25th SM63 Level Designer Contest

[MessengerOfDreams]

I lost by being a quarter point too nice. My original rating was 17.25, but then I bumped it up. And I lost because of that.


...oof

[Asterocrat]

Also it was called Sympathy for the Devil.

oops~ edited.

-brought to you by 1500th post &co.

[MessengerOfDreams]

Cool. Anyway ♥♥♥♥ judging time.

actually have the Triple J review cause I did his last when my computer restarted.

Triple J

Fun- 6.5/10

God.

I had extremely high hopes for this level, and in concept it is extremely interesting and I thought it would be well executed. But it was just so… grahbfhwfebeknbfjhfewbwehjew. There were so many awkward jumps, non-intuitive gameplay that confused the ♥♥♥♥ out of me, misplaced obstacles, and other moments that range from way-too-hard to impossible. I enjoyed myself sometimes and I loved the idea, but it was overshadowed by confusion and frustration that made this a chore more than anything. I really wanted this to be good. D:

Graphics- 5/5

But it looks so goddamn gorgeous in practically every way.

Other-

I gave you flack for this in fun so consider any errors covered in there.

Overall- 14.5/20

This was so disappointing, becasue you can do better than this.

Timi Overall 14/20 Fun- 7/10 Graphics 4/5 Other 3/5 Pretty decently fun. Had some good moments but overall average. It looked pretty good but there was cutoff. I loved the fiery vine but there were sections of platforming that were flawed because you could cheap out of them.

KevinOC Overall- 13.5/20 Fun- 7.5/10 Graphics 3.5/5 Other 2.5/5 Enjoyed the retro feel, it feels like it's from the original 3rd LDC, and it was fun otherwise. Looked decent but instances of cutoff and sloppiness prevalent. Oftimes some moments where you don't know what to do or get lost.

Nwolf- Overall 17.5/20 Fun- 8.75/10 Graphics 4.5/5 Other 4.25/5 Very fun, if not a bit too frustrating because I swear some jumps are not possible. Graphics are solid if not a bit samey. The bonus level is really cool and the level is really straightforward and easy to follow. The big bully fight is the best I've ever seen.

Amp- Overall 15.5/20 Fun- 8.5/10 Graphics- 4.75/5 Other- 2.25/5 A really epic level with great platforming, but really feels incomplete despite still standing on its own. Graphics are phenomenal. An instance with the wing cap is near impossible to pass, but the beginning is incredibly clever.

1018peter- Overall 18/20 Fun- 9.5/10 Graphics- 4.5/5 Other- 4/5 Very, very fun, with lots of brilliant ideas. Graphics are also top notch. The level often suffers from peter forgetting to tell us vital details that hinder us and the occasional disjointed hitbox on a fire spout (mostly Runouw's fault) but the sheer amount of brilliance (the giant expanding flame the fire boss spits, the numbered rooms, the rooms themselves (especially the water shell room), and even more. The alternate music was really neat, too. My pick to win.

theendlessjourney- Overall 14.25/20 Fun- 7.25/10 Graphics- 4/5 Other 3/5 Straightforward and pretty fun but had its share of bugs. I liked the two-path beginning. Graphics were also pretty good.

JSlayerXero- Overall 12/20 Fun- 7.5/10 Graphics- 2.5/5 Other 2.5/5 Some good gameplay, but the graphics and story leave a lot to be desired; the level does not carry the nightmare feel and the story does not convince me of it.

Dtroid'- Overall 14/20 Fun- 7.25/10 Graphics- 3.75/5 Other 3/5 Pretty good if not exceptional. Not much else to say. Kid's got potential.

Karyete- Overall 15.5/20 Fun- 8/10 Graphics- 4/5 Other 3.5/5 Prettier in the first part than the second. More fun in the second part than the first. Great puzzle level in the cave if neat unexceptional platformer in the first. Cave needed more decor. I like that giant beast thing in part 1 but wish it served more purpose.

Sprocket- Overall- 14.25/20 Fun- 7.75/10 Graphics- 3.5/5 Other 3/5 Upbeat and fun if again not exceptional, but a good spirit behind it. Graphics work sometimes but the jagged look gets over-the-top sometimes.

MICrophone- Overall 16/20 Fun- 8/10 Graphics- 4/5 Other- 4/5 A very nice, fun, simple play hearkening back to the olden days. Very funny at times. The fire towers are very impressive but they do have a habit of screwing up the camera on the first hit.

EmKay- Overall 14.25/20 Overall- 7.5/10 Graphics- 4.25/5 Other- 2.5/5 Well if you're not gonna complete the level why not poke fun at yourself? The concept is good and turning it into comedy actually worked (much better than KT's joke entry). Graphics are simplistic yet it fits the monotonous narrator. Of course loses points for being incomplete.

Yoshi NNB- Overall 7/20 Fun- 2.5/10 Graphics- 1.5/5 Other- 3/5 Just not a very good level. A pretty big mess. The guy tried but he has a lot to learn.

Doram- Overall 18/20 Fun- 9/10 Graphics- 4.5/5 Other- 4.5/5 The best example of Doram's simple yet excellent design. Enjoyed the exploration and dual options. The maze gets a little boring but that's the only big fault. The Rocket FLUDD secret and the 40 1-ups quest was really fantastic and intricate, and I'm glad he knows how to make his levels accessible and easy to traverse/backpedal on.

Volkove- Overall 17.25 Fun- 9/10 Graphics- 4.5/5 Other-3.75/5 The first level was extremely fun and ingenious. The second level, not so much; good yet unexceptional with a letdown boss. I wish he had left the first level alone because on its own it is nearly perfect. Graphics are pretty great too, crisp and clean, but the Bowser boss looks pretty bad. The two-rooms-a-level twist is really fantastic, and the graphic effect of the thwomps falling like dominoes was poetry in motion in room V, but I think there were a few instances where you were almost forced to take damage unless you were Jesus; way too difficult in short spikes. One of Volkove's best.

KT- Overall 16/20 Fun- 8/10 Graphics- 5/5 Other- 3/5 A short and neat little level. Fantastic graphics. Don't get the joke element but whatevs.

1. Doram and peter1018 tie for first. 2. Nwolf 3. Volkove 4. KT/Microphone 5. MP3/Karyete 6. Triple J 7. Sprocket/EmKay/theendlessusername 8. Dtroid/Timi 9. KevinOC 10. JSlayerXero 11. Yoshi NNB

[CedarBranch]

This post by CedarBranch was thumbed up by:

Dtroid (September 26th, 2013, 2:57 am)

[MessengerOfDreams]

Of course happy for Nwolf. I was really hoping he'd win. I just wish it wouldn't have been that heartbreakingly close. I got the highest score of everyone and still lost because I adjusted my score. That is a sucker punch. Bleh.

Good game, N, lawl. I wanted a non winner to win the LDC. I just didn't expect it in that way. XD

[Volkove]

Of course happy for Nwolf. I was really hoping he'd win. I just wish it wouldn't have been that heartbreakingly close. I got the highest score of everyone and still lost because I adjusted my score. That is a sucker punch. Bleh.

Parallel Spires by Volcove (2nd place, 17.19/20)
Winner (centre): Destinations by MessengerOfDreams & Venexis. (17.23/20)

*cough*

[MessengerOfDreams]

Yeah, that's the one thing that was on my mind but.its especially ironic because Sympathy for the Devil is Destinations' sequel.

[-BY]

I aimed for getting 6th but ended up being 5th again. Once I'm able to play SM63 properly, I will give some of those levels a shot. While SK's been doing great with this one, I'm hoping for a bigger break this time. Anyway. The 'joke' entry got an underwhelming piece of how I'm even failing at failing. Anyway. You all are awesome, and congratz to the other guys getting a medal.

Lemme wait patiently for the left judgings and (hopefully) the 1st LLLDC.

[Nwolf]

Xero, Timi, endlessjourney, KT, Yoshi NNB, Emelia, MIC, Volk: show

Nightmare Devourer by JSlayerXero
Fun: 6.25/10 I didn't like this level all too much. While it had nice ideas, there were many pretty annoying parts in the level. The underwater part was pretty boring as it didn't really offer that much. Same goes to the pipe maze which I hate anyway and all those 4 tile high jumps in the same transition. There were too many in one place.
Graphics: 3/5 The graphics were pretty average, the intro of the level was pretty nice to look at. There's a little bit cut-off in the underwater section (just one tile).
Other: 3.75/5 +0.5: No lag or loading time
+0.25: Some nice ideas like the floating platforms with spinning platforms and the invis maze
Overall: 13/20

Ice-Fire-Temple by Timi
Fun: 4/10 Your level had nice ideas and some were well executed but most of them backfired too. The fire vines made the time switch kinda impossible (just that it's not but it made it pretty annoying), the area where the only ground is platforms with 3 flame towers where you also have to go back because time switch blocking path is kinda annoying because the flame towers and platforms don't work that good together in the way you did it (some timing changes and it would be better though) and the bullet cannons stop shooting bullets if you are too far away and that is where you still need one.
Graphics: 3.75/5 Everything looks fine but lava cut-off ;_;
Other: 3/5 +0.25: Hardly any lag but medium-length loading time
-0.25: Never use the invincibility star with flying Bumpties this way. It glitches.
Overall: 10.75/20

The Bowser Space Castle by theendlessjourney012
Fun: 5.5/10 The level was okay. I often had no idea what to do or the types of challenge changed too quickly.
Graphics: 3.5/5 Sometimes some tiles looked a bit cut-off, rest was okay though.
Other: 3.25/5 +0.25: Loads instant but lags a bit
Overall: 12.25/20

A Dinch of B by -KT
Fun: 8.25/10 STOP MAKING LEVELS THAT ARE FUN TO PLAY. WELL YES YOU CAN DO BETTER BUT THIS IS BETTER THAN MOST LEVELS AROUND HERE. YOU... YOU... NOT-WOLFISH THING. Too short for me though I don't like too short levels :<
Graphics: 4.25/5 Pretty much the only person around here that is able to make random tiles look good.
Other: 3.5/5 +0.5: No lag or loading time
Overall: 16/20
Well.
Deal with it it's more than most people got from me this LDC.

Slippery Volc by Yoshi NNB
Fun: 5.5/10 The level isn't actually too bad, it's just kinda sad that you kept the standard settings which makes it boring.
Graphics: 1/5 Cut-off everywhere. Like in the Fun section, it could have been fixed if you looked into the items' settings (flame towers) or tried to have all times have a clear end.
Other: 3.5/5 +0.5: No lag or loading time
Overall: 9/20
Graphics-wise you still need to learn a lot, but I actually had a kind of a fun time playing the level.

Cause and Effect by MKSTAR26
Fun: 6/10 Well I don't hate the level and I don't really feel like cuddling it for the rest of my life either so I guess this is pretty ok. FINISH IT.
Graphics: 3/5 Well it has no cut-off, I don't want to kill my eyes but I also don't really feel like hanging the level in my bedroom so I guess this is pretty ok. And it looks like you at least but a bit effort and thought into the tiling at some parts (which half of all SM63 levels lack).
Other: 3.75/5 +0.5: No lag or loading time
+0.25: Sounds like Bowser yes
Overall: 12.75/20

Caged Oasis Redux by MICrophone
Fun: 8.25/10 Even if the level is really short it's quite enjoyable. Liked the flame tower a lot, sad that it's pretty much the whole level. Finish pls :3
Graphics: 3.5/5 Well there's no cut-off or anything else eye-killing.
Other: 3.5/5 +0.5: No lag or loading time
Overall: 15.25/20

Final Fortress by Volkove
Fun: 9/10 Liked the higher difficulty of the level a lot, but the rooms 3, 4 and 8 were pretty annoying: Room 3's underwater maze was just... weird to play, room 4 had the problem that you had no idea where to go when the enemies or coins were missing, room 8's last elevator was maybe a bit too hard.
The Bullet Level was awesome as always.
Graphics: 3.25/5 Was okay, Bowser looked nice
Other: 3.5/5 +0.5: No lag or loading time
Overall: 15.75/20
Pretty fun level.

peter, TJ, Dtroid, Sprocket, Kevin, Doram, Food, MoD: show

FreezeFlame Fortress by 1018peter
Fun: 7/10 The idea behind the level is really nice. The gameplay is pretty nice too. Just sometimes (aka very often) the diagonal flame towers glitched out and made the level very annoying. And almost every time the timing of the flame towers was too crappy (examples: Beginning and end of Freeze Fortress).
Graphics: 4.75/5 The graphics were very good especially all those block enemies.
Other: 3.5/5 +0.25: No lag but medium-length loading time
+0.25: Bonus points for the block enemies' design
Overall: 15.25/20
The idea of the level was very great. The execution failed a bit... mainly because of the glitched diagonal flame towers.

Bowser's Blazzard Castle by Triple J
Fun: 7/10 The platforming is really great in this level and the ideas, mainly the climate change, were a really great idea. The only sad thing about this is, that if you die once, you have to load the level for two minutes and because the platforming is also pretty hard (which is not bad, I like hard levels actually) this gets very very very annoying. Would've been 9.5-10 if it wasn't for the insane loading time once again.
Graphics: 4.75/5 I like the graphics a lot and it's hard to make a level twice with two different tiles so points for that. The last area of the level looks a bit boring though.
Other: 3.25/5 -0.5: total 3 crash warnings when loading
+0.75: Climate change ftw
Overall: 15/20
aka 3/4
well that's not too bad, JUST MAKE YOUR LEVELS HAVE A SHORTER LOADING TIME !(/"($!"$/"!)=§!(?=§/(=!?

Bowser's Space Castle by Dtroid
Fun: 7.5/10 Liked the level, some areas like the mazish part were a bit weird though.
Graphics: 3.5/5 Could have used more variation in the lava bit.
Other: 3/5 +0.5: No lag or loading time
-0.5: Incompleted
Overall: 14/20

Heat-Wave by Sprocket
Fun: 6/10 This level was pretty okay, nothing extremly entertaining. Hated those 1/4 block jumps though.
Graphics: 3.75/5 Looked okay.
Other: 3.5/5 +0.5: No lag or loading time
Overall: 13.25/20

Desert Skies by KevinOC
Fun: 8.75/10 Best thing about this level probably was that the platforming is very simple but also fun to play. Had to replay because of that.
Graphics: 4/5 Really like the graphics, especially the desert parts. But there's something wrong at the end of the level...?
Other: 3.25/5 0: Short loading time in general but one transition loads a bit longer and lags a bit.
+0.25: Like that statue/head/whatever at the beginning of the level
Overall: 16/20
LD more pls

Bowser's Icy Stronghold by Doram
Fun: 7.75/10 Level was pretty enjoyable, the 1-up mushroom search was quite nice but I wasn't really a fan of the White Star Maze. Which might be because I normally don't like mazes. Maybe would have been better if you used 2 tiles space instead of 1 because then Mario isn't so slow and it doesn't feel so crushed. Liked the last area a lot : D
Graphics: 4.25/5 The ice-castle areas looked very nice, the red coin and silver star areas not eye-killing and the fire area looked okay too.
Other: 3.75/5 +0.5: No lag or loading time
+0.25: 1-up hunt woo
Overall: 15.75/20
I would say something but dunno.

Temperatur Vengeance by Karyete
Fun: 8/10 Both levels were very fun to play, had a nice exploration factor added. The gameplay wasn't really innovative but simple stuff is good too : )
Graphics: 3.75/5 The desert level looked really nice, the cave level a bit too edgy.
Other: 3.25/5 +0.25: Part 1 loads and plays fine, part 2 takes a bit to load but plays fine too.
Overall: 15/20
Nice one.

Sympathy for the Devil by MessengerOfDreams
Fun: 8.25/10 Part 1: Very hard to read but interesting story. Could have used a bit more gameplay even if it's a prologue.
Part 2: Good gameplay, the idea of slashice was pretty nice. Some parts were a bit weird, like the beginning of the level.
Part 3: The platforming was very nice in the level, but I think it also was a bit repetitive. Bullet Bills were used too often (even if they fit most of the time).
Part 4: I think it was a little bit too much tile jumping this time but the Bullet Bill castle area and the space part were very nice.
Graphics: 4.5/5 Part 1: The snow area looks very good, the castle is a bit weaker in graphics.
Part 2: Same as part 1
Part 3+4: Very nice graphics, fitting the atmosphere of the scenes. Better than 1/2.
Other: 3.45 --> 3.5/5 +0.125: Part 1: No lag or loading time
0: Part 2: No lag but the 2nd transition gives me 1 crash warning
+0.075: Part 3: Level loads instant but it lags a bit in the Bullet Bill S section.
0: Part 4: One transition gives me a crash warning and it lags a bit in the Bullet Bill castle.
+0.25: Didn't know the glitch you used with the slashice existed. Nice execution.
Overall: 16.25/20
Very nice levels, the story is hard to read but pretty interesting.

Just ask if you have questions

[MessengerOfDreams]

When you say it was hard to read, you played the Vault version, right? Cause the portal version is the only version with ♥♥♥♥ up text.