The Ultimate Collection of Do's and Dont's of the LD.

[lordpat]

This post is supposed to be (the keyword being supposed) a practical list of good ideas as well as bad ideas LDers should avoid.
Rules!

• Don't be too obvious, really. No ♥♥♥♥ like "don't make imposible levels" or "don't make levels in 1 minute", try to apport something.
• Remember that this topic should help mainly newcommers, try to explain your ideas. Instead of "Don't cut-off" try saying "Take your time when designing. Don't rush with the titles, make sure to put edges correctly as well as slopes."
• Try not to repeat your ideas, please.

That should do it!

Here's an example:
Cool.
Use trees! Try to add variety and colour to your levels with them. They can make an empty leve look good. Feel free to rotate them, always trying to make them look as good as they can. Notice that sometimes the trees varieties can be mixed. For example, if making a cave, a twisted tree (which I think it's considered a Jungle tree) can be very fitting in a level. There are millions of combinations posible. Is up to you to discoverthem.

Uncool.
Lag is a serious problem. There are two main reasons that produce lag: too many items or too little level transitions. Level transitions are dark barriers (look them in the LDer, they are in the first window from the right). Try to make add them periodically if you are making a level with lots of decoration. Enemies can also produce a lot of lag, they are probably the most common lag producing item. It's very important to notice that TOO MANY ENEMIES DON'T MAKE A VERY HARD LEVEL. It's about where you put them. If your level is too laggy then you have to options: reduce the amounts of items or add level transitions.

Also, feel free to make shorter descriptions for your ideas. I just.....wanted to right.

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

Too many tiles also produce lag, so you may wanna add that in. I can think of many things to put here actually. Transitions too close together makes the screen shake and gives it an earthquake effect. And not only trees should be used but all kind of decor. :3

[ntinos]

Like leaves (aka tilted trees in the ground) or disabled clouds.

[KABOOM]

DO...
+Heavily abuse the Shift and Ctrl keys. Holding down Shift while placing an item lets you place many of the same item without having to select it again, so if you want to put a lot of trees or Goombas or coins or whatever in an area, you can do it quickly. Holding Ctrl while placing an item locks it onto a grid, so it's easier to line up items like coins so they look neat. However, pressing an arrow key while holding down Ctrl can have bad effects on the level (like taking you back to the main menu and deleting all your progress), so DON'T PRESS ANY ARROW KEYS WHILE HOLDING DOWN CTRL.
+Use level transitions in good places to help reduce lag.
+Put checkpoints in levels. It's really annoying when you have to start a huge level over because you accidentally fell into a small pit right before the Shine Sprite. However, this might not always be an option in Silver Star/Red Coin levels.

DON'T...
-Put Bullies in stupid places where they can block your progress and you can't get rid of them. It's frustrating as heck when you can't get through a narrow passage because of a stupid Big Bully. It's generally a good idea to always put a lava pit that you can push the Bullies into.

[Master1.0]

• Do create creative ways to terraform, such as using cave tiles, adding a cave rotating brick in background, and add some cool terraformage.
• Don't create a bunch of ugly cutoff tiles.

• Do use glitches to add background to the level. Disabled and flipped transitions make nice fog effects.
• DO NOT abuse glitches and spam disabled ♥♥♥♥ all over like enemy spam. It's ugly and lags like ♥♥♥♥

[KABOOM]

Always, always, ALWAYS make ways to go backwards in the level in Silver Star/Red Coin levels. This can be as simple as a door at the end that takes you back to the beginning.

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

Always, always, ALWAYS make ways to go backwards in the level in Silver Star/Red Coin levels. This can be as simple as a door at the end that takes you back to the beginning.

True... if they're hidden. But no, not always. I didn't in Hanging Gardens of Babylon because the silver star was supposed to be dead easy to find and in plain sight.

[Harmless]

Definite do: Incorporate a good set of challenges for your level. The main thing is to execute them well, however, not just make them blazingly hard. Because a well-done moving block and rotating platform challenge combined with a set of tiles is much better than a bunch of bullet bills spammed all over the area.

Definite don't: Don't use the standard 50x30 or similar length/width sizes. I would recommend 200x60 or longer (but this is just me).

[CaptainAmerica2]

This is what I would've do in my levels:

Dos: Make sure I use appropriate items and tiles in appropriate scene. I don't want to make the level full of non-appropriate things mixed in. Like lava outside (mushroom kingdom), it doesn't make sense that way.

- I make sure to straighten objects, like several logs side-by-side, not them everywhere. That's learning for me. That makes the level look messy and unorganized.

Don't: Don't put trees and other objects floating in mid-air, seriously, it might look like a tornado picking it up, and then it throwing it down (In that case, destroying your perfect level.)


I comprehended this while making my level, also deletion of my level submission due to floating and cutoffs.

[KABOOM]

Always, always, ALWAYS make ways to go backwards in the level in Silver Star/Red Coin levels. This can be as simple as a door at the end that takes you back to the beginning.

True... if they're hidden. But no, not always. I didn't in Hanging Gardens of Babylon because the silver star was supposed to be dead easy to find and in plain sight.

And I think that's a flaw in the level. Like I said, this can be as simple as a door or a pipe at the end that takes you to the beginning.

Also...

DO check your levels to make sure that FLUDDs and powerups don't mess things up! It's sad when you put five hours into your level only for a person to Rocket FLUDD to the shine in five seconds.

DON'T use just enemies to add difficulty. 100 Goombas on a platform isn't hard, it's just laggy and stupid.