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Chocolate Island 6 - 1st

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Ashan
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 9th and 8th

Post by Ashan »

I don't think you give yourself enough credit for block throwing. It's just a pretty hard thing to do in SMW. And considering you got pretty consistent at pulling it off in the second half of this level, I think you're probably about as good as you should be for your skill level, which I think is pretty advanced.

Or who knows, maybe I'm just bad at it too.
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CrappyBlueLuigi
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 9th and 8th

Post by CrappyBlueLuigi »

the actraiser music in 8th is surprisingly stressful at high tempo ._.
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Zummorr
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 9th and 8th

Post by Zummorr »

Regarding the question of a plant on a cloud drinking its own substrate. Because our plants are denser than our clouds that won't happen. If a plant had the magic fuel source enabling settlment on a cloud, it'd probably use it a food/water source unless the surface was already a sorcerous shrubbry hellscape in which eeking out an existence on dense air was advantageous. Back to reality, the closest corollary of this scenario is lilypads or marsh plants.

Transpiration is the process of water being carried from the roots and out of small pores on the undersides of leaves called stomata. Evaporation is direct vaporization of liquid into the air. Transpiration is necessary for plant photosynthesis because the plant requires the atmospheric CO2. Gas exchange to obtain CO2 causes water loss.
Water loss will occur regardless of presence of plants or not, but because plants provide shade/stomata control/other potential factors transpiration might not be that much higher than evaporation.

To answer if a plant can drink up it's own water supply we would have to ask if transpiration is greater than evaporation.
luckily some duder in the 1910s tested this.

Charles Hebert Otis did a study on this using barrels and a potometer in table IV he compares day and night water loss of pots containing the plants versus controls.
In all cases except for the lily pad, water loss was greater in the pots that had plants in them than ones that did not. In other words, transpiration was greater than the rate of evaporation in most cases. Still there was alot of variation in how much transpiration occurred in some plants versus controls; cat-tails lost almost twice water compared to the controls where as square rush was only ~10% more than the controls.

In summary plants can increase or decrease water loss of their substrate but it depends alot on the type of plant. At the same time, environments are complicated, more so than a 2 week study like can show.

Source: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/p ... 086/331451

(Regarding the drowning of cacti I think that's more of an issue of water pooling in the roots leaving it vulnerable to fungal rot.)
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Awoo
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 9st and 8rd

Post by Awoo »

Would the plant cloud thing be similar to Aeroponics? It seems like a viable method but it's not like the plant is solely supported by a cloud, though from what I understand it's kind of like using a cloud?

Also, wow, that level was pretty intense! Another case of puzzle level with a timer. Might not have been as bad if it weren't for raocow running out of lives so having to savestate after the midpoint. Still, might just be better to not have one in a level like this?
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 9st and 8rd

Post by Zummorr »

Awoo wrote: 5 years ago Would the plant cloud thing be similar to Aeroponics? It seems like a viable method but it's not like the plant is solely supported by a cloud, though from what I understand it's kind of like using a cloud?
I dunno. Aeroponics suspends the plant, but usually keeps the roots in the dark and continually sprayed with liquid? Transpiration occurs normally? iirc roots don't develop if exposed to sunlight? It only works if the environment is enclosed. I'd speculate about high water atmospheres but I haven't read up on tropical climates, or plants.

Aeroponics!
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 9th and 8th

Post by Sebby19 »

Mini Mario can also run up vertical walls, but only in NSMB.U
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Nimono
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 9th and 8th

Post by Nimono »

DAY 11: 7th / 6th
------------------------------------

7th - lolyoshi - A GRINDR EXPERIENCE

Nimono:
Design- 30/40
Comment: This level was really, really hectic, but really, really fun! Nothing felt unfair or anything! I loved it! Although, I must admit that towards the end, your creativity...
faltered, and the setups just became the same thing.

----------------

Creativity- 23/30
Comment: I love the way you've utilized all the rotating/crawling sprites to create a fun level, but towards the end, you stopped using them creatively and just kept repeating
the same setups. It was fun, but overall felt like you used up its potential quickly.

----------------

Aesthetics- 13/30
Comment: Basic vanilla look + HDMA. It's cool HMDA, but...it's still vanilla SMW. Though the music's cool! Quite loud, though... VERY loud.

----------------

Overall: 66/100
Torchkas:
Design:
This level introduces a mechanic in a very nice way and knows how to combine it with other things in a myriad of ways in order to provide something that increases in difficulty over time and keeps things interesting. I especially like, regarding the difficulty curve, how after the midway point you introduce something new, but actually lower the difficulty a bit compared to how it was before. That's well thought out. I had some gripes with inevitable hits when sprites didn't spawn at different timing than they otherwise would. This level gives me a feeling of fair difficulty though, which is hard to achieve.
37
Creativity:
The way this level mixes ideas and uses a fairly small number of patches is creatively done. It keeps things concise by not overloading the player with too much stuff. However, it's not super impressive for that reason. The theming doesn't have any progression either.
18
Aesthetics:
This level does look nice. Although it's mostly, if not all SMW graphics. It knows how to use a good background with a good foreground tileset. The palette of the foreground seems unchanged, but I really liked the background.
22
Total:
77/100
Wakana:
Design: 33/40

A nice level to go trough. Another level that, if rushed, is going to
be painful, while it's actually legit possible and enjoyable if you
take your time. Difficulty was well handled trough the whole level,
the obstacles kept getting more and more complex to avoid as you kept
going. For a linear level like this, it does its job well. The only
bad aspect I'm addressing personally, is that there are no secondary
paths of some sort, and the whole level coinsists of only one path going
right.
Again, a linear design overall. I wish some non-linearity parts were added,
but it's a good one anyways.

Creativity: 20/30

Good use of the grinders + line guided fuzzy. As I said already, I really
liked how its applications gradually get more complex and harder to get
trough. My favourite part is probably the one of the last screen. Firebars
also did their job, I liked when you combine them with the wall springboards,
making it so that if aren't quick enough to jump, you get hit.
That's it though. The level doesn't offer more than grinders, firebars
and fuzzies. It's creative enough for what it had.

Aesthetics: 13/30

God the music... it just ruined everything here. It's unfitting not only
for the style (since you go full vanilla), but also for the level's
purpose: I would've use something that sounded more athletic-ish.
Not to mention that the music itself is awfully loud ingame.
Speaking of sounds, the sfx of your level sound broken on 90% of the time.
Cause are the grinders: I pointed somewhere that many sprites in the section
recall address $1DFA, which is disliked by AMK: if you load anything on that
address, it'll cause sfx to fuck up badly.
So yeah, let's say that the audio part of your level kinda ruined my own
experience with it.
The graphics themselves are fine: went full vanilla with an hdma gradient,
which is a nice touch. It was overall a little bit empty, but it works for
the minimalist style you went with.

OVERALL: 66/100
Noivern:
Design - 33
Creativity - 19
Aesthetics - 20
Total - 72
Comments - At first the grinder sounds were drowning out all the other sounds, but then they still drowned out all the sounds and I just accepted it. The music is also to blame for being too loud. Having all these typical castle-themed obstacles in an athletic themed level is offputting, and the firebars seemed out of place entirely. I'm disappointed that you used line-guided fuzzies instead of line-guided grinders. Regardless, the level design is great and the difficulty ramps up quickly enough. The vanilla graphics work and the HDMA is good.
----------

6th - G.D. - Tree Cut Mountains

Nimono:
Design- 30/40
Comment: Very, very fun level, though the orange Venus Fire Traps are a little tough to deal with at times. Secret route's sudden difficulty spike was quite interesting. Somehow,
I managed to see it coming. I hope everyone else could, too!

----------------

Creativity- 30/30
Comment: At first it was a fun level with lots of types of fire-spitting piranha plants. THEN YOU INTRODUCED A NEW POWERUP. I love the usage of Mini Mario here!

----------------

Aesthetics- 27/30
Comment: I enjoyed the Crash Bandicoot music! The graphics looked quite neat, too, especially for Mini Mario. Definitely felt like a hilly jungle of some kind. Nicely done!

----------------

Overall: 87/100
Torchkas:
Design:
The design of this level is good. It manages to make a fun experience with mostly SMW enemies, and a few custom enemies to add a bit more variety. I like the way in which you themed the level around piranha plants. You managed to add the moving pipes without making them obnoxious as well. All in all, you combined enemies and level layout in a manner that was fun. The section before the secret exit made very good use of the lakitu. It managed to keep it engaging without a lot of waiting time and you knew when to take it away in the more cramped sections. In some ways I feel like some of the additions are a bit unfocused or cluttered. Like the cramped piranha plant sections, they feel worse in design than some other parts.
30
Creativity:
The theme of piranha plants meshes well with the forest theme. You made good use of the resources you had, not oversaturating the level with too much custom stuff. Keeping it concise and using the things you used in a creative way to make a fun experience. I really liked the secret mini mushroom, especially because it adds another challenge to finding the secret exit. All in all, a very creative level.
23
Aesthetics:
The level looks good. The background is very well done, and the transition to the underground section feels like a big change of theme which is well done. The music in the underground sections feels kind of unfitting, but for the rest of the level it's fine. The background looks a little out of place in the outside areas, but the rest of the graphics mesh well together.
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Total:
71/100
Wakana:
Design: 21/40

This kind of design is getting pretty popular lately isn't it? I
sadly don't enjoy it much: the way of designing here is "extend
level as much as you can and add small variations of obstacles you
already used until you get to screen 1F". This level is basically
piranha plants and growing pipes, with the exception of the
secret exit path, where there's a lakitu part; glad you made things
a bit different there, although, the level layout keeps repeating
over and over. A good level, but not too much.

Creativity: 15/30

Good use of the piranha plants under the bridges; I wish you could've
done more with the tiny mushroom powerup, since right now it's only
used as something that allows you to proceed for the secret exit path.
Rest is pretty much a standard use of the sprites.

Aesthetics: 26/30

Graphics here worked pretty good I must say! The only things that are
a bit off imo are the music choices (which somehow are kind of... unfitting?),
and the bg used for the cave sublevel, which doesn't fit at all
with the fg used. Good use of decorations, overall, it's a pleasant
level to go trough.

OVERALL: 62/100
Noivern:
Design - 18
Creativity - 15
Aesthetics - 26
Total - 59
Comments - There are a lot of small nitpicks I have with this level, like how the mini mushroom is underutilized or how you need to take a shell between sublevels to grab it (this is one of my personal pet peeves). I have some larger nitpicks to, like how the main level drags on a little too long or how the secret exit lakitu sublevel even exists at all (0x12 screens!). The music and graphics work well to support the jungle mountain theme. I especially like that the bonus theme is a remix of the level theme (yes, I know they're both ports). It really helps the aesthetic.
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i think in the end, i was the judge that was the easiest to please
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Kilgamayan
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 7th and 6th

Post by Kilgamayan »

What was the Grinder Experience music from? It sounded vaguely MegaMan Battle Network-ish.
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ft029
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 7th and 6th

Post by ft029 »

The music in GRINDR EXPERIENCE is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQj8wOfQtA8

I still like the idea of using a very small piece of ASM to create a good level.
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Kilgamayan
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 5th and 4th

Post by Kilgamayan »

How on earth do you people find these games ?_?
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FrozenQuills
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 5th and 4th

Post by FrozenQuills »

I MADE AN ASM is my personal favorite of the contest; I love how clever it is using minimal chocolate.
I have a feeling most will like it more than the top 3.
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5th place counter: 5
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FourteenthOrder
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 5th and 4th

Post by FourteenthOrder »

I MADE AN ASM was just, like, fantastic, it looked like. Like wow that was super clever.
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 5th and 4th

Post by Nimono »

FrozenQuills wrote: 5 years ago I MADE AN ASM is my personal favorite of the contest; I love how clever it is using minimal chocolate.
I have a feeling most will like it more than the top 3.
i dunno, yours was pretty good, too :3

I'm not sure if the other judges found the crash in sunset vista, but I do know that I at least ended up ignoring it since I couldn't reproduce the conditions whatsoever, not even with the boomerang suit or spamming them like raocow and I both did when it crashed on us. It seemed completely random, completely unreproducible, so I decided, not worth penalizing or disqualifying for that.

DAY 12: 5th / 4th
------------------------------------

5th - allowiscous - Sunset Vista

Nimono:
Let me preface this by saying- for some reason, the level crashed on me at one point to the left of the midway. I could not reproduce it, I only know that I had the Boomerang Suit at the
time. You may want to look into this? I'm not going to dock points for it since I couldn't reproduce it.

Design- 30/40
Comment: I love the design of this level! Some parts at the end are REALLY tricky due to enemy placement, but overall it was really fun!

----------------

Creativity- 20/30
Comment: I enjoyed the use of the spikes and a new powerup, though it really didn't feel as creative as it could've been? Overall it feels like a vanilla level with a chocolate
element.

----------------

Aesthetics- 30/30
Comment: Great aesthetics here. Definitely felt like jungle ruins!

----------------

Overall: 80/100
Torchkas:
Design:
This level is well designed. The way you gradually increased the difficulty by introducing new mechanics and new approaches to the spikes was very well done. You taught the mechanic in a concise way. One of the things I disliked was how you put a pit after the springboard, making it intuitive to jump down there.
31
Creativity:
Although you used barely any custom sprites, you managed to mix what you got really well with the other tools you used. The manner in which you introduced new ways to tackle the mechanics you did use was very creative.
20
Aesthetics:
I think the vanilla graphics don't mesh that well with the background and foreground. The rest of the graphics were pretty stylish, though a bit too saturated for my taste which made some of it look like cardboard.
18
Total:
69/100
Wakana:
Design: 34/40

This level is pretty fun to go trough! You introduce the gimmick
nicely, and after the midway point you use it on its full potential.
On the latter, though, I'd have appreciated if you either went less
insane, or made the whole section smaller, since it costed me many
deaths to finally go trough it succesfully. I also appreciate the
slight non-linearity of it (that is, the sublevel where you use
ON/OFF blocks to get to the yoshi coin, or the part near the midway
point where you have to take the springboard, then go back a little
and use it where it's needed).
Overall it's well designed. As I said, the only minus is the excessive
insanity you use after the midway point. Again, I suggest you to
either make it smaller, or less difficult, or maybe, add more "safe" areas.

Creativity: 22/30

The shiny part of this level in creativity is pretty much the
part after the midway point, where you, using the frame hurt block,
create various patterns, making the whole thing fun to go trough and
even good to see visually. The rest is pretty much okay. A tiny
niptick I have is the use you make of the spike tops in some parts: you're
probably aware that they disappear if you vertically scroll enough to not
see them anymore; their use in some parts wasn't very good, especially
in those parts where the vertical scroll is required.

Aesthetics: 26/30

Eye candy! I love the palettes most of everything; colors are very
lively and good to see. The work with the graphics is also well made.
The music choice is a bit questionable, but it works decently. I'd have
used a more athletic-ish music for the inside part. Only small niptick,
I wish you made the hurt spikes more obvious to see, since right now
you have to get accustomed to how the blocks look like.

OVERALL: 82/100
Noivern:
Design - 31
Creativity - 26
Aesthetics - 27
Total - 84
Comments - Waiting mechanics tend to be not very fun, but this entry does a great job of mitigating that. I think the spike gimmick could have been introduced in a safer way (I took a hit before I realized the first spikes were even there) but they are used in increasingly creative ways as the level continues on. Towards the end the varying timings of the spike waves became too much for me and I can't get through the second half without taking a hit. Aesthetics wise, some of the sunset colors are too harsh, particularly the outline of the forest BG.
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4th - ft029 - i made an asm

Nimono:
Design- 37/40
Comment: I'd love to give you full marks, but unfortunately, it's not immediately obvious that you need to take a hit to really start the level, as most players are conditioned
to avoid taking damage as much as possible! Still, once you learn the gimmick, it's INCREDIBLY well-done. Great job!

----------------

Creativity- 30/30
Comment: At first I thought this level was a Kaizo level. YOU PROVED ME WRONG. This level was amazing! I loved how you used the powerups well. At first they were to tank hits.
Then you started using their abilities while under threat of a golden powerdown net. Then you combined tank hit, protect powerup, AND keep-away-from-yoshi for one of the
last puzzles. Even the ending is a puzzle! I love it!

----------------

Aesthetics- 10/30
Comment: While the design and creativity are top-notch, you haven't really done much aesthetically. It's basic SMW with the net recolored gold to take your powers away. It really
disappointed me! I REALLY loved how the level played! If you'd made the level much more detailed, I think you would've gained an AMAZING score here. I want to see you
try this! Go on, I know you can do it!

----------------

Overall: 77/100
Torchkas:
Design:
Where to begin. This level is one of the finest examples I've ever seen of combining SMW mechanics with ASM that stays true to the feeling of Super Mario World, but adds a bit on top. You start off by introducing the mechanic of forcing Mario to be small very graciously, without text. You then expand on this main mechanic by introducing new puzzle elements, while still keeping a bit of platforming challenge throughout. Then after the midway point, you contrast this expansion with more puzzle elements with an area that focuses more on enemy dodging than puzzling, after the first half of the second section, you go back to using reset doors with the layer 2 mechanic you introduced earlier, topping off the difficulty curve. I also really liked how the boss fight was a puzzle, making the level feel more like the journey was the challenge, instead of it being in the way of the boss fight. The level was very concise, short in a very good way. It was as long as it needed to be and I felt really fulfilled by completing it. My only gripe with the level is that in the first half of the level, you're supposed to R-scroll to solve the puzzle, which I feel like could have been conveyed a bit better. The start of the level gave me some difficulty as well, but this wasn't a design fault.
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Creativity:
In terms of ASM, the only thing I found were the blocks the blocks that turn you into small mario. The way that this was encompassed in the design though was very creatively done. The one ASM element you did use became the center point of the level. The level itself was pretty traditionally SMW themed. No custom music and very much in vein of traditional vanilla theming.
20
Aesthetics:
Now, I might stray a bit from the other judges here, but I think aesthetically this level was well made. Although it uses exclusively SMW graphics, I think the way that it aesthetically communicates what's going on on screen is well done. The way the design points you towards where you need to look, and the color choices that were made in the context of SMW were well chosen. Although it probably didn't take much effort on the aesthetics on ft's part, it manages to be pleasant by being simple. My gripes are that you could have used more decoration; there are no flames in the first half of the level, and that the graphics that you chose for the blocks that make Mario smaller don't look very good. You also forgot to change the noteblock sprite, which looks glitched out.
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Total:
74/100
Wakana:
Design: 36/40

A puzzle level which uses rather questionable ways to get past obstacles.
I must say that it was quite enjoyable. Having reset doors scattered
trough your level saved it from being awfully frustrating. Again,
I hate puzzles, but this was very fun to go trough.
(Side note: no idea why you added that "VERY IMPORTANT INFO" level
in your entry. It made me think I needed some sort of uncommon
glitch to beat the yoshi part of the level, or the "boss". Instead, the
solutions were rather simple.)

Creativity: 30/30

No words. The use you make of smw's elements, together with the only (?)
custom block used, is mindblowing. I personally have never seen such
smart and creative use of smw's resources, and I played lots of hacks.
Loved the "boss battle".
Again, the use of some tricks was questionable, mostly, the fact that
you have to use the invincibility frames to get past hazards. It may be
questionable, but... it's creative on its own realm.
Full vote is well deserved for the creativity. If this isn't creative,
then I dunno what creativity is.

Aesthetics: 20/30

Standard-ish vanilla castle tileset. Was okay; I'd have appreciated if
you were a bit more creative with decorations and the likes, since smw's
castles levels are rather empty, and so is yours.
You could've avoided the glitchy note block tile (remapping smw sprite
tiles is easy nowadays); you could've also used the bg candles flames
generator, since the bg is animated on where they're supposed to be, and
atm it feels off without them.

OVERALL: 86/100
Noivern:
Design - 36
Creativity - 29
Aesthetics - 15
Total - 80
Comments - Cool 1up room. Wait, you mean that's not the level? Alright, in the level proper I would have preferred if the ball and chains were removed from the first introductory section and a reset door added to the second. The idea of using forced hits to plow through a section isn't a particularly creative one, but the design combined with the powerdown blocks make it work. My favorite kind of puzzles are the ones that stump me for a while, then it dawns on me and I smack my head in realization; the setups with the cape were exactly that. Though the two halves of the level could be two separate levels, they were tied together through the powerdown blocks and the level never felt like it dragged on. The palette and music were vanilla, serviceable but not great.
----------------------

we're entering the homestretch :D
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 5st and 4nd

Post by Awoo »

FrozenQuills wrote: 5 years ago I MADE AN ASM is my personal favorite of the contest; I love how clever it is using minimal chocolate.
I have a feeling most will like it more than the top 3.
Reminds me of how was my favorite MaGL X level, and certainly the one I remembered the most. I don't even remember anything else about the top 5 other than the antacid pills in the 1st place?

This puzzle level is amazing! Reset doors, now, that's something that was missing from other entries. Please, more reset doors! :rao:
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 5th and 4th

Post by Piesonscreations »

FrozenQuill's level was a very good level, but a really poor motel.
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 3rd and 2nd

Post by Nimono »

DAY 13: 3rd / 2nd
------------------------------------

3rd - Blind Devil - Summer Hammer Time

Nimono:
Design- 35/40
Comment: I felt like there could've been a bit more exploration with this level, and hearts seem few and far between, but overall, what you have is still really fun. I love it!

----------------

Creativity- 20/30
Comment: Love the hunt for treasure, the idea behind the midway and goal, and how you have a hammer to attack with and get around with! I'm disappointed in the hammer, however. It really doesn't feel all that useful since it has a slow swing and low range, and you can't jump if you use it on the ground. Not much requires it! Still, tons of potential in it!

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Aesthetics- 30/30
Comment: Beautiful. I love your designs for the goal and midway points, and how lavishly animated they are. You definitely put a lot of work into all this!

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Overall: 85/100
Torchkas:
Design:
Although the level is very creative, I'm not completely sold on its design. It introduces the mechanics rather well, but the design around it doesn't feel very incorporative. The level is also just very unchallenging. You gave the player a lot of health, which makes mistakes a lot less punishing. The argument can be made that this is a 1-1 level, but I think that you should submit a level that's a bit harder in the future. The way you designed the landscaping was a bit unbalanced as well. It felt like there was no direction. There were no dedicated sections and instead everything was just kind of cluttered.
20
Creativity:
The one thing you did sell me on, is your creativity. Although your character design isn't completely unique, I don't think I've ever seen these kinds of mechanics in a SMW hack before. You show off good ASM skills and manage to make an intriguing mechanic with it as well.
28
Aesthetics:
The graphics department could have been a bit better, though I did like the music. The graphics could have used a bit more polish and the palettes are nothing to awe over either.
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Total:
65/100
Wakana:
Design: 28/40

Pleasant to go trough, the hammer gimmick is very fun to use trough
the level. It's pretty much a generic level for the rest, with a
secondary path and some hidden areas where you find diamonds. Nothing
more to say.

Creativity: 11/30

I was honestly expecting much more from the hammer gimmick. Right now,
it's only used to kill enemies and for boost platforms pretty much.
I feel like this was pretty much a "showoff-y" level: admire how asm
is nice and fancy, but there were poor applications of it trough the
whole level.

Aesthetics: 29/30

Graphics are perfect. Litterally everything fits well with the ambience,
graphics, music choices, sfx (even if some sounded out of place, like
the NES ones), and so on.
Nothing much more to say, except, maybe, the cave section could
use more decorations, and a better palette for its layer 3.

OVERALL: 68/100
Noivern:
Design - 37
Creativity - 28
Aesthetics - 28
Total - 93
Comments - Right from the start, this level looks gorgeous. I'm a sucker for animated backgrounds. The way you implemented Waluigi's hammer in this level is excellent, everything was intuitive. Just as I was about to complain that I could jump on anything, you used enemies I had to hammer, and I like that you used them more and more often as the level went on. The hammer animation itself is wonky, and I'm disappointed the muncher graphics weren't changed.
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2nd - FrozenQuills - MOTEL

Nimono:
Design- 33/40
Comment: Climb the tower, eh? It was quite enjoyable! I liked how each room was a fun little puzzle all on its own, where the solution isn't necessarily "RUSH RUSH RUSH". I liked the ending fall, too, where coins directed you to the height you'd want to be at. It's not ENTIRELY obvious, but it's clear enough that after your first death there, you'll get it!

----------------

Creativity- 28/30
Comment: I love your creativity here with trying to climb a tall motel! You've utilized pretty much nothing but line-guided platforms, grinders, ball-n-chains, and swinging platforms to create an interesting puzzle-y challenge! You even utilized a Retry system to make dying not so harsh, I appreciate that!

----------------

Aesthetics- 18/30
Comment: Basic SMW graphics, really. I quite like how you re-purposed pressed switches as lights, and didn't just go EXACTLY SMW. The music is quite soothing, though I'm not sure if it fully fits???

----------------

Overall: 78/100
Torchkas:
Design:
I like the way you switch between long and short rooms. The enemy choice and vertical layout make for an interesting challenge. Some jumps were a lot harder than others. The retry patch made the short rooms way easier than the long ones. On one hand I like the way you switch up the two variations, which means you feel progress after doing a long room followed by a short room. The downside is that the difficulty curve is a little hard to make out. It definitely starts out easier, but some rooms at the end are much easier than rooms that came before them. In general though, I think this level is very tightly knit, and well put together.
37
Creativity:
You make good use of a couple of patches and enemies that are hosted on SMWCentral. You did not appear to add any of you own stuff, but that's okay.
19
Aesthetic:
While using vanilla graphics, you make very good use of the tools it provides. The palette is very pleasing, and the tileset is well done as well. I would have preferred to see a bit more variance in the palettes and tilesets of individual rooms, since it appeared that they all used the same style. I really liked the music as well.
23
Total:
79/100
Wakana:
Design: 34/40

I must admit I kind of had a bad time here lol, but
I like this level design-wise! The job with the platforms
and the lineguided sprites is very well done. My small
complaint is the overall difficulty that goes trough the
whole level: the level itself is pretty long too, so maybe
if you made it a tiny bit smaller, it would've been
better imo. Atleast, you gave many lives, used
the retry system, and added reset doors when needed. It
made the overall level less frustrating to go trough.

Creativity: 28/30

As I said, the combination of lineguided sprites and the
pendulum hazards/platforms was nicely matched. I liked
how you made so many different sections yet using the same
sprites; a good amount of creativity was put into this.

Aesthetics: 26/30

Assuming all you did was messing with vanilla tiles
and doing minor edits on them... this turned out pretty
cool overall. It kind of feels like a wooden aquarium of
some sorts, lol.
Not really a fan of the music choice; maybe something more
athletic-ish would've fit much better.

OVERALL: 88/100
Noivern:
Design - 29
Creativity - 27
Aesthetics - 20
Total - 76
Comments - Motels tend to be flat, one-story affairs. This design is more reminiscent of a Holiday Inn. The retry window when Mario dies is a VERY useful anti-frustration feature, so much so that I started using it instead of savestates, but it resets the position of the layer 3 fish. The level itself stretches out a bit longer than I would have liked, but the excellent variety of sprites are used well throughout. Surprisingly, there is some slowdown in certain areas (the rope area at the end comes to mind). The aesthetics work well, but don't really wow me.
----------------------

waluigi is indeed underrated
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FourteenthOrder
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 3rd and 2nd

Post by FourteenthOrder »

Wow, I super loved the second place entry.
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Awoo
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 3st and 2th

Post by Awoo »

Piesonscreations wrote: 5 years ago FrozenQuill's level was a very good level, but a really poor motel.
I dounno, it's pretty cheap to stay there and there weren't any spoopy ghosts
also it's a really neat level and everything just sort of clicks :catplanet:
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FrozenQuills
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 3rd and 2nd

Post by FrozenQuills »

ye it's my level.
If I remember correctly I was inspired by Kerkec's entry in magl3 which is a fun hectic vertical platformer. Thus I made a level only out of vertical sections.

Meanwhile the theming was inspired by vldc9's Hotel level by Frost.

And finally the room raocow missed is really just a 1-up puzzle. I think Nimono got to it but there isn't any footage on youtube lol
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The boss entry that made me eat a shoe.

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Nimono
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 3rd and 2nd

Post by Nimono »

FrozenQuills wrote: 5 years ago ye it's my level.
If I remember correctly I was inspired by Kerkec's entry in magl3 which is a fun hectic vertical platformer. Thus I made a level only out of vertical sections.

Meanwhile the theming was inspired by vldc9's Hotel level by Frost.

And finally the room raocow missed is really just a 1-up puzzle. I think Nimono got to it but there isn't any footage on youtube lol
I didn't upload the streams to youtube, unfortunately ;w; The VODs are long gone, too, since Twitch deletes them after some time.
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Ditocoaf
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 3rd and 2nd

Post by Ditocoaf »

Mario Tries to Find the Ice Machine
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Kilgamayan
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 3rd and 2nd

Post by Kilgamayan »

Quality music choice for Hotel. It does a great job of keeping the player calm where a faster-paced track might fool the player into a panic, thinking they need to hurry through the descending rope part.
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Zummorr
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 3rd and 2nd

Post by Zummorr »

Waluigi is on the same level as bacon egh? Makes sense, he's a thin cut of cheap meat that is simply too unhealthy to justify serving on his own. Yet despite his greasy and choleric habits some people seem to really like him.
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Reverning
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 3rd and 2nd

Post by Reverning »

Zummorr wrote: 5 years ago Waluigi is on the same level as bacon egh? Makes sense, he's a thin cut of cheap meat that is simply too unhealthy to justify serving on his own. Yet despite his greasy and choleric habits some people seem to really like him.
My favorite description of him to date is "he just looks like someone who'd be smelly".
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Awoo
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Re: Chocolate Island 6 - 3th and 2st

Post by Awoo »

ワンワン
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