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"A Little Kaizo Hack Demo" by TheDanielh05



File Name:A Little Kaizo Hack Demo
Submitted:29-01-2015 02:41:59 PM by TheDanielh05
Authors:TheDanielh05
Demo:Yes
Length:6 exit(s)
Difficulty:Kaizo: Light
Description:My first Kaizo Hack


While I understand this is your first Kaizo hack (and possibly first hack, period), I have to be rather critical of it. It has a lot of problems, and I'm fairly certain it won't get accepted to the site even in a finished state.

First things first, I'll get the graphical issues out of the way since they're easier to explain. Much like with normal hacks, Kaizo hacks also should look nice. That doesn't mean you have to go all out with custom graphics or fancy palettes, but something as simple as varying your graphical styles or adding decoration goes a long way. Replace large sections of cement blocks with ledges, and try to avoid having graphics "cut off" as you can see with ropes in some of your levels. Fix the floating munchers by using rotated munchers and connecting them to ledges, using alternatives (avoid spamming them, though), or making your own graphics via Map16 and YY-CHR (some Kaizo hackers like to use modified bullet bill launcher columns). If you need to, take a look at some of the Kaizo hacks already accepted to the site and take note of how they look; for instance, check this one out. Completely vanilla graphics, yet it still manages to look nice while remaining a Kaizo hack.

Now, onto the more important issue of the actual design. Your hack is, well, not especially interesting or fun to play. While Kaizo hacks do aim to be difficult, fun is still a stressed aspect of its design. Make your levels stand out and avoid conventional tricks like jumping between munchers or obvious death traps (e.g. the death pipes in some of the levels). Do something to make people enjoy playing your hack, be it through light puzzles like Sokobansolver and worldpeace125's hacks use, or by unexpected and unique traps as seen in the original Kaizo series, or even by your own stylistic design, whatever appeals to you. And you had some good ideas, like the Kaizo trap with the revolving platform in the third level (intentional or not) and the small challenge with the rope mechanism in the fourth. Just expand on these kinds of ideas and experiment a little more outside the norm, and you'll be able to make an entertaining hack.
Also of note, please don't use unmarked "fake" Map16 trick you used in the "Is This A Trap?" level, ever. It's cheap, and no matter how you do it, people aren't going to find it fun.

In short, you need to work on making your levels more interesting overall. Make them look nice, make them play well, and make sure they're something someone would play and say, "that was actually a lot of fun." Unfortunately, I can't say this hack got that kind of reaction out of me, and I feel like many others would agree, so I'm going to have to give this a rejection.

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