MaGL 3 results: moral of the story: laziness always prevails

[SAJewers]

Next patreon poll, someone nominate Math Blaster.

[Reecer7]

Next patreon poll, someone nominate Math Blaster.

i'll tell spot to give a final heartfelt fairwell to all his friends and family now, so he doesn't have any regrets.

[FrozenQuills]

Reading these judge's comments also shows a strange disconnect between the scores and the judge's actual opinions. Some of the previous levels had much more positive reviews (still focused on my main man person GalaxyofJ), yet their scores suffered. Sorry, I'm just trying to wrap my head around all this.

I think I just prefer levels that try to do something different over ones that are typical short rompy romps, basically.
Even though Lespna's is arguably broken, I still found it to be fun in some areas, and math puzzles are creative in their own right. Though, in retrospect I should have made the score lower because not everyone would figure out the error like I did, and the second half has some issues. Dude still got a low placement anyways though.

[morsel/morceau]

To-day's efforts notwithstanding, undoubtedly the finest example of raocow's ignorance of mathematics remains this one.

You can all the sums in Lespna's level in your head quite easily, even finding the root of 5776

(Assuming that it's a whole number) you know what 7 and 8 squared are so you know 70 and 80 squared too (4900 and 6400). 75 squared (whatever it is) will be slightly less than half way between (5650), because differences between squares get bigger. 76 squared is the next along and the final digit checks (same as in 6 times 6 -- the final digit of 77 squared would be 9, etc.)

When I played the level this was as far as I reasoned. I notice now you can reverse check that 76 squared is 5776 quite neatly: if it is, 5700 is 75 times 76; but 75 is half a hundred plus half of half a hundred; half of 76 is 38, and half of 38 is 19, so 75 76's is 19+38 hundreds, ie 57 hundreds, as required.

[King of GETs]

I'm kinda wondering just how close the scores are going to end up being. I know that in MaGL X2, some scores were literally 1/100th of a decimal apart.

To the judges: Will the scores be pretty close together (especially in the middle), or was it very easy to discern proper tiers from best to worst?

Aside from the obvious jump from Truckeeben's level to the rest, nearly everything was pretty close for the most part.
However, there is quite a discernible jump between the rest and the top 10, and an even bigger jump between places 10-6 and places 5-1.
Y'all have fun with that information.

I read earlier that some of the judges needed to "make a consensus" as to who the Top 3 were going to be. Does that mean the scores were modified later on, or did the Top 10 show up naturally and randomly?

Also, will raocow know ahead of time which levels have two exits, or do we need to message him about it?

[FrozenQuills]

I read earlier that some of the judges needed to "make a consensus" as to who the Top 3 were going to be. Does that mean the scores were modified later on, or did the Top 10 show up naturally and randomly?

Also, will raocow know ahead of time which levels have two exits, or do we need to message him about it?

The Top 10 showed up naturally, and the consensus was easy to make; scores were barely changed once the judges got together too.
And I'm assuming S.N.N. has told raocow about levels with secret exits...?

[SAJewers]

Hopefully he alos knows which levels have edited Yoshi Isand 2s as well, since I believe there were a few in MaGL1.

[thatguyif]

I had to stop watching that video because my brain hurt from the bleeding obvious.

(and I'm a writer! Oyyyyy)

Still, it's dumb that the creator didn't just give him the "correct" answer. Why bother playing a level that's broken and only the creator knows the fix?

[MonkeyShrapnel]

raocow thinking that the answer to the third last question was 12.5 was killing me, but man was it hilarious!

[Whimsical Calamari]

as a math person: nobody should be expected to do what essentially amounts to memorization drills in a mario level

[ft029]

(Assuming that it's a whole number) you know what 7 and 8 squared are so you know 70 and 80 squared too (4900 and 6400). 75 squared (whatever it is) will be slightly less than half way between (5650), because differences between squares get bigger. 76 squared is the next along and the final digit checks (same as in 6 times 6 -- the final digit of 77 squared would be 9, etc.)

When I played the level this was as far as I reasoned. I notice now you can reverse check that 76 squared is 5776 quite neatly: if it is, 5700 is 75 times 76; but 75 is half a hundred plus half of half a hundred; half of 76 is 38, and half of 38 is 19, so 75 76's is 19+38 hundreds, ie 57 hundreds, as required.

I presume this is how the development of The Green Switch went.

[Kles]

I probably would have put the math level last because the actual platforming gameplay is no better than the levels before it and the entire concept is ill-conceived, but, eh.

[nothobz]

I think I just prefer levels that try to do something different over ones that are typical short rompy romps, basically.

So trying and failing is better than not trying at all, eh? interesting..... ;)

[kitikami]

In raocow's defense, trying to work out algebra problems (even simple ones) in your head can be very different from working them out with pen and paper. If he'd been playing this on his own and just stopped to grab something to write down the steps to help keep everything straight like you would normally do any time you have to do algebra, he'd probably have had a much simpler time. Even something relatively simple like x*x+35=60 can be easy to get tripped up on if you aren't used to doing calculations in your head, because by the time you finish one step and move on to the next, it's easy to lose track of what you've done and what you have left to do, or even what the current state of the equation looks like, like when raocow was struggling to see what operations remained after working out the first step of some of the problems. To someone watching, it looks like you are struggling with basic arithmetic when you're actually struggling to keep track of where you even are in the problem.

Then on top of that there's the typical LP blind spot, where it is harder to do things while trying to talk and be entertaining at the same time. It's one thing to pause the video and work out the problems, but to have to do it while making an LP video and be worrying about talking and keeping the video interesting and not taking too long to silently calculate something with nothing going on in the video just amplifies the potential trouble. So I think we really shouldn't be too harsh on raocow or take this video as any serious indicator of his math skills.

[cozyduck]

as a math person: nobody should be expected to do what essentially amounts to memorization drills in a mario level

As an actual mathematician, there isn't really any memorization involved in solving the problems in this level. As a matter of fact, I pretty much reasoned exactly like M/M described in his comment.

That being said, I couldn't think of a less interesting way to incorporate math into a mario level then this.

[TaviTurnip]

Wow FQ you ranked so low this contest what happened :o

Also M/M basically said exactly what I wanted to say except I wanted to sound like a mean bitch when I wanted to talk about it, so I chose not to comment instead :k Because the last math question was super common sense-based and not at all about actual math skills.

[FrozenQuills]

So a little story here:
I actually wanted to participate in this magl when it was first announced, but I also wanted to judge. I actually was able to make most of my simple vanilla level before SNN decided to have me as one, and since previous MaGLs didn't really have judge levels I thought I couldn't really show this off.
But then Pyro wanted to have her own level too, and that's kinda how we convinced all the judges to have their own levels for this LP.
We decided to show our levels through coffee breaks rather than a postgame because we think it's better to end off the LP with the best, first place level rather than go into postgame content.
(I didn't make the hud in my level btw, lol)

[jayScribble]

There are differences between x, x and X, and x and *, despise being functionally the same.
The italic x is the most common one used for, but x and X can be used as well for substitutions for finding an unknown number.
Now in multiplication, "x" the one used for physical mathematics, while "*" is more used in computer based, just like "/" is used for division in computer terms while "÷" is more physical based, mainly due to lack of the division symbol on they keyboard, and using * instead of x to prevent confusion in both glance and programming between x and x.

I could see why raocow would be having trouble with those puzzle.


In other (more important) news, Daylight savings changes (I forgot the specifics) happened in Canada, so raocow's videos are one hour late.

[SAJewers]

What was in the "Not Here!" level spot for 60th place? Or was that un-enterable?

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

Head In The Clouds is pretty nice, though all those rows of enemies lead to the gameplay becoming rompy. It has a decent variety for such a level, though. Too bad it was rushed; I think it could be quite better with some more time.

Firelink Shrine looks pretty great. I love that sunburst seaweed strewn throughout. The part I was most irked about was the difficulty balancing. There were enough powerups, but that muncher section expects so much more out of you than the rest of it. The secret exit was very nice in terms of concept; I just wish it was a longer path. Also, nice goalpost you got there.

Verdant Valley... you know what? I'm going to do something special for these coffee break levels. I'm going to judge them. So without further ado...

Verdant Valley

FUN: 23/30
DIFFICULTY: 5/5
CREATIVITY: 8/10
AESTHETICS: 10/10 (5/5 GFX + 5/5 MUS)
FUNCTIONALITY: 5/5
TOTAL: 41/50
The level, from the first moment onwards, looks incredibly solid. That edited info bar is especially nice. The background and music both fit the theme of the level perfectly; it felt very much like a fun grasslands level. There's some very nice variety with Banzai Bill and block setups, though a fair bit of the creativity was actually in the bonus room which doubled as a reset pipe. Kudos on making a good invisible block mechanic, too. The winged block challenge looks a tad irritating, but is thankfully not mandatory. Overall, this level looks like a blast, with only some of those Banzai Bill setups (being unclear to pass at first glance for the double-stacked ones) and the one vine section look annoying to face. Very nice job with this... looking forward to what the other judges have to offer.

Other: Nice steamy coffee there. Very calming.

[S.N.N.]

JUDGES' COMMENTS AND SCORES:

61st: Realzameer

-FROZENQUILLS-
FUN: 9/30
DIFFICULTY: 4/5
CREATIVITY: 3/10
AESTHETICS: 5/10 (2/5 GFX + 3/5 MUS)
FUNCTIONALITY: 4/5

TOTAL: 25/60

COMMENTS:
An okay short level.

I can't really say much that was interesting in this level
other than that I had to deal with enemies and the flow was
okay. There were some platforms and a wall running part but
nothing felt developed.

If you rush, one of the falling platforms disappear making a
jump a lot harder.

Yeah, not much else to say about this one.

TLDR:
+ Okay design
- Could do more across the board

OTHER:
luigi does smell time


-PYRO-
Fun: 7/30
Difficulty: 1/5
Creativity: 1/10
Aesthetics: 6/10
Functionality: 5/5
Total: 20/60
Comment: It's yet another boring, empty, rompy level. The sheer amount of these is making me feel legit awful because I keep slamming them score-wise, but seriously. I don't know what to say about yet another level which is just some platforms, koopas, and chucks. Seeing some custom music (from Mega Man no less) was nice though.



-KOOPSTER-
FUN: 16/30
DIFFICULTY: 4/5
CREATIVITY: 5/10
AESTHETICS: 5/10
FUNCTIONALITY: 5/5

TOTAL SCORE: 35/60

Too bad this wasn't finished, this felt like a nice warm-up for something!



-S.N.N.
FUN: 12/30
DIFFICULTY: 3/5
CREATIVITY: 4/10
AESTHETICS: 3/10
FUNCTIONALITY: 4/5

TOTAL: 26/60

COMMENTS: Felt very much like a "first level" in the sense that there was a fair bit of sprite spam in some spots, and then nothing at all in others. I would have worked on integrating your sprites into your design in various unique ways as opposed to laying down tons at a time with no real cohesion.

60th: WhimsiKarren

-FROZENQUILLS-
FUN: 7/30
DIFFICULTY: 4/5
CREATIVITY: 4/10
AESTHETICS: 3/10 (1/5 GFX + 2/5 MUS)
FUNCTIONALITY: 4/5

TOTAL: 22/60

COMMENTS:
This is pretty much a first level, but it was alright.

The normal exit has a lot of ambushing kicking koopas, saws,
a little fireball jumping section, and some weird design
quirks such as empty areas, weird tile interactions, and a
broken goal point.

Some of the setups were a bit fun (despite how broken this
looks), but yeah this level needs a ton of polishing.

The secret exit is just go left and dodge some spooky skeletons,
which doesn't really add anything.

TLDR:
+ Some neat setups?
- Lots of weird issues

OTHER:
for a one day, first time level designer, it wasn't too bad



-PYRO-
Fun: 9/30
Difficulty: 2/5
Creativity: 2/10
Aesthetics: 4/10
Functionality: 5/5
Total: 22/60
Comment: It's janky af. I like the concept though, so it at least stands out somewhat from the other rompy levels! Not sure what the secret exit really adds, either, and while I personally didn't mind the palette, I could see other people having issues with it. The high density of shell kicking koopas wasn't exactly the best either. I still liked it though, it's a really janky Youtube-y level but it isn't too bad at all.


-KOOPSTER-
FUN: 16/30
DIFFICULTY: 3/5
CREATIVITY: 6/10
AESTHETICS: 6/10
FUNCTIONALITY: 5/5

TOTAL SCORE: 36/60

lol, for something rushed this actually was a bit interesting for me! The colors are pretty good, the level is constructed in a somewhat interesting manner (even if it has a bunch of filler space). It's a lot of ideas mashed together, which is natural for a beginner, but surprisingly the result is not that bad at all. Intentionally or not!


-S.N.N.
FUN: 15/30
DIFFICULTY: 3/5
CREATIVITY: 4/10
AESTHETICS: 4/10
FUNCTIONALITY: 3/5

TOTAL: 29/60

COMMENTS: Well, considering you admitted to making it on the last day, it's actually not that bad. I like how you gave the player two options of where to go right at the start, and you have a few clever ideas (i.e. fireball hopping). There are two key issues that you need to sort out though - the first is to actually give the player some incentive to explore. There are hardly any (if any at all) ordinary coins in the level, for instance. Secondly, focus a bit less on just laying sprites down everywhere (i.e. the Dry Bones spam on the left, the arch bridge spam on the right) and try and integrate fewer sprites into the architecture more creatively.

As FrozenQuills said, we opt'ed out of a postgame and decided to take the route of mixing the judge levels into the LP itself at random (well, not that random, as you'll soon be able to see) intervals. I actually organized them by complexity rather than quality, so it's safe to say that FrozenQuills' entry may still be better than the few that come after it.

[Ryrir]

Huh, now I'm wondering if any of the judges ever played Dark Souls or not.

Knowing the actual layout of Firelink Shrine / Undead Burg definitely made the level somewhat more amusing, because you can actually tell what the different segments are supposed to represent (replacing the firebomb throwing guys with kicking shells was pretty creative for example). Translating a 3D environment to 2D is tricky though, and I believe that's what partially lead to the confusing layout of the level...

The bonfires made out of the seaweed graphics were pretty cute though, and the fact that you get "healed" by them is also kinda clever

[RedMageSusie]

Great choice of music FrozenQuills. I feel like shooting some goombas now.

[Divemissile]

i swear i've seen the exact same palettes, status bar, and level name that frozenquills had in his level in another hack. i think it was called super mario world 3 but i'm unsure

[cheez8]

I kind of like how Verdant Valley was, like, a 105 non-edit with how it had all the same features of 105 except for the level geometry. It made for a pretty good coffee break.