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Starry Summit by Leiras (IPS available)

Well, I´m quite new to SMW-Hacking so this is my first VLDC-Entry. I think showing you some screenshots is a good way, to give you a first impression of my level (IPS available below the screenshots):


After some Jumps...


The star is trapped...


Halfway through...


Got a star!


The End.


But will you get the secret exit, too?


Some puzzles wait to be solved.



So if you think (after watching those screenshots), playing my level could be fun, the zip including the IPS-File can be found HERE


Well. Due to the fact just 2 people tested my level already (and of course it was an older version of my level) it would be very nice if you would give some feedback.








Overall, this level was fun, but it was way too long for me. It was so long, that I couldn't find the secret exit. I would recommend making the level shorter and the puzzles a bit easier. It was still a pretty decent level. It was one of the only vertical levels in the contest so far. Aesthetic wise, it was nothing special, but it still looks nice. Not a bad level, but it could be shorter and easier, especially for people who don't like puzzle hacks. (Me)

SCORES:

Design: 18/30
Creativity: 13/20
Appeal: 7/10

Overall: 38/60
Formerly known as nick 139
My YouTube channel
So I like the concept of the level a lot. I've always enjoyed puzzle levels, and I've made a lot too. However, this level could use some work. If you polish some stuff, it can be a good puzzle level with a unique vertical aspect. So to start...

The secret exit.. was annoying to get. I realized pretty quickly that you had to guide the star through the level, but doing so was annoying. Mostly it's because the star despawns. Actually though, I figured out that you can break the level by grabbing the star right about here and running through it as fast as you can. As long as you have a mushroom...



You can make it out just fine.



I like the idea of guiding the star around, but the execution is off. It's hard to not accidentally grab the star. Also, giving the player only two throw blocks here is kinda unforgiving. I made this mistake in my own vldc level, but I added three extra ones. You always have to assume the player has no idea what they're doing (and I missed the throw the first time as well).



This gimmick (punishing tendencies) reminds me of something I would put in one of my kaizo hacks. Not really recommended for this contest.



Same goes for these two ambushing sprites. The rock and the chuck both came out of nowhere and killed me. It was pretty annoying to be honest.



Why do the reset doors in the next puzzle area keep resetting me here? I have to go back up to the puzzle, and I would rather just spawn right back where the puzzles start.



I wasn't entirely sure what you wanted me to do here, but I may have broken it? I used a placed throw block to turn the green koopa around. I think you may have intended me to use the rock? You don't need to, since a throw block works fine.



Get rid of the munchers here, that jump is too tight for a non-kaizo level.



This area doesn't give you much time to get through everything. I always get hit at the last rock, which actually catches you by surprise too. Of course if you get past that, you get ambushed by the chuck I mentioned earlier.



I didn't get all the dragon coins, since some of them were confusing. Also, to talk about the aesthetics for a bit... the background was really nice. The ground needs some work though. The brown dirt is too dark, and the dots in it are too bright. Also, there's two palettes that correspond to the green on the foreground, and I'm pretty sure you made them the same. Always make the first one darker and the next one lighter. Also, maybe try to desaturate everything, cause it's pretty bright, but in a bad way. Aesthetics in the cave are much better. Oh yeah, and I haven't completed the secret exit yet, but I might later.


Anyways, besides all that, I enjoyed the puzzles and I thought they were creative :D

Verdict:

Design: 13
Creativity:
14
Aesthetics: 4
Total: 31/60

Design could be a lot higher after fixing all the issues and making things more clear, and aesthetics could be a 7 if you fix all the palettes.
Thank you nick and Gbreeze for your feedback. Well... You mentioned some interesting points Gbreeze, so I would like to refer on them:


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The secret exit.. was annoying to get. I realized pretty quickly that you had to guide the star through the level, but doing so was annoying. Mostly it's because the star despawns.


The star despawns? I tested the level very often but the star never despawnded. That´s sounds strange to me, and I have no idea how I could prevent that.




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Actually though, I figured out that you can break the level by grabbing the star right about here and running through it as fast as you can. As long as you have a mushroom...


I know that this is possible. If the player is able to figure out that being fast there and sacrificeing a powerup is enough to reach the secret-exit-cave he is allowed to skip that last star guidance part.



Quote
Also, giving the player only two throw blocks here is kinda unforgiving.


Changed that issue (I hope 4 blocks are enough):




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This gimmick (punishing tendencies) reminds me of something I would put in one of my kaizo hacks. Not really recommended for this contest.



Well. Now it´s punishing, but not that hard as before. You just have to watch out, not getting hit by the bullet bill (Ground is higher and the bullet bill isn´t necessary to jump out of the pit).





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Same goes for these two ambushing sprites. The rock and the chuck both came out of nowhere and killed me. It was pretty annoying to be honest.



Changed the rock´s position and the Chuck. Both should be a bit fairer now:





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Why do the reset doors in the next puzzle area keep resetting me here? I have to go back up to the puzzle, and I would rather just spawn right back where the puzzles start.



Don´t be lazy walking up those 2 screens. Do about 4 jumps and you´re in the puzzle again. There are two reasons, why you respawn down there:
1st: The reset-door forces you to be small. Here you can get a powerup again:
2nd: If you "play attentive" you may recognize that on the left there´s a little hint on what you should do at the puzzle. Of course useing the throw-block instead of the rock works to, but useing the rock is "more relaxing".





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Get rid of the munchers here, that jump is too tight for a non-kaizo level.



Removed the munchers. You´re right. They´re just unnecessary.





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This area doesn't give you much time to get through everything. I always get hit at the last rock, which actually catches you by surprise too. Of course if you get past that, you get ambushed by the chuck I mentioned earlier.



There´s some sort of "Exclamation mark" in the ground which warns you, that you should jump carefully. But you´re right. Even in my tests the timing there was quite close, so due to your advice I removed the last rock:





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I didn't get all the dragon coins, since some of them were confusing.


1st dragon coin: If you collect that dragon coin the blue Koopa doesn´t activate the first star block. But that´s indifferent. This star is for the secret exit and yoshi coins are on the way to the normal one.

2nd dragon coin: The rock is in your way? Just slide and you can reach the coin (but jump carefully)

3rd dragon coins: Usually there´s a "Chargin´ Chuck". If you don´t kill him, you can use him to reach that third coin.

4th dragon coin: Just don´t use your powerup while solveing the previous puzzle and one spinjump on this turn block reveals the forth coin.

5th dragon coin: 2 possible ways:
- 1st: There´s the hint you can use a throw block to open the turn block. Even if you have to reset the room after doing this, this is a possible methos to reach the dragon coin.
- 2nd: When the blue Koopa kicks the red shell, stop it. Carry it up to the dragon coin. the shell opens the turn blocks. After that you can activate the star block yourself and finish the level...



Quote
The brown dirt is too dark, and the dots in it are too bright. Also, there's two palettes that correspond to the green on the foreground, and I'm pretty sure you made them the same. Always make the first one darker and the next one lighter. Also, maybe try to desaturate everything, cause it's pretty bright, but in a bad way. Aesthetics in the cave are much better.


Well. The grass used 2 different green colors (but i admit, just slightly different). I changed the "bright" dots a bit. desaturated them and made them darker. But I can´t image, that this level is too bright for you. The highest saturation value (on the foreground) is "109". I think desaturation would just make the level look like some grey cement mountain. If you´re talking about the background, you may be right, but aesthetics always depend on the person judging them, so i didn´t desaturate, cause my other tester
NGB
said, the palettes are nice.



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Oh yeah, and I haven't completed the secret exit yet, but I might later. Anyways, besides all that, I enjoyed the puzzles and I thought they were creative :D


Well. Maybe you´d like to give a short feedback about the secret exit, too (except that it´s annoying to reach it due to a surprisingly despawning star). I´d highly appreciate it. And thank you very much for you detailed feedback. Have a nice day :D








Yeah now that he mentions it, the two colors of the grass could really use a bit more variation. I didn't really pay attention to that, but it would be nice to have a bit of shading like in the original game.
My Youtube channel

Currently working on:
Project C

Finished project:
Originally posted by Leiras
The star despawns? I tested the level very often but the star never despawnded. That´s sounds strange to me, and I have no idea how I could prevent that.


Well, to be honest, I was trying to make it despawn; you have to just let it get out of range. If you keep up with it, it won't despawn, so it isn't too much of an issue. It can't really be fixed in vanilla smw anyway.

Originally posted by Leiras
I know that this is possible. If the player is able to figure out that being fast there and sacrificeing a powerup is enough to reach the secret-exit-cave he is allowed to skip that last star guidance part.


Ahh okay! Yeah that makes sense, it's kinda hard to break it anyway.

Originally posted by Leiras
Changed that issue (I hope 4 blocks are enough):


Yeah that should be enough, although those look kinda hard to reach if you're big Mario.

Originally posted by Leiras
Don´t be lazy walking up those 2 screens. Do about 4 jumps and you´re in the puzzle again. There are two reasons, why you respawn down there:
1st: The reset-door forces you to be small. Here you can get a powerup again:
2nd: If you "play attentive" you may recognize that on the left there´s a little hint on what you should do at the puzzle. Of course useing the throw-block instead of the rock works to, but useing the rock is "more relaxing".


Ohhh okay, I didn't notice that was a hint :P That makes sense then. It might help to indicate that it is a hint; I know you used up both message boxes, but you could use GFX D, which has letters. An observant player would notice is, but lazy people like me don't notice. :P

Originally posted by Leiras
1st dragon coin: If you collect that dragon coin the blue Koopa doesn´t activate the first star block. But that´s indifferent. This star is for the secret exit and yoshi coins are on the way to the normal one.

2nd dragon coin: The rock is in your way? Just slide and you can reach the coin (but jump carefully)

3rd dragon coins: Usually there´s a "Chargin´ Chuck". If you don´t kill him, you can use him to reach that third coin.

4th dragon coin: Just don´t use your powerup while solveing the previous puzzle and one spinjump on this turn block reveals the forth coin.

5th dragon coin: 2 possible ways:
- 1st: There´s the hint you can use a throw block to open the turn block. Even if you have to reset the room after doing this, this is a possible methos to reach the dragon coin.
- 2nd: When the blue Koopa kicks the red shell, stop it. Carry it up to the dragon coin. the shell opens the turn blocks. After that you can activate the star block yourself and finish the level....


Oh okay, thanks!

Originally posted by Leiras
Well. The grass used 2 different green colors (but i admit, just slightly different). I changed the "bright" dots a bit. desaturated them and made them darker. But I can´t image, that this level is too bright for you. The highest saturation value (on the foreground) is "109". I think desaturation would just make the level look like some grey cement mountain. If you´re talking about the background, you may be right, but aesthetics always depend on the person judging them, so i didn´t desaturate, cause my other tester
NGB
said, the palettes are nice.


Hmm, yeah, you may be right. I guess I wouldn't desaturate them. I actually liked the background, it was the dirt tiles that seemed off. I would just experiment with different shades of brown until one looks the best, that's what I always do.

Originally posted by Leiras
Well. Maybe you´d like to give a short feedback about the secret exit, too (except that it´s annoying to reach it due to a surprisingly despawning star). I´d highly appreciate it. And thank you very much for you detailed feedback. Have a nice day :D


Yeah no problem! I'll try to do the secret exit at some point. Also, I'm glad you fixed all that stuff, it should be much better now. Good luck with this level :D
UPDATED VERSION AVAILABLE

Changes:

+ All the things mentioned by Gbreeze.

+ Created a new "Hint-Room" which is expected to encourage you to destroy yellow TurnBlocks by Spinjumping to proceed.

+ minor changes on the palettes

----------------

Well, I guess I will update this Entry once again before submitting it, since i think some parts may be a bit unfair for "blind" players. So if you haven´t played the level yet, you´re invited to do this now and of corse give feedback, if you like.








I enjoyed this level. One major thing:


Yoshi doesn't sometimes appear because there are too many sprites on screen already.
The final version is out: My Submission

Alternate link: puu.sh/nyAvT/39f6597871.zip

Changes:

- Minor things in the "Turn-Block-Hint-Room"

- minor things in the secret exit room

- The issue worldpeace mentioned

If you like to test my final version, feel free to download it. If not, then not.



----
Also, thank you worldpeace for your compliment

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I enjoyed this level.


That´s what the level was made for. Thank you.


I guess that´s all for now. Have a nice day.