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Insomnia - OFF close thread please

Hey Guys,
I'm searching for beta testers for my game insomnia
this hack has 16 Exits, boss fight, 2 switch palaces...
many custom elements, but original mario physics,
chocolate style

I reworked nearly the entire game after the last test,
trying to make the levels more flowy and intuitive to play...
So please if youre willing to test it focus on these points.






I really would appreciate feedback on:
Game flow
cheesable setups
and any kinds of frustrating elements ;)


File:
https://bin.smwcentral.net/u/47496/insomnia%2528beta%2529.bps
I'll give it a try

I feel like this should say "Mario hasn't been able to sleep for a long time now, and he finds himself in a strange, unfamiliar land..."


Unedited Yoshi's House text box, I assume you plan on doing something more with this in the future, so I'll let it slide.


Yoshi's Island 4

This level has a few problems, first of which being that this gimmick with the sticky rope should have been introduced in a safer environment, rather than just throwing this at the player.


I get what you were going for with this Wiggler, but I fell between the segments a couple times while testing, and that just feels unfair.
(I understand that you're supposed to do it all in one motion, but the point still stands that if the player doesn't do that bit in one motion, they're pretty screwed.)


Okay, that's just rude


There's no indicator that I had to spin on the bridge, and no indication that the blocks below me were going to disappear, maybe put an A above the 2nd log to indicate that the player should spin, and have some other tile indicate that the blocks will disappear.


Empty stretch before surprise Bullet Bills. Surprise deaths like this are generally bad practice, especially after a difficult section.


And a problem I have with the level overall is how you used invisible blocks on the surface of the water to simulate a pit.
If this hack takes place in a dream world, then maybe have the water be a different color and act like lava, as that would not only make dying faster, but it would also tie in to the theme of the hack.

Also, I noticed that the goal music cuts out after a few seconds.

MASSIVE Cutoff here after beating the 1st level.
If this was the intended effect, you should try making it look better, because this is just ugly.


Yellow Switch Palace

The first room in the Yellow Switch Palace is pretty hard on the eyes with this harsh palette.


I just don't understand the point of this pit, why does this need to be here? There's no way to get out, and the player just has to Start+Select to get out of it, so why is it here in the first place?


So the Yellow Switch Palace was just two corridors, a pipe, and the Switch. Given the expectations that were set with the first level, I was expecting a lot more from this level going into it. So it's just surprising seeing it have this little content.
(Also, the yellow flashes from the 1st room are gone in the Switch Room)


Why does the overworld clean itself up after the Yellow Switch Palace is cleared? Why didn't it just stay as it was the whole time?


So the only reason the Yellow Switch Palace needed to be cleared was to give access to the Secret Exit. This was all just a really roundabout way of just getting past the 1st level.
(I haven't seen if the Yellow Blocks are in any other levels, so I'll just say that you should cut the Switch Palace all together and let the player move on without needing to re-enter the level for the secret exit.)


I didn't mention it before, but I'll mention it now, why are the level names unchanged? And why do we go from Yoshi's Island 4 to Yoshi's Island 1?


Yoshi's Island 1

Cutoff issues with the Yellow Block, and the Mushroom moving through the terrain doesn't look too good.


Now I see that the Mushroom was supposed to do that so you could pick it up here, I just think that you could have made this idea look less like a side effect of poor planning and more like the intended solution.
(Maybe have the Mushroom travel down a separate corridor, so that it doesn't have to clip through terrain in order to get to where it needs to be.)



This dirt tile right here, cutoff and allows for massive amounts of cheese.



Here's a collection of images of the things that you can do (That I can only assume were unintentional) once you jump in that hole.







(Also, cutoff dirt tiles in the 4th image)

This entire ceiling is just cutoff dirt tiles.


More cutoff tiles with this slope


Here's what you could do to make this level look infinitely better, just get rid of all of the cutoff tiles. Not only would that make it look better, it would also fix some of the cheese in the beginning of the level.

#1 Iggy's Castle

Nothing indicating that I had to scroll the screen here, maybe place a sign that says R here so that the player would think to scroll the screen to the right.


The Mushroom from this block is too cumbersome to obtain without taking damage, and I assume it's necessary because you can't spin jump off of grates. I'd suggest letting the player spin jump off of grates and removing this required mushroom.


Some Slowdown with these Bowser Statues


Also, this happened after I got the Goal Orb


Yoshi's Island 2 (seriously, these levels need their own names)

Why did you have to replace the screen scrolling pipes with logs? This just makes it harder for the player to figure out what they're supposed to do.


Other than that, this level didn't really have much wrong with it.

Yoshi's Island 3
I tried moving the red block up so I could go in the pipe, but I died while I was in the pipe, and now time is frozen.
I had to reset in order to fix this. (The Screen scrolling pipes just seem to be buggy in this level overall so I'd fix that)


This clapping chuck turns into garbage tiles when he's on screen




Groovy
I couldn't get past this level, so I hope everything I've said is enough.
"What's 9 + 10?"
-Jah
I reworked all levels now, making them more fair in gameplay and i hope free from any cutoffs, bugs etc...
I really would appreciate if somebody would test this new version of my Kaizo light hack "Insomnia"...
You find the reworked file in my first post
For my overall/final thoughts, see the last paragraph. I don't have any major problems with this hack overall, so here are my general thoughts on each level:


PURPLE LAKE:

A pretty good opener level. The usage of those moving ropes that you can hang off of is interesting, though the controls are a bit finicky with it at times (sometimes it feels like Mario isn't dropping from the rope right away when I release the button, which can make those tight pufferfish segments even harder). It's fun overall.

I'm really not sure where the secret exit is, assuming there is one. I'm *assuming* there is, based on the tile being red on the OW and on the way the OW events play out, but replaying the level and thorough examination within LM didn't help me out here.


YELLOW SWITCH PALACE:

I adore the aesthetics here, even despite the fact that it takes a (small) amount of trial and error to figure out which colors of blocks do what. The Metroid Prime music works surprisingly well here too. I love the fakeout Yellow Switch at the end, that's super mean D:



RGB JUNGLE:

This is one of my favorite levels in the hack. All of the setups here feel like they perfectly flow into one another, creating a very lovely and memorable experience. I did have a couple minor problems with it though.



I ran to the right as the Thwomp was moving to the left, and the Thwomp despawned! There's no way to die, especially due to the lack of a time limit, and it's impossible to leave this area, so I've been softlocked. This is definitely something you should fix. My suggestion would be to move the ground tiles on the right further to the left, so that there's less room for the Thwomp to move around and potentially disappear.



This part was very hard. For some reason, the second throw block wouldn't work half the time. Like, I'd pick up the first throw block to get it out of the way, but no matter how many times I press the B button, I wouldn't be able to pick up the second block. In fact, the only reason I was able to finish the level was by resetting and starting over. It seems like a weird RNG thing? You could easily enough fix this problem by removing one of the throw blocks so that there's only one there, as having two doesn't really add much challenge anyway (even when they're both working fine).


CASTLE CRUSH:

Another very very good level. A lot of the setups were not only challenging in the typical sense of the "kaizo" term, but also required me to really think about what to do and where to go next. It almost even felt like a puzzle level at times. I do have one minor issue to point out:



The note block here glitches out when you bounce on it. I don't actually know how to fix this, but it's a very common issue that I see in hacks a lot, so I have a feeling that the solution should be simple enough (try asking in SMW Hacking Help if you don't know either).


SLIPPERY BRIDGE:

Not a lot for me to say here. It's a very nice level, it felt very fair, and had a lot of fun setups to go through. The shell-wall-jump moment near the end feels a tiny bit out of place compared to the rest of the level (because shell-kicking isn't used as a theme anywhere else in this stage), though that could just be me.


MOLE'S PASSAGE:

Another really awesome level - the gimmick here is loads of fun, and very well-thought out in how it's implemented. It's another one of my favorite levels here for sure.



I didn't think this part was very fair, though. First of all, those blocks being bright green caused me to mistakenly believe that the player could go through them (green is a rather inviting and friendly color after all), so I died that way first. I understand that it's a different color to indicate that enemies can travel through it, but I think you should use a different color, like another shade of red, instead.

That aside, I still think this particular setup is a bit too much. You have to go through the pipe at just the right time to bounce off of the mole, but since the player can't be expected to immediately know how quickly they'll be able to get through the pipe, this ends up being a total crapshoot until you've given it multiple attempts. Additionally, the mole despawns half the time anyway.

In fact, the only way I was ultimately able to pass this obstacle was by running and jumping into the small pipe immediately after exiting the first pipe. As far as I can tell, this might be the only way to pass this section. That's a little strange to me, because the implication there is that you need to already know what's coming up ahead before reaching this point.


GRAND CANYON:



Unless I'm missing something, I don't know if this part is passable without a lot of luck. I tried for a while, but I can't spin jump far enough to reach the special block and make it over the Pokey no matter how much I tried. This level was pretty good up to this point, though.



I won't say too much about the other levels because my comments mostly stay the same: Some really cool gimmicks that are explored pretty well. It's a pretty good hack overall, despite these minor issues I've pointed out here!
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Hey KTB thank you much for this positive feedback, this is very motivating for me to end up the hack with 2 or 3 more levels; I will work on those issues you found for sure; In grand canyon I forgot to test the level myself after I changed fuyosas pipes which freezes game while going through with ghb's pipes where sprites go on while going through...you could not get the flying questionmark, so I guess this part was not passable, sorry. In moles passage the intended way is run and jump directly in the small pipe like you found out in the end, so maybe I have to put an indicator there.. so far, thank you and kiwi very much for testing it ;maybe I will put a last demo here in next month with last three levels and an endboss
Greets drippz
Hey there! The hack was preety good, I liked the title screen a lot with the "bloody" title of the hack! Levels were fun, maybe a bit of trial and error, but I think most of kaizo hacks are like this. Anyway, let's go with some issues I found in the levels:

1. Life counter gets weird in the overworld, Mario has B0 lifes. Also I could only find 1 exit in Purple Lake as K.T.B. mentioned:


2. RGB Jungle: same issue as K.T.B said, the second throw block couldn't be obtained at first, guess it could be due to the amount of sprites of screen, maybe you can check the sprite header or use a patch so it doesn't happen:


3. Mole's Passage: Minor, but you used the wrong corner tile in the semisolid ground where Mario is standing:


4. Witch's Woods: You may want to increase the position of the goal posts:


5. Found some cutoff in the overworld, though I know it's a demo:


6. The lava where Mario is next to acts like solid:




Not much else to say now, apart from this issues which are easy to fix, the hack was good!
Hey N450 thank you very much for testing it!
I gonna work on those issues. In the first level I deleted the secret exit but didn't change the level tile so I hope you didn't search too long for it. I think it makes no sense to search in kaizo levels...
So thanks for your effort, I gonna work on the game for a while and load up a demo with the last levels
Greets drippz
Hey Guys,
I'm searching for beta testers for my game insomnia
this hack has 16 Exits, boss fight, 2 switch palaces...
many custom elements, but original mario physics,
chocolate style

I reworked nearly the entire game after the last test,
trying to make the levels more flowy and intuitive to play...
So please if youre willing to test it focus on these points.






I really would appreciate feedback on:
Game flow
cheesable setups
and any kinds of frustrating elements ;)


File:
https://bin.smwcentral.net/u/47496/insomnia%2528beta%2529.bps