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

this is the place where lps are being talked about. it's important to talk about games being played on the internet.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Ashan »

The RPG level already had me but then Mario lamenting over the costs of what he must do to protect his people was the cherry on top
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Sugar »

138th: The Moon-Everest by MarkVD100
Koopster
DESIGN: 13/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 33/100

Sorry, it's quite a mess of a level. There doesn't seem to be thought for the sprite usage or placement, some enemies are quite annoying to deal with/require waiting while others are very easy to run past. Level is totally unfocused, starting with split path platforming, turning into "puzzles" and then the cramped corridor that is the second half - should mention that the opaque fog was a terrible choice as it can hide fireballs -, while the secret exit room has like some basic platforming, one overly awkward jump and an empty P-balloon segment with basically no challenge. Very messy and rather ugly aesthetically as well, with deco that can be mistaken for enemies and vice versa especially in the second half. Also uses like 5 songs, which is pretty unecessary and makes the level feel weird to play with so much change of pace. I'm not really sure what you were going for thematically, either.
Btw: your tips level has some interesting information for the level, but it's not making it to the collab or being taken into account for the judging. You should've kept that in mind :/

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 14/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 34/100

A level that lacks any focus, and when it tries to do something, it feels so out of left field.
It's just a mess.

Noivern
DESIGN: 9/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 28/100

Cramped spaces, sprite spam, obscuring mist + blind falls + fishin boo??? The secret exit is just a handful of precise jumps. This level needs some work.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 13/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 8/20
TOTAL SCORE: 34/100


This level is a bit of a mess. There is no good reason for any of the enemy retextures, and frankly some of them are flat-out terrible (see: replacing pokeys with dancing rocks and then also replacing the footballs with the same texture). Some of the design is alright at the start but it only gets worse as it goes. There are "puzzles" thrown in with no real sense of connection to the rest of the level, and the idea of splitting paths by difficulty with no benefit in some cases is mostly pointless. The worst part, though, is easily the inside section. Fishin' Boo plus fog is a terrible combination, especially in conjunction with other enemies--and it doesn't help that most of the enemies here are the SAME COLOR, making everything blend together and become purely annoying and unfun.

The secret exit path is pretty boring and empty (and definitely not difficult as the provided info would suggest), except for the very first spike jump with the Thwimp, which is stupidly tight, in contrast to the entire rest of the path which is very open and has almost no challenge whatsoever.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 9/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 37/100

If I were to describe this level in a word, it would be "confused". This can be seen in the æsthetics, for one: It seems to be going for a somber atmosphere, and yet there are all sorts of wa-ha-hacky graphical replacements. The Yoshis are allegedly all dead, and yet we see lots of living Yoshi men (and one Yoshi non-man). Lakitus are green moles which throw red rocks you can't jump on, in contrast to the white rocks you can. Don't ask me why Volcano Lotuses are embedded in sheet cakes. The Yoshi statues are allegedly grave markers (though some of them float in the air), but there's corpses lying about all over the ground. Stars go in front of clouds. We're allegedly on the moon, but there's nothing to suggest this beyond the title; it may as well just be earth at night.

The confusion manifests in the design as well. The first section is a little to reliant on Pitchin' and Kickin' Chucks, as well as Cake Lotuses. There are multiple paths, but one (usually the bottom) is typically much easier. The intro mentions something about sideways-facing statues marking the harder paths, but this doesn't really seem to bear out in reality. The first half feels a touch long as well, and then the second half is very a short and mildly annoyingly cramped corridor with some random castle enemies + Fishin' Boos scattered about, with some ugly non-transparent fog to obscure the flames the statues spew. Overall this part feels very phoned in--æsthetically as well as gameplay-wise.

The secret path is easier than the main path, and just sort of hands you the moon. It leaves you feeling confused. This is a good microcosm of the entire level.

+ I do like the ladders.
+ The original ROM generally has some nice presentation, which unfortunately has no effect on the score.
- Confused and strange design, heavily reliant on projectile-spewers
- Second half seems an afterthought.

Other: Seriously, though, what's up with that Lotus? Is it a chocolate lava cake joke?
137th: ERROR CODE #1D4 by Sayuri
Koopster
DESIGN: 16/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 8/20
TOTAL SCORE: 37/100

? ? ?
? ? is a good description to this level. Very weird presentation with all those different odd looking blocks that you ended up dropping after the first few screens. The usage of tile 1D4 can be summarized to one-tile jumps that are a little bit more scary. Not only the setups in this level are very random and unfocused, but they don't feel well integrated with the glitchy tile at all. Although they're harder to navigate through, replacing them with cement blocks wouldn't make it feel much different. This was either a really bad pick for a "gimmick", or the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Level could use lots of polish, too. It looks very unorganized and the palette isn't the greatest.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 19/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 40/100

Gimmick was introduced badly, and I felt the concept of it was going to get stale quickly, which it
did. It's just a dull level, with a pointless secret exit.

Noivern
DESIGN: 9/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 27/100

I can't imagine a level where using tile 1D4 positively affects the design. This all boils down to an already substandard level with broken blocks strewn about. You managed to make what is effectively half-block wide platforms that make the level a pain to play. There is no indication that the wall beside the key isn't solid. It's entirely unfocused.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 11/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: 38/100

While I think you had good intentions with the question blocks, they are reeeeally painful to deal with and make precise platforming even more difficult (in a bad way). They may be capable of posing some interesting challenges, but if that is the case it was not taken advantage of here. The more conventional platforming segments are a bit better, but everything is very cramped, making it still not a super fun experience, and item babysitting for the secret exit in those parts is even worse.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 9/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 24/100

This level is...not especially enjoyable. Basically it scatters the weird and awkward tile 1D4 all over the place, which is not in itself a great concept (see Pyramid Pass, which few would label their favorite TSRP level). The first half of the level mixes this up with some basic castling (plus cramped corridor stuffed with Bill cannons), but after that, it basically devolves in to 1-tile jumps on glitchy blocks, and then 1-tile jumps on glitchy blocks with Thwimps hopping around everywhere (mercifully, many of these in the latter parts seem to be placed in such a way where they inadvertently hop in to the abyss much of the time). And this with just one powerup in this half. It doesn't make for a particularly fun experience.

Æsthetically...well, there seems to be a vague attempt early on to make it look "glitchy" with some strange turn block variants mixed among the backwards question blocks, however, this is quickly abandoned, giving us fairly standard castle with some reverse question blocks. Also, the candle flame sprite isn't placed after the midpoint, giving us unlit wicks adorned with a halo of light. The darkness palette is all right, I guess, and gives a mild feeling of mystery. Alas, this is not enough to compensate for the level's flaws.

+ OK darkness palette
- One tile jumps on glitchy blocks not a good central gimmick
- Adding Thwimps to the above is an even less good central gimmick

Other: The tiny and giant-eyed turn blocks -are- pretty funny, I have to admit.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Jewel »

Does anyone know what the music was for the first half of The Moon-Everest? It keeps reminding me of another song and now my brain's trying to merge them together.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Sugar »

Jewel wrote: 3 years ago Does anyone know what the music was for the first half of The Moon-Everest? It keeps reminding me of another song and now my brain's trying to merge them together.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Implo »

About description: Yes, raocow, you are overthinking it. I'm guessing you are talking about people who were banned from Talkhaus for something they shouldn't done. But is it enough to not play their past levels? I don't think so. I don't know drama that happened, but let me remind you other person's level you played in the past when you knew that this person done something terrible. I'm talking about Mr Willhart's entry in Japan SMBX Contest. You played the level, you didn't hide his name in any way and nobody had any problem with you playing it. So why is it issue now? It's not like hiding their names will help, because it's easy to check their nicknames in SMW Central thread. Also I played all levels twice and never noticed something really vulgar in them. And besides aren't you curious what kind of levels you want to skip?

Oh, and since you mentioned DQ'd levels, are you planning to play them. I mean we have a whole D-side for just VLDC X. And it's very good to watch and play. Why not making it last tiny bit longer?
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Ivy »

For people curious, here's the list of entrants.
https://media.smwcentral.net/Noivern/VLDCX/vldcxnum.htm

God, I forgot about the Swiss meme. Lol, the vast majority of the top 10 have "Swiss" in the name
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by idol »

Implo wrote: 3 years ago I'm guessing you are talking about people who were banned from Talkhaus for something they shouldn't done.
i understand raocow not wanting to disclose anything, but i think it's important to note that it's... nothing small like this. one user had predatory behavior against minors, which i will note since you can already find that info easily on smwcentral's ban log. i will not disclose the other due to it not being as public, but it sure ain't for anything petty.

i suppose i'm of the camp that entries shouldn't be shown off from people who do things like that. it feels like it does them more a favor by enabling their relevancy and giving them a platform, even without names, more than it would just skipping it and letting people find it or play it on their own. no matter how much you try to hide stuff, there'll still be plenty of discussion here, on youtube, or various discord servers that frequent raocow's content.

as for what raocow would miss - nothing says he can't play them on his own accord. but... it's up to him and his channel.

ps: i forgot to respond to your dm raocow, but consider this My Response. love u b
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Nimono »

idol wrote: 3 years ago i understand raocow not wanting to disclose anything, but i think it's important to note that it's... nothing small like this. one user had predatory behavior against minors, which i will note since you can already find that info easily on smwcentral's ban log. i will not disclose the other due to it not being as public, but it sure ain't for anything petty.
O h

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Oh. O h .

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hm. You make a very compelling argument, to be honest. Perhaps it would be for the best those levels are skipped.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - just skip them

Post by Awoo »

Yikes
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Kilgamayan »

Implo wrote: 3 years agoI don't know drama that happened, but let me remind you other person's level you played in the past when you knew that this person done something terrible. I'm talking about Mr Willhart's entry in Japan SMBX Contest. You played the level, you didn't hide his name in any way and nobody had any problem with you playing it. So why is it issue now? It's not like hiding their names will help, because it's easy to check their nicknames in SMW Central thread.
"The right thing wasn't done before so it shouldn't be done now" is not the killer argument you may think it is.

raoguy: That you thought to write that video comment at all tells me all I need to know. Skip over 'em without even acknowledging their existence.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by TRS »

Completely ignore them. Make a quick comment about skipping over them if you *really* think it's necessary. Ignore the comment section entirely.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Sugar »

135th: Bonus Switch Palace by Lsh0426
Koopster
DESIGN: 14/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 40/100

A 5-in-1. None of the rooms stand out on their own or have anything that ties them together, it just feels like four unfinished and undeveloped pieces of levels, and a puzzle that's an absolute chore to execute as a topping.
The level looks alright in general, but a few palettes could use some work (like the cave BG, bullet shooters and cement blocks).

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 25/50
CREATIVITY: 18/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 55/100

The fun part was the puzzle that arrives after multiple rooms of filler.

Noivern
DESIGN: 8/50
CREATIVITY: 9/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 24/100

World-tour type levels typically don't work out very well. They already show a big lack of focus, so great level design is needed to hold everything together. But unfortunately, this level didn't have that; in fact, the cave section couldn't even keep itself focused, as it abruptly turns into a castle and back partway through! Each section is generic and not very fun.

And the last area has to be one of the finickiest puzzles I've ever seen. I don't know how you could possibly expect the player to guide the disco shells through the puzzle without trial and error or memorizing the entire layout first. Just all-around a poor level.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 2/50
CREATIVITY: 2/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 17/100

If these are "tests", what exactly are they testing? They feel more like unfinished level fragments tied together with an excuse. Aside from the last one, they all feel pretty similar in that there's little challenge and lots of mindless platforming, which seems to be quite the opposite of what it's supposedly trying to accomplish. The last area, on the other hand, is completely ridiculous, and if there was any merit to the rooms before it, this spoiled it. A total mess that I never want to have to look at again. My head hurts.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 16/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 33/100

I don't entirely grasp the point of the "five trials" gimmick, as four of these are essentially unrelated mini-levels of one of the basic SMW types (and not particularly remarkable ones at that), and don't really serve much function beyond adding a sense of disconnect and making the level seem far longer than it needs to be. The fifth section is a bit more distinctive (and switch palacey), yet not really any more enjoyable, in that it's a long, finicky, execution-based puzzle whose individual steps are easy to screw up for dumb, minor reasons, forcing you to repeat the whole series of steps again, giving your more opportunities to screw up again. Fortunately, it seems like a lot of the later steps can be skipped over with a hairpin turn which is less difficult to execute than some of the things the level actually expects from you. Yes indeed.

+ Attempts something with the final section.
- The thing attempted is perhaps not a positive thing
- First four sections largely generic filler.

Other: Grau, grau, grau sind alle meine Boni...
135th: Abstract Road by toad64
Koopster
DESIGN: 10/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 30/100

Not a very well designed level. Most of the sprite placements are basic or arbitrary, leaving the job of making the level hard to maneuvering between munchers, which isn't a very good thing. It's extremely unfocused, changing its theme and spriteset every few screens between its very short rooms. The secret exit is also completely pointless. It doesn't look very good, the colors are really vibrant and don't contrast well with each other.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 20/50
CREATIVITY: 15/30
AESTHETICS: 09/20
TOTAL SCORE: 44/100

Just a shallow appeal at neon. Nice secret exit btw.

Noivern
DESIGN: 11/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 25/100

Neon colors don't automatically make for good aesthetic. In this case, the aesthetic is hindered by the choice of dark gray colors for some objects, as well as the piranha plant layer 1 tiles, as their tiles don't animate entirely in sync. Mario also doesn't fit the outline gimmick, though that can't be avoided.

While each section is okay on its own, they have nothing in common except for the neon outlines. The moon is in plain sight, just a few tiles away from the main path, and ridiculously easy to get. Same thing with the secret exit, which is just a easy to access door at the end of the level. I basically just played to the end of the level twice.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 14/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 37/100

I'm reminded by this level of that one infamous TMNT NES level, what with all the brightly colored death plants. This kind of æsthetic has definitely been used better, and it doesn't really make sense here; if anything it makes the level more annoying to play. There's nothing particularly interesting design-wise, but it's not terrible.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 17/50
CREATIVITY: 8/30
AESTHETICS: 8/20
TOTAL SCORE: 33/100

This level goes through a lot of different sublevel/environments, but doesn't really do all that much with any of them in particular. Most of the level is pretty easy, except for one bounce off a saw running back-and-forth over a bit of Munchers, which is difficult to execute without being hit. The secret exit seems a complete afterthought, amounting entirely to entering a very obvious door in a slightly awkward niche.

An attempt was made with the visual style, but a varicolored outliney style has been done before and better (I do like the differently colored pebbles in the cave and water sections, though). Replacing the Munchers with Piranha Plants while using actual Piranha Plants alongside them may not have been a great idea (along with having the stems also be harmful), and making the jumping golden Bowser Statue white is also likely to cause visual confusion.

+ Multi-colored pebbles do, in fact, look kind of neat.
- Most of the design seems unfocused and phoned-in
- Some capacity for confusion in the graphical choices.

Other: Ab, ab, ab your stract, gently down the rowed.
134th: 5 Themes at Arcade by pat94plus
Koopster
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 17/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 41/100

After playing it a few times, I think I understand what you were trying to go for. Various rooms with some item puzzles, but it seems awkwardly broken? For the normal exit you only need to go in the room with the silver P-switch. The other exit and the dragon coins are a bit more elaborate (and dragon coins require all rooms), but they're still kinda broken, for example the cape obsoletes the springboard completely. While I'm glad that this level isn't that big of an item babysitting chore due to its breakable nature, the structure doesn't feel any less weird. Not to mention it takes a lot of going back and forth until you figure out how to work the level out. The levels on themselves are pretty quick and not very memorable and there's no focus on anything specific anywhere. Tries to get away with being a "many-in-one" kinda level by introducing a theme where it would make sense, but the theme isn't even that well explained to begin with. An arcade in the middle of the forest?
Aesthetically, not only it has a really obnoxious port of that one song (what's the name again) with an entire channel made out of notes placed wrong and a pretty loud synth, but it's also filled by minor/mid-tier graphical glitches (taking yoshi to the castle room or even a little back in the cave room bugs him out, the last dragon coin is in a screen boundary, some weird structuring here and there).

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 16/50
CREATIVITY: 7/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 34/100

I wasn't too thrilled by the idea, but I hoped you would have made it interesting to play.
Unfortunately, it was kind of boring, as all the rooms were lackluster.

Noivern
DESIGN: 13/50
CREATIVITY: 9/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 28/100

Multiple themes in one tend to not work out, and they didn't here either. Each individual themed section was bland and boring, and the music fits none of them. Don't use solid wall tiles in an area you can go in. You can bring Yoshi back to the cave section, where its graphics promptly glitch out (this happens in the castle too). There's a door in the ghost house section that takes you back to the beginning of the level. There's a dragon coin on a subscreen boundary in the castle. Only the ghost house section needs to be played to get the normal exit. You have a choice, but two of the other four themes don't need to be played at all. This is just a mess.

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

I'm kind of lost for words to how..strange this level is. Aside from the associated items, the areas are all completely unrelated; the justification for that seems to be the "arcade" concept, and yet other than the word itself there's no hint of that concept playing any other role in the level. The individual areas are short and poorly designed, with a lot of odd quirks (what's with the random name placement, for example?). The impression it gives off is that you couldn't figure out how to continue 5 different levels and then decided to come up with an excuse to loosely string them together at the last minute. All in all, just a mess.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 15/30
AESTHETICS: 8/20
TOTAL SCORE: 38/100

This is an odd one. I kind of appreciate the concept, with the little concentrated mini-versions of common SMW environments, as well as switches between places to get items, but honestly, I'm not sure the execution is so great. Firstly, it takes a while before it's entirely clear exactly what the player is meant to do; that is to say, the the signs indicate items hidden in the various areas, and that these items are the real reason for visiting each mini-area. However, once you've figured that out...unless you're aiming to get the dragon coins, the only areas you have to visit are Ghost House (and nothing else) for the normal exit and Underwater, Castle and Ghosthouse (again) for the secret exit; the others contain nothing that's particularly required. On top of that, there's a few sort of shonky obstacles, like the urchin squeeze that essentially requires taking a hit if big in the Underwater section or the unexpectedly (and potentially fatally) solid corner block in the above ground section. The midpoint is also sort of (mid)pointless, as all it does in practice is let you skip the intro section.

Æsthetically, there's a lot of minor goofs that detract from the level, like Yoshi's head or tongue glitching out in the underground/castle sections, respectively, or the improperly aligned and thus glitched background in the water section, as well as some bad palettes and cutoff in the ghost house section. All in all it adds a certain hint of rushed and unpolishedness to the affair, which compliments the above in an unfortunate way.

+ Kind of need concept
- Concept not really executed well
- Feels rushed and insufficiently tested

Other: Visual sloppiness aside, that's a fine and wonderfully nostalgic music choice.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by WinterSweater »

I like how the Piranha Plants were attached to matching colour blocks on that second level
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by raekuul »

I'm still a few days behind so I haven't actually gotten to watching the video with the description yet, but reading the yt comments for it and...

like, raocow, you've done a really good job at protecting our friend through voldemort-mark-two's rampage, the comments are that unaware of how bad it was.

(I call him voldemort mark two because AZCT already had a voldemort situation)
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by freshtalk »

You read the comments before the descriptions?

Anyhow, that abstract road is actually really nice-looking to me but maybe just 'dark road' or 'night-time' road is more appropriate a title than 'abstract'.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by raekuul »

In this specific case, I was curious to see the description in question, and that led to a rabbit-hole of "I wonder what the comments are saying about this."

I haven't watched the video yet is what's happened.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Alice »

So who is raocow referring to? I thought I knew but it sounds like there might be another person I'm not aware of. (I thought it was Willhart, for reference.)

Also already voiced my opinion on it on Youtube but in the case of someone whose transgressions were as severe as Willhart's and who has shown no remorse for their actions, giving them any sort of attention is a bad idea in my opinion.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Sasquatch »

Alice wrote: 3 years ago So who is raocow referring to? I thought I knew but it sounds like there might be another person I'm not aware of. (I thought it was Willhart, for reference.)
Well, the user (guilty of predatory behavior) made their VLDCX entry with another creator who is also banned from SMWC (though not for anything serious, afaik.)

I'm actually a little unclear on whether we're discussing two levels or just two creators. If the collab partner is the other user in question, then there's only the one level.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by raocow »

it's two levels

and yeah it's not *that guy*. If it was it wouldn't even be a question, I'd just have skipped without mentioning anything
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Nimono »

honestly I feel you should just skip those levels anyway. They're not Willhart. They're still really dang awful. If it makes you uncomfortable, it's a no-brainer.
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Ashan
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Ashan »

When raocow mentioned he was thrown off thinking he was going into a switch palace but ended up in a field, it reminded me of something that's always confused me since I was little -- is the icon for the switch palaces on the overworld a representation of what the switch palace itself looks like, like are the switch palaces themselves a giant scale-model of the actual switch inside? And if so does that mean every time Mario completes a switch palace there's an escape sequence we don't see where he has to get out before the entire thing collapses, as seen in the animation after the blocks fly out? Or is the map icon just representative of the switch you press inside of it? And if it's the second one, what DOES an actual switch palace look like from the outside?
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by CrappyBlueLuigi »

i just wanna add.

when i did my asmbxt lp, i initially elected to play and show willhart's levels. this ended up being a mistake because it brought him to my videos immediately, and it took an insane amount of both emotional labor and fielding my comments section to get him to leave.

this person (these people?) isn't willhart, as has been made clear, but you never know when people who've done awful things and been rightfully pushed out of communities for it are also the kind of people to namesearch themselves or search the names of things they've worked on to capture the feeling of positive attention they missed from being welcome members of those communities.

don't bother. skip the levels.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by The Doctor »

I'm not generally a fan of overthinking things. You said that the idea of playing the levels brings you discomfort, and that should be enough to make your decision. I understand that you consider your LPs as an archival project, but they're just video games at the end of the day. It's one thing to force yourself through something like Sonic Shuffle for archival purposes and another to force yourself to do something that you believe to be ethically wrong.

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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Leet »

Well we made it this far without them but here we see those stupid fake embedded blocks!!!! I hate those!! I already said why last contest but I'll keep bringing it up because I think I'm the only person who does, despite it being part of such a key issue with the whole vanilla thing. I would take off design points just for that.
Well it is a decent hack but sometime its just too repetitif there no level that actually pop in your face and your like oh yeah that level they all ressemble themselves and just monster along the way.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Normal's Disco Bright

Post by Nimono »

Leet wrote: 3 years ago Well we made it this far without them but here we see those stupid fake embedded blocks!!!! I hate those!! I already said why last contest but I'll keep bringing it up because I think I'm the only person who does, despite it being part of such a key issue with the whole vanilla thing. I would take off design points just for that.
Honestly, I dislike 'em, too. It just feels.... wrong to me. Cement blocks, I accept- that feels like a stone in the dirt. Turn blocks? ? blocks? BROWN BLOCKS THAT TURN INTO COINS WITH A P-SWITCH!? That's just wrong. It really defies belief for me. :/
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