A2XT: It's Over

[Stink Terios]

Would you prefer "Brazil came 4th in the World Cup but 3rd in the race to LP A2XT, so things are definitely improving"?

Amazing.

[Sebby19]

Another plot question: I thought raocow was Demo's master. But I guess her master is some other unseen entity?

And who was the little Cyclops girl with the bow? I know it's not one of Demo's siblings.

[Ometeotl]

And who was the little Cyclops girl with the bow? I know it's not one of Demo's siblings.

God.

[glitch4]

these 2 levels went fun a bit

[Willhart]

Another plot question: I thought raocow was Demo's master. But I guess her master is some other unseen entity?

Yes, they are someone else. I think it's continuation from asmt.

[Maiku Wotaharu]

Developer Commentary video soon...

Please forgive my frequent tripping over my own words. I wish I could fix that.

[Validon98]

Another plot question: I thought raocow was Demo's master. But I guess her master is some other unseen entity?

Demo's master is one of the Masters of Space according to raocow's library level from ASMBXT, who IIRC are just unseen people who are, well, masters of space. Given that the entirety of A2MT takes place on the Master's ship, I would assume that they're pretty powerful but just immensely lazy given they tend to leave things to the cycloptic alien demon minions like Demo.

...Makes me wonder,

did the Artist make any other of Demo's species besides her and her sisters?

[SAJewers]

I think the references so far were all right. I myself don't really understand many, but I just gloss over them and focus on the levels. It's somewhat confusing that things that I thought were enemies are instead NPCs, though it felt like that was intentional in This Sounds Accurate.

This is one of the biggest Gripes I have with SMBX. You can make any NPC friendly and have a Textbox, but there's no way for the player to know that from afar.

Speaking of gripes, something that was encountered when making the OW was that if you place down a level spot, and have it simply go to another location on the OW, then SMBX will refuse to play OW music until you run over a change music command and change the music to something else. If you also have it go into a level, then it will work perfectly fine. I don't know why this is, but it necessitated creating a bunch of small levels for warps like today.

[Sebby19]

Oh, so I played a little bit more into the game, and the little cyclops is a sibling. Hmm, I don't remember seeing her with in that image with the other siblings, but that was a long time ago.

[Validon98]

Oh, so I played a little bit more into the game, and the little cyclops is a sibling. Hmm, I don't remember seeing her with in that image with the other siblings, but that was a long time ago.

I honestly thought that she was a cyclops version of Alice just to serve the same sort of purpose as she did in ASMBXT.

Then the end of World 4 cutscene happened and I became confused.

[ztarwuff]

Yes, the music in MAKL Vanilla is indeed vanilla. Not sure about the Yoshi munchers though.

Everything in the level was Vanilla up until the point somebody stuffed a Charlie in there without my consent. On the plus side, voltgloss made a fantastic joke. I claim no responsibility for it.

I'm kind of surprised that some people thought my level was in-jokey, though. My deliberately in-jokey level appears later on in the game. I've got a second in-jokey level but only raocow fans who have heard a specific brony song will get the joke.

Fun Fact: a certain level later on in the game inspired me to make MAKL Vanilla. After beta-testing thta level I vowed to make a level that matched two criteria:

1. Utilised Kood's special abilities
2. Didn't have any custom graphics whatsoever, because I couldn't be bothered to make any.

There was only one thing the level name could have been given those two criteria: Make a Kood Level - Vanilla.

[Joseph Staleknight]

Oh, so I played a little bit more into the game, and the little cyclops is a sibling. Hmm, I don't remember seeing her with in that image with the other siblings, but that was a long time ago.

I honestly thought that she was a cyclops version of Alice just to serve the same sort of purpose as she did in ASMBXT.

Then the end of World 4 cutscene happened and I became confused.

Of course, that's nothing compared to

what she does in the late game

. But enough about that. It'll come when it comes.

Impressions for Video #3's levels:

This Sounds Accurate (Maiku Wotaharu): I always thought that the title was giving me a hint about puns and other things being taken literally as clues to the bonus area, especially with the Effervescent Salad Bar. It wasn't until I watched Maiku's dev commentary that I found the actual reference being made here, and it was a pretty obscure one too. Music's still pretty catchy otherwise, though.

Warp to that Other Dumb Island/Warp to that Nicer Island (Sturg): A simple transition area, although I always thought the rabbit shouldn't wander around. On that note, I think he had something to say about wanting carrots in an earlier draft...?

MAKL Vanilla (ztarwuff): A simple little level that makes Kgood use of Kood's mechanics. I also appreciated the joke about "custom assets". As for that ? block behind the block pillar (the one raocow tried finding a shell to open), I tried but never did manage to clear the way there with the P-Switch in time. Maybe on a repeat play I'll check that out.

Oh, and I agree with ztarwuff; there was no other name for this level that would have sufficed.

[ztarwuff]

I still think the pun in This Sounds Accurate should be..

You need to pee to get to the salad bar

[Sturg]

Warp to that Other Dumb Island/Warp to that Nicer Island (Sturg): A simple transition area, although I always thought the rabbit shouldn't wander around. On that note, I think he had something to say about wanting carrots in an earlier draft...?

Yeah, the rabbit was originally not supposed to move and had an extra text of dialogue. Oh well.

[sedron]

I think the references so far were all right. I myself don't really understand many, but I just gloss over them and focus on the levels. It's somewhat confusing that things that I thought were enemies are instead NPCs, though it felt like that was intentional in This Sounds Accurate.

This is one of the biggest Gripes I have with SMBX. You can make any NPC friendly and have a Textbox, but there's no way for the player to know that from afar.

That's always struck me as the kind of problem designers need to keep in mind during level creation. They could use custom graphics to denote friendly NPC's, use specific sprites that don't show up as enemies and separate rooms for friendly NPC's from enemies. I often use the Sign NPC instead of regular enemies simply because players know a sign (probably,) isn't gonna try and kill them. It doesn't work in every situation, though.

More level thought stuff.

This Sounds Accurate- You can add me to the list of people who just didn't get the reference. On one hand, I like this level for being silly, even if some of the jokes definitely went over my head. Fake-out Banzai Bill is a pretty cool guy. On the other hand, the terrain and enemy placement is a bit lacking, especially given issues telling who wants you dead and who just wants to inform you about a salad bar. I don't know if the long hallway after the Otane Waterfall was a MaglX reference, but it kind of seemed like one. Still, it was too long and offered little in terms of gameplay. All-in-all, though, a fine level.

MAKL Vanilla- Having two Kood-only levels in the first world is a bit weird, I suppose. Also, that Charlie used to be another NPC whose dialogue ended earlier. Compared to A World One Level, this feels more built around Kood, whereas Sep's level feels like the decision to only use him was made later. Whether or not that's true is another issue, though. Anyway, this level has more interesting obstacles than a lot of World 1 levels, and the joke isn't too obtrusive.

As an aside to people who think it's already too "in-jokey," I think fan-collaboration projects like this always get that way, at least to some degree. I definitely didn't get everything in previous installments of the series. That said, I think we will see the game get both better and worse about this as it progresses. There are probably going to be a few cringers, but also a lot of levels that really stand on their own.

[Doctor Shemp]

Yes, there a lot of in-jokes in World 1 but no, that doesn't continue. Or, at least, in-jokes specific to the talkhaus don't continue. There's in-jokes to things like Mario games in general but they're hardly anywhere near as alienating, and the one I'm particularly thinking of that's coming up soon is based on a phrase that everyone and their mother should know.

Looking at the episode list now, I'm pretty sure there are no talkhaus in-jokes left in World 1 (unless they're incidental and I've forgotten about them, or they sailed over my head), one in World 2, and none in World 3. So, assuming jesuiscontent and SNN are still watching, we've cleared that hurdle.

I think the interesting question is: why are levels based primarily around in-jokes clustered in World 1? I can think of two reasons:
1. If you're making an in-jokey level, you want the attention to be on the joke, which means eliminating or minimising distracting elements. Grasslands are about as non-distracting as you can get, and since World 1 is inevitably grasslands (seriously I would love to see a game where World 1 isn't grasslands, just for the variety), this means your in-jokey level is probably going to end up in World 1.
2. Since most jokes don't stand up to re-telling, especially jokes that are basically "hey remember when this funny thing happened", you don't want to make the level too hard, since that way the player will have to go through the joke again and again. Making an easy level will put it in World 1 again.

And incidentally, I'm quite happy that the criticisms of the game so far have been that the writing was bad, that the SFX is bad, and that the levels are in-jokey, rather than, for example, that the level design is mind-bogglingly terrible. So I'm marking that up as a success.

[Leet]

if an ASMT game wasnt in-jokey i dont think it would be an ASMT game

[The Doctor]

Hey, guys, I think I broke your game. I finished the first two worlds and then went back to world 1 to go in those leek doors, but now I'm stuck in world 1. See the attached photo.

I can't walk south any more than this to get back in the base. The path is just gone.

[Doctor Shemp]

Hey, guys, I think I broke your game. I finished the first two worlds and then went back to world 1 to go in those leek doors, but now I'm stuck in world 1. See the attached photo.

I can't walk south any more than this to get back in the base. The path is just gone.

Did you try restarting the game? That's really odd. I've never heard of world maps corrupting like that unless you change the actual world map file. Are you using an old save from the beta version or something like that? If you aren't, I have absolutely no idea what could cause that to happen. I've certainly never had it happen even when backtracking and cheating the game wide open to warp to spots I shouldn't be able to.

If you're really stuck, try the cheat "illparkwhereiwant" (no quotes). That'll let you walk off the paths so you can go into other worlds and use another warp back into the HUB. You'll end up getting the leek for completing that world if you haven't already, but that may be the only option if the world map is corrupted. Although, again, I don't see how it could corrupt.

[docopoper]

Hey, guys, I think I broke your game. I finished the first two worlds and then went back to world 1 to go in those leek doors, but now I'm stuck in world 1. See the attached photo.

I can't walk south any more than this to get back in the base. The path is just gone.

That usually only happens if you apply a patch that changes the world file on a save that relies on the previous version.

There isn't really a clean way of fixing that as far as I know.

However; I think you should still be able to access the hub by walking onto the tile where the hub warp is supposed to be using this cheat:

illparkwhereiwant = toggle free movement over the map
redigitiscool = re-enable saving after cheating (don't forget to do this or you'll be sad)

The only other solution is to start over (and possibly use god mode if you want to get back to where you are quickly). I'll give you the cheat for that if you need.

Yeah. :/ That kind of sucks.

[Septentrion Pleiades]

I forgot to make a commentary for A World One Level earlier. http://youtu.be/DOejMur1_rU It's nowhere near as emotional as maiku's commentary.

[Willhart]

The salad bar in this sound accurate, was a hint to a thing inside that level. Fancy how everyone thought it was something else like a joke or an obscure raocow reference.

[Vergalon]

Wow, I'm surprised Rao actually saw the rocket-propelled-ladder for what it was.
I was afraid that I made it to small/pixely
The name is mostly nonsense, it's just a 'jangle' instead of a 'jungle'
the reason for the ladder reference requires some more explanation, however:

Ok, well, if any of you recall the second half of "Everyday Life of a Ladder", you may remember that it was a forest/jungle segment.
Dense Jangle is a carbon copy of that second part, with paint and extras applied. Don't ask why, I forgot why I decided to do this, personally.
I think it may have something to do with my original idea of having the second half of Everyday Life of a Ladder be 'just a normal sort of level, where you're being propelled at unsafe speeds' sort of thing, so I guess Dense Jangle is that 'normal sort of level'. The paradox implications behind this level are somewhat questionable (there's a pixely demo ridding the ladder that flies by)
The second rocket platform in the secret exit was supposed to be the the platform you catch up to that has the leek on it in Everyday Life of a Ladder.

[Voltgloss]

And about that high platform near the start of Dense Jangle, that raocow found using the rocket apple but apparently had no purpose: it can be reached via invisible vine block, providing an alternate way to the first raocoin.

[Vergalon]

The reason for that high platform near the start of Dense Jangle, that raocow found using the rocket apple but apparently had no purpose? It can be reached via invisible vine block, providing an alternate way to the first raocoin.

It had a reason, kinda.
I noticed that the hand was kinda annoying to get past, because the shell wouldn't always knock it down, and I didn't want the player to be without an alternate way to get around it without risky spin-jumping.
Also, it was an easy way to get the P-switch