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11E: Gliding Garrison - SyStemkraSh

Complete

Originally posted by Slit08
I suggest, that you, Systemkrash should design the stage as you want visual wise and the guys out there either like your style or they don't.

Can't agree more, as long as it doesn't hinder gameplay.
Your layout has been removed.
Originally posted by leod
Originally posted by Slit08
I suggest, that you, Systemkrash should design the stage as you want visual wise and the guys out there either like your style or they don't.

Can't agree more, as long as it doesn't hinder gameplay.


Graphically-detailed "vacui-horror" styles are fine by me, so long as it becomes obvious to the player what is background, what is foreground, and what has a layer priority. All of this should be known to the player within the first few screens of the level, and so long as it isn't anything like the forest void of SMWCP1, it should be cool.
Thanks for the feedback, but I can't respond or post an update at the moment; very busy.

EDIT: For the next update, I'm thinking of doing one of two things. Would you prefer an IPS of what I have of my level, or would you want more screenshots? (My money is on the IPS test)
I think an ips would be the better chocie since we can offer you better feedback if we play the stage ourselves.
I've heard on here and on IRC that you guys want the IPS. I'll get it up eventually, but I will be busy the rest of the week with AP stuff, so sorry for the lack of updates.
DUSK OF DAY 8 - 841 HOURS (I think?) REMAIN
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SMWC Coins: 2 of 3
Sublevels complete: 3 of 5
Midpoint: 1 of 1
Goal Point: 0 of 1
Days Left: 35 (AUG 6) of 43 (SEP 17)

- The spikes have been modified to only hurt in the direction they are pointing. I think that was required, if I remember correctly.

- Some clutter has been removed.

- Decided to add a yellow strip to the door just because.

I'm making some good progress on my level, but I'm feeling a bit iffy about it at the moment. There's a new section that has a different feel compared to other parts of my level, because it's completely open. Maybe I can get some testers to try out the level? (This is clickable BTW)

Now then, for the pictures. Feel free to criticize ANYTHING.

PICTURES
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Lunar Magic

Room 1 - Entrance
BEFORE
Photobucket
AFTER
Photobucket
Custom Sprite 1 - Advanced Goomba

Room 2 - Lobby Part 1
BEFORE
Photobucket
AFTER
Photobucket
Custom Sprite 1 - Blue Paratroopa
Custom Sprite 2 - Horizontal Thwomp

Room 3 - Lobby Part 2
Photobucket
Custom Sprite 1 - Blue Paratroopa

Room 4 - Cargo Storage
Photobucket
Custom Sprite 1 - Blue Paratroopa
Custom Sprite 2 - Horizontal Thwomp

ZSNES Pictures (New Areas)
Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket
Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket
Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket

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Don't forget to try out the level. It's in yellow text above. Any feedback/comments?

Unrelated: The song for "Carnival Castle" sounds pretty awesome.
So I just playtested your stage and I am going to be brutally honest to you:
I don't like your stage at all. First of all, the design is pretty horrible to say the least. It's just a bunch of blind jumps combined with sawblades, Koopas and some spikes.
The one thing I don't like at all is the lack of an awesome gimmick. Sure, not every stage needs to have a certain gimmick but considering the fact that this is one of two blimp stages in the hack it should actually have a gimmick related to airships/ blimps. It feels a bit uninspired since I got the feeling that you cramped some enemies and obstacles together and tried to make a pretty standard jump n' run stage.
Second aspect I do not like at all is the visual design of your stage. I recently played Dangling Dangers which is included in the Base Rom. The way you are using this tileset is not right at all. You are using the rails of the Rovicalw as part of the background as well as the bricks which were actually supposed to be part of the ground tiles.
Even though I do not want to sound harsh and while I do like your motivation and your will on actually working on your level I honestly don't think that you can keep up with the standards and expectations for this hack. You need to overthink your stage design, balance your difficulty (there are various blind jumps) and think of an actual gimmick. You also need to overhaul your visual style for this stage, it just looks and feel wrong. :(
Sorry to say that man. It is just my oppinion...
While it might not be THAT bad,
Originally posted by Slit08
So I just playtested your stage and I am going to be brutally honest to you:
I don't like your stage at all. First of all, the design is pretty horrible to say the least. It's just a bunch of blind jumps combined with sawblades, Koopas and some spikes.
The one thing I don't like at all is the lack of an awesome gimmick. Sure, not every stage needs to have a certain gimmick but considering the fact that this is one of two blimp stages in the hack it should actually have a gimmick related to airships/ blimps. It feels a bit uninspired since I got the feeling that you cramped some enemies and obstacles together and tried to make a pretty standard jump n' run stage.
Second aspect I do not like at all is the visual design of your stage. I recently played Dangling Dangers which is included in the Base Rom. The way you are using this tileset is not right at all. You are using the rails of the Rovicalw as part of the background as well as the bricks which were actually supposed to be part of the ground tiles.
Even though I do not want to sound harsh and while I do like your motivation and your will on actually working on your level I honestly don't think that you can keep up with the standards and expectations for this hack. You need to overthink your stage design, balance your difficulty (there are various blind jumps) and think of an actual gimmick. You also need to overhaul your visual style for this stage, it just looks and feel wrong. :(
Sorry to say that man. It is just my oppinion...
While it might not be THAT bad,

Hmm. Sounds like you didn't finish what you needed to say.

..Anyway, if my level is really that bad and you really don't think that I can handle a level for SMWCP2, I suppose that I'll just resign. This level seems to gain a fairly large negative response from everyone. However, I am still curious. Where were those blind jumps at? I think the problem was that I was designing the wrong type of level in the wrong way. I have no clue how to make this blimp stand out from the others I suppose, or even make a decent blimp-style level. Also, I really don't care for gimmicks because personally, I think they just in the way of the level. ...So, I guess that's it.
I think people always assume that "gimmick" immediately refers to "loading your level up with ASM" .. but it doesn't. Utilizing a vanilla sprite in a creative way could be classified as a "gimmick". All I have ever asked out of anyone in this project is to be creative with their level - that is, don't focus purely on making a super generic vanilla romp that we've seen a million times before. Rather, focus on taking a concept and utilizing it to its fullest potential in order to create a fun and memorable level. I know you are capable of this.

All of the negative response thus far seems to boil down to the "cramped" nature of the level. The palette and such is good, but perhaps lay off on filling everything with steel blocks and whatnot. Rather, create decorative setups that DON'T actually detract from the level, and then design a fun level around that.

It's ultimately your call at this point. You've done great with communication and whatnot, so I would hate to see you give up so quickly. Embrace the feedback and build on it - like I said, I know you're more than capable of making something creative.
DAY 9
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..I suppose I'll give it a second try. I'm considering saving/exporting the entire level, and then completely scrapping it and starting over from scratch.

We'll see where it goes from here.
DAY 13
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SMWC Coins: 1 of 3
Sublevels complete: 1 of 5
Midpoint: 0 of 1
Goal Point: 0 of 1
Days Left: 29 (AUG 6) of 43 (SEP 17)

I was actually considering uploading videos of the level to YouTube for quite a while. This is what I have done so far.

The old level was scrapped; this new level will be a normal romp level. It may still appear cramped, but I always felt that the interior of structures were supposed to be that way. As seen in the video, the layer 2 shenanigans have been removed, replaced by a background. The usage of the tileset is almost normal; however, there are still overlapping pipes. Mushrooms will be given out of power-up boxes instead of Fire Flowers to compensate for the slightly lower difficulty between my level and the rest of World 6.
Although it's still complex, this remade version is a lot easier on the eyes than the original, so props. I'm sure you already know about the minor sprite issues with the grinders. The design looks better too, only change I might suggest is maybe to remove the yellow turn block bridge where the SMWC coin is; it would make it slightly more challenging. Here's an idea for later developments:
-I think you can incorporate some more areas like the one seen at 0:53, possibly requiring Mario to dance in and out of line-guided grinders in similar formations to this. I think Wendy O. Koopa's castle in the original SMW did a good job with this in some areas, maybe you can use this for possible inspiration!

tatanga
DAY 20
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SMWC Coins: 1 of 3
Sublevels complete: 1 of 5
Midpoint: 0 of 1
Goal Point: 0 of 1
Days Left: 23 (AUG 6) of 43 (SEP 17)

SMWCP 2 - Blimp (Update 2)
- Issue with sprite tile memory (grinder corner) has been fixed.

School started up again, so I won't have as much time to work on the level.

I've been trying to increase the difficulty and I'm attempting to make the level nonlinear. Other than that, there's not much else new.
Actually this time I pretty much like the direction this level is taking. The gameplay is pretty well-thught for a vanilla stage. I guess you are going to "decorate" the second room once it is finished?
I agree, with Slit08, the level design seems to be very top notch, and there was obviously a lot of thought put into the setups with the various enemies and platforms.

As for "decorating" the second half, it doesn't necessarily need more decorations, but I really, really like the aesthetic appeal of all the pipes in the first half. The way it is now, it doesn't look like the complex design of the blimp would be distracting to the player. I'm glad that you kept at this stage after getting some negative feedback, it is coming along really well.
I really like the design shown in the video. Props to that.

I'm not too fond of the background color. It looks a little... dirty I guess. It's just minor, though. The design is great. Keep it up!
Lots of feedback again; I really appreciate all of it. :P
@ Slit08: Glad you like the new design. Yes, I will decorate the second room once it's finished; I usually create the skeleton of the level first, then fill it up with fancy things.
@ eXcavator: Thank you. I don't exactly have a theme to go with my blimp, so I just tried to make it a difficult-but-fair challenge.
@ Ragey: I see; maybe a slightly-brighter palette will help with that. Also, thank you.

Oh, and I finally got around to making the video for the scrapped blimp level.

Other than that, there's not really much else new or important to update on.

Again, thanks for the feedback everyone.
DAY 26 - 603.66 Hours Remain
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SMWC Coins: 3 of 3 - COMPLETE
Sublevels complete: 2 (3 if decor not counted) of 5
Midpoint: 1 of 1
Goal Point: 0 of 1
Days Left: 24 (AUG 6) of 50 (SEP 24)

New video guys!
Blimp (Update 3)

- All of the SMWC Coins have been placed through the level.
- Midpoint has been placed in the level, but midpoint spawn needs to be placed.
- 2nd sublevel is complete.
- 3rd sublevel is done with level design, but needs decoration.

Feel free to call me out on anything, because the further I design my level, the more anxious I get.
DAY 32
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SMWC Coins: 3 of 3 - COMPLETE
Sublevels complete: 3 of 5
Midpoint: 1 of 1
Goal Point: 0 of 1
Days Left: 18 (AUG 6) of 50 (SEP 24)

I won't be able to post an update this week, due to school; I apologize in advance.

Thanks for the update. The level looks very good so far, but looks like it may be too hard in some places. Also you don't have to place a video, just give us an ips to test, It lets us help you get out all the glitches.
Layout by LDA during C3.

Complete