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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.
Implo
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Finally we're past 100th! What if we made a lot o' boppos?

Post by Implo »

Kilgamayan wrote: 3 years ago Hey, the video voice man claimed to be betrayed by the coins. I'm just repeating that.
In reality video voice man was betrayed by his own judgement. It's not the first time it happened and probably not the last.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Money Never Lies

Post by Daizo »

I guess the tiny gap between the platform and the wall scared raocow so much that he didn't think that he was half on the platform, but instead he assumed he would fall through. But as they say, the mirror money never lies.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Money Never Lies

Post by thatguyif »

I'm catching up on the VLDCs, but yeah, ninjaboy.xls definitely screams out that it was designed specifically for the Kaizo/speedrunner/pro gamer crowd (I mean, the name says it. Might as well be called carlsagan42.doc or grandpoobear.ppt.) The design was deliberately meant to be of specific type of challenge which is not for the bulk of the rom-hack playing community, taking advantage of a high level of reflexes and enough knowledge of the game's code to execute frame-perfect glitches. Judging from the scores, the only reason this got where it did was because Noviern, who is probably a fan of those hacks, gave it a higher score than he probably would have. I wouldn't be surprised if, sans his judgment, the rank would've been much further down.

I get the sense we're gonna see more levels that are generally bad, but one judge liked it enough to spike the average a bit.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - OK still looking at 100th! To level or not to level...

Post by Ivy »

Mata Hari wrote: 3 years ago I'm pleased with how my level held up insofar as the timings of the ball-and-chain setups worked out pretty much as I would've wanted, when someone else is playing through your level at their own pace I don't think they always do. The cutoff is a bit unfortunate but considering I'd never actually used Lunar Magic before at all I don't think it was too bad! They're slagging off the palettes but I'm pretty sure they were exactly as I intended so there's no accounting for taste.

If there is a way to animate the fire in the background I don't know it.
This level was really cute, and nobody seemed to acknowledge the attempted pun in the title and the ending coins. I lava you lots right back at you :3
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Money Never Lies

Post by Sugar »

89th: Very Danger Lifts by LHB
Koopster
DESIGN: 26/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 48/100

Short, quite slow and uneventful autoscroller for the most part (it starts off -really- slow). The volcano loti would've been a good bet to base the entire level around - the bits that forced you to be constantly moving in moving platforms were cool, despite not being in a sensible order of difficulty.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 38/50
CREATIVITY: 17/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 68/100

Decent SMW-like level. It's enjoyable for what it is, but not getting too far on a contest with
serious competition.

Noivern
DESIGN: 43/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 66/100

A short but rather good vanilla-style level. Almost feels straight out of SMW. Makes good use of the special autoscroll. It doesn't pull off anything creative really but it was fun to play. May have looked better with a custom palette, but not much honestly.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 12/50
CREATIVITY: 6/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 32/100

I don't think the autoscroll really works here, even though the level is clearly designed arond it. Autoscroll levels are notoriously boring if they don't find a way to keep you moving, and for most of this level that's very much the case. Autoscroll aside though, this feels like a watered-down SMW level, and not in a good way.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 20/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 37/100

This starts out feeling a lot like something from the original Super Mario World. That's not necessarily a terrible quality, but, well, it's a game we've all played before. Towards the final third of the level, it loses this quality to a degree, yet oddly, I think that's probably where the level starts to stumble a bit. The section where one has to wait for the autoscroll to scroll down to reveal the rotating platform while dealing with the Volcano Lotus and Fuzzy is sort of annoying, and the next setup with the axis-free triple rotating platform and the Lotus in the niche seems somehow...inelegant. The level is short, with the autoscroll, it feels just a little too long that the lack of a midpoint (for technical reasons, I understand) feels noticeable.

+ Some solid if simple SMW-style athletics in the first thir of the level
- Loses its footing at precisely the point it tries to branch out a touch.

Other: lotus more like duns scotus
89th: Temple of Atlantis by Level ASMer
Koopster
DESIGN: 24/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: /100

A short, quite uneventful level that's lacks any sense of progression. Just a lot of random obstacles thrown around, some of them thoughtlessly, it feels like. The first half has a couple of cramped bits that are almost impossible to dodge unless you swim back and wait or something.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 33/50
CREATIVITY: 17/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: 65/100

Above average. You made underwater gameplay kind of interesting, but it's still ultimately wasn't
that impressive design wise. I feel there lacked some ideas as well.

Noivern
DESIGN: 24/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 49/100

Just a standard water castle really, but there's some design and technical issues. For starters, if you're going to have a ceiling in a level that doesn't scroll up, the ceiling should be on-screen. The camera shouldn't scroll after the exit pipe, and a grinder failed to appear where it's supposed to at the end. For design, the p-switch run and accomodating reset pipe were completely unnecessary and add nothing to the level. More generally, the level doesn't develop as it goes on; if you swapped the first and second halves of the level, it would have flowed the same.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 10/30
AESTHETICS: 16/20
TOTAL SCORE: 44/100

While this isn't a bad level by any means, it doesn't do anything particularly noteworthy and it's also too short to be able to develop its ideas. It looks nice, and what's there is not unpleasant to play; it's just not as developed as it really should be. Not much else to say.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 20/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 43/100

A relatively short and straightforward underwater castle level. There's not really much to complain about (though it's hard to avoid taking a hit of the second dragon coin), but also not much to rave about, either. It's just sort of...adequate. The palette is pleasing, and I like the little bits of vegetation, but the extra bricks seem a little out of place due to the normal castle background. There's not really much that screams "Atlantis", either.

+ Pleasing palette
+ Doesn't make any great missteps
- Doesn't really do much to stand out, either

Other: I tells ya, Pacifis gets no respect.
89th: Cave Escape 3 by MarioFan22
Koopster
DESIGN: 22/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 45/100

Very very simple, doesn't seem to be sure what it wants to do and ends up feeling pretty disjointed by using a wide variety of sprites, not really excelling at the usage of any of them. Breaks the linearity artificially a lot - the back-and-forths don't add very much to the level, and as a side effect it becomes very cramped sometimes, and it being quite crowded doesn't help very much.
The moon is very very very very very very very very very very bad. You should be ashamed for placing this moon. (no point deduction, just happiness deduction)

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 27/50
CREATIVITY: 16/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 55/100

I feel the second half was way more interesting, though I had trouble getting engaged in the first
half because of how lackluster it was. Which made getting the secret exit rather boring to do.

Noivern
DESIGN: 19/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 8/20
TOTAL SCORE: 39/100

I'm not really feeling this level. The first half is sorta generic, and the path to the secret exit is just… being big just before you get to the midway point. The first half and the second half are completely different.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 27/50
CREATIVITY: 16/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 57/100

The first half of the level is not too interesting. It's not bad, but even right after playing it I'm struggling to remember what actually happened--totally unmemorable. The water section is much better, with a fair few clever uses of the Urchins, though it's still not super notable. The level as a whole doesn't really commit any crimes, but doesn't do much to stand out either.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 30/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 55/100

This is a very OK cave level. It doesn't do anything great, it doesn't do anything wrong. It doesn't look super-amazing or anything, but it has some nice palettes. On the whole, very solid.

The one area it tries to distinguish itself is the secret exit, but unfortunately, I don't feel like this works to the level's advantage. Getting to the midpoint big isn't super-hard or anything, but it's vaguely annoying with the dearth of powerups in the later part of the level, and the cramped corridor leading up to the midpoint. Also, once you get the switch, it's not entirely clear where you're supposed to go after hitting it, and if you guess wrong...welp, time to do the level again.

+ A very adequate level.
- The secret exit is more a hindrance than a help.

Other: Waitaminute, I only count two cave escapes here!
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Money Never Lies

Post by Kilgamayan »

"attract the gays of the mario"

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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Mario gets eaten by paranhas in a cave

Post by Daizo »

I know my entry is waaay over at 26th place, but I might as well give just a slight pre-warning that you'll want to make my level it's own episode...not because I want my level to be separated as it's own video, but because it's actually a long level with more than 2 checkpoints (I found a way to add more). The message boxes scattered all over the level explain a lot of the technical details, so I don't think you'll have trouble figuring out what is a midpoint.

Buuut I will say you should re-enter the level after beating it. You don't have to beat the level again, but just entering the first pipe shows some rad tech things I used to make "replaying the level" easier on the player, as well as testing it easier on myself.

...

Anyway yeah, I am kind of glad we took a look at all the entries since there is quite a lot of levels that would've unfortunately not been experienced. There were a fair bit of duds, but there were also a lot of really rad boppo levels as well. 1F0 isn't even that big of a theme like I was expecting.... but there is still like 88 entries left so that could change real quick. I am enjoying the series a lot.
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Le Neveu de Rameau
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Mario gets eaten by paranhas in a cave

Post by Le Neveu de Rameau »

Daizo wrote: 3 years ago 1F0 isn't even that big of a theme like I was expecting.... but there is still like 88 entries left so that could change real quick.
Oh, don't you worry, mate, we will be getting all the 1F0s we can eat before this contest is over.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Mario gets eaten by paranhas in a cave

Post by Daizo »

Le Neveu de Rameau wrote: 3 years ago
Daizo wrote: 3 years ago 1F0 isn't even that big of a theme like I was expecting.... but there is still like 88 entries left so that could change real quick.
Oh, don't you worry, mate, we will be getting all the 1F0s we can eat before this contest is over.
Now part of a complete breakfast.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Mario gets eaten by paranhas in a cave

Post by Sinc-X »

do you think there are 0x1F0 1F0's
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Mario gets eaten by paranhas in a cave

Post by Ashan »

Lifts are a very sky place dangerous
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - The Money Never Lies

Post by Ashan »

Kilgamayan wrote: 3 years ago HeyAshan.png
:o
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Mario gets eaten by paranhas in a cave

Post by Sugar »

88th: Unforeseen Consequences by Chihaya (Guiga)
Koopster
DESIGN: 16/50
CREATIVITY: 16/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 44/100

A level that felt very disjointed and misguided. Makes some weird decisions, like a path in the first half that's super hard to get to and there's absolutely no advantage in taking it, the bit that makes you lash to vines which is much harder than anything else around it, the midpoint making you skip two screens, podoboos that are annoying to deal with/unpredictable during skull rafts and the existence of the secret exit, which is a boo cloud room that has nothing to do with anything (it's ghosts, I guess...). It doesn't have any particular gimmick it sticks to and develops, just keeps introducing random basic concepts (like a P-balloon ride for no reason), and the difficulty didn't feel progressive either. Darkness gimmick makes you go slower but it could've been used more effectively.
Also not sure what's up with the moon, it felt like I was taking the normal path when I got it!?

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 16/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 39/100

Has a DKC vibe, but lacks anything that game has. It's simply boring and dull I feel.

Noivern
DESIGN: 30/50
CREATIVITY: 18/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 59/100

Ah, a wonderful documentary on the hazards of toxic dumping. The run time is too long, and needs to tone down the green. This level has a very lopsided midpoint and has problems with item babysitting and ceiling height; there's no reason the ceiling right before the second section should be 4 tiles high. Unmarked podoboos should have been marked in some fashion, especially the ones in the beginning of the third section which can completely surprise you. The hidden block that marks the moon killed me twice on accident.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 32/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 18/20
TOTAL SCORE: 64/100

Love the theming here. The obstacles are not only designed pretty well but also contribute to the overall feel. The platforming is mostly good, but some of the ball and chains are pretty inconvenient, and there was one vine jump that is particularly nasty. The P-switch for the secret exit could have been better indicated but that part is fine otherwise.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 23/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 49/100

The main path is pretty decent on the whole (the first section being particularly solid), but feels a touch unfocused. There are a few elements (the ballooning, the Piranha Plants, and honestly sort of the skull rafts) which seem like they're thrown in just sort of because why not, and consequently end up feeling underutilized. The podojerks also rocket up without warning in a few spots (primarily in the second half), which feels an ickle bit cheap. The final sublevel before the goal room is a wee bit of a mess; it's not immediately clear what the player's meant to do here, and the present of the skull raft (which you can, rather unexpectedly, safely ignore) adds a certain sense of false urgency which is likely to cause the player to panic and screw up. Admittedly, It's short enough that this isn't a huge deal (and powerups are plentiful enough in the rest of the level that you'll probably just be able to tank through your mistake, but it feel like a weird, rushed way to end the level.

What really brings the level down, though, is the secret path. Firstly, you have to keep a shell alive while navigating a mildly cramped, enemy filled corridor (not too bad, especially since it's again quite short, but it gets boring if you have to do it multiple times, causing one to screw up out of lack of paying attention), only to to have it despawn once you chuck it down the pachinko machine, because even though you anticipated that you would need to scroll the screen to avoid precisely this scenario, you didn't realize you had to -keep- scrolling the screen multiple times. I'm not entirely sure -what- you're actually intended to do in the following section with the words “POW!”; presumably something with a P-switch, but as the level is quite generous with capes, by far the most logical course of action is simply to fly up there. Following this you despair upon encountering a Boo cloud, but it dissipates again anyway before the terror can truly sink in, and suddenly there's the key and hole. It feels like a bit of a jumble of half-executed ideas with some vaguely repetitive activities thrown in for good measure.

Æsthetically it's decent. The style is a bit standard VLDC-mashup, but executed competently. The palettes are nice and give things just enough of a hypnotic, unreal effect that the hopping skulls don't feel out of place.

On the whole, this would be a pretty good level with some pruning (including removing the entirety of the secret exit),

+ Solid first section.
+ Overall some decent setups once the excess is pruned away.
- Too many unfocused/underdeveloped ideas.
- Secret exit detracts from rather than adds to level.

Other: It's pretty much impossible to not get the low-time warning in the first section, which speeds up the music for the rest of the level, even after the time is reset. Maybe this is a metaphor for human mortality...?
86th: Space Odyssey by Matheus2653
Koopster
DESIGN: 22/50
CREATIVITY: 21/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 56/100

There's lots of potential with your gimmicks here, but you've used them in rather dry and... uninteresting ways. In parts where you toss an item on 1F0 to step on it you could've easily just made that normal floor instead and it wouldn't change anything. The red pipes were more of an aesthetic gimmick; while they made the level a bit funny sometimes, they didn't add a lot of design value. If you can catch what I mean. Everything feels quite disjointed - setups that don't have much to do with one another and don't give a sense of progression and development of ideas - and sometimes out of order (some of the harder setups are in the beginning, stuff like this). Time can also run short in the secret exit path, especially with that key ride at the end which isn't particularly fun to pull off at all. Feels like it's there just for the sake of being there... much like a lot of this level.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 26/50
CREATIVITY: 15/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 53/100

While some ideas were cute, I feel the execution was insufficient, and things ended too prematurely.

Noivern
DESIGN: 20/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 44/100

A major strike against this level is that you can easily lose the keys or the springboard in the first half simply by tossing them a bit to the right instead of straight up. I don't know why there are no walls on the right side of each sublevel, but there should be some just in case someone accidentally throws the key out of bounds and makes the level unwinnable.

From a design perspective, this level has no sense of difficulty progression. The second half and secret exit paths are easier (and completely different) than the first half of the level. The first half has some questionable design choices, like the clappin chuck, yoshi for no reason that you can't use, and the second dragon coin you can't time your jump for because you don't know where the ceiling is. The horizontal pipes from the midway point on look kinda ugly, and I'm confused as to why you reskinned turn blocks in the very beginning but nowhere else.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 22/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 49/100

Not a terrible use of 1F0, but not fantastic, either. I wish you had expanded somehow on the keys in particular; as it stands I'm disappointed that it showed up for a few seconds and then just went to waste in favor of more uninteresting setups. The second half with the enemy pipes is pretty decent but it almost feels like it should have been another level. I think it would have done this level good to integrate the enemy pipes and 1F0 together rather than separately. On a side note, some of those Yoshi coins are... not very well placed.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 28/50
CREATIVITY: 18/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 55/100

Some interesting concepts, but the end result feel a bit unpolished. Oddly, the early stage has some disproportionate difficulty, such as the bouncing Chuck trap. The Mystery Death Pipes are a clever idea and cleverly constructed (though it's possible to hit the light switch blocks even in the horizontal ones, breaking the illusion somewhat), so in practice the fact that you never know what's going to come out, and more importantly, how -much- is going to come out, feels a touch annoying. The normal exit also ends fairly abruptly, and it's a bit curious that the secret exit basically just amounts to another (easily accessed) section after this; I honestly just would have made it mandatory, and changed it to a one-exit level.

+ Clever concept on the Mystery Death Pipes
+ Otherwise some interesting obstacles
- Not knowing how much mystery death is inside the pipes is a bit of a problem
- Some uneven difficulty, especially early on.

Other: No space fetus 0/10
86th: Anomalous Apparatus by Ruberjig
Koopster
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 19/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 48/100

I have several problems with this level.
I have to say, the presentation is great and the concept of the level changing is quite interesting. But I found this level really hard to read. 2/3 dragon coins in the first half I still have NO idea how to get, and I tried a lot of things, like going all the way back after reaching the first screen or rushing through the level to catch the unchanged bits (I actually caught some cutoff columns going down lol). My first thought upon entering the second half was that I'd play the same level again but upside-down, but it turned out to be a different room that... kind of changes? It kind of flips when you go back but a lot of it doesn't change? I found this "half-execution of the concept" really weird. The baby yoshi was also a weird puzzle. Keep a stored item to feed him and use him to get to that dragon coin, I assume? Although it's rather easy to cheese that one by spin-jumping in any of the ghosts (and that's not a counter-intuitive solution either).
The level design of the stage didn't stand out to me, sadly. My favorite part about this level was in the right edge of the second half where you have to jump around in gray platforms while the boo circle spins around - that's so genius! I also like the boo laser before the midpoint. But other than that, the entire level was very basic maneuvering between ghosts, which are sometimes in annoying spots (boo blocks with their weird hitboxes especially, and the parts where you have to constantly turn left and right waiting for the boo circle were quite stressful too), and sometimes being very sneaky hiding behind the incidental priority all around the level. I think little challenges inside boo circles was a great concept that hid behind this level's innocence which you should've explored a lot more.
The secret exit needs a paragraph on its own... and what baffles me the most about it is that you have a midpoint right there, yet you decided you didn't need to work it around so getting it wouldn't disallow me to return to the secret path. Instead, you have this long secret exit that requires you to beat the first half again and again everytime you die in it. The first room uses reappearing boos which is probably the one most random and unfair generators in the game, though I won't say it makes the secret exit any harder, it's just... really long, and any slip-up forces you restart it. I guess the... storytelling is alright, but I couldn't help but laugh at the misaligned GAME OVER, the glitchy smoke sprites and the wacky keyhole SFX in the final room. sorry. I think it's still kinda cute, though.
This level is aesthetically fine, but I have way too many nitpicks, some of them mentioned right above. I think my biggest pet peeve are all sound effects becoming the layer 2 smashing sound for some weird reason. Some of your vanilla work was interesting but probably didn't pay off very well - I think the lamps on the floor look quite weird for example, and that big skeletonface in the secret exit and its resprited bubbles could stand to look a lot better, too. The hanging lamps also didn't look obviously solid to me at first.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 12/50
CREATIVITY: 16/30
AESTHETICS: 16/20
TOTAL SCORE: 46/100

The level is mostly impressive aesthetically and in the way it changes things using vanilla.
The enemy placement is rather mean and it doesn't feel like they were considered a nuance (which
it was in certain places (one in particular that required foresight)). You really didn't need to make
players replay the first half for the secret exit (plus that boo cloud bro, totally ruins it)...

Noivern
DESIGN: 11/50
CREATIVITY: 25/30
AESTHETICS: 16/20
TOTAL SCORE: 52/100

It's a shame that this is--as you called it yourself--the "crapped up version", because what's here is pretty good. The gimmick in the second half (and what would have supposedly been the whole normal exit) is amazing and pulled off very well. Unfortunately, due to the level's incompleteness, there is no way to return to the first section and go through it again pre-layer 2 fall, making two dragon coins unobtainable.

The secret exit is where everything goes wrong. For starters, there is no indication that you trigger a 1-up checkpoint when you beat the level. The door itself is a full screen away from the entrance to the second half of the level and is very easy to miss (remember, the player doesn't know they triggered the checkpoint, so they're not likely going to check and look). The first secret area itself is annoying with the boo buddies/eerie mix, then empty on the way back. Notably on the way back, the new pits are somehow bugged and don't immediately kill the player. After the "boss" (which was cool), I somehow spent 1 minute and 20 seconds in the fake game over room before dropping down to the key and keyhole.

This level would have been best improved by removing the floating words and getting rid of the secret exit path entirely. And submitting the whole level, of course.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 20/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: 53/100

The core concept here is really neat, and the visuals are good. Unfortunately, that concept is not really made very clear to the player immediately, it can get confusing quickly, and the concept as a whole is a bit overshadowed by bad enemy placement, tight jumps, and the distractingly bad music. I really want this to be good but I can't overlook the design in favor of the gimmick.

On that note, the secret exit is pretty neat, albeit repetitive, but there is zero indication that beating the level once will unlock the door to the exit. Even a simple message box would have been nice.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 19/50
CREATIVITY: 21/30
AESTHETICS: 18/20
TOTAL SCORE: 58/100

I so wanted to like this level, but there's just too many things that bring it down. The first section is a pretty straightforward action-based ghost house, and a pretty decently designed one (I think there's supposed to either be a layer 2 trick like in other rooms, but it either doesn't work or is far too obscure). Post midpoint things take a turn for the mindscrewy, however. The use of layer 2 and the hidden generator to make rooms change is really a stroke of genius. That said, I'm less keen on the layout of the room; the Big Boo near the start is hilariously annoyingly placed (and the first powerup is -after- him, so tanking is not an option), and several of the blocky ghosts are also quite good at deciding to wander in to weird and inconvenient positions. Some of the flipped objects make little sense; I guess you could argue that an inverted question block doesn't produce items because the "opening" is on the other end, but there's no logical reason that a platform which is anchored to the ceiling rather than the floor should magically lose its load-bearing capabilities (and you only first discover this over a pit). On the whole this section feels a lot sloppier than the first, despite the neat gimmick.

Then we have the secret exit path. It's sort of neat that it only appears after you get the normal exit, but this is not hinted in-level, so it's very possible to overlook. More crucially, though...despite the midpoint being located before the fork, you respawn in the second room of the normal path...meaning you can't get the midpoint and take the secret path, and if you accidentally get it anyway, you have to beat the normal path again to get another chance. Concerning the path itself, having the appearing/disappearing boo generator and the auto-scroll together really isn't a good idea, as it can randomly throw the player into essentially unwinnable situations which they really have no control over. The return path is, curiously enough, much easier, and the "boss" a pretty easy and straightforward survival room. Quite æsthetically impressive, though.

Apropos æsthetics--this level really does have an amazing atmosphere. The outside sections have a certain peace and calm-before-the-storm atmosphere to them. The normal path is a sort of Ghost House+, but a very well done one (though Mario's peculiar coloring and the booming with every jump and fireball is a bit distracting). The secret path is where things truly shine, though, with our host's text slowly scrolling by with the help of the autoscroll and layer 2 changeroo, the shaft into oblivion, and the "boss" (though I think repeating the text seem earlier here is taking things a step too far), and the conclusion is well done, too. Apparently there's supposed to be another text box here which is unreadable in-game? Pity, as it brings the whole level together.

In short, this is seemly like it could have been a great level with a few more rounds of testing and revision, but as is, so many things don't work properly that the experience just isn't as enjoyable as it should be.

+ Super-creative concept
+ Great atmosphere and sheer stagecraft
- Some questionable decisions in the second half and secret path
- A few too many broken elements

Other: A moon in the moon is worth two in the spoon.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Mario gets eaten by paranhas in a cave

Post by Implo »

Heh, people were saying that it will take 6 months for raocow to beat this contest. 1 month passed and he's half way through. So 1 more month and we will be done.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - May I introduce myself? My name is 1F0.

Post by Daizo »

It's funny since it took several months for the judges to finish beating all the levels. Then again, judging isn't just "oh get to the end without dragon coins or all exits", they had to do everything and also write comments about each one.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - May I introduce myself? My name is 1F0.

Post by Sugar »

85th: Water Processing by superwiidude
Koopster
DESIGN: 35/50
CREATIVITY: 19/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: 69/100

Alright level. It doesn't try to do much out of the ordinary but it's quite solid, although perhaps a tad too short for the numerous gimmicks you used. Could've used better flow and development. You screwed up the background of the bonus room at the beginning :/ (took me a while to find it, I don't usually check pipes with plants)

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 21/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 44/100

Fairly bland gameplay-wise, I also had trouble distinguishing what was solid and not. Generally just
dull in some aspects.

Noivern
DESIGN: 29/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 6/20
TOTAL SCORE: 49/100

This level didn't need 1F0. Often times stray sprites will get onto the 1F0 tiles used by the grinders and it'll just look awkward. The aesthetics were super creative, but they don't look all that great. Things that are passable look the same or only slightly different than things with the same graphics that you can stand on. The music used sounds pretty bad.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 26/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 16/20
TOTAL SCORE: 56/100

A nice, simple level. It doesn't do much new, and it's not super interesting, but it doesn't commit any major crimes either. The visual concept is good, but some things do clash a bit and a bit more contrast couldn't hurt. Some enemies (Chucks in particular) could give a bit more reaction time. Overall not bad.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 21/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 43/100

The æsthetic -concept- of this level is interesting and ambitious, but I can't help but feel the execution falls a touch short of the mark. The windowed tanks with water (and fish!) inside were neat, and some of the ideas behind the environments and the way they connect to one another were also very cool, but I suspect sticking to the default palettes was a mistake, as it makes everything look artificial and, well, edited. The radish platform-based pipes also look noticeably worse than normal pipes would have. The overlapping feels a bit cluttered at times, and there's some minor issues concerning telling what's solid and what's not. There's also a bonus room near the start with a glitched background, which I can't imagine was intentional.

In terms of gameplay, the level is decent enough, if nothing all too out-of-the-ordinary. Water plays less of a central role than one might expect (outside of the middle section), and it's hard to discern a clear theme or sense of progression across the level. The few uses of 1F0 also seem a bit tacked on and unneeded. All in all, the level's not a bad start, but could certainly benefit from a few more drafts.

+ Nice æsthetic concept
+ Neat integration of different mini-environments
- Æsthetic execution a little more questionable
- Lacks a clear gameplay identity.

Other: Decorative fish are an underrated element.
83rd: Blazing Jungle Ruins by Carld923
Koopster
DESIGN: 19/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 46/100

There are a couple of things I like about this level. The music, the background, and some of the palettes used. Everything else, not really.
This feels like a huge cluster of experimentation that was never fixed around properly. All around the level makes weird choices of dragon coin spots, it has a lot of mildly blind drops, a couple of ambushes, random cramped areas and many other little things that could've been easily fixed if the level had actually been tested. The autoscrolling segment is really terribly designed around the scrolling. The moon (moons?) is also literally impossible to get... Overall there is no coherency in the level other than it uses a lot of chains in the second half I guess.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 42/100

Couldn't get that engaged into the level as it wasn't interesting enough. There wasn't really any
focus in the gameplay, as it just was enemies placed around in areas. Visuals were interesting but weren't too
polished I feel.

Noivern
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 45/100

This level has trouble communicating its intentions to the player. Early in the level there's a split, but there's no indication that one path has a dragon coin. There are tiles that act like vines that don't even remotely look like something you can climb on. The second half does a decent job of sticking to the autoscroll. Not a big fan of requiring switch palaces to get dragon coins, and the last one is incredibly easy to miss because you can kill the yellow Koopa.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 38/50
CREATIVITY: 21/30
AESTHETICS: 16/20
TOTAL SCORE: 75/100

This is really well made. The layout is very thoughtful and fun to navigate, especially the autoscroll section, which was excellent. Some quirks I have: the first half may be a bit crowded in parts with maybe a couple too many enemies, and at first it's a bit hard to tell what's solid and what isn't (but that doesn't really affect the level in the long run). As well, I wish the chains were introduced before a death situation, as it's not obvious what they are at first glance. Unfortunately, as well, a couple of the dragon coins are just flat out terrible (like the rainbow shell one) or..not even finished? Otherwise though, a solid level.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 22/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 18/20
TOTAL SCORE: 54/100

Pretty good-looking. The background, especially, is a true masterwork, and using the floaty islands as leaves and the cutscene water (among other things) as grass was a truly inspired touch. In some ways this is the most impressive kind of visual style, where it's immediately obvious where all the pieces come from, and yet they fit together seamlessly in a way that looks completely unlike anything seen in the original game. Good job.

The first half of this level is pretty good, and makes good use of some less common sprites, such as the adult Dino Rhinos, and to a certain extent exploding, enemy filled blocks. That said, there's a few semi-blind drops, and exactly where the walkable parts of the Yoshi's House trees end is a bit unclear. Despite the warning at the beginning, and my having no problem remembering that all the -hanging- vines were purely decorative, I still found my brain wanting to parse the -rising- vines as climbable (perhaps because they were, in themselves, climbers, woop-woop-woop). In contrast, it's not immediately clear that the grey metal rings can be climbed upon, and the first time they're encountered is over a pit (and where it's not immediately clear that climbing them is the only way forward). Introducing them earlier in a non-life or death situation could have helped alleviate this.

The second half isn't quite up to the same standards, unfortunately. The design is very cramped, which, combined with the periodically quite fast and multi-directional auto-scroll, leaves the player with very little time and very little let to react to any particular obstacle, making things a bit memorization-based. This is compounded by the fact that the upper screen boundary frequently obscures some particularly insidious ceilings which will totally mess up your biz. The boundary issues only get more severe towards the end of the level, where Mario is frequently positioned towards the top of the screen where it's completely impossible to tell what's going on--worse yet, these are cramped, enemy filled spaces, and at no point does the autoscroll finally adjust to make them visible--you just have to push on blindly through or get crushed under the wheel of (left screen boundary) progress. Furthermore, though I had no trouble parsing the columns in the first half as purely decorative, here (perhaps because of all of the long, thin walls) I occasionally mistook them for being solid, and in turn took the correct way forward for a dead end. The sprite-only blocks probably would have done better to be a color other than green, as they're too easy to confuse with the unfilled green switch blocks seen elsewhere in the level.

+ Beautiful æsthetics.
+ Solid first half.
- The function of some objects could be made clearer in a non-threatening environment.
- The second half has too little let and the design frequently doesn't take the camera in to account.

Other: Some of the dragon coins here are a bit too elaborate, and two of them I honestly have no idea how to get even looking at the level in Lunar Magic.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - May I introduce myself? My name is 1F0.

Post by Zygl »

raocow I forget, you're still on SNES9x for this right? It might be prudent to turn on the input display for a session, see just how many errant directional inputs are happening outside of vine sections.
That being said though: if you're on the Hori pad I'm seeing with the detachable D-pad with the Joycon-esque buttons under it I'm kind of surprised you're still getting bad inputs? `~` I can't really know without having the thing in my hands but I'd expect discrete buttons to be nice and clean about diagonals, D-pad-shaped plastic on top of them or not.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - May I introduce myself? My name is 1F0.

Post by raocow »

this is after recording tomorrow's video, but I tried removing the plastic dp and putting it back in, maybe it was put on weird or something.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - May I introduce myself? My name is 1F0.

Post by Grounder »

i think it might just be your hand placement tbh
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I am perfectly tasty...

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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Same problem, different controller.

Post by Daizo »

Can we vote the 'UP' as the most annoying button on the controller in the next mosts?
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Same problem, different controller.

Post by raocow »

oh I think I found a fix to my controller problem!

So the dpad on the hori switch controller is like this sort of d-pad shaped hat on top of four buttons going in the four directions. This evening I tried playing without the hat, just pressing the buttons directly, and it works fine? Excellently even ?! I played a bit of the vip6 level with the vines and zyglturnip's level with the blue blocks and it's real smooth. I'll be trying that tomorrow.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Same problem, different controller.

Post by thatguyif »

rena, please cease the hat contest, the hats have betrayed us :sanaeko:
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - Same problem, different controller.

Post by Sugar »

83rd: Lava Floaters by KennyJ (Kenny)
Koopster
DESIGN: 11/50
CREATIVITY: 18/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 41/100

This level's flow is so weird. In the first half it feels I'm doing something different every 2 screens. The second half reuses a lot of the concepts you used a bit, and I think it's even cool near the end. But most of the activities in this level are honestly just awkward to perform. I don't see how that key juggling at the beginning is necessary at all. Lots of obnoxious powerup filters that could've been avoided by better design, too. Very disjointed and for the most part, not fun to play.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 38/50
CREATIVITY: 21/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 73/100

The level has some decent ideas, but the execution of some of them isn't the greatest, and may
feel unfocused at times.

Noivern
DESIGN: 22/50
CREATIVITY: 16/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 50/100

I really like the lava gimmick, but it could be done way better. I'm not sure if the baby Yoshi section needs a reset door, cause you practically have to mess up on purpose to have to reset. The answers to the puzzles in the second half, particularly later on, were too precise. The constant powerdown sections weren't necessary.

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

This level is trying to bite off a lot more than it can chew. It's as if you were scraping the bottom of a barrel for gimmicks to use throughout a lot of the level--for example, the keys do absolutely nothing for the level other than make it weirder. Ordinary platforms would have served just as well. My main problem with this level, though, are the puzzles, which, frankly, are stupid. There are so many more interesting and enjoyable ways to implement springboard and Yoshi feeding puzzles, and these are both badly thought out and just generally underwhelming.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 29/50
CREATIVITY: 23/30
AESTHETICS: 16/20
TOTAL SCORE: 68/100

There's some interesting ideas here, taking advantage of the odd properties of cave lava and its interactions with sprites. And the first half of the level, indeed, is pretty solid and enjoyable. The second half, on the other hand, while still creative, throws a few too many challenges at you with a bit too much instant death as a punishment, making repetition very likely. The (not particularly necessary?) powerup filtering, in particular, makes it easy to die from stupid mistakes (like miscalculating the hitbox of a Hothead revolving around a single block) and having to repeat a great deal of puzzles and challenges one's already mastered. A pity, because the concept's fairly interest.

Æsthetically, the level is simple yet tasteful, fitting in to the realm of default SMW without looking boring. A good balance, on the whole.

+ Interesting challenges using cave lava
+ Good first half
- Unnecessary powerup filtering
- Second half too heavily punishes small mistakes

Other: Don't ask me why "floaters" is such a gross word, but it is.
82nd: Creeple Steeple by GammaSlap
Koopster
DESIGN: 22/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 48/100

Very cramped stage, moreso in the first half, which made it a tad annoying to play. The P-switch for the first dragon coin is really unecessary given the difficulty of the stage (not to mention that you're forced to hop on grinders for other dragon coins further on...). It doesn't go much of anywhere, the second half seems like it's going to focus on spin-jumping on thwomps or something but that concept is executed in the driest way possible, and then the level just ends.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 24/50
CREATIVITY: 15/30
AESTHETICS: 16/20
TOTAL SCORE: 55/100

Although the level looked fairly nice and spooky, the gameplay itself was unimaginative and
lacked any real focus.

Noivern
DESIGN: 32/50
CREATIVITY: 18/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 60/100

There were cramped passageways everywhere in this level. It makes what should be decent setups that much more difficult to get through. All of the dragon coins are placed well, but the first one doesn't need the p-switch as you can just spin jump off of the fireballs. The main floor palette is really good, but the desaturated coins and green sprites just look off. In the vertical section, the camera doesn't quite scroll up fast enough, making enemies like thwomps traps if you're not really careful.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 20/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 16/20
TOTAL SCORE: 49/100

The level is visually appealing and has some decent ideas, but it's far too short to remain interesting or really be enjoyable as a whole. Some parts are a bit cramped while others are just boring to play through, and the grinder + muncher dragon coin setups are moderately annoying.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 27/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 52/100

A bit more castle than ghost house (especially the second half), despite what the name would suggest, yet a serviceable enough one. The first half seems a little short, and you can easily get the dragon coin by spinjumping off a fireball and ignoring the P-switch. The second half is steeplier, and perhaps a bit more engaging despite being essentially pure castle, though it's a bit odd that one dragon coin setup is more or less of repeated. The æsthetic is (deliberately) not too flashy, but it suits the level and is well executed. I might have gone with a better background than the layer 3 windows, though (especially since layer 2 is not in use), as they're a bit boring, and a proper background might have given the visuals just that little bit of extra oomph. The exterior bit with the clock is a nice touch, though I'm not sure what that weird block protruding out to the side is supposed to be.

+ Pretty decent castle level with ghostly accents.
- First half sort of short
- Generally could have mixed things up a bit more

Other: The people who live in the Creeple Steeple are known as Creeple Steeple Peeple.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - A level is short if you skip a part of it

Post by Daizo »

I don't imagine that second level being that much longer if you didn't skip a bit of it; the title is just to be silly.
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Re: Vanilla Level Design Contest X - A level is short if you skip a part of it

Post by Kilgamayan »

I'm very proud of your first-attempt key pickup jump. I will now also expect you to be able to do that every time since you were able to do it this time. 8-)
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