QuoteWhat would be fair level design for each world?
Well, just take any hack on here other than ASMT, TSRPR, SMW2+3, Brutal Mario, or Mario's Keytastrophe and cut the difficulty by a factor of about 2 to 4.
...okay, maybe not. I'm not really sure what I'd consider fair level design, but I'll try. Assuming the hack is 8 worlds long plus a bonus world (you can adjust for more or fewer worlds), it might go something like this:
World 1:
Quite easy, but not boring. Few bottomless pits/lava; gaps usually 2-3 spaces wide; almost all enemies can be taken down in one hit by being jumped on; no continuously-spawning enemies (such as Bullet Bill generators); may have a very few projectile-throwing enemies; but only easy ones (such as Boomerang Bros.); no "cramped" jumps (low ceilings and the like) or platforms narrower than 3 tiles above bottomless pits; most levels about 10-13 screens (hex) long.
World 2:
Easy, but not boring. Gaps usually 3-4 spaces wide; most enemies can be taken down in one hit by being jumped on; no or very few continuously-spawning enemies; a few projectile-throwing enemies, but none that are difficult or paced in annoying locations; no "cramped" jumps or platforms narrower than 3 tiles above bottomless pits; most levels about 13-17 screens long.
World 3:
Medium-easy. Gaps usually 3-4 spaces wide; some enemies can be taken down in one hit by being jumped on, but there are some that are semi-invincible or take multiple hits; a few continuously-spawning enemies; some projectile-throwing enemies; a few "cramped" jumps; no platforms narrower than 2 tiles above bottomless pits; most levels about 17-1B screens long.
World 4:
Medium. Most gaps up to 5 spaces wide; about half of the enemies can be taken down in one hit by being jumped on; a few continuously-spawning enemies; some projectile-throwing enemies; a couple "cramped" jumps; no platforms narrower than 2 tiles above bottomless pits; most levels about 1C-20 screens long.
World 5:
Medium. Most gaps up to 5-6 spaces wide; about half of the enemies can be taken down in one hit by being jumped on; some continuously-spawning enemies; mildly frequent projectile-throwing enemies; a few "cramped" jumps; few platforms narrower than 2 tiles above bottomless pits; most levels longer than 20 screens.
World 6:
Medium-hard. Gaps up to 6 spaces wide; of the enemies that can be taken down in one hit by being jumped on, many occur in locations that could make the platforming slightly trickier; a good number of continuously-spawning enemies; mildly frequent projectile-throwing enemies; some "cramped" jumps; some platforms narrower than 2 tiles above bottomless pits; most levels longer than 20 screens. Around this point is where some of the really difficult enemies show up.
World 7:
Hard, but fair. Most gaps 5-7 spaces wide; of the enemies that can be taken down in one hit by being jumped on, most occur in locations that could make the platforming slightly trickier; a good number of continuously-spawning enemies; a good number of projectile-throwing enemies; quite a few "cramped" jumps; a good number of platforms narrower than 2 tiles above bottomless pits; some levels may be longer than 30 screens; a few more difficult enemies.
World 8:
Quite hard, but still fair. Most gaps 5-7 spaces wide; relatively few enemies that can be taken down in one hit by being jumped on; a good number of continuously-spawning enemies; a good number of projectile-throwing enemies; quite a few "cramped" jumps; quite a few platforms narrower than 2 tiles above bottomless pits; all levels are longer than 20 screens and many are longer than 30; a good number of difficult enemies.
Bonus world:
Very hard, but STILL FAIR, for Pete's sake! Take everything listed for world 8, turn it up one more notch, and make pretty much every level longer than 30 screens, but throw in some nonlinearity, with substantial rewards for finding cleverly-concealed bonus rooms and even beating the stages.
The big thing here is that even when the stages get difficult, they should still be fair. Artificially increasing the difficulty with things like cheap hits, requiring the player to keep certain powerups and things, and, well, putting munchers everywhere, using annoying auto-scroll, etc. might make the level more difficult, but at the expense of fun. If the player doesn't even want to play all the way through a stage and just wants it to be over with to make the frustration end, or if he/she has used 20 lives on the same stage, that's not a good sign. Granted, it's pretty tough to make levels that are both difficult and fun (both for ROM hackers and for actual official video games, if my experience is anything to go by), but it is possible. For example, some stages that I would classify as difficult but fun are 8-2 in Super Mario Bros., 6-7 in Yoshi's Island, Ropey Rumpus in Donkey Kong Country 3, and the Lava Factory stage in Mega Man X7 (provided that you don't take the horribly annoying boss of that stage into account). Some stages that I would classify as difficult and annoying are 8-3 in Super Mario Bros., 7-8 in Super Mario Bros. 3, 6-5 in Yoshi's Island, Lightning Look-Out in Donkey Kong Country 3, and Wily Stage 1 in Mega Man 7.
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I'm working on a hack! Check it out
here. Progress: 64/95 levels.