(shouting)

Level Testing and Reviews

If you lost something come look for it here
User avatar
KayhemMaus
I keep breaking my face on SMBX
Posts: 325
Joined: 11 years ago
First name: KM
Pronouns: they/them/their
Location: England

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by KayhemMaus »

S1eth wrote:You should read this: https://www.microsoft.com/appliedscienc ... ained.mspx
Especially Notebook keyboards seem to suffer from ghosting.
If you buy keyboards designed for gaming, you'll usually have no problems with ghosting for keys around WASD.

Coinblocks and shell.
If you are slow, the shell bumps into a coin block and turns back, you're save.
If you collect all the rings before the shell reaches the center, the teleporter appears, the shell lands on the teleporter, and then kills you.
Fascinating, that explains a lot but I don't have a gaming keyboard and hate WASD position soooo...

The fact the shell can turn back at all is not intentional. It's supposed to be

a straight up race to the teleporter or death awaits.

nyoro~n n~yoron

I love it
S1eth
Posts: 291
Joined: 9 years ago

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by S1eth »

If that's the case, then I think that section is impossible to do on your first try unless you're clairvoyant.

Or you could just wait at the start and spinjump onto the shell.
Image
User avatar
KayhemMaus
I keep breaking my face on SMBX
Posts: 325
Joined: 11 years ago
First name: KM
Pronouns: they/them/their
Location: England

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by KayhemMaus »

S1eth wrote:If that's the case, then I think that section is impossible to do on your first try unless you're clairvoyant.

Or you could just wait at the start and spinjump onto the shell.
While the latter is true, there is plenty of time to make that run. o.o I had terrible run ups and still had enough time to make it in testing... Failing that you can always

jump up onto the other coin blocks at the top of the dash and let the shell go under you...

nyoro~n n~yoron

I love it
S1eth
Posts: 291
Joined: 9 years ago

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by S1eth »

KayhemMaus wrote:
S1eth wrote:If that's the case, then I think that section is impossible to do on your first try unless you're clairvoyant.

Or you could just wait at the start and spinjump onto the shell.
While the latter is true, there is plenty of time to make that run. o.o I had terrible run ups and still had enough time to make it in testing... Failing that you can always

jump up onto the other coin blocks at the top of the dash and let the shell go under you...

Tested, k, you cannot spinjump on the shell, the bouncing kills you.

If you first enter the room, you have to look: what is going on? Where is Mario? etc. And until you actually start running, it should be too late (if your shell worked correctly and didn't bump into the coin block). And I don't understand what you mean in the spoiler. You shouldn't get that far the first time you see the room.
Image
User avatar
KayhemMaus
I keep breaking my face on SMBX
Posts: 325
Joined: 11 years ago
First name: KM
Pronouns: they/them/their
Location: England

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by KayhemMaus »

S1eth wrote:
KayhemMaus wrote:
S1eth wrote:If that's the case, then I think that section is impossible to do on your first try unless you're clairvoyant.

Or you could just wait at the start and spinjump onto the shell.
While the latter is true, there is plenty of time to make that run. o.o I had terrible run ups and still had enough time to make it in testing... Failing that you can always

jump up onto the other coin blocks at the top of the dash and let the shell go under you...

Tested, k, you cannot spinjump on the shell, the bouncing kills you.

If you first enter the room, you have to look: what is going on? Where is Mario? etc. And until you actually start running, it should be too late (if your shell worked correctly and didn't bump into the coin block). And I don't understand what you mean in the spoiler. You shouldn't get that far the first time you see the room.
Just because you wouldn't doesn't mean others wouldn't react differently.

Nice to know you can't cheese the room, haha...

I can move the koopa to give you more reaction time but honestly, I found it too easy to make it at any further distance when I tested the level.
nyoro~n n~yoron

I love it
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by Mata Hari »

Arctangent wrote:Mission: Witty Lake

One star, pretty sure this is pretty solidly in the early game. It's in the feedback-stage, though overall very complete.
At first I thought it was a little boring, but then it started doing more interesting things with the gimmick and I can respect a gentle buildup. One thing that stood out to me was those six brick blocks at the beginning that don't do anything except have a single coin in them. It makes you feel like there's going to be something more to them, like maybe a hidden block above, but there's not. I realize that's a weird thing to get hung up on though. Overall, it's a decent early-game level with a solid gimmick. Isn't really anything 'witty' about it tho :P
S1eth
Posts: 291
Joined: 9 years ago

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by S1eth »

Keep in mind that you know exactly what's coming (since you made it). The shell works fine, currently, when it bounces back, even if that's unintended.
Actually, you should have noticed that, since it happens every time.

I played that section about 20 times, and the general strategy was: run an collect all rings except the last. Wait for the shell to hit the box above the ring, then collect the ring, spawn the elevator and get the shell stuck to the right of the elevator.
Image
S1eth
Posts: 291
Joined: 9 years ago

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by S1eth »

Mission: Witty Lake
Nice straight forward level.

The only issue I have with it: There's absolutely no thought involved in hitting switches. The water only goes up and down 1 stage. There's no puzzle aspect, or hidden secrets that you can unlock by manipulating the water (unless I just haven't found them).

It's a no brainer. Go forward, hit switch, continue. Ultimately, it doesn't even matter what visual effect hitting the siwtch has on the level. If you see a switch, you hit it. You could do so much more with this gimmick. (like Wet Dry World in SM64)
Image
User avatar
Dragon Fogel
Master of Pointlessness
Posts: 1415
Joined: 10 years ago

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by Dragon Fogel »

I really should make a list or something to keep track of if I've tested the most recent version of a level.

Mushroom Kingdom Sky Desert by FrozenQuills (again)
I still feel like the Touhou music gag mostly comes across as "make fun of a thing by just doing that thing", though the music in the first section is definitely improved. The new boss fight is an interesting idea, though I started out by trying to whittle them down slowly with fireballs (until I lost my power-up) and started getting tired of the SMB3 boss music after a while. I'd appreciate something more lively, myself, but really that's a pretty minor issue.

The biggest issue I noticed is that some of the jumping-blocks can be killed with fireballs and some can't, and there's no way to tell which is which. I'm guessing these are default properties of the Zelda blobs that you didn't change; that should be fixed up so it's consistent across both types, whichever way you want to handle it.
I also made another attempt at Tender Transportation Act by SAJewers. I'm still not very good at it, but I nearly made it to the Ted-bouncing. I'm finding it really hard to cross the saw-flowers consistently, is there some particular trick to it?

(SMBX crashed in the middle of testing that, so that's probably all I'm doing tonight. I'm feeling pretty behind on these.)
Image
Click that banner if you like reading words.
Image
Make levels from unused MAGL X names!
User avatar
KayhemMaus
I keep breaking my face on SMBX
Posts: 325
Joined: 11 years ago
First name: KM
Pronouns: they/them/their
Location: England

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by KayhemMaus »

S1eth wrote:Keep in mind that you know exactly what's coming (since you made it). The shell works fine, currently, when it bounces back, even if that's unintended.
Actually, you should have noticed that, since it happens every time.

I played that section about 20 times, and the general strategy was: run an collect all rings except the last. Wait for the shell to hit the box above the ring, then collect the ring, spawn the elevator and get the shell stuck to the right of the elevator.
If that's a valid strategy fine but I'd like to reiterate that I never failed to make it to the end of the run before the shell did no matter how long I took to start the dash. I don't understand how the first instinct isn't to start collecting the rings as soon as possible which would pretty much be 'run forward almost immediately'. And since I am usually already running that direction from the last screen, it doesn't take that long.

This is clearly just my thought processes, because even if I made the level, I have a terrible memory and I rarely recalled which level came next. :P But I have already changed the timing of the shell/koopa that should make it easier in future, as well as some other changes.
nyoro~n n~yoron

I love it
S1eth
Posts: 291
Joined: 9 years ago

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by S1eth »

KayhemMaus wrote: I don't understand how the first instinct isn't to start collecting the rings as soon as possible which would pretty much be 'run forward almost immediately'.
Because you have no idea where Mario spawns on the screen, so you don't know where "forward" is.
Image
User avatar
Dog In Da Grass
Woof!
Posts: 522
Joined: 10 years ago
First name: Dog
Pronouns: that dog
Location: Da Grass

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by Dog In Da Grass »

I have a level that needs testing but I'm putting a special challenge to it.
I want to see how easy it is for all of you to get to Bowser on the VERY FIRST try (through the castle) I've trimmed back my level to prevent spoiling my main gimmick but the castle is the first section and I need it to be easy enough to get through on the first try as well as being interesting to play through. Thanks in advanced~

http://www.mediafire.com/download/6g21o ... he+day.zip
:pal: Image :pal:

Image
Image
Image
S1eth
Posts: 291
Joined: 9 years ago

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by S1eth »

Dog In Da Grass wrote:I have a level that needs testing but I'm putting a special challenge to it.
I want to see how easy it is for all of you to get to Bowser on the VERY FIRST try (through the castle) I've trimmed back my level to prevent spoiling my main gimmick but the castle is the first section and I need it to be easy enough to get through on the first try as well as being interesting to play through. Thanks in advanced~

http://www.mediafire.com/download/6g21o ... he+day.zip
I beat it on the first try, but I played very carefully. Finished as small Mario, I used the clock to skip Bowser.
I rushed a bit more in subsequent playthroughs , and tried using the clock in firebar sections, which lead to a few deaths.
So, you can easily beat this on your first try if you don't play like an idiot.
Image
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by Mata Hari »

KayhemMaus wrote:Very British Toad

Completion: Virtually? Any issues come up they'll be fixed but otherwise I'm pretty happy with this one. It's mostly flavour anyway.

Stars: 1.
Yeah, mostly flavour. The enemy-spam stairs are pretty boring, though. I'd do something to make them more interesting. Changing the actual architecture around a bit should work, rather than just being 'some stairs and then some stairs'.

The music on the bridge and the Goomba yelling like an idiot made me lol. BANTER!!!

You could also include a joke about how most of the stuff in the British Museum is stolen goods.
Last edited by Mata Hari 8 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
KayhemMaus
I keep breaking my face on SMBX
Posts: 325
Joined: 11 years ago
First name: KM
Pronouns: they/them/their
Location: England

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by KayhemMaus »

dr_kraid wrote:
KayhemMaus wrote:Very British Toad

Completion: Virtually? Any issues come up they'll be fixed but otherwise I'm pretty happy with this one. It's mostly flavour anyway.

Stars: 1.
Yeah, mostly flavour. The enemy-spam stairs are pretty boring, though. I'd do something to make them more interesting, but I can't think of anything specific. The music on the bridge and the Goomba yelling like an idiot made me lol. BANTER!!!

You could also include a joke about most of the stuff in the British Museum being stolen.
Yeah, the stairs had less enemies originally... was much more boring! I don't want the level to be only flavour but I'm a little stumped with what to do with that area too.

I'm glad you appreciate the Goomba and my music choices. :D

There is a space I was considering putting another comment in with another bombguard so I guess I have something to say with it now. :D
nyoro~n n~yoron

I love it
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by Mata Hari »

I edited my post as you quoted it. Gosh
User avatar
KayhemMaus
I keep breaking my face on SMBX
Posts: 325
Joined: 11 years ago
First name: KM
Pronouns: they/them/their
Location: England

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by KayhemMaus »

dr_kraid wrote:I edited my post as you quoted it. Gosh
Whoops, sorry! That's a good idea, thank you. :D
nyoro~n n~yoron

I love it
User avatar
snoruntpyro
cutest girl 2023
Posts: 884
Joined: 9 years ago
Pronouns: she/her
Contact:

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by snoruntpyro »

OK, stuff. I went on a level-spree and played all the levels with an exception of three. Here's some stuff that particularly stood out to me.

A Calm Cave In Vast Space - Where is the second star? I honestly have no idea where it is.
Oh This? It's Just My Brutal Swimming Paradise - The jellyfish cage is pretty unfair. You might want to make the line guides white - that would make them easier to see.
So Few Dudes - Are you supposed to use the leaf to get up to the second star?
And Wario Said Unto Them 'Warm the Education'. And It Was So. - 11/10 best level of the whole project.

Also, I've organized most of the levels into a WIP order on the level spreadsheet. Let me know if you disagree with a placement or if I put down incorrect info. I think there are too many levels in the first few worlds but I'm not sure which ones to move.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by Mata Hari »

Pyro wrote:A Calm Cave In Vast Space - Where is the second star? I honestly have no idea where it is.
Huh, I didn't think it would be that bad.

Did you find the cave in the first half? There's more to it than that little room.

User avatar
KayhemMaus
I keep breaking my face on SMBX
Posts: 325
Joined: 11 years ago
First name: KM
Pronouns: they/them/their
Location: England

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by KayhemMaus »

Pyro wrote:Also, I've organized most of the levels into a WIP order on the level spreadsheet. Let me know if you disagree with a placement or if I put down incorrect info. I think there are too many levels in the first few worlds but I'm not sure which ones to move.
I don't think Very British Toad belongs after Fiercely and Indiscriminately Murder but otherwise seems cool :3
nyoro~n n~yoron

I love it
User avatar
snoruntpyro
cutest girl 2023
Posts: 884
Joined: 9 years ago
Pronouns: she/her
Contact:

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by snoruntpyro »

dr_kraid wrote:
Pyro wrote:A Calm Cave In Vast Space - Where is the second star? I honestly have no idea where it is.
Huh, I didn't think it would be that bad.

Did you find the cave in the first half? There's more to it than that little room.

Alright, I found it now!

Also, every finished level is organized now. KayhemMaus told me to wait on his newest level.
KayhemMaus wrote: I don't think Very British Toad belongs after Fiercely and Indiscriminately Murder but otherwise seems cool :3
I played the very earliest version of FAIM so that might be a factor. I'll redownload it and check.

EDIT: Did you delete all of the FAIM files?
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
KayhemMaus
I keep breaking my face on SMBX
Posts: 325
Joined: 11 years ago
First name: KM
Pronouns: they/them/their
Location: England

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by KayhemMaus »

Pyro wrote:Also, every finished level is organized now. KayhemMaus told me to wait on his newest level.
KayhemMaus wrote: I don't think Very British Toad belongs after Fiercely and Indiscriminately Murder but otherwise seems cool :3
I played the very earliest version of FAIM so that might be a factor. I'll redownload it and check.

EDIT: Did you delete all of the FAIM files?
I updated the level now, you can check it out.

As for FAIM no, they should still be there. o.o Let me check the spreadsheet if it links to the newest one. o.o;

EDIT

WELL, something has gone very wrong with my Google Drive! O_O Almost all my duplicates are awol. I dunno how that happened. I'll reupload the correct files.

EDIT PART 2

I made an error in logic, other people would like the links for testing as well, I would imagine, never mind the PM part.
nyoro~n n~yoron

I love it
S1eth
Posts: 291
Joined: 9 years ago

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by S1eth »

Mata Hari - A Calm Cave in Vast Space (1.4)
Here are some spots where the player can glitch into the walls and get stuck: https://imgur.com/zUYGZDH
The yellow mark is a wrongly used block.

And this can happen: http://imgur.com/6AxjrWJ
The vine even prevents more koopas from spawning, so the level can not be completed.

How do you get to the secret star without leaf/tanooki? There is no indication in the small room that there would be anything at the top of the waterfall, and there doesn't seem to be any way to get up there.

In the secret area, if you fly to the left using your tanooki suit, you'll see the top of the waterfall graphics, or where they cut off and come out from nothing.
I origingally thought the slide was there so you should use it to jump all the way to the left, but that just leads to your death.
Image
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by Mata Hari »

S1eth wrote:Mata Hari - A Calm Cave in Vast Space (1.4)
Here are some spots where the player can glitch into the walls and get stuck: https://imgur.com/zUYGZDH
The yellow mark is a wrongly used block.
I wouldn't consider most of those to be an issue because the player would have to be going out of their way to glitch through them. The one at the midpoint is enough of a problem for me to fix. And the wrong block. The Galoomba one is fine because it can't get you stuck and again it's fiddly enough for you to have to know what you're doing.
S1eth wrote:
And this can happen: http://imgur.com/6AxjrWJ
The vine even prevents more koopas from spawning, so the level can not be completed.
Yeah, that's a little weird. I don't like that section much anyway so I think I'll just change it entirely (getting rid of the glitchy niche too!).
S1eth wrote:
How do you get to the secret star without leaf/tanooki? There is no indication in the small room that there would be anything at the top of the waterfall, and there doesn't seem to be any way to get up there.

You're not supposed to get up there without a powerup. You are given a leaf in the first half. The fact someone else also had trouble finding it seems to indicate it's too obscure, so I'll have to put some kind of indicator there. I want it to be more subtle than coins though.


S1eth wrote:
In the secret area, if you fly to the left using your tanooki suit, you'll see the top of the waterfall graphics, or where they cut off and come out from nothing.
I didn't expect anyone to be able to get up that far, but I guess they can, so I'll fix that.
S1eth wrote:
I origingally thought the slide was there so you should use it to jump all the way to the left, but that just leads to your death.

That is what you do. You slide from the top and the momentum throws you off at the bottom. Actually jumping would kill you because it kills your momentum. What were you doing?

S1eth
Posts: 291
Joined: 9 years ago

Re: Level Testing and Reviews

Post by S1eth »

dr_kraid wrote:
S1eth wrote:Mata Hari - A Calm Cave in Vast Space (1.4)
Here are some spots where the player can glitch into the walls and get stuck: https://imgur.com/zUYGZDH
The yellow mark is a wrongly used block.
I wouldn't consider most of those to be an issue because the player would have to be going out of their way to glitch through them. The one at the midpoint is enough of a problem for me to fix. And the wrong block. The Galoomba one is fine because it can't get you stuck and again it's fiddly enough for you to have to know what you're doing.
S1eth wrote:
And this can happen: http://imgur.com/6AxjrWJ
The vine even prevents more koopas from spawning, so the level can not be completed.
Yeah, that's a little weird. I don't like that section much anyway so I think I'll just change it entirely (getting rid of the glitchy niche too!).
S1eth wrote:
How do you get to the secret star without leaf/tanooki? There is no indication in the small room that there would be anything at the top of the waterfall, and there doesn't seem to be any way to get up there.

You're not supposed to get up there without a powerup. You are given a leaf in the first half. The fact someone else also had trouble finding it seems to indicate it's too obscure, so I'll have to put some kind of indicator there. I want it to be more subtle than coins though.


S1eth wrote:
In the secret area, if you fly to the left using your tanooki suit, you'll see the top of the waterfall graphics, or where they cut off and come out from nothing.
I didn't expect anyone to be able to get up that far, but I guess they can, so I'll fix that.
S1eth wrote:
I origingally thought the slide was there so you should use it to jump all the way to the left, but that just leads to your death.

That is what you do. You slide from the top and the momentum throws you off at the bottom. Actually jumping would kill you because it kills your momentum. What were you doing?

I got to the other part by using the tanooki glide starting from up where the NPC stands.
I didn't make it from sliding alone, are you supposed to slide, and then glide all the way once you're in the air?
Image
Post Reply