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017 ~ The Magma Ship -> Testers for Hiring

AKA the thread that is made the latest, because of unsolved laziness.

So after a bit of thinking on what I'm actually going to do, I finally have an idea of what I'm doing. Screw logic, wood can survive lava if it's The Magma Ship. So far, I'm playing with the aesthetics, and making the area look good enough. I'm going for a half custom palette, meaning SMW Palettes are present, but there are palette edits.



What? Why are you looking at me like that? I don't see anything wr- Ooooh... You're looking at that Sprite Decoration huh? I considered the issue a little too minor for me to consider it such a big deal. If it's really such a problem no matter how interesting it looks (to me at least), I guess I'll remove it because it's sooo confusing (even though all the "living" enemies don't look that yellow).

Other then that, I actually just started. Before you say that I probably can't make it, I made an entry in the last 3 days, so it isn't that bad. What do you all think?
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Of course wood can survive lava! Remember that battleship in SMB3?

What do you mean Mario could swim under it? It was clearly on lava in the overworld!

Really I don't care too much about sprite decoration. As long as a level is fun, what difference does decoration make? If it really draws the attention from the level that much, then you must not be making your level that interesting.

Right now, there isn't much to say about the level itself, but I have to say, I like the palette of the background with the fake HDMA right at the bottom by the lava. I would suggest making the HDMA a bit higher too and color in more than 1 block, but I would only suggest you follow my suggestion if you have sufficient map16 space.

I think it would also be pretty neat if you did the same HDMA effect on the boat in the foreground.
In most cases (like this one) sprite decoration isn't really an issue. Colors aside, sprites usually are animated, right? I think everyone will figure out what this Magikoopa is and even if not, all you need to do to confirm is jump on it.

Other than that I'm surprised you don't use the Ghost House tileset for the ship. Granted it's very common (I think) but you have so much more tiles to use than the few on your screenshots (so far) - maybe more is coming? Just saying because you said you were working on asthetics and so far it seems very simplistic. But of course, it's kind of hard to judge just from these two screens.

Originally posted by mockingod
Really I don't care too much about sprite decoration. As long as a level is fun, what difference does decoration make? If it really draws the attention from the level that much, then you must not be making your level that interesting.

Well I was worried that Sprite Decoration was considered a problem now, even though it's a little ironic that SMB3 (NES) had already done so.

Originally posted by mockingod
Right now, there isn't much to say about the level itself, but I have to say, I like the palette of the background with the fake HDMA right at the bottom by the lava. I would suggest making the HDMA a bit higher too and color in more than 1 block, but I would only suggest you follow my suggestion if you have sufficient map16 space.

I think it would also be pretty neat if you did the same HDMA effect on the boat in the foreground.

All the palettes are pretty much used now, so that's likely impossible unless I create a seperate GFX file with the palettes changed manually. The HDMA under the wood is a good idea, and I was already thinking about it before you mentioned it... but it's a bit impossible at this point.

Originally posted by FPI
In most cases (like this one) sprite decoration isn't really an issue. Colors aside, sprites usually are animated, right? I think everyone will figure out what this Magikoopa is and even if not, all you need to do to confirm is jump on it.

Exactly. Also the sprites are all animated and they're different colours.

Originally posted by FPI
Other than that I'm surprised you don't use the Ghost House tileset for the ship. Granted it's very common (I think) but you have so much more tiles to use than the few on your screenshots (so far) - maybe more is coming? Just saying because you said you were working on asthetics and so far it seems very simplistic. But of course, it's kind of hard to judge just from these two screens.

Well then again, I was focusing more on the background around the time. I did consider it though, and I'm currently making use of it at the moment... it's just that I kind of ran out of palettes to use without ExGFX.

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Next update I guess?




More decoration, and some different ship models. Also, I'm sort of wondering if it should be auto-scrolling or not. I don't know, what do you guys think? Before you ask, no, the fire doesn't hurt you, but it doesn't matter since, in order to test if it does, you'll get burned by the lava anyway.
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I think you should try it out without the autoscroll first and find out wether this works or not. The magikoopa doesn't go that well with autoscroll as it looks kind of odd when he appears near the left side of the screen and before he can shoot he already disappears because he reached the left side of the screen. (Besides, from what I understand, most people aren't too fond of autoscroll-stages anyway.)

I echo FPI's words in that the level shouldn't have autoscroll. Autoscroll just reduces your pace through the level to a crawl and is often misused 90% of the time (As in, autoscroll for no reason rather than as a clever level gimmick).
Those boss fireballs for the flame jets really look like they should be pointing the other way to make them seem more realistic as flame jets. Just a minor thing, but they look weird to me the way they are now.

Otherwise, level's looking good so far. As for auto-scroll, I'd say finish designing the level and then test it with auto-scroll and without, and go with what you find works best for the level.
Layout by Mirann <3

I'm probably retired tbh
Originally posted by FPI
I think you should try it out without the autoscroll first and find out wether this works or not. The magikoopa doesn't go that well with autoscroll as it looks kind of odd when he appears near the left side of the screen and before he can shoot he already disappears because he reached the left side of the screen. (Besides, from what I understand, most people aren't too fond of autoscroll-stages anyway.)

I'll keep it non-autoscrolling then, too many airships have autoscrolling anyway.

Originally posted by ZMann
Those boss fireballs for the flame jets really look like they should be pointing the other way to make them seem more realistic as flame jets. Just a minor thing, but they look weird to me the way they are now.

Ah, thanks for that. It looks way better that way.

Originally posted by ZMann
Otherwise, level's looking good so far. As for auto-scroll, I'd say finish designing the level and then test it with auto-scroll and without, and go with what you find works best for the level.

Well then again, I was actually testing the level without the autoscroll, but I wanted to see if anyone else agreed. Since people assumed it had autoscrolling in it already, I'll just follow FPI's suggestion for now.

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So the first half is basically done. Here's my final results:
The Full Image




Here's a preview of the other half... and oh boy is it HOT!


Also, I was thinking of adding one of the Lemmy/Wendy Bosses in this level, as it is an airship, and a boss would be suitable. I don't know, what do you guys think about that?
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Well with autoscroll the level should be designed in another way, without autoscroll another way.

I say without autoscroll.


Btw it looks really cool and the touch with the fireball boss is very nasty!

A very cool level that fits example in castlewalls!

Magma ship yeah!

Edit: ooops new screens! Again it's getting better and better!

A lemmy boss would fit nicely in this level!
I really like the orange glow coming off the lava. Does it exanimate?
This is taking shape quite nicely. Great progress!
Only nitpicking I have would be the miscolored midway point. But I assume you have all palettes in use already for something.

Well, I recolored my midway point too so it shouldn't really be a problem to fix.
Originally posted by FPI
This is taking shape quite nicely. Great progress!
Only nitpicking I have would be the miscolored midway point. But I assume you have all palettes in use already for something.

I fixed it by recolouring the odd side of the midway point through Map 16. The tape itself however is unchanged because otherwise it'll always appear when you die.

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This is probably the final update:




Also Lemmy makes an appearance:


So I'm pretty much done the level, so now I'm going to be cliche and allow you guys to test the level yourselves. Hope you guys like it, and hope to see the results.
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I did a quick playthrough of the level, and...

The first part is nice. All the enemies in this part do feel threatening, which I think it pretty important for a/an(?) SMW level. The Bullet Blasters in particular feel pretty scary. And then we have the second part.

I think I get why you set the time limit low in the "oh boy is it HOT!" room. Mario's probably struggling to breathe in that sort of heat and dies of asphyxiation after 100 SMW seconds.

The problem is that the level doesn't really accommodate the low timer really well. The second room feels pretty cramped and doesn't really encourage running, but that may have been what you were going for, and I understand that.

The Lemmy boss fight, on the other hand, is actually pretty annoying! The low timer + the fact that Lemmy pops out of spiky pipes at random and gets an extremely small hitbox means you might run out of time waiting for Lemmy to show up in the right pipe. That happened to me on one of my playthroughs.

My suggestion would be to raise the timer a bit or modify the Lemmy room to not have spikes.
Have to agree with UTF, that 100 seconds thing really felt unnecessary. If you really want to have a Lemmy boss fight when the player might only have 40 seconds remaining, remove the spikes. I ended up timing out just waiting for him to pop out of an open pipe for a third time.

Other than that most of the level felt fine. I do have to question why you feel it's necessary to have most of the Podoboos jumping out at seemingly random spots underneath the ships and platforms in the first half. Combined with the fact you used a Magikoopa for this portion of the level, I occasionally found myself getting hit by those without warning. Perhaps you could create visual hint that I shouldn't stand on those spots?



Also, do you really feel the spike is necessary there? I died a couple times just trying to jump around it, since there's no way to make a running jump over it and the lava pit (unless you got some momentum from the ship before it, but I don't see people trying to rush things in a level like this).
Just tested it, and the level is coming along really well so far. You've utilised tileset mixing well in making a good aesthetical feel for your level without going too overboard. I also like your enemy selection in the first part of your level, too. The combination of Magikoopa plus Podoboos and Bullet Bills poses a unique challenge to the player. The only thing I really dislike about the first area is that some spikes feel a little 'cheap' and unnecessary in places. I honestly feel the level would benefit more with them removed, but that's just me.

As for the second part, I was somewhat alarmed to find I only had 100 seconds left. I understand the gimmick, but the second part of the level really is not 'panic room' friendly. There are a lot of low ceilings in places -- particularly one besides a Dry Bones and a 1up Mushroom -- which made it hard to clear the level and the boss in time. I think I had around 30 seconds when I went to the boss, and found he liked landing ontop of spiked pipes more than anywhere else. I feel it would be perhaps better if you remove the boss and have the end of the level where the boss door is in the panic room sublevel as the 100 seconds time limit would be more reasonable then. Time Limits aside though, the second room of this level was generally well done.

Overall though, this level is pretty good! With some spike adjustments and the boss removed, I feel this could be a good entry. :)
Submitted
I removed the spikes from the more convinient places (like the screenshot from GeminiRage, and the Larry Boss Fight), extended the time to 110 seconds in the second half, and change the second airship in the first half to something less destracting. Yes, I left the boss in, but the only real issue I hear from most of you is the spikes, and those are pretty much gone.
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The level looks nice, but I think you should've messed aroundup with the palettes instead of using the almost default colors.
There is nothing wrong with using default palettes. Palettes don't change gameplay unless they are terribly done. The palettes in this level shouldn't make grade be lower. I think that even if Daizo changes the palettes to not be default, it wouldn't add to his score much. Right now, the level has a pretty good atmosphere from what I can tell.