Alright so, I'm trying something a little different.

[Sun]

I've decided that I'm going to design my next hack at a MUCH slower pace than the previous two, as a result of this decision, I have made a level concept and I would like to have everyone here to play-test it to see if they like it.

The hack itself really has no name and it's only one level as I didn't want to keep designing levels if the first level wasn't a hit, but I suppose you could call it "A Hack Thing".

http://www.sendspace.com/file/k8y00y (UPDATED AS OF APRIL 1ST... NO REALLY, THIS ISN'T AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE)

I don't have any screenshots at the moment as this is just the concept phase and nothing is really final at the moment.

Also, can anyone tell me what the problem is with this little fella?

[limepie20]

So I just played it, and I'm sorry to say it wasn't too good.
Now that's not bad because you're new to romhacking (you are aren't, you? I thought the level was indicative of that). Basically, it was just a really generic level. You got koopas and goombas on a flat land. Try some different enemy combinations and try putting them in creative locations so that if you dodge an enemy in one way, you may be countered by a different enemy.
I think the first thing you should do is get away from linear paths with enemies walking in a straight line after each other. Have some different shaped land with alternate paths (not completely alternate, just like a ledge a few tiles above you can walk on, too) and varying enemy types that compliment each other. I don't know; I hope that helps.

edit:
that error is because your sprite list needs to be a text file. If a phanto is sprite 80, have the text file say,

Code: Select all

80 phanto.cfg
92 example.cfg (if you needed some other one)

Then tell spritetool to read from that file.

[Moosh]

I feel like I probably broke something while getting that first P Switch...I grabbed the 1-up mushroom to turn the fishin' lakitu into a regular lakitu and then spin grabbed the p-switch and rode his spinies across the muncher pit...

My only major complaints (I tend to nitpick which I don't think would be productive here) other than that one section I think I broke would be the section at the very beginning with the invisible note blocks which just felt pretty pointless and how this seems rather difficult for the early game. If this is going to be a difficult hack and you plan to ramp things up from here I guess I'm cool with the difficulty.

[Sun]

So I just played it, and I'm sorry to say it wasn't too good.
Now that's not bad because you're new to romhacking (you are aren't, you? I thought the level was indicative of that). Basically, it was just a really generic level. You got koopas and goombas on a flat land. Try some different enemy combinations and try putting them in creative locations so that if you dodge an enemy in one way, you may be countered by a different enemy.
I think the first thing you should do is get away from linear paths with enemies walking in a straight line after each other. Have some different shaped land with alternate paths (not completely alternate, just like a ledge a few tiles above you can walk on, too) and varying enemy types that compliment each other. I don't know; I hope that helps.

edit:
that error is because your sprite list needs to be a text file. If a phanto is sprite 80, have the text file say,

Code: Select all

80 phanto.cfg
92 example.cfg (if you needed some other one)

Then tell spritetool to read from that file.

Yes, I am new to romhacking.

I'll play around with it when I get back home, make better use of land tiles, find a way to put ledges without screwing everything up.

I feel like I probably broke something while getting that first P Switch...I grabbed the 1-up mushroom to turn the fishin' lakitu into a regular lakitu and then spin grabbed the p-switch and rode his spinies across the muncher pit...

My only major complaints (I tend to nitpick which I don't think would be productive here) other than that one section I think I broke would be the section at the very beginning with the invisible note blocks which just felt pretty pointless and how this seems rather difficult for the early game. If this is going to be a difficult hack and you plan to ramp things up from here I guess I'm cool with the difficulty.

Well, you didn't break anything, there are multiple ways to get across that muncher pit, I threw in a cape somewhere if you couldn't spiny jump.

Yeah, I'm going to rework that, put something in the background with ledges on it, rework some enemy locations.

[Ashan]

It definitely needs work.
It was pretty much a bunch of random ideas thrown together in no order from what I could tell, and the difficulty went all over. There were also a lot of inconsistency with the blind jumps. Sometimes you could just jump, and in this case you're just supposed to know that there's munchers hidden off screen:

Super Mario World_00001.png

That section was also really confusing/unfair because I initially thought that you were suppose to use the P-switch there and hop across the arrows to get across, but once I got to the other end and went through the pipe, I needed the switch to get through a wall.
Turns out you're supposed to keep the flower and kill the Lakitu with it so you can use his cloud to get across.
That's not a very good mechanic, because what if you lost your flower (like I did)? It means you're forced to kill yourself and start over, or use rewinds.

There were also several parts where you just get yourself stuck if you screwed something up, such as the P-switch runs. If you don't make it through the coin wall in time, they'll turn back to bricks and you're forced to kill yourself.

edit: Also, this is a personal gripe of mine, but why the Forest Maze music? Not only is it extremely overused in SMW hacks, but it really doesn't fit too well in an overworld level. It's made for... Well, a forest.

[Sun]

It definitely needs work.
It was pretty much a bunch of random ideas thrown together in no order from what I could tell, and the difficulty went all over. There were also a lot of inconsistency with the blind jumps. Sometimes you could just jump, and in this case you're just supposed to know that there's munchers hidden off screen:

Super Mario World_00001.png

That section was also really confusing/unfair because I initially thought that you were suppose to use the P-switch there and hop across the arrows to get across, but once I got to the other end and went through the pipe, I needed the switch to get through a wall.
Turns out you're supposed to keep the flower and kill the Lakitu with it so you can use his cloud to get across.
That's not a very good mechanic, because what if you lost your flower (like I did)? It means you're forced to kill yourself and start over, or use rewinds.

There were also several parts where you just get yourself stuck if you screwed something up, such as the P-switch runs. If you don't make it through the coin wall in time, they'll turn back to bricks and you're forced to kill yourself.

edit: Also, this is a personal gripe of mine, but why the Forest Maze music? Not only is it extremely overused in SMW hacks, but it really doesn't fit too well in an overworld level. It's made for... Well, a forest.

Yeah, I need to get over that bad habit and putting random puzzles everywhere, something to keep the level kind of fresh, although I can tell now that it's not working.

Whoops, I should probably move those Munchers, that I will fix in the next patch.

I have another bad habit of constantly rewinding each time I screw up, something that I'll probably never be able to fix, but what I can fix is that puzzle(if you can call it that) and in fact in the newest patch (which was made before I could read this comment), I have put a message box before there to let you know of the two ways you can go through the area as intended, this is just the first level, of course and as with most first levels, it might take a few tries.

Well, mostly the Forest Maze music is there because... well... I don't have a whole lot of SPCs quite yet, so I just picked whatever seemed to fit for a prototype level, in total I probably have only 7 or 8 SPC music files at the moment, I'm working on finding more that sound good.


Speaking of patches, here is the newest one, I changed a few enemies, it's not entirely Goombas and Koopas now, the landscapes aren't as dull looking(depending on your opinion of "dull-looking) and there are some ledges instead of note blocks now, discover the rest of the changes in the patch.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/hdo0w6

Edit, Oh and I can't seem to get Blocktool to work, everytime I try to create a block and put it in the ROM, it tells me to save a level in Lunar Magic, which I did prior to creating the block. I even tried saving the level first and then creating the block but it still won't let go in. Can anyone help me out with this predicament?

If you're asking "Why isn't he using Blockreator?", well it's because I don't have that particular .NET Framework to run it and without internet, I can't find a standalone installer that doesn't require internet, so it takes weekly library visits to find the proper tools.

[Sun]

Alright, so I've made a few more changes here and there, in the advent of you using the P-Switch to get across the arrows of coins or if you just plain lose it along the way, there is another P-Switch just after the pipe exit.

In addition to that, there is also a Fire Flower now present near the Lakitu if you happen to have lost yours on the way there, as well as another Lakitu's Cloud if you kill Lakitu before getting his cloud.

The nippers are now more noticeable in that pit.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/pp9wjc

Let me know what you think.

[Ashan]

Still quite a few things that need fixing (and this is just a few notable issues.)


That just kinda looks... Eh... Not very good.


Blind jump and random floating dirt bush.


This is one of many situations where if you screw up, you're stuck and can't finish the level. If I were to let the Koopa fly over here and then kill him, I wouldn't be able to hop across the gaps and get to the other side, forcing me to suicide to restart the level.


If you jump down here you literally can't do anything because the Lakitu is above the screen and that jump is too high to make, so I had to rewind to get back up and shoot it with a fireball. Also, once again, if you lose your fireball you literally can't progress, so it's kinda bad design to have the level rely on the player keeping an item from earlier and being forced to kill themself if they lose it.


You have sprite buoyancy enabled so the bombs are going to float and do nothing. Also, it lags the crap out of the game here until they blow up.


2 P-switches?


And it turns out you really are expected to double-grab them because there's 2 consecutive P-switch runs on the last screen. Relying on glitches is kinda... Not very good level design.

[Sun]

Still quite a few things that need fixing (and this is just a few notable issues.)


That just kinda looks... Eh... Not very good.


Blind jump and random floating dirt bush.


This is one of many situations where if you screw up, you're stuck and can't finish the level. If I were to let the Koopa fly over here and then kill him, I wouldn't be able to hop across the gaps and get to the other side, forcing me to suicide to restart the level.


If you jump down here you literally can't do anything because the Lakitu is above the screen and that jump is too high to make, so I had to rewind to get back up and shoot it with a fireball. Also, once again, if you lose your fireball you literally can't progress, so it's kinda bad design to have the level rely on the player keeping an item from earlier and being forced to kill themself if they lose it.


You have sprite buoyancy enabled so the bombs are going to float and do nothing. Also, it lags the crap out of the game here until they blow up.


2 P-switches?


And it turns out you really are expected to double-grab them because there's 2 consecutive P-switch runs on the last screen. Relying on glitches is kinda... Not very good level design.

Aw crap, I thought I got rid of that floating bush... I guess I left it there for copypasting, I'll get rid of that.

I'll work on those ledges, see if I can do anything.

If that's the pit I think it is, there's a safe landing below it, but I'll create a platform to land on, that was really just there to practice Parakoopa jumping without dying.

I'll put a platform there to get back up and put that blasted Lakitu cloud somewhere where it's not impossible to reach.

I'm ashamed to not have checked if sprite buoyancy was on in that test level I used to make that area, I'll lessen the Bob-ombs and take off sprite buoyancy, or put Charlies there or something. The tileset specific sprites for that level are few and far between: Bob-omb, Spiny, Lakitu or Charlies.

Crap, I left that P-Switch there to copy paste it somewhere else, I'll remove that too. I must have been tired when I was doing this patch version, I totally didn't mean to rely on glitches.

[Ashan]

If that's the pit I think it is, there's a safe landing below it, but I'll create a platform to land on, that was really just there to practice Parakoopa jumping without dying.

It's not really about whether or not it's safe down there, it's just confusing to the player when they don't know whether they're supposed to jump down or Koopa hop there.

[Sun]

If that's the pit I think it is, there's a safe landing below it, but I'll create a platform to land on, that was really just there to practice Parakoopa jumping without dying.

It's not really about whether or not it's safe down there, it's just confusing to the player when they don't know whether they're supposed to jump down or Koopa hop there.

True, which is why I removed the Koopas, and changed the beginning slightly as you can see in this image:

Edit: As tiny as it might be(Thanks a lot Photobucket), you can still see that there are no Koopas and the beginning is changed.

I'm making other numerous changes that aren't seen in this image.

Interestingly enough, I just checked that area with the Bob-ombs and sprite buoyancy isn't enabled at all, actually. I think Bob-ombs just don't work well with something covering the background, I ran into the same problem in Winner ! Island 2 with Koopa Shells.

Also there is no P-Switch to carry around now, it's just sitting at the end of the second part waiting for you to pick up and take it to the pipe.

[Sun]

Alright, here's the new patch, which takes care of some of the problems in the last patch.

Hopefully, nothing else glitches or doesn't play right or just doesn't look right.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jw68nb

[Sun]

Alright, this should work just nicely.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/k8y00y

I have now replaced the music with something less Forest-y and more Grassland-y. Any other improvements you can think of for this level will be greatly appreciated. I haven't thought up a story as of yet since this one hack doesn't take place on Winner ! Island(those of you who have played Big Rigs will know what "Winner !" is), it will take slightly longer to think of a random island in the middle of nowhere that doesn't sound extremely hokey or just plain bad.

Edit: Seeing as how no comments so far have been received, I'm assuming that the level is just fine or at the very least tolerable for a first level and so I'll be moving on to the next level.