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Dumb deaths is my specialty when playing VLDC 12

Originally posted by Galaer
120. Lotica - ORANGE SPICE

Dumb death #1: wanted to avoid Chuck, so I jumped right of him. It was blind jump into pit.

Oh, I thought Chuck guards mushroom, but it's just vine for 1st dragon coin.

Dumb death #2: killed by 2nd mole out of nowhere. Even though I was on top of it.

Dumb death #3: jumped on 2nd goomba, but because slope, it registered as him killing me.

Dumb death #4: got hit by koopa on pipe in dumb way, so I decided to run forward, but got killed by polen.

Got midpoint. Super koopa generator. Then for some time it stopped and restarted later. And more lava lotuses and even baseball Charlie appeared. Level feels a bit spammy in 1st half and at the end of 2nd half. I tanked a lot of hits. Especially moles and lava lotuses were annoying. Some sprites appear for only 1 time in the whole level like sumo bro or baseball Charlie. Level looks good aesthetically.


Thanks for the feedback. I wanted to experiment with the Super Koopa generator in a way that it wasn't just jumping on them to avoid obstacles. I wanted them to pose some sort of threat. Immediately, it was very spammy. I don't know if i did something wrong to cause the generator to act that way. I haven't really utilized it in levels, so I wanted to experiment with it a bit. The enemy variety definitely could have been increased. I think I lost focus on what I wanted halfway through making it. I did the same thing with Foresta Maestosa in my project.

Thanks once again. I'll definitely consider your points.
Click here to enter the world of mediocre!
These last (or should I say first) 25% of levels sure goes fast. Even then it's still possible to encounter some really hard level. Like the last one I played.

125. Desert - Ancient Volcano

There are few slopes and few buzzy beetles, then after few screens is midpoint and pipe leading down. But before that is also moon to grab. Then I have very flat section inside. There are few dino rhino to jump on and few jumps on 1 tile blocks over lava. And then level ends. Super easy and level is so short that it doesn't need midpoint. Also why there is boss music if there is really nothing going on? This level is weird.

126. Green Jerry - Mario in Namek

You give me yellow switch. Entering it immediately press switch. Well, I'm gonna play level without it. 1st jump over saw while riding rope was scary.

Dumb death #1: got midpoint. Died on muncher on pipe, because noticed a bit too late that I need to drop on lower platform.

All right, this time I was more careful, so I got dragon ball. Level really looks nice, it really looks like Namek. It has some tricky platforming like this jump over saw while riding rope. Also there is eating block out of nowhere and digging Chuck is offscreen, so it may be hard to figure out what player must do. Luckily I was patient. Also there is platform switching in 2nd half. You need to know that you need to drop on lower platform in advance. On 1st run I thought lower platform perished in pit, so I noticed that it didn't and I need to drop on it, a bit too late.

127. Blizzard Buffalo - Ice Age

First impression and oh boy, ground is white, mountains in background also white and passable objects are also white. So it's hard to tell what is what. Went to cave to see Ripper Van Fish sleeping on ground and bullet generator. I went up, got dragon coin and fact that I can't enter pipe confused me a bit. Went down and found progress passage I skipped for some reason. And in blue wall part I can barely see anything. Got midpoint.

There is barely visible cannon near 1st powerup that almost shot me. I jumped on Chuck, but somehow I got hit, but not him. I disagree with that. OK, so somehow I got all dragon coins and for some reason after getting goal post, last Chuck changed into 4 coins.

Level force player to play very slowly, because it's hard to recognize what is what. There are moments where rocks and cannons aren't visible. There is also blue wall part of cave with the same problem. Not very comfortable level to play, but somehow I had fun.

128. Rykon-V73 - VANILLA SECRET 3 (Statue Overhaul)

So I know that this level has been disqualified (or should I say not taken into consideration) due to double post rule. Still I want to play it.

Info boxes mention dark color statues not hurting you, but they forget to mention that they aren't solid too. Also dark stone (not a statue) look pretty solid, but it's passable. I wonder how many times I get confused by that. There is blind drop from 1st dragon coin, I could easily hit this lone spike in corner. I got 2nd dragon coin. Now the question is: is spike on pipe is dark or light. It depends if I will get hurt or not. Got midpoint and 3rd dragon coin. Wanted to jump up and hit invisible block. It's indicated by coins, but normally invisible blocks are 1 tile above coin, here are 2 tiles below coin. That's way too low. Good thing there was no danger nearby, because I could easily got hit. Time for 2nd half.

Hey, near pokey statue is light statue of goomba and it doesn't hurt me, but it should. Later there is statue of bullet, which isn't dark or light, it's just normal bullet sprite look, which can be a bit confusing. Also just noticed that spikey balls aren't well attached to chains. They kinda levitate. Got all dragon coins and finished this level.

Level plays fine. It's a bit disappointing that you din't build solid statues you can stand on. Visuals are still a bit confusing. Other than what I mentioned about them, there is still one thing - decorations. There is many random stuff put in dirt in large quantity. There are wings, stars, lava lotuses, moles, dirt, pokeys, P-switches and many more. This level should be called "Buried Stuff Overhaul" instead. It looks really weird. And this is an example of overdecorating level. Be careful with that next time.

129. Synergic - The HyperZone

Dumb death #1: jumped into fish like an idiot.

Dumb death #2: got midpoint. P-balloon section with autoscroll. Flied up, then fell on hammer bro and then died in pit.

Dumb death #3, 6, 8: polen in balloon section.

Dumb death #4, 5, 7, 9, 11: got ball into head in the same section.

Dumb death #10: got near 3rd balloon, but dropped on Charlie who killed me.

Dumb death #11-15: deaths in balloon section. Managed to beat it by getting 2nd balloon later than usually. This way I could fly to 3rd balloon and barely take it, then beat this section. No checkpoint and looks like in next section is Kamek. Also no powerups from the midpoint. So I'm doing a savestate here.

Dumb death #16: died by koopa. At least there is mushroom in this section, but also you need Kamek to destroy turn blocks.

Oh shoot, I was writing about savestating that I forgot to do it. Luckily I managed to rewind, so I'm gonna savestate here instead of start. This shouldn't change too much.

Dumb death #17-41: deaths in Kamek section, which is hell. I savescummed through it. There are also dry bones and pipe lakitus later. There is one part where Kamek can only destroy turn blocks when he's standing at below left ground and on the other side is pipe lakitu bombarding right ground. Lots of yellow koopas gets created. And you need to do this section fast, because time limit isn't very long.

This level's aesthetics gradually improve, but level design gets more and more annoying. Especially Kamek section is nightmare. I hated it the most. Really bad level.
Almost there. I say that while I beat all remaining entries from 1st week of submission period. I still plan to revisit 2 entries and I'm not talking here about Magikey's and yogui's entries. I still have no clue how to beat them. Then I'm gonna play levels related to this contest. And then it will be over.

What can I say about this session? I played 2 easy levels and finished session with 3 levels that killed me a lot for many different reasons.

130. blocc - YOSHI'S ISLAND 1 (Blocks That Believe)

There are weird yellow nets. I can't climb on them. I thought maybe it's sprite filler, so I brought blue block to it. But no, it's just decoration. Riding 2 angel blocks above pit was scary. Wow, so holding shell can bump angel block? Almost died at the midpoint.

Dumb death #1: failed to jump on angel block, because of low ceiling.

Level looks nice. Jumping on few angel blocks above pit is scary, because they can move you to the side and you will fall into pit. On the other hand 5 angel blocks ride don't have this problem, but unfortunately is too easy. Still it was fun level.

131. Fermin Acosta Jr. - Koopa's Castle

Wow, that's very high door. Very short, but fun entry. I liked the music. Level could be longer too. Also vanilla Reznor as boss was a letdown.

132. Enan63 - Night Platform

Dumb death #1: fell on 2nd math platform, but my momentum was too high, so I continued running into pit.

Jumping statue out of nowhere scared me.

Dumb death #2: I heard grinder, I saw grinder, I observed grinder. What I supposed to do was spin jumping on grinder.

Dumb death #3: failed to return on math platform after destroying 1st Banzai Bill.

Dumb death #4: didn't jump on 2nd Banzai Bill. Instead fell to pit.

Dumb death #5, 8, 10, 13: missed grinder.

Dumb death #6: failed to land on grey platform.

Dumb death #7: was too slow to jump on higher math platform leading to grinder on 1F0.

Dumb death #9, 11, 12: failed to jump from grinder to land.

Dumb death #14: got midpoint. I need to jump on Banzai Bill to get higher, but I bump ceiling pipe, so I fell into pit.

Dumb death #15: needed to do quick momentum jump on Banzai Bill, but I didn't have enough time, so he killed me.

Dumb death #16: failed to jump over munchers sitting on pipe.

Dumb death #17, 29: killed by fireball.

Dumb death #18: killed by Banzai Bill, because I can't jump on it. There is invisible ceiling above my head. So I need to quickly drop and avoid grinder.

Dumb death #19, 30: failed to jump over statues and land on math platform.

Dumb death #20: failed to return on math platform.

Dumb death #21: died on fireballs, because I need to spin kill 3 koopas instead of jumping on them.

Dumb death #22: I should have spin jumped on later fireballs. Died in pit. Also I'm starting to think that overworld music makes fun of me.

Dumb death #23: death by these fireballs. I forgot that I need to spin jump on them.

Dumb death #24, 26: I tried to jump over statues, but higher statue's left side somehow worked as ceiling, so I fell into pit.

Dumb death #25: stupid game. I clearly jumped on small koopa after statues, but no. Game decided that koopa must kill me.

Dumb death #27: grey platform after fireballs didn't spawn. Fucking awesome.

Dumb death #28: small jump from 1st Banzai Bill. What the hell am I doing?

Dumb death #31: jumped too early on Banzai Bill, so he killed me.

Dumb death #32: failed to jump on math platform where 4th Banzai Bill is located.

Dumb death #33: I jumped on kicking koopa, but he was on slope, so instead I got killed.

Dumb death #34: died much later by jumping into grinder on 1F0. This section is long.

Dumb death #35: 1st grinder on 1F0.

Savestated on 2nd mushroom.

Dumb death #36: lone grinder on 1F0.

Dumb death #37, 38: failed to jump on math platform.

Dumb death #39: failed to spin jump on higher math platform.

Dumb death #40, 41, 44, 45: 2nd lone grinder on 1F0.

Dumb death #42: failed to return on math platform.

Dumb death #43: munchers after 2nd lone grinder.

Dumb death #44-60: death in this section. I also savestated after beating 3rd lone grinder and died twice trying to enter pipe from math platform.

Level looks great, but design is very mean. You just need to have fast reaction time and also know level. Most likely you die here a lot. Also at the midpoint I was forced to scroll screen left and after drop on math platform turn left to jump on Banzai Bills on the right without missing them all the time or getting hurt. I didn't like this level and I also hate this overworld music thanks to this level.

133. msi810 - Springtime

2nd message is weird: "Don't move forward while on spring, but move forward before, after and once you are on spring." This message contradict itself. I was wondering how wonderful would be if somebody will do springy things wrapping through whole level. And here is it. It's scary gimmick, but I managed to get to midpoint without any death.

Dumb death #1: wrapped into cement wall at the top.

Dumb death #2, 9: killed by polen, because I need to grab blue blocks to go forward. And I always had problem with blue blocks.

Dumb death #3, 10: got hit by 1st grinder, wanted to get reserve mushroom, but instead got hit by grinder again.

Dumb death #4: wrapped into blue blocks wall.

Dumb death #5, 7, 8, 11: fell on muncher near mushroom.

Dumb death #6: grinder before mushroom.

Looks like mushroom also gave me 1up checkpoint and this time I managed to beat this section without getting hit.

Dumb death #12, 15: pokey on 1F0 near another blue blocks wall and lava lotus on the other side.

Dumb death #13, 19, 21: polen of 2nd lava lotus, because I got stuck on springy thing.

Dumb death #14, 17: tried to dodge grinders on line, but failed, because sometimes I can bounce from springy things instead immediately fall. This mess my judgement.

Dumb death #16: wanted to avoid grinder by falling left, but instead jumped left into blue coins representing pit.

Dumb death #18: 3rd grinders formation on sky.

Dumb death #20: touched 1st lava lotus.

Level beaten. I actually tanked last grinders formation, because it was tough. I want to like this level more, but springy thing wrapping has problems. Sometimes instead of just falling you bounce once or twice on springy things, which mess your judgement where to fall. Most of my deaths is due to this thing. I know it's not your fault, that's how this wrapping works. Another problem I had with blue blocks walls. I had problem with grabbing them. Probably due sprite limitation, so many times I died because of that. And also Bowser statues are completely unpredictable. For last part I found that I can only dodge fireballs if I scroll screen right. Otherwise I would unfairly got hit by fireballs. That's why I didn't like beginning of last part after 1up checkpoint. Luckily level has good length and good placement of checkpoints. Also provides 2 mushrooms for every part of level. That's fair.

134. DTA450 - Koopas' Village

First entry submitted into this contest in the very 1st August. You give me yellow switch, which I don't need. Also I noticed a problem with this level. I look at upper left corner and see that I have 96 lives. I should have infinite number of lives. This tells me that you didn't use baserom, which may disqualify you. Let's hope judges will not notice that.

Super fast koopa surprised me, because I didn't expect it to be jumping upward fish.

Dumb death #1: killed by 2nd baseball Charlie.

Dumb death #2: some later baseball Charlie.

Dumb death #3: died in pit under 1st hammer bro.

Dumb death #4: missed 2nd hammer bro's platform and fell into pit.

Dumb death #5: died in pit under 1st hammer bro.

Dumb death #6: tried to get 2nd mushroom, but got trampled by Charlie.

Dumb death #7: hammer of 1st hammer bro.

Dumb death #8: bounced from 2nd baseball Charlie into flying green koopas.

Dumb death #9: slipped from roof into pit.

Finally level beaten. Village looks great, but level has problems. I'm talking here about horrible spam, which killed me a lot. I don't like that 1st powerup is tricky to get and you need to wait for koopa to fall from roof to get it. I didn't like baseball Charlies and hammer bros. Isn't it supposed to be koopas village. Then why Chucks and hammer bros are there? Wiggler looks really weird too. Sorry, but I didn't like this level.

On a side note I checked Map16 and noticed that you have shared page that appeared with baserom. Later I also noticed that this number of lives doesn't change when I die. So it's still infinite, but this 96 lives is still confusing thing.
Originally posted by Galaer
Sometimes instead of just falling you bounce once or twice on springy things, which mess your judgement where to fall. Most of my deaths is due to this thing. I know it's not your fault, that's how this wrapping works.

Holding both the jump and run button prevents this from happening. This is what the first message box was trying to say. If you don't believe me. Try this with the part of the spring that causes you to jump that is that one point of the spring that lets you make the farthest jump in a normal level. Compare this without holding the jump and run button and with it. Try holding the buttons for like 5-10 seconds each(with and without) and you will see how it works. If you still don't understand, start holding those buttons before you're on the springs, which not doing that could cause you to get stuck or bounce off the springs. And if you still don't get it. Try playing this level without and then hold both the jump and run button throughout the entire level(obviously need to let go when you encounter throw block walls) and you will see the difference, use savestates if needed. I guess I should have made the message box clearer, but there's limited space in there so I couldn't really do that.


Originally posted by Galaer
Another problem I had with blue blocks walls. I had problem with grabbing them. Probably due sprite limitation, so many times I died because of that.


I don't know about this, don't think it's sprite limitation. I suggest you don't hold right when grabbing blocks (if that's the problem), just let the player fall near the throw blocks and mash the grab throw block button. The problem could also just be that when you're trying to grab a throw block, you grab air instead.
Originally posted by msi810

Holding both the jump and run button prevents this from happening.

No, it's not. For most of the time I was holding both jump and run and I was still bouncing out of spring. The only time I was releasing jump was to fall faster, but it was after falling from spring. I was holding right all the time, so maybe that's what screwed me. And maybe 2nd info box tried to tell me that, but like I mentioned in my report, 2nd info box contradict itself.

Originally posted by msi810
I don't know about this, don't think it's sprite limitation. I suggest you don't hold right when grabbing blocks (if that's the problem), just let the player fall near the throw blocks and mash the grab throw block button. The problem could also just be that when you're trying to grab a throw block, you grab air instead.

I was holding right, because I wanted to get through blue blocks wall as quick as possible. I know nothing about grabbing air.
Originally posted by Galaer

No, it's not. For most of the time I was holding both jump and run and I was still bouncing out of spring. The only time I was releasing jump was to fall faster, but it was after falling from spring.

You need to hold jump and run button before you come back from the top of the screen and this would prevent that. Don't hold jump or both jump and run button once you're on a spring, because that would cause you to bounce.

Originally posted by Galaer
I was holding right, because I wanted to get through blue blocks wall as quick as possible. I know nothing about grabbing air.

Holding right was exactly the problem. The air, i mean empty space between the blocks. You could have just missed grabbing the throw blocks instead of there being sprite limitation glitches.

Again this gimmick is jank, so I will understand if you have troubles with it. Because I have more experience with the gimmick, I thought the message box was clear enough. Also the second message box has nothing to do with this, it's about the first pokey in the level which shows you what to do, to dodge enemies easier.
Originally posted by msi810

Don't hold jump or both jump and run button once you're on a spring, because that would cause you to bounce.

Sorry, even if you will tell me that, I don't think I will manage to do that. It feels really unnatural to stop holding jump for split of second when you are on spring. I would probably need hours of training to learn that and make it my habit. I don't think it's ever gonna happen.
Originally posted by Galaer
Sorry, even if you will tell me that, I don't think I will manage to do that. It feels really unnatural to stop holding jump for split of second when you are on spring. I would probably need hours of training to learn that and make it my habit. I don't think it's ever gonna happen.


I mean don't start holding the jump and run button once you're on a spring, start holding it before you're on a spring.

I guess i'm done here, because this is very difficult to explain. As much as I see, most players will not get this. So yeah, I admit to the flaw in my level mostly because of the jank gimmick that I had to work with.
Originally posted by msi810
start holding it before you're on a spring.

But that's what I was doing all the time when playing this entry. I explained that before, I was holding jump and run for most of the time, except moments when after falling from spring I wanted to dodge faster grinder on line. And this bouncing from spring doesn't happen all the time, only sometimes. But usually at least once per life. And I know it's not your fault, it's just springs are just unpredictable. But level isn't bad and you provided lots of powerups.
Originally posted by Galaer
Originally posted by msi810
start holding it before you're on a spring.

But that's what I was doing all the time when playing this entry. I explained that before, I was holding jump and run for most of the time, except moments when after falling from spring I wanted to dodge faster grinder on line. And this bouncing from spring doesn't happen all the time, only sometimes. But usually at least once per life. And I know it's not your fault, it's just springs are just unpredictable. But level isn't bad and you provided lots of powerups.


Yeah, I understand now. I'm too used to the mechanics of the level, so I don't have troubles with it. So yeah it is a flaw and most of the posts are due to a misunderstanding. Sorry about that. I'm done here, because I need to go to sleep.
Tonight I revisited 2 entries I didn't give more chance. And both entries were really painful to play, but eventually I beat them.

7. ASMagician Maks - Actual Loopholes

So I decided to play this, so I'm using BSNES. And start doesn't work for some reason, even though all other inputs work fine.

Dumb death #1, 3, 4, 5: died by falling grinders.

Dumb death #2, 8: died by muncher after getting feather.

I somehow clipped into wall, but didn't die for some reason.

Dumb death #6: got hurt in dumb way by 1st thwomp, so I decided to just kill myself.

Dumb death #7, 9, 17: got hurt by munchers when trying to get on platform moving down, so I just killed myself.

Dumb death #10, 13: munchers after stupid grinders.

Dumb death #11, 14, 19: 2nd thwomp.

Dumb death #12: grinder on circle line formation.

Dumb death #15, 19, 21: grinder at the beginning hurt me, so I killed myself.

Dumb death #16, 20: no idea what to do at the end, so I got hurt by last thwomp.

Dumb death #18: ball & chains.

Dumb death #22: momentum and water send me into last munchers.

Dumb death #23-30: tired of writing about the same deaths I just counted them. Actually 6 of them are just suicides, because I got hurt too early.

Level is about wrapping. Wrapping is perfect, you can wrap from bottom to top, but also from top to bottom. There is instant retry, which I wonder why rest of entries didn't use. Also you start with 2 HP, but mushroom give you 1 more HP, which is nice. Later I got feather, but it didn't heal me. Also there is death counter. Also I had luck with BSNES this time and it didn't lag for me.

Level looks all right. Though I don't like black background and floating water. As for gameplay, I didn't like it. First is this stupid kaizo block at the beginning. I know it's presenting a gimmick, but eventually I got really annoyed by it. Crossing rotating platforms is also painful. It can drain all your HPs. No idea what's the point of key at the end. All I did was spin jumping from water on thwomp. I just needed to not land back on water. I died a lot and this was very frustrating level. I would put savestate after rotating platforms, but level isn't long, so I decided to beat it without cheating.

13. BodyBone - INTO THE CRIMELANDS (2nd half)

OK, so I failing to beat this level, next day I got idea how to beat this 1st obstacle in 2nd half. But I was too tired with this entry, so I decided to play it after beating all other entries. So here am I. I'm not gonna count deaths from 1st half again. I just savescummed through it and still died few times. It's just you need to know how level is built to beat it. It's annoying.

Dumb death #1-8: died in order to clear 1st obstacle.

To clear 1st obstacle you need to grab blue block from bottom, reveal Yoshi from block. Then throw block in top turn block and land on Yoshi. Afterwards jump out of Yoshi, destroy 1st blue block and throw 2nd into lower turn block. Go for Yoshi and quickly pass turn blocks, then eat apple. Also you need to be small for that part, so after getting midpoint I just killed myself. What an annoying obstacle. I savestated after eating apple, because I don't want to repeat this part ever again.

Dumb death #9: I needed to do jump out of Yoshi quicker. I did that too late, so it bounced from bones and went left on 1F0. I decided to die.

Dumb death #10: wanted to jump out of Yoshi faster, but above lava is invisible ceiling, so I just fell into lava.

Dumb death #11: I went so fast through level that I ran into green koopa.

Dumb death #12: oh, just realized after killing blue koopa that I need his shell to fly, so I died from time out.

Dumb death #13: I threw shell into goombas, but it went through slope into ground under their feet. Goombas killed me later.

Dumb death #14: I jumped on green koopa, but game decided to kill me.

Dumb death #15, 17: green shell bounced from wall and killed me. Because it was 1 tile passage there was no way to dodge that.

Dumb death #16: failed to jump over muncher in tight passage.

Dumb death #18: accidentally killed koopa with his shell, so I died on goomba parade.

Dumb death #19: got to apple above blue koopa, but had shell in mouth, so I failed to grab it in time.

Savestated on apple above blue koopa.

Dumb death #20: apple on Layer 2 smasher. I got smashed by ceiling.

Finally got apple on smasher, then quickly flied to P-switch and killed Chuck, so I could get to goal post. I'm so tired of this entry. It has some fun ideas, but time limit is just too strict. It should be 30 seconds. In 2nd half author throws at you a lot of really random obstacles. The first one is garbage. Afterwards is a bit better. Jumps on buzzy beetles were fun. But then is tight passage (if everything will work well this actually can also be fun). A lot of stuff can go wrong, because invisible ceiling. Then are koopa jumps and suddenly you are forced to fly. But Yoshi can't fly and eat apples at the same time. Afterwards is Layer 2 smasher and then you must bump into pillar of turn blocks from below and activate P-switch. In the end you need to use shell to destroy Chuck and quickly go to the end.

There is way too many ideas and I wonder if author really tested this level. You can die really easily. If 2nd half would be more like 1st half it wouldn't be that bad entry. But you need to give player more leeway. Also focus a bit more on gimmick. 1st obstacle is really random. Layer 2 smasher don't really add anything to the gameplay. At least 1st half is fun if you learn it.
Bonus session when I played levels related to this contest. And of course I died a lot in them.

135?. Young Boi - YOSHI'S ILSAND 1 (Roy's Factory Zone)

When downloading entries I noted Young Boi's post about removing link of his entry and putting it into 2nd post. Never saw 2nd post, but I checked his file bin and found this level submitted in 29th August. I'm not 100% sure if it was supposed to be VLDC 12 entry, but I decided to play it anyway.

Background doesn't look very vanilla. This radio or whatever it is looks like solid object, but it's passable.

Dumb death #1: impossible to clear jump.

Dumb death #2: failed to jump on kicking koopa.

Dumb death #3-7: savestated just before long gap and tried to jump over it, but that's just not possible.

From what I noticed in Lunar Magic level ends after this gap. It's easy and good looking level, but gap can't be crossed, so level is impossible to beat. From what I noticed level uses baserom. background looks nice, but doesn't look really vanilla. But maybe I'm wrong.

136. Ruberjig - SLIP 'N SPIKE

When I checked Zandro's Archive I noticed that DetectiveZvarri's entry wasn't actually last to submit. It was this one. Apparently it was submitted after deadline. I'm surprised it managed to get posted, because Rules and Submissions thread got closed really fast. It's just like FPZero waited with watch in hand to make a post and locked the thread. But Ruberjig managed to somehow posted. Even though his entry hasn't been taken as participant, I still want to play it.

Ice physics and gimmick that uses it. Finally. Some 1 tile passages are well hidden and level gets tricky progressively. Got midpoint.

Dumb death #1: failed 1st jump over gap. Not sure how to do it.

Did it next time by being small, so I don't need to duck through 1st 1 tile passage. I think it's better to go through level while being small. Next I get mushroom to destroy 2 turn blocks.

Dumb death #2: destroyed right turn block, pressed left to destroy left turn block, but ice physics send me into pit.

Dumb death #3: didn't jump over pink spiny.

Dumb death #4: flying above pipe pipe lakitu threw spiny into me.

Dumb death #5: momentum send me into pit.

Dumb death #6: got fire flower, got hurt by 2nd pink spiny, got stuck on slope, then fell to my doom.

Dumb death #7: not enough momentum to do 1st jump. I should have kill spiny instead of jumping over it.

Dumb death #8: spin jumped on spiny right in front of other spiny.

Dumb death #9, 13: killed 1st pipe lakitu, then fell into pit.

Dumb death #10: jumping between pink spinies are tricky.

Dumb death #11: failed to jump on 2nd grey platform while ducking.

Dumb death #12: pressed jump too late when trying to jump over 1st gap.

Dumb death #13: I was big for once, but jumped into pit. I think ice physics affected my midair physics.

Level finally beaten. 1st half was fun. 2nd half has problems. First of all you can't clear 1st gap if you are big, because you need to do jump on highest momentum. Second after getting powerup crossing through 1 tile passages is much harder than being small. Third - you can really easily lose this powerup immediately after obtaining it, because crossing 2 tiles passages between spinies is very difficult while being big. Fourth - floating pipe lakitu. He's times that he will throw spiny when I will land on safe pipe. So I needed to scroll screen right. Fifth - some easy jumps are much harder if you are big, because you need momentum to get high enough. Lastly this cement block tower with 1 tile gap between each of them is tricky and not comfortable jump. So 2nd half was less enjoyable. I feel this level has been rushed at the end and not properly tested.

A) Anan - NIGHTTIME PARK

This level has been finished in 1st half of August, but never submitted. Maybe author didn't know that he needs to put link in Rules and Submissions thread. He mentioned in 1st post that level is janky. Maybe that's a reason to not participate. I don't know. From what I know level is completable, so I'm gonna play it to see how bad or good it is.

Level has weird palette and the first jump forced you to go offscreen. And you will need to do jumps while being near top of screen. Vertical Scroll at Will would help here. Also lots of cannons, but none of it shoot. Level is more about hammer bro's platforms. One of later platforms can really easily push player into pit. I guess this is by design. Got moon, entered previous pipe and realized that I missed invisible mushroom right in front of pipe.

Next is cave with Kamek. It's short though and it's only for getting launched. You don't need to do that, it's easy to do momentum jump to progress, but I use this cave to get 2 mushrooms. Hammer bro protected by 2nd platform below 1st. That's creative. But you need to jump on him. I had luck to not get hurt. Then you need to tank munchers and hammer bro teleports for short period to the platform.

Dumb death #1: failed to go through 1 tile passage after destroying turn block. Turn block too fast revived for me.

Dumb death #2: died on muncher near lava lotus. That's a bit much.

Dumb death #3: got hit by 1st muncher while on platform, then fell into pit. Oh, so it's still possible to hurt hammer bro under 2 platforms from below.

Dumb death #4: 2 tile passage after turn block, so I bump my head into it and die in pit.

Dumb death #5: I can go through 1st pipe into weird bonus room? Level doesn't progress right, so I jumped to my doom.

Dumb death #6: I got stuck on ceiling in bonus room, then fell to pit.

Oh, if I use 1st pipe I can get feather.

Dumb death #7: but still I fell into pit after grabbing blue block like a complete moron.

Dumb death #8: 1st hammer bro's platform clipped me into pipe.

Dumb death #9: also feather will not protect me if I'm gonna lose both of them in dumb way, then die on random muncher.

Dumb death #10: hurt by polen I fell to my doom.

Dumb death #11: missed 1st platform and fell into 1 tile gap.

Dumb death #12: died by getting stuck on offscreen block above my head, so I fell into pit.

Dumb death #13: savestated in lava lotuses section, then failed to jump on platform and fell to my doom.

Dumb death #14: killed lava lotus, then failed to jump on higher cement block with muncher. I fell into pit.

Dumb death #15: another muncher run and then I bonked my head on something offscreen above muncher and died. Checked in Lunar Magic. It was turn block.

Dumb death #16: died when trying to obtain key that is put on muncher.

Dumb death #17, 19, 20: I got flower, then momentum pushed me into pit. Awesome.

Dumb death #18: hit by polen, died in pit.

Dumb death #21: went left when I was standing on 1 tile cement block.

Finally I manged to grab flower and land on right muncher, so I could grab back feather and jump to offscreen turn block. And then thanks to cape I finished this level.

Level is clearly broken, but broken in fun way. You want to know in what way you will die next time. There is a lot of oddities. It would help to use Vertical Scroll at Will, so you would know what is blocking your way. There was some creativity with this one platform that wanted to push me off it. But then forest of lava lotuses starts and level is becoming annoying. Also please don't put items like key on munchers. It's very hard to take it back. And these 2 short tanking munchers runs were out of a place.

B) TheMorganah - REZNOR LAPUTA X

This level didn't participate, because of real life issues. But you can download it from thread. I don't know in what state is entry. Is it completable or is it just gonna end abruptly? But I'm curious, so I'm gonna play it.

Wow, nice sunset. And I love the music. It's really catchy. I went right, but I had no idea how to kill hammer bro, so I just tanked him. Got midpoint in form of red ball.

Dumb death #1: another hammer bro, which I don't know how to beat. I fell into pit after jumping over him.

Dumb death #2: I started at the beginning of level somehow, so I destroyed turn block bridge and fell into pit.

Dumb death #3: went left, but for upper left door I need cape, so I went down, tanked digging Charlie and fell into pit.

Dumb death #4: missed rock and slipped into pit.

Savestated at midpoint, because it doesn't work properly.

Dumb death #5: spin jumping on last urchin is very difficult, because low ceiling.

I checked in Lunar Magic that level continues, but it lacks feather, so I put it one in front of turn blocks.

Dumb death #6: in order to spawn feather I must die.

Dumb death #7, 11, 12, 13: vertical climb with fish generator. Oh no.

Dumb death #8, 9: wooden spikes hitbox + water. Also I have no idea how to get on 1st angel blocks without getting hurt. At least all of them have powerups.

Dumb death #10: midpoint respawn. Not spin jumped on rock, so decided to go for lower powerup, hurt by ceiling spike I didn't notice and then killed by Charlie.

Finally got to goal orb. Killing hammer bro's is the only problem in 1st half. They are flying above pit, so you are forced to jump on them and this can really easily hurt you. 2nd half is very problematic. 1st Chuck is splitting, so it can fall on your head. Then there is vertical jumps into water with wooden spikes on the sides and angel blocks above. At the top of this is really annoying digging Chuck. And last part of climbing section is fish generator and it's never fun. Luckily climb isn't long, but it's very easy to lose all powerups. Also after getting hurt if you try to jump, you can bounce from fish while on ground before jumping and because you thought you jumped, you drop on lower platform instead. 2nd half has problems. Aesthetically level looks really good and it has awesome music.
Time to finish this with some pointless stats and thoughts.

Number of deaths: 1510

Deathless runs: 31

VLDC 12 problem #1: making long level and get forced to use only 1 checkpoint - midpoint.

VLDC 12 problem #2: rare powerups in long levels.

Gimmick that killed me the most: math platforms.

Enemy that killed me the most: fuzzy.

Favorite entry: SPACE CAVE RESCUE by MM102

Least favorite entries: INTO THE CRIMELANDS by BodyBone and PIRANHA PLANT PANIC by Hobz

Best looking level: SPACE CAVE RESCUE by MM102

Worst looking level: Power of Suggestion by Galaer (me)

Most creative level: WRAPPING WIGGLERS by ft029

Edit: One day later I return with thought that BodyBone's entry don't deserve to be alone on my least favorite entries list. I tried to choose between BodyBone's and Hobz entries. But more I think about this, I feel bad on choosing only 1 entry. So I added Hobz entry to my least favorites. Both entries has some fun parts and creative stuff, but in the end both of them were trainwreak for me.
Originally posted by Galaer

123. Idunno - Cumulonimbus Castle

Dumb death #1, 3: missed 2nd grinder and fell into pit.

Dumb death #2: missed 3rd grinder above pit.

Dumb death #4: got midpoint and decide to land on lone pillar. Unfortunately this pillar wasn't solid, so I went through it.

Dumb death #5: why pillars looks like they are solid? Went through one of them and thwimp killed me.

Level beaten. Level looks good, but I had problem with visuals of pillars. They look very solid, but they aren't solid at all. Also in 1st half is gimmick of spin jumping on line grinders above pit. This gimmick has been completely abandoned in 2nd half.

The main level gimmick was actually just the grinders that move along the ground, but I definitely could've used the line guided ones more. Next time, I'll make the non-solid objects clearer. Thanks for the feedback.
This was quite the interesting way to judge levels! I really liked how you could bring up a number of issues a level had by simply describing all of your deaths. By describing exact moments in the level when you slipped up, people can identify problem areas and design better levels. Great job judging, Galaer!
After few months after finishing my playthrough, I learned about one more level related to this contest.

C) SammUuU - BLUE SKY PALACE

That's funny, I was looking at smwdb.me to provide Rykon with information about Young Boi's entry and I just found out about this level. Never submitted, but link to it must have appeared at some point in VLDC 12 subforum. Originally made in 1st August, updated day later. Afterwards it must have been erased. Once again I have no idea what's the state of this level. Can it be finished or not? But I'm gonna try it.

Dumb death #1: killed by bullet bill 1 second after starting the level. That's a nice start.

Dumb death #2-3: I jumped from math platforms guided by coins into pit. Did something didn't load?

Oh, I get it. I need to race these 2 bullet bills that killed me the first time.

Dumb death #4-14: racing bullets is hard, so I die because of that. It doesn't help that some stuff like fireballs from statues can spawn sometimes, but don't spawn other times. You need to be very quick. Sometimes you can despawn banzai bill, but sometimes you can't. Also you must be very quick. Luckily after making bullet jumps and landing on math platform, you get midpoint.

Dumb death #15, 18, 20: pretty tight jumps later, I jumped from grey platform into muncher.

Dumb death #16: I slipped from 1st math platform.

Dumb death #17: failed to jump on land with jumping statue.

Dumb death #19: changed my strategy and decided to spin jump on jumping statue. This was mistake, because it jumped into me.

Dumb death #21: jump didn't jump, so I fell into pit together with math platform.

Dumb death #22: failed to jump on bouncing shell.

This time I managed to do this jump and right after was goal post. It was pretty fun level. It had some precise stuff like racing bullet bills or jumping on shell, but it's also short. So it's not painful to play. Too bad it was never submitted into contest.