Episode 2 Level Review and Testing Discussion

[ztarwuff]

EDIT: Review of ztarwuff - Gravity Falls.

The updated file (removing the lava from the final room of the secret exit) fixed the overflow error - thanks. However, the player start position was left in the wrong place. It needs to go back to Section 2.

Sheath can break or short-circuit some of the puzzles, such as by downstabbing to trigger the ladder at the midpoint and

stabbing the dogs to knock them into the abyss instead of arranging for the glowing balls to do it

. Is this intentional? If not, consider filtering Sheath out of the level.

I'm fine with her cheesing the boss, but not the puzzles. Guess I'll just have to filter her out. And as for that one puzzle... adjusting the beam may change the projectile trajectory. I'll look into it, though.

I'm actually doing some edits to try and decrease the loading time (primarily by decreasing the number of layers and events), so the vertical room might change a bit.

[sedron]

I know that nearly every submitted level goes through several drafts and revisions, but is it okay to post a blatantly incomplete level to the submission thread for critique while I'm working on the latter half of it? Or would it be preferred that the whole thing was done before having time put in and changes suggested?

Somebody may take a look at your level if you post it, but it's less likely. I'm personally not going to review incomplete levels, since it's a lot harder to judge them.

This means I'm not giving my thoughts for Starlight Resort Grand Reopening and Kil's level yet, by the way.

Anyway, here's another batch of reviews.

The Chest - Little Boo

As has been mentioned already, this level is mostly bullet spam. Don't use ambushes to build difficulty. The majority of the bullets are harmless, since they aren't likely anywhere near you when they show up, but a few are mean cheap shots.

There's a triangle block that a Blue Goopa kicks a shell off. The shell comes back, glitches over the block and kills the Goopa. That should be changed.

The gold thwomps revert to regular ones upon death. That should be an easy graphical fix.

The boss is mostly harmless. The Thwomps are only threatening if you jump near them, which isn't necessary, and he gives you plenty of ammo. This is particularly problematic if you enter with a Fire Flower, since you can just stand near the boss, shoot enemies that don't walk your way/aren't ammo, and throw the rest. Speaking of the boss, what is it? I have no idea what I'm looking at, and the death effect mask being wrong doesn't help things.

Also I think you mix friendly shamans and enemy shamans in the same room?

I do like the aesthetic, though. The level design looks cool, but the enemy usage is not. This needs some work, but could definitely get where it needs to be.

Abode of the Bunnies - Monkeyshrapnel

This level started off a lot better than I was thinking it would. It wasn't too spammy, and the stage design looked and felt natural, which is a lot better than can be said for some of your past work. However, enemy placement became spammy over time, and the level started to really drag.

I think the spam gets bad right around the midpoint, when you introduce bubbled bunnies. There are just too many enemies later. They don't significantly add to the challenge if you take it slow, but you don't want to slow play down to a crawl. Again, the issue of length is in play. It just keeps going without adding significant gameplay differences. You want the level to end before the player wants it to end.

In particular, the blue catnip bonus room has way too many bubbled bunnies. That room is kind of infuriating, honestly. It's way too easy to lose your shell or not jump off a platform correctly and plummet to your doom. I also think the easter egg room at the end of this path is a bit cheesy, but that's a personal preference thing. I'm not gonna tell you to change that.

One last thing is that the music doesn't loop all that well.

I do think this is a marked improvement over your Ep 1 contributions, honestly. It absolutely needs work, but not to the extent of the older levels. The beginning looks really solid, the level itself looks natural, and I liked a few of the hidden secrets. A little bit of effort put into tweaking enemy placement and cutting length down a bit can make this into a genuinely enjoyable level.

Time for a Romp! - Monkeyshrapnel

I skipped most of the level the first time through. The bonus catnip at the start is very easy to find, and you hand the player a blue shell almost immediately after. I proceeded to fly across the sky, over most of the level. Tellingly, it still took forever to get through even while skipping most of it.

Again, cut that length down. Nothing's wrong with a romp, but a romp, like any level, can overstay its welcome, especially when you're not doing anything new with the player on a regular basis. Honestly, this level has a lot of the same problems as Abode of the Bunnies, but the level itself is less interesting. It looks like a standard, SMW youtube level, honestly.

So, once again, we have enemy spam (there's a row of like 6 Charlies at the end. Why?) and a long level. There's a lot of secrets, but I think a lot of them are easy to miss and aren't particularly worth the effort. The only one I set out for was the secret exit. I did like how you presented that challenge, though. You showed it clearly, and gave the player a challenge to find their way in via the right colored pipe. That's good design.

I also think this could be made more visually interesting. How you do that is your choice.

There isn't too much more to say about this one. Make a lot of the same changes here as in the other level and it could work, though Abode is a much stronger level overall.

Castle of Time (No Relation) - Mabel

Full disclosure: I played three of your levels today. I did not beat any of them legit. I did not enjoy any of them. I had to take a break from your levels, take some ibuprofen for my head, and try another author for a bit. None of this is intended to be mean or make you feel bad, but if we want to get these levels into Episode 2, there's a lot of work to be done.

This level is, putting it lightly, a spammy, glitchy, confusing mess. The time gimmick is theoretically cool, but in practice it rarely feels that way. The stage design and enemy spam is just so infuriating and often not built around the gimmick that I rarely feel like it adds anything to the experience.

Yes, you are able to take on enemies a lot better than normal by virtue of being Sheath, having a large amount of potential health, and having weird time magic on your side. No, this does not mean you should be spamming BOSSES. For starters, if you don't kill all of them they continue to make noise as you progress through a room. It eventually becomes a cacophony of distracting noises, drowning out the music. The enemies themselves fill the screen quickly, adding to the sensory overload. Dodging isn't strictly necessary since you can have a lot of health, but being swatted back and forth by stray fireballs isn't fun at all. Killing bosses that can soak up hits is time-consuming and not really something players are gonna want to do. Throwing SMB3 Bowsers and handfuls of Ludwigs at the player at once is not good.

The stage design is a nightmare, too. I understand there are lunapoints, but they're not all obvious. The text you're using to tell players where some of them are is mixed with text that begs to be skipped over. Using stuff like "Insert plot here," is NOT going to make me want to read whatever it is you write. The moving layers are glitchy and can do such fun things as drag you through a floor or kill you instantly when you have 10 hits left. It doesn't feel optimized at all. The layers attached to bats can just decide you're gonna slide off into lava.

The gimmick changes slightly in several rooms, which adds to the disorienting nature of the level. It starts off fine, but the stop-and-go room and the slow moving room both made me feel like I was playing on my old, laggy laptop. It wasn't fun. Furthermore, the stage design isn't built around it at all. It makes the level just a bit easier in some situations, but not more fun. There are a lot of possibilities here and they feel wasted.

The final boss is it's own ordeal. I had no idea what was going on at any given time. It's like you emulated the bad Touhou-themed levels from MaglX (right down to the music at the start, even.) Why would you do that? The boss just disappears sometimes, and the room fills with projectiles. You have a part with autoscrolling spikes that kills any flow the fight had. I just never felt like anything in this fight made sense. Maybe I was just done with the level by this point, but it was not a good time at all.

Also, a few minor things. There are some typos ("isint," and "existiance," I noticed.) Serac at the end is a collectible.

I don't even know if this is salvageable. You could do something with the premise in a new setting, but you're gonna have to do so much to get this to the point where's it's really playable. This would have been more at home in the Makl contest than this collab.

Elevator of Rage - Mabel

Aptly named.

Again, just because Sheath has an easier time with bosses doesn't mean it's fun to deal with them in large numbers. It still feels spammy, though not nearly as bad as the last one.

The music doesn't loop well.

The level is glitchy, particularly in having you move through the floor into your death. Killed the Bananasnake King in mid-air? Cool, instant death. Thanks, video games!

Also like last time, the final boss is a confusing mess and I have no idea what's going on. Look at that spam!

The boss fight in particular feels like playing Septentrion's old work. Again, not something you want to emulate. You can probably get where I'm going with this one.

Lynari Desert - Mabel

I think Voltgloss hit the nail on the head here. It's got a better concept that the last few levels, but the implementation is poor. You have janky graphics, glitchy tiles, weird land placement, enemy spam, a dangerous midpoint, over-reliance on a sparse power-up, an abundance of meaningless coin blocks to make looking for those power-ups tedious, sand worms that glitch through landmasses, glitchy-looking blaargs, land-level quicksand that affects you before you step on it, unavoidable quicksand, typos, a potential "stuck forever," trap, and a poor excuse for the background limit.

I'll give you points for Crystal Chronicles music though.

This level is in better shape than the last two, but still put me in poor enough of a mood as to not get very far into the next level before quitting. I'll still look at the last two levels, but I need a break.

Subterranean Sun - Rusbojis

This is what I came to for a break, and I'm not disappointed. It's actually the only level I reviewed in this set that I was genuinely happy with through-and-through. The gameplay is absolutely solid and fun.

I only have three recommendations for changes.

First, the backgrounds. I think the really bright one works better, but both backgrounds would be better as something other than a single color. Perhaps a close-up sun? There are certainly some creative choices you could go with.

Second, the secret leek could be made a bit more obvious. I didn't realize it existed until I poked around in the editor. The "door," is made of black cutoff. Also maybe the palm tree could actually dance? Even if it were layer magic it'd be nice.

That's really all I have to suggest, though. Like White Void, I found myself really liking it.

That's enough of that. I'm getting some Wendys or Taco Bell or something.

[Mabel]

Anyway, here's another batch of reviews.

Castle of Time (No Relation) - Mabel

Full disclosure: I played three of your levels today. I did not beat any of them legit. I did not enjoy any of them. I had to take a break from your levels, take some ibuprofen for my head, and try another author for a bit. None of this is intended to be mean or make you feel bad, but if we want to get these levels into Episode 2, there's a lot of work to be done.

This level is, putting it lightly, a spammy, glitchy, confusing mess. The time gimmick is theoretically cool, but in practice it rarely feels that way. The stage design and enemy spam is just so infuriating and often not built around the gimmick that I rarely feel like it adds anything to the experience.

SO I probably should have put a disclaimer that this level was in super early alpha stages when I uploaded it, alot of stuff changed but this is still good to see some feedback

Yes, you are able to take on enemies a lot better than normal by virtue of being Sheath, having a large amount of potential health, and having weird time magic on your side. No, this does not mean you should be spamming BOSSES. For starters, if you don't kill all of them they continue to make noise as you progress through a room. It eventually becomes a cacophony of distracting noises, drowning out the music.
I fixed this thankfully, I had some luna code that keeps some npcs from despawning and it actually kept all of them

The enemies themselves fill the screen quickly, adding to the sensory overload. Dodging isn't strictly necessary since you can have a lot of health, but being swatted back and forth by stray fireballs isn't fun at all. Killing bosses that can soak up hits is time-consuming and not really something players are gonna want to do. Throwing SMB3 Bowsers and handfuls of Ludwigs at the player at once is not good.
I managed to get all the "boss" NPC's HP nerfed to make them less of a pain, and as sheath even without any powerups theyre easily manageable

The stage design is a nightmare, too. I understand there are lunapoints, but they're not all obvious. The text you're using to tell players where some of them are is mixed with text that begs to be skipped over. Using stuff like "Insert plot here," is NOT going to make me want to read whatever it is you write.
dialogue will be touched on later, I just went ahead and put in dialogue on lunapoint locations(lunapoints shouldnt be obvious to prevent any sequence breaking, but the text telling you where they are once you reach that point should be less vague, so ill work on that too)
The moving layers are glitchy and can do such fun things as drag you through a floor or kill you instantly when you have 10 hits left. It doesn't feel optimized at all.
This should only happen in the slow room(being crushed by the moving layer and floor) and the midboss room
The layers attached to bats can just decide you're gonna slide off into lava.
this was a bad choice in general and I kinda got rid of it, but for future reference you wont slide off if you kill the bat first but if its alive you just end up sliding into the lava

The gimmick changes slightly in several rooms, which adds to the disorienting nature of the level. It starts off fine, but the stop-and-go room and the slow moving room both made me feel like I was playing on my old, laggy laptop. It wasn't fun. Furthermore, the stage design isn't built around it at all. It makes the level just a bit easier in some situations, but not more fun. There are a lot of possibilities here and they feel wasted.
Think so? I made both gimmick setups before designing and tried to make it not super intrusive so the gimmick isint causing unfair situations

The final boss is it's own ordeal. I had no idea what was going on at any given time. It's like you emulated the bad Touhou-themed levels from MaglX (right down to the music at the start, even.) Why would you do that? The boss just disappears sometimes, and the room fills with projectiles. You have a part with autoscrolling spikes that kills any flow the fight had. I just never felt like anything in this fight made sense. Maybe I was just done with the level by this point, but it was not a good time at all.
8th circle of hell-tier postgame boss...that said It should be obvious the boss isint going to be a pushover(and it is if you figure out how the boss moves since its just a ludwig you can only downstab and kill very quickly when done right, of course if this isint obvious I could tweak him a bit)

Also, a few minor things. There are some typos ("isint," and "existiance," I noticed.) Serac at the end is a collectible.

I don't even know if this is salvageable. You could do something with the premise in a new setting, but you're gonna have to do so much to get this to the point where's it's really playable. This would have been more at home in the Makl contest than this collab.

Elevator of Rage - Mabel

Aptly named.

Again, just because Sheath has an easier time with bosses doesn't mean it's fun to deal with them in large numbers. It still feels spammy, though not nearly as bad as the last one.

The music doesn't loop well.

The level is glitchy, particularly in having you move through the floor into your death. Killed the Bananasnake King in mid-air? Cool, instant death. Thanks, video games!
Im trying to recreate this but I cant seem to do it, I have no idea if anyone else has had this issue
Also like last time, the final boss is a confusing mess and I have no idea what's going on. Look at that spam!
really? it seems very very simple on the surface and the spam is minimal, but how much each person considers spam is subjective I suppose...
The boss fight in particular feels like playing Septentrion's old work. Again, not something you want to emulate. You can probably get where I'm going with this one.

Lynari Desert - Mabel

I think Voltgloss hit the nail on the head here. It's got a better concept that the last few levels, but the implementation is poor. You have janky graphics, glitchy tiles, weird land placement, enemy spam, a dangerous midpoint, over-reliance on a sparse power-up, an abundance of meaningless coin blocks to make looking for those power-ups tedious, sand worms that glitch through landmasses, glitchy-looking blaargs, land-level quicksand that affects you before you step on it, unavoidable quicksand, typos, a potential "stuck forever," trap, and a poor excuse for the background limit.

I'll give you points for Crystal Chronicles music though.

This level is in better shape than the last two, but still put me in poor enough of a mood as to not get very far into the next level before quitting. I'll still look at the last two levels, but I need a break.

.

Since I suck at quoting I just replied in orange, I keep breaking peoples faces in in unintentional ways ~.~

[Mikkofier]

Okay, I have a lot of level review stuff today.

Frolic - Mikkofier (Update)

I think this level is pretty good to go. It's a fun, cute romp that I think has a definite place in the early game. Yay!

I would like to point out again that getting lives in this level is effortless because of the Pow Block Monthra and the coins. It's like an instant 70+ lives. If you're fine with rewarding the player so much it's cool, but I don't know how the game as a whole is handling lives yet, so keep that in mind. Isrieri's reviews rightly accused some of my levels (especially the ones I didn't re-submit) of consisting of "holding right through a mix-and-match wasteland of random enemies", so this was my way of "destroying" that. The 1-ups are just a bonus and seems appropriate for a "nice" level.

raocow's Workday - Mikkofier

This is a level that I reviewed a few months back, and I liked it back then. I think it's still just as good now, though I've noticed a couple of things that need fixing. Yay!

First, and most importantly, it is possible, in the room with the switches, to get yourself trapped with no way to die. You have a set of Metroid pipes on the right side of the room used to ascend, and there's a 1-block wide gap in them. By crouch sliding into the gap and turning away, the play will zip through and get stuck behind it. I accidentally did this because of a weird jump and ended up stuck (though I cheated my way out, so no harm done, really.) This can potentially ruin an otherwise good level, so definitely fix it. I'll look into that.

The other change is minor. The orange switch box says "one of the first thing," which should be pluralized into "things." Whoops!

I do have two suggestions for the switch room, though neither is going to make or break your level. The first would be removing the grey snifit replacement from the top left corner of the room (with the lava(?) pool.) He makes the jump a bit harder than the rest of the level. I'll try to make the jump easier. The purple stuff is boiling kool-aid (grape flavor)
Second, maybe find some way to make it obvious if a switch has been hit from the switches themselves. You could use blocks that are activated by switches to block them once they've been hit, or events to make them disappear once used. It seems odd that I can repeatedly trigger the orange switch's text by hitting it. Why didn't I think of that?

The gameplay here is solid, and I enjoy the sense of humor. Plus, you manage to make a climax without a boss fight. I think this and Frolic are your strongest works thus far. Thanks! Also, what do you mean? There totally is a boss fight! :D

Reply in the quote.
Thanks for the feedback!

[Valentine]

I know that nearly every submitted level goes through several drafts and revisions, but is it okay to post a blatantly incomplete level to the submission thread for critique while I'm working on the latter half of it? Or would it be preferred that the whole thing was done before having time put in and changes suggested?

Somebody may take a look at your level if you post it, but it's less likely. I'm personally not going to review incomplete levels, since it's a lot harder to judge them.

This means I'm not giving my thoughts for Starlight Resort Grand Reopening and Kil's level yet, by the way.

Anyway, here's another batch of reviews.

The Chest - Little Boo

As has been mentioned already, this level is mostly bullet spam. Don't use ambushes to build difficulty. The majority of the bullets are harmless, since they aren't likely anywhere near you when they show up, but a few are mean cheap shots.

There's a triangle block that a Blue Goopa kicks a shell off. The shell comes back, glitches over the block and kills the Goopa. That should be changed.

The gold thwomps revert to regular ones upon death. That should be an easy graphical fix.

The boss is mostly harmless. The Thwomps are only threatening if you jump near them, which isn't necessary, and he gives you plenty of ammo. This is particularly problematic if you enter with a Fire Flower, since you can just stand near the boss, shoot enemies that don't walk your way/aren't ammo, and throw the rest. Speaking of the boss, what is it? I have no idea what I'm looking at, and the death effect mask being wrong doesn't help things.

Also I think you mix friendly shamans and enemy shamans in the same room?

I do like the aesthetic, though. The level design looks cool, but the enemy usage is not. This needs some work, but could definitely get where it needs to be.

You have the old version.

[Oddwrath]

Sorry LittleBoo for not posting this sooner. Been very busy for several days.
LittleBoo - The Chest(Updated)

The death sprites for the npcs are still broken. So, when you kill a golden enemy, they revert into their non-golden form. You can fix this by going into the effect folder of the graphics, finding the right npc and then changing that sprite.

The big boo chests made me have a "Black Plague" moment. And even though, when you kill one of them they turn into regular big boos, you could make that work without changing the effect sprite. Make the big boo look out of the chests as they approach the player.

I'd personally reduce the HP of the golem, to make it less "carol-boss"-y. Probably by 2/4 points.

Speaking of the boss, after I learned his pattern, I never felt like I was in danger at all. The two times I died, were because I was being stupid, but other than that, the boss is kinda boring. Maybe replace the thwomps by something else, and place several rinkas lower to the sides of the room?

The key-puzzle was nice, but I don't know why you have chosen thwomps to be there, since I never was hit once when I tried doing the puzzle.

Oh, hi traps! You pose absolutely no threat to me at all.

The super precise bullets are kinda terrible. That one small bullet near the right coin arrow is downright evil. If the player didn't play the level before, then they will rush, jump and then get hit by said bullet.

Man, this level is hell with Sheath. The boss is even worse, since you can't throw bob-ombs. It's beatable, but not without massive effort on the player's part. Any chance you could make this level more Sheath-friendly?My future All-Sheath-Ep-2-run demands more Sheath-friendly levels.

This is two times better than the original, even if it still has some kinks to work out. I actually had tons of fun while playing and despite what my post may say, I think it's very close to being excellent. Good job!

[Valentine]

Sorry LittleBoo for not posting this sooner. Been very busy for several days.
LittleBoo - The Chest(Updated)

The death sprites for the npcs are still broken. So, when you kill a golden enemy, they revert into their non-golden form. You can fix this by going into the effect folder of the graphics, finding the right npc and then changing that sprite.

The big boo chests made me have a "Black Plague" moment. And even though, when you kill one of them they turn into regular big boos, you could make that work without changing the effect sprite. Make the big boo look out of the chests as they approach the player.

I'd personally reduce the HP of the golem, to make it less "carol-boss"-y. Probably by 2/4 points.

Speaking of the boss, after I learned his pattern, I never felt like I was in danger at all. The two times I died, were because I was being stupid, but other than that, the boss is kinda boring. Maybe replace the thwomps by something else, and place several rinkas lower to the sides of the room?

The key-puzzle was nice, but I don't know why you have chosen thwomps to be there, since I never was hit once when I tried doing the puzzle.

Oh, hi traps! You pose absolutely no threat to me at all.

The super precise bullets are kinda terrible. That one small bullet near the right coin arrow is downright evil. If the player didn't play the level before, then they will rush, jump and then get hit by said bullet.

Man, this level is hell with Sheath. The boss is even worse, since you can't throw bob-ombs. It's beatable, but not without massive effort on the player's part. Any chance you could make this level more Sheath-friendly?My future All-Sheath-Ep-2-run demands more Sheath-friendly levels.

This is two times better than the original, even if it still has some kinks to work out. I actually had tons of fun while playing and despite what my post may say, I think it's very close to being excellent. Good job!

I Have a space in my name BTW

1-excuse my laziness please.

2-Cool idea, also again. Excuse my laziness

3-I was thinking about it though i didn't. I just wanted to have a boss. I felt it needed to end that way.

4-I'll place some rinkas around, and maybe a standard bomb generator instead of bob-ombs, because sheath.

5-I'll change the thwomps to something else.

6-I don't know how to change that.

7-i guess when you test a level 100 times you don't notice that kind of thing.

8-Gonna try to do something about that. I'm not sure how though.

9-I'm glad.

[sedron]

It's been a few days, let's get a few more reviews in.

Valterri's Forstress - Wind

The submission format is incorrect. That definitely needs fixing. Also what's a "forstress?" Is that typo on purpose?

Unless I missed an update, the level entrance is still misplaced.

Graphically, the level is absolutely solid (even if some of the graphics are overused.) Everything looks very well put together and aesthetically-pleasing, expect for the final boss who has a really glitchy-looking sprite at times. The events are timed pretty much perfectly, too. There are some issues with the music, namely that the volume spikes when the first custom track begins and a few songs restart for no real reason.

Game-play wise, this level has some issues. The excess of warps may actually cause the level to take longer to load, and from a gameplay standpoint it could lead players to look for things that aren't there because the option is available. A lot of the level isn't very interesting (particularly the first half,) and combined with a shortage of power-ups makes the whole experience less than ideal. Honestly, just adding more power-ups would make it a lot better. The bosses are really boring, though. The first one is what's called a "Carol boss," which means you sit around waiting to get ammo for it. Most players don't want to just wait through a whole battle. It's also significantly harder without a fire power-up, which isn't optimal. The final boss is just a few reskinned vanilla bosses, except you get a great vantage point from which to dodge basically everything, killing the challenge.

All of that said, I wouldn't want this level in the game on writing reasons alone. People said the first game was too in-jokey, and this isn't even in-jokes from the Talkhaus. The entire thing is really cringe-inducing, too. I don't think this is the type of thing where you could fix it, either. The writing just needs to go.

The skeleton of a decent level is there, but the writing isn't okay.

The Coin and the Tanuki - Mabel

You graphical work is really good and I really want to like these levels. I just... don't.

The problems here feel like the problems in the rest of your submissions. It's too visually busy with a trillion moving objects at once, and the moving layers/rotodiscs are glitchy and just kind of kill you sometimes (here you have a sign pointing it out, which does not excuse it at all.) The Tanuki spawning the loudest enemy in the game constantly really doesn't help things. It's helpful, technically, but between the saws being loud and adding to the general visual overload it feels more like a burden.

You also have some cases of needless repetition (the part with the moving layer where you need to fit in alcoves in particular,) and unfair stuff (the moving platform before the part I just mentioned doesn't feel fair with instant-death being so prevalent.)

Velfa Library - Mabel

The graphics don't feel used well here, and that's the first thing that'll likely hit the player. The fall-through floors look totally solid, and have led to meaningless deaths, as well as confusion on where to go next. A lot of stuff also looks like cut-off. This level is very confusing visually.

It's confusing as ever. What is that P-switch supposed to do, other than kill you? Why is there a door maze? Why does one set of climbable gates make me slide upwards? Why can I waste all of my keys in the first area and get myself stuck? Why do some bookcases act as locked doors but others don't? Why does the floor disappear when I kill the boss?

I just don't know.

Magma Musical - WiiRool

Even with cheats turned on, this level manages to kill me. So bravo for that I guess?

The concept is really neat. I love rhythm-based games. However, you still need a LOT of foresight to actually deal with the obstacles. Just because there's a line of coins doesn't mean it's obvious what needs to be done or when. Overall the level is too strict with the timing.

There isn't much to say otherwise. I think this can be made really fun with some tuning to make it more forgiving.

What About Railways - Wohlstand

Another level with a cool idea, but not-so-great execution. In this case, I like the train, but riding the train alternates between not requiring me to move at all to progress and stuff dropping in such a way that dodging doesn't feel like my decision. It needs to be made more interesting, but in a fair way.

The level looks and sounds good, though.

Also, I suppose English isn't your first language? A lot of the text needs work to read naturally. I do think the current version has it's own charm, honestly. I'd need to write a lot to catch all of the spelling/grammar errors, but I'm willing to help with that if you would like. Just not right now as I plan to sleep now.

[Wohlstand]

What About Railways - Wohlstand

Another level with a cool idea, but not-so-great execution. In this case, I like the train, but riding the train alternates between not requiring me to move at all to progress and stuff dropping in such a way that dodging doesn't feel like my decision. It needs to be made more interesting, but in a fair way.

The level looks and sounds good, though.

Also, I suppose English isn't your first language? A lot of the text needs work to read naturally. I do think the current version has it's own charm, honestly. I'd need to write a lot to catch all of the spelling/grammar errors, but I'm willing to help with that if you would like. Just not right now as I plan to sleep now.

This is my long-time level first versions of them I made long time ago, but it was worse. To ride on train is required, because some holes can't be passed by walk (anything will fall down). In my old versions I put lots of enemies which randomly falling to roof, but they are too annoying for people and makes level too difficult for pass (reviews of my old versions of them). I have ideas: mayby make roofs which requires to jump or duck player else player will get hurt, and also I have tiny idea: may by I will replace exit leek with takable leek + warp exit (for example, this level can be long single-way warp between world fragments), also I took little idea to make big and long non-walkable bridge (player will always fall down and train required) between some stations instead of grounds with adding of jumping fishes (but they will be annoying).

Yea, English is not my native language. I know about some grammar/spelling mistakes and fixing them when I find them.

[sedron]

I think I'm actually caught up on level reviewing as of this post (at least for levels submitted to the thread.)

Hoeloe, Demo's Journey Through Time is currently broken. I keep getting a Luna error on start-up, and the moving spikes do not move because of it. That makes the level unbeatable. Is that an issue on my end? I have what I believe is the latest version of Luna Lua.

raocow's Workday and Subterranean Sun are both in great shape, and don't really require revisions, in my opinion.

Approaching the Sand Temple still has the issue with the boss jumping out of his arena into the tiny area to the right. Fix that and I think the level will be fine.

Here are the levels I have more to say about.

Pierce the Heavens - Jappio

There's a level in World 7 of the last game called "Spin! Pierce the Heavens!" While I'm all about Gurren Lagaan references, you might want to consider a new name to avoid confusion. It can still totally be a TTGL reference.

This level's problems are pretty minor and revolve around graphics. The yellow submarines need to be on flat lava, or they get cut-off. The second climbable wall graphic is not obvious enough. Also I'm not sure what's up with the breakable invisible blocks at the start.

That's it for problems, I think. This level is actually really cool and I love the central concept. It looks, for the most part, great. You don't need to change much.

Typical Sky Level - Jolpengammler

There's actually only one change I recommend. Just make the railings at the start more visible against the black background.

The level, aesthetically, looks fine, and the music is pretty silly. It's kind of tough, but not in an anger-inducing manner. It is, unfortunately, a bit bland beyond that, but it's pretty good overall.

The Chest - Little Boo (Update)

A lot of the problems from my last review persist here.

You still have unfair bullet-based difficulty. The death effects still need to be changed. The triangle on the ground after the midpoint is still glitchy, and causes the shell to act oddly on the return trip.

The boss looks more like a thing now, but still a bit clashy with the surroundings.

The boss itself isn't a fun fight. I dunno how Oddwrath found it easy, since, at least with Demo, I could barely get the bombs up to the boss to begin with. Add in that it's a damage sponge and it takes forever for ammo to show up and it's fairly unpleasant.

I don't really know what's up with the disappearing ground at some points. It doesn't seem fair, in any case.

You can actually get stuck at the start if the bombs explode in a certain pattern.

Finally, the enemy generators are all spammy as all hell. They don't feel like they add anything (except shells to progress in the first case,) so I don't know why they're like that.

It's somewhat of an improvement, but still needs work.

Gravity Falls - Ztarwuff

Oh no the entrance is misplaced!

The music sounds so much better now. I'm still not entirely sold on it matching, but it's a lot more appealing at this quality.

The changed puzzles also seem more streamlined now.

I did encounter one strange problem (and I have no idea how I keep making weird stuff happen in your levels, by the way.) In the vertical room on the main path, the water beam acted as quicksand near the end. It made progressing really difficult. I don't know what caused this.

Otherwise, everything checks out here.

Shroom Samba Spelunkin' - Ztarwuff

Toning things down seems to have helped immensely. Thank you.

There is one problem, though. Apparently Shroom Shamans can be killed off-screen by other sources? It happened to me more than once. I even had two of those events overlap at once point. That's definitely worth looking into.

[Hoeloe]

Hoeloe, Demo's Journey Through Time is currently broken. I keep getting a Luna error on start-up, and the moving spikes do not move because of it. That makes the level unbeatable. Is that an issue on my end? I have what I believe is the latest version of Luna Lua.

That's... extremely odd. What does the error say? I'll give it another look.

EDIT: This version is definitely working with the latest version of LunaLua: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/308 ... 20Time.zip

[SAJewers]

Decided to try out Youtube's new 60FPS thingy by playing "Amazing Plumber Nightmare 64. Uh, I think I broke it?

[raekuul]

Sedron: On the right or on the left? In Version 3, if it's on the left it's by design this time. If it's on the right then something's legit broken with the construction because what's on the right shouldn't even be open until the boom boom's gone.

[ztarwuff]

Decided to try out Youtube's new 60FPS thingy by playing "Amazing Plumber Nightmare 64. Uh, I think I broke it?

Yeah, you definitely broke it, alright. I need to put an invisible block there and get rid of all the blue shells.

Also, why didn't you try any of the green pipes? I showed that the green pipes could be entered at the start of the level. Do I need to put coins in front of every single green pipe in the level?

Gravity Falls - Ztarwuff

I did encounter one strange problem (and I have no idea how I keep making weird stuff happen in your levels, by the way.) In the vertical room on the main path, the water beam acted as quicksand near the end. It made progressing really difficult. I don't know what caused this.

Otherwise, everything checks out here.

Yeah, that was my fault. I only noticed that when using Wohlstand's editor. Stupid default editor! Using wohlstand's, I can't see what I'm doing because the blue and red transparencies don't show. But using the default editor, everytime I pick up a quicksand and then water, the water turns into quicksand! And you can't tell the difference between the two until you play test the level.

As for the music, I'm having huge difficulties finding a suitable replacement.

I've just come across this: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/342291 but the beginning is a bit too action packed. Nothing seems suitable.

Shroom Samba Spelunkin' - Ztarwuff

Toning things down seems to have helped immensely. Thank you.

There is one problem, though. Apparently Shroom Shamans can be killed off-screen by other sources? It happened to me more than once. I even had two of those events overlap at once point. That's definitely worth looking into.

Ah yes. When enemies strike them, it kind of kills them off. Better change enemy placement, then. I wonder if them falling off platforms also triggers the event. Better look into that too.

EDIT: Oh. I've just noticed that there's a huge potential for crashing the game in Section 3 of Gravity Falls.

[Hoeloe]

So, I'm trying to fix The Descent of Nine based on sedron's comments, and I'm having trouble with this one:

- The 6th Circle, like the 4th, is very easy. Most of it can be dodged by sitting in the middle of the screen and jumping appropriately. It gets tougher further down, but not by much.

The problem here is that, because of SMBX's slightly buggy NPC caching, the results of the 6th circle vary. This can mean the section is extremely easy, or hard enough to be almost unbeatable, because the enemies spawn at different times in relation to each other, resulting in projectiles appearing at different relative positions.

I'm wondering if it might be worth re-building this section as more of an "enemies drop into the lift" section. What do you think?

EDIT: I've kept it mostly as-is for now. If the issues are still there, then I'll probably rework the section.

[Jappio]

Pierce the Heavens - Jappio

There's a level in World 7 of the last game called "Spin! Pierce the Heavens!" While I'm all about Gurren Lagaan references, you might want to consider a new name to avoid confusion. It can still totally be a TTGL reference.

This level's problems are pretty minor and revolve around graphics. The yellow submarines need to be on flat lava, or they get cut-off. The second climbable wall graphic is not obvious enough. Also I'm not sure what's up with the breakable invisible blocks at the start.

That's it for problems, I think. This level is actually really cool and I love the central concept. It looks, for the most part, great. You don't need to change much.

I noticed that during the LP. I really should change it... time to try to come up with something.

I'll get to the submarine. I'll see what I can do about the climbing graphic. The breakable blocks are sort of just to make the feeling you're breaking free from the area around you. It's so dark you can't even see it, just supposed to make the player feel like they are struggling to free themselves from the earth.

I'm glad you think the level is really cool. My second only ever, so I was pretty worried. It's especially thanks though to all the helpful critique I've been getting, that's for sure.

[SAJewers]

Decided to try out Youtube's new 60FPS thingy by playing "Amazing Plumber Nightmare 64. Uh, I think I broke it?

Yeah, you definitely broke it, alright. I need to put an invisible block there and get rid of all the blue shells.

Also, why didn't you try any of the green pipes? I showed that the green pipes could be entered at the start of the level. Do I need to put coins in front of every single green pipe in the level?

I probably never noticed. After I saw the blue shell, I just wanted to see if I could break things.

[Oddwrath]

I have a request to make: can anybody who can record gameplay footage make a video review of the two levels I submitted: The Tiniest Castle and Bat An Eye? I need that not only just to get more opinions about my levels(particularly concerning the length and difficulty), but also to learn the general way most people would approach my levels. Mostly, because, my play style is kinda weird(I play almost exclusively with a keyboard and duck jump all the time).

[Hoeloe]

I really should change it...

You've got quite a few choices if you want to keep the reference:

Don't believe in yourself
Who the hell do you think I am?
Spin on!
etc.

[WestonSmith]

I have a request to make: can anybody who can record gameplay footage make a video review of the two levels I submitted: The Tiniest Castle and Bat An Eye? I need that not only just to get more opinions about my levels(particularly concerning the length and difficulty), but also to learn the general way most people would approach my levels. Mostly, because, my play style is kinda weird(I play almost exclusively with a keyboard and duck jump all the time).

I just recorded myself playing these levels blind. My computer is pretty dumb, so editing in commentary will take... time. If you'd like, I can post the raw footage for you to see (approx. 15 minutes for Bat An Eye, approx. 2 Minutes for Tiniest Castle), or else wait maybe a week for me to properly edit and give feedback.

Your call.

Either way, I enjoyed both levels, and think Bat An Eye can be real special with some visual flair and a few difficulty tweaks (removing that awful bullet jump, for instance). So, good jerb.

[Oddwrath]

I have a request to make: can anybody who can record gameplay footage make a video review of the two levels I submitted: The Tiniest Castle and Bat An Eye? I need that not only just to get more opinions about my levels(particularly concerning the length and difficulty), but also to learn the general way most people would approach my levels. Mostly, because, my play style is kinda weird(I play almost exclusively with a keyboard and duck jump all the time).

I just recorded myself playing these levels blind. My computer is pretty dumb, so editing in commentary will take... time. If you'd like, I can post the raw footage for you to see (approx. 15 minutes for Bat An Eye, approx. 2 Minutes for Tiniest Castle), or else wait maybe a week for me to properly edit and give feedback.

Your call.

Either way, I enjoyed both levels, and think Bat An Eye can be real special with some visual flair and a few difficulty tweaks (removing that awful bullet jump, for instance). So, good jerb.

Eh, I'm going to wait a week for a proper review, since the next week, I won't be nearly as busy as this one.
Also, big thanks for taking the time to do this!

[Jappio]

I have a request to make: can anybody who can record gameplay footage make a video review of the two levels I submitted: The Tiniest Castle and Bat An Eye? I need that not only just to get more opinions about my levels(particularly concerning the length and difficulty), but also to learn the general way most people would approach my levels. Mostly, because, my play style is kinda weird(I play almost exclusively with a keyboard and duck jump all the time).

I suppose if one receives critique and comments from the community, and want to continue to receive, they should at times give back. So here I go, attempting some critique for someone.

Ok, sorry first off for the video being choppy. My computer at times can't run SMBX sometimes, so asking it to take a not choppy video was asking a bit much I suppose.

I try my best to edit and leave comments there in the video. A bit tough to see some of my deaths and such. Again, I apologize.

Sorry for the length too, but that bat level was very hard! I'm probably just not very good, but in the very least, that's why it's so long.

A summary of things I think need changing and the video:

http://youtu.be/7r3RMAKSv8U
- The starting area is cruel right away. A safer area to practice this skill would be nice.
- In general those spike ceilings are tough. I'm not the best at low hops I guess, and then having to switch to other kinds of hops, and then also altering my speed and tempo suddenly. I found the parts with less ceiling to be more fun. Even without the spikes the first area would still be hard though thanks to the columns and ceilings.
- Some bat positions lead into spikes or other bats. It's semi-random, and can lead to some lame deaths. Not sure how much you'd have to tweak things, but perhaps only have a single set of bats in a spot.
- It's a bit long. Restarts are quite demoralizing and frustrating.
- I'm probably dumb, because it sounds like you have a shortcut somewhere.

[Oddwrath]

stuff

I both watched your video and read your points and...I honestly don't know. This level is built on the premise of jump control. In fact, there are two parts in both sections where you don't even need to jump at all(the very first one before the sign and the very last part of the level...where you've decided to quit my level. Seriously, if you just held on for just one screen, you would've beaten it.) I tried before to make a coin path path that would show you the general way to go to not die, but it was more distracting than helpful. I'll try to do it again, but no promises.

I did fix some of the issues with spikes and columns, but again, taking them out entirely would go against the whole point of the level: knowing when to jump and maneuvering in the air.

The bullet jump is kinda dumb, so I will replace it with something better. Even though, I liked the idea itself: jump from bat to bat, while waiting for a bullet.

The shortcut is

where you first thought it was. In that triangle spot. With it you can skip the entirety of section 1.

I'm sorry to both you and sedron, but I disagree when it comes to this level's length. I actually think it would stand to be a little longer, if only to make section 1 & 2 equal in length. I may put another shortcut in section 2 though, but make it less broken that the one in section 1.

Also, why you aren't using LunaDLL? Especially, in the Tiniest Castle, because that timer is not from SMBX, but from LunaDLL.

[sedron]

stuff

Reply stuff

This may be a situation like Blue Surfer in Ep 1 where a practice level for the mechanic would be incredibly useful. I find the current iteration very doable, but only because I've gotten a lot of practice from testing it.

I do agree that the bullet jump is a bit much, though. The spike ceilings could stand to be moved ever-so slightly to allow more let, but I think they're probably fine with the level's current difficulty.

One last thing. I know you want to make the sections even, but do you think that's worth making the level potentially more frustrating by elongating it? I think you've proven that the gimmick can work, but it still needs to be in small sections, as it is quite demanding. Please, resist the temptation to make it longer. I don't think this level has anything to gain from it.

[Jappio]

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More Stuff

Again, I am not like great or anything at the Mario's. I've rarely ever have played hacks and such, and any ability I have, is from the actual games. So I can understand if you want to disregard a lot of my points. The level isn't really made for someone like me, but I'm glad you still were able to take some of what I said to heart.

I will say though, some areas where you aren't supposed to jump don't always feel right. It's scary to take such risks, even if I, as the player, think that might be the solution. I've died and have had to restart enough times where I'm not ready for that type of thing (again though, this is from a less experienced player, and might not apply to those who get to this point in the game).

I am sorry I didn't catch onto the running thing though, sincerely. Be careful though, if a section is too finely tuned to work exactly one way, it needs to work well that way. It's easy to disregard intended methods at times, especially if the intended method doesn't work the same every time. I know in some areas I was trying quick low jumps, but I'd get the wrong speed, and that would make me not want to try the correct method as much anymore.

Coin paths could maybe work, and in some situations could be nice indicators (maybe like a coin every now and again on the run areas to indicate when you should be staying low, and upper coins to indicate when to go high. Doesn't even have to be trails, just single coins that you can try to aim for. I don't know if that would work, and maybe isn't the best way, but maybe a consideration).

Taking the columns out isn't totally necessary everywhere. The ones near the end, though foreboding for someone like me, seemed like they would probably be fine? I just didn't like the ones early on I supposed.

Agreed on the bullet jump. Neat idea, but without a more consistent source of bats, the bullet is too irregular. For a precise level like this, you don't want to usually leave things up to chance. Would it be possible to put the bats in that area on a generator perhaps, so you have a supply of them to stay on for awhile while you get the timing?

As for the shortcut, seems a bit backwards. You're worried about length, but you include a shortcut that skips most of the first area? It's a nice reward... but invalidates that bit ahead of it. In the very least, the clue to it should maybe considered at a farther point? I'd personally make it so the shortcut skips the first part, and takes you to half way through first area (again, cause I was bad at that first bit though). Even ignoring my skill though, seems weird that someone willing to take the risk can just skip over half of the content of the first area without ever seeing it.

I suppose length is different each player... however it sounds like Sedron and I both took quite some time to beat your level. WestonSmith took 15 minutes, and I took nearly an hour for what I got through. That gives you an idea of the range that a player can take to find that right momentum and thinking to get used to your level and beat it. Again, I don't have a ton of experience playing levels, but I've watched raocow play a lot of stuff, and I'll peek at peoples thoughts on stuff. Length is a difficult mistress to court, is one of the big things I'll see. Though at times, people will think a level needs just a little more time to fully realize itself, that just a bit more would be nice... I've seen far more complaints about levels that go on too long. Levels that over stay their welcomes, and get frustrating to redo. So get more testing to make sure your level isn't too long as it is. If you're trying to lengthen a section to match the other, in my opinion that's a dangerous idea (unless the padding is used as a way to give more safe-practice I suppose). I would say instead you should shorten the other area.

As for LunaDLL, sorry about that too. I'm using some older version before all that was fully implemented.