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Level Testing and Reviews

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Dragon Fogel
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Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by Dragon Fogel »

Okay, after way too long I'm finally getting back into testing levels again. Hopefully. Let's start with one that got revised but I never got around to testing the revision for some reason.
8flight wrote:Do you remember raocow's Karoshi LP? Yeah, this is like that.
-Moon room is still too tough for me. I don't have a firm grasp on the finer details of SMBX's jumping physics, and this room seems to demand more knowledge than I have - specifically, I don't know how to consistently avoid the pile of moons before the bottom of the ladder, or the one that's actually on it. Overall, it feels a bit too hard in comparison to what leads up to it. (Though I can get to the moon room consistently now, and I couldn't before, so that seems pretty good overall.)
-Might be good to have something to set the switches in motion on the second room, or have a text box. On a first play, the player won't quite grasp what's going on because they've just been teleported. Still, the lower speed makes it not too bad, so this isn't that big of a deal.
-It's possible to actually die in the third room by getting between the blocks and the advancing wall. This is not good considering the gimmick of the level. Maybe make the advancing wall an exit? Or remove/replace this room.
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S1eth
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Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by S1eth »

Mister Spoo wrote:Evil, v1.2


General feeling:

Pretty standard fare. It didn't feel very difficult (it was suppoed to?) or inspired. I expected a boss fight, since this is a castle level.

You are traversing from outside the castle, through it, to the other side of the castle.
That makes me think: "why I am here? What is the Evil?"

What I also noticed is that you are using a lot of different tilesets. This started off as a castle level, then turned into a different castle, then into a sky/airship level, and then we are suddenly inside an egyptian pyramid?
All these transitions seem to lack a kind of narrative that joins them together, or preferable: focus on a specific aestethic. At the moment, it feels like I'm randomly teleporting from dungeon to dungeon.

You could also use a bit more background objects, make the level look better. It's pretty barren at the moment.

Secret areas and rewards:

I noticed that you are not using coins in your level. Coins are pretty great! I would suggest you use them. (You didn't include a character. This level is suppoed to be played as Mario, right?)

The first secret in section 2 awards you with 3 lives at once. I'd suggest you fill that area with coins and give only 1 live instead.

For the secret star, too. You are just setting the player's lives to 99. That is cool and all, but giving away so much for free just makes one-ups in other levels so much less rewarding. Lives are only a reward when you can actually run out of them.

So: more little secrets, please!

The secret star wasn't hidden at all. In fact, I got the secret star before the normal star.
The secret star route is also easier than the normal route, which probably shouldn't be the case?

At the end of the secret star route, I expected to have a boss fight.

Places where I died/got hit the most:

Coin blocks with sparks + hammer bros.
Room with nipper plants + roto-dics.
Section 6 triple-cannon + spark attack.
Section 9 triple podoboo + double swooper.

Rinkas were never a problem for me in this level.

Bugs and Errors

If you fall off the platform in section 4, it never comes back down, so you have to kill yourself.
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Mister Spoo
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Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by Mister Spoo »

Heheheh... I guess that means I have quite a bit of work to do, huh...?

Narrative has never been something I've been "good" at, or at least serious narrative. Therefore, any narrative that might be present won't take itself seriously at all.

Yes, the level is supposed to be played as Mario.

As for the secrets, I'll try to take your advice.

And I'll try to make it more difficult as well, and the area as a whole more "unified" in terms of tileset. It'll likely be pretty much entirely the one in area 2. The only areas that wouldn't be like that are areas 1 and 7. Section 4 will probably get a more complete overhaul, as I can't honestly think of a way to solve the "falling off the platform" problem.

As for bosses, that's what would probably give me most trouble. It would probably be a Boom Boom fight or something with a few extra things added.
Dear god, you're reading this?! That means I must have posted something! Scary, right?
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