Vanilla Level Design Contest X - 1he First place entry...well d0ne to all.

[Kilgamayan]

Including the apostrophe was an easy but still quality decision.

[Sugar]

151st: Magenta Mine by Mogu94

Koopster
DESIGN: 11/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 28/100

Quite short and unmemorable. The setups are very stale, there's not really a progression in complexity and difficulty, they're just there. The most dangerous obstacles are bats that will most certainly hit you if you're rushing through the level, which the blandness of the level otherwise encourages. It doesn't look terrible, but lots of random slopes everywhere and the fog that follows you vertically bug me a tad.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 6/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 34/100

refer to entry 177

[xfix's note: entry 177 is Pipe Garden which is 142th place level that will be played later, lolyoshi provided the following commentary for it: "Uninspired, basic, and rather underwhelming?"]

Noivern
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 9/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 31/100

So that was a level. There are split paths, but there's nothing particularly special on any one path, and getting the dragon coins requires you to take all of them. Blarggs are especially buggy when not used in lava. The visuals are a mess. 90% of the difficulty is sprite spam. I'm not really sure what you were going for here.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 9/50
CREATIVITY: 2/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 25/100

This is a level that should be in a regular hack rather than a contest. It's not offensive, but it's incredibly simple and really does nothing of interest; certainly nothing that would stand out in any way. Nothing much else to say.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 6/30
AESTHETICS: 8/20
TOTAL SCORE: 32/100

This level is short and not all that interesting. It puts some effort in to it appearance, but ends up coming off sort of generic nonetheless. There are multiple paths for most, but none of them really does anything all too distinctive. Everything seems a bit cramped, in a way that suggests that the elements the tunnels contained weren't fully taken in to account during their construction (for instance the powerup with could easily be a flower ending up in a one-tile space after hitting the block). The midpoint is kind of missable if you take the lower path (though the short length and low difficulty make this kind of inconsequential). It doesn't necessarily make any massive blunders, but it also doesn't feel like a huge amount of effort was put in to it.

+ Manages to reach basic adequacy on most fronts.
- Has few aspirations beyond basic adequacy.

Other: One presumes the water Blarggs have a body of some sort, and yet it, in contrast to the neck and head, also seemingly causes no damage. I leave the implications of this for the world to ponder.

150th: Three Ambience Castle by Shiny Ninetales

Koopster
DESIGN: 8/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 29/100

A level whose difficulty relies on awkard low-ceiling or far jumps and little to no reaction time enemy placements as well as literal traps (there's a thwomp under the carpet). The difficulty curve makes no sense, there's no ideas being developed - especially not in the fake boss room which is just a random straight-forward platforming room with enemies. You forgot to make the way out pipe from the fourth dragon coin enterable, making them impossible to collect, which makes me glad - and I think that's telling something about them.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 33/100

I think my playthrough video sums it up pretty well.

[xfix's note: I think the playthrough video may be gone, lolyoshi streamed the judging on Twitch]

Noivern
DESIGN: 12/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 25/100

Pick a sprite set and stick to it. This is three levels in one, and none of them are particularly good. The outside section is kinda boring, the lava section is full of gotchas and cheap jumps, and the "boss" section is the lava section turned up to 11. The palettes are ugly when not vanilla and the payoff for the key is a room you can't get out of.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 10/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 31/100

The outside part of this level is uninteresting, but inoffensive; nothing much to say about it. However, the indoor portion is really annoying and unfun. It feels very rushed; Podoboo placements are extremely annoying, some of the dolphin jumps are obnoxiously placed as well, but the worst part is the last segment (the "boss", I guess?). It's not only full of precise jumps and terrible enemy placement, but it's way too long as well.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 14/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 8/20
TOTAL SCORE: 34/100

Honestly, the title of this level seems more like a justification for stringing three level halves (for indeed, the level does feel as it goes on a section too long) with minimal æsthetic, thematic and gameplay continuity together. We start off with a pretty easy and straightforward forest level with some Balls-n'-Chains thrown in, then switch abruptly to a -much- more difficult and finicky Podoboo-and-Dolphin based section. This is also, unfortunately, where the level seems to forget what powerups are, and the single one it offers per section from here on out are also made rather annoying to get, to the point of barely being worth getting. The final section is a rather repetitive segment based on one-tile jumps, Podoboos and Bowser statue fire, switching out the last in the later part of Magikoopas, which proves an astoundingly bad idea considering how little room the player has to manœuvre with all of the one-tile platforms. And then, finally, after testing the player's patience the level just sort of abruptly ends.

+ The forest is sort of relaxing.
- The later sections are not.
- Poor powerup balance, and crucial ones are difficult to get.

Other: The dragon coins in the lava section are a bit silly to retrieve, no? The key, also, is far too tricky to retrieve for the limited (and non-obvious) help it provides.

[Sugar]

Additional developer commentary for Abstract Plain's (adding to what idol has said):

The cutscene in Abstract Plain's was actually a relay thing one word at a time.



Toad Bowser happened because Toad and Bowser were mentioned at about the same time, and we just went with it.

Unrelated developer commentary: eyecatch in YUMP actually did provide Mario a gun in a cutscene as a reference to Abstract Plain's.

[Veruchai]

I believe I mentioned in some other contest at some point, that the bottom placements are sometimes more instructive than the middle ones. Slightly similar to how 100% wrong predictions are just as helpful if you just do the opposite; avoiding obvious errors might be easier than finding what was missing in medium levels.
(Also intentional joke levels like Wiggler Launch and stuff are often simply more entertaining.)

Preamble out of the way, "Three Ambience Castle" got docked points for being 3 different rooms. Which is easy to experience and learn; while an abstract thing like cohesion might be difficult to comprehend. This level certainly at least had something like story progression for the rooms. Even more disjointed examples seems like it would teach the point even better. In a sense all levels are stitched screens so it's always relevant. The last 2 levels I personally made both consisted of 2 fairly different parts put together, so this grabbed my attention.

Also Noivern mentioned about 'Magenta Mine': "getting the dragon coins requires you to take all of them[the split paths]".
Which in context I read as negative because the paths were similar, however it also seems a positive motivation to explore.
On video it sure looked more fun as opposed to going only straight and skipping stuff. Interesting to me at least.

[Grounder]

Were the nets really vines? If so, why? I'm genuinely confused.

[MonkeyShrapnel]

While it may not have been the most enjoyable level to play,
that Abstract Plains level was one of the coolest looking levels I've ever seen in SMW.

[Ashan]

Were the nets really vines? If so, why? I'm genuinely confused.

It looks like the author for some reason rather than using the normal fence wanted to use a fence with the graphics of a fence flip panel (you can see it has the double border). Since the author would have had to manually make a bunch of graphic swapped tiles, he probably just used the same tile for everything, and it'd be easier to just use one tile over and over again than finding the proper fence tile and using that to swap the graphics.

I'm not sure off the top of my head how fence tiles actually work, but it's possible they're not vines and are actually just like generic fence center pieces for filling in the areas between borders, cause those might not halt your movement either?

[Le Neveu de Rameau]

The nets in Three Ambience Castle are indeed vines (they also use the background window grating for their graphics rather than the normal netting graphic tiles). Their frames--which, in the case of the normal net tiles, should be full climbable)--are, however a separate, purely decorative tile (using the graphics for the flippy net part, as noted above) which is set to act like 25, and thus Mario falls off when he reaches them (even though they *look* like something you should still be able to climb on in the case of the normal nets). This is what was screwing raocow up.

In short, the author tried to make heftier-looking net tile substitutes using various substitutes, but the end result has a much smaller hitbox than you'd expect by looking at it and extrapolating from how the real net tiles work.

[Nimono]

I suspect the creator may not have even known there was a mechanical difference between vines and nets, or may have just copy-pasted the same tile over and over and just changed its graphics. It's easier that way, less to change, but you lose out on what makes nets handy for climbing.

Of course, it could ALSO have been done on purpose because thinner nets are notoriously difficult to grab when jumping/falling at them. It's kinda ridiculous how stingy they are that way!

[Ivy]

159th: Vertigo by Minimay

Other: This level should have ended with a nun ringing a bell as Jimmy Stewart looks on in horror.

Underrated remark. Thank you rameau.

[Sugar]

148th: Pipe Trap by Cascade

Koopster
DESIGN: 16/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 39/100

A simple and very unfocused grassland level that has a "gimmick" as an apparent attempt to spice it up, but the gimmick is almost pointless because you never have a reason to enter the pipes. A similar gimmick existed in Ruin of Cupidity from VLDC9, but the level would make you duck on or walk towards pipes - here they're just scattered around, other than in one case or another which may have been accidental. The progression is very weird, the first half is filled with tight jumps and even a bullet jump while the second half is just running and jumping over enemies and gaps.
The secret exit is really really bad, I was afraid you'd be required to try every pipe in the level and you ARE - of course, if you know you can only set one exit per screen it becomes easier, but for the naive player I can see it being really really painful to find. There are even pipes that look secret but they're just mean traps! Thumbs down for this secret exit, man

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 19/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 40/100

The concept of the level seemed interesting, but it seems tacked on and redundant. The level didn't
design around it besides at very few points. Overall, it felt disappointing.

Noivern
DESIGN: 6/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 20/100

A mediocre level tries to prop up one of the worst possible gimmicks and unsurprisingly fails.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 5/50
CREATIVITY: 5/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 23/100

The concept of pipe traps is something I am actually fond of, however its execution here is really terrible. The normal exit, while not horrendous, is boring but also has some tight and/or obnoxious setups, especially with bullets. The pipes are plastered everywhere without much thought instead of being used creatively at all. The worst part of this level, though, is the secret exit. I won't lie, I looked in Lunar Magic, because this has to be one of the most ridiculously garbage secret exits I've ever seen. By adding that exit, you turned an already bad level into a terrible one.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 31/100

This is a strange level. The normal exit makes for a fairly unremarkable but passable level with one or two difficult jumps, and the strange quirk that pressing down in many places will cause you to restart the level. As for the secret exits...I'm not sure what -that- is. The level goes very much out of its way to make all sorts of pipes suspicious or slightly trickier than normal to access, but they all turn out the be red herrings, and the true path to the secret exit is in fact in a totally random unmarked pipe. I don't get it. Is it avant-garde? 'Casue I'm totally in to that kind of thing, but this is eluding me.

Æsthetically, there's a bit of cutoff here and there, and the Piranha Plants all have a black void instead of a stem. This also eludes me, as I'm pretty sure this was fixed in the base ROM.

+ The normal path is a reasonably OK level
- The secret path is confounding.

Other: The secret exit entry pipe leads back to itself, but the level intro path is inaccessible. Is this symbolic of something? No it is not.

148th: Truth's Final Reckoning by Samario

Koopster
DESIGN: 11/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 34/100

Really not sure at all what you were going for design-wise here. This level is really really stretched and empty and when some action happens it's just the jump over stuff kinda obstacles. Has a lot of awkward super high and far jumps for no reason too. And if that wasn't enough, the orange platform segment is super slow and boring. And the secret exit is just arbitrarily above the normal exit (not even hidden at all), so I get to play all that twice! You managed to make some of the worst decisions you could somehow. I like the music though. And the tileset, kind of... sort of.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: 42/100

Has good vibe and atmosphere, but it doesn't pay off. It's really boring of a level.

Noivern
DESIGN: 6/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 4/20
TOTAL SCORE: 21/100

Super long and empty. I fast-forwarded through the orange platform section and barely even had to move. There are brief glimpses of good level design, like the rocks over munchers (which can be made unwinnable without getting hurt if you accidentally kill the chucks), but they're so far away from each other with nothing in-between. The secret exit is very lazy and also a blind drop potentially onto enemies. The graphics only vaguely look like a rooftop, and the animation completely ruins it.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 3/50
CREATIVITY: 4/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: 22/100

This level is very empty and boring. There is hardly a challenge aside from some pretty awkward jumps. The raft segment is the worst of all, with enemies littered around aimlessly (many of which can't even touch you) and a ton of waiting, doing nothing. Really the only thing it has going for it is that it looks decent. By the way, being forced to replay the entire level for the secret exit is a really stupid move.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 6/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 34/100

This is a strange level. It's honestly kind of empty, for the most, part, and there's some weird elements like the disproportionately tricky jump from the bullet cannon in the first section, or the single. The floating platform section is particularly bizarre, as there are Munchers/Para-Troopas scattered all over the place which Mario has zero chance of ever interacting with, he just sits there and waits to perform those small movements needed to avoid the few thing that actually deign to come down to his level. There's a secret exit, but it's kind of pointless, as it effectively amounts to "complete the level again, but jump over an obvious low wall in on the final screen".

Some parts of the level look quite nice, like the glass window panes. Actually, everything grey looks quite nice. Everything not grey, however, looks weird and garish. This is sort of a pity, as otherwise the level would have a strange, slightly surreal feel, which I find combines quite nicely with the high-tech buildings beneath a starry sky. A bit more palette editing here would have gone a long way.

+ Windows look nice
- Level is weird and empty

Other: The single random Dry Bones in the first section is curiously yet memorably out of place. One wonders what is his sad tale of woe.

147th: Ordinary Hills by GlitteringInDarkness

Koopster
DESIGN: 19/50
CREATIVITY: 15/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 48/100

Finally, a real abstract level.
It can quite fun to explore the outer part, but it's still overall very straight-forward, cramped, visually overwhelming, and the very opposite of concise or focused, which makes the level design not stand out.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 10/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 28/100

I would love to have things to say but I have no idea what I honestly played.

Noivern
DESIGN: 2/50
CREATIVITY: 3/30
AESTHETICS: 3/20
TOTAL SCORE: 8/100

Most of the level lacks any semblance of design or aesthetic quality. The entirety of my score is for the dragon coin and the castle areas, which were mostly decent.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 8/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 29/100

It's hard to tell whether this is serious or not, but I'll assume it is. Very cramped throughout, clearly trying to do too much at once. I don't understand the connection between the two halves, and they really feel like separate levels entirely (though both with similar problems).

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 42/100

An odd level, to be certain. The above ground sections give the impression of something that wants to pass itself off as bright, happy and wa-ha-hacky, but which in reality is faded, broken down and vaguely threatening, like an old washed-out circus poster or a disused amusement park ride. This theme is strengthened by the underground section and (not -quite- as successfully) the castle, which go for a more unabashedly threatening air, which contrasts with the above.

The design in the above-ground sections seems to match the æsthetics, seemingly going for a "random" jumble-style, and feels overcrowded and confused (though not quite enough to be annoying, and the large number of stars "wackily" provided helps the player deal with this). The underground and castle sections, in contrast, seem significantly better and more deliberately designed (if still a bit weird). This is turn serves to further underscore the fakeness of what's going on above ground.

Honestly, I really like the idea of having the fake, flaking-off shiny exterior belying the threating heart beneath the surface, as well as the decision to carry it out without going extremely overboard on either end. However...the fact is that you spend far too much time in the deliberately sloppily designed part of the level. The solution here would have either been to either make the above ground setups a little better than the are, or not ultimately spend as much time there as you do. The way the concept is executed here now feels a bit unsatisfying precisely because so much of the level takes place in fake and decaying Jumble Town.

+ Interesting concept, feels uncanny without going overboard.
- Too much time spent in the deliberately bad area.

Other: I find that sort of angular spider web which inexplicably surrounds all the Munchers in the level intensely disturbing for some reason.

146th: SMW Showdown by glitch4

Koopster
DESIGN: 17/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 42/100

I don't know what you were trying to go for in this level, it's too short to cause an impression or to focus or develop on anything. The damage boost segment stands out like a sore thumb as something completely unusual in the middle of a very casual platforming level.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 19/50
CREATIVITY: 15/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 46/100

VIP quality

Noivern
DESIGN: 10/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 26/100

A quick and easy level. There was no focus. The muncher section could be decent on it's own, but not in its current state with no enemies.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 5/50
CREATIVITY: 1/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 18/100

It's been a long time since muncher runs have been cool. You haven't helped. It's easy, boring and short, with nothing new or fun to offer. I feel like I've just time travelled backwards several years playing this.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 12/50
CREATIVITY: 5/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 24/100

The beginning at end of this level sure were SMW-like, as the title suggest. The forced-hit-based much run that makes up the middle, in contrast, was certainly different, though not in a good way. Beyond that there's not much else there.

+ Pretty painless, on the whole
- What distinctive features it has do not work to its advantage

Other: When something advertises itself as a "showdown", I expect at least one individual to utter the words "Draw, pardner!"

[Le Neveu de Rameau]

Hey, it's Typo Day in Rameau's Judging Comments! This will not be the last Typo Day in Rameau's judging comments.

[Implo]

I just wanted to say that correct pipe in 1st level is indicated by

arrow made out of land

. But yeah, at first I was trying every pipe.

[Ayami]

Hey! It's me, the castle author!

And yes, they're vines. I don't remember exactly why I decided to use vines instead of actual nets for the level (tbh I almost don't remember why I ended up doing such a bad level but that's another topic), but according to my testplayers they weren't actually a problem. I guess it's just a matter of trial and error, but I can see why in the end they weren't a good idea. But yea, level ended up being really bad, can't say much about it LOL

also shotouts to raocow who ended up replying to my comment in the video :D

if anyone curious about the key and pipe thing:

it was supposed that my level was gonna be conected with other two levels in the compilation hack, and that pipe would led to one of the levels, as in the end the compilation wasn't a thing, it's just a pipe which leads to the YC section below the midway point (which btw is broken, as I forgot to put an entrance enabled pipe and put an ended one instead, so it's basically a softlock), you will notice in two of higher levels they have empty rooms/connections too

[Ashan]

I quite liked what was going on with Truth's Final Reckoning visually. It did give off a decent vibe of hopping along city rooftops at night, which takes some skill with vanilla assets. It's too bad the author didn't seem to know what to do in terms of enemy setups or challenges. That extended segment where you just stand on a carrot platform and duck particularly stood out as kinda baffling. You'd figure the author would be playtesting that and think "this is boring, maybe I should move something a few tiles over or add an enemy so you actually have to avoid obstacles."

[Sugar]

145th: Tropical Island by RealMarioGamer

Koopster
DESIGN: 16/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 33/100

Level says it has a secret exit but it doesn't.
It's extremely short and lacks of any sense of progression or focus. It just throws a few random things at the player and ends. It also has various minor flaws like unpredictable enemies (disco shell if you drop at that hole, parakoopa at the end), secrets hidden cheapily (dragon coin #4) and the cramped space at the sublevel. Try studying level design a bit more and try again!

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 14/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 35/100

Fast and Furious

Noivern
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 33/100

It started out okay but very quickly lost focus. It didn't really feel like a very cohesive level. The enemy spam in the bonus area was so bad that the chuck couldn't kick anymore footballs, and was definitely the low point of the level. Dragon coin placement was good, I'll give you that.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 8/50
CREATIVITY: 5/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 25/100

This is almost too short to even be considered a level. Aside from a couple of visual things (the trees, primarily), there's nothing of interest to be found here. There are ideas thrown down that are just left to rot instead of being developed into something enjoyable.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 9/30
AESTHETICS: 8/20
TOTAL SCORE: 32/100

This is...OK. It's rather short and doesn't do anything too out of the ordinary, but it doesn't commit any great sins, either. The underground area feels a bit cramped and overcrowded, and there's a surprisingly nasty bullet ambush after one emerges from this area and returns to the surface. Contrary to the intro screen, there doesn't appear to be a secret exit.

+ Wouldn't be a bad World 1 level.
- Underground bonus room and exit shaft violates safety regulations.

Other: This level is more interesting to play backwards than one might expect.

144th: Broken Bridge Way by Wise Person

Koopster
DESIGN: 11/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 25/100

I appreciate it stickying to the vine theme a little, at least, but this level is really bland and uninspired. It doesn't do anything with the vines other than the simplest clinging segments, and the platforming areas are very dull and unrelated. The level doesn't pull off looking like a construction site in the slightest, you would need more than just vanilla objects I'm sure, and even with them you could've done a better job by using the temple thingies from Awesome. No music????????????

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 26/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 51/100

It's quite alright, maybe underwhelming but that's okay.

Noivern
DESIGN: 19/50
CREATIVITY: 9/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 34/100

Short and very basic. The vines under the bridge sections somewhat give that "reclaimed by nature" feel you were going for, but it feels forced, like you made the level, then added the message block afterward. I wish you had use more enemies than mainly Koopas. There was no music.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 7/50
CREATIVITY: 5/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 26/100

The main problem with this level is that it's just boring. The vines and Koopas are just a repetitive obstacle with no challenges or new arrangements, and across the whole thing there just isn't much to do. It's not...offensive, but there is nothing appealing about it either.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 11/50
CREATIVITY: 5/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 23/100

Well, it has a touch of lore to it, which was certainly unexpected, and which, along with the corresponding vine theme, suggests at least an ambition towards a certain theme and character. Beyond that, though, the level doesn't really do much. It doesn't really make any terrible faux pas either, mind, it's just a little short on substance. The lack of music is pretty weird, too.

+ Has aspirations towards more.
- Doesn't perform the legwork to fulfill said aspirations.

Other: Can a thing be called broken which was never whole in the first place?

142nd: The Frigid Fort by Celestial Seraph

Koopster
DESIGN: 30/50
CREATIVITY: 21/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 62/100

Quite interesting to play actually. Didn't strike me as promising at the start with the ice physics and the difficult jumps, but it's not very long and actually not that hard if you take your time. Though it sometimes is a little unfair. That drop isn't very predictable, the pattern at the wall is clever but not obvious enough to justify it, and the shell at the bottom can hit you as soon as you land depending on the timing. One of the bowser statues also gives no reaction time, the way to get past it is to wait for it to fall in the pit. The second half involved some waiting but it was mostly fun. I think this level only lacked better focus and obstacle progression in the first half mainly, and I wouldn't mind actually giving out powerups if it meant the level could be extended. The Wendy battle is pretty bad, spikes are just there to make it more annoying and artificially make it longer. I can see it being very stressful to less cautious players. Also it's a very cyan level...

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 17/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 34/100

The first half seems totally irrelevent when you play the second half, which ends too quickly and
seems to hold many ideas, but isn't sure what to do with them.

Noivern
DESIGN: 8/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 25/100

I didn't have a whole lot of fun in the Frigid Fort. The first half of the level is filled with cheap tricks that soured the whole level. The second half is considerably better, but just plays okay.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 7/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 5/20
TOTAL SCORE: 19/100

Ice physics + precise jumps = not good design. The entire first half is a terrible frustrating mess with zero redeeming qualities. Blind jumps into spikes, again with the precise jumps and ice physics, and unpredictable ambushes all contribute to how terrible it is, and it doesn't help that the teal palette is incredibly hard on the eyes. Luckily for you, the 2nd half is actually somewhat playable. It's still not fun to play, but it's certainly better than the first half, and 6 of the 7 design points are for the 2nd half. Wendy herself is annoying and doesn't add anything to the level, but it's nothing in comparison to the first half of the level. Thankfully it's short overall, but short length is no excuse for bad design.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 9/50
CREATIVITY: 9/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 25/100

This level is not enjoyable. The first half is based around blind jumps, ambushes, and giving the player the minimum amount of let possible for avoiding damage (including damage by objects the player cannot even see). And all this with absolutely -zero- powerups (midpoint bonus excepted) until the boss. Oh, and there's ice physics, too. The second half, though a bit awkward, feels a touch less aggravating to navigate at first due to the somewhat larger amount of let the player is afforded, but this good will is subsequently shattered by the inclusion of a Thwomp which, due to the slowing and spinjump-cancelling properties of water, is almost impossible to navigate unscathed (and this again with zero powerups, so failure is fatal).

The boss is a Wendy fight with half the pipes blocked off and some spikes put on the ceiling in precisely the best spots to be obscured by the status bar. Mostly what this means is the fight is more cramped than usuall and takes forever due to Wendy being inaccessible most of the time. A boring and annoying conclusion to a level which is not particularly fun to play.

In terms of visuals, the level is fairly standard castle, with the background made a little less interesting. It doesn't feel particular cold, just very turquoise. Like the gemstone. Honestly, it's not a bad shade of turquoise, it just doesn't feel remotely like ice, which makes the ice physics in turn feel all the more tacked on for the sole purpose of increasing the player's misery. For something called "The Frozen Fort", there's also a surprising amount of fire present.

+ If this were called Turquoise Tower, the palette of the foreground terrain wouldn't be too bad.
- This level hates you and waters you to suffer as much as possible.

Other: I admit, I did laugh at "Wendy I. Kooper".

[Jolpengammler]

that guest appearance of wendy o choka was pretty funny

[WinterSweater]

I'd like to see a contest where none of the levels have music

[Awoo]

I'd like to see a contest where none of the levels have music

SLDC

Silent Level Design Contest

[Sugar]

142nd: Pipe Gardens by imamelia

Koopster
DESIGN: 14/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 8/20
TOTAL SCORE: 30/100

I don't think a level can easily get more basic than this. The biggest issue here is lack of a sense of progression - from start to finish the difficulty and complexity of the setups is pretty stale. You have quite a lot of different ideas that don't get developed at all (vines and growing pipes for example) and some things are only there once (falling platform, hammer brother, lotuses). Very short and unmemorable. As for the aesthetic, I'm not a fan of the bright outlines in the land for some reason.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 23/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 43/100

Uninspired, basic, and rather underwhelming?

Noivern
DESIGN: 21/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 8/20
TOTAL SCORE: 37/100

It's kinda flat and doesn't do anything creative. I think you overdid it with the munchers, just a little bit. The vine section can be skipped entirely by jumping off of the powerup block onto the last vine. Sprite limitations massacre the wigglers at the end (I didn't count off for this because you have the sprite memory set properly). The ground palette is bland.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 5/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 32/100

Really bland overall. There isn't anything that stands out as being interesting, and while it isn't committing any major crimes, it feels more like it belongs as a first level in a hack rather than an entry in a contest. There are a lot of unnecessary munchers spewn about that don't serve any purpose other than to look mildly intimidating, and visually there's nothing of interest aside from an ugly foreground palette.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 8/50
CREATIVITY: 3/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 18/100

This level is just sort of there. It's pretty short (with an unusually large number of Munchers for its length), there's not much of a sense of direction, and elements seem tossed in fairly randomly, as illustrated by the high number of one-shot sprites that don't seem to serve all that much of a distinctive role despite their uniqueness in the level. Æstheticly, it's not much to write home about either, but it does try. I was quite pleasantly surprised how different that simple palette change made that weird woody forest ground look, giving it a nice mossy appearance, so the level has that to its name. Not that it has a name.

+ Palette on ground works far better than one might expect
- Design is sort of haphazard and underwhelming.

Other: Be sure to wear flowers in your hair.

141st: Cave Island by moo_we_all_do

Koopster
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 37/100

It's cute. But pretty short, unchallenging and unmemorable! If you take out the completionist goals it lasts basically two seconds and it's just a grassland level with koopas and goombas. The sublevels also have their own little problems - in the cave there's a [safe] blind jump, and in the sky portion the platforms are awfully hard to time (there's a variety that only moves when you step on them). I'm willing to bet this is an early attempt at designing a level. Please keep trying, and next time try to focus on a gimmick or something! I see potential in you.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 29/50
CREATIVITY: 16/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 54/100

Good exploration level because it's not so damn long. Everything's condensed so it doesn't take
forever to get to another destination. Otherwise it's okay.

Noivern
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 32/100

Slide-killing spiky enemies is way more fun.

At first I thought this was a level 105 edit, but I'm glad it wasn't. For a beginner who claims they're bad at making things, this is a good effort. In the future, I would recommend making levels a little longer and more varied, and using more tileset specific sprites. Also work on polishing up your levels and avoiding particularly bad cutoff like the ones in this level where pipes intersect each other. As you're probably aware, SMWCentral instantly rejects all hacks with cutoff.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 3/50
CREATIVITY: 1/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 18/100

Is this your first level? Very bland, nothing interesting or exciting, no challenge, etc. Nothing to say about æsthetics either. Just empty and boring overall.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 10/50
CREATIVITY: 4/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 21/100

For a level called "Cave Island", there's really only one small (and completely optional) cave, and not all that much that screams "island". For the most part, the level is short and just sort of there. No great blunders or anything (though the moon is rather too easy getting back to safety from the last dragon coin is a touch trickier than I expected), there's just not all that much content. Going through the titular cave also allows you to skip most of what little there is.

+ Does nothing offensive
- Doesn't do much interesting, either

Other: It's fair to assume anyone playing this level has at least a passing acquaintance with the spin jump.

140th: Friend or Foe by natnew (natnew32)

Koopster
DESIGN: 6/50
CREATIVITY: 27/30
AESTHETICS: 5/20
TOTAL SCORE: 38/100

Okay, you took one heck of a chance to submit this to VLDC. I have to thank you for doing it, because it was completely unexpected and somewhat of a neat surprise. But sadly, the gameplay it offers is extremely bare, consisting of only two different possible "attack" rooms. It also looks really awful anywhere outside of the text rooms... I'm not giving you full creativity points either because this could've been pushed much further - while the idea and concept were neat, its execution was extremely limited.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 11/50
CREATIVITY: 16/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 38/100

um.

Noivern
DESIGN: 25/50
CREATIVITY: 20/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 51/100

This is hard to rate. I can't really apply the level guidelines neatly to this level but I'll try my best.

As a boss battle, it was super boring. Yoshi only used one "attack" and it was easy to, uh… dodge. Utilizing item memory for an HP meter was really creative. The boss battle areas were super simplistic and reminiscent of Undertale, but this graphical style really doesn't fit with vanilla SMW sprite graphics. The palette of the outside areas was pretty bad and the transition from grass to underground was poorly done.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 1/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 21/100

An interesting concept, but very poor execution. I'm sure there are ways this could have been made good, but as it stands it is extremely repetitive and not fun at all, just doing the same thing over and over again. Not to mention the palettes you chose (where applicable) are hard on the eyes. I think the "story" was more interesting than the actual level, and even that wasn't great.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 3/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 3/20
TOTAL SCORE: 16/100

Well...this was certainly unexpected, I'll give it that. The last thing I was expecting after the, ah, shall we say, naïvistic first section was to be greeted by a cutscene, and the last thing I was expecting after said cutscene was an RPG-style battle. That said, after the initial laugh, said battle was a bit underwhelming, with each round consisting of the same exact simple "attacks" repeated again and again. Maybe this element was intended as a satire of turn-based RPGs, though, who knows.

Æsthetically, the terrain in the opening/closing sections resembles more than anything one of those gross slime loafs you always see in cookbooks from the 1970s, and then proceeds the transition cutoff-o-riffically into the Chocolate Island terrain, because I guess we need dessert or something. The cutscenes and RPG section have a certain minimalistic charm to them, but contrasted with the above it tends to feel more like the minimalism of cost-cutting measures moreso than sleek Nordic design.

+ There's something to be said for ambition.
- That said, execution counts for quite a lot as well.

Other: -Jeez-, Yoshi's a dope (and a dupe). I mean, this isn't news or anything, but -jeeeeez-.

138th: Fort Exanguish by 9th Zentillion

Koopster
DESIGN: 17/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 33/100

A really unfocused and unmemorable level. The first half has nothing going for it and the second half introduces layer 2 but barely uses it interestingly. The secret exit can only be found by a random blind drop and one of the jumps in it is very finicky and discriminates big Mario. The level is hurt very badly by extremely confusing and messy/broken aesthetics.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 13/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 30/100

That secret exit is so pointless. The second half was a little interesting with the sinking
layer 2 but everything else is pretty boring.

Noivern
DESIGN: 14/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 30/100

Not that great really. Nothing was really hidden; the dragon coins were in plain sight on the main path, and both the secret exit and the moon were obvious. Some sparkies in the first area don't work right, implying the level wasn't properly tested. A falling layer 2 section with unmarked podoboos is basically asking for trouble. The almost-completely-red palette needs more colors.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 14/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 31/100

First things first, the colors used are distractingly ugly. That's already a bad start. The level itself is mostly bland, with few real obstacles. Nothing is used even remotely to its full potential; while keeping a theme is good, you still have to make it interesting, and this level does not do that at all.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 20/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 42/100

An OK castle level. There's not too much to complain about in the first half, though the two coins above the Thwomp near the midpoint seem to suggest there's something there when there really isn't. The second half, in contrast, tries out several different ideas in rapid fire, but they end up all feeling somewhat underdeveloped. The secret exit feels a bit superfluous; the path to it is rather short, and the only substantial obstacle is the Dry Bones hop with the surprise jutting-out corner which punishes the player's natural tendency to take a mighty leap with death as the penalty for the mere crime of not knowing the level layout ahead of time.

The æsthetics are similarly sort of OK. There's a certain simple elegance to the black-and-grey tiled walls with the castle windows, but it's implemented in a somewhat jumbled form which doesn't show the idea at its best in the first section, and the sections where it -is- better-realized are fairly short. Bit of a pity.

+ Doesn't commit any major sins
+ Background looks sort of neat in the shorter sublevels
- Neatness of background disguised in the first half
- A little unambitious and unfocused in the second half.

Other: At least it's not fort Exyellowbile.

[Le Neveu de Rameau]

Not that it has a name.

In this particularcontext, this ends up sounding like an insult, but it's actually simply meant as a reference to the fact that there's no level name on the overworld, and since the files I received were just a bunch of numbers, this was my only source for a name. From my perspective, quite a lot of levels were simply called "YOSHI'S ISLAND 1", or, less commonly "YOSHI'S ISLAND 2". Not every author, it would seem, was thinkin' Arbys.

[Sugar]

Not that it has a name.

In this particularcontext, this ends up sounding like an insult, but it's actually simply meant as a reference to the fact that there's no level name on the overworld, and since the files I received were just a bunch of numbers, this was my only source for a name. From my perspective, quite a lot of levels were simply called "YOSHI'S ISLAND 1", or, less commonly "YOSHI'S ISLAND 2". Not every author, it would seem, was thinkin' Arbys.

Yeah, this is why raocow has level names right in the file names. Some entries just put names like "YOSHI'S ISLAND 1", while they were supposed to have names, the author just didn't bother putting level name in the submission patch.

[Kilgamayan]

It only just occurred to me that lolyoshi's comments are likely so truncated because he livestreamed his judging and presumably more extensive comments and reactions could be found on the VOD(s?).

[Dragon Fogel]

Not that it has a name.

In this particularcontext, this ends up sounding like an insult, but it's actually simply meant as a reference to the fact that there's no level name on the overworld, and since the files I received were just a bunch of numbers, this was my only source for a name. From my perspective, quite a lot of levels were simply called "YOSHI'S ISLAND 1", or, less commonly "YOSHI'S ISLAND 2". Not every author, it would seem, was thinkin' Arbys.

After reading this I thought about someone entering one of these contests and replacing Bowser's Castle with their level, without providing any special access to it.

Except that's probably too convenient thanks to the Star Road. So make it Larry's Castle instead.

[Implo]

Funny story about Cave Island. Author of this level made new level called Spike - Top Cave, but he made mistake and linked his entry to Cave Island level. Personally though I prefer Cave Island.