*X3 WINNER CONGRATS TO ENJL* the one with the seasonal allergies

[CloudyCloud]

I don't dare to watch the video. (I submitted one level)

Edited: I saw my level already.

Rainforest maker here. Lol

Music and background are both from Maplestory. Ellin Forest.

[Rednaxela]

I do still think for the purposes of this compiled game aiming for a sensible number of entries makes sense, but it is true that our boss contests keep having to do that, 'cause they keep being rolled into MaGLs. Maybe a standalone MaFAB 3 in the time between this and X4 would be a fun idea? Provided somebody wants to run it <.<

I for one wouldn't mind the idea of a standalone edition MaFAB at some point, both as someone who might be up for making an entry for such and as someone who would be up for helping with a compilation/hub for such.

That said, I have some amount of uncertainty about the experience of playing a standalone MaFAB compilation. It would definitely be a radically different feel, and may be some risk of oversaturation of a sort.

[Dragon Fogel]

Clearly the solution is to have a boss contest and then attach a smaller level contest to it in order to have some variety.

[Shard1697]

on the one hand how it shook out is sort of sad but on the other, Fiery Permafrost as it stands serves as an incredible fakeout

[Nimono]

I for one wouldn't mind the idea of a standalone edition MaFAB at some point, both as someone who might be up for making an entry for such and as someone who would be up for helping with a compilation/hub for such.

That said, I have some amount of uncertainty about the experience of playing a standalone MaFAB compilation. It would definitely be a radically different feel, and may be some risk of oversaturation of a sort.

I think a standalone MaFAB would be awesome! How would it risk oversaturation, though, where levels don't? Just curious there. I know bosses are much different than levels, but...

[Enjl]

Standalone mafab sounds like a blast indeed! It would bring the numbers in line as well

[raocow]

maybe a stand-alone mafab could be broaden up a bit to be like, any sort of 'event', any sort of non-standard-level gameplay thing without necessarily being 'a boss'. I could see it working.

[Zygl]

maybe a stand-alone mafab could be broaden up a bit to be like, any sort of 'event', any sort of non-standard-level gameplay thing without necessarily being 'a boss'. I could see it working.

That could probably help lower the density of the finished game, too. Since admittedly a game that's just like fifty bosses in a row could be pretty dense :b
There's definitely room for adaptation as far as ideas/implementation are concerned.

[ano0maly]

I did suggest making MAFAB2 a standalone to fill the void way back in 2018 when we were doing nothing but wait around for Beta 4

[Aqualakitu]

I wonder if something akin to SMWC's 24 hour/short format contests could work. Not literally having a super tight time limit, but some sort of length constraint to encourage creativity on a smaller scope.
Some of the levels I've played of this MAGL have definitely been on the longer side (not that I'm innocent in that regard with my own entry) so shorter levels would make playing, judging and creating a bit easier. Plus a more bite sized format could be quite fun.

[Mata Hari]

The cat's full name is 'Marking a new direction the band would follow in years to come, Hex stands in stark contrast to Earth's previous works. While retaining the extremely heavy doom/drone metal song structure of epic riffs over simple repetitive drum beats, the guitar was inflected with country influences that favored a cleaner reverb-heavy tone layered with acoustic instruments over the band's previous predilection for distortion. The press release cited diverse influences such as Ennio Morricone, Billy Gibbons, Neil Young's soundtrack to the movie Dead Man, country musicians Duane Eddy, Merle Haggard, and Roy Buchanan'.

[Nast]

Mark for short

[Mata Hari]

Yes, but it's a girl

[Crow]

honestly this level's biggest crime (besides lack of checkpointing and spammy fire fire fire) is that it's so

dry

it's basically the exact same level geometry three times in a row - long hallway that has pits, then an uppy downy bit, and only the fourth time does anything change

the visuals are suuuuper bland. brown brown brown brown brown forever, and not even many elements. the music is so low-key and repetitive it kinda barely exists. and every single NPC just has a huge wall of incredibly dryly written, unimportant text. the level is made up of 80% the exact same elements repeated ad nauseum and when it does change things up it gets bored of that fast and then just. ends.

it's physically impossible for any other part of the level to evoke an emotional reaction out of you because of its dryness meaning that the only thing you can focus on is how unfun and repetitive it is to play, and how frustrating it can get. there's no way to glean a positive emotion out of playing this level and watching it is not much better. idk this just felt like. empty. was this worth a 30 minute video? you could watch the first 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes of the level gameplay and miss literally nothing of substance in between

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

Well then, this is interesting... before that, though, I appreciate the silly reasoning for the achivement trinkets a lot. There's so much character in the hub, it's incredible.

141st - Tightfisted Temple: For a first try... this isn't the worst thing out there. But I do have plenty of gripes with this. For one, I'd hate personally playing this. Like raocow, I absolutely despise enclosed spaces with enemies and spikes to dodge. There were mercifully no spikes in this level at all, but the fireballs do this trick nicely. They'll get most people at least once.

So the thing about difficulty is that it's not inherently bad to have. But it also needs to be engaging and fun for as many people as possible. While it's clear that there's some appeal here to precision dodging and planning of fireballs, it's not the thing that everyone can have fun with. And the Bowser Statues before some of the lower jumps ruin it for many, many, people. If those were adjusted, and/or there were more checkpoints, this would be a lot better.

Also, raocow's early designs... are not good at all. Pretty spammy and somewhat unfun (though the acestetics are very striking, which is definitely a good point you can take from them). But hey, you did avoid the bottom tier. Good job achieving your goal!

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

When I played this level I knew it was going to be a one level video, and I've been looking forward to seeing raocow play it since then.

- Level Comments -

Tightfisted Temple: Where do I even start with this level? I actually enjoyed it to an extent; I found the first two sections relatively easy - I want to say I got to the midpoint on my first try - but I did notice issues with the fireballs forcing you to wait a lot in the parts where you go up and down. In the first two sections it was manageable enough, but in the third section these issues manifest into an absolute nightmare, and a struggled a lot there.

Even then, if the level had ended after the third section (or even if there was a midpoint there) I would have thought it was decent enough (and given that Sturg made it through the fourth section on his first try I can see why he gave it the score that he did). But there's a fourth section, and when I died there I let out a sigh of agony as I realized I was going to have to play through the third section again. I feel like the fourth section could actually be pretty fun on its own, but combined with the third section with no midpoint in between I feel like it's just too much.

I feel like these parts where you go up and down could have potential to be fun if they were purely vertical, or maybe if the fireballs would disappear after a few seconds, or perhaps if the bowser statues only fired to the left; anything to prevent the fireballs from past sections from stacking up into a big cloud of fire.

Other than the up and down sections, everything else in this level is very much doable if you know how to deal with things. If you're small and running at full speed you can narrowly slip under the chocolate statues without stopping, which helps a lot with making the jumps over the pits in the third section. Alternatively you can just stand to the right of a statue and ride one of the fireballs that it shoots to cross the pits. Also, in the fourth section you can run right under the bowling ball generators before they have time to drop anything. Even knowing these things though, I feel like the up and down part in the third section is nightmarish enough to really bring down the level.

- End of Level Comments -

[FourteenthOrder]

It's never a good sign when raocow says "half an hour later, I'm kinda ready to be done" 30 seconds after the halfway point of the video.

[TaviTurnip]

Friday is gonna suck fuuuu--

There's just something ominous and very predictable when you know someone ignored the gimmick. It just has that like foreboding "you know someone who had exactly one idea in their head made this and it went on for way too long" feeling, based on previous contests where: exactly this kind of thing happened.

orz

EDIT: oh yes please, standalone MaFAB for sure, with a short deadline like they normally have. I would really enjoy that!

[songofstorms]

Author of Gloom Lagoon. Not surprised Rao missed the small part of the second goomba dialogue where he said the ones at the start are friendly, and I kept them in a kind of cage, so they were domesticated. Definitely should have found a better way to show that in gameplay. Super glad Sturg liked this level so much, and the Fishiest Level award is great.

I'm a day late, but I just wanted to say that I noticed what you were going for with the friendly Pansers. I was so happy to see that they were still there and still friendly at the end of the level. It was very cute!

[KobaBeach]

the "fireball slaloming" gave me anxiety

please dont be afraid to try again truemariomaster just. respect the rules and dont do this haha xoxo

[ChaseSP]

This is one of the few levels where being patient is really important just to allow fireballs from offscreen statues to vanish. Gives you way more room but even with that this level is really unfun.

[raocow]

YO THIS IS JUST RIGHT OFF THE PRESS!
The author of today's level commented on youtube and said he DID use the gimmicks of temple, tightfisted and bowser statue, as well as bonus big steely! I guess he just.. didn't convey this information with his level submission ?

[TaviTurnip]

YO THIS IS JUST RIGHT OFF THE PRESS!
The author of today's level commented on youtube and said he DID use the gimmicks of temple, tightfisted and bowser statue, as well as bonus big steely! I guess he just.. didn't convey this information with his level submission ?

Huh, how about that.

I kinda want to ask one of the judges/devs to let me know if I included any comments with my submission and subsequently if I'm allowed to add some if I didn't. I assume I just sent a text file with the gimmick items I used but now I kinda want to put a brief two-cents about my thoughts in there for the LP's sake >_>

[Dragon Fogel]

https://talkhaus.raocow.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=19929

I made a thread for talking about the standalone MAFAB, so we have a place to raise ideas and such that isn't this thread. In particular, it would be cool if people who have interest in running it said so! But also feel free to share thoughts on various aspects of the contest.

[ano0maly]

Why would you not share what terms you picked?

It was specifically stated in the signups thread that you should let the judges know:

Please post a link to download your final level submission with your selected terms in the talkhaus submission thread. Your gimmick terms can be put into a .txt file (preferred) or listed in the post itself. Just let us know which terms you use.

It might have been a potential issue in previous contests so it was explicitly stated this time... and it's a good idea anyway.