23rd Level Designer Contest

[Megar]

hurry up
the quicker we get the results the quicker we get the 24th

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

This post by ~MP3 Amplifier~ was thumbed up by: 2

CedarBranch (March 22nd, 2013, 1:20 pm) • Dtroid (March 23rd, 2013, 12:58 am)

[MessengerOfDreams]

This post by MessengerOfDreams was thumbed up by: 2

nin10mode (March 22nd, 2013, 3:03 pm) • ~MP3 Amplifier~ (March 22nd, 2013, 1:08 pm)

[CedarBranch]

*screams joyfully with pillow in face*

I never would've expected that! :'D


To the otherfewparticipants, great work! All of your entrants were worth the play-through, IMO. :>

[lordpat]

judgings: show

Dtroid's Lost Dimension

Fun: Level 1's plattaforming was pretty good. It had good timming, good distance, and it was overall done properly. My only complaint with the first level gameplay wise is the part where there are lots of lazers and you have to jump above them. The jumps were maybe a bit too high and it was obnoxious to make them at times. Since this is a red coin hunt, you should probably add a pipe to take you back to the beggining of the level, so that you don't have to backtrack if you miss one. The other two levels though were not as good. Some of the jumps felt a bit more akward (jumping from the spinning wooden thingy to the bone plattaform in the third level) and the level design is a bit confusing, sometimes you do not know where to go. If you want the player to jump through a risk, then put an arrow. I found myself very confused at times on what I had to do, I'd recommend adding more arrows in general. The third level also offered a hand of fairly annoying moments. The start of the level is insane, and it certianly made me feel as if it was the level's fault the fact I lost. The part with the two grey blocks and the green plattaform was infuriating, mostly due to the block with the pipe above. It made jumping from one block to the other incredibly hard. However, as I said before, the overall plattaforming was not bad, and some intresting ideas (the second orange switch in the third level, the intresting blocks and lazers in the first one or the magnetic celling in the second one, even if I would have recommended adding more ) were put together. At some points this level annoyed me, but at others (mostly the first level) it did offer some intresting concepts and plattaforming. 7.25/10

Graphics: Solid graphics in all three levels. The best looking one is probably the second one. The tiling in all three levels is remarkable, though the combination of wooden walls and yellow wires in the third level do get old quicky. More decorating items could have been implemented, but some nice ideas make it up for all that. 3.5/5

Other:
+0.5=No lag or loading time
-0.25: In the first level, the wire box hits the floor, so if Mario gets squashed by it, it glitches and he gets inside the block. To avoid this, just make sure there is a small space between the floor and the block at its lowers point.
-0.25: The ending of the series did not really close anything. I was unsure what I had achieved at the end of the third level. The level series does seem to have a story, and the lack of signs in the third level made it confusing to know what was going on.
Overall: 14/20
A good series for the most part, but I would have liked to see more of the first and second level, and the third level may need to be improoved. You did well, but you could have done better, seeing how the start of the series is quite strong. If you keep that quality in your next levels, you may reach very far.

Triple J's Weather Works

Fun: the level consisted on clever gimmicks and such integrated to the gameplay. But I think that was a bit of a problem. Some of the gimmicks and tricks just seemed to be there to "show" rather than to "play". The Green Wire thing with the grey blocks was a very clever idea, but it only appears once. The hot water also appears once. The only trick that was used more than once was the fence trick, and it did not fully convince me. On the first run it went well, but when I had to back-track it became quite frustraiting. 1-hit KO when you are right at the end of the level is very annoying. I would have liked to see more on the back tracking. Having the turbo-FLUDD could have been able to be used to explore new areas, but it add nothing to the gameplay in the end. It is fun as it is though. 7.75/10

Graphics: The first section had very strong graphics, the second section has nice graphics and the lava section has pretty meh graphics. The tile mixing was great, specially in the first section. I'd like to see more decor in the later areas of the level, but it is fine. Again, my problem comes from the last section. The Fire background seemed a bit out of nowhere, but I guess it was fine. Overall, nice graphics, but a bit inconsistent. 3.75/5

Other:
+0.5: no lag or loading time
+-0: the signs were in the middle. Some of the humour is well done, but sometimes the font is too small for me to read it. And at some points the humour seems overmade.
+0.5: clever ideas put into gameplay
4/5

Overall: 15.5/20
Strong level indeed. I'd recommend working a bit on the later areas on the level, both graphically and in terms of gameplay. But for what it is, it is really good.


MP3's Space War

Fun: Boy, there was so much in this series. For the most part it worked, but not always. The Shine Sprite gimmick seemed pretty clever, but in the third level it seemed a bit overused. The chase scenes were trully a lot of fun, and some were most of the plattaforming (the jumps). In part 2, I remember some awkard parts though. I remember falling through the letters in the "1 year later" part, and the 1-up maze just seemed annoying to me. The flow of the series is very original and climatic, though I wished it was a bit more paced together since I found myself stopping a lot to make some specific jumps. The final boss was a bit of a dissapointment, it is just like "I beated him". It seemed out of nowhere. Either way, I really enjoyed myself through this series, letting aside the moments described above. 8/10

Graphics: A is for art. M is for Maw God. A is for atmosphere. Z is for Zinc. I is for I love this. N is for 'neat!'. G is for Gorgeous. They spell amazing, just like the atmosphere in this level. Not flawless, but you trully made it up! 5/5

Other:
+1: The story was very heart felt and a lot of fun to read. The atmosphere fit the story for the most part.
+0.5: The inventions were very clever, both graphically and in terms of gameplay. Some of them did not work as well as others, but well, I really like it nevertheless.
-0.25: the "1 year later" section seemed unfitting, specially the way the story was narrated.
4.25/5
Overall: 17.25/20
While I preffer TP, I found this series to be very satisfactory. It was fun, intresting, graphically appealing, and a lot of fun all in all.

Kevin's ????

Fun: Few levels have as much asn impact on me like this one. Not only it was brilliant, but it was very good as well. The ammount of poetry intimades me. Sexually, physically and more importantly physically. Boos stacked on each other, remind us the emptyness in our souls. Our flaws as humans. A true masterpiece.
0/10

Graphics: Pitch black bro. Pitch black.
0/5

Other:
If Apply my battle theories minds are relatively blown,
so take a seat steeve, ops! I see you brought your own,
what's with your voice? I can't freaking tell
you sounds like Wall-E having sex with a speak and spell.
I'll school anywhere, MIT to oxford
all your fans will be "That was hakward"
I am as dobe as to rappers, ya better be scared,
cause that means Albert E equals MC squared!
0/5

Overall: 0/20
To anwer your question: yes. Science indeed.

Nan and Xero's...somethingness

Fun: I found myself having fun and breaking my teeth at the same time through the entire level. Some of the jumps were way too specific, some of the plattaforms moved way too fast and in the end it made me wanna grab a hammer and break the computer. Some warp points took me directly to Boo's, which caused me damage. It was beyond obnoxious. With that said, the story was fun and the plattaforming did had some good moments of fairness. I guess that is what the level is lacking a bit: fairness. It makes me feel as if it was the level the one that cheated. While some people do have fun with that, I do not. Still, as I said, I did enjoy myself during the ice section, the plains section and the haunted house was clever, despite its annoyances.
7.25/10

Graphics: Solid graphics. Well placed decor, okay tiling. Nothing very special, but it has its job done.
3.5/5

Other:
+0.5: very original concept, nicely executed
+0.5: no lag or loading time, despite its lenght
4/5

Overall: 14.75/20
A good level, and you seriously took yourself to make it hard. But maybe a bit too hard, and sometimes not the right kind of hard. Still, you have done a good job. Cheers!

Volcove's Fear Factory

Fun: The level was divided into two parts: pre-checkpoint and post checkpoint. The pre-checkpoint seemed to be the weakest to my eyes. Jumping above the fire pipes took me lots of time, and most time I got burned anyway. The ammount of cheap cheaps annoyed me to say the least. The second part was a lot stronger. The bullet bill tricks were very intresting, even if they were not fully integrated to the gameplay. The timming and jumping was fun. Overall, it was an enjoyable expirience, but getting through the first part is not as fun as through the second one.
7.25/10

Graphics: they don't look amazing, but the tiling is pretty strong. The atmosphere is well designed, so points for that. Appealing to the eye, but nothing really wowing. 4/5

Other:
+0.5: no lag or loading time
+0.25: an intresting remake, though I would have liked if the plattaforming was a bit better addapted at some points.
3.75/5

Overall: 15/20
A strong level. Not as good as some of your levels, but for a haistly made level, it seems pretty nice.

Congrats for this LDC. While few people took in, the results were indeed good. Thanks a bunch.

[JSlayerXero]

So, this is JSlayer's first LDC medal altogether, and Nan's first top 3 trophy! Nice one, guys.

Seems you won't be getting that lead cannonball after all... :p

Seems you won't be getting that lead cannonball after all... :p

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Oh well. To be fair, Nan was sure he'd get above 4th this time. Or was this post a joke:

Am I getting a lead block, a lead ball or a lead ingot? Because I'm obviously not getting 6th-1st.

First, WE would get a lead block, not just you.

Second, we're gonna do better than 7th, I'll make sure of it. I know the beautiful, nice young lady who hosts this contest. *gets shot*

I dunno, either way, congrats Nan. Here, take my medal, I'mma go steal myself a cannonball. Was fun y'all!

Side note: I actually forgot there was only 7 levels this time around

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

Just saying, Lordpat's score for Dtroid was actually 13.75, not 14. I had to re-check all the scores given to me so I could make sure there were no miscalcs.. :3

Oh yeah and Nwolf's score for Volcove was 17.5, not 17 like his judging states. But I PMed him the correction for that one so I think you're safe, lol.


EDIT: Oh, right judgings here:

here we go: show

Triple J:
with Weather Works

Fun – 8.25/10. I actually had a lot of fun playing this level, I particularly loved the gameplay; it was brilliantly executed. I really got the feel of weather changing here- great atmosphere. Do you know what ruined it for me? Replaying the whole level. Why couldn’t we have just had a warp pipe at the end that transported us back to, not the very beginning, but the second transition after the first? Finding our way back from there isn’t so bad. But considering some of the transitions lagged a lot, this just becomes tedious. In the future I’d suggest a strong piece of advice- never make the player retrace their steps completely back to the beginning of the level. If you want the player to return to the beginning that’s fine, but use a warp pipe or a door or something that either sends us straight back to the very beginning or to one of the first transitions. Other than that annoying concept, the level has a lot of great qualities and seems to be a strong contender for this LDC. Also a tip about the signs- we didn’t need them. Only one of them was needed because there was a fairly confusing part, but even then the writing was far too small for me to read and I soon figured out what to do and your graphics actually made it fairly obvious. I honestly think you nailed your graphics this time except for a few small things (see below) because they made each section clear with where you needed to go and the direction of the player’s movements- seriously don’t need this many signs in the future. Especially considering I had much more fun working it out myself.

Graphics – 4.5/5. In this level, the tile combinations really stood out for me- I loved it. But you must remember that sometimes even the greatest tile patterns can look a little empty without just a little décor here and there. By that I don’t mean splatter the whole level with loads of vines and twisted roots, but just a bit here and there. In fact, I would advise leaving the vines and twisted roots out unless in a very small area, because levels, depending on the atmosphere, can look uglier when there’s suddenly lots of them and then none at all. In my opinion, cave type plants would have worked very well here, both on the ceiling and the ground. I think once I saw an upside down tree trunk with a blue coin, which of course counts as item cut-off once you remove the blue coin. Other than what I’ve already mentioned, you seemed to create some great graphics here. Well done. (quick note: I personally hate mixing natural tilesets (so grass, jungle, cave etc) and you mixed some snow and cave tiles together which really didn’t work for me.)

Other – 3.25/5.

-0.25 – Ouch, that writing is tiny. Don’t really get how I’m supposed to read that… (other than the fact there are far too many instructions anyway…)
+0.5 – The contraptions and weather conditions are actually really interesting, very entertaining and imaginative indeed.
-0.25 – Little bit of lag and loading time, especially in one transition.
+0.25 – The flame background in the last transition is cool, even if it is becoming popular now.

Overall – 16/20.

---

Dtroid:
with The Lost Dimension

Fun – 7/10. First off, I’d like to mention that you did include a few interesting platforming techniques. The red coins behind the disabled pipes was a nice idea, even if getting squished underneath that block wasn’t equally as pretty… Most of the time the gameplay looked rather unusual, and I liked that. However there were some flaws I think you should be aware of- that flame maze thing near the beginning? One of them disappears very quickly for like a second, nowhere near enough time to get past it. It’s very easy to over shoot it too. Not to mention that the flames are kept far too close together. And getting the red coin there is a nightmare. Fricking hell, calm down! But other than that, the platforming looked entertaining and fun. I thought the last red coin challenge was pretty new, well done. (this is from the first level btw) Now onto the second level- things seem to be fairly better here. I did notice that you used BY’s green pipe trick (making an object look dark green) and my gravity trick with the platforms. The wooden platforms at one point were too high up for Mario to reach so he drops off the end randomly, and that was probably caused by careless play testing. Improve upon this in the future. Then in the final level there was a huge unnecessary drop into the water, which btw, if you don’t expect it coming by the time you’ve pressed up to get out you’ve already sank out of level bounds. And at the very beginning all that happens is you hit a flame and tbh you’re left very stuck on where to go- a sign would’ve helped. And in the second transition the slow platform was pretty dull really, even if the switch blocks boosting you up were a decent addition. Overall it was good, only affected by some flaws.

Graphics – 3.75/5. Hmm…interesting tiling to say the least. Even if the mixture was a bit much at times- I still quite liked it. Décor wise, for the first level, I saw little to none, and there was certainly some room for it. As well as the fact that, as the level got nearer the end, the tiling got less and less interesting. Maybe that’s some advice that’ll benefit you- learning to maintain the graphics? Then in the second level, there’s immediate desert cut-off, which isn’t a pretty sight. However the rest of the level certainly makes up for it- great décor and tiling throughout, really nice, gotta love it. But you should know that some tiles don’t show up in front of items, and you really chose the wrong tiles to put some blocks behind. Then in the third level there’s hardly anything there to judge graphics on- however I suppose the tiling was interesting in places and boring in places like before, and while the décor in the water was nice (and still lacking a bit IMO) there was none anywhere else. Overall a nice effort and I think it paid off mostly well.

Other – 1.75/5.

+0.25 – The FLUDD cases at the end of the first level for the pillar tops was pretty cool, and didn’t look at all bad.
-0.75 – Start position in the second level ♥♥♥♥ up- you put it far too near the beginning of the level dimensions.
-0.25 – Better playtesting next time- some other well known bugs were noticeable here, such as the seemingly invisible blocks being able to be run through, because they were just too far from the beginning of the transition.
-0.5 – The way you collect the shine sprite in the third level is really awkward- you just keep falling and falling then finally land on a warp pipe- on which you fall off that at the very end too.

Overall – 12.5/20.

---

1018peter:
with Biological Research Centre

Fun – 8.75/10. First of all, ignoring the loading time here, this level looks to be great. I love doing separate challenges and I can’t help but feel this is inspired by Space Colony..? Either way, epic atmosphere, seriously. Although my first complaint are the flames popping out randomly, easy to get burns- and isn’t fun at all. Maybe you should have a special coloured block that signals them? Moving onwards; I like the split sections from the elevator, we get a real sense of exploration from this. And plus, as we can tell immediately from the level dimensions that this biological research centre is huge! And by that, I mean, almost life-like huge. I do think though that there are far too many challenges and tbh the bosses are more like deathtraps. You must ALWAYS give the player safe spots to go to in an intense battle, which you failed to do in some cases here. So as you can see there are some ways to improve but I also thoroughly enjoyed it.

Graphics – 4.5/5. The graphics look great for tiling, and the décor looks ample for the cave and grass sections. There is one bit in the arctic oceans section which has water cut-off but thankfully it’s not too major. There is certainly a great block usage in the level and I think it’s quite clear that they have been used for graphical features too. Ah well, great attempt still. I don’t feel like my eyes have been treated enough to give this a 5/5 and there still seems to be a few things missing…but what the hell, I’ll be generous because I know for a fact that adding anymore would make this loading time pure hell on a higher scale than it already is. So great work.

Other – 3/5.

-0.75 – First problem I notice here is the loading time. Yup, that was a huuuge loading time. Why couldn’t you have split the levels?
+0.25 – I like how the green vines act as a barrier; nice touch.
+0.5 – The block bosses in general were actually pretty awesome- well done.

Overall – 16.25/20.

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KevinOC:
with Science

Fun – 999/10. ♥♥♥♥ yes that is what I call science

Graphics – 9999/5. those graphics are like totally amazing dude

Other – 99999/5.

+99999 – for rocking this theme omg this wins all

Overall – 11097/20.

WE HAVE WINRAR

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JSlayerXero & NanTheDark:
with Hall of the Editor

Fun – 8.75/10. Okay, let’s start with how utterly unique this was. I mean, I have never played a level like this before. I think the closest I got to playing something like this was Invasion of the Spambots from the 9th LDC by Usu, but even this is way out of its league (sorry Usu :3). And sure, there were some great parts and also some flaws. But overall I had a heck load of fun playing this. One pretty epic collab, I must say! At first I entered the level and it looked bare, there was only a back story of the level designer that didn’t seem so interesting to begin with. But when we enter the clock world you suddenly realise what it meant by “exploiting” the level designer in a way that had never been done before. …Well correction, fast platforms and glitches have been used before, but I doubt it had ever been to that standard. Usually I hate the fast platforms because you can’t keep balance on them and end up falling THROUGH them, which to be fair, did happen to me a fair bit. But what was nice is you didn’t make them tedious- what I discovered was you actually used them as easier ways to get across the level, which is rarely pulled off at all, let alone as well as you managed to. And the very end with the user profile years in the future, I half lol’d, half smiled at that. What a great idea, and I’m genuinely impressed. I think you may benefit from listening to a few of the flaws, though- the mansion brick section. I honestly couldn’t work that out; being completely truthful here, I had to move the start position and quit that section. Sorreh. I’m pretty sure that was done purposely, though? I also did agree that it began to drag on a bit, especially towards the end. Thank goodness you ended it when you did as I was worried you were going to make it a tad boring. But overall, great gameplay, concept and ideas used here. This’ll get you very far this LDC methinks.

Graphics – 3.5/5. I’ll be honest with you; the graphics really weren’t that great. I mean, I’m not so much talking about the end, I know for a fact those graphics were terrible for a reason and it’s funny because that and MMMMMM were the only times that I think graphics made to look terrible still looked pretty awesome, lol. (For similar reasons- both terrible graphics were executed very cleverly) But I mean the beginning, the clock world, the lava section etc. There wasn’t much for decoration, and the tiling wasn’t varied all that much either. It looked rather…empty, if you don’t mind me saying. The snow section I think looked great, even then lacking in a bit of décor though, and the grass section with the enemies, while it lacked in décor yet again, had a nice shape variety and you made it look mechanical and natural at the same time, which worked really well. I have to say that I liked some of the tile combinations even in the terrible looking parts (XD) such as the entrance to the tavern. But overall, while this level did lack in good graphics here and there, the main thing is you fitted the atmosphere very well, and I think in a level as unusual as this that’s what you’re really looking for.

Other – 5/5.

+1.25 – Frickin incredible concept. This deserves a whole point (and a quarter) of its own.
+0.25 – Awesome exploitation of the items in the designer, you really stayed true to your words at the beginning of the story and it certainly didn’t disappoint.
+0.5 – Gotta love the forum game references and the ending section in general.
-0.25 – However, as much as the level rocked with the ending I still was completely lost on how to get out. I assumed we went in the water but I really didn’t know; maybe give a clue or something? (even a cryptic one, unless you did and I’m just incredibly dumb, which tbh is very likely)
+0.25 – Fit the theme incredibly well IMO, and gets the quarter point for the theme being used in a totally unconventional way.

Overall – 17.25/20.

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Volcove:
with Fear Factory

Fun – 9/10. First thing to say is; while I don’t recognise any references (because I hadn’t played the original game), it does have some nostalgic feel to it, which is incredibly enjoyable. Besides, you still used some new fresh gameplay, as well as the fact the loading time was incredibly reasonable. And not just that- your level felt like a true factory, from the tiling, the theme and the use of items. Really great work, I had a lot of fun playing this. It also had a great balanced difficulty. My only complaint is that some of the flame towers were a bit high up and sometimes I couldn’t even triple jump over them without being hit, also bear in mind there were no jumping blocks about to help me over. Still, you’ve done incredibly well fun-wise, great job.

Graphics – 4.25/5. Nice graphics overall, the tiling was great, I don’t even think you needed décor here (though knowing me I always ask to add it just for the sake of adding it and not wasting away that section of the level designer, lol) and also the bullets once again have a surprisingly good effect on the graphics. It felt like a true factory, and I loved that. However there was some pipe cut-off and I’m pretty sure it could have been avoided? Overall, nice work, you really succeeded here.

Other – 2.75/5.

-0.25 – I experienced some lag in the level but thankfully the loading time was great.
Note – The invisible star in the second transition underneath the breakable brick seemed a bit pointless to me but I’m not sure if it was needed or not, so I’m just leaving this is as a note.

Overall – 15.75/20.

---

Wow, scores are pretty close this time round.. o_O

1st – JSlayerXero & NanTheDark. (17.25)
2nd - 1018peter. (16.25)
3rd – Triple J. (16)
4th – Volcove. (15.75)
5th – Dtroid. (12.5)

AND OF COURSE KEVINOC WINS WITH A SCORE OF 11097

[MessengerOfDreams]

This post by MessengerOfDreams was thumbed up by:

CedarBranch (March 22nd, 2013, 1:22 pm)

[CedarBranch]

Triple J, I knew you could do it. I've been a fan of yours forever and have been waiting for you to break into the scene.

Thanks!


And the ribbon should definitely keep me more motivated.

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

I'm happy for you too JJJ. You remind me a lot of me, you know that? :3

Also didn't tell you this through PM Nwolf, but you have NO FRICKIN IDEA how awesome it feels to get a 10/10 in Fun from you! :'D