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cldc 2018 - layers

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raocow
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Re: cldc thread late update 2018 - mushroom inside an egg

Post by raocow »

those typically don't do to well unless they are exceptionally well made so...
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Re: cldc thread late update 2018 - mushroom inside an egg

Post by idol »

10204307 wrote: 5 years ago I'm hoping that third place won't turn out to be one of those "five levels in one" type dealies that were pretty prevalent in earlier contests.

lol



anyways it was "well-made" enough to net third place, so take it as you will. i have my resignations, but i didn't exactly judge this contest. the other judges felt it valid to be third.
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Re: cldc thread late update 2018 - mushroom inside an egg

Post by Zach808 »

So 3rd place is gonna be another Vanilla Rain, where they just stuff half a world into it? Hopefully they’re at least using multiple midpoints.
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Re: cldc thread late update 2018 - mushroom inside an egg

Post by Grounder »

WHERE IS THE LAMB SAUCE?
Why don't you eat me?

I am perfectly tasty...

AND I'LL STEAL YOUR SOUL! :twisted:

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Re: cldc thread late update 2018 - mushroom inside an egg

Post by Sebby19 »

The Propeller Suit today looks like it was programmed in nicely. I couldn't tell if it had the same 'float down after use' property, due to the was it played by raocow. However, couldn't you re-twirl up after bouncing on an enemy in NSMB.Wii?

Since raocow doesn't know, Lakilester is a liked character in Paper Mario. It was poor taste to just murder him here.
Really, the entire train subplot was superfluous and unnecessary. Should have just started in the clouds, and built on that. The freaking Tanooki Suits weren't even used in any sense! There were just there. Like Sheath.
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Re: cldc thread late update 2018 - mushroom inside an egg

Post by Crow »

boy that sure was a lot of setup for very little level
i've honestly never played a video game in my life
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Re: cldc thread late update 2018 - mushroom inside an egg

Post by Ashan »

Swearing? Gotta censor it with asterisks.
Showing the hanging bloodied corpse of a beloved Nintendo character? A-OKAY!!
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Re: cldc thread late update 2018 - mushroom inside an egg

Post by Veruchai »

I liked the oriental express theme. I also liked the cloud platforming theme. They didn't really mix though. A second half where you're on the moving train platforming would probably have been a better fit. The hidden rooms on the train were pretty cool btw.
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by idol »

Choo Choo - REDRUM
Placement: 14
Codename: sundance
Author: FedoraFriday
Judge Comments:

FPzero:

Fun Factor: 19/30
Presentation: 14/20
Creativity: 7/10

Total: 40/60

Comments:
This level's interesting because its two halves are linked via plot but not at all in terms of gameplay. Honestly, for as little traditional Mario gameplay as there was in it, I think the train part was stronger than the platforming part. You were setting up a tone and atmosphere, and I thought I was going to get into a murder mystery on the train and have to solve it by finding clues and figuring out which passenger did it. But then it turned out to just be a sky level in the second half and I was a little let down.
As for the platforming, it felt a bit rough at times since it relied entirely on the Propellor Shroom, to the point that it required reset doors in case the player lost their powerup. And some of the platforming asked of the player was weird, like spinning upwards into the ceiling to fly over munchers, or bouncing off the cloud enemies after coming out of an upwards spin. Speaking of the cloud enemies, I don't think they were working, unless their only purpose was to slightly obscure the player's vision. I expected them to push me around with their wind gusts but that never happened.
I wish you'd expanded on the train part a little more, or even kept the whole level contained within it because I think it could've made the level more interesting overall. It's not bad as it is, just a little disappointing.

Noivern:

Man I was pretty sucked in until one of the Toads (the one in front of door 6) gave me the "Special Zone" message. It's one of many polish issues scattered throughout the level, others including puffs of air being spawned on-screen when there are no cloud enemies, incorrect camera settings in one of the cabins, and garbage tiles above Mario's head when stunned in the boss fight. The beginning took its time getting going, yet at the end I was disappointed that the level just ended after the boss and it didn't return to the train. At the very least, you could have smoothed the transition between train and level proper by including characters you could talk to in the clouds.

Total: 42

Blind Devil:

un: The entry was mostly story-based, and the level design was straightforward for most part. Both parts were engaging, though the sky sublevel could have used some work. It was centered over the propeller suit, and its design was decent, but some sections were annoying because the player heavily depends not only of the powerup, but also stomping enemies. If you miss a jump or two, the flying Koopas may despawn and you have to reset the section, for example. Losing the suit isn't a problem, though, as there are farming locations. There's also another design issue which's more aggravating: a section with a turn block bridge. If you get crushed at the right side, you die. Okay. But if you get crushed at the left, you get stuck inside a ledge and cannot go out anymore. You have to wait a lot of time until it runs out, as the time limit was extremely high. Speaking of time, it could have been a lot lower because the level isn't really that long. Aside from that, the exploration for Yoshi Coins was good, and the boss battle was acceptable despite being simple.
Fun points: 22/30

Presentation: Graphic-wise, there was a mix of chocolate tilesets usually seen im most hacks, and done right here. The vanilla-styled and simple looking sprites were fitting overall. There were some glitches and weirdnesses, though, such as Geno's VWF dialogue messing up the palette of the table lamp, weird palettes for tanooki suit/reserve powerup in the Lakitu NPCs room, and the 1up graphics becoming garbled while there was a propeller mushroom flying in the air. The semi-sampled music choices were nice, too. However, some of them broke the death theme. There's also another issue regarding a certain message - Chef Toadsay prompts an unedited message from SMW's Gnarly, speaking of the Special World. There's also another little nitpick which isn't going to affect the score here because I can't think of a workaround but I'll mention anyways, and that's related to Foos' smoke. Smokes appear randomly in screens where the Foos aren't located. And lastly, let's talk about the gimmick. It revolved around the propeller suit powerup, and it was nicely introducted to the player. Little issue in my opinion is about how the camera doesn't always follow the player when doing regular jumps, and that would have helped in spotting sprites. Having to trigger the propeller in order to move the camera was a bit annoying, and the player had the risk of taking unfair hits due to having not seen sprites in advance.
Presentation points: 14/20

Creativity: There weren't many remarkable sections in the level, but it featured a few, like the Muncher corridors where the player has to float using the propeller suit and some jump setups which involved both floating and stomping sprites to reach higher places. That was pretty much it. Other sprite setups were mostly sprite dodging ones with nothing else much involved, except for Foos blowing smoke at the player to obstruct sight. More could be done with them, but their usage was decent. Lastly, the entry made use of lots of external resources. Their usage was pretty balanced so it didn't affect quality in a bad way.
Creativity points: 7/10
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Total Score: 43/60
this level was lol
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by 10204307 »

Yeah, I was expecting this to be entirely an exploration/talk-em-up type level, just like Chapter 6 of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, which this level seems to be an homage to. (And that was my favorite chapter of that game, too.) But then it just sort of abruptly ends after the platforming section and the boss, without even any dialogue preceding the fight.

To be fair, the train level in TTYD also had a section where you get off the train to explore around and do some regular old fighting, but I feel like that was way more congruous in that game because it was directly related to the train plot (the culprit of the mystery raised a drawbridge up ahead on the track, preventing the train's passage, so you had to explore through an abandoned train station to find a switch to lower it again.) And after you beat the boss you got to explore the town at the end of the line before the chapter actually ended, bringing with it a sense of closure.

...Anyway, I guess my point here is that the maker of this level should've just submitted Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. I feel like that would've been an easy 60/60.
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by FPzero »

Yeah the level would've been much stronger had it just stuck with the train as the whole setting and used the SMW engine and chocolate components to make an actual mystery. Would've been way more memorable at least.
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Re: cldc thread late update 2018 - mushroom inside an egg

Post by Alice »

Sebby19 wrote: 5 years agoThe freaking Tanooki Suits weren't even used in any sense! There were just there. Like Sheath.
They served a very important purpose. Giving raocow a completely ridiculous way to die.
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by Sturg »

What was the music in the propeller suit section?
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by Arctangent »

that was a cute little 105 riff that was really good at hitting 105's notes while still doing them its own way, all while utilizing its intuitive if kinda low-impact gimmick


but it also had like 0 ambition, and i couldn't really say it'd deserve anything close to victory because while it's very competent, it doesn't exactly do anything

would make a fantastic early game level in a full hack tho
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by FPzero »

By the way raocow, the first place entry uses MSU-1 for its music. You'll need to use a compatible emulator like snes9x 1.55 to hear it properly, if you aren't already.
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by SAJewers »

I already pinged in discord weeks ago before the lp about about 1.56 (or whatever the recent one is that just came out), so he should have it.
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by raocow »

yeah I got the latest version, and I was sent specifically set-up directory so that everything should be working right
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by FPzero »

I figured someone would've said something to you by now but I'm not in the discord. Glad it's taken care of already.
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by raocow »

you can actually thank the jumphalf discord for that service :O
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by FPzero »

I will salute them.
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Re: chocolate *** design contest 2018 - propeller

Post by Tyty »

I had a problem with the growy boys like the first dragon coin throughout the whole level, they just kept shrinking too fast for me to use them right.

Level was cute and I didn't notice Mario's face because I never got hit. It was pretty flat with mostly just ground-crawling enemies though. Maybe the level would've been stronger if there was more enemies in the way of actually using the grow blocks.
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Re: (cld—c18) - '—'

Post by idol »

GROWING FIELDS
Placement: 18
Codename: birth
Author: toad64
Judge Comments:

FPzero:

Fun Factor: 22/30
Presentation: 14/20
Creativity: 6/10

Total: 42/60

Comments:
This was a nice little semi-vanilla romp featuring the Growing Block. I think they were used well enough, but there were a few instances where they felt like they shrunk back down way too quickly. Couple this with the relatively low timer and I was scrambling to get to the end without running out of time. And yet I can't help but feel like I want more from the level. The Growing Block was interesting, but it was never really used for anything other than to get higher. I don't know the full details of how they can be used, but I feel like maybe there was more you could have done with them, even something as simple as combining them with some more vanilla elements like springboards.
Not bad, but could've been more.

Noivern:

Mario's humongous eyes in small form are very offputting. The growing blocks have a frustratingly short timer, leading to a lot of fumbling around and nearly dying to the incredibly short time limit. Placing the spinies and the goomba in a block just outside of slide range annoys me probably more than it should. There's some pretty big slowdown just before the end pipe.

Total: 28

Blind Devil:

Fun: It's a good romp level, albeit somewhat common. It's more focused on athletic platforming, though the player needs to rush a bit to clear a few sections because the growing blocks might shrink a tad fast, thus having to hit the block from below times again, losing time and getting frustrated as a result. Time wouldn't be a problem here, but the time limit is too short for this level considering the exploration to find Yoshi Coins and also to clear said sections. A hundred more game seconds would really have helped in this situation. Apart from that, obstacles and enemy placement aren't unfair, so it's a pleasant experience in that regards.
Fun points: 22/30

Presentation: Graphically consistent, with vanilla-esque graphics for most stuff, except for the SMAS SMB1 cave BG in the cave section, though it fitted very well with the rest of the tileset. My only nitpick regarding this is the BG palette of the main sublevel that has some very bright tones against a not-so-light blue sky. Either the back area color could be lighter, or the bright hills could be darker. The main sublevel uses a fully sampled song that, while it may fit with the ambiance, doesn't go well with the overall simplistic feel of it. A semi-sampled or unsampled song would fit better in this case. Also, there's another downside with the sampled song: it breaks the death theme, and it somehow affects the pitch of certain sound effects. Another little issues are regarding some passable ledges that have upsidedown grass attached to regular grass which looks weird. Plus, the HDMA gradient doesn't disappear during level transitions, and there are several ways to avoid this issue (the most known one is using one of Ice Man's HDMA bugfixes patch, and the other one is by manually disabling HDMA in transition game modes through uberASM or something). Lastly, gimmick and level setup wise, it's pretty decent. It mainly centers around growing blocks used the obvious way - as platforms to reach higher places. Well, that's all this block does, indeed, but the enemy setups could be used to some more advantage so triggering these blocks and standing over them could be more challenging and interesting.
Presentation points: 12/20

Creativity: That was the first time I played a level using the growing blocks as the main sprites, but as said in the previous topic, more setups could have been explored, given how easy it is to work with said sprite. There are many possibilities, such as using in conjunction with turn block bridges, moving platforms, wind gimmicks, Lakitu and so on. The level was limited to hitting these blocks from below, then jumping over them, occasionally dodging a single, simple enemy on the way, which left good potential behind.
Creativity points: 5/10
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Total Score: 39/60
yeah. i cant wait for tomorrows video to somehow be like 9 minutes long and for me to look like the fool
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Re: (cld—c18) - '—'

Post by Arctangent »

I think the level could've worked just fine as-is if the checkpoint system that it clearly has wasn't dangled in your face every time you die.

Seriously, why does the retry system only exist for half the level and why it is legitimately so much better to try to put yourself into an unwinnable state rather than do something risky to try and beat the level. It just feels arbitrary because it's not like, a physical feature that's part of the level like with reset doors or pipes, it's just a gameplay mechanic mapped to a button that is literally unusable for half the entire experience.

And I think how I feel about the level is perfectly illustrated by that. Why are the reverse gravity controls so dumb and why is it expected for you to throw a block towards gravity ( by holding the opposite direction! ) when that's the completely opposite of how it works all other times. Why is the signposting so bad in some parts where time-vital information is legitimately off-screen. Why include the fireball mechanics that are only ever used in the boss and only to make up for the boss's shitty hitbox. Why does dying even boot you to the map screen if lives don't exist and the rules for continuing the level are completely different from vanilla.

There's so much work put into this but the nitpicks that just stare you right in the face just build up that I just have to ask how much the author even thought about the player at all. It's like, incredibly visually and audially polished but that same care isn't put into the gameplay at all. It's completely baffling.

It kinda just feels like it got third by default, simply because this year was kinda full of middle-grounders and there was just nothing else to shove this to fourth or fifth.
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Re: (cld—c18) - '—'

Post by Veruchai »

In the future if BobisOnlyBob has posted a comment while I haven't, just assume I agree to the point of redundancy.
It's weird but it has recently happend at least 5 times down to the wordchoice.
Anyway I won't copy the complete youtube comment, but this level was thematically a world and should have been 4 levels at least.
Having said that it was really well done and still deserved getting a high score.

Arctangent wrote: 5 years ago It kinda just feels like it got third by default, simply because this year was kinda full of middle-grounders and there was just nothing else to shove this to fourth or fifth.
I think I understand you from context but this is how these things work. I personally got third place in a tournament bracket once because 2 or 3 of my opponents got disqualified for no-showing; then I lost my only real match in the semi-final but scored higher on some tiebreaker thus getting third while losing 100% of my matchups. You decide your own score while your opponents decide your placement.
I don't mind this getting third though, it probably deservedly got a lot of point for creativity and presentation.
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Re: (cld—c18) - '—'

Post by BobisOnlyBob »

Veruchai wrote: 5 years ago In the future if BobisOnlyBob has posted a comment while I haven't, just assume I agree to the point of redundancy.
It's weird but it has recently happend at least 5 times down to the wordchoice.
Just remember that while great minds think alike, fools seldom differ ;)
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