The Dueling Arena

[~Yuri]

1018peter's judgings: show

Supershroom's
Tall Tree in the Water Forest


Fun: 9/10
Your level contains some quite hard platforming,most notable part being the transition before the "Tall Tree" entrance transition. The platforming focused on moving platforms,it gave the level a faster pace,and I had a lot of fun chasing the speeding platforms.
However,several parts of your level contain the "Sending Out Bounds" glitch,like the rotating parts in the underwater route,and they can be easily avoided by simply giving a bit more space.
Besides that,it's very satisfying to get the Shine Sprite after such hard platforming.

Graphics: 3/5
The "Tall Tree" itself is a wonderful work, the tree rings in the background is very impressive. However,its surroundings aren't as good,some decors felt out of place,like the tall spiky tree on a mushroom platform. The underwater route to the Tall Tree's roots feels very bland,it feels like you just placed random plants in there,vines would do better.

Others: 3.25/5
(-1) The loading time. It forces me to wait for half a minute every time I get pushed out bound. It's not fun to wait for the level to load.
(+0.5) The guidelines along the way is very helpful.A nice touch to make the player to have an easier time going pass the level.
(+1) The level's pace is consistent.It's fast-paced,even in the underwater area.
(-0.25) The rope flowers twist in an unnatural way.For instance,they do 90 degrees sharp turns.

Supershroom gets a grand total of...

15.25 Points!


...from me.

And now...

Yurimaster's
Red Sun Fortress


Fun: 10/10
This level is about as hard as the final Bowser level in the game. It was hard to get used to the patience-required traps through out the level.
The flame towers were arranged quite neatly,that's a nice touch.
You satisfied the taste for both "Sonic" Type gamers and "Mario" Type gamers,well done.

Graphics: 4/5
The background tiles were arranged nicely,with smooth combinations of various brick tiles. Even though there are still some parts of the background that don't look as appealing,they appear at the places where we players would focus on the platforming instead of the graphics. With all that said,the only disappointment is the ending transition. It just looks bland compared to the other parts,surely you can add something over the roof of the tower,right?

Others: 3.25/5
(+1) The flame tower traps were quite creative.
(-0.75) The loading time was quite annoying,but it was just one Flash Player warning,so I'll hold back here.
(-0.5) In the second transition,the wooden platforms hidden below the flames can be accessed. That rather breaks the difficulty of jumping around circling platforms.
(+0.5) You are very considerate for your players,putting blue coins at the right spots where we need them.

Yurimaster's Red Sun Fortress gets a total of...

17.25 Points!


...from me.



I felt that I'm a bit too kind as a judge,I hope that the scores I give don't stand out too much among the judges...

But yeah, I'll wait for BY to post his judgings. But if he takes too long, I'll post his judgings as well.

[Supershroom]

I've got a 9 in fun...

That feels very great, next time I'll get the 10 *shot*

And I'm also looking forward to see BY's awesome layout

and thanks Yuri for sacrificing your gold medal for my delicious cookie

[-BY]

Tall Tree in the Water Forest
by Supershroom

Gameplay: 7.5/10
Decent gameplay variation throughout the whole level, creative usage of gameplay mechanics and mostly enough jumping tolerance. Exception would be the very bottom, second to last transition of the tree and that brown block which timing doesn't quite work out as it could. Spinning part in the second transition felt a little bit off, considering the other elements.
Underwater part before entering the tree could make use of differently turning flipping platforms (speed, starting position) and the two thwomps may move differently as well. Next to that it's mainly relying on Cheep Cheep's as obstacles. More variety and general differences would give this a better feel overall. Overall it's feeling pretty fluent, but misses something which makes this level trully special compared to others.

Graphics: 4.25/5
I immediately fell in love with the water forest concept. It's well thought out and executed as well. However, there are a some parts in the first areas, which simply seemed a bit too 'structured'. With this, I do mainly try to point out two trees, vines and alike standing to each other with the same position (alias hight, turned degrees, etc.). I dare to say that a forest should look as random as it could possibly be. The tree itself however, was one visual masterpiece from the beginning to the end. The colours blended together perfectly and it felt almost natural to me. (These golden bg tiles within the last transition damaged that great colour scheme a bit for me. But that's not relevant for the score.) So good job on that part.

Additions: 3.75/5
- |+0.000| Barely any lag/loading time issues
- |+0.500| Creative usage of new gameplay elements (More valued due duel theme and amount of new elements)
- |+0.250| Hints, General Conversations via signs
- |+0.250| Alternative Music Theme suits the general atmosphere of the level quite well
- |-0.125| Smaller platform timing issues
- |-0.125| Acknowledged pushing out of the level bounds without fixing it properly

Summary: 15.5/20
This should be the best work of yours, I happened to play thus far.
It's pretty good, but may need some fixing here and there.
Concept feels nice. Execution is generally good.
In order to get a 'legendary state', it's needing something which makes this level unique compared to others.
But you're certainly on the right track.

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■■■■■■■■■■

■ 80% - 100%
■ 60% - 79%
■ 40% - 59%
■ 20% - 39%
■ 00% - 19%

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Red Sun Fortress
by Yurimaster

Gameplay: 7/10
Decent gameplay variation throughout the whole level, creative usage of gameplay mechanics and despite it's difficulty, mostly enough jumping tolerance. It's nice to see working gameplay in all four directions. My only complaints were the lack of save spots, coins to some extend and the second last transition might have made use of more smaller flames as it was troublesome to guess the next flame throwers exact range. While it's based on fire, it would have been nice to see different things as well. I see you were trying to implement bullet bills. I'm almost sure it would have been a good idea to use these for some additional gameplay tricks.

Graphics: 4.75/5
Well, that's one awesome fortress design combined with a slight factory influence. The tiling feels a bit over the top, but it's doing it's job regardless. The usage of wooden platforms , twisted trees and especially the gears suited this level pretty well. The whole colour scheme set an amazing ambience for one adventurous trip through this level.
The only true complaint would be the fact that giant flames look pretty odd. But I'm knowing myself that there's little one can do about this.
Point reduction was mainly for distracting graphics. I can see the amount of effort you put into this. But it doesn't work too well with the gameplay.

Additions: 3.875/5
- |+0.500| Creative usage of flames and general gameplay elements in the level.(More valued due duel theme and amount of new elements)
- |+0.250| Arrows, gears and metal platforms mark the behavior of flame throwers. Extra mention as I wish that more levels would do that.
- |+0.250| Both Alternate Music Themes suit the level and especially the second one sets the mood pretty well
- |+0.125| Guidance for more difficult obstacles and item behavior via signs
- |-0.125| Barely any lag, but loading time issues
- |-0.125| Items out of the level bounds affecting the gameplay. (Almost certain, it was done for layer issues. But this shouldn't happen regardless)

Summary: 15.625/20
It's a good executed fortress concept, to say the least. The gameplay might have needed some fixing but it's pretty good. The graphical part felt a bit too much. In combination with more difficult gameplay, it's worth to go for less contrasts. There are ways to do suiting graphical work with less items/tile variation as well. Some fixes here and there may seem appropiate, though. Still. Good work as always.

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■■■■■■■■■■

■ 80% - 100%
■ 60% - 79%
■ 40% - 59%
■ 20% - 39%
■ 00% - 19%

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Surprised to see these results from other LDers. From the bit I could gather thus far it's somewhat subjective stuff. But I'll take some time to read it.
That'd be my judgings. Before anyone dares to ask. I didn't copy that format from the LDing tournament. Nope. : 3

[Supershroom]

That layout is more awesome than I could have ever imagined
Whenever I'll post judgings, I'll also use some pretty colours.

The way is the aim!

And also I'd like to know where you can get pushed out of bounds, it's obviously more places than the "wheel" in the 2nd tree transition.

[Harmless]

So who wants to be judges for the long ♥♥♥ Moy vs Hamless duel

[MessengerOfDreams]

Once I get to a less ♥♥♥♥ computer I'm gonna buckle down and just do some editing on my level, just to get the basic need-to-fix elements out of the way.

[1018peter]

And also I'd like to know where you can get pushed out of bounds, it's obviously more places than the "wheel" in the 2nd tree transition.

1. The spinning wheels in the water route to the tree.
2. The tight blocks in the higher part of the tree.

[Harmless]

So who wants to be judges for the long ♥♥♥ Moy vs Hamless duel

[Supershroom]

So who wants to be judges for the long ♥♥♥ Moy vs Hamless duel

Assuming that MoD won't finish his level before the 28th LDC ends, I can do it

[MessengerOfDreams]

Yeah, you know what, now I'm just being kind of rude.

I've kind of lost the spark for designing so I've had zero motivation to do any editing on the level series I made for this. (Before you ask no I'm not giving up, I just go through ebbs and flows in desire to design so don't, like, pity me.) So I'm gonna do a few little touches that most drastically affected my score for the level, and then just turn them in. I already edited the first level intensively and did some little stuff to the second level, so I'll just tweak a couple things and send my levels in. Sorry for the delay, I kept putting it off thinking "I'll totally do this later" when I eventually didn't.

Regardless, I'm still proud of Echoes of Time, so I'm ready for a good fight.