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Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comments

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Frozelar
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by Frozelar »

Well, I made a switch palace half. Just go to Parrot's thing and there's a pipe there.

here it is

So uh, yep. Starts out mid-game difficulty-ish and ends pretty hard.

Thanks.

EDIT: an updated link after spitznagl's feedback
EDIT 2: another updated link after limepie's feedback
Last edited by Frozelar 11 years ago, edited 2 times in total.
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spitznagl
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by spitznagl »

frostyfish88: I found the visual effect and level design pretty neat. Concerning the difficulty, the abundance of power-ups towards the end is good considering what you have to deal with, but the slipperiness kept me from playing that part without rewinding.
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Frozelar
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by Frozelar »

Oh, thank you! Alright yeah, I removed the slipperiness... also fixed some minor cutoff that I noticed.

EDIT: here's the updated link
limepie20
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by limepie20 »

frostyfish:
I liked the level. The concept was fun and fresh. I felt like the two giant phantos were a bit too frustrating though. Could you maybe make it two small phantos or just one giant phanto?
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by Septentrion Pleiades »

shdwdrgnix wrote:
I don't like easy. I needs more content, but you don't have to make it remotely dangerous if you don't want to.
Its the secret exit for hard, but I can add another goal on 12B for the hard secret exit, but then easy will have a normal exit, and I would rather have the normal exit not progress forward on the map in that case.
You're over thinking it. Easy has nothing, you could at least make it look like a playground version of the level.
Please use map 16 to make the pipe area better.

Do you mean the floor here?
I mean the pipe selection. Instead of koopas or coins, use blocks to signify the difficulty. Then you can have the pipe not cutoff into blackness
Lunitic start off quite slow. I do think there might be more options than the giant sparkies. I haven't finish the level, but I think you should look into having a giant phanto.
Is it not hard enough? I could barely beat it. Giant phanto would make it much harder.
I was talking about two different parts. It takes a while for the level to get more difficult. The phanto idea was for your request for level idea for the second half.
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Frozelar
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by Frozelar »

Thank you limepie! I was debating that when I was developing it. Changed to 2 small phantos. Oh also, small phantos use the correct palette in Lunar Magic but not in-game (the big ones are fine though). updated link

Thanks again!
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shdwdrgnix
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by shdwdrgnix »

You're over thinking it. Easy has nothing, you could at least make it look like a playground version of the level.
That I can do.
I mean the pipe selection. Instead of koopas or coins, use blocks to signify the difficulty. Then you can have the pipe not cutoff into blackness
I can also do that
I was talking about two different parts. It takes a while for the level to get more difficult. The phanto idea was for your request for level idea for the second half.
In that case, then it is a great idea since I nuked the second half, therefore, I can build it again with the phanto in mind. I will also increase the difficulty a bit at the start.

Thanks for the feedback.
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by limepie20 »

frostyfish88 wrote:Oh also, small phantos use the correct palette in Lunar Magic but not in-game (the big ones are fine though)
Don't worry about that. I just looked into that, and that is a problem with the inserted sprite. I'll get systemkrash to fix it for the next baserom.
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by SyStemkraSh5642 »

The phanto's palette should be palette 8 now.
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swirlybomb
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by swirlybomb »

A2MT intro, version the third: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14760273/Talkha ... ntroV3.ips

Thanks to Diortem for coding the second area for me (and showing me how to patch things).
Also based on his suggestion, the fake goalpost uses the same surrounding level geometry as the starting screen of 'So Close, Yet So...' for thematic-like purposes (ie. it appears at both the beginning and the end of the game).
and stuff
anonymousbl00dlust wrote:All the obstacles in my level can be beaten on the players first attempt without any 'future predicting'.
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Awakenyourmind
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by Awakenyourmind »

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Here is an image of the section I'm currently working on for the final level. Just setup the palette a bit ago now I'm messing around with it, nothing is final or tested currently. It's going to be based off of raocows falling mega spike level, and the palette is based off another levels palette in ASMT.
Awakenyourmind
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by Awakenyourmind »

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Good thing I mentioned nothing is final as things have been changed already.
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spitznagl
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by spitznagl »

Science's lair version 1

The first area should be completed in theory, except for the music.
The second area is in progress.

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>Download<
>First level, first pipe<

Things I would like to get feedback on:

First area:
-Is the white section of the scrolling overlay too dense?

Second area:
-I would like to have some feedback on the "gameplay" 'cause it's kind of unusual.
-Was the big gear's square hit-box a problem to you?
-Is the second area's music fitting? I have weird musical taste, so it's hard for me to tell if I did well.

-Considering that the 2nd area should be 3 to 4 times longer, will the whole thing be too long for what the Sibling halls are supposed to be.
-Anything else really
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limepie20
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by limepie20 »

spitz:
Wow. What a level.
I don't really understand your question for the first level. I think you should get those slanted hurt blocks for the gears, yes. Also, you don't have to worry about the music. We will have a boss track that goes in every boss level.
So your level right now is probably too long. I think a good length would be if you cut the rainbow level in half or in a quarter, and keep the same length as the second sublevel right now. Think about it; this will go at the end of a level, which is already a full level, and this is just the boss section at the end of it. Pick out your favorite parts and use those.
I understand what you are trying to do with the gamplay of the second half of the level, and is quite interesting. The idea is definitely creative; some kind of gravity gimmick might be fun for this boss sublevel. I think the gimmick will need to be optimized a bit, though. You are probably used to the controls, but they are very very difficult to master. I can kinda do it with the key alright, but I still don't really understand the controls without the key. And this is the second half of the level, so one would always die a few times a the beginning learning the controls, but then they have to redo the rainbow section, and it would get frustrating.
Try making something similar but without using the water physics. I think that's really what makes the controls weird; they utilize the water physics. If you can come up with something more seamless, you could make something truly fun.
You could do something like making mario jump higher but at a slower speed. Maybe you could do double-jumping or something. Or you could do a VVVVVV type thing (which might be hard to code, but someone tried to make a vvvvvv level before; you could snag whatever code they had finished from them). I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Good luck!
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spitznagl
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by spitznagl »

Damn. That's harsh. :)

Where do I start? I understand the length problem, though, if I was to decide, I would prefer to get rid of the first half. It doesn't have anything to do with Science and it could be used somewhere else if a level needs to be lengthened or I could start a personal romhack and recycle it that way. I would have liked to know about the music. I spend a whole day figuring MML editing in-depth and composing the song. I'm not really complaining since it can also be used for something else, but more info in the op would have been nice.

If I was to keep the middle sublevel to retain a part of the pursuit idea and double/triple the last area, would that be a good length? The only other Sibling hall I have seen and played is Cup's and it is 21 screens long and fairly hard. My second half currently has barely 4 screens, although screen number is probably not a good indication alone. I would also say that my first half is way easier than Cup's level, but it doesn't matter if I remove it anyway. You have a point that it's a pain to replay it every time to get to the hard part. That's another reason why I want to get rid of it.

About improving the second area, I don't have the knowledge and time to learn how to modify the game physics. I can maybe succeed with the gear's hitbox, but that's already quite a lot time-wise. There is no reason not to use the propeller btw. One thing I could do would be to give the propeller at the beginning to make this clearer, move the two sections I have made higher, make an easier part at the beginning to give the player some time to learn the gimmick and space the gears in the zigzagy tunnel. That is something I could do and I think that the added practice space, plus respawning right there after dying should be sufficient to make this easy enough.

I have also made this test with goo (tile 403) instead of water.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4676540/smw/Sci ... 20test.ips

I like it less and it doesn't work with slanted ceilings, but you get more control and it works well with the horizontal tunnels. Maybe if whoever made the goo block could make one with half the effect? I would prefer to keep the water though and make the changes I just said if it's alright with you.

So, what do you think?
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limepie20
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by limepie20 »

So if you didn't make the asm for this level, who did? Maybe we can optimize it in some way; I don't know.
Also, I prefer the water over the goo at this point. If you just gave the fish right at the start, it may be better, but I'd like someone else to play it first to have a second opinion on the physics.
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spitznagl
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by spitznagl »

There's no ASM. Just a horizontal line of invisible water tiles on layer 2, which is set to no scrolling.

Another opinion could be good. I really respect your opinion, I think that you know what you are doing at this point and I agree with nearly all of what you said in your post, but difficulty is hard to gauge and I would indeed like to have another opinion on the physics.
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limepie20
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by limepie20 »

spitznagl wrote:There's no ASM. Just a horizontal line of invisible water tiles on layer 2, which is set to no scrolling.
Ohhhh, wow. That is really clever. That makes me like the gimmick a bit more because I thought it was just a weird asm thing. Maybe I will play the level again tomorrow with a fresh mind and see if it feels better.
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by raocow »

use the other half ot make another hall level!!!!!!
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by Cup »

Instead of going after an asm solution for the spikes, would it be easier to rotate them a few degrees, squaring up the pointy ends with the corner of the hitbox? They look like they'd be fairly easy to redraw with an angle in yychr, and it would more or less fix the issue.
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by spitznagl »

raocow: Have you played it or not? Either way is fine, but your post doesn't mean the same thing in both cases at all.

Cup: The gears are animated. One of the frames comes a lot closer to the corner.

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Maybe the solution would just be to design the level with more room where the square hitbox wouldn't really matter anymore. I still want to try what Diortem suggested though, if the level isn't completely rejected that is.
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raocow
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by raocow »

Nope, haven't played them, just going by the screenshots. They seem 'different' enough to accomodate two hall concepts is all.
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spitznagl
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by spitznagl »

raocow: Oh! I mistook your "ot" typo for an "or" instead of a "to".

Needless to say that I was confused and kinda depressed.

I'll think about your suggestion, although I can't put your background on layer 2 of the colourful level and I don't see how it could fit either Pily or Iris.
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shdwdrgnix
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by shdwdrgnix »

I've been rather busy with classes lately and was quite stressed. So I only managed to finish half of the last room, everything else mentioned is fixed. I am more free this week, so I will aim to finish my level as soon as possible. Mostly within the next 2-3 days or so.
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shdwdrgnix
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Re: Testing and Development: Deadline-one week after comment

Post by shdwdrgnix »

So umm, level is done, but to finish I need to know how to insert custom sprites. Can someone tell me or link me a good tutorial at the very least?

I kinda feel bad for double posting
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