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Overworld or Levels? (Read inside please)

What is better to focus on? Overworld, or levels?

And why? That's your opinion?

EDIT: I suppose I should have mentioned to wornk on FIRST, or MORE.

Of course, good OW WITH levels are better, right? My bad, folks.


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In my opinion, levels. They are where the player spends the vast majority of his or her time playing the game, so they need to be very good. Without good levels, no matter how awesome your overworld may be, your game will suck.

That's not to say, though, that the overworld is not important. It is the (kinda) first thing that the player sees, so it does need to be good. But still I think level design is superior.
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Okay, great. I meant to ask... what's more important to work on MORE, the OW or levels, (Or first?) But you do bring a strong case with both.


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First... I guess depends on personal preference. I prefer to work on the overworld first, but not in detail. Maybe not even in Lunar Magic. Just a rough idea of what it will look like in the end, and where levels will go, and the submap themes; that way can make the levels to fit. Then I would do all the levels. Then comes making/perfecting the overworld.

As for more, levels, no doubt, for the reasons I said above.
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I make the OW first, just so I know where I am going to put my levels, and so I know what to make in my levels. Like if it is a snowy part of the level, I will make a snow level. That is how I always did it. Except levels are more important to work on. But you want to have an idea of where you are going to put your levels.


EDIT: good thing I had ninja protection on lol...
Anyways I agree with tmercswims.

This seems more like a discussion thread than a help thread, so I'm just going to move it over to Hack Discussion.
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Unless you have solid ideas planned from the start, i would decide doing the levels first and then working in the OW, because you would limit your creativity by making it fit in the level tile.

I don't care much about how OW looks, but is cool to have some alternate paths, stars and pipes, is something more about how the OW behaves and surprises the player that actually if it looks pleasant but boring.
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... Why the first level of like every hack has a shooting pipe.
Definitely levels, but I think that if you have an unchanged OW, you'll have to work extra hard to make your levels well designed to make up for the original OW, especially if you have unchanged level names because an unchanged OW with unchanged level names makes a bad first impression. I think blatant level edits are way worse than a blatant edit of or an unchanged OW.
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Originally posted by Kaizokoban
Definitely levels, but I think that if you have an unchanged OW, you'll have to work extra hard to make your levels well designed to make up for the original OW, especially if you have unchanged level names because an unchanged OW with unchanged level names makes a bad first impression. I think blatant level edits are way worse than a blatant edit of or an unchanged OW.


You're right. When some users don't know how to make a decent OW, they can leave it unchanged. It'll look much better than a blocky island with perspective errors. I often make first the levels, then the OW.
I make great ExGFX OW, but I wanted do some levels, then the OW, then few more levels.
I'm actually ill with overworlds. If the OW is bad, then nothing will motivate me to do the levels. Well, actually, usually everyone say my OWs are impressing, but I always think they are bad and it slows my hack. I hope I'll get free out of it after some time, at least from that I think bad about my OWs, it sometimes ruins my hack plans, so even if I could say that levels are important, I would always say that my OW needs to be perfect. Ehh...
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If I have a set of levels in mind, then I'll do them first and work on the overworld afterwards to reflect them (this is the route SMWCP2 is taking as well). However, there are times when I'll simply come up with a map and design the levels around what I've made. I guess it varies.
I do levels first as they are, in my opinion 'the very essence of the hack'. Players will be spending most of their time in them and I shouldn't let an OW I previously created restrict them.

Levels allow me to express myself artistically...without having to do anything art based with drawing. You can make an OW that will work with most level selections.

....On a different note, why is the OW world so important? You only see it for about a 1/50 of the time you play the hack and it is not the reason the player is here....maybe it's just me but I don't see why it is so crucial to a great hack. #w{:s}
Yeah I agree the OW isn't as important as levels, but it is the first thing the player sees like someone else said on here, also You can't really go to different levels if you do not have your paths set up...

My hack has taken somewhat of a SMB3 turn because the 'fortresses' are just that, fortresses, but the castles are now "Airships"... Maintaining that castle level where Yoshi can't ride with Mario... leading to enemy airships.

(Well.. that last bit I'm contemplating...)

I like everyone's opinions! (So far anyway)


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Easily the levels to me. I hardly ever pay attention to the overworld and most of the time in the game is spent playing levels, so they have to be good. I'd rather play a hack with good levels and a mediocre OW than a hack with a good OW and mediocre levels. Of course, that doesn't mean the OW should suck, I just think that primary focus should be given to the levels. About which one should be made first.. I dunno, I guess it doesn't really matter to me.
I personally tackle the levels before the overworld because OWs are not my forte. Regardless, I believe it's best to get a good amount of levels done first. Levels are the main attraction of the hack, so the most effort should be put into them. If you design an overworld first, then it's a bit more tricky because you have to design your levels around it. I feel it's much easier to design your overworld around your levels. Considering designing an OW, in my opinion, is much more difficult, designing the levels first will save time, since you may have to redesign the OW completely if it doesn't fit the levels you made afterwards.
What I do, is think about marios "route",will he go thrugh a cave, a plain, climb a hill,...Then make that on the overworld(not much detail),then I make a level maching more or less with the overworld, then I make the space around the level, look like the level(if the level is vertil and youre on a hill, I put a mountain, and if I make bumpy ground, I put 8x8 hills)
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