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Raz wrote:This is off-topic, but do you guys feel this would be better with LL's subtitles?
The giant glaring signs bother me, not sure if that's just me or..

They would make conversation / storytelling much more fluid, yes.

Makes sense. I hated stopping to read stuff many times during story levels.

Oh.

To me,I enjoy SM63 so much that I have very little annoying things in levels. I particularly enjoy precise jumps,as they test the skills of the player.

1. Bad/unfitting tiles,cutoff,unfitting background,and the number of enemies/how they are placed.
2. Levels so difficult and without checkpoints that I have to play it again from the beginning.

That's all that I find irritating/annoying. If it's a level that doesn't have those two,those are masterpieces to me.

And that's why we need a checkpoint item built in to Level Designer instead of finding a secret pipe to access the checkpoint OR moving your start point.

But that is off topic.

Back to the topic.

I hate those triple jumps on tiny platforms like logs,even though I'm surprisingly good at it.

The key to designing good levels is to stop worrying about what others think. I don't mean to ignore common sense, lag and bugs are never good. But when it comes down to preference and desire, you can't please everybody. I don't think anyone who's not Volcove can.

"Levels with stories are the devil and anyone who makes them is going to hell." Maybe that's exaggerated, but some days it feels that way. But, baby, I was already on my way to hell, so what have I got to lose?

This is a conclusion I've come to recently in the place of being hurt that people think that my method is illegitimate: I'm probably the most selfish level designer there is, because I set out to satisfy myself first and first and foremost. I want my story to be told, not just through words, but visuals. I want to speak to people, make them think, make them imagine, make them feel. I want to do things no one else dares to and inspire them to break the archaic norm and try new things. I'm a revolutionary, aren't I?

I'm going to direct movies someday and want to start somewhere. If you guys enjoy my levels, and some of you have, then that's amazing. Don't ever think I'm undermining the support I've gotten from people like Amp. But I want to fulfill ny visions, damn the consequences. The bits of positive reaction I get is a bonus.

So yes, some might say my way of designing is wrong. It's nothing like someone would expect to be appropriate for a Mario game. But I don't know if you've noticed, It's all I know how to do. I'm grasping at straws when it comes to other elements. My gameplay is decent, my editing is ♥♥♥♥, and my graphics are only really good when they connect to a story. So maybe I'm wrong. But I don't want to be right.

One thing I've noticed about you, Triple J, is that you fear too much what others will think of your work. If anyone is disappointed in your work, you take it hard. I understand, I spent the first year and a half of my career scraping by ♥♥♥ down skid row, snapping up next-to-lasts and participation ribbons all over the place. But you are ♥♥♥♥ talented, man, and I envy a lot of the skill you have, and your desire to learn. You're not perfect. No one is. I encourage you to find your flaws and fix them. But above all, don't feel as though you have to tailor your levels to someone else's standards.

You are an artist. All designers are artists. You can take that to the bank. From simple platformers to sprawling epics, you have created a slice of your own world that you're sharing with others. Those are big stakes. That is a privilege. People might see it as toying around on a game, but we know better. It's why we keep doing it. It's why I can't stop. It's why I'm doing it how I do it best. You want to make levels people care about? You want to be a designer people care about? Don't lose track of yourself and what you want out of your work. The rest will follow.

*Thumbed up* Thank you so much for understanding!

It's indeed hard to stop worrying about being judged (it applies to everything, not only LDing), but you definitely are helping.

Don't worry, a lot of the times a review or a comment is generally for good intention and feedback, unless otherwise stated or toned negatively.

I'm sure there's a quite a few people including me and you who take criticism a bit too much to heart sometimes. It happens, don't worry.