suppose I'm considering the actual top 2 as negligible :oops: )
dont wanna jihad no more
S.N.N.
Posts: 561
Joined: 14 years ago
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by S.N.N. »

morsel/morceau wrote:If I was a judge (God forbid), I would have given INTERPLANETARY a good score, but it's gameplay is too unfocussed and there are too many trivial or 'down' areas for me to love it unconditionally (like that final completely unnecessary grassland area).
See, I'd disagree here, because it's pretty clear that this level was trying to be an "experience" as well as a level. The final grassland area isn't really pointless because it plays into the idea that you've landed on Earth, so it's showing off the regular Goombas/Koopas you're used to right before the end. Although most people can botch a level by giving it a bad atmosphere, I don't think that's the case here.

Part of what makes this level so good (to me) is the fact that it does everything well. Are there better pure gameplay levels in this contest? Sure, and you even named them. Have we seen better aesthetics in the contest? Probably. This level manages to do both really well in a way that you're left with a good feeling at the end of it, and I think that's important. I always tend to cite Donkey Kong Country 2, one of my personal favorite games, as a style I look for in SMW nowadays. That game pulls off level design and aesthetics super well, and it demonstrates entirely how important both are to the experience - they co-exist and enhance each other when they're done properly.
User avatar
Koopster
judge of u
Posts: 193
Joined: 9 years ago
Location: is there anybody in there?

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Koopster »

I'm another one who wouldn't give Interplanetary first place. It didn't speak to me that much, especially gameplay-wise, but even otherwise I always felt it's a bit overhyped, lol. I would've expected Gbreeze (Aperture Lab) to win instead; that one stood out to me the most. My gameplay favorite is still lolyoshi though.
Image
Kles
Posts: 43
Joined: 14 years ago
First name: h

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Kles »

I don't think that was a contest-winning level either. The gameplay was just a bit too simple. Honestly, I think FrozenQuills' level had the best gameplay out of the entire contest.
User avatar
FrozenQuills
hehe haha 2024
Posts: 843
Joined: 9 years ago
Location: my skull

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by FrozenQuills »

3rd: INTERPLANETARY by NGB
Nimono
DESIGN: 28/30
CREATIVITY: 18/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 56/60
Pretty neat! Definitely enjoyed the overall theme of space travel, and I felt it was done quite well! Although, a jump at the end of the lava planet where you go from a sinking stone to a vertically-moving stone was a little unfair... If you just jump straight over, the next platform is going up, so you can't reach it until it's too late, necessitating that you press R to scroll the screen in advance, thus requiring you to know the jump is coming.

ninja boy
DESIGN: 18/30
CREATIVITY: 16/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 44/60
This was yet another really great level but I have to say I think the moon was stretching the term vanilla a bit more than it should of but that’s just my opinion. Gameplay wise it was really good a nice challenge and the swimming/space sections gave a nice break from the standard running and jumping of the rest of the level.

Eternity
DESIGN: 30/30
CREATIVITY: 19/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 59/60
Excellent work with this one! Some really clever obstacles around, and a few super interesting gimmicks as well, from the small ones (the "rising lava rocks") to the swimming sections (which were pretty well executed). The level was really fun to play all the way throu, and the overall atmosphere is fantastic as well. Definitely one of my favorites.

OTHER: woah, a surprisingly huge amount of space-themed levels this year

Koopster
DESIGN: 26/30
CREATIVITY: 17/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 53/60
What an amazing level! You executed the ideas you had extremely well, especially the spacial asteroid dodging action which was super interesting. Overall, this is a rather basic action and hurdle-dodging level all things considered, but the flavor made it a really fun, outstanding-for-what-it-is experience. Great work.

I also wouldn't mind if Interplanetary won.
Image
Image
avatar by crayonchewer!
Image
Image
Image
SMBX Tileset Compiler and Separator
The boss entry that made me eat a shoe.

5th place counter: 5
(SMBX Forums CC11, SMBX Forums CC12, Endgame Madness Contest, SMWC Kaizo Contest 2016, SMWC 24hr Contest 2018)
User avatar
Nimono
Posts: 745
Joined: 11 years ago

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Nimono »

what exactly did raocow mean by "X-Factor"?

is he implying Ninja Boy is X-Pac? XD
User avatar
Voltgloss
Ask, and you shall be given. Think, and you shall find.
Posts: 1147
Joined: 10 years ago
Pronouns: he/him/his
Location: exploring the world, now with friends

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Voltgloss »

I was ever-so-slightly disappointed when the dots on the machines (in the room with the first "interplanetary travel" pipe) didn't turn out to spell NGB in Braille.

Edit: Is there any merit to ninjaboy's "the moon was stretching vanilla" comment? I don't know enough about inner SMW workings to assess that.
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
Stink Terios
Posts: 577
Joined: 12 years ago

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by Stink Terios »

I also thought today's level was fairly mediocre. While it looks nice, it's just a short romp that doesn't do a whole lot of interesting things.
And then there's the space travel sections which are just a bore and do nothing AT ALL.
Never mind the obstacles that are harmless-looking and still hurt you anyway.

This level felt like inhaling a gust of air when I played it.
User avatar
Lockirby2
Posts: 376
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by Lockirby2 »

This was an easy level done right. The first room didn't stand out to me very much, but it was probably the weakest part of the level. Every part of this level had a high degree of cohesion, and the platforming required was varied despite its simplicity.
S.N.N.
Posts: 561
Joined: 14 years ago
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by S.N.N. »

James Rowe wrote:And honestly raocow, I love your videos and have been a fan for a long time but your snark and "not trying to call someone out" while continuously bitching about them. Well, this contest has made me loose a bit of respect for ya buddy.
this is actually just a small snip of the much larger comment he posted about how ninja boy's results made the most sense, but holy hell lol
Last edited by S.N.N. 7 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
TRS
Posts: 38
Joined: 13 years ago

Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by TRS »

Voltgloss wrote:Is there any merit to ninjaboy's "the moon was stretching vanilla" comment? I don't know enough about inner SMW workings to assess that.
Ninja boy simply had doubts that the moon was vanilla.

This would have been noticed and talked about during post-judging discussion and probably would have resulted in a higher score from him.
Last edited by TRS 7 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Nimono
Posts: 745
Joined: 11 years ago

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by Nimono »

S.N.N. wrote:
James Rowe wrote:And honestly raocow, I love your videos and have been a fan for a long time but your snark and "not trying to call someone out" while continuously bitching about them. Well, this contest has made me loose a bit of respect for ya buddy.
this is actually just a small snip of the much larger comment he posted, but holy hell lol
i liked the one where he whined and screamed about how all of SMWC is corrupt about judging because there's no accountability whatsoever lol
User avatar
TRS
Posts: 38
Joined: 13 years ago

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by TRS »

He does have a point about the snark. It's getting really annoying.
User avatar
Grounder
Posts: 5765
Joined: 10 years ago

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by Grounder »

S.N.N. wrote:
James Rowe wrote:And honestly raocow, I love your videos and have been a fan for a long time but your snark and "not trying to call someone out" while continuously bitching about them. Well, this contest has made me loose a bit of respect for ya buddy.
this is actually just a small snip of the much larger comment he posted about how ninja boy's results made the most sense, but holy hell lol
Is he the guy that randomly tried to psychoanalyze rao a few LPs ago?
Why don't you eat me?

I am perfectly tasty...

AND I'LL STEAL YOUR SOUL! :twisted:

ImageImageImage
Ometeotl
Posts: 675
Joined: 14 years ago

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by Ometeotl »

TRS wrote:He does have a point about the snark. It's getting really annoying.
Nah
User avatar
raocow
the death of the incredible huge
Posts: 4078
Joined: 15 years ago
Location: maybe the Wizards are the most complex, and the sales guys are up their daily
https://raocow.talkhaus.com/

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by raocow »

I mean I think I have been a bit too aggressive about this, to be fair.

Then again, 'stretching the definition of vanilla' is like what
the chillaxest of dragonsImage
Image
Image
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by Mata Hari »

I don't remember which level was FrozenQuill's
User avatar
morsel/morceau
Posts: 401
Joined: 14 years ago
Location: exotic horse island

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by morsel/morceau »

I'm sure any sort of aggression (there wasn't any) would be justified as an attempt to get ninjaboy to say anything at all about his judging. From the perspective of a mere competitor, it had seemed that he played the levels with rewinds, gave each of them an incomprehensible sentence and a randomly generated score, and then buggered off forever.
dont wanna jihad no more
User avatar
FrozenQuills
hehe haha 2024
Posts: 843
Joined: 9 years ago
Location: my skull

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by FrozenQuills »

Mata Hari wrote:I don't remember which level was FrozenQuill's
I made spooky forest place town.
Image
Image
avatar by crayonchewer!
Image
Image
Image
SMBX Tileset Compiler and Separator
The boss entry that made me eat a shoe.

5th place counter: 5
(SMBX Forums CC11, SMBX Forums CC12, Endgame Madness Contest, SMWC Kaizo Contest 2016, SMWC 24hr Contest 2018)
User avatar
raocow
the death of the incredible huge
Posts: 4078
Joined: 15 years ago
Location: maybe the Wizards are the most complex, and the sales guys are up their daily
https://raocow.talkhaus.com/

Re: VLDC9 - various landfalls defying commonality 9

Post by raocow »

a propos of nothing, anyone knows how to disable layers in snes9x? everyone keeps telling me to disable layers on the star in best world map
the chillaxest of dragonsImage
Image
Image
Post Reply