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VLDC9 - vanilla level design contest 9

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Kowkarot
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by Kowkarot »

I had two problems with Cutting in Line: First, in the last fast platform section, the platform suddenly disappeared at the end (Just like in that one level in Grass World), which cost me two lives and some frustration. And second, the Dragon Coin after the midpoint. At first I thought it was a clever little puzzle, but after dying a few times (Because the level gets pretty hard after the midpoint, and I died many more times than raocow), it became a pain to get and a waste of time. So I ended up ignoring it and then got it on a second playthrough.

I had that exact same issue with the first dragon coin in

Brown Block Basement

, since it involves a time consuming puzzle that gets tedious after dying in the level many times. So again, I ignored it and got it on my second playthrough. But the one in Cutting in Line is not even well designed, because it's easily skippable with some screen scrolling.

So yeah, even though I really liked Cutting in Line, I feel it needed a tiny little bit more polish.

And Fortified Cavern is probably my favorite level in the game, so I don't really have anything to say about that one.
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by S.N.N. »

I love a lot of things about Cutting in Line. It uses the scale platforms in very clever ways, but as others have pointed out, there always seems to be one sprite too many at the worst times.

Fortified Cavern is excellent all-around. Blue Leaf has been a participant in the VLDCs for years and he never fails to produce high quality levels that focus purely on design.
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by 10204307 »

Circular saws are pretty easy to use in levels because of how consistent and simple they are, but I always seem to have fun with levels that use them. There's something really satisfying about dodging them.

Naturally, I enjoyed Blue Leaf's level. I also really liked the aesthetics, even though they're basically just regular SMW aesthetics. It's very pleasant-looking and easy on the eyes, much like worldpeace and lolyoshi's levels, which were also levels I really liked!
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by nothobz »

The thing that stuck out to me the most when playing Blue Leaf's level, and the thing i think about often, was the anxious feeling of waiting for the floor to drop. You see the layer 3 background, so you know this is a layer 2 level and the platform's going to fall. You just dont know when. and you're jumping around, looking at all the spikes beneath you, and just praying that it doesn't decide to drop you on top of one. Then you see the yoshi coin and get that feeling of relief, because you know that's where the floor will drop you, safely. I've never experienced a feeling like that in a smw hack

I still haven't beaten cutting in line.
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by Lockirby2 »

Fortified Cavern is great! The level is very nicely crafted, and nothing feels out of place. I really liked how Thwomps (I think) are used at the end to make thumping noises at the end to make it feel like the level is collapsing. I'm surprised nobody mentioned that yet.

I've gotten the "there's always just one sprite too many" feeling from a lot of levels, but Cutting in Line was not one of them. I'm actually pretty surprised that's such a common criticism by the looks of things. The snake block puzzle didn't work at all though; breaking it is both easier to execute and easier to figure out IMO than actually solving the puzzle, which is never good. For some reason I had extreme difficulty finding the Dragon Coin above the carryable yellow block. It somehow took me longer to find than the secret exit of Flash Black! As I predicted, raocow found it immediately though.
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by repairmanman »

Oh man, mass extinction was a great level! It's getting me pretty pumped for the top three.

If their scores aren't messed up :V
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by Ryrir »

Yeah, my main gripe with "Mass Extinction" is how easy it is to get yourself stuck and having to kill yourself. I know not everyone is a fan of reset doors or whatever, but this level really could have used some in my opinion. Despite that it's a really cool level though

The other one was just kind of there
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by Zygl »

Reset doors are for lame-os.

(Mass Extinction is amazing)
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by Kles »

Just a reminder that ninja boy gave Flash Black a 56/60... .'/

EDIT: heh, just got to the part where raocow mentioned that.
Last edited by Kles 7 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by S.N.N. »

Ryrir wrote:Yeah, my main gripe with "Mass Extinction" is how easy it is to get yourself stuck and having to kill yourself. I know not everyone is a fan of reset doors or whatever, but this level really could have used some in my opinion. Despite that it's a really cool level though
Not gonna lie, I heavily debated with myself and ultimately decided against reset doors. I respect people who use them, but I wanted to try and design without them in mind. Unfortunately, yes, this results in a couple places where it's fairly easy to get stuck.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

(fun fact: this level would have gotten first place if ninja boy's scores were removed from every level. Makes me cry a little inside, even if I feel that a couple of others are more deserving, ie tomorrow's. Someone should post the contest's results with this scores removed if they haven't already, the list is floating around somewhere. The top ten looks quite a bit different.)
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by Koopster »

I've been out of my comp for a few days, so I'm alright if someone wants to take over posting the final comments!

Don't got much to say other than also feeling guilty for scoring some of these levels way too high. Still, had any post-judging discussion happened, I'd change some of them in a heartbeat. None of us knew what the top 10 was gonna be like before it was posted.
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by FrozenQuills »

sure

6th: FORTIFIED CAVERN by Blue Leaf
Nimono
DESIGN: 29/30
CREATIVITY: 20/20
AESTHETICS: 8/10
TOTAL: 57/60
Very fun! The second half was stressful, but fun, and I enjoyed the climb up the walls in the first half! Well done!

ninja boy
DESIGN: 16/30
CREATIVITY: 16/20
AESTHETICS: 7/10
TOTAL: 39/60
Very nice level with an interesting take on the mega spikes and the layer 2 smash that provided a new and different challenge.

Eternity
DESIGN: 30/30
CREATIVITY: 19/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 59/60
Really loved this one! The Grinders were used in some really clever ways, and the Layer 2 was used nicely too - it wasn't added in as an afterthought, the level was actually designed with it in mind (which is surprisingly rare). The secret exit was hidden pretty well too. Overall a fun level with lots of creative setups and some nice aesthetics too.

OTHER:

Koopster
DESIGN: 26/30
CREATIVITY: 16/20
AESTHETICS: 9/10
TOTAL: 51/60
Neato! This is a really well crafted level overall. I dig how the secret exit is hidden. Don't have too much to complain about, though I do think the second half kind of escalated the difficulty a bit too much. I thought it was hard to predict where I could stay or what I should do sometimes, but that only costed me two or so lives. Still really fun level~

6th: CUTTING IN LINE by Lui37
Nimono
DESIGN: 20/30
CREATIVITY: 16/20
AESTHETICS: 6/10
TOTAL: 42/60
An interesting idea, but the level is quite difficult at parts if you don't time things JUST RIGHT.

ninja boy
DESIGN: 22/30
CREATIVITY: 17/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 49/60
Very nice looking level but a little cluttered from time to time though gave a nice impression of a sunset.

Eternity
DESIGN: 30/30
CREATIVITY: 20/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 60/60
One of the most unique and creative levels in the contest! This uses a lot of interesting gimmicks and together they're a pretty unique combination as well (line guides, fishes with no water, scale platforms). This level somehow managed to integrate all of them pretty well, and this level has a lot of brilliant setups as a result.

Koopster
DESIGN: 27/30
CREATIVITY: 18/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 55/60
This is an EXTREMELY well constructed level, I just think the difficulty hiccups drain from it a little! The first half is significantly easier than the second dragon coin sublevel and the second half, I guess partially on the latter because the punishment for failing is death! It gets particularly very tricky in the last sped up line section (which I couldn't do with no hits). But man, still, this level has impressed me a lot! It's very clear a lot of thought and effort was put into it. And in the long run playing it is a really fun and neat experience~

5th: TURN BLOCK TREEWAY by Magiluigi
Nimono
DESIGN: 29/30
CREATIVITY: 20/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 59/60
Really nice, fun level! The jump to the hammer bro at the very end was a bit mistimed and thus very difficult to do without getting hit, but overall this level was very nice!

ninja boy
DESIGN: 19/30
CREATIVITY: 14/20
AESTHETICS: 8/10
TOTAL: 41/60
Very nice level and a good use of the turn blocks to hold prizes with a variety of ways to actually break them. The level had a nice pace to it as well with constant action but not clutter with enemies so it always felt like you were making progress.

Eternity
DESIGN: 30/30
CREATIVITY: 19/20
AESTHETICS: 9/10
TOTAL: 58/60
Fantastic work with this one. The gimmicks used are simple, but they are used in really clever ways through the level. Overall it's very professional and polished, and incredibly fun to play through as well.

OTHER: why is this in the worst world submap

Koopster
DESIGN: 26/30
CREATIVITY: 16/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 52/60
First off, very nice pallete work! Now for the level, it's really well designed. Turn blocks are really cool because you can do a lot of things with them, and you showed that really well with this stage! The section where the chuck chases me while destroying my platforms was probably my favorite. It's a little sad how the bonus makes me skip a good chunk of the first half though D:

4th: MASS EXTINCTION by S.N.N.
Nimono
DESIGN: 30/30
CREATIVITY: 20/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 60/60
Wanted to cry after this level. So many Yoshis killed, at the player's hands! And yet, it was quite fun seeing all the different ways to use Yoshis! Bravo!

ninja boy
DESIGN: 17/30
CREATIVITY: 15/20
AESTHETICS: 5/10
TOTAL: 37/60
At first I didn't get the gimmick with ditching Yoshi at all but after getting the yellow one I realized it was so you'd always have the right power.

Eternity
DESIGN: 30/30
CREATIVITY: 19/20
AESTHETICS: 10/10
TOTAL: 59/60
This makes a great use of Yoshi, and in all colors too. The overall progression is great and the obstacles are really well-designed too. Nothing felt out of place and it was just a lot of fun to play through. The atmosphere was great, too. Great job!

Koopster
DESIGN: 27/30
CREATIVITY: 19/20
AESTHETICS: 8/10
TOTAL: 54/60
This level is so interesting! I was a bit keen with how losing the yoshi means death at first, but the stage actually takes that into consideration and won't let you lose your yoshi easily. The secret exit path was SUPER creative and worked very well for something optional.
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Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by zagesaw »

SNN's level was amazing. I really like how he used killing yoshi as the main gimmick and how the level makes you take advantage of each individual colored yoshi. The puzzles were also clever. The entire level had a good level of challenge, variety, and fun factor, and the aesthetics are pretty nice too. This is one of the best levels in the entire contest overall. Stating my thoughts on ninja boy's scoring would be redundant at this point, but I believe this level should have been either 2nd or 3rd.

Tomorrow's level is the actual VLDC9 winner imo.
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Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Reb »

It's always interesting how little the judges comment on the stages.
I totally get why they're short, they had so many levels to judge.

It just really doesn't help when people are like "why is this level so high/low??"
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by Zephyr_DragonLord »

S.N.N. wrote: (fun fact: this level would have gotten first place if ninja boy's scores were removed from every level. Makes me cry a little inside, even if I feel that a couple of others are more deserving, ie tomorrow's. Someone should post the contest's results with this scores removed if they haven't already, the list is floating around somewhere. The top ten looks quite a bit different.)
I was actually going to request this very thing, but was too slow on the uptake. But for now... *ninja boy chiding intensifies* ...I am also interested in his thought process. As in, him sharing it with us here.

Levels. They're good.

Fortified Cavern is a very well thought out level. It has dynamic difficulty based on the switch blocks pressed, and a bunch of cool applications of Layer 2. He tends to be real solid in these, so good job.

Cutting in Line is really cool in premise, and in execution... but is very stiff difficulty wise. This is fine, as the puzzles more than make up for it. The one right after the midpoint is quite tricky, though. Good job, Lui37...


Turn Block Treeway wouldn't seem so special on paper, but here we are. It's a real solid level... based around turn blocks, of all things. And you know what? They're used incredibly. The one gripe I have is the ending sections, which are real difficult out of nowhere, which leads to quite a surprise... Overall, the ideas shown here are really good, though. Good work, Magiluigi.

...Wow, poor SNN. This concept absolutely does work, and it's been proven to multiple times. Mass Extinction is probably my favorite level so far. And of course, it ends up killing all of the Yoshis. (you monster) It really uses the elements of each color of Yoshi very well... though I think the blue section is weaker than the others, but is still solid. You did very well here. Getting stuck is a little bit of a thing, but this is still incredibly good.
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by Kowkarot »

I never really had problems with the lack of reset doors in Mass Extinction. But now I realise that, you know, VLDC9 has infinite lives, so of course I wasn't gonna have issues with it. So yeah, it would probably be a bad design choice if lives actually mattered. And that kind of destroys a bit my mental image of this level being pretty much perfect :(
S.N.N. wrote:(fun fact: this level would have gotten first place if ninja boy's scores were removed from every level. Makes me cry a little inside, even if I feel that a couple of others are more deserving, ie tomorrow's. Someone should post the contest's results with this scores removed if they haven't already, the list is floating around somewhere. The top ten looks quite a bit different.)
Oh god, that's just...wow. But seriously though, your level is as deserving as those "couple of others" of being first place. So your sadness is totally understandable
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by Ninja Steve »

Ryrir wrote:Yeah, my main gripe with "Mass Extinction" is how easy it is to get yourself stuck and having to kill yourself. I know not everyone is a fan of reset doors or whatever, but this level really could have used some in my opinion. Despite that it's a really cool level though

The other one was just kind of there
There's still a pretty hefty difference in my mind between someone leaving out useful reset doors, and going out of their way to point out that they left them out on purpose
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by TRS »

Zephyr_DragonLord wrote:
S.N.N. wrote: (fun fact: this level would have gotten first place if ninja boy's scores were removed from every level. Makes me cry a little inside, even if I feel that a couple of others are more deserving, ie tomorrow's. Someone should post the contest's results with this scores removed if they haven't already, the list is floating around somewhere. The top ten looks quite a bit different.)
I was actually going to request this very thing, but was too slow on the uptake.
I have a list of the top 15.

Image

Cells are in order: new rank, author, average, Eternity, Nimono, Koopster, change in rank

Of note:
  1. Today's two levels (Turn Block Treeway and Mass Extinction) would have been 2nd and 1st, respectively.
  2. Stellar Garden and Stadium of Plants leave best world and are replaced with Aperture Laboratory (8th) and Nightswimming (9th).
  3. Cutting in Line drops all the way down to 10th.
  4. The 1st place level drops all the way down to 6th (it was ninja boy's only perfect score).
[/spoiler]
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by TRS »

TRS wrote:
Zephyr_DragonLord wrote:
S.N.N. wrote: (fun fact: this level would have gotten first place if ninja boy's scores were removed from every level. Makes me cry a little inside, even if I feel that a couple of others are more deserving, ie tomorrow's. Someone should post the contest's results with this scores removed if they haven't already, the list is floating around somewhere. The top ten looks quite a bit different.)
I was actually going to request this very thing, but was too slow on the uptake.
I have a list of the top 15.

Image

Cells are in order: new rank, author, average, Eternity, Nimono, Koopster, change in rank

Of note:
  1. The 3rd place level is the only one that keeps it's original ranking.
  2. Today's two levels (Turn Block Treeway and Mass Extinction) would have been 2nd and 1st, respectively.
  3. Stellar Garden and Stadium of Plants leave best world and are replaced with Aperture Laboratory (8th) and Nightswimming (9th).
  4. Cutting in Line drops all the way down to 10th.
  5. The 1st place level drops all the way down to 6th (it was ninja boy's only perfect score).
[/spoiler]
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Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by 10204307 »

The title of Mass Extinction, combined with the "prehistoric Earth" aesthetics, made me think there was going to be a point in the level everything turned volcanic. I was slightly disappointed when that ended up not being the case.

Still a great level though.
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Re: VLDC9 - vanadium likeness delineated cutting 9

Post by SAJewers »

TRS wrote:
Zephyr_DragonLord wrote:
S.N.N. wrote: (fun fact: this level would have gotten first place if ninja boy's scores were removed from every level. Makes me cry a little inside, even if I feel that a couple of others are more deserving, ie tomorrow's. Someone should post the contest's results with this scores removed if they haven't already, the list is floating around somewhere. The top ten looks quite a bit different.)
I was actually going to request this very thing, but was too slow on the uptake.
I have a list of the top 15.

Image

Cells are in order: new rank, author, average, Eternity, Nimono, Koopster, change in rank

Of note:
  1. Today's two levels (Turn Block Treeway and Mass Extinction) would have been 2nd and 1st, respectively.
  2. Stellar Garden and Stadium of Plants leave best world and are replaced with Aperture Laboratory (8th) and Nightswimming (9th).
  3. Cutting in Line drops all the way down to 10th.
  4. The 1st place level drops all the way down to 6th (it was ninja boy's only perfect score).
[/spoiler]
What about the other Judges?
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Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by TRS »

I don't know, I only did that one cause it was a common complaint.
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Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Divemissile »

i can understand why ninja boy rated this level so low, he uses rewinds a lot and i could see him losing patience with getting stuck and having to redo bits of the level. opposite goes for FLASH BLACK, level lacks any ways to get stuck so he probably played the level all in one go and didn't really see how tedious it could get. not picking on ninja boy, but his playstyle messes up the placements a lot
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Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by TaviTurnip »

I stopped posting about MaGL 3 because I didn't want to complain about the judging any further and I wasn't making any friends in doing so, but

this lp man

This is why I can never agree with Horikawa that judging is not objective.
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Re: VLDC9 - vibrant logs distraught cheveaux 9

Post by Nimono »

TaviTurnip wrote:I stopped posting about MaGL 3 because I didn't want to complain about the judging any further and I wasn't making any friends in doing so, but

this lp man

This is why I can never agree with Horikawa that judging is not objective.
judging really ISN'T objective

but it's not completely subjective, either
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