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donut river romp (feedback requested)

simple fast level about the rhythm of duck and jump plz help me to see if its too hard or easy



https://bin.smwcentral.net/u/54370/vldcxiii.bps
I like the idea of this level, but it wasn't communicated very well (I found it through the submission thread, so I didn't see your "duck and jump" comment).
It's pretty easy to just back away from most obstacles without much punishment, and then I was surprised when I started running out of time halfway through the level.

Maybe you could change the name to "Speedrun Swamp" or something to get the point across, or make the level shorter with only 100 seconds, so the music speeds up as soon as you start.


Graphically, it could do with some more polish. In particular, part of the floating platform overwrites a Thwomp face tile, so they look pretty weird when they fall.
Is the platform sinking important to ducking under the Koopas? You might be able to use regular tiles instead, so the Thwomp doesn't get messed up.
Originally posted by LuigiTime
I like the idea of this level, but it wasn't communicated very well (I found it through the submission thread, so I didn't see your "duck and jump" comment).
It's pretty easy to just back away from most obstacles without much punishment, and then I was surprised when I started running out of time halfway through the level.

Maybe you could change the name to "Speedrun Swamp" or something to get the point across, or make the level shorter with only 100 seconds, so the music speeds up as soon as you start.


Graphically, it could do with some more polish. In particular, part of the floating platform overwrites a Thwomp face tile, so they look pretty weird when they fall.
Is the platform sinking important to ducking under the Koopas? You might be able to use regular tiles instead, so the Thwomp doesn't get messed up.


becuz the slight dip of the platform encourages you to duck and move forward at the same time, it enhance the gameplay, yes ik it mixes with the thwomp but idk how to fix this, cuz i want to use both sprites (similarly i turned the bottom of the platforms into plants to use the flying koopas sprite)

i did set the time limit low to discourage backing away from obstacles, i can consider 100 seconds but worried it is too low

how can i communicate the idea better?
Didn't disliked the level, but there were a couple issues I had with it, I enjoyed that the level wants to test the player's reaction times, but:
The level is very poorly telegraphed, there are thousands of coins throught out it but I have 0 idea of what any of them are supposed to tell you, and with so much sprite spamming and rushing, even if you theoretically should be able to react to the super koopas, because the spawns of these sprites are so goddamn inconsistent it's still impossible to react to them. I have seen the clear video before and still opted to play the level slowly, I have 0 idea how the judges will interpret this level. Another very concerning thing is that the setups feel very stale after a while, the level just has 3 ideas that it recycles over and over again, and the short level lenght here is two fold, while it helps so the repetitiveness doesn't feels overbearing, it also hurts the potential of the ideas, because at some point it just ends, and because there wasn't enought "meat"
(and I'm vegan)
it makes for a not so lasting impression. I feel like the ideas on this are good, but the execution needs a little bit more work.
"Not all pie sitters cry."
-James Morgan McGill
Originally posted by Samuel Zuccati
Didn't disliked the level, but there were a couple issues I had with it, I enjoyed that the level wants to test the player's reaction times, but:
The level is very poorly telegraphed, there are thousands of coins throught out it but I have 0 idea of what any of them are supposed to tell you, and with so much sprite spamming and rushing, even if you theoretically should be able to react to the super koopas, because the spawns of these sprites are so goddamn inconsistent it's still impossible to react to them. I have seen the clear video before and still opted to play the level slowly, I have 0 idea how the judges will interpret this level. Another very concerning thing is that the setups feel very stale after a while, the level just has 3 ideas that it recycles over and over again, and the short level lenght here is two fold, while it helps so the repetitiveness doesn't feels overbearing, it also hurts the potential of the ideas, because at some point it just ends, and because there wasn't enought "meat"
(and I'm vegan)
it makes for a not so lasting impression. I feel like the ideas on this are good, but the execution needs a little bit more work.

alright i will try to think of more setups for the lvl and also how to telegraph it better?
Originally posted by arghhh5
becuz the slight dip of the platform encourages you to duck and move forward at the same time, it enhance the gameplay,


Personally, I completely disagree.
The water at the bottom of the level slows me down, so I want to avoid it when I can.
The sinking platform makes me want to jump away from it, because it dips down towards the water.

Originally posted by arghhh5
alright i will try to think of more setups for the lvl and also how to telegraph it better?


If you're willing to mess around with ExGraphics and Map16 stuff, you could piece together ⬇️ down arrows showing you where to duck, or ‼️ exclamation point blocks showing where the koopas will be flying.
With a bit more work, you could even make a "Super Koopas Ahead" sign for the start of the level.
thanks alot luigi they are good ideas, but unfortunatly in the last hour i spilled coffee on my laptop and managed to brick it xD

now i won't be able to edit my lvl, so i will take this advice for the next lvl i make