The Universal Dueling Arena

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Re: The Universal Dueling Arena

Postby asdfmoviecaleb » April 29th, 2016, 9:12 pm

I want to duel someone, but I need someone who is at my skill level in terms of level designing. (3-4 star levels is my usual.)
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Re: The Universal Dueling Arena

Postby Harmless » April 30th, 2016, 3:09 pm

Duel me, I'm terrible at level designing, tend to get 3-4 stars on average, only got one medal in three-four years of level designing, and I tend to miss out on consecutive days to design. :awe:
Expect something cool here soon!

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Re: The Universal Dueling Arena

Postby NanTheDark » April 30th, 2016, 4:15 pm

Officially adding myself. I'm not very experienced as a judge, but I'd like to judge more stuff. If I'm not gonna be making levels, I'd still like to be involved in this community somehow.

Currently there's Shroom, Frozen, and me at the Judging Panel. If anyone would like to volunteer to judge for any duels that happen, let me know.

Edit: npromin1 joins the Panel!
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Re: The Universal Dueling Arena

Postby Awesomeguy 99 » May 3rd, 2016, 1:41 pm

Me and npromin are both not done with our levels, so we extended the deadline to the 16th.
Might be ready in a bit.

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Re: The Universal Dueling Arena

Postby NanTheDark » May 3rd, 2016, 6:59 pm

Done.
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Re: The Universal Dueling Arena

Postby NanTheDark » May 4th, 2016, 2:58 pm

I'm finally done with the judgings for Shroom vs Doram. I just gotta check a few things and I should be ok to post the results tomorrow.

Rai did finish his, right?
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Re: The Universal Dueling Arena

Postby Supershroom » May 5th, 2016, 1:33 am

Thanks for the good news. Good luck, Doram

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1 star: (0 - 5.75 in LDC) These levels need a lot of work. They're totally un-elaborated, and/or inherently flawed due to things like cutoff or enemy spam, or they're untested and there are too many bugs gameplay-wise, in short: Many many things went wrong in such a level.

2 stars: (6 - 9.75) These levels are not terrible, but poor. They're too short, lack scenery or they have errors and/or bugs but it's still barely enjoyable. Again, spend more effort and try to do better. (if it's your first level that I rate two stars, it's not bad. There's a long way you can still go)

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4 stars: (13 - 15) These levels are nice, but not the best. Effort has been put into them, there can some professionality be seen in gameplay and graphics, they're a nice experience to play, but there are still things you can do to make it even better. Try to go the extra mile!

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Re: The Universal Dueling Arena

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Postby NanTheDark » May 5th, 2016, 4:19 pm



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=Last Legacy=
=Hidden Secrets=


This has been way too long overdue, so without further ado, I present to you, the winner of this Duel.

This duel's winner is...


Spoiler: show
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Doram!
With his entry, The Puzzle Box! Congratulations!

Final Scores
Doram's The Puzzle Box: 38
Supershroom's The Secret of the Heated Volcano: 37.7


Thank you so much for participating, and I hope you're satisfied with the results.

You can see the scores arranged in a spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

You can see my judgings here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Op8 ... sp=sharing

Judging Saved for posterity:
Supershroom’s Level:
Secret of the Heated Volcano


In this level, you go through the Heated Volcano, a cave/lava level, and get to the last area, where you must collect 8 Red Coins (or Squares? Triangles?) in order to reach the goal portal.

The Heated Volcano doesn’t look bad at all. However, for being a volcano, it might have too many plants living in it. Of course, plants can grow in volcanic soil, but it’s rather unusual compared to the volcanic levels we usually see in videogames. The level keeps the same aesthetic for most of the level, without much variation, which can lead to the level being rather dull to look at, but the graphics do the job of conveying the volcanic theme nicely.

There’s a couple of hanging signs that are hanging in midair, from nowhere.

The beginning parts feel a bit weird. In the first two sections you can explore the area to find hidden equipment, but if you really wanted to you could just skip that and just keep going right. Offering optional gear is a nice bonus, however, and it’s not really difficult to find. You’re quite likely to run into the hidden platforms by accident. This also helps introduce the hidden platform mechanic, which is used in a couple other places in the level.

The bridge section is alright, but the bridge itself almost looks like you can actually walk on it, which confused me a little.

The airship section is something I really like. it’s a nice change of pace and a cool concept, even if the airship might be a little hard to control (the switches sometimes take longer to trigger than usual and sometimes they trigger when you’re just walking over them to get to the other side)..

The Red Coin Hub. I kind of want to nitpick the fact that there’s a door that leads nowhere, only exists in order for you to come back from one of the challenges, has a sign to explain it… and the door could easily not be there at all. As for how to make the return from the challenge, I can think of a number of more elegant solutions to it, like dropping you from the top of the hub, some fancy teleportation thing, a door that appears and disappears… or nothing. As long as you placed the player in a place that kind of makes sense, the door is largely unnecessary. This is not really a problem, just a nitpick really. But still.

However I do have a problem with the East Chamber. It’s a very challenging room. Challenge is not a bad thing. However I feel that it might be more frustrating than it needs to be.



This climb. My problem is not the turrets, they are easy to avoid. My problem is grabbing the first ledge on the left. It takes a perfectly timed double jump from the other wall to get there. Maybe I’m just bad at the game but it took me multiple attempts to get it right. And every time I died, I had to do this jump again. And that was more frustrating than jumping the carrousel platforms with spinning spikes, and that’s saying a lot.

And when you’re done with that, this Dark Beast comes around and kills you. If you don’t know the Dark Beast is there beforehand you are very likely to get hit by sudden blue projectiles from the right. And that’s not exactly fair.

This section could be improved vastly if you included at least one more checkpoint, and made the first climb easier. Because let’s be honest, that silly little climb is not supposed to be the main focus of the challenge but I spent most of my time in the East Chamber in there.

The gravity section is actually pretty cool. It’s challenging (but still easier than the East Chamber), but it’s fair. The checkpoint is a bonus. Personally I don’t feel it’s as necessary as it would be to have a checkpoint in the East Chamber, but it’s still good.

The rising lava section is alright. I felt it might have been too short, but besides that it’s good. One criticism I have is that the hero is standing on a slope when the lava rising trigger activates, and that makes him look a bit awkward.

The final stretch is pretty good, but every time you talk to the old man you activate the trigger. Which is weird.

To conclude, this level is good. It doesn’t look bad (but could look better), it has some nice concepts put into it, but this one frustrating section kind of ruined the experience for me a little. This level could be better if you changed a few things.

Fun: 15/25
Graphics: 12/20
Other: 5/5
Total: 32/50



Doram’s Level:
The Puzzle Box

In this level, you enter the Puzzle Box, where you must find a healing relic in order to save a village from a plague. As the name indicates, you must solve puzzles in order to progress through the level.

This old temple looks nice. For the most part it’s kind of generic-looking, but it looks good, and the Codifier Room’s background is very well designed. However, the room where you undergo the Bloody Task is way too red. The color actually hurts the eyes a little. The different perspectives of the cube room are also a great touch, but for the most part it’s nothing too impressive.

This level also contains what Doram has referred to as the PlotPump. At the start of the level, you have an electric switch. If you leave it on, you’ll play through the level with plot dialogue happening every now and then. However, there will be parts where this won’t work exactly as intended, leading to possible glitches where dialogue doesn’t show up, and even one of the puzzles, the Keen Eyes puzzle, can end up being glitched, to the point where it becomes impossible to interact with (can be fixed by restarting from the last checkpoint however). The dialogue for the most part is not doesn’t really advance any kind of plot, instead it mostly states the character’s current situation and give hints and other advice. The actual story is just the beginning and the end of the level.

And don’t think that leaving it turned off is that great either, since you both miss out on tips and you also get some other glitches, both graphical and puzzle-wise, like in the Codifier room.

There’s also a few problems with the way music is triggered. During the challenge room, if you were to die, you come back to the room and the default music is playing, since the trigger for the new music is right at the door in the middle of the challenge room.

The level’s progression is alright. Hidden throughout the level are transparent levers that are hard to spot. Luckily, you only need to get two in order to progress, all other levers unlock some hidden bonuses. So it’s not really a bad thing, even if it sort of becomes a pixel hunt.

The mechanics involving “spinning the cube”, more or less, seem pretty nice. There’s a nice feeling of discovery when finding new things. The challenge room is alright, there are some challenges that are more platforming/beat’em up challenges than puzzles, but it’s ok for the most part.

The maze is… ok. It’s not exactly hard to navigate or find your way through. The gravity can be kind of confusing, but it’s nothing too complicated. First time I played I actually got stuck in a section because I had the gravity set a certain way and couldn’t climb my way out. But in following playthroughs I didn’t have that issue.

All in all, it’s a neat experience, if incomplete. It’s a good level, but I feel it could be much better if it had more work put into it.

Fun: 17/25
Graphics: 12/20
Other: 3/5
Total: 32/50


Why can I grab onto this arrow?



After I was done writing all this, I realized that the two of you ended up having the same final score. I just wanted to say this was not on purpose, it just happened. Also… I seem to overall give less points than other judges. Maybe I’m too harsh a judge. Then again, I’m not very experienced.

You have every right to be displeased with my judgings. After all, I spent a whole month procrastinating and this is all I ended up giving you… I apologize in advance. I hope that next time I can be a much better judge.
Last edited by NanTheDark on May 5th, 2016, 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Universal Dueling Arena

Thumbs up x1

Postby Raiyuuni » May 5th, 2016, 4:29 pm

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Re: The Universal Dueling Arena

Postby Joshio01 » May 7th, 2016, 3:32 pm

I'm guessing you guys want to see my judgings. no? well I'm showing you anyway.

DORAM
Spoiler: show
GAMEPLAY: 23/25
Overall, your level was great to play through. I think the highlight of the level was of course the codifier. It wasn't too advanced in terms of triggers but it sure made the level more entertaining. I was running around everywhere trying to find all the codes (in the end I only found 2 but hey, I tried) and the secret levers to unlock new stuff. I also really enjoyed the maze room and I thought the gravity changing and door entering mechanics were clever. The challenge room was cool too, although I found the climbing room a bit annoying to get through. The 'heart room' was my personal favourite part. There was one thing that bugged me about the level though. While 90% of the loot in the game that you earned was useful equipment or valuable hearts, the problem with it was you earned it right as you finish the level, so there was not really any chance to make good use of it! Although as with 'The Secrets of the Heated Volcano' they do make good collectables. Overall

GRAPHICS: 19/20
All of the graphical elements in the level were spot on. Every colour scheme in the challenge rooms suited the play-style of the challenge and the music went well with them also. The fact that they were split into challenges also gave you the opportunity to present a variety of different looks for each one. The foes in the climbing room blended in well (Which was still annoying even if it was clever!), the battle room was blood red which suited it well, and the ice room was, well, blue. The window patterns were also pretty cool, including several parts overlapping to create an interesting, ancient look and the icons above some of the doors were JJJ-quality stuff too. The symbols on the puzzle box itself were also a nice touch. On the animation side of things, however, there wasn't really much to see other than the cage drop at the beginning, Although that didn't bother me too much. 5/5!

OTHER: 2.5/5
-I really liked the 'Plot Plump' idea and I'd love to see you use that in future levels (+0.5)
-Although I did like the music changes in the challenge rooms, I felt that at the beginning it wasn't really necessary and I felt you used that too much (-0.5)
-It took you an extra day to submit your finished level (-0.5)

TOTAL SCORE: 43.5/50


SUPERSHROOM:
Spoiler: show
GAMEPLAY: 22/25
Your level was really good in terms of gameplay and I feel like you achieved a fair balance between platforming and battling enemies. My personal favourite part of the level was the airship section. Although it was a bit easy and glitchy, I still found it to be a cool game mechanic. In terms of the secrets in the level, I certainly found the chests with weapons more useful than the gears (Large Squares), since they were found early-mid game and became quite useful in the red coin section where foes were everywhere. The gears however only really provided 100 squares, which to be honest is pretty useless since there are no shops in the level to exchange them for gear. They were still a nice collectable though. Toward the end I found that the level really got interesting. Those extra challenges, especially the gravity section were really tough (either that or I have no skill) and lacked the few extra respawn points that I though it needed.

GRAPHICS: 17/20
Graphics-wise the level was pretty good. The background suited the level well with it's seemingly random holes in the wall, and the background walls that you made just added to the effect. I liked the way the background changed slightly more red as you got closer to the red coin section. The bright yellow and green lava (poison?) you added was an interesting choice but it blended with the overall look of the level well. To be honest though, nothing really stood out for me other than the lava, the airship and the squares. Most of the level was tinted red and although this made it look like a volcano (as it should) it didn't really allow for you to make things look interesting. In terms of effect things were a bit better. The red coins fading away was done well and the platform at the very end appearing was excellent. There was also one last thing that I wanted to mention though: The bridge in the first section. I know you mentioned in the tips that you'd need to find a secret platform, but that wasn't exactly obvious when looking at the thing. All of the tiles and blocks used to make it were in the background, and it was only until I already fell that I saw a small platform that you were supposed to use the other platform to get to. This could have been easily fixed by fading the bridge a bit to make sure people know that you can't just use the bridge without finding the secret platform (I do accept partial responsibility for this since I was too lazy to read the sign).

OTHER: 3/5
- had trouble finding the end wormhole and ended up wandering around the final area until I died, then found it afterwards. (-0.5)
-The red coins in LL were awesome (+0.5)
-I liked the tips you gave, although I thought they could be done better if you had an in-game character say them (+0)

TOTAL SCORE: 42/50
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