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Any level design ideas?

I'm kind of a noob when it comes to level design, any good ideas?
Bacon is good for me!
If you're not good at level design then read my suggestions:

1. Don't abuse blocks as land. A level made of land looks much better than a cement block level.

2. Don't make linear levels. Put some slopes and other things.

3. Put a good number of enemies. If you put to many, there will be a lot of slowdown, if you put to less, the level will be boring.

4. Give sometimes some secrets in levels. People like to find secrets.

5. Remember to put a good difficulty curve. Make the levels easy at the beggining and challenging at the end.

6. You can sometimes put a mini-boss in grassland levels but not to many.

7. Make the player sometimes go into an other way than just right. Make Mario sometimes get up, then down.

8. You can sometimes put puzzles but you need to put a reset pipe to make the player reset the level so he isn't forced to kill himself. Remember to give him enough time or no time.

9. Remember to not put floating munchers. This is one of the main removals in SMWC. If you want a hurt block to float in mid-air, change it's GFX to a mine or something what isn't a floating muncher. Also don't put only munchers as a obstacle. There are also sprites like Koopas or Goombas.

10. Don't make long water levels. If you want a long water level, make it a tide level (watch out to not go over screen 0F because the layer 3 will glitch up after screen 0F). Make underwater levels pretty long and don't make it an auto-scroll level, beucase it's boring.

11. Watch out for cutoff. It's also one of the main removals in SMWC. You need to avoid cutoff tiles. Sometimes ExGFX is good to avoid cutoff.

12. When putting a warp pipe or door, remember to change the level to which it'll warp or Mario will get stuck in a endless bonus game!

Hmm... that will be enough for decent level design.
Thank you. :)
Bacon is good for me!
You ought to play some of the hacks in the Hacks & Featured Hacks section. You will surely get a lot of inspiration from others there (:
Hack SMW others and try to play, and ideas we may think.

Originally posted by GISSIRI
I'm kind of a noob when it comes to level design, any good ideas?



My Homepage(JST May 14, 2014 - Maintenance!)
youtube channel
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Well everyone is a noob at first, I was crap with level design but I learned from my mistakes and then BAM! I got good after practise and so on.
My Hacks:
-Mario is Sick!

Join me on youtube and the slaughtercast!
Slaughterbrother2
Slaughtercast


Frick, you got a response from Anikiti. That's rare, dude. Feel lucky.

Just a little side note here, don't make water levels long at all. They are terrible. They have to be really really well designed to even be somewhat fun to play. I don't know anyone who enjoys water levels on a regular basis. They are a noob trap and worse than that inherently boring.

Secondly, Level Design is a rather holistic process for me. Start with inspiration or at least an idea you feel excited about. Don't try to churn out levels. If you don't think someone will be impressed by it, they won't. Keep levels exciting and most of all unique. Even really well made hacks get boring if you are playing in the same environment for 8 levels.

Once you have your inspiration, work on the level itself. Make sure to incorporate a "gimmick-" this can be anything from unique graphics to a sprite set. Anything that sets your level apart. Make sure not to over-use it, but make sure it's in the level. Build your level (which is a process in itself much too indepth for me too describe here).

I like to think of my levels as actual pieces of the world. So think of what your world would look like in reality, and create levels out of it!
I'm going to have a lot of water levels in my hack in the 3rd world... haha. Also yeah Water Levels are horrible, unless you know how to spice it up with great design.

Also using a custom layer 3 can make a level pretty cool. Also try messing around with the different types of land you can place. Another thing that can enhance a level is making your level more original with Map 16 pieces, by forming together certain pieces to make cooler looking land formations. Good luck hacking =)

Variety and Decoration.

Those who have played my hack know I add a lot of decoration, as otherwise, it will be boring.

Also, variety is important. It is no good having 6 water levels in a row, for example. Try to think of an 'idea' for each level and work from that.
Adding on to what everybody have said about water levels; They tend to be boring indeed. I haven't really came across many hacks that had fun water levels maybe accept ASMWCP. Anyways if you make water levels, try to give a unique feeling to them, aside for just swimming in a straight course. Also try and avoid to many multi path water levels, it can get a bit repetitive (At least I think so). Also like JDC said it isn't really good having 6 water levels in a row; if you had to make 6 water levels in a hack, at least make them spread out. With creativity I'm sure you can make unique somewhat entertaining water levels.

Anyways enough with that. As for level designing try to give most of yours levels a different feel to them. Example "One Level requires Yoshi because Mario can't walk on Munchers; Another Level requires Yoshi because Mario can't fly." Eh just little things like that can make your hack more entertaining IMO; although most levels do involve Mario running through them; "no requirements needed." Last thing, try not to over use an idea, Like carrying P Switches through the level: it can get a bit annoying at times. With that said, Level Designing can be a bit difficult starting off but you'll get the hang of it in no time. Also, if you fear that the tile set your using doesn't have a enough to it, you can try adding on to it with YYCHR. You can do a lot with YYCHR; just experiment a little.

(If I made no sense, I was half awake while typing this ) #w{:s}
My Youtube Channel for Hacking and Gaming.
Really the best tip is to put sprites in clever positions to try to make some kind of offensive to the player, is not about being unfair, but being smart, if your sprites make sense where you put them, probably the level is gonna be fun, also you can make some sort of gimmick with those, remember that great difficulty is given by sprites+terrain, making flat terrain with tough enemies, or a complex spike maze without them isn't really good design.

Try to use a few of ideas into your level, mix them, focus on the enviroment of what you are going to design, at last, music/good drawn grafics can give a nice touch, but those aren't really important to develop a good enviroment, you can still be vanilla at all and make a unique feel.

To increase your "creativity", i suggest stop using shooters or some generators, like the bullet cross thing or a layer FG scroll, in my opinion those are some lame ways to make a level feel more "complete".
WIP Thread

Progress:
not so NEW progress! (56.25% done) [18/32]

... Why the first level of like every hack has a shooting pipe.
What dose bowser always refer to mario as?jumping dwarf.Keep that in mind, mario games are about JUMPING from platform to platforms, so put lots of platforms at diferent hights, diferent distances, and diferent obstacles.Also, use custom grafics,always.and, when you have leftover space in your grafix sheet, make decorations like grass,rocks,flowers,ect.for inspiration, depends on the person.For me, it comes usually from dreams I have, then I try to pass the dream to a level.sometimes, I get inspiration from what is around me.
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Originally posted by Maxx

Just a little side note here, don't make water levels long at all. They are terrible. They have to be really really well designed to even be somewhat fun to play. I don't know anyone who enjoys water levels on a regular basis. They are a noob trap and worse than that inherently boring.



I've always believed you should do something truly unique. A good philosophy is to work against the grain. Challenge ideas, don't just accept them. I recommend you take up Maxx's dare and make a fun water level. Because they have been so poorly done in the past, this is your chance to make them interesting, and experiment. Water levels can be fun (apparently the one I made was) and it's always good to be uncomfortable. Most people scroll to the right? Start scrolling to the left! Most people make vertical levels where you must go up? You make them go down.

My new aim, after the hack I made was complete, was to change hacking. The only way you can change it is to go headlong into hardships and difficulty, though you will come out better, and wiser.

I guess to summarise, explore the virgin ground that no person dares hack, and find new ways to design levels!

One thing I think can work great (but is very draining), is set out to make a 5 minute level, and make each screen unique. See what you come up with, the best ideas can be developed into a full level.

This post was probably quite controversial, on reflection. Some food for thought, I guess?