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[Fan Judge]

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superwiidude - water processing
is it fun? 1/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 2/5

This level does not benefit in any way from having tile 1f0. It is literally only in this level because you know it exists. Take it out or actually design situations with it in mind. The enemy design is also very excessive and inconsistent. Why use 2 monty moles only to replace them with ninjis? Why have 1 flying goomba? why did i only see 1 classic piranha plant? Simplify and decide between 3-5 sprites you want to focus your level around and stick with them. The moon might be a little too obvious, and considering you have an infinite number of tries if you dont kill that football chuck, it's also too easy to get.

Forcing the player to enter a gold rimmed pipe is a good idea, it shows them they can enter the earlier pipe and get the yoshi coin, if they didnt try already. Nice use of switch blocks to shield the player from enemies. Giving the player a throw block and having just enough time to kill that rip van fish was a really good idea as well.

Those solid white pipes are forgivable, but the golden rims look pretty bad. The pipes look flat and the rims have depth and it doesn't work. The grass and grey ground look okay, but the transition between the two is very sloppy. I'm also not sure what those mushroom blocks with the windows are supposed to be. A personal pet peeve of mine is having a coin block two tiles above the ground, it makes the space beneath the block feel more claustrophobic. Raising it up to three tiles above the ground will significantly help. The white thin pipes feel like they should be solid, they're connected to the solid fg. Same as the boxes in the second half (tho thats debatable because they're clearly in the bg, they're placed in areas where platforms should be). The solid black windows in the underwater section look off, like they should be a lighter colour. Why did you give the player a mushroom for the last 2 screens?

[L to R: self explanatory, dont have that stupid indent there; you cant see it behind the status bar and it serves no purpose, already told you what i thought about 1f0, this is the hardest part of the entire level by a long shot, why is your water not swimmable??]
morsel - baby farm snakes and ladders
is it fun? 0/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 1/1
total: 2/5

This level isn't fun. it isn't fun at all. I didn't finish it, and I'm not going to. So my judging is untrustworthy, but that doesn't matter to me. I died so many times to obstacles I didn't even have time to fully understand and time specific situations that had little-to-no proper lead-up or indicators to help me understand what you were asking of me. I'm sure if I played this level for the next 2 hours I could probably beat it, but I don't want to. Sorry. It's a very well designed, and that's the problem. It feels deliberately designed to distract you from fully understanding what it wants you to do next because you're still thinking of what you just did.

this is the exact moment i gave up and refuse to try again. I broke down, and I resorted to savestates to see if it was even possible. and it isn't. You either clip the side of the snake and lose your momentum and fall, or you jump in the lightning and die, regardless of if it's triggered or not. So sorry, I'm tapping out. If that was the point of your level, to frustrate somebody to the point of giving up trying, then good job. You did it. If your goal was to make a tough challenge to overcome, it isn't. Any successful attempt feels like sheer luck and only adds to the anxiety of what other things im going to die to on the next screen (this was after replenishing my lives twice, i needed the break. I'd say I died around 40 times total).

I've never seen that lightning thing before! Way cool. Too bad the platform is not big enough to accommodate it, so more times than not you jump too early and have no choice but to land right into it. I've worked with the lightning before, and can tell you that to a player, it will always last longer then it feels like it should, and I never fully understood how the lightning works. The one at the beginning doesn't teach me anything because of how quickly the platform moves on from it. I like the aesthetics. They're very simple, but effective. The blue in the bg I'd probably change to something a bit more fitting.

I'm not sure how I feel about the sign barely poking out from the side of the screen. I get the idea, but i dont think it works very well. I'd move it or not have it at all. I'm not too sure what the yoshi face on either side of the bridge is. I guess it's supposed to be a snake, but it looks really bad, especially as the bridge tends to cut-off on the corners when it goes at a 90 degree angle. I missed the descending mushroom because i was jumping up the stairs and it went under me. You can clip the sides of light switch tiles and they halt all your momentum, so if there's an alternative method of blocking mario you can use, I'd use it.
SMWCJullasicFox - Dolphin Valley
is it fun? 0/2
is it pretty? 0/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 0/5

I don't even know what to say about this level. There were just so many poor decisions made in almost every regard. It's boring; there are no hostile enemies until the last cave section, and even then i ran in a straight line and went under all of them. Your level relies on dolphin jumping; a feat that can be completely skipped over by just swimming to the last dolphin and jumping on it directly. It was over so quickly; i just held right and occasionally jumped and that let me win with no problems at all. You have aesthetics, but every custom decoration you created was cut off. All your palettes were rough. You somehow (maybe on purpose) changed the status bar palette to blue. It's just not very good.

The blue dirt palette is terrible. Darken it or desaturate it but dont keep it like that. Dont have vertical scrolling with layer 3 water, the water will raise when you do. Where are the enemies? Why are these fish flopping in the water and not swimming? How did you manage to create custom map16 tiles and use the wrong corner pieces for the mushrooms? Why did you turn the mushroom platforms into squares and why are the stems such a horrid colour? Why did I reach the midpoint after about 20 seconds of playing? Did you only place 1 dragon coin? I didn't see any others.


come on man, what is this?
jshaaa - twinkle twinkle...
is it fun? 1/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 2/5

Very relaxing atmosphere that clashes with its rather hectic gameplay. Not much to say about it

If you know how to, disable the no yoshi entrance. Change the bg colour so the transparent water isnt solid white. Change the porcu-puffer palette to something more vibrant and fish-like. Urchins move very slow, and this 1-up was very easy to get. At the 1-up, remove that lone muncher after the muncher pit. It's very easy to fall into it and die. The green pipes/mushroom tops feel out of place with the rest of the level's palette. I would find a way to get rid of these info boxes, and that room altogether. The first one is pretty obvious and the second one should be taught through gameplay.

WOW that leap in difficulty from room 1 to room 2. Please ease into this kind of challenge, maybe remove the fuzzie altogether. It's too sudden a change. Also you're going to have to put the p-switch on the same level as the digging chuck rocks, or not make the p-switch platform a brown block. When you hit the p-switch you fall into a rock or fuzzy and die. Also waiting for a p-switch to run out is lame. There was 1 rock on screen at any time and that big gap in the middle let me avoid the fuzzie without moving making the whole section pointless. Do I have to jump off this fish if i get the yoshi coin in the water? seems a little punishing, if i kill the fish i go back even further. you're punishing the player for grabbing a collectible.

okay so not being able to go back through the pipe that you need the correct on/off for? not good. i didnt even fully understand what you were talking about with that and now im stuck and have to die. Speaking of which,

I'm stuck. You didn't give me a spring, so I'm stuck. Nice.


That's all i have the patience to do tonight. Feel free to hate my scoring system or way of judging. keep in mind this is all opinion and you can disagree if you want.
I agree that the specific setup you pointed out in morsel's level was one of the harder ones to parse quickly. But you get two hits for the first half. I also found the level overall to have a nice flow (Swiss Hotel's flow was better but only after knowing the level well).

Fun scoring system.
I have a problem with your scoring, I think "it is pretty" and "is it fun" can be melded together into "is it pretty fun" to make judging more efficient.

Also, yeah morsel's level was good and all but that cutoff arrow sign at the beginning ruined the experience for me
Interesting scoring system, but I feel that categories with only 2 points should just be 'Yes' or 'No'. 'No' being 0 points & 'Yes' being 1 point.
Layout by Erik557
Hi.
It was like that originally, but it felt counter-productive to call an average level bad because of a limited scoring system. Same goes for aesthetics. Most people would misinterpret the score to be the same kind of ranking present in the actual scoring system, and a 0 meaning something more harsh than it actually does.
Twoka - Perilous Paintings Judges Favourite
is it fun? 2/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 1/1
total: 4/5

What a fun, cute little level! I had a big smile on my face the whole time. Seeing all the paintings and different themed rooms were all super neat, and the short, segmented platforming sections offered a good feeling of progression. Your level does all it needs to without overstaying its welcome, but i think you can do more with the concept if you tried! The two yoshi coin secret pipe felt like a perfect reward, I didn't even see it my first time through (i blame that goofy mario and luigi painting). Lower the pipe 1 tile though, you need to catch the jumping bowser statue at his highest point and have some sort of momentum to make it, which is fairly tough. My first time getting it felt like a fluke. In general your Yoshi coin placement is very good, even the ones in plain sight require some level of challenge to grab. Though i cant find the fifth one x-x.

Pretty palettes, I like the grass palette. Great introduction to the concept. Very good place to hide the springboard for the moon. I'd change the colour of the moon painting so avoid it getting confusing. As is it looks like the moon at the beginning is also decoration. I know that it's very tempting to use tile 1f0, because it exists and whatnot, but I think your level would be even better without it. Right now it feels tacky and unnecessary. A good use of tile 1f0 would be using it to trap enemies in paintings (a falling thwomp falls from one painting to another). See what kinds of set-ups you can make with that idea.

Raise the roof on the building so you dont have to create an invisible wall. The water background in the beginning feels incredibly flat, and the colour of the water doesn't compliment the colour of the sky. Make it more obvious that the 3 pipes are paintings, the player isn't fully used to the idea yet. If you can, raise the pipe dwelling lakitu to you cant jump into the bottom of him and get hurt. I'd be careful using floor holes, they're super buggy and unreliable. Even with sa-1 they dont really like to spawn. Remove the midpoint altogether if you're keeping the level this length,l but i encourage you to make a second half that expands on the painting concept much more than you did.

KDee - Dangerous Mission
is it fun? 2/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 3/5

I liked the tone of the level. It felt super exciting and made all the jumping feel more important than it would other wise. Colours are great and the mix of mushroom and grassland tilesets look great. Surprisingly the vertical scrolling with layer 3 water manages to work pretty well, but dropping the water causes the two porcu-puffers to fly.

The death route was a very interesting addition. I'd add shading to the grass, but I think the dirt palette works like that. The mid-air jump off the chuck to get the mushroom is unreasonable, I'd make it easier. Also with that many chucks at the end, only two or 3 are really throwing baseballs at a time. Realizing you dont have the key and having to turn around to see it and go back through that barrage of baseballs was a nice touch. Remove the blue koopa on the one platform though, it's just unnecessary.

Disable no-yoshi entrance. pipeground-dwelling lakitu turns into a green dolphin when he dies. Two yoshi coins on the same screen, which is 2 screens after the first yoshi coin. Space them out better. That mushroom next to the spring is way too hard to get. Should be a 1-up, or raise the box 3 tiles high instead of two and move the spring 1 tile to the right.
Herobrine81902 - Chocolate Tower
is it fun? 0/2
is it pretty? 0/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 0/5

Overall feels incredibly boring. There are little-to-no enemies in the entire level, i think there were 5 overall. There was never the slightest feeling of a challenge, nothing blocking your way, for the autoscrolling section i didn't even have to play for 95% of it. Populate this level with some enemies and try to make it a bit more interesting. The secret exit is ridiculous. Your ledges dont have corner tiles so it just looks like you messed up and made the level too long. I even took pictures because i thought it was a mistake. If you're going to keep the level, remove the secret exit altogether. It adds nothing and only makes the level feel even worse.

Change the lava palette. You can immediately despawn that blue koopa shell accidentally and then go in there with no trouble. The first two screens have two yoshi coins. Space them out better. That lone bullet bill shooter doesn't shoot bullet bills. The moon is way too easy to spot, with vertical scrolling you can clearly see somethings up there. Why is that pipe so comically long. 1 tile jumps over lava are a big no-no. Make the platforms wider. The fortress pipe taking you to a sudden cloudy backdrop doesn't really make any sense, and it just looks like you ran out of ideas and ended it too suddenly.

your triangle tiles are missing the proper ground tile underneath them to make mario run up them properly
9th Zentillion - Fort Exanguish [not a word]
is it fun? 0/2
is it pretty? 0/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 0/5

So first things first: you dont have to place a moon or secret exit if you have no idea what to do with them. Literally placing your moon in the middle of your level where the player just grabs it on the way through is stupid. Why even have it? If you have a giant arrow pointing at your secret exit, it's not a secret exit. The actual secret exit path is ridiculous, there was 1 enemy and they werent even in the way. If this is what you have in mind for your secret exit, dont have a secret exit at all.
Overall the level was pretty boring. There were hardly any enemies, even less enemies that actually ran the risk of hitting you. It just felt super uninspired overall. That second section with the falling platforms was pretty interesting, but it was over so quickly it didnt matter. The third second was completely empty, except for the moon and the yoshi coin. The level feels unfinished. So many empty sections and semingly unfinished ideas or areas that it's baffling to me why you even bothered submitting it like this.
This palette is hideous. The background looks really bizarre.

[L to R: What is this cement block ceiling??, i already brought up the moon but this actually ticked me off]
Originally posted by Hobz
It was like that originally, but it felt counter-productive to call an average level bad because of a limited scoring system. Same goes for aesthetics. Most people would misinterpret the score to be the same kind of ranking present in the actual scoring system, and a 0 meaning something more harsh than it actually does.

Fair enough. I see your point.
Layout by Erik557
Hi.
I didn't expect my level to score that high LOL. to be honest most of it was done in a day, the first two or so rooms being the exceptions. I was tired :V

I didn't actually intend for the player to be able to enter the bonus pipe with the Bowser statue; i was going to have the player spin jump on the fire the statues near the end of that room shoot. When I tested it I figured it wouldn't matter that much though. On a related note, spin jumping is the key to getting most of the Yoshi coins in the level

My use of tile 1F0 was partially because of my tired-ness that day, trying to think of a good gimmick besides 'paintings and statues coming to life,' but I guess it didn't turn out as well as I thought it did.

still, thank you for the kind words! didn't really know my first level in a long time would be that good #tb{'U'}
Doin' a thing
The mid-air jump off the chuck to get the mushroom is unreasonable, I'd make it easier.

You dont need to do any kind of mid-air chuck jumps there, you can just jump/fall down from the upper, right side bridge and then immediately hold right to get there.

Like this:



pipeground-dwelling lakitu turns into a green dolphin when he dies.
Impossible to fix if I want to use dolphins and pipe lakitu at same time, and its such minor problem to be an actual problem in the fist place.


Other issues, I'll take look at it later and I'll probably upload new version after other fan-judges plays my level in case theres something else to fix/tweak.
cyphermur9t - Hydromagmatic Fort
is it fun? 1/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 2/5

This level seems to be centered around waiting. It's fun and challenging without feeling like its throwing too much at you, but there's just so much waiting. Eating the line guide with the vine block was a super cool idea tho. I'd like to see more of that.

The dropping through the water to a platform below is a neat idea, but I cant seem to drop fast enough to catch it while waiting for the saw to get out of the way. It took two full rotations, and the platform moves incredibly slow. Mark where podobos jump. It's stupid taking a hit because you didnt know it was there and you're 1 tile above the lava. After the midpoint, the sudden switch from lava floating platforms and the line guided platform was too sudden without indication. Differentiate the two better.
The candles being on layer one and the bg being on layer 3 has a noticable difference and it looks awkward. The shell thing is something we already saw in Matterhorn, and whether or not you came up with it on your own or saw it there, it looks tacky to start your level with something like that. Especially because you only do it once and its entirely unnecessary. It just requires waiting. Waiting for pokies isn't a challenge, its boring. Move them closer to edges or figure out something else. Two yoshi coins on the same screen is too close.

it looks like you want the player to spin jump off this podobo to get up here, but i didnt find anything.
Lsh0426 - Bonus Switch Palace
is it fun? 2/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 3/5

Scrap the puzzle section. It isn't fun, doesn't add anything, and ruins the entire experience. In fact, I'd drop the switch palace motif altogether. The midway switch and intermission rooms add a lot to make the experience more coherent and exciting, but that last room kills all the momentum the level has and i dont want to play it. I would rebrand the level as a platformer and keep the focus on the actual levels.
A very safe, fun level. It doesn't do anything particularly new or interesting, but each section is fast, fun, and varied enough to keep interest. Having a yoshi coin dedicated to each section is a nice way to make sure you grab them all, and the switch midway point is so awesome! only if you're holding run you dont press it, but thats not your fault.
I'd probably drop the sudden castle motif in the underground section. It's just kind of useless and out of place as is. Giving the player a shell right before the underwater section is really nice, but the shell in the coin box has an enemy in it. I'd put a regular reward in a coin box and the shell on top of the pipe, personally.
The coin boxes sticking out of the ground look pretty silly. I'd remove them altogether. I found the yoshi coin pipe with no problem, but putting coins on all the pipes, including ones that dont have exits might be a little misleading. The two multiple coin boxes after the yoshi coin are placed in a way where its way too dangerous to stay there and farm coins, and you're better off not. The ice pipes having a black outline look really strange, I'd darken the other colours a bit. It is incredibly hard not to kill this yellow koopa with this shell.

[L to R: your pirahna plant got stuck in the ceiling, what's the point of this area?]
snoruntpyro - Swiss Ruins
is it fun? 2/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 1/1
total: 4/5

A lot of really cool ideas here! Your set-ups are all interesting and the progression feels nice. It can be very unforgiving after the second yoshi coin, which wouldn't bother me if i wasn't already a fair bit into the level before it decided to punish me for not immediately knowing what to do. Still, it was always very clear why i died and as I played I was able to get back to the spot where I died quicker and quicker.

Fix your bouncing boo palette. idk if a yoshi coin challenge really requires a reset pipe, or at least an immediate one, but that might be a personal opinion. Use a different tile for sprite 1f0 than carrot lift 1f0. It gets confusing. The 4 vine yoshi coin challenge is really neat, but getting back to the pipe is a lot harder than it should be. Also if the reset pipe only takes you back to the pipe you entered, it shouldn't have to be labelled. I thought it was a reset pipe for that room and i didnt know how i was supposed to get back to the level. The timing on the second red falling 1f0 is pretty hard to understand. You have to leave right before it starts rising back up or you miss it. I'd put an easy way to reset it after it falls to help the player understand when they should go so they dont have to die and start the whole second half over. The momentum carried by the carrot platform in the 4th yoshi coin room makes it very unforgiving with that sawblade. There's a part in that final 1f0 ride where the ceiling just becomes 4 saw blades and there's nothing i can do to avoid dying. Which sucks. Actually I hate this entire last part. Why is it so unforgiving? You cant honestly expect a player to know how to do this stuff on their first go through. I'd honestly cut this section out or make a secret exit out of it. For an actual way to end your level it's awful. It's trial and error, slowly learn why each obstacle you didn't fully understand killed you, and it's for every single obstacle in this part. idk if they've ever goal sphere'd a singular section of a level, but this might be the first time.
THAT BEING SAID, unlike most other levels that are like this, this one actually felt very gratifying to finally beat. Seeing that one perfect run felt really satisfying, but definitely not satisfying to justify the 40 minutes I spent on it.

[L to R: i moved back to get a running start at this platform and these guys came back, not too sure what im supposed to do to get through this, the enemy's shell kept going through mine, and my shell kept going through his (I'd throw it and it'd go past him, hit the coin box behind him, then hit him and his shell after it hit the fist coin box)]
PokerFace - Blazeholic
is it fun? 1/2
is it pretty? 2/2
is it memorable? 1/1
total: 4/5

My first time through i skipped over that pipe that had the midway point because i assumed it was the normal exit and there was going to be no way to return, so i died at the moon and had to start over again uwu
Ok so first off, holy moley this yellow switch pipe is freaking beautiful. The whole level is great, but this one sublevel has the best vanilla aesthetics I think I've ever seen. It's not very easy to see though with how strong the flashing is, but you give a mushroom anyways so it should be fine. The level itself requires a lot of waiting. It tries to make that waiting interesting by throwing challenges at you, but it's still a lot of boring waiting wishing things would move faster. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but with how unforgiving the lava can be with all the swift moving and tight hallways it can become a chore to play after your 3rd or 4th death. Please remove the podobos on the right of the final pipe before the goal post, or lower them. If I died to one, after all of that, I would probably smash this keyboard off my head
Disable no yoshi entrance! There's no bringing yoshi into levels anyway, but a level filled with yoshis starting with a no yoshis ahead sign is pretty strange. The first three yoshi coins all felt very close to one another, if possible I'd spread them out more. The lava tips are swimmable.
I already played Falconpunch's level and gave him feedback but if you really need a score the level gets 5/5.
Thx for the review! I'll definitely tweak the level soon but I'm not sure what you mean by the "ceiling suddenly becoming 4 sawblades"? I'm not sure what issues you had with the last part beyond probably the steep slope vine part which I'll try to give more leeway for. Also the shells clipping each other was something that I found hat I have no idea why it happens. Idk what to do about it.
the part with the very big line guide with the 8 or so saws on it, when the 1f0 raised it to the top of the level there were 4 grinders in a row blocking me from jumping. If you look at it in lunar magic, the entire top right corner of the line was a literal ceiling of grinders.
GammaSlap - Creeple Steeple
is it fun? 1/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 2/5

Honestly, I'd remove the entire first section, the one outside. It's the least interesting part of the entire thing and the level would feel a lot more enjoyable if it just started in the steeple. But that was a really nice level. Had a nice spooky atmosphere (tho occasionally there were moments that took me out of it). The palette in the creeple steeple is very lovely. I love the brown on blue. Showing the p-switch through the wall at the exit pipe is a cool way to show people what they missed in that corner.

Don't start Mario where we cant see him. The layer 1 clouds look really weird (because they're so close to the ground we can see they have the same scroll rate as the foreground, so they're clearly a part of the foreground). Try to avoid using boo rings. They are so boring and slow and pose no threat to the player besides running down the clock. I'm not sure I'm following the logic behind entering a sublevel to grab a p-switch to use said p-switch immediately outside the sublevel. Why not just leave it in the main area? Why are the grey enemies tinted blue if the orange enemies keep their original palette? Clashes pretty bad. Don't require a p-switch for a yoshi coin if you then have to block the player with a wall immediately after. Just wastes time. The mushroom platforms at the very end look pretty bad and out of place. I'd keep the goal tied to the steeple.

[L to R: It isn't immediately clear what you want me to do here; and i just took the hit to grab the coin, You cant see this podobo until you jump up here because of the way the screen scrolls. Could risk getting hit]
palerider - Ghost Town
is it fun? 1/2
is it pretty? 2/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 3/5

This level is overflowing with charm! I love it all, it's so cute. The level design is nothing special, but the atmosphere is incredible and it helps keep the player engaged. It balances spooky and goofy very well. Though I wish there was more exploration involved, it felt like every house and entrance was laid out in front of you for you to find.

Try to avoid using boo rings. In the first boo house you can fall directly onto the stationary boo (on the right). If possible I'd add a background in the boo house. It's a little strange that it has the same bg colour as outside. I'd avoid using that disco shell. It seems unnecessary (and an unusual enemy type for a ghost town). The path to the key looks like the actual correct way to progress the level, which isnt bad, just worth noting. I'm still not entirely sure what that star is for. The layer 1 windows in the boonus house look strange when they dont scroll with the bg. Your obvious hint is entirely unnecessary because the level design shows you the key hole anyways! The bowser fire jump comes completely out of nowhere. I'd scrap it entirely.

that's my line
ill try to get a few more done today, nows not a good time
Originally posted by Hobz
palerider - Ghost Town
is it fun? 1/2
is it pretty? 2/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 2/5

This level is overflowing with charm! I love it all, it's so cute. The level design is nothing special, but the atmosphere is incredible and it helps keep the player engaged. It balances spooky and goofy very well. Though I wish there was more exploration involved, it felt like every house and entrance was laid out in front of you for you to find.

Try to avoid using boo rings. In the first boo house you can fall directly onto the stationary boo (on the right). If possible I'd add a background in the boo house. It's a little strange that it has the same bg colour as outside. I'd avoid using that disco shell. It seems unnecessary (and an unusual enemy type for a ghost town). The path to the key looks like the actual correct way to progress the level, which isnt bad, just worth noting. I'm still not entirely sure what that star is for. The layer 1 windows in the boonus house look strange when they dont scroll with the bg. Your obvious hint is entirely unnecessary because the level design shows you the key hole anyways! The bowser fire jump comes completely out of nowhere. I'd scrap it entirely.

Thanks for the review! Really appreciate it.

The disco shell is gone (it was out of place and enabled a possible breakage of the level design). So is the star (it was useless filler). I actually did both before realizing this review existed.

I will be using boo rings tho, actually I redesigned the level and it now has like 75% more boo rings in the secret exit route. Sorry to boo ring haterz but I will take the chance because I personally thought the combination of spinny 3-platforms and boo rings was fairly unique (I've personally never seen that done in a hack) and makes for some interesting platforming. And I gotta listen to my own judgement first and foremost.

I will be resubmitting shortly with the entirely new secret exit route that skips the item-babysitting-while-spinjumping

Thanks again.
Originally posted by Hobz

GammaSlap - Creeple Steeple
is it fun? 1/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 2/5

Honestly, I'd remove the entire first section, the one outside. It's the least interesting part of the entire thing and the level would feel a lot more enjoyable if it just started in the steeple. But that was a really nice level. Had a nice spooky atmosphere (tho occasionally there were moments that took me out of it). The palette in the creeple steeple is very lovely. I love the brown on blue. Showing the p-switch through the wall at the exit pipe is a cool way to show people what they missed in that corner.

Don't start Mario where we cant see him. The layer 1 clouds look really weird (because they're so close to the ground we can see they have the same scroll rate as the foreground, so they're clearly a part of the foreground). Try to avoid using boo rings. They are so boring and slow and pose no threat to the player besides running down the clock. I'm not sure I'm following the logic behind entering a sublevel to grab a p-switch to use said p-switch immediately outside the sublevel. Why not just leave it in the main area? Why are the grey enemies tinted blue if the orange enemies keep their original palette? Clashes pretty bad. Don't require a p-switch for a yoshi coin if you then have to block the player with a wall immediately after. Just wastes time. The mushroom platforms at the very end look pretty bad and out of place. I'd keep the goal tied to the steeple.

[L to R: It isn't immediately clear what you want me to do here; and i just took the hit to grab the coin, You cant see this podobo until you jump up here because of the way the screen scrolls. Could risk getting hit]




Thanks for the Feedback, I really appreciate it. The part where you got confused is explainable. There is supposed to be a Thwimp that spawns there and you use that to get the Dragon coin. But I'll definitely take your criticisms and build upon them.

Mod edit: fixed post
Can you review must vldcx level
Userbar made by Green Jerry




i mean thats the idea ya
yoshi9429 - Ruins of Grassland
is it fun? 1/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 0/1
total: 2/5

I dont understand why you made me go fetch a spring after giving me a feather (on top of the one you gave me earlier). Overall this level feels incredible unfocused. Very little makes sense contextually, it just feels like you threw in anything you could think of and didnt bother tying it all together. It's usually helpful to think of 3-5 enemy types you want to use, and then design set-ups with them in mind. Right now it looks like level design and sprite placement was done separately, which leaves the experience feeling disconnected.

Oh, and get rid of those message boxes. I didn't really get the story anyways and all they did was confuse me even more.

Dont make spikes blend in with the ground/bg. they should be easily noticeable. Why are there random leaves in the sky? Put layer 2 on a scrolling rate. Fix the scrolling rate on the layer 3 bg. Having it scroll with Mario made me really disoriented. Get rid of the pokeys. The look really out of place. Get rid of that disco shell.
Superwario1999 - Swiss Springs Judge Favourite
is it fun? 2/2
is it pretty? 1/2
is it memorable? 1/1
total: 4/5

This was a really great level!! I had so much fun playing it, all the set-ups were creative and a lot of fun to figure out. I really like your fg palette. The aesthetics are simple but do their job perfectly. Your reset doors were all in perfect places.

Widen the gap at the saw blades. When you land on the peas, you continue to carry momentum forward, which can put you over a wall and kill you. You can kill the digging chuck before he even gets to throw any rocks at you if you're fast enough, and then you have to bounce on his head and wait for him to die. If there's a 1-hit enemy that's still a threat you can use it'd probably suit this part better. The fish during the yoshi puzzle doesn't really pose a threat to the player because of how slowly it moves.

I've mentioned this before, but you can beat this entire sublevel without moving.
Lenophis & MonkeyShrapnel had bad checksums ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Pinci - Subway Madness
is it fun? 0/2
is it pretty? 2/2
is it memorable? 1/1
total: 3/5

Love the whistle at the beginning. The train section and its song are both repetitive and pretty boring, I dont even want to go for the secret exit because the thought of sitting through the train section again seems pretty ugh. Once you hit the midpoint the tone shifts entirely and it starts feeling exciting. If I were you I'd either scrap the entire train section, or cut it in half and focus more energy towards that second half. At least, it has a lot of potential I honestly feel is wasted. The entire straight line ice run to the goal post feels like you had no idea what to do so you just threw as many sprites as you could and hoped for the best. Sorry, but it's sloppy and pretty terrible. Keep the aesthetics, but I'd seriously consider changing up the level design to reflect a few specific ideas. The city backdrops and subway motif implies a more grounded-in-reality tone. So why are their monty moles and volcano lotuses and sumo bros and all that other crazy stuff just standing around on the ice?

You cant enter through the center of the door, only from the sides. Find a better way to introduce the banzai bill ! mark things. I was on the roof when it came at me and i didnt have time to get out of the way. The banzai bill blocking the coin forces you to get smushed, but that might be the idea. The coin above the first pipe makes it look like thats where you go up to for the secret exit, so when i went up there and didnt go anywhere and got smushed i was annoyed.
Originally posted by Hobz

Lenophis & MonkeyShrapnel had bad checksums ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Do you mean archive, patch, or rom? For some reason, 7z was creating a bad 7z archive when I submitted it, but seemed to extract ok? It was brought to my attention, and I edited my submission with a normal zip, which seems to fix that issue.

After people couldn't patch it correctly (though some figured it out), I discovered that I based my "original rom" on a vanilla with no header.
I patched it to my rom and it didnt load. if it works now i'll make sure to play it on my next go-around

ill edit this post for the next batch of levels
ask me if i give a f*ck...
Originally posted by Hobz
is it fun? 0/2


tfw literally fucked up at the most important thing.

thanks for the review though, I'll wait for falconpunch's judging and I'll fix as many issues as I can :P

also yeah i think i abused sa-1's power a bit too much
Frozenquills - Swiss Steamworks
is it fun? 2/2
is it pretty? 2/2
is it memorable? 1/1
total: 5/5

That was a great level! It felt a little long on repeated deaths, but still managed to fit a lot in. I don't have many general statements to make about it, but I had a lot of fun. Though the first info box makes even less sense than just not explaining it at all. I'm still not sure how you justified the physics.

The secret exit was very very cool. It might be worth finding a more creative spot for the p-switch, maybe one that requires minor backtracking, but i dont think many, if any players will miss it on their first go through. The exit itself was a lot of fun, not too hard but kept you on your toes. That moment after the wall of torpedo teds, where immediately after a football flies at you got a chuckle out of me. It was that moment of relief immediately interrupted. Spring-jumping out of the water was pretty tricky, but there was an opportunity to practice at the beginning so idk if it matters too much.

If you wait for too long on the first platform you fall through it and die. You can run right through the upside down piranha when you're small. I'm not sure how you're supposed to do that spring/football thing for the yoshi coin and p-switch, but I bounced the spring off a wall and jumped up there that way. I then did it what i think is the correct way (drop it in air after bouncing off football) and wow! Cool stuff. I spent a long time in the podobo room waiting for something to unlock before i realized i could just go through the red pipe at any time. Similarly, i kept the swoopers alive through the entire autoscroller because I thought they'd be used at the end, since you're never required to jump on them. So when they just eventually flew away and that was it i was kind of disappointed. It made it even worse the second time when i was trying to keep them again, but fell behind before i saw the pipe and didnt get to use them. I was going to say you definitely dont have a big enough window of time to get to it, but its for a moon so its more forgivable.

[L to R: There was nothing I could do to avoid taking a hit here, there's a lot of strange gaps that mario likes to freak out in.]
SNN - Wetsuit Columns
is it fun? 2/2
is it pretty? 2/2
is it memorable? 1/1
total: 5/5

That was a super cool level! A lot of fun, very clear what you were supposed to do, and, only scrolling when necessary, ran a lot smoother than it should've. There was a huge focus on puzzles where the solution was to stand in the right spot and let the platform interact with the edge of your screen where you can barely see what's happening, but when you're dealing with something as finicky as L/R scrolling I get that sometimes less is more.
I never wanted to have to be this person, but I checked lunar magic to find where the secret exit could be, and man. I don't know how your other testers did but I never in a million years would've thought that's where it was. It's a really clever idea and i love it, but it's not something I could've figured out on my own. The puzzle itself was short and sweet, a little crazy juggling swimming and scrolling but nothing unmanageable. and you already know about the scrolling on the platform thing.

The reveal of the layer 2 water at the beginning is perfect. This dolphin flying thing is one of the coolest things I think I've ever done in a mario level. The speed behind the dolphin is incredible. It was super annoying at first to get the hang of, but with unlimited time it didn't matter too much. The 1-up shell thing was super neat. I missed the third coin my first time through The fourthfifth yoshi coin trick was awesome, though i was so focused on the platform i didnt even notice the ball and chain and none of them actually hit me. The descending dolphins were also a lot of fun, at first I didnt think I had enough time to react but pretty soon i got the hang of it. The ending with the green water was a nice touch, great stuff.

Why does the level start with a sign facing left? It doesn't really look like water, it looks like an outline. If possible I'd add some sort of translucent (or solid colour that looks translucent) effect to it. I managed to jump through that dolphin/porcupuffer field with absolutely no problems at all. I dont think i ever touched a dolphin. The porcu-puffer can swim faster than you can scroll, and while i didnt have as much trouble as I expected to have, his rng was pretty frustrating to work around in that box. Getting to kill him felt good though. I assumed I'd have to bring that platform up above the second lava hole to the water above it, especially with the way the floor next to it was flat and the two ball & chains were lined up perfectly to avoid. I dont fully see the point of blocking thwimps with switch blocks. They already pose no threat, and I can see the switch blocks being more annoying than the actual thwimps are. At the thwomp whatever I didn't see the platform until i had already started climbing the ropes, and i thought i had to swim in my own water tower to get across.

I dont know if it was intentional or not but this platform didn't come back up.
i'll hopefully do more levels tomorrow. sorry everybody, today was a hectic day with finishing up my level!
thanks hobz!

re swoopers: they used to be more of an obstacle in the first autoscroller, so i may go back into doing that. It is sorta introductory right now.

re fireball room: Ill add coins to the pipe. Not sure what I can do about getting trapped but I think that only happens if you stay in it for a long time.

re weird areas: The stair+ceiling setup is for weird football shenanigans. I can probably make it inaccessible but it would be hard.
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