Inspirations for your Levels?

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

So, I don't think I've ever really shared what inspired each of my LDC entries/other major levels. I always used to say to people that my room inspired me, and believe me it actually did.

I'm also interested to know if there was anything that sparked off your best levels too?
Like you saw something, and you got a sudden idea or inspiration? Feel free to share them here.

These are mine anyway:

• Follow the Butterflies- The idea was taken straight out of Harry Potter. "Follow the spiders, why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?"
• Journey to the Arctic- I just looked at the big globe in my room, and wondered if I could ever replicate whole countries in a level. And the idea just started forming inside my head. SMIC added all the main details to make it a fitting story to the theme.
• Universitas- I used to have a night sky poster stuck to my ceiling, above where I slept. I used to obsess over it, so I used this obsession to create a story.
• Antichesm- I said this in the YT commentary, but I wrote a story when I was 13 called Zodiac Heart, very inspired by daemons in the Northern Lights trilogy. It was about a boy and his zodiac guardian running away from a woman called Norma and her plans to split his soul apart. (originally called quinnetation, not antichesm)
• SMA- Mostly Star's ideas tbh, but I did have an obsession with making a good quality mirror level, as they were spammed all over the portal at the time. I still have the original appearance, clear as day, in my head.
• Blind Experiment- Two words. SHERLOCK FANGIRL. I think I got sunspots once and I was like "holy ♥♥♥♥, ideaaaa".
• Ice Volcano- I just wanted to do a conversion level for some reason, but one that no-one had ever tried. I also loved the word irony.
• Tearing Paper- I...tore paper? Jk, this was a fluke. The name came randomly to me and I tried building the story around it. I like interesting names, hence why my story contest entry was called 'Allergic to Water'. Also Coldplay helped with the story. "When she was just a girl, she expected the world."
• Science War- I just wanted to have a go at creating an entire species and language. At this time I was deeply interested in different universes, reaching out as far awaty from human understanding as possible, and different colour spectrums. I have a feeling if people knew the amount of confusion and mind boggling pain I went through trying to create this, they would have let me win with a higher score. :3
• Black Jungle Run- Simply wanted to do a speed run, it didn't turn out to be one, but that was the idea.
• M&L's Great Escape- With everyone raving about Luigi-friendly levels at the time, I set myself a challenge to the first (and apparently last) to make a Luigi-ONLY level. (until I made it Mario-friendly too for WITBLO, lol)
• Hell's Rebellion- Everything about this series was taken completely out of one of my most vivid dreams. Surprise surprise. It was also a near exact replica of Fantasia's heaven/hell sequence. Watch it and you'll see.
• Water Butterfly- I wrote that poem when I was zoning out in an exam prep class in 2012, wishing I was anywhere but there, so I imagined a relaxing place of happiness. Since the day I wrote it I wanted to transform it into a level, it had been on the waiting list for 2 years.

Yay.

[MessengerOfDreams]

Alignment of Fates: I just made shapes and ♥♥♥♥ and then ♥♥♥♥ came together, when I wanted to add a story which I rarely saw happening

Such Great Heights: I wanted to make a big worldwide journey

Niveau Victorieux Galaxy: Shapes and ♥♥♥♥

Destinations: Slow evolution from a kinda Halloween level; wanted to work with dreams and reality, with a pretty sizable Inception influence, and Ven's work also being in the forefront

Roaming Celsius Luminary: Sort of a tribute to Fourinone's story style, otherwise see Niveau.

Dark: Atticus Ross music, and worldscaping in ways I didn't know existed. That sort of rolled into itself to create something bigger than me.

Memory Lane: Memory from Super Paper Mario.

Sliverfall Cove: A bet I made with Buffooner. Wanted to show I was capable of making a storyless platformer after being accused of being a one trick pony. Made all kinds of blocky ♥♥♥♥

Sympathy for the Devil: Wanted to do a story from the point of view of Bowser, stretching my storytelling tendencies to the extreme.

Echoes of Time: Tryhardery, but also wanting to incorporate two OCs I'd been working on in the Mario universe, Cyril and Roa.

Roots of a Generation: My love for Runouw.com and the Level Designing community at large, which is pushing me to try for things that I figured I could not ever do before, while also fulfilling a longtime passion to work with Star king, who's filled the void in ways I still struggle with.

[*Emelia K. Fletcher]

Unorthodox Cube: i want a level that can reasonably have holes in the wall

Gemstone Temple: i want a larger level and i want it to look sort of like unorthodox cube

Superfluous Landscape: i really want to piss people off by looking pretentious

[Konradix]

Dang, I was actually gonna do something like this, but I guess I was beaten to the punch

Well, not to give too much away:
Flame Tower - The final stretch of SM63
Attack on the Mushroom Stronghold + -lel The beginning of SM63
Mushroom Mounts - (In general) the beginning levels of NSMBU/Wii/2/DS

[1018peter]

Dimensional Fortress: Whoa Zone from Super Paper Mario and bit of Castle Bleck.
Canyon Dock: Sonic Heroes' Rail Canyon. I was hoping to make it longer,but I was in a bit of a slump then.
Podoboo's Fire Field: The idea of a fortress built upon a fiery landscape has always fascinated me,which is why I made this level.
Freeze Flame Fortress: Flame Fortress is obviously inspired by my other fiery fortress level,Podoboo's Fire Field. Freeze Fortress is inspired by Bowser's Castle in Super Mario World generally. I made up a lot of challenges there,but I don't recall taking anything as inspiration.
Tyranny of the Shroom Empire: I was going for a two-way interactive war for this series,but again,laziness got me. The reason for choosing the future Mushroom Kingdom as the antagonist is because I wanted to feel a scenario where the toads are in power,not just some weak people that can't do anything but watch their princess getting kidnapped every Tuesday.
Marshmallow Meadow & Stratos Lookout: I wanted a different kind of grassland,so I went for plateaus. I wanted a different kind of grassy mountain,so I went for a mountain binder with clouds.
Primetal City: Inspired by the concept of a kingdom of Bob-Ombs lead by the Big Bob-Omb. I also want this city to be heavily industrialized due to how bomb are mostly weapons. The city is inspired by many,many other city levels that came before me. The flame chase in the factory is inspired by Sonic Colors' Terminal Velocity Act 2. Other parts are just my hot factory style.
All of my blosses: My blosses follow certain battle styles,so chances are if you faced a certain style before,another bloss with the same style probably can't beat you.
The battle styles are -
1. Bloss Platforming (You jump around the bloss' body OR you jump around while the bloss is attacking you. Uses transition warps to signify damage.),this is the most popular during the early days,due to the straightforward nature it has.
2. Bloss Eggman (You find a pipe that leads to a Goomba Capsule and keep entering it to slowly pound the Goombas. Sometimes,if the bloss' too big,you will need to find an alternative way to clean them off due to how they respawn when you can no longer see them.),I'm not sure if I'm the first one that uses this,but it ended up being very effective. Obviously inspired by 2D Sonic Games.
3.Bloss Pursuit (The bloss will chase you to your death unless you can locate the exit in time.),inspired by Sonic Advance 2's moving bosses.)

[Harmless]

I actually have no idea. Just the first thing that comes to mind, I tackle and eventually plan with/around it.

[CedarBranch]

I actually have no idea. Just the first thing that comes to mind, I tackle and eventually plan with/around it.

The same, except for several of mine:

CannoGolf: I was really obsessed with golf at the time, and had made it especially while (specifically CG: Training Center) anticipating Mario Golf: World Tour (which was a bit of a letdown seeing no video replay feature, but I still like the game, which is good enough. :>)

Radial Runner: I had a mixture of Lode Runner/Bomberman and "Redial" (from Bomberman Hero) on my mind, and somehow it turned into this level.

Endless World of Power-Ups: Was playing Yoshi's Island, and this level idea popped up randomly. Didn't use it until months later, by the way.

Descent to the Loot: "Coin Fall" by koopa777. :3

After the Storm: Hurricane Sandy affected the New Jersey shores around the time, and so it eventually drove me to build something out of it.

Sunset at the Docks: I figured out how to make piers, so I decided to make a level using them.

Simmering Stars: Made out of interest in MegaR's quick Silver Stars levels.

Dir3, Dir3 Passage: Dire, Dire Docks, but I failed to make any resemblance. XD (I still won't tell anybody why the "3"'s. :p)



Octazone: Get in the zone. (not really)

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1000th post? Cool beans. No. Baked potatoes. Even though I don't like them.

[Harmless]

The only levels that really stood out to me were Darkwater Haven + Caverns and The Cannon Game. Everything else I made... eh. It's trash, really.

That being said, there was no inspiration for Darkwater Haven, it was just something I figured I would focus on graphics more than actual gameplay, and it paid off. Caverns I guess the inspiration was Darkwater Haven, which didn't really have an inspiration.

Cannon Game was just something stupid I thought of when I was a kid.

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

Well apart from Follow the Butterflies (and even then the inspiration had no effect on the level whatsoever; it just gave me the concept), before the 17th LDC, my levels were not really inspired by anything- just whatever came to mind for the theme choice.

It wasn't until I got this surge of fear at the thought of never placing above 7th in an LDC, that I decided to start working really hard to find the most unique storylines possible as that has always been something I love to do anyway, and since then it's certainly paid off.

But every designer is different. I guess I used this skill because it's always been there, you've just got to find a skill that works for you I suppose.

[Supershroom]

(I still won't tell anybody why the "3"'s. :p)

Maybe because of that TV series called "NUMB3RS"? and congratz for 1000 posts

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The 30 LDer thing was born out of my stupidness. I shouldn't have made such a laborious thing as my first level, I should have started with something simple. Surprisingly, it's my most viewed level till today. Orb of Morph was really supposed to be revolutionary. The story wasn't a high priority for it, it was mostly supposed to end up in a weird plot twist (me suddenly being the villain). Gameplay was supposed to be hard but not too hard. Yeah. The 30 Obstacles II was definitely better in graphics, but still a bit frustrating until I fixed it. No matter if it's gonna be a WITBLO level or not, I'm very pleased with it.

Tall Tree was both inspired by King's Huge Tree level, right when I've made the WITBLO11 Tribute, and by the concept of having small water streams in the forest, which came from Sonic Heroes' tutorial stage, where there are really small waterfalls along the path. At that time I didn't guess I could use it as the beginning for a series of platformers, in which the next level starts right where the previous one ended.

Boolord's Castle was another technical concept, both being metal during almost the entire stage without having any advantages of it (I mean, it was a curse), and those evil elevators. In this hasty week, I've playtested them too less, I already was satisfied with one successful try. Though the original being so bugged, I still like the structure of this level.

Futuristic Dream was my first successful thing. The idea behind the story (set in the future, danger coming by being technologically progressed too far) came from an old comic, and the style of the city was strongly inspired by Neon City, but soon enough I've developed my own style with the roofs, the tile combinations and the cave tile surroundings. (I still have to improve the ending, derp)

ROCKY CANYONS is definitely my flagship so far, even if I wish I could have added more rocks and decorations without having damn loading time issues. It's the level that took the most time to plan and make, by making an overview of useful tiles, items and gameplay techniques, and the idea of using tiles from the volcano and the desert set obviously came from Peter's Canyon Dock, haha. :3