So, let's see. I was kind of surprised that I got this level, as I planned to take a totally different one, but after I saw 12B was claimed by somebody else, I claimed the first free level I saw, and this was it.
Not that I wouldn't like to make it, I'm totally fine with it and I'll try to do my best.
I've been thinking about this level in the past few days, here are my ideas so far:
- The level would have 3 segments: the entrance part of the castle, a "lantern boat" part outside, and finally an interior, temple-like area (hopefully this is not too much, I absolutely don't plan to make these parts too long)
- Global enemies would be Ninja Chucks (different types, the most interesting would be a Pitchin' Chuck throwing shurikens), Koopas (and more "general" enemies) and probably some various castle enemies.
- As a World 3 castle, this level doesn't play a very important role, but I'll try to make it a bit memorable. I'll also try to have a medium difficulty, but rather closer to easy than hard (since this is still the first half of the game)
- I'll try to keep puzzles to minimum.
The 3 segments more detailed:
1. Entrance: using 2dareduck's BG and Teyla's FG from the base ROM here (I owe them a big thanks, these are really awesome tilesets). Ninja Chucks, Koopas, somewhat linear but still interesting level design is what I can imagine here.
2. Lantern Boat: now I think this would be interesting. Inspired by the
Chinese Lantern Boats, the main place of this segment would be a layer 2 lantern boat. The level would auto-scroll, and it would take place outside in the night, on a river.
The "ground" (aka layer 1) parts of the level could use Teyla's FG, the lantern boat would be layer 2 (I'll have to request the graphics of them) and somebody would draw (or maybe rip) a Moon or something for layer 3 (so the background wouldn't be so empty). (we could even use a nice HDMA gradient, if possible)
Enemies: Parakoopas, maybe some custom enemies, and probably something else.
3. Interior, "temple": using Teyla's FG, 2dareduck's BG OR something else (I even could rip something, these kind of BGs aren't overused at all). A bit darker, and the main "gimmick" of this part would be the Buddha Statues. I have two ideas here: the heads of the Buddha statues would be Thwomps, or some kind of custom sprite that rolls down when Mario nears it. I think it definitely would be a funny and surprising (after a few normal statues, more and more of the heads would roll down) gimmick. And after this part comes the (still unknown) boss.
Maybe it sounds a bit too much or long for now, but I won't make it very-very long, just a normal castle length. Obviously I welcome any kind of comments, ideas, suggestions.
The stuff what's missing right now:
- music: yeah, it'd be really nice, actually.
I tried porting Bloop's song, but it's not very good and still needs a lot of work (besides, I'm not even sure it would fit to an Oriental Castle - maybe that's just because I used bad instruments...). So yeah, I'd really, really appreciate a song for the level.
- lantern boat graphics (if the idea is accepted)
- outside layer 3 stuff
- Buddha statues
- maybe a BG for the 3rd segment
- Ninja Chucks (shuriken etc.)