Language…
8 users online:  Atari2.0, drkrdnk, Enan63, futhark, gr8fulAF, GRIMMKIN, kasoku,  Nanako - Guests: 257 - Bots: 440
Users: 64,795 (2,377 active)
Latest user: mathew

Blind Devil's Unofficial Judging!

Since I was a judge on CLDC 2018, I figured it would be cool for me to play entries and evaluate them as if I were judging this contest, too. I take this as a lesson to improve my reviews and scoring, so whenever I evaluate something, be sure to give feedback on what you agree/disagree and stuff. This is important in case I am considered to judge any future level design contests.

By the way, expect me to be somewhat more nitpicky than I was in CLDC 2018, in which my methodology was to deduct points from the total score depending on flaws and issues weighed according to their impact and just that, which led to a few ties and overall high average scores. This time I intend to judge according to my concept of ideal levels, too, which may or may not weigh heavily, but certainly reduces the chances of giving a perfect score in specific categories.

----------

User: Mandew
Entry name: MURAMUR
Playthrough date: 2019-02-14

Design: A simple rompy level which is pretty straightforward. While kinda easy, it's pretty engaging, and that's also regardless of how stuff was set up. Enemy placement is alright, and it's obvious for the player to know what to do and to see where is safe. It's too linear, though. Using some extended level shenanigans could spice up the layout significantly.

Design points: 32/60

----------

Creativity: There was nothing particularly memorable here, but I thought it was a good take to have Reflecting Podoboos always follow a same pattern. I've never seen that in any other levels I've ever played, so this is good. While not really innovative, it's unique. I'm only a bit disappointed with timed lift setups - while I know it's hard to work with them for interesting setups, most patterns there were average ones, as seen in various other levels of this kind. I hoped for more in that regards.

Creativity points: 18/30

----------

Aesthetics: No tileset mixing and straightforward usage of tiles, which is good - nothing is confusing. There were no cutoffs or glitches that I could have spotted. Pure vanilla palette-wise, as well, which bothered me because of the grey lava. You could have this recolored to something else (any color besides grey - or better, besides the same color of the ground), or could even get rid of it. Let's be honest - that lava is useless. Played on safe ground, but I'd have appreciated a small change at least in palettes.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

----------

Total score: 55/100

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

User: Young Boi
Entry Name: Lime Green Lane
Playthrough date: 2019-02-14

Design: Generic and bland. It didn't feel empty because enemies were always there, but Monty Moles rarely provided me any kind of challenge because they take longer to spawn (this is a property of Yoshi's Island submap - if you place your level in the main OW map, for example, Monty Moles will jump faster). The other enemies, on the other hand, were more threathening, and they managed to slow me down and hit me when I was running around carelessly. Still, the level wasn't engaging at all - all I wanted to do was to get to the goal as soon as possible, and that led to "glitching" the level end scorecard - the time limit is too big for a level that is short like this one.

Design points: 14/60

----------

Creativity: Nothing stood out in my opinion. I could try and look harder for different setups in there because my run was rushed, I admit it, but it wouldn't affect the score here. Again, if Monty Moles jumped faster, you could have benefitted here for more clever obstacles, having sections in which require more patience and so on.

Creativity points: 5/30

----------

Aesthetics: There was no tileset mixing but you made use of custom Map16 shenanigans to spice up decoration, but in my opinion, these half-buried blocks on ledges always looked odd to me. Bushes and skinny pipes were okay, on the other hand. Palettes are okay for the most part, but everything is greeny greeny - FG, BG, and even the back area color - which made it look monotonous. I'd prefer using default BG palettes in this case over the currently chosen ones.

Aesthetics points: 4/10

----------

Total score: 23/100

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

User: enan2017
Entry Name: Vanilla Plains
Playthrough date: 2019-02-14

Design: Like the name says, it's vanilla. I just can't say it's pure vanilla because SA-1 but that's besides the point lol. Anyway, the level had several flaws, while the most notable one is the jumps. Lots of gaps are too large, making jumps extremely demanding to clear. The other issue is technical, but you should always put something to block access below the slanted pipe, or else the player can pass through it. Plus, you could have used coins more as indicators for safe ground, as in a rush, most jumps are quite blind. Other problem: the time limit. The level has 600 game seconda but it could have only half of that, plus take in mind that such time limit wouldn't cut here - 500 seconds is the maximum limit for this contest. Quirks aside, I liked the usage of Banzai Bills, except for the last one - the player has little to no time to react properly after clearing the insanely large final jump.

Design points: 7/60

----------

Creativity: Nothing stood out in my opinion. Enemies were just... there. I didn't feel engaged in gameplay with any section. There weren't any clever setups, which could have been done with some more thinking out of the box. Examples like using Banzai Bills and having the player to dodge while swimming, or making the player wait for a Banzai Bill to pass before a jump can be cleared, and so on. Simple ideas are the starting point for more interesting setups as you grow used with all features SMW and LM provide.

Creativity points: 3/30

----------

Aesthetics: Pure vanilla appearances. No tileset mixing, no custom palettes, no custom Map16 tiles. No cutoffs or glitches, though the midway point wasn't attached to the ground even though it still was touching it, and that looked off. Decoration was okay. Took no risks to try and make something different so I can't rate it higher, really.

Aesthetics points: 4/10

----------

Total score: 14/100

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

User: TheSpeedyJay
Entry Name: Sunny Shoreline
Playthrough date: 2019-02-15

Design: It's a pretty basic level. A consistent set of enemies, though with not much interesting usages aside from the traditional. There's a water tide, and it didn't add much to design as well because there were really few fishes and little to no swimming areas. Actually, if you fall in a gap made of high ledges, you're forced to backtrack. It's not as punishing as death but it's still somewhat boring. There was a small water section containing a Yoshi Coin, and there wasn't much going on here as well, not to mention a small technical nitpick - buoyancy is disabled. This is noticeable whenever you hit an enemy with a fireball - the coin will have gravity as if it wasn't underwater. Difficulty was okay, on the other hand.

Design points: 23/60

----------

Creativity: It lacked. There weren't any memorable sections or obstacles, nothing that would make the player think out of the box or leave the comfort zone. As mentioned in Design category, more could have been done with tides and enemy setups. Jumping fishes could have been used in more interesting ways, too.

Creativity points: 1/30

----------

Aesthetics: The custom palettes are decent. However, tile usage and decoration was flawed. Bushes seemed floating over horizontal pipes, looked a bit weird over arch ledges (but in this case I'd be more lenient because it reminded me of SMB1 and that's good I guess), and the cement blocks used as pipe corners caused minor cutoff. There are lots of better replacements. Plus, the midway point also looks odd because it's not attached to the ledge even though it touches it. And the grass/dirt ledge transition in screen 04 was poorly made, too.

Aesthetics points: 4/10

----------

Total score: 28/100

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

User: Green Jerry
Entry Name: Rocky Forest
Playthrough date: 2019-02-15

Design: Decent overall. It's not unfair, despite the usage of tree trunks and layer 3 bushes with priority. I also liked the enemy choice for this level - Dino-Rhinos and Dino-Torches, not seen so often in forests, were used for the first section, but I expected to see more of them in different ways (more covered in Creativity category). The timed lift usage was pretty good while not being the main attraction of this entry. In general, I had a fun time with this even though it was simple. Nice job.

Design points: 42/60

----------

Creativity: Given the rocky forest theme, I expected to see cave enemies or stuff related to rocks like Diggin' Chucks, but I was surprised when I saw Dino-Rhinos and Dino-Torches, in a good way. The problem, though, is that they weren't used to their full potential. All Dinos can jump, and Dino-Torches can breathe fire, and so much can be done with these things in mind. The positives were the timed lifts in the second section. While used in regular ways, these weren't repetitive, and felt fun and challenging at the same time. Still, I'd have loved to see something more astonishing overall.

Creativity points: 19/30

----------

Aesthetics: Pleasing. Custom palettes were used, but vanilla colors were preserved. The forest and cave tilesets went well together, and the layer 3 bushes also added to this. My only small complaint is that you didn't check 'fix layer 3 scroll sync issue with status bar' so, while moving, layer 3 wouldn't move at the same rate of layer 1. I get that it's probably meant to simulate a "topmost layer" of some sorts, and it should by default scroll even faster than layer 1 considering depth, but there's no real option for that in LM so I'd check the scroll sync option. I'd also make tree trunks with priority go above ledge/etc like Nintendo originally did for extra consistency. Quirks aside, I liked the visuals.

Aesthetics points: 7/10

----------

Total score: 68/100

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

User: Infinity
Entry Name: Mushroom Lange
Playthrough date: 2019-02-15

Design: A nice mix of calm and athletic elements make this level pretty fun and interesting, and reminds me of Nintendo's level design concept of nowadays. Enemies were well-placed, as well as powerups and Yoshi Coins. Difficulty and length were spot-on and extremely well balanced. While not going into the experimental side of level design, this level was catchy.

Design points: 50/60

----------

Creativity: The enemy setups overall were traditional ones, making the level not memorable in terms of innovation. But they were nicely varied, making it never feel monotonous. I can't say much beyond that, and can only recommend experimenting more with enemy behaviors and such in order to make something even more engaging and memorable.

Creativity points: 15/30

----------

Aesthetics: Very good. Pleasant, vivid colors, with good use of custom tiles. The graphics mix was awesome and made the level look cute. No cutoffs and glitches were seen, but I was a bit sad with the cave section. It could have used some mixing, different palettes and decoration, too, in order to look more polished and appealing.

Aesthetics points: 7/10

----------

Total score: 72/100

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

User: N450
Entry Name: Sky Castle
Playthrough date: 2019-02-16

Design: The design is a tad flawed due to technical reasons. While the level itself is okay gameplay-wise, there are instances worth revising, such as the invisible 1up block in the beginning. If you are big and go into the small area between the block and the ceiling, you may die crushed. There's also the fact that in SMW you can slide-kill nonsense like the Reflecting Podoboo and the statue flames (present in the third section), which results in glitched GFX for the death frame. Grinders can be killed, too, but these don't glitch. Best solution for this is avoiding the usage of slopes. As for sections themselves, they aren't very engaging. Almost all sprites from the castle set were used without consistency (as in, it feels everything is changing every time or looks way too mixed at certain parts), and the obstacles and lesses puzzles aren't so well-thought, especially to get the first invisible 1up and the 3up moon. Something better than spinjumping flames in obvious patterns could have been built. There was no need to make stuff like invisible question blocks extra obvious, too - using them naturally is what gives meaning to them. Doing this is more for levels that rely on them most times, being required for the player to progress. All in all, this entry could be better.

Design points: 14/60

----------

Creativity: There was lots of potential given the usage of various different sprites. However, the most creative setup I can instantly remember is the statue flame corridors, present in the first section, regardless of its simplicity. And that's all. The rest of stuff was just there to annoy the player with little to no reason besides that. Perhaps using the sky theme to your advantage, using more platform action with a real creative variety of obstacle patterns could have granted you a better score here and in the previous category.

Creativity points: 10/30

----------

Aesthetics: There were some minor palette issues, most notably the mismatched tone of grey in bullet machines, and the way too dark shade of grey of the BG clouds. I know you probably went for something like rain clouds but the palette choices aren't smooth. The second section was untouched palette-wise, and still looked better than the custom palettes in other sublevels. There is some minor decoration in the castle ground of the first section like small corner/edge tiles, but these didn't look really good, honestly. There was no cutoff at all, but there was the oddly positioned midway point. The base isn't attached to the ground, even though it's touching it. Lastly, no tile mixing was used, but that's okay because nothing felt out of place graphically. Overall, questionable palette and decoration choices weighed this down a lot.

Aesthetics points: 3/10

----------

Total score: 27/100

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

User: Manofer
Entry Name: Get the mushroom!
Playthrough date: 2019-02-16

Warning: 'R' tile from LM's interface used for GFX - worth revising, probably not allowed.

Design: Interesting take on experimental design there. The level is easy but challenging at the same time. I'd complain it's a bit linear, but since it's puzzle-based this is not much of an issue. You don't simply run from one side to another - you have to think before doing so, you have to get the mushroom. Its straightforward nature also made me enjoy this a bit more, but I'd argue some places were a bit empty, though. I know that the primary focus is getting the mushroom in order to progress, and to keep it until reaching the necessary spot, but you could also made it so in the mushroom getting phase the player would also be challenged (for example, dodge enemies while moving the mushroom to its exit).

Design points: 42/60

----------

Creativity: It is creative, given the fact that every single section is particularly memorable. Every section felt unique while using the same gimmick, progressively adding more difficulty. However, as said in the previous category, you could also have had obstacles during the mushroom getting phases at some spots, making this a much more interesting, challenging, and less empty entry. Anyway, you did a great job with the few resources used. Less was more.

Creativity points: 23/30

----------

Aesthetics: Nice palettes, though I'm a bit unsure about SMWR palettes for vanilla sprites - it's probably because their borders aren't black. Mario, especially, looked weirder than everything else. GFX choice was good for most part, and I liked the BG, except it looks a bit empty. Maybe adding some clouds, farther towers or stars could spice up the environment? As for decoration, the Mechakoopa wind tiles look out of place in my opinion. I liked the animated Grinders on ground, too. There's no cutoff, but the note block bounce sprite is glitched. The 'R' near reset doors also looks pretty strange (this one is from LM, right? You'd better use SMW's, you can recolor 2BPP to 4BPP, too).

Aesthetics points: 6/10

----------

Total score: 71/100

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

User: MercuryPenny
Entry Name: Plumbing Job
Playthrough date: 2019-02-18

Design: I like it. The usage of enemies was pretty varied but consistent, and the layer 2 water sections were fun to play, especially the second one. It begins fully submerged, then when touching the block in the end of the room, the water level decreases and everything plays significantly different. Yoshi Coins were well placed, even though the first one was "free" to get. The "hidden" 1up and flower were cool, too, even though the powerup is too generous for players that die and start from the midway point. Anyway, there was nothing unfair, no difficulty peaks or major design flaws here.

Design points: 51/60

----------

Creativity: Very nice. As mentioned previously, you did a wonderful job with sprites. Cheep-Cheeps and Urchins were used in a pretty good way while taking advantage of moving layer 2 water. The moving water itself also added a lot to the entry, giving variety to gameplay as well. I'd only have changed the sinking layer 2 block in the second area to something else but I have no idea of what (but I mean, making something more "obvious" to step on in order to make layer 2 sink).

Creativity points: 29/30

----------

Aesthetics: Average, but there were some issues. Minor cutoffs can be seen in several places, like the cement blocks as pipe corners in the beginning, passable castle ledge edges with small empty holes, question blocks against columns near the midway point, and the layer 2 dirt block against the water in the end of the second section. Palettes were mostly okay, but I think that the layer 2 water is a bit too bright for my tastes. The tileset mixing was good, even though I also find it weird that cave slopes placed over castle ledges look passable (and would be in SMW) when they aren't, really.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

----------

Total score: 85/100

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

User: Hayashi Neru
Entry Name: The red ghost house
Playthrough date: 2019-02-18

Design: Decent, but too long. In a normal run for the 5 Yoshi Coins, I reached the end of the level with less than 100 seconds. There were a couple sections that felt a little filler and could have been cut out, like the rising Layer 2 one and even the "quick route" with the on/off layer 2. Speaking of this section, it felt kinda unfair whenever I reached the first jump. The ceiling was too low for me to pull a jump that long, and I'd have never made it the first time without a cape. As for the rising layer 2 section, it was specifically pointless whenever I had a cape, too, as I could fly directly to the door location. As for the rest of the level, basic enemy and obstacle usage, pretty much the average level design. I liked the small rooms for Yoshi Coins, although they were too simple.

Design points: 31/60

----------

Creativity: There weren't any particular sections that were memorable creativity-wise. I do remember well the rising layer 2 section, but in a bad way. It had some good potential for real puzzles but the room was plain filler. You could also have made more clever usage of all other sprites and layer 2 shenanigans, making this level more explorative or whatever else. As it stood, it didn't feel engaging at all. You've also used various different sprite types but didn't explore their true potential. The best sections in my opinion were the Yoshi Coin rooms, and I'd love if challenges were just a little bit more complex for them.

Creativity points: 6/30

----------

Aesthetics: I really liked the first screens with layer 1 and layer 2 in the FG, and layer 3 in the BG. Nice colors, graphics and decoration. The Ghost House entrance, on the other hand, had some problems like the door with minor cutoff due to mismatched tiles, and the random high priority tiles past the door which causes "depth" cutoff. The No Yoshi sign colors are a bit odd, too. As for the inner sections, no problem. Only the BG was recolored to red, and I liked its smoothness. The FG palette was vanilla, but alright, too.

Aesthetics points: 6/10

----------

Total score: 43/100

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

User: Kit
Entry Name: Deep Soda Sea
Playthrough date: 2019-02-18

Design: A pretty decent level. Underwater levels tend to be slower compared to regular romps, and this can make some stages feel boring. Not the case here - the level was packed with some action despite being located underwater. Throw blocks in some areas have helped in terms of pace. The exploration factor was nice, too - some Yoshi Coins were placed quite well to encourage this. Only nitpick of mine is that it's like most water levels with nothing too innovative going on. Don't take this too harshly, though - the level is still fun to play.

Design points: 44/60

----------

Creativity: What has weighed down design a bit has weighed down even more here. While I appreciated the exploration for some Yoshi Coins and the enemy/obstacle usage, I felt that more could be done. For example, Throw Blocks could have been used more often in more ways, making them not only usable to clear sections faster, but also hit certain enemies out of the way. You could also have used wall-detecting Urchins in-between places blocked with Throw Blocks, so you need to get rid of them in order to proceed while also avoiding the Urchin. These are just some small ideas, and I'm sure it's possible to come out with even more.

Creativity points: 13/30

----------

Aesthetics: Nice palettes, and nice mix of water, underground and ghost house tiles. I'm not a fan of half-buried blocks as decorations, though, but this is due to personal tastes. There were no glitches, but I also have to complain about the layer 3 goldfish that cuts off due to the status bar when moving vertically. Sure, it's also present in SMW but it's still an imperfection. I'd rather not use layer 3 there unless working around with the goldfish layer 3 tilemap.

Aesthetics points: 7/10

----------

Total score: 64/100

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

I'll review levels in order of submissions - I'm not taking requests.
MK2TDS
Thanks for the review! I must say some of the things I wanted to do weren't executed very well and maybe I forgot about important stuff in terms of level design, but I think for a first time taking part in a level design contest is not a bad level at all.
As for your level, Le Reservoir, it's one of the best I've seen in this contest, would like to see it at least between the best 10 levels. Dissapearing water after hitting a message box it's an awesome idea, not easy to work with though. Only thing I could complain about is the autoscroll sections, I think it could stop after coming to the end of that part (you made two rooms, so only one could stop autoscrolling).
Nice work in the level and this thread! I want to see more reviews from a experienced hacker!
Oh, thanks for your comments, too, bro! Glad you found this review of mine useful, and that you liked my entry. I can't do much about the rising water rooms because layer 3 doesn't stop, and this would glitch both the tide interaction and graphics when reaching the status bar height.

----------

Time for some more reviews.

User: Flabort
Entry Name: Level Entry
Playthrough date: 2019-02-25

Design: Pretty disorienting and... I'd say random. It seems that you tried to use the extra level height to make multiple routes for the player to progress... but everything looked pointless. It was like I was on a maze but it wasn't a maze level. Also, switch blocks made this entry much easier than if there weren't any. However, a problem - the red switch is *required* if you want to get the last Yoshi Coin without getting hurt. This is in no way good. The only acceptable aspect is the fairness factor.

Design points: 6/60

----------

Creativity: Not creative. Too many different sprites were used with little to no thought. Too many alternative routes were built with little to no thought, too. There was no gimmick or cohesion whatsoever. In order to score here, you should make sure you make something memorable out of your ideas, something that stands out in a good way. This didn't happen here.

Creativity points: 1/30

----------

Aesthetics: Poor choices of palettes. Color shades for ghost house ledges make no sense, and most stuff looks way too desaturated. I know you probably tried to make the environment more mysterious and all, but the execution was poor. There are also minor cutoffs when ghost house ledge columns meet the horizontal pipe, as well as the cobweb in screen 02. The Big Boo colors could have been editted to look better, too. And lastly, your entry suffers of sprite tile limit issues, causing the player tiles to disappear whenever there are too many sprites and he's behind climbing nets. You mixed underground bones with the ghost house tileset, but this didn't affect the score here positively nor negatively. It probabply would if the level as a whole was more consistent.

Aesthetics points: 3/10

----------

Total score: 10/100

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

User: Mogu94
Entry Name: Koopa Kaboose
Playthrough date: 2019-02-26

Design: It's a basic autoscrolling level with a high diversity of enemies. The difficulty was alright, but the design itself wan't too engaging. Four of the five Yoshi Coins involved the samey pattern in order to get collected while the other one was, like, handed out "for free". Given the nature of autoscrolling levels, I know that it's pretty challenging to make something different and fancy when it comes to obstacles and stuff, but at least this entry was fair. The difficulty was well balanced and the length was okay.

Design points: 30/60

----------

Creativity: Aesthetics creativity count some points here, but design-wise, I expected better. THere are too many types of enemies in this level, and their actions weren't well explored. Enemies were just there, offering a basic threat, and nothing more. If you picked up just a few sprite types and made your level based around them, and not just the train aesthetics, you'd have scored more here. Pokeys, for example, could be used more often in ways that would require the player to think a bit to make them move out of the way in order to progress. They may be slow sprites for autoscrolling levels, but still, there are lots of possibilities.

Creativity points: 11/30

----------

Aesthetics: Good. You mixed well various tiles from the Ghost House, Castle, the castle door entrance and Iggy/Larry's ball to make a train. The scrolling layer 3 in the background was also a nice touch. There was no cutoff, but it's possible to slide into statue fireballs and kill them, causing them to display glitched graphics. Most palettes were okay, but I didn't the Yoshi Coin without its color animation, and I think the midway point orange colors look out of place. Another small issue which affects this score is how part of the status bar goes behind layers due to layer 3 being on subscreen, and the fact that the BG completely disappears after getting the goal sphere.

Aesthetics points: 6/10

----------

Total score: 47/100

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

User: Stiviboy
Entry Name: Turrim Caelo
Playthrough date: 2019-02-26

Design: A pretty engaging level, which sadly is seriously affected due to the waiting game. The player is often required to stop and wait for platforms in order to progress, which breaks the pace and easily makes them get bored. And not only restricted to this, there's the final survival room, which is also a waiting game but has action involved. I have mixed feelings on this one because I liked the action, but in my opinion the challenge was too monotonous. Aside from that, props for making a good level using the extended height.

Design points: 49/60

----------

Creativity: It's very creative. The way you built line-guided sections with On/Off switches was smart and interesting, and I especially liked the area right before the midway point where the platform loops and you should switch the On/Off status in each loop in order to advance. The same complaint mentioned in Design category also applies here regarding the waiting game - you could've done something else in order to keep the player engaged, like you did in the final room, even though the execution wasn't that good. For shorter waiting areas, this would have worked much better. And for the final area, something more varied.

Creativity points: 23/30

----------

Aesthetics: Good mix of Castle, Ghost House and Castle Destruction cutscene elements, and interesting sprite reskins, being the Ninji my favorite. I didn't like Larry's head on Chucks, though, because they looked out of place. Same with shelless Koopas and Bob-Ombs - they look the same graphically, but one gets squished while the other one gets stunned and explodes. In other words, "same sprites" with different behaviors. It's me being nitpicky, lol. Palettes were good, and there were no cutoffs anywhere. I found a small but still noticeable glitch if you kill a hidden Pitchin' Chuck with a Bob-omb explosion. There are tiles with priority to obscure them in screen 04 of the main level, but whenever they reach the brick ledge, you can see glitch. And in the final section, the "survive!" text blinks oddly after getting the goal sphere. Instead of using palette animation, it'd be better to animate the tiles themselves.

Aesthetics points: 6/10

----------

Total score: 78/100
MK2TDS
Thanks for the review. I'll keep this criticism in mind and try to use it to better myself as a level designer. I admit there's a little too much of a variety of enemies, I kinda get carried away in that department.. #smw{^_^;}

Btw,
"Another small issue which affects this score is how part of the status bar goes behind layers due to layer 3 being on subscreen, and the fact that the BG completely disappears after getting the goal sphere."
What could I have done to fix these issues (besides for the first issue not having the level tiles go up as high? Was there an option I could have checked or something?)
Layout by RanAS, modified by yours truly.

hey! Thanks for the reviews, Blind!

Originally posted by Blind Devil
Warning: 'R' tile from LM's interface used for GFX - worth revising, probably not allowed.

so I asked about it and FPZero said thats okay to use, but it's the only letter GFX that I found, but well, if this really not allowed, maybe in my next update of my level I'm going to fix it! thank you very much.
Thanks, guys, for the kind words!

@Mogu94: This is a issue that could be easily fixed if the base ROM had this patch implemented. But since your level already uses interactable layer 2 (so it's on mainscreen by default), you can simply disable priority of your layer 3 tiles which are currently on. Then, you can disable the "move layer 3 to subscreen" option and this should be fine. As for the disappearing background when beating the level, you'd have to make another sublevel without layer 3. Maybe make a station platform. It'd look neat!

@Manofer: Well, I advise to change it anyways for consistency, regardless of it being allowed or not, but it's your call.
MK2TDS
Some more reviews! Would have made even more but I'm a SoulCalibur VI addict, I'm sorry.

----------

User: turbofa
Entry Name: Blue
Playthrough date: 2019-03-01

Design: Too hard, and the length aggravates the situation. It starts okay, but everything begins to be borderline unfair when reaching the fast crushing pipe section in the first sublevel. There, I managed to die way more times than on later sections, meaning there's a huge (and sudden) peak in difficulty. Then, it consistently gets harder and requires more action than previously, which made the experience more engaging. The third section, however, besides being the hardest one, didn't feel too unfair in comparison. I appreciate that most dangerous spots were marked with different tiles. However, I didn't enjoy playing through it as most of the time I felt on my nerves than anything else. I probably would, though, if the level was shorter.

Design points: 20/60

----------

Creativity: There were some good aspects, like the clever usage of Lakitus and Spinies with crushing Layer 2, whose sprites don't interact with. That way, it was possible to pack up the level with more action. Still, it was mostly restricted to that, and quick reaction sections that were pretty punishing overall. While most obstacle setups themselves are alright, their executions were flawed due to unfairness (especially the whole quick crushing pipes area in the first sublevel and the long group of pipes at the end of the second sublevel). You should have given more leeway to the player in order to avoid frustration.

Creativity points: 14/30

----------

Aesthetics: Simple, alright, but it has issues. First one being the odd BG colors in the goal point sublevel that both look odd and don't match the other sublevels. Second one is minor, but still... red/orange lava splashes on blue lava make no sense, and I'd change either the splashes palette or the lava palette. There was some GFX mixing shenanigans in order to both spice up the environment and mark dangerous spots, and these were nicely used. Another final complaint is that since almost everything is blue-ish, it makes the aesthetics look kinda monotonous. Even having other pipe colors for Layer 1 would spice up stuff some more, in my opinion.

Aesthetics points: 4/10

----------

Total score: 38/100

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

User: JLippe
Entry Name: Sunset Land
Playthrough date: 2019-03-01

Design: It's an average plains level, but definitely an interesting one. The difficulty curve was pulled off magnificently, starting pretty easy and getting harder as progress is made. A good variety of enemies was used in simple ways, but well used. Nothing spammy or thoughtless. Yoshi Coins were nicely placed, and most of them required a bit of exploration to get while keeping the player engaged. This is the kind of simple level design I like the most. A small complaint I have is that the time limit is a bit too big for this level, and could easily be reduced by 100 seconds with no side effects.

Design points: 49/60

----------

Creativity: Despite being a really fun level, well-designed and stuff, there were no memorable parts when it comes to gameplay, as the whole entry consists of basic platforming that everyone knows and loves [citation needed]. I can't say you weren't creative at all, though, since you also worried about exploration for Yoshi Coins and picked up a nice sprite set for the stage (even though there were lots, they still felt consistent). However, you didn't take any risks to make something different or innovative. Keep exploring sprite behaviors - you may come up with something interesting in the future!

Creativity points: 7/30

----------

Aesthetics: Lovely palettes! No GFX mixing was used, though this doesn't detract anything from the looks of it. I have some nitpicks when it comes to certain land formations, as some have no corner tiles for no apparent reason, and others look plain odd - I'd prefer to see simpler land formations. The odd formations I talk about are the "skinny" ledge tiles as seen in screens 08 and 0A of the main sublevel. Aside from that, I found no glitches or cutoffs.

Aesthetics points: 8/10

----------

Total score: 64/100

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

User: RetroKoopa7170
Entry Name: Bounce and climb!
Playthrough date: 2019-03-01

Design: Simplistic and not very engaging. It's pretty athletic, though, and Yoshi Coins required a little bit of exploration, which is a plus in my book. Anyway, you could have innovated some more with bouncing and climbing mechanics (more details on Creativity category), in order to keep the player really engaged and not giving the sensation of doing the same thing over and over. On another note, the message box in the end of the level is unnecessary.

Design points: 15/60

----------

Creativity: So much potential wasted. Bouncing and climbing together can make up to lots of different athletic setups, not only restricted to bouncing from X block and grabbing Y vine. You could use sprites like Parakoopas more thoughtfully, placing them on the way of climbable/bounceable sections like you did in screen 0C of the main sublevel. Most setups looked like filler and repetitive, unfortunately.

Creativity points: 3/30

----------

Aesthetics: Mostly vanilla, without custom palettes and GFX mixing. Even so, there's a instance of minor cutoff with logs (the one with a mushroom above, in screen 00 of the main level), and vine tiles have no ends, which could be worked around with some creativity (yes, creativity also applies to aesthetics). There's no decoration, but it's kinda compensated with the odd log and pipe formations. They may look weird, but they are catchy for some strange random reason. Anyway, more could be done overall. Don't be afraid to experiment with tiles and colors!

Aesthetics points: 3/10

----------

Total score: 21/100

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

User: yoshi9429
Entry Name: Frozen Grassland
Playthrough date: 2019-03-01

Design: This level is long and a bit frustrating, and also requires item babysitting in two sections (fortunately, they can be resetted). There are too many enemy types being used, and they don't seem to have any cohesion at all. Some setups are also pretty questionable, like the springboard over an 1F0 tile in screen 12 of the main level - and aside from the fact that too many enemy types were used, there was no direction when coming to obstacles whatsoever. 1F0 sprite jump sections, boo circles, etc. The level does have a gimmick, which is turning blocks "on and off" by changing the level from "day to night". This, at least, was an interesting take, making a theoretically same level play differently depending on the conditions. Another thing that also detracts from the experience is the final section - more variety of sprites, and a filler-esque feeling. Other technical issue is the fact that when dying and starting from the midway point the player won't have slippery physics.

Design points: 21/60

----------

Creativity: The reckless usage of resources weigh down in this category a whole lot. As stated in Design category, you have too many sprite types, too many obstacle patterns, and an undefined direction with your theme. You did have a gimmick in mind and worked with it, but you threw lots of random stuff into the pool making this look like an amalgamation of some sorts. If you stickied to less resources and were more balanced with everything, you'd have a better score here.

Creativity points: 6/30

----------

Aesthetics: Custom palettes and GFX mixing were used for this entry. The colors are okay, while I find the night setup still a bit too bright. As for the mixing, the Ghost House tiles went well with the grassland stuff. Decoration is a bit questionable, but mainly due to personal tastes. I'm not a fan of half-buried blocks as decorations. There are some more technical issues that affect score here. For example, statue fireballs and golden Bowser Statues can be killed via sliding, causing them to display garbage. And when sprites fall on blue lava, the splashes are red/orange, which make no sense. All in all, this entry lacked some polishing.

Aesthetics points: 3/10

----------

Total score: 30/100

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

User: PokerFace
Entry Name: Metallic Metropolis
Playthrough date: 2019-03-01

Design: I really liked it! It's not a linear level at all, and having two alternatives for routes made me want to play the level again so I could see if it was still possible to obtain all Yoshi Coins. And the answer is yes. The way you encouraged exploration was extremely well done, and despite most sprite setups being average ones, it's very clear that their positions and stuff were well-thought. There are many gimmicks, but they were merged into this level seamlessly. Hats off.

Design points: 55/60

----------

Creativity: Aesthetic-wise, it's astonishing, I must admit. How you changed lava splashes to look like broken junk wheneve sprites fall into "blenders" is a small detail that caught my attention, since many people forget, or neglect these. Design-wise, the sinking layer 2 section was nice, the crushers sections, too... and the way you turned Grinders, Fuzzies and reflecting Podoboos into electricity orbs, too. Liked the "snake-looking" electricity orbs in the Boo boss battle, but I expected it to move in other patterns other than up/down. It's my only complaint.

Creativity points: 27/30

----------

Aesthetics: What you have done with SMW tiles is amazing - you totally "drew" a new tileset with them, giving a new meaning to most tiles. Palettes are lovely, and the BGs are pretty cool, too. I think the exterior BG is just a bit strange, as I dunno exactly what they're meant to resemble. But the interior BGs are gorgeous. The boss room one is my favorite. I found no graphical issues like cutoffs or glitches, so, it's almost a 10 out of 10 thanks to me being nitpicky with the exterior BG lol.

Aesthetics points: 9/10

----------

Total score: 91/100

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

Remember that I'm open to criticism and stuff so don't hesitate to post in here.
MK2TDS
Originally posted by Blind Devil
The "hidden" 1up and flower were cool, too, even though the powerup is too generous for players that die and start from the midway point.

yeah that was way too generous lol. i'll change it to a mushroom instead so the reward for seeing a hole in the ceiling isn't quite as extreme

Originally posted by Blind Devil
I'd only have changed the sinking layer 2 block in the second area to something else but I have no idea of what (but I mean, making something more "obvious" to step on in order to make layer 2 sink).

i'd be open to suggestions - i couldn't think of too many other things in the graphics set i had that could represent a sewer blockage

Originally posted by Blind Devil
The tileset mixing was good, even though I also find it weird that cave slopes placed over castle ledges look passable (and would be in SMW) when they aren't, really.

the mounds are largely an excuse to have slopes lol

i also don't consider making them passable very intuitive but to each his own

thanks for the review! it's kinda daunting to look through the walls of text but your reviews are definitely worth reading
Just played through two more levels. This time, I was away due to Brazilian Carnival holidays (I don't like such festivity but I used these days to leave my house for a while).

Alert of probably harsh comments! For you, designers of said levels: welcome to SMWC! Please don't be discouraged from hacking SMW just because of my opinions. Mostly everyone starts like this, and it's a matter of time and practice to improve skills.

----------

User: Crysack
Entry Name: Easiest Judgement
Playthrough date: 2019-03-05

Design: It's a mess. Setups have no cohesion and consistency at all - it's like a lot of stuff just thrown inside Lunar Magic with little to no thought. Nothing was planned here. You didn't make a level based around anything, and the experience wasn't nice. Worse: you provided an easy feather, and it allows anyone to completely bypass the level given the lack of simple good level design core values. Also, if you ever take a hit before reaching the door, you have to die and start over because there's no other way to progress, which isn't nice. Be sure to take a serious look into other hacks made by more experienced people to get a grasp on these details, and try to make your levels as fun and polished as possible.

Design points: 2/60

----------

Creativity: None. You picked random sprites and threw them randomly, without having a set gimmick in mind or anything. All sections are bland and bypasseable whenever you get the feather, which makes all obstacles kinda pointless. Only exception is for the small triangle corridor which requires the player to be small, which is uninteresting either. I am sorry if all of this is too harsh, but you definitely need to improve. We're here to help! Be wary, too, that most of us hackers did the same, or similar mistakes when we first started to hack SMW.

Creativity points: 1/30

----------

Aesthetics: Outright bad. Palette choices weren't good - the BG is eye-searing, the castle tileset has miscoloring, as well as the lava and some sprites. There's a massive amount of cutoff caused by brown blocks against the lava, and the abuse of cement blocks could easily be avoided in order to make everything, design and aesthetic-wise more pleasant. There's also a major cutoff in screen 08 - and it's possible to see it thanks to flying above the level with a feather. Nevertheless, it's still possible to spot it with L/R scrolling, too. All in all, thoughtless modifications.

Aesthetics points: 1/10

----------

Total score: 4/100

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

User: Silva Teixeira
Entry Name: THE CAMPING EPISODE
Playthrough date: 2019-03-05

Design: The level is basic, but not very well-designed. It has no memorable sections or interesting setups, which also affect the Creativity category (more explained in there). A good aspect of your level is that it isn't unfair, and has no sudden peaks of difficulty. Anyway, it's pretty linear, and just consists of overall regular jump over enemies and stuff with nothing much going on besides that. There's also a 3up moon handed for free in the second area, offering no challenge to get it at all. And the worst offender: Yoshi. It's possible to bring him through doors while Mario is small. And there are Blue Koopas. If Yoshi keeps a blue shell inside his mouth, he has the power to fly, and makes the whole section bypassable.

Design points: 4/60

----------

Creativity: As mentioned previously, this entry lacked creativity, as there were no innovative setups or clever usage of sprites and obstacle patterns, making the whole level look samey. You kinda had an idea in mind such as higher difficulty level in the "night" section. However, it didn't sell on me. Perhaps if you took more advantage of the theme to make something like "first area, more object obstacles; second area, more sprite obstacles", this would have been a bit better. Don't be afraid to experiment with different sprites and behaviors, and be sure to design something centered around an specific theme.

Creativity points: 2/30

----------

Aesthetics: Could be a tad better. Tileset mixing wasn't used, which isn't a problem here. On the other hand, custom palettes were, but in a rather odd way. The BG of the first section has miscolored tones of green. Same applies to the second one, but in there, the FG also has miscoloring. There's a bunch of cutoff, in special the second section. Various tree branches are floating attached to nothing at all. Plus, berries cause miscolored tiles to appear whenever they're eaten by Yoshi. Some other minor detail worth mentioning is how land formations like in screen 01 of the first section lack corner tiles. You could have built these ledges differently, or tweak some existing GFX from the game to get corners. Would not only add points here, but count for Creativity as well.

Aesthetics points: 1/10

----------

Total score: 7/100
MK2TDS
Played through some more entries, so here are my reviews. By the way, worth mentioning to take in account my playthrough dates, as these dates are when I download entries to play. If some level was updated after that date, some things may or may not apply to updates. And yeah, no, I'm not replaying updated levels.

Without further ado, let's go on to reviews.

----------

User: crm0622
Entry Name: ATHETIC SYNERGY
Playthrough date: 2019-03-06

Design: A long, and godddamn unfair level, with several kaizo traps which aren't introduced to the player in advance, and obstacle patterns that are extremely demanding, like Cheep-Cheep jumps, item babysitting and more. The player will die countless times before being able to learn and overcome these. At least you worried about falling Diggin' Chuck rocks, and used differently colored coins to indicate dangerous spots. When it comes to collecting Yoshi Coins, it becomes nearly impossible. The first one, for example, is located in a tight Muncher spot with Parakoopas, floating mines, and a invisible block kaizo trap. While I may argue this is bad design even for Kaizo levels and I may be possibly wrong, this is for sure bad design for casual players. I gave up trying to beat this level savestateless, too, and this results in poor scoring here. If you're going to make a very hard non-kaizo level, strive to do it as fair as possible.

Design points: 8/60

----------

Creativity: The level design itself may be frustrating, but you bought me with various ideas. Combining the special autoscroll with the layer 3 tide and using enemies to your advantage was a neat one, and allowed for a wide range of clever sections built around them. The second half of the level was simpler, though, but revolved around the samey Cheep-Cheep jumping and mine spinjumping combined with kaizo traps, too. The last section was a pipe cannon boost one which required proper timing to bounce over enemies in order to progress without losing momentum. While kinda cool, it was filler. You should have stickied to either a gimmick or another, or make them work seamlessly. Summing up: even though ideas were cool in theory, you failed to execute them properly in practice.

Creativity points: 10/30

----------

Aesthetics: Basic for what the entry offers. While that's okay, the usage of some tiles as decoration often got confusing and pointless, like the pieces of mushroom platforms inside dirt ledges. Palettes were changed and were alright, despite for the fact that I didn't like the recolored bushes. If their colors were kept, I'd have liked more. There was no GFX mixing, no cutoffs or glitches. The overall SMW feel was kept, which is good. Unfortunately, these small details cut out the score here.

Aesthetics points: 4/10

----------

Total score: 22/100

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

User: JP32
Entry Name: Muncher Mountain
Playthrough date: 2019-03-06

Design: A challenging entry which is enjoyable for most parts, with exception for some waiting game areas, most notably the Pokey one which is blocking the way. The player should make the stacked muncher trio fall in lava in order to progress, while dodging Pitchin' Chuck baseballs. It dragged on for a bit too long. It's good that you turned these waiting areas into survival ones, though. And even nicer that you put effort into making them different while always using Pitchin' Chucks - stuff is less monotonous and more creative. A small design quirk can be found aside from that - the player can clip into the ledge while capespinning through turn blocks, resulting in a probable death unless he falls over some random solid tile (this literally saved my life). Apart from that, a good level, which also explored well the extended height feature.

Design points: 40/60

----------

Creativity: You can notice creativity in some apparently simple setups, like in waiting survival sections with Pitchin' Chucks as mentioned previously, plus the usage of a Pokey to block the way, meaning there was good thought put on sprite placement. Another memorable section is the corridor with some munchers on the ceiling and note blocks on ground. Some other sprites like Mont Moles and a lone Volcano Lotus were used - these weren't very creatively used, though, and felt a bit out of place, especially the Lotus. Apart from that, a good take on this category. Expected some aesthetic-wise creativity to better replace ledges in dirt where most Pitchin' Chucks stand, and something for vine ends that cutoff.

Creativity points: 22/30

----------

Aesthetics: Pretty decent, with vibrant custom palettes and a good usage of decorative tiles despite choosing not to use GFX mixing for some stuff. Some palette choices are odd, however - Mario's fireball looks strange, for example. It'd probably benefit to improve certain odd aspects such as the ledge tiles on dirt which seem to "float" (the ones used as platforms for most Pitchin' Chucks) and the vines. Aside from that, no glitches were found, and regardless of some recurrent floating/stacked muncher memes I found this entry nice to look at.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

----------

Total score: 67/100

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

User: Plasmodium00
Entry Name: DEEP DELUGE
Playthrough date: 2019-03-06

Design: A pretty action-based water level, mostly revolving around ghosts and other fast sprites as main threats while taking some extra liberties, like done with Cheep-Cheeps, Blurps, Urchins and a few others. Yoshi Coins encourage exploration and are nicely placed. There's also a 3up moon, also cleverly placed. It's apparenly obstructed by a pipe, whose cap colors don't match the base, silently hinting that it was passable. I also appreciated the usage of throw blocks and Koopas in order to make things quicker for the player, in exchange for higher difficulty. I've had no problems design-wise, but there are some random stutters in the ghostly section (game hangs for some frames sometimes) which affected my gameplay. I dunno the reason, though, so I won't deduct points because of this specific issue as it might be on the base ROM's end. All in all, a decent experience. Not really unique, but still good.

Design points: 43/60

----------

Creativity: There are some cool setups, but nothing really memorable. What gets points here the most is the balanced sprite usage. You knew how to position them, in a way they never felt unfair but still challenging and not monotonous. This, and the explorative areas containing either Yoshi Coins or the moon felt good, too. By the way, when I started the level, I thought it'd revolve around picking up keys to get inside pipes, but this only happened once in the beginning, and as I kept playing, I expected to see something more done with this in mind. Sadly, it just gave me false expectations. You surely could have done more with this or other mechanics.

Creativity points: 15/30

----------

Aesthetics: The graphics choice for the level was pretty fitting, mixing Ghost House and Cave tilesets for a haunted-kind underwater level. Palettes are mosly vanilla, which aren't bad, but I'd have appreciated some tweaks in order to make the water ambiance more evident. Well, there's a slight miscolor in the BG of the ghostly area, though. There are instances of minor cutoff with some ghost house ledges in the ghostly section (they have no ends), and a major one whenever you die at the beginning of said section. As the screen scrolls down, you can see the ledge cutoff abruptly. There's also the midway point touching the ground, but not being attached to it, which looks off. No glitches were found whatsoever.

Aesthetics points: 4/10

----------

Total score: 62/100

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

User: MechaNinji
Entry Name: Silver Sky
Playthrough date: 2019-03-07

Design: It's a regular rompy level with autoscrolling sections. Difficulty is fair, and everything looks alright. However, there's not much going on except for the traditional enemies on the way sprite usage and obstacle patterns. It has some explorable parts, but these were neglected. Yoshi Coins weren't used when they easily could be - I imagined them in various different spots. So, while everything played decently, it felt like something was missing, making the experience a tad strange. Other thing that weighs this category down is the fact that a couple parts can be skipped by going through the "roofs" of some buildings.

Design points: 31/60

----------

Creativity: When I saw the static floating mines scattered through the level, I expected it to be more centered around them. Also, by looking at the carrot platforms used as tileset made me expect to see floating sprite platforms that moved, or even turn block bridges. Was I ever wrong. This kinda detracts from creativity factor. But not only that - all sprites and sections weren't really innovative, and there were no memorable sections at all. No risks were taken. And you could have done a lot more with these static floating mines. They were mostly screen fillers.

Creativity points: 3/30

----------

Aesthetics: This is the aspect I liked most in this entry. Carrot platforms went well with the versatile Ghost House tileset, while also taking some Castle tiles in order to spice stuff up. Palettes are very nice, as well. I liked you you took advantage of custom ExAnimation to make the big stars in the BG more lively. There are no big issues like cutoffs or glitched graphics, but the layer 3 clouds had a weird vertical scrolling. It makes perspective/depth strange when looking at it against the stars on layer 2. Another small issue is the fact that a certain wooden spike goes behind these layer 3 clouds, even though these are behind layer 1.

Aesthetics points: 7/10

----------

Total score: 41/100

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

User: monkey03297
Entry Name: NIGHT GRASSLAND
Playthrough date: 2019-03-07

Design: Random. Not outright bad, but certainly not a well-planned level. It's also pretty short in order to use 500 seconds - I'd say that even 300 would be enough. Whenever the player gets a cape, the ability to fly makes most areas completely skippable. Plus, there are some technical issues, like with the slanted pipe over cloud tiles. Thanks to the cape, it's possible to fly below this pipe, go through some of its tiles, and even die crushed in it. The extended level height made paths somewhat confusing, too, and four of five Yoshi Coins, located in the upper part of the level, are demanding to get. It's required to run with max speed and spinjump a jumping Piranha Plant in order to make it to the first coin, then take care not to fall down in order to get the next ones. The fifth coin is even less interesting, as it's handed out for free near the goal post. Overall, a weird stage with seemingly no consistent direction taken when designed.

Design points: 12/60

----------

Creativity: There's nothing memorable about this entry. It lacked creativity. There were no innovative setups or clever usage of resources, no central gimmick or theme, so there's basically nothing here to be evaluated, in fact.

Creativity points: 1/30

----------

Aesthetics: Graphics are fine. No extra GFX was used to mix things up, but this detarcts nothing here. What do, however, are the weird palette choices for the BG and some FG elements like the goal post, bridge railings, cement blocks and note blocks. There are also lots of instances of minor cutoff, caused by vines without ends, ledge corners without filling dirt in some locations and the slanted pipe over clouds. Speaking of decoration now, it has some good aspects, like balanced usage of bushes. However, I think these small ledge corners scattered around some parts randomly look plain out of place, not to mention that the BG could benefit of stars or something else to make the entry more lively overall.

Aesthetics points: 2/10

----------

Total score: 15/100

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

User: Roykirbs
Entry Name: Adventurous Ascent
Playthrough date: 2019-03-07

Design: It's good and enjoyable for the most part. Has some small issues, most notably the thin time limit that could easily be increased from 400 to 500 to give more tranquility to players. This, and another design problem is related to a certain high ledge which requires the player to be at full speed in order to reach it, which takes time and is pretty annoying. That's on screen 03 of sublevel 25, because the Hothead despawns and there's no way to boost in order to climb - you gotta catch speed. All other points are positive, like the Yoshi Coin usage, fair difficulty and decent exploration of LM's extended level height feature. You did a fine job.

Design points: 33/60

----------

Creativity: You won some points for aesthetics creativity here, because I really liked how you made buildings using parts of Castle, Ghost House and arch ledges. On the other hand, and most important I dare say, the entry didn't feel consistently centered around something. There are various Dry Bones jump sections which could have been more varied and interesting, as well as a bit of excess on sprite types that could be avoided. Dino-Rhinos and Dino-Torches didn't add much to clever design since they were used as regular threats. More could be done with them, maybe. But I'd either go for using a consistent castle-ish sprite set or Dino-Rhinos instead of using both.

Creativity points: 12/30

----------

Aesthetics: The custom FG tileset mix looks wonderful, as already stated in Creativity category. I liked the palettes, too. However, I didn't quite like the land and rock formations - they looked a bit confusing, and would look better if you used corners for grass ledges and made castle rocks separated (as in, not having the middle of a castle rock touch the edge of another one). Plus, the layer 3 looks weird with translucency enabled as it's too bright and looks plain white, so you can't see layer 2. Another issue is that wooden spikes also appear behind layer 3, and not only layer 1. Aside from that, no cutoffs were spotted. This is good, too.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

----------

Total score: 50/100

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

User: LotusLandSigma
Entry Name: PHANTASMAGORIA
Playthrough date: 2019-03-08

Design: Hmm, not good, to be frank. Random setups, with stuff seemingly just thrown out on Lunar Magic. Worst offenders: the P-Switch and flight section. In the P-Switch are, jumps are blind ones, and there are even POW question blocks in the bottom row, not visible for the player. Then, the flight section... which is absolutely nonsensical, and it is forced. This is in no way good - if someone doesn't know how to fly in advance, this becomes unbeatable. And for those who know, it's still uninteresting. A good point - it's still a playable entry somehow.

Design points: 3/60

----------

Creativity: Devoid of. As said previously, you didn't plan around anything. Didn't make innovative setups, didn't explore sprites and other mechanisms properly and just threw out stuff with little to no thought. You did put some decent usage of slope assist tiles for an enemy stomping section, but a pretty simple one... and that's all. You should have focused in something in order to score better here.

Creativity points: 1/30

----------

Aesthetics: It's bland, and also has several problems. Everything looks very empty due to lack of decoration and a boring background. Some palettes are strange, like the one used by the reflecting Boos. The blue bushes were okay but the color felt out of place. And there are cutoffs - vines have no ends, and in screen 06, the ledge dirt lacks a ceiling. With some creativity, too, you could have one, and use a tile with blank or upsidedown slope acts like setting so it's passable, and also use layer priority. At least nothing was eye-searing, and no glitches were spotted.

Aesthetics points: 2/10

----------

Total score: 5/100
MK2TDS
Finally got able to play some more entries and review them. Unofficial judging continues on, despite the deadline being over.

----------

User: Sockbat Replica
Entry Name: HOUSE OF HOLES
Playthrough date: 2019-03-19

Design: Overall uninteresting. There were various different obstacle patterns and a decent sprite placement, but I didn't feel engaged at any moment due to how these were built. While not repetitive, they felt bland, mostly because I could rush through some parts as if there were no enemies or hazards at all. Some Yoshi Coins did repeat the same patterns, though, but were overall easy to get. I don't get why there are so many easy moonies scattered everywhere, also given the fact that moons are ment to be even more challenging collectibles with no rewards whatsoever because the player has infinite lives. But, collecting a moon in a level is meaning to be rewarding by itself, and here the opposite happens. This entry could have been a lot better.

Design points: 14/60

----------

Creativity: Not much. You did have a theme in mind with moving ledge holes, but it wasn't well executed. You have used these in really simple ways, without innovating anything. You could have sed these in conjunction with solid blocks, too, even though there's some limitation which prevents the player from passing these when going upwards from below, but this isn't the point here. You could have made parallel low ledge corridors with moving holes in which the player would have to wait for it to move away from a certain spot in order to be able to jump to another area. And so on. The sprite may be limited - creativity is not, however.

Creativity points: 7/30

----------

Aesthetics: I didn't like the color choices at all, as instead of color shades, you blackened palettes. The BG was the most affected, looking cutoff-y even though there's no instance of any. Still about palettes, pipes looked strange with that slightly darker "white" tone compared to the color of pipes themselves. The midway point isn't attached to the ledge even though it's touching it, which makes no sense as well. Last but not least, a good aspect is the fact that there are no real glitches or cutoffs anywhere.

Aesthetics points: 3/10

----------

Total score: 24/100

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

User: NextTactics
Entry Name: Magnetic Net
Playthrough date: 2019-03-19

Design: It starts nicely but then it gets frustrating, not due to unfair difficulty, but due to lack of balance, item babysitting and overall hideous design which makes the player wonder if he/she's going the right way, and praying there isn't anything left behind which happens quite often, especially in the line-guided section after the midway point. The player must guess the correct on/off routes that lead to a pipe in order to pick up a key, then guess again how to go the above route in which the key is required, or else they need to reset and redo the line-guide section which is pretty time consuming. Speaking of such, I dare say it's impossible for one to get all five Yoshi Coins in a regular run, due to how difficult they are to get overall, and also due to the level length added to how long one like me takes to go through these challenging sections. I tried doing it but died by running out of time. All in all, I went frustrated more than engaged playing this. The downsides outnumber the good aspects, like clever variety of hazards, challenges, extra checkpoint for this long level and whatnot.

Design points: 19/60

----------

Creativity: This was the best aspect of this entry. While 1F0 tiles were used in straightforward ways, they were well used and gave a nice touch. They were used to keep Thwimps still, or to keep their momentum when they jumped from some other block, and they were used for keys meant to be used as platforms. Even though the latter wasn't really fun or engaging, it was still well implemented. Not only that, you also were creative with Yoshi Coin sections, making a different challenge for each one, despite their design downsides.

Creativity points: 25/30

----------

Aesthetics: Mostly pleasant, with nice vibrant colors and decent graphic choices, aside from some questionable decorations like the arrow signs and carrot platform tiles on ground, cloud fringes which look out of place and oddly colored, minor cutoffs as seen in corner ledges placed over forest canopies, and a major one win the layer 3 background whenever it meets the status bar height. I also disliked the fact that Thwimps weren't properly reskinned, and look like Para-Bombs except there's no parachute. Even for players used to SMW sprites and their behaviors, looking at a Thwimp like this, makes me want to try and stomp it with a normal jump... so... it's not a good idea to keep it like this.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

----------

Total score: 49/100

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

User: MarioFan22
Entry Name: BRAMBLE CLIMB
Playthrough date: 2019-03-20

Design: Pretty good! Levels that revolve around nets tend to be slow-paced almost like underwater levels, but you managed to make this pretty engaging and fun to play. Both net doors and Yoshi Coins encouraged exploration, which for me is a plus because I like this kind of design the most. Enemies were fairly placed, and so were the bramble thingies. Later you incorporated conveyor belts and it made everything more athletic and challenging. A nice balance in all aspects grant you a great score here.

Design points: 56/60

----------

Creativity: It's not news to most people what can be done with net doors, as they're pretty straightforward when it comes to the basics. But your patterns were varied enough to score well here. You were even more creative with net Koopas, with clever positioning for a variety of places, plus the usage of switch blocks in a certain area which can help the player to pass. Aesthetics creativity also counts points, so let's not forget the nice job you did with the bramble tileset.

Creativity points: 23/30

----------

Aesthetics: They're nice for most part. You did a nice mix of graphics, balanced usage of decoration, and no glitches were found. You know what I say about half-buried blocks, right? This level manages to be one exception to the rule, because you gave these a meaning, and incorporated them very well in order to delimit safe spots amongst brambles. I'm unsure about the pink palette for sprites, because it's a bit too bright, and especially Volcano Lotus spores looked a bit odd with that color. Aside from that, no cutoff or glitches that I could have spotted.

Aesthetics points: 7/10

----------

Total score: 86/100

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

User: ECS.98
Entry Name: Vanish Castle
Playthrough date: 2019-03-20

Design: This entry was extremely interesting, exploring sprite slot limitations to advantage (more on Creativity category), as well as enemy respawning to make the whole level a unique experience. Design-wise, I found no flaws or loopholes... but I missed Yoshi Coins. They aren't really necessary but I always tend to enjoy playing a level that has rewarding collectibles, exploration... you know. Anyway, awesome job!

Design points: 57/60

----------

Creativity: It's an example of creativity at its fullest. I have never seen a level before that has used sprite slot limits as a gimmick ever (meh, in normal hacks this isn't viable as it causes massive slowdown), and while the gimmick being new and innovative, so are the setups. Unblocking paths in different ways, be it carrying a key to another sublevel, just "stepping on the vanish switch", killing enemies, and so on... and you've also made a clever usage of vertical level spawning for sprites. What's more, you combined both into the Big Boo Boss battle! My God, I think I'm speechless now. Take a perfect score, you deserve it.

Creativity points: 30/30

----------

Aesthetics: They're decent, but I have some nitpicks regarding a few tile choices for decoration and stuff. The arrow indicators were strange, and I'd prefer to see actual arrows, like the ones used in OW scrolling. Making them blink would be a plus. Same thing applies to indicator messages to some extent - there could be some border to these instead of making the text seem just floating. This, or maybe use the actual layer 3 font. Quirks aside, everything was kept simple. Palettes were okay, distribution of decoration was okay, no cutoffs or graphical glitches found... so an average score fits well here.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

----------

Total score: 92/100

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

User: debug001
Entry Name: CLOUDY LAKE
Playthrough date: 2019-03-22

Design: Honestly, not very good. The first section is pretty samey, and due to being located underwater, it also gets easily boring and slow. Not much is going on in there besides the introduction of orange things that hurt the player, which wasn't a good idea for clouds either because of their interaction (for example, slopes don't act like slopes, and this makes no sense because they still look like slopes). Then, there is the second section which isn't located underwater but is identical the first section visually. This time, swimmable clouds are introduced. There are some obligatory damage areas featuring more of these orange clouds, with the nonsensical slopes which now affects the player more than ever. And lots of different sprites with varied behaviors, breaking consistency. Another nitpick of mine is how you come from the pipe you're supposed to enter in the midway entrance. It makes no sense as well. As a whole, the level felt strange and not well planned.

Design points: 8/60

----------

Creativity: Ideas existed, like done with orange hurt stuff, swimmable clouds and obligatory hurt areas. However, none of them were executed well, and they did not feel seamless together. You could have done better sticking to one of these gimmicks, and making actual innovative setups with them in mind. Also, you've used a really variety of different sprites in traditional ways without exploring their behaviors or focusing on level cohesion. Picking a slightly reduced sprite set, and work around them also grants points in creativity. It's not about quantity, but quality - doing more with less. Finally, for aesthetic creativity - something better to replace orange slopes could have been used. There's nothing that hurts the player that acts like a slope besides lava that kills instead. So, instead of slopes, you should have used regular solid-looking blocks.

Creativity points: 3/30

----------

Aesthetics: Didn't like these, either. The cloud tileset is a tricky one, and if one isn't careful enough, will get results exactly like seen in this entry. There are loads of minor cutoff on fringes in several places - or the lack of them. Regarding ambiance, the first section was located underwater but didn't look like an underwater level at all. Worse, it looks visually identical to the non-water section. Some palette choices weren't nice, for example the black/blue logs. The light blue swimmable clouds could use some work, as well. No glitches were found, at least.

Aesthetics points: 3/10

----------

Total score: 14/100

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

User: Tweyxx
Entry Name: Altair
Playthrough date: 2019-03-22

Design: A mixed bag of things. It starts promising but then it becomes very strange, making the player lose their sense of progress. It's also kinda hard, mainly due to tight safe spots in between spikes and stuff, which is also heavily affected by... the decoration (more on Aesthetics category). I liked how there's some exploration encouragement to collect lots of 1ups and the 3up moon, despite this putting pressure on me to rush even more in order not to die from a time up. So, it's a long and claustrophobic level which didn't keep me engaged except for the beginning.

Design points: 22/60

----------

Creativity: Firstly, you get a few points here for aesthetic creativity with layer 2 usage to merge tiles in various ways. Its execution, however, wasn't so nice. Anyway, on to design creativity: the calm-esque section was especially memorable because there were no enemies, but plain platforming and static hazards. The idea itself was great despite the claustrophobic feel of it. I also liked some dolphin-oriented sections in the first area. Expected more of these, and a better execution overall, though.

Creativity points: 17/30

----------

Aesthetics: The biggest offender of them all, which detracted a lot from gameplay. Not because the level is ugly - it isn't. The problem is that screens are too busy, filled with tons and tons of varied tiles, decorations and the like. Some palettes were questionable, too, especially the midway point bar, the water in the platforming section, the desaturated sprites that blend too much with the level itself, and I could go on and on. Some tiles as decorations also looked a bit random, like dolphin heads. Anyway, the GFX mix is mostly good. I found no cutoffs due to balanced usage of layer 2 shenanigans, but I did found glitches. Sliding on slopes cause Bowser statues and fireballs to die and display garbage. Sadly, all the effort put on aesthetics didn't pay off here.

Aesthetics points: 3/10

----------

Total score: 42/100

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

User: MonkeyShrapnel
Entry Name: Tangerine Wetlands
Playthrough date: 2019-03-22

Design: It's a generic tide level, with an extremely wide range of different sprites, used in common ways, and that's pretty much it. It presents some consistent challenges at some points, but not as a whole. Areas like screens 07-09 and 0B-0C of the second section look pretty filler and repetitive, and I'd say a bit unfair, since there are lots of hazards plus the tide pushing the player backwards, not to mention that I've got sprites not spawning or plain disappearing for apparently no reason. In short words, it's not a very fun level.

Design points: 15/60

----------

Creativity: There were no aspects which would grant points here. As said in the previous category, you've used too many sprite types for your level, but didn't plan anything around them besides the basic. There was no defined gimmick, when you could easily pick, for example, line-guided chainsaws and mix with carrot platforms and maybe a Porcu-puffer, or make varied setups and challenges with hammer Bro platforms... in other words, pick up a consistent and smaller set of sprites or a particular mechanism and work around these. As it stands, it doesn't look creative.

Creativity points: 3/30

----------

Aesthetics: Everything looks alright. There were no odd palette choices, and no GFX mixing was used which isn't a problem, but I argue that no risks were taken in order to make something more attractive. Anyway, no cutoffs or glitches were found. Okay note for okay aesthetics that play safe.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

----------

Total score: 23/100

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

User: Carld923
Entry Name: Skyway Sanctum
Playthrough date: 2019-03-22

Design: I like this one! It manages to be challenging but not unfair. Yes, there are some difficulty peaks here and there but still nothing that detracts too much from gameplay. Assuming that one didn't hit the blue switch, the section right after the midway point which revolves around spinjuming most stuff comes to mind. Many stuff go on here as layer 2 moves certain sprites, and the player must keep the pace. Anyway, interesting takes on gimmicks despite using more than one (more on Creativity category), and Yoshi Coins were particularly very tough to get, but not impossible. Mostly everything contributed to a pleasant experience.

Design points: 48/60

----------

Creativity: There are many creative points about this level, like the mixed usage of 1F0 tiles with layer 2 to give more motion to sprites and challenges themselves. You've also used climbing net shenanigans, im mostly basic ways, but also in different ones, by combining it with moving layer 2, too. There was also the focus on precise spinjumping hazardous sprites - while hard, this was well executed. Using blue switch blocks to facilitate the lives of less experienced players also contribute here. You may have used lots of gimmicks, but you did a nice job introducing and executing them.

Creativity points: 25/30

----------

Aesthetics: Pretty good overall. There are some oddities with the cloud border palette in the BG, as the borders didn't go well with the main color fill (they're too desaturated and dark, no smooth color transitions). Aside from that, I liked the Castle/Ghost House mix for the FG, and the BG design is different, clean, and cool. I spotted no cutoffs. However, the player can slide-kill statue fireballs, and you know in what this results. Yeah, garbage graphics. Finally, my nitpick with the midway point which is touching the ground but isn't attached to it. it looks strange.

Aesthetics points: 6/10

----------

Total score: 79/100

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

User: huebrbr
Entry Name: -
Playthrough date: -

Disqualified: BPS error (The patch is not intended for this ROM).

The patch didn't work with a clean SMW ROM, which means you've messed up when creating your BPS file. For this reason, I could not play the level.

Total score: DQ/100

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

User: S.N.N.
Entry Name: Crystarp Hollow
Playthrough date: 2019-03-22

Design: It's great overall, but a bit too long for players that aren't used to complex puzzles as done with Yoshis and even with fireballs and 1F0 tiles. This detracts a bit from gameplay, but doesn't make it less engaging, really. There are a few design quirks, though, whick make a few sections pointless or that have unintended solutions. The last baby Yoshi segment before the midway point can be fed up with a reserve mushroom if you have one, totally breaking it. There's also the second fireball section that, while hard to execute, it's still possible to directly kill the Spiny blocking the way with one, without the need of throwing a fireball since its intended initial route. Finally, the last fireball section with a Yoshi is a bit strange, as I could pass through it by just damaging myself, while also keeping Yoshi with me, and I had a reserve mushroom so I just damaged myself again to get the final Yoshi Coin lol. Anyway, most stuff worked as intended, and I had a lot of fun playing through this. Oh yeah, the 3up moon is cleverly hidden. Props!

edit: Totally forgot to mention that there's a small functionality issue. Whenever a Yoshi grows for the first time, a blank message box appears. I'm deducting a couple points for this.

Design points: 52/60

----------

Creativity: It's hella creative. It consists of clever puzzles involving baby Yoshis, 1F0 tiles, and player fireballs. They always felt fresh and varied, despite a few sections being breakable due to small details. You tried to make everything as proper as possible, which is good, but even so, it seems that some possibilites were overlooked or neglected. Anyways, all sections were memorable in some way. Definitely well done with every resource you used for this entry to be possible.

Creativity points: 29/30

----------

Aesthetics: Nice mixing of GFX to make a cave-crystal type of ambiance, and an amazing job with the BG and palettes, as well. Decoration usage was balanced and nice. Everything is simple but clean. I'm afraid I have to deduct some points because of the midway points that touch the ground but aren't attached to it, and the fact that it's possible to slide-kill statue fireballs and statues, causing them to glitch.

Aesthetics points: 7/10

----------

Total score: 88/100
MK2TDS
Thanks for the review! Glad you enjoyed it #smw{:TUP:}

Agreed about the pink blocks. I was rather limited with palettes with the ExAnimation.
Thank you for judging my level! I agree that I failed at the end of the level #smw{-_-2}
I don't know if you are gonna replay it, but in order to play huebrbr level you need to use bps on SMW rom modified by VLDC 11 Base Rom.
Hey there!
Thank you so much for playing and reviewing my level! It's a great review! And it's nice to receive feedback from an experienced hacker!
I'm really glad you enjoyed my level!

Originally posted by Blind Devil
Design: This entry was extremely interesting, exploring sprite slot limitations to advantage (more on Creativity category), as well as enemy respawning to make the whole level a unique experience.

Yay! Thank you!

Originally posted by Blind Devil
Design-wise, I found no flaws or loopholes... but I missed Yoshi Coins. They aren't really necessary but I always tend to enjoy playing a level that has rewarding collectibles, exploration... you know.

Oh, i see what you mean.
I designed my level to make a pretty linear experience, because, due to the nature of the gimmick, i needed to have control over how the level would play, so everything would work correctly. Because of this, i couldn't give too much freedom for the player with exploration and such.
But i understand what you're saying, i also enjoy playing levels that have collectibles and exploration! And i see i could totally have added some Yoshi Coins, even if just by using an extra jump to reach them or some simple setups like these. Really the only reason i didn't do it was because it wasn't my focus.
But i'll keep this in mind for future levels! Thanks for the suggestion!

Originally posted by Blind Devil
Anyway, awesome job!

Design points: 57/60

Wow! 57 points! Thank you so much!

Originally posted by Blind Devil
Creativity: It's an example of creativity at its fullest. I have never seen a level before that has used sprite slot limits as a gimmick ever (meh, in normal hacks this isn't viable as it causes massive slowdown), and while the gimmick being new and innovative, so are the setups. Unblocking paths in different ways, be it carrying a key to another sublevel, just "stepping on the vanish switch", killing enemies, and so on... and you've also made a clever usage of vertical level spawning for sprites. What's more, you combined both into the Big Boo Boss battle! My God, I think I'm speechless now. Take a perfect score, you deserve it.

Creativity points: 30/30

Wow! I think i'm speechless for making an experienced hacker speechless with my level! xD
Really, this means a lot for me! I did shot pretty heavily for Creativity with my entry, and it's great to see it paid off!

Originally posted by Blind Devil
Aesthetics: They're decent, but I have some nitpicks regarding a few tile choices for decoration and stuff. The arrow indicators were strange, and I'd prefer to see actual arrows, like the ones used in OW scrolling. Making them blink would be a plus. Same thing applies to indicator messages to some extent - there could be some border to these instead of making the text seem just floating. This, or maybe use the actual layer 3 font. Quirks aside, everything was kept simple. Palettes were okay, distribution of decoration was okay, no cutoffs or graphical glitches found... so an average score fits well here.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

Thank you for the feedback! I'm still pretty inexperienced with aesthetics (in fact, i'm pretty new to hacking as a whole), so most of the things you mentioned were due to this fact, as i didn't experiment too much with aesthetics.
The only things i did aesthetic-wise were the Custom Palettes and the Map16 tiles, as i've never tried to do other stuff like Tileset Mixing, ExGFX, and such.
Also, thank you for mentioning decoration distribution, as that's something i was wondering as well! So it's great to know it was okay!

Originally posted by Blind Devil
Total score: 92/100

Oh my god!! 92 points! I'm completely astonished!
Being my first entry to a VLDC and one of my first levels, i didn't expect it to have such a great reception! This really means a lot for me!
Again, thank you so much for your review!
My Youtube Channel
My time span has shortened considerably due to ASM duties and having to attend medical exams in order to be accepted in a new job. This, plus college, slowed down my playthrough pace. Even though priority is lowered, I'll continue on.

Without further ado, here are some more reviews!

----------

User: Sixcorby
Entry Name: Brown Block Factory
Playthrough date: 2019-03-27

Design: This level is very interesting and engaging on the various ways that creating/eating blocks were used. Collecting Yoshi Coins was extremely satisfying, by the way. However, there were a couple parts in which difficulty peaked a bit too much, especially in the very last screens of the autoscroll section. The player must land on sinking platforms with both timing and precision taken in account in order not to fall in lava while avoiding Diggin' Chuck rocks and also waiting for the eating block to get rid of brown blocks on the way, which is a lot of stuff. The level was overall of medium difficulty, but this part was very hard... if not a bit unfair. Even so, I really liked playing through it as a whole. The experience was unique.

Design points: 56/60

----------

Creativity: Very creative! You've explored well some of these usual creating/eating block behaviors for different challenges, and used the basic behavior in neat ways, too. Almost all sections were memorable - in fact, all creating/eating block related sections were memorable, and that felt great. Other obstacle setups and sprites usage were alright, too, but I think you've used too many sprite types for your level just to make these particular sections. Not a problem, really, it's just a nitpick of mine.

Creativity points: 28/30

----------

Aesthetics: The graphics overall are pretty simple but clean and pleasant. Palettes are nice, too. My only complaint is regarding reskinned Diggin' Chuck rocks that look like brown blocks, but are in no way safe to land over without spinjumping. I'd have changed it to something else which would look truly menacing. Still, good job. No cutoffs or glitches that I could have seen.

Aesthetics points: 7/10

----------

Total score: 91/100

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

User: YoshiGamingHD
Entry Name: Black And White
Playthrough date: 2019-04-01

Design: This level is really short and easy, but not in a good way. That's because it's pretty linear overall, and design-wise, there isn't anything interesting going on. You just go left to right, jump and avoid enemies in a traditional fashion for about a minute, and it's all over. There aren't any Yoshi Coins, as well, which could have encouraged exploration and made stuff more rewarding and engaging. It's even worse considering that you made an irrelevant section in screen 0A. All enemies in there offer absolutely no threat, and could be removed without doing any harm. Lastly, the 3up moon in the end of the level is pointless since it's handed for free to the player.

Design points: 7/60

----------

Creativity: Not creative. It's just a plain basic level with basic sprite usage, with nothing memorable in any aspects. The aesthetics are greyscale, but this didn't add anything to gameplay.

Creativity points: 1/30

----------

Aesthetics: Everything is monotonous, empty, and devoid of life thanks to the palette choices and lack of a background. I know you probably meant for it to be simplistic like gameboy stuff or similars, but you didn't pull off the idea well. There's also an instance of cutoff and bad tile usage for ledge corners in screens 04 and 05. At least you didn't have anything eye-searing, or grotesque glitches.

Aesthetics points: 2/10

----------

Total score: 10/100

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

User: GammaSlap
Entry Name: BUSTER QUARRY
Playthrough date: 2019-04-01

Design: Very good! The level is athletic and challenging, filled with action from start to end. The theme was nice, and the sprite usage, as well as Yoshi Coin placement, were great. Everything was fair and balanced difficulty-wise, despite me dying once near the end due to a surprise Wooden Spike which blocked my jump. I know it was mostly my fault due to rushing a bit, but there could be some kind of prior warning when it come to this jump... or getting rid of the Wooden Spike. But this is my only complaint. Well done!

Design points: 55/60

----------

Creativity: Even though the level plays safe in that regards, all setups were varied enough to make the whole level a satisfying experience. But the most memorable part when it comes to creativity is the path to get the last Yoshi Coin, which revolves around moving shelless yellow Koopas to a shell so they can hit a vine block and unblock paths. It's also simple, but it was executed well. You've used a consistent set of sprites and made a great job with them.

Creativity points: 27/30

----------

Aesthetics: Simple but sweet. Good palettes, a nice mix of Cave and Ghost House elements, as well as a good distribution of decoration. It doesn't go into fancy territory but it's still nice. No cutoffs or glitches that I could have spotted. All elements are spot-on.

Aesthetics points: 8/10

----------

Total score: 90/100

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

User: Sancles
Entry Name: Temple of Fish Gods
Playthrough date: 2019-04-01

Design: It's an interesting one, even though its difficulty peaks a lot after the midway point, becoming very hard and requiring a good bunch of precision and timing in order to progress. Level length was alright, and despite the difficulty being a bit inconsistent, there were no unfair parts. You didn't use any Yoshi Coins, which isn't a problem, but would be a plus, adding more rewarding and replay value to it. Still, you did a decent job.

Design points: 45/60

----------

Creativity: Rip Van Fishes and reskinned Eeries appeared in some nice setups, and especially the former made apparitions the most. Various sections required the player to spinjump over them in order to progress, which is cool, but it was overdone. More could be done with them, like making them block a path so the player gotta approach them in order to make them move out, and so on. The second section also made use of that, mixing line-guided platforming and other sprites such as reskinned Urchins and a lone Porcu-puffer. While spinjump patterns were varied per se, the gimmick was a bit overused in my opinion.

Creativity points: 16/30

----------

Aesthetics: A bit strange, especially regarding the FG palette. The level looks like an icy, slippery level, but it isn't, and it makes no sense to me. Graphics were alright, despite me finding the fish statues a tad distracting, as well. For example, in the line-guided section, there were some upsidedown statues of this kind, and I oftent thought they were solid so I ended up avoiding instances of safe spots because of that. As a whole, decoration is overused and questionable, more specifically the half-buried fishes on the ground. Aside from that, you've mixed Grass and Ghost House tilesets in a good way, and also made a nice alternative for line guide ends. I found no cutoffs, and liked some sprite reskins. However, there's a glitch - layer 3 looks weird after touching the goal point as it "warps" whenever the Course Clear stuff appear. All issues I pointed out here affected the score negatively by a lot.

Aesthetics points: 4/10

----------

Total score: 65/100

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

User: Sparky
Entry Name: BONEY BASIN
Playthrough date: 2019-04-01

Design: Didn't like it. Most sections are either empty, boring or too slow-paced for my liking. The first section has a few blind jump spots, which make any player uneasy to carry on as there's no way to anticipate anything until you actually jump. Even though the player usually lands in a safe spot, it's still something bad. Then, the second part is an underwater one, involving mazes, tight spots and Urchins blocking the way. Underwater levels are already slow-paced by nature, but it's even worse considering that the player has to wait for Urchins to unblock the corridors which, mind me, were very long. And lastly, the goal point section features a layer 3 tide which disappears when the Course Clear stuff shows up, which is abrupt and doesn't look nice. Finally, as a whole, the level didn't have any cohesion, and felt like two levels in one given the sudden theme change from cave to underwater. Yoshi Coins were used only after the midway point, which is good for players that die and start from there - they don't have to replay through everything to get them all. This is a good aspect. But... they're obtainable in samey ways (mazes and so on). And why have an unobtainable 1up at all in the first section?

Design points: 11/60

----------

Creativity: No creative aspects were seen. You didn't focus on making a level centered around an specific theme or idea - instead, you just built a level without much planning. There were no memorable spots in a good way, nothing that innovates. It's just... a basic, ordinary level.

Creativity points: 1/30

----------

Aesthetics: The entry didn't use any custom palettes, but did use GFX mixing, as seen in the cave section. Ghost House ledge columns were found in there. But, they cause cutoff with ledge corners and bones. There's also a bad corner tile in screen 02 of the same sublevel, and vines are cutoff because you didn't creatively made ends for them. Bones also cutoff in the water section. And layer 3 goldfish gets cutoff when it meets the status bar while the camera moves vertically. So, overall, aesthetics lacked polishing.

Aesthetics points: 2/10

----------

Total score: 14/100
MK2TDS
Originally posted by Blind Devil

User: GammaSlap
Entry Name: BUSTER QUARRY
Playthrough date: 2019-04-01

Design: Very good! The level is athletic and challenging, filled with action from start to end. The theme was nice, and the sprite usage, as well as Yoshi Coin placement, were great. Everything was fair and balanced difficulty-wise, despite me dying once near the end due to a surprise Wooden Spike which blocked my jump. I know it was mostly my fault due to rushing a bit, but there could be some kind of prior warning when it come to this jump... or getting rid of the Wooden Spike. But this is my only complaint. Well done!

Design points: 55/60

----------

Creativity: Even though the level plays safe in that regards, all setups were varied enough to make the whole level a satisfying experience. But the most memorable part when it comes to creativity is the path to get the last Yoshi Coin, which revolves around moving shelless yellow Koopas to a shell so they can hit a vine block and unblock paths. It's also simple, but it was executed well. You've used a consistent set of sprites and made a great job with them.

Creativity points: 27/30

----------

Aesthetics: Simple but sweet. Good palettes, a nice mix of Cave and Ghost House elements, as well as a good distribution of decoration. It doesn't go into fancy territory but it's still nice. No cutoffs or glitches that I could have spotted. All elements are spot-on.

Aesthetics points: 8/10

----------

Total score: 90/100

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



Dude thank you, this means so much. After my past two submissions receiving mediocre reviews, to see that someone liked my level and said it was very well made, means a lot. Makes me realize my growth as a designer over the years. Very fair review too!
Time passes by, official judges are getting done with their levels, and it's likely that I won't be done with them all myself due to focusing on tons of other things; so, if I don't make it to the end, my apologies.

Without further ado, here are some more words from me.

----------

User: Blizzard Buffalo
Entry Name: AMBROSE ASYLUM
Playthrough date: 2019-04-12

Design: It has its good and bad aspects, being the good ones the level length, powerup and Yoshi Coin placement. As for bad ones, difficulty peaks in various sections, being these also kinda claustrophobic, and interaction issues which are present with "castle entrance doors" which requires the player to be centered into them in order to enter them, and on the final section stairs. They don't have proper corner assist tiles. Overall, I don't like enemy placement mostly because of that, but there's also the line-guided rope section where the player can just hold on to the bottom of the rope and absolutely no enemies will harm them, making these sprites pointless. All in all, I thought there wasn't much thought on design, and the entry could ahve been a lot better.

Design points: 29/60

----------

Creativity: There is a bit of aesthetic creativity, but not much when it comes to gimmicks or thematic cohesion. Lots of sprite types were used throughout the whole stage, and everything was used in the most basic ways. In other words, there's nothing really memorable going on.

Creativity points: 4/30

----------

Aesthetics: I like the environment palettes and graphics mixing, but I'm not really a fan of several decorative tiles and of the lava tiles (the surface is lighter than the bottom tiles). Some stuff also looks misleading - as in, some things look solid when they aren't. There are various instances of minor cutoff, most notably with Castle blocks placed over walkthrough tiles seen in screens 08 and 09 of the second section. Also, the two-toned pipe in the "secret room" is plain weird. Aside from that, I've found no glitches.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

----------

Total score: 38/100

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

User: Mad Lad
Entry Name: OH THAT'S HOT
Playthrough date: 2019-04-11

Design: Really liked it! The entire level is packed up with a lot of action, and provides a wide variety of challenges without feeling samey. The level was of hard difficulty, but it was not unfair and had no peaks. And well, due to the nature of this stage, I didn't miss Yoshi Coins, as it'd require tons of pace breakers and that wouldn't add much to gameplay. So, well done!

Design points: 54/60

----------

Creativity: All setups were cleverly designed with everything being extremely well planned, from sprite sets to obstacle patterns. You did a wonderful job with Skull Rafts and 1F0 tiles, and made unique setups with them. I only expected some more creativity aesthetic-wise because of how sprites like Swoopers and Spike Tops looked plain weird standing still in midair. Same applies to getting rid of vines cutoff.

Creativity points: 25/30

----------

Aesthetics: They're decent overall, and there are no glitches. However, there are downsides, being the main one related to animated palettes on level end scorecard which flash strangely. The other one is related to minor cutoffs like vines, and odd midway point placement - it touches the ground, but isn't fixed on it. Graphics themselves are alright, though I'd loved if you made Swoopers animate during their hanging phase with ExAnimation so they'd look less weird standing still in midair. Same applies to Spike Tops - could be reskinned to something else. Regarding decoration, I'm not a fan of exclamation mark signs as they use the switch palace block graphics, which is pretty misleading. As a whole, it tries to play safe graphically and for that reason it didn't impress me.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

----------

Total score: 84/100

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

User: Blind Devil
Entry Name: le Reservoir
Playthrough date: NO

Did you really think I'd rate my own level? I don't feel like doing it. I'll just say the following: I hope I win 2nd place lol

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

User: Wind Fish
Entry Name: Grandma's Paradise
Playthrough date: 2019-04-20

Design: It's decently designed. But it feels a bit repetitive sometimes, and it also feels really linear. There aren't path varieties for coin or even for powerup collecting - you just go on and on, timing your Parakoopa stomps throughout the whole level while also taking other stuff like Turn Block bridges. Speaking of such, using other sprites other than Parakoopas really felt good and added to both gameplay factor and creativity. Still, the level design overall wasn't impressive enough for me.

Design points: 31/60

----------

Creativity: We don't see levels that focus on sprite stomping or spinjumping everyday, but we do see this kind of platforming in parts of levels. Here, this was the main gimmick, and it was properly introduced. However, it didn't go too far from just stomping Parakoopas in a timely manner, combining with the fact that the player has to wait for them to be in the right position before doing so. You've also taken advantage of Turn Block bridges in the second half of the level, making patterns more unique. Still, it felt that more could have been done.

Creativity points: 15/30

----------

Aesthetics: Pretty much original palettes and GFX sets, except for the back area color which is a pleasant one. Plays safe regarding everything else - no mixing, no decoration, and straightforward usage of pipes and arch ledge tiles. There are some green coins and empty green switch block lines used as indicators, as well, but since these dotted blocks served another purpose other than being real switch blocks, I found them kinda unnecessary and misleading. There were no glitches or cutoffs that I could consider for a lower scoring. Anyway, little to no risks were taken so the score isn't a high one.

Aesthetics points: 5/10

----------

Total score: 51/100

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

User: EternityLarva
Entry Name: Have Sweet Dreams
Playthrough date: 2019-04-20

Design: I really liked it for the most part. Loved the way the level benefitted from using extended height to make paths nonlinear and unique, and how it encouraged exploration to get Yoshi Coins as well as some secrets. Unfortunately, there were some small problems, being the major one related to the P-Balloon in the first section. With it, you can skip a considerable portion by flying below objects, and go straight to the vine block. The other issue is most graphical but affects gameplay - some tiles look solid when they aren't, making interactable and non-interactable tiles hard to distinguish from each other, and this resulted in some unfair hits and even death. Lastly, difficulty peaked a bit in some places, especially the vines area with Pitchin' Chucks of the first section and the autoscroll section.

Design points: 46/60

----------

Creativity: You get some points for aesthetic creativity due to how you combined tiles by using layer 1 and layer 2, getting rid of vine ends cutoff by using Carrot Plants and making actual half-buried blocks that actually work, which is something I've never seen before. Now, design-wise, there were various instances of creative setups, and I particularly recall the end of the first section requiring a vine to proceed and the autoscroll section with a huge variety of enemies due to how cleverly you used line-guided sprites and moving Ghost House holes. The bad aspect is also seen in there as well as other places - the huge variety of sprite types. I know it's meant to be a dreamy level but that doesn't excuse for tons of sprites with different behaviors in various places. Aside from this nitpick of mine, great job.

Creativity points: 23/30

----------

Aesthetics: While palettes are mostly eye-candy and tileset mixing is well done, I've spotted some issues, being the main ones instances of minor cutoff and the misleading decorative cave foreground tiles that looks solid but aren't. There are some weird color choices for cement blocks, too, and I didn't like how green sprites were recolored to a pinkish red, because the secret 1up mushroom in the beginning of the level totally didn't look like an 1up. Distribution of decoration was alright-ish except for cave tiles. Some sprite reskins were interesting, too. At last, no glitches were found.

Aesthetics points: 6/10

----------

Total score: 75/100
MK2TDS
Well, it's nice to see i'm not alone in the whole "The official judges are already finished and i'm not even halfway through in my Fan-Judging thread!" business xD
You've done a great job with your reviews since the beggining, and despite having slowed down, it's great to see you're still willing to keep going with these reviews!

Well, i'll be here slowly working through the entries as well, so you're not alone! xD
My Youtube Channel