Level Contest Japan

[Alice]

I actually liked it a lot as it had plenty of checkpoints and wasn't too demanding.

What do you mean it's not too demanding? Some of those jumps are pixel precise due to the way SMBX handles hitboxes and the fact that the level designer seems to have not erred on the side of caution/worked around SMBX's quirks when dealing with things.

[Crow]

i watched a minute of this garbage then skipped to the end.

[Emral]

I actually liked it a lot as it had plenty of checkpoints and wasn't too demanding.

What do you mean it's not too demanding? Some of those jumps are pixel precise due to the way SMBX handles hitboxes and the fact that the level designer seems to have not erred on the side of caution/worked around SMBX's quirks when dealing with things.

The spike hitboxes are triangles. They're custom-coded. I'm also surprised by how much trouble raocow had with it because I found this section to be the easiest.

[SAJewers]

So, is room B tonight or tomorrow?

I'm probably the odd person out, but I actually enjoyed room 3 (it's the only room of the four that I would say that about). However, it obviously has no business being in this contest.

Room B is terrible, and it's easily my least favourite of the 4. The other three felt satisfying to beat, if nothing else, but this room doesn't even have that going for it. Luck is more important than skill in room B, but it's also quite precise sometimes, which makes for an awful combination.

I have no problem with it being in the contest (just like the entry below from MAGL1), it's just that raocow probably shouldn't be trying to play it legit.

[Mata Hari]

Why was there only one judge anyways

[warpio]

jeez, raocow you are clearly letting your stubbornness control you here... like, just think about all the time you are spending on this unfun level and think of all the other levels/games you could be playing instead... is it REALLY worth it to you to not use cheats in times like this when you obviously aren't enjoying the level at all? I don't think anybody wants you to have a bad time for the sake of entertainment. You need to allow yourself to skip things sometimes imo...

[raocow]

gambler's fallacy, pretty much

being aware that it's a fallacy ain't stopping me!

[128-Up]

damn it rao you skipped my question from the other day

[Mata Hari]

gambler's fallacy, pretty much

being aware that it's a fallacy ain't stopping me!

I think you mean sunk cost fallacy

[Alice]

The spike hitboxes are triangles. They're custom-coded. I'm also surprised by how much trouble raocow had with it because I found this section to be the easiest.

That's actually surprising to learn but the hitboxes still clearly need some work if someone as good at platformers as raocow is having this much trouble with them. There were too many times where it didn't feel like he should've been hit at all. And also too many one tile landing spots when the spikes still hit you from the side considering that SMBX's momentum gets kinda crazy at times.

[raocow]

gambler's fallacy, pretty much

being aware that it's a fallacy ain't stopping me!

I think you mean sunk cost fallacy

yes

[AlchemistHohenheim]

raocow went into this level with 298 deaths, and is now at 3098 3/4 of the way through. His death count has multiplied by 10. Jesus. At least the checkpoints for section 3 reduced the agony a bit.

I was digging through the level folder earlier and found a little comment in a file called __ForPlayers.lua
Here it is:

Code: Select all

--[[
	I suspect that somehow some players won't be
	able to clear this level that of which I am quite
	consistent at.  This level was designed for normal-
	skilled players with a non-grindy difficulty; but if
	this level presents too high of a difficulty, they
	can personally modify this.
	You can use cheat 'donthurtme' for the godmode,
	which is supported in the LunaLUA code.
]]

And yeah, screw this level author. They're both being insultingly condescending and bragging about how they, the level creator who knows exactly what is expected every single step of the way, are "quite consistent" at their own level as if that has any merit whatsoever.

[Ivy]

gambler's fallacy, pretty much

being aware that it's a fallacy ain't stopping me!

I think you mean sunk cost fallacy

also known more concisely as "being stubborn", i too suffer from this.

[Classtoise]

^^^ Nah Sunk Cost is beyond stubbornness. Stubbornness is "I don't want to because I think I can get through this". Sunk cost is "I can't see any end in sight, but I'm gonna keep doing it because I got this far". You can be discouraged out of stubbornness, but sunk cost fallacy is harder to "convince" yourself.

raocow went into this level with 298 deaths, and is now at 3098 3/4 of the way through. His death count has multiplied by 10. Jesus. At least the checkpoints for section 3 reduced the agony a bit.

I was digging through the level folder earlier and found a little comment in a file called __ForPlayers.lua
Here it is:

Code: Select all

--[[
	I suspect that somehow some players won't be
	able to clear this level that of which I am quite
	consistent at.  This level was designed for normal-
	skilled players with a non-grindy difficulty; but if
	this level presents too high of a difficulty, they
	can personally modify this.
	You can use cheat 'donthurtme' for the godmode,
	which is supported in the LunaLUA code.
]]

And yeah, screw this level author. They're both being insultingly condescending and bragging about how they, the level creator who knows exactly what is expected every single step of the way, are "quite consistent" at their own level as if that has any merit whatsoever.

Honestly yeah dude sounds like kind of a piece of shit.

"Oh, I had no problem beating it, but I am merely an averagely skilled player. I guess BAD players MIGHT struggle a FEW times, if they aren't any good"

Yeah up yours, bro, IWBTG is funny once or twice but not 4 times.

[Mineyl]

Anyway, if this level didn't have instant respawns raocow would have spent just over 3 hours watching Mario's death animation over the course of this level.

I'm just going to immortalize this quote right here. This is truly something every game designer should think about, and indeed, I am very happy and relieved that this level's author thought to make the iteration times basically non-existent.

[Ivy]

Anyway, if this level didn't have instant respawns raocow would have spent just over 3 hours watching Mario's death animation over the course of this level.

That's 4 seconds per death animation right? Absolutely nuts.

[Sebby19]

Okay, now I see the IWBTG comparison.

There should have been a separate death counter for this level alone.

[Mea]

This room and the other 2 rooms should have at least been separate levels. The other two rooms were tied by the common motif of goomba usage, they were thematically connected. What's with this room? Where did the goombas go?
And again, way too verbose. Just one of these screens told the whole story (spikes and precision jumps), it didn't need a dozen more screens with the same content if they weren't going to add any more creative dialogue on the idea.
I love single screen stages, and with the instant transition cuts between them were great. I wish it was used more creatively though.

[Lockirby2]

I have no problem with it being in the contest (just like the entry below from MAGL1), it's just that raocow probably shouldn't be trying to play it legit.

My phrasing was really poor there... I don't think it should be removed from the contest for being too hard, or even that the author should have made the decision not to submit it. I mostly just meant that I agree with scoring the level low because the contest is intended for a general audience, and this level is clearly not. If the author submitted the level with the intent of getting a high score, they made a poor decision. I would make a similar comment if a medium difficulty level was submitted to a Kaizo contest.

[Emral]

Was its placement mentioned here yet? Idk so I'll say it anyway:
It placed 52nd out of 56. The levels below are:
Bad Ideas
Veggie Pile

Not yet played levels:

Sidekick Struggles

I lost my keys, help!

[kitikami]

I might have to revise my position on Veggie Pile providing the best episode name after episode 22.

It's always a little tragic to see these massive levels which obviously have a ton of effort put into them wasted on a contest/collab where they just don't fit at all. Something like [minimal][maximal] could work really well in the context of its own game where the player chooses to seek out an entire experience like that, is primed on what to expect, and has every opportunity to learn and familiarize themselves with the design, controls, etc. But in the wrong context, it presents itself in the worst possible light and in the worst case can drag the whole project down a notch.

As other people have said, this is really more of its own self-contained game than a level, so all the effort that went into ends up being really misplaced in a level collective.

I was hoping that this contest allowing multiple entries would keep this kind of thing from happening since it seems like one common problem is people trying to force too much into one level to make the impact of their one level bigger, but this might actually be the worst example from any contest raocow has played yet.

That said, I've found these videos mostly enjoyable, other than the fact that every time there's a cut and another dozen deaths show up on the counter, I really feel for raocow thinking of how much time he has to spend to produce such a small amount of usable content.

[Mata Hari]

It never impresses me when people inject characters from other media into their SMBX levels, even when it's not ponies or Touhous or whatever

[BobisOnlyBob]

I just need to repeat my youtube comment here because wow

"a" needs to be prohibited from making levels until they've sat down and thought long and hard about what they've done, maybe for a week or six.

also apparently this is jonesy in case anyone cares. I no longer do.

[128-Up]

So... that boss.
That was definitely your run-of-the-mill bad fangame boss. The random(360) is real.
I'm genuinely surprised the author bothered to give you HP for it, though. At least it's something?

Between the boss style and the clear screen though, I'm actually kinda worried that I know who "(a)" is.

The clear screen and music are exactly the same as those used by Rukito, one of my favourite fangame makers. He has an area in Kamilia 3, so you've probably heard of him that way.

At least it's over now, time to work on my remake of it.

[Mata Hari]

Yes I was surprised it wasn't a Steven Universe OC or apparently nothing to do with the makers of SU

Like does Tumblr have a factory to produce artists with that style