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Level testing and discussion

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KobaBeach
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

Big Brawler wrote: 1 year ago Level 114 - Moving Above Great Lenghts
Inserted but I'll ask you to please try to keep your claim info in order in the spreadsheet?
For instance, I had no idea what difficulty to place your level in since your level ID is blank on there. It's currently next to the switch palace extravaganza.

I'm not upset but please be careful to not "cross the streams". I can handle it myself, but the less chances of an issue we have, the better. Someone claimed 6B for an Unreal song, and I'll have to change its ID in the level, and change it accordingly in the level when it gets submitted unless the author notices this first.

Again, I am not angry. I just worry.

Thank you again for your level.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

Everyone doing okay with their levels? It's been pretty quiet recently. I haven't worked on mine in a while sadly, blame the games I list on the What games are you playing? thread.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by SMCslevelengine »

I'm both making an extremely hard level (if the collab wants one) plus I want my Castlevania 3 Sypha speedrun world record back
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

SMCslevelengine wrote: 1 year ago I'm both making an extremely hard level (if the collab wants one)
I'm ambivalent, I don't feel like extremely hard levels are that important for the identity of a talkhaus collab but w/e. Maybe I'm just jaded by A2MT.

I should replay CV3 and see if I can finish CV1 again, keep getting stressed out by difficulty and rushing myself to beat the game asap. Not normal. Need to finish CotM though, and start the 64 duology (Carrie my sweet baby daughter) and Chronicles/X68k.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by Catabo »

Posting on the talkhaus thread to commit myself rather than just checking in on the discoteca. If we run out of unclaimed level slots, please give up the one i have on hold to someone who wants it. I do still have a plan for at least one more level but i gotta light a fire under myself somehow.

Do we have any sort of end-of-project deadline yet? I have "end of year" as the soft deadline for a few other projects i'm working on and even something as foggy as that has helped me to work on them. Don't feel pressured to set a deadline because i said so; it just might help.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

Catabo wrote: 1 year ago Do we have any sort of end-of-project deadline yet? I have "end of year" as the soft deadline for a few other projects i'm working on and even something as foggy as that has helped me to work on them. Don't feel pressured to set a deadline because i said so; it just might help.
I wanted there to be more levels uploaded before deciding the end of the project. I don't think we even have a seven castle set done yet. I'm willing to make a deadline if people think it'll help, but I don't want to finish it just yet. I will say I feel like any course in any course-making skill level can work for this project. It does not have to be like top of the line, high quality stuff.

Once we have a decent amount of castles and all Switch Palaces, I'll try to get a few people organized to help wrangle the overworld, I know Nao and Valentine wanted to help.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by raekuul »

KobaBeach wrote: 1 year ago
Catabo wrote: 1 year ago Do we have any sort of end-of-project deadline yet? I have "end of year" as the soft deadline for a few other projects i'm working on and even something as foggy as that has helped me to work on them. Don't feel pressured to set a deadline because i said so; it just might help.
I wanted there to be more levels uploaded before deciding the end of the project. I don't think we even have a seven castle set done yet. I'm willing to make a deadline if people think it'll help, but I don't want to finish it just yet. I will say I feel like any course in any course-making skill level can work for this project. It does not have to be like top of the line, high quality stuff.

Once we have a decent amount of castles and all Switch Palaces, I'll try to get a few people organized to help wrangle the overworld, I know Nao and Valentine wanted to help.
Might I suggest avoiding the trap that AZCT (by necessity) fell into? There's no rule saying we need to actually use every available level slot. If we don't have eight worlds' worth of levels, then we don't have eight worlds' worth of levels.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

raekuul wrote: 1 year ago Might I suggest avoiding the trap that AZCT (by necessity) fell into? There's no rule saying we need to actually use every available level slot. If we don't have eight worlds' worth of levels, then we don't have eight worlds' worth of levels.
True. I'm open to discussion of this over here if possible. If someone wants to discuss this on Discord lemme know and I'll mirror it here so it's public.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by SAJewers »

Yeah I feel like with how things are going right now we're never gonna hit 95 levels, though the current number of levels that have been inserted (36) is still probably a bit small. I think we really need to start pushing people to complete their levels (and figure what's going with the 10 levels claims with no current status).

I'd hate to see people lose interest because of nothing seemingly going on (I know myself I've been considering making another level, but with the current seeming silence I've ended up just procrastinating and putting it off)
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by PSI Ninja »

SAJewers wrote: 1 year ago Yeah I feel like with how things are going right now we're never gonna hit 95 levels, though the current number of levels that have been inserted (36) is still probably a bit small. I think we really need to start pushing people to complete their levels (and figure what's going with the 10 levels claims with no current status).
There are actually more levels inserted than the spreadsheet says. I updated it just now, and there should be 45 levels in the base ROM. Of course, the inserted levels have varying degrees of "doneness" (for example, Level 6 needs the fast retry), so we might need an extra column to help keep track of what stuff still needs to be taken care of.

It's been six months since the collab started, so I think it's time to ping/DM those who haven't shown any progress on their levels yet. They may have forgotten that they claimed a level slot. If everyone follows through with their claims, then we'll have ~70 levels in the final product, which I think is a good amount. For reference, ASMT has 79 levels. I agree that we don't need to fill every level slot (like A2MT). Also, we should ask if raocow wants to submit something for this hack, like he usually does. Kind of a longshot though, since it's been more than a decade since he worked with Lunar Magic.
KobaBeach wrote: 1 year ago I wanted there to be more levels uploaded before deciding the end of the project. I don't think we even have a seven castle set done yet. I'm willing to make a deadline if people think it'll help, but I don't want to finish it just yet. I will say I feel like any course in any course-making skill level can work for this project. It does not have to be like top of the line, high quality stuff.
I keep thinking how nice it would be for raocow to receive the download link to AAT as a Christmas or birthday present. A Christmas deadline would also coincide with Winter C3 on the Central, and there could be a release thread there too. It would be pretty tight to make that deadline, though. These are just a couple of suggested deadlines that have some kind of special meaning, but it's not my place to make these kinds of decisions.
As for me, I'm still working on my Blue Switch Palace level. I'll try to finish it up by next weekend, but it's hard to rush when you're trying to come up with meaningful puzzles. We really do need designers to scoop up the remaining three Switch Palaces. I believe I'm the only one who has ever claimed one.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

PSI Ninja wrote: 1 year ago It's been six months since the collab started, so I think it's time to ping/DM those who haven't shown any progress on their levels yet. They may have forgotten that they claimed a level slot. If everyone follows through with their claims, then we'll have ~70 levels in the final product, which I think is a good amount. For reference, ASMT has 79 levels. I agree that we don't need to fill every level slot (like A2MT). Also, we should ask if raocow wants to submit something for this hack, like he usually does. Kind of a longshot though, since it's been more than a decade since he worked with Lunar Magic.
Yeah, that's a good level amount. I'll try to ping a few people on the Discord and on Talkhaus. I don't have access to everyone sadly. I'll also try to work on mine on and off.
PSI Ninja wrote: 1 year ago
I keep thinking how nice it would be for raocow to receive the download link to AAT as a Christmas or birthday present. A Christmas deadline would also coincide with Winter C3 on the Central, and there could be a release thread there too. It would be pretty tight to make that deadline, though. These are just a couple of suggested deadlines that have some kind of special meaning, but it's not my place to make these kinds of decisions.
Christmas would be a bit too early I feel but birthday might be alright. Even if we miss C3 we could always make a thread in the Hack Release section.
PSI Ninja wrote: 1 year ago As for me, I'm still working on my Blue Switch Palace level. I'll try to finish it up by next weekend, but it's hard to rush when you're trying to come up with meaningful puzzles. We really do need designers to scoop up the remaining three Switch Palaces. I believe I'm the only one who has ever claimed one.
I could make a basic Switch Palace ala the VIPs or Raks or Hyper, but the last time I tried to design a hardcore puzzle stage on my own time didn't work. I did try to copy beyrevia's Maze Castle stages in VIP4, 5 and his unfinished hack, so, I was aiming towards a bar much higher than my current skill. I could also try to sneak in another basic level after Mythical Land Serpentina (my current one) if I manage to pry myself away from RPGs long enough.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by Big Brawler »

Level 10F - Sui Side, done. Inspired by "Voltic tower" and "Level 7-2" from Sui Luigi made by, well, "Sui"

Music Slot is 6D

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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by PSI Ninja »

This took way too long, but I finally finished the Blue Switch Palace: https://psininja.talkhaus.com/smw/AAT_2 ... el_121.zip

If anyone's still interested in testing, please check if anything is broken. For the inserter, there's a hex edit that needs to be made - see the Readme for details about that. Hopefully it doesn't break anything in other levels.

I'm starting to feel concerned that my levels are taking up too many sprite slots, which are customized/tweaked sprites that can't be used in other levels. We're starting to run low on free slots on the spreadsheet. If this is a problem, I may try to reorganize all of my customized sprites to be per-level sprites in the future (and I think the PIXI script will need to be modified, too).
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

PSI Ninja wrote: 1 year ago This took way too long, but I finally finished the Blue Switch Palace: https://psininja.talkhaus.com/smw/AAT_2 ... el_121.zip

If anyone's still interested in testing, please check if anything is broken. For the inserter, there's a hex edit that needs to be made - see the Readme for details about that. Hopefully it doesn't break anything in other levels.

I'm starting to feel concerned that my levels are taking up too many sprite slots, which are customized/tweaked sprites that can't be used in other levels. We're starting to run low on free slots on the spreadsheet. If this is a problem, I may try to reorganize all of my customized sprites to be per-level sprites in the future (and I think the PIXI script will need to be modified, too).
Oh I'm willing to remove some excess "built in" sprites because, man they were useless.

If we ever do anything like this again, I'm not doing that.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

New stage by Sam Deluxe, available for testing: "time to take a"

Bathroom level.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by Catabo »

I found a little graphical oddity while idly playing the available levels instead of testing my own. In Hot Glue Garbage, the tutorial sign says to press the A button (spin jump button), but in fact you have to press B (normal jump button) to jump off the wall and A doesn't do anything. Sorry if this is already known.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

Catabo wrote: 1 year ago I found a little graphical oddity while idly playing the available levels instead of testing my own. In Hot Glue Garbage, the tutorial sign says to press the A button (spin jump button), but in fact you have to press B (normal jump button) to jump off the wall and A doesn't do anything. Sorry if this is already known.
I didn't even notice that and that's legit one of my fave stages (not playing favorites tho). I think Bumpty's more on the discordt than on the forums, but I haven't seen them in a hot sec.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by PSI Ninja »

Life Goes On: https://psininja.talkhaus.com/smw/AAT_2 ... el_122.zip

Here's a two-exit level I've been working on for a while. This is the reason why I asked for Mandew's death warp code months ago. Note that I needed to add some lines to Lord Ruby's simpleHP.asm patch to make my gimmick work. I originally wanted to hijack $00F60A, but it conflicted with the Simple HP system. I doubt this will cause any problems, because it's conditional based on the sublevel number. See the Readme for insertion instructions.

I think I'm done with level-making for now, excepting some minor tweaks and fixes. If we're still short on levels when the deadline is announced, I may be able to pitch in and make a couple more.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by Lord Ruby »

PSI Ninja wrote: 1 year ago Life Goes On: https://psininja.talkhaus.com/smw/AAT_2 ... el_122.zip

Here's a two-exit level I've been working on for a while. This is the reason why I asked for Mandew's death warp code months ago. Note that I needed to add some lines to Lord Ruby's simpleHP.asm patch to make my gimmick work. I originally wanted to hijack $00F60A, but it conflicted with the Simple HP system. I doubt this will cause any problems, because it's conditional based on the sublevel number. See the Readme for insertion instructions.

I think I'm done with level-making for now, excepting some minor tweaks and fixes. If we're still short on levels when the deadline is announced, I may be able to pitch in and make a couple more.
I've looked at the changes, and I agree that it probably shouldn't cause any issues.

Not having to introduce level-specific conditional code to patches like this was actually why I made the custom death code pointer thing, but ... it's fine. We're very few coders here right now, so doing things this way won't make stuff get out of hand anyway.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by Nitrogen »

Apparently switch palace levels don't get enough love so I wanted to make another contribution with a red switch palace. This one is very short (60 SMW seconds) but quite intense and hard (one-hit is failure). Feel free to tell if some parts of the level need to be nerfed. You can access to the level directly to the right of the multicolor switch palace.

Please note that it was planned that getting hurt kills automatically the player by using JSL $00F606 but it increases the death counter indefitinely and doesn't make the player return to the overworld (not sure if the fact I'm using a old version of the baserom is for something) so I find a workaround (the player is constantly hurt if they lose their power-up and cannot progress through the level). However if someone with better ASM knowledge can fix this, feel free to modify the redswitch.asm file.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

Thank you everyone, I'll try to insert em soon. 4season (Jongseok) and Catabo also posted new stages on the Discord sometime ago, bps only!

A Dream of Green Apples by Catabo: Link
An Infinite Dream by 4season: Link

Truley, the world of dreams
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by PSI Ninja »

Lord Ruby wrote: 1 year ago Not having to introduce level-specific conditional code to patches like this was actually why I made the custom death code pointer thing, but ... it's fine. We're very few coders here right now, so doing things this way won't make stuff get out of hand anyway.
Ah, see, you thought ahead and made things extensible like a good coder. :P My hacky solution was due to a mixture of my ad hoc coding style and not carefully reading through all of your notes. I reverted my changes to the simpleHP.asm patch and updated my UberASM to point to my custom death code. So when inserting my level, just leave the simpleHP.asm code untouched, and use this version of DeathWarp.asm instead: https://psininja.talkhaus.com/smw/Death ... 221023.zip
Nitrogen wrote: 1 year ago Please note that it was planned that getting hurt kills automatically the player by using JSL $00F606 but it increases the death counter indefitinely and doesn't make the player return to the overworld (not sure if the fact I'm using a old version of the baserom is for something) so I find a workaround (the player is constantly hurt if they lose their power-up and cannot progress through the level). However if someone with better ASM knowledge can fix this, feel free to modify the redswitch.asm file.
I tried this in a newer version of the base ROM, and it worked for me:

Code: Select all

main:

LDA $71		;\ Check if Demo is in a "hurt" (flashing) state.
CMP #$01	;/
BNE .continue	;> If not, then go to the sprite-checking code.
JSL $00F606	;> Otherwise, instantly kill her.
RTL

.continue
    LDX.b #!sprite_slots-1
  - LDA !14C8,x
    BNE .ret
    DEX
    BPL -
    
    	LDA #$06				; \
	STA $71					; | Teleport the player via screen exit.
	STZ $88					; |
	STZ $89					; /
  .ret:
    RTL
I don't know what your first attempt looked like, but this will only make the death subroutine run once, since "hurt" (#$01) changes to "death" (#$09) after $00F606 is called.
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by Scarfley »

pREsent(ing) gifts Day

I had a lot of fun making this level! :)
It's pretty short but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

In the overworld in the final game this level should probably be placed

right before the red switch palace. Possibly using the red switch palace icon as well as a fakeout because of this level's whole joke.

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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

thank you darling, i'll try to insert any that need it soon!
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Re: Level testing and discussion

Post by KobaBeach »

ladies, gentlemen, enbies and glitches in the matrix i have fixed my serpentina port :)

i will be working on my sky stage again with a cave story tileset instead of the clunky sky sanctuary one, need to mix and match a bit first! thank heavens for the vram expansion in the last decade of lunar magics

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