raocow's talkhaus

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 19:33**

I want to ask, how did level submissions for this contest work again?

If the contest was hosted solely at an established community like talkhaus, then we would likely get many of the entrants share their thoughts on their levels, but so far I have no idea who this "a" is. There seems to be a greater sense of anonymity. Hard to get author feedback when we have no idea where they are and they don't show up here.

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 20:34**

Want a hint for doing an iwbtg lp?

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 20:42**

ano0maly wrote: ↑5 years ago I want to ask, how did level submissions for this contest work again?

People sent horikawa their levels and she packed them up and sent them to iguzamini who then judged them.

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 21:40**

raocow wrote:Ugh, I hate this

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 21:50**

What the hell was that hint supposed to be?

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 22:03**

So raocow as long as you're having fun with nonsense hard SMBX levels when can we expect that Kaizo X2 LP? :v
(Please don't actually, they A2MT'd the episode for that and it's such a mess I couldn't even handle it. Skip it and do X3 instead. *ducks*)

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 22:05**

I also had to mentally snark at that message box. It tells you something that could be figured out by otherwise subtle context clues, just before an unreactable obstacle that could have been improved (albeit lazily) with a message box hint. "Go left after you hit the Goomba" would have been a lot more useful.

The checkpoints in room 3 are as helpful as you expect them to be, so at least that one should be okay, even though it ramps up the level of precision you need.

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 22:09**

Why are people comparing this to IWBTG?

IWBTG is an unforgiving precision platformer game WITH surprise gotcha traps, that you then either need to learn where the trigger is and avoid it, or activate the trap and work around it anyways.

And I'm not seeing any surprise trap here. 95% of the stuff here is pretty much laid out like it is.

A better comparison would be Meatboy, or Jumper.

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 22:14**

Sebby19 wrote: ↑5 years ago Why are people comparing this to IWBTG?

because the spike graphic probably

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 22:46**

I was digging through the level folder earlier and found a little comment in a file called __ForPlayers.lua
Here it is:

Code: Select all

--[[
	I suspect that somehow some players won't be
	able to clear this level that of which I am quite
	consistent at.  This level was designed for normal-
	skilled players with a non-grindy difficulty; but if
	this level presents too high of a difficulty, they
	can personally modify this.
	You can use cheat 'donthurtme' for the godmode,
	which is supported in the LunaLUA code.
]]

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 22:55**

Enjl wrote: ↑5 years ago I was digging through the level folder earlier and found a little comment in a file called __ForPlayers.lua
Here it is:

Code: Select all

--[[
	I suspect that somehow some players won't be
	able to clear this level that of which I am quite
	consistent at.  This level was designed for normal-
	skilled players with a non-grindy difficulty; but if
	this level presents too high of a difficulty, they
	can personally modify this.
	You can use cheat 'donthurtme' for the godmode,
	which is supported in the LunaLUA code.
]]

I'm guessing that A is either an alias or attempt to preserve the author's dignity, because that is the laziest excuse for designing bullshit that I've read all year.

Normal-skilled, my ass.

And then to suggest that the player either modify the level or just cheat...

Posted: **11 Jul 2017, 22:57**

author bias ? nah, y'all are just sub-normal

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 01:03**

Enjl wrote: ↑5 years ago I was digging through the level folder earlier and found a little comment in a file called __ForPlayers.lua
Here it is:

Code: Select all

--[[
	I suspect that somehow some players won't be
	able to clear this level that of which I am quite
	consistent at.  This level was designed for normal-
	skilled players with a non-grindy difficulty; but if
	this level presents too high of a difficulty, they
	can personally modify this.
	You can use cheat 'donthurtme' for the godmode,
	which is supported in the LunaLUA code.
]]

this is horribly condescending and actually makes me dislike the author.
this is not designed for "normal skilled players" and is as grindy as difficulty can possibly get due to the lack of checkpoints. it's literally every precision platforming sin in one package.

the downward moving sections are absolute garbage because there is just, no way to react. it's just a long sequence of blind jumps that you basically have to die to several times to be able to figure out what the level is. i did not think it could get worse but good job proving me wrong, level designer

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 01:07**

Sebby19 wrote: ↑5 years ago Why are people comparing this to IWBTG?

IWBTG is an unforgiving precision platformer game WITH surprise gotcha traps, that you then either need to learn where the trigger is and avoid it, or activate the trap and work around it anyways.

And I'm not seeing any surprise trap here. 95% of the stuff here is pretty much laid out like it is.

A better comparison would be Meatboy, or Jumper.

IWBTG itself is a bad comparison, yes.

However, it is rather reminiscent of IWBTG fangames of the needle sub-genre, in which the main thing is simple precision platforming, without traps or triggers most of the time.
Honestly, minimal maximal feels really like a bad attempt at a needle game.

(As an aside, if any of you remember raocow referring to the last room of Escape Goat 1's postgame as "a needle game", that's what he meant.)

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 01:08**

Mea wrote: ↑5 years ago I don't think the level itself is bad, it's got really tight level design for one thing. Having four of them though is a bit verbose since you can express all you want to express with just one of those alone.
Platform hells in general seem inherently hard to lp. I think most of their success/humor comes off of the sheer shock factor of the level design, whether it be in the form of what the stage is expecting you to do, troll design, or sheer randomness factor. This level, while well designed, doesn't have any of these to be lp friendly, at the very least. The honesty/face-valueness of the design is working against it here.
But as long as he isn't angry or tired of it, I'm not finding myself angry or tired of it either.

The level just really needs checkpoints, section 1 could use 1 near the goomba pipe jump, and this section needs 2 or 3 but at least one at the top of the level. It's not like checkpoints make it easier anyways, it just reduces the punishment factor of redoing several minutes of game play every time you make a mistake.

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 01:29**

WhimsiKarren wrote: ↑5 years ago These levels are so bad that they've ruined my cooking dinner with megaman video tonight! The creator willfully ignoring midpoints is what gets me the most. Just awful. If you're gonna copy SMB or IWBTG learn how they function before bothering, and submit a LEVEL not a GAME.

Yeah, this is what I'm most upset about.

This nonsense level has robbed me of Megaman & Breakfast time.

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 02:44**

Yeah um if you're concerned that the level would be too hard, then take heed of that and edit the level a bit instead of suggesting that the player resort to an outright invincibility cheat.

That been said raocow, cheats are available if you want to tour through a level like you did with some other contests like MAGKLX.

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 11:45**

raocow are you ok

like is your actual mental health holding up here

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 12:08**

It's times like these that I miss Distorted Travesty

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 12:10**

Okay, let's be thankful that this one has at least the checkpoint stations, because holy heck the 4 digit negative lives alone on this one.

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 12:15**

...You have no idea how tempted I am to recreate all of Minimal Maximal in an actual IWBTG engine now.

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 13:45**

2364 deaths just in that section of the level alone. -214 to -2578 lives and the death counter went from 734 to 3098. And that's on top of the fact that he went in with around 150 or so lives with the death counter in the 200s. It was had enough that more than half his deaths in the entire game were due to just the first two sections of this level. Now 14/15 deaths are from this level. (12-13/15 from this single section.)

BobisOnlyBob wrote: ↑5 years agoIt's times like these that I miss Distorted Travesty

Presumably because DT has actually decent design that makes efforts to work around its platforming engine's limitations whereas this shoehorns precision platforming into an engine not built for precision platforming at all.

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 14:00**

I'm probably the odd person out, but I actually enjoyed room 3 (it's the only room of the four that I would say that about). However, it obviously has no business being in this contest.

Room B is terrible, and it's easily my least favourite of the 4. The other three felt satisfying to beat, if nothing else, but this room doesn't even have that going for it. Luck is more important than skill in room B, but it's also quite precise sometimes, which makes for an awful combination.

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 14:03**

Early in the episode I was going to remark that raocow had both his 500th and 1000th death in the same level. Then I glanced at the death counter a minute later and it was already past 2000, with 1000 more to come. To put the amount of deaths into perspective I decided to do some comparisons.

So far raocow has died 2800 times in this level (2364 of those were in this segment alone). That's almost as many as MAGLX 1 and 2 combined, which had a total of 2855 deaths (1042 in MAGLX1 according to SomeGuy, and 1813 in 2 according to the in game demo counter). Unless the "B" over the last segment stands for "Breather" raocow will most likely surpass this amount tomorrow. Anyway, if this level didn't have instant respawns raocow would have spent just over 3 hours watching Mario's death animation over the course of this level.

Posted: **12 Jul 2017, 14:21**

Oh my God, I didn't expect this much trouble with room 3.
I actually liked it a lot as it had plenty of checkpoints and wasn't too demanding. I think it took me 20 minutes?

The real worst part of room 3 is the eye-searing watermelon pallet. Ouch.

Room B sucks for reasons other than gameplay. Not that the gameplay is good mind you.

raocow's talkhaus

Level Contest Japan

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

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Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell

Re: Level Contest Japan - spike zone hell