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137: Crystal Conception - amhunter

Complete

Owner: amhunter

World: Bonus
Exits: 1
Theme: Abstract/Dream
Music Options: 1, 2, 3, or compose your own.

Briefing: Be as creative as you wish with this one, but try to make your area almost surreal/abstract/dream-like. The possibilities, quite literally, are endless here. Clever ExAnimation, neat graphical swaps, and more can go a long way to make these levels memorable and fun. These levels should be quite challenging as well, but fair.

Note that this does not mean you can dump a Kaizo level here and call it a day.
Well, to be as creative as possible, I'm going to make my own GFX again, I plan to have some wacky pallete animating FG and some sort of Stary BG (I'll ask theGamer if he can draw one up, not very good with BGs...)

So far, I don't have any kind of special gimmick, just some level with wacky designs in mind.

And just so that some don't question why I am posting here...

Originally posted by PM with S.N.N.


Originally posted by S.N.N.
Originally posted by metalgearhunter
I don't know what happened here, but if this level is still free, may I claim it???


Yes, you are welcome to take it. I'll sign you up.

Remember, it's an abstract level, so please be as wacky/surreal/crazy/whatever as you can. The possibilities here are endless, and I'm sure you could come up with something that meets that criteria.


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Although it was sad that the level was given up (or something), metalgearhunter, good luck.

...
I'm not taunting ya, I just wish this would grow into a nice level.

Happy hacking!, if that is still a form of hacking, I guess :)
Well, good luck to you, metalgearhunter.

also why does the thread title say that he owns the level but the first post doesn't. Someone should fix that.
Want to see some of my cool swords? Well, too bad, right now you only get to see one of them, and it's my avatar. Might set up some kind of gallery/portfolio at some point, though.
been wondering that myself. I am right now making my custom GFX. It's supposed to be mixture of a light - dark green and dark blue.
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Hello everybody, well, I just got home last night, and I'll be ready to start posting progress tomorrow, I got to get alot of stuff done today on my agenda, which means making a custom FG and BG. I've had an entire week vacation to plan this thing out, and I am going to get it done!

Oh, S.C.O.R.P.I.O.N. also got back. We would have gotten home sooner, but it was raining pretty hard yesterday. :(
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Okay, I worked on some GFX for the FG. Do note that they are not finished, I still need to make a couple of tiles.


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Well, after a week of hard work (and school), bring you some progress on my level! So far, I have no set gimmick, just working on making the level look abstract for now. As I go on, I'll eventually come up with one, but I don't have no advanced ASM, or infact, any ASM skill whatsoever, so making some Super cool gimmick is out of the question, though, with enough time, a good gimmick will eventually come to mind. Anyway, here are some screenies.





My only suggestion it to avoid going crazy on sprites like the Fire Bros. and such. They are already used substantially in other levels, and it's going to be a little underwhelming seeing more of the same in the bonus world.

That's all. Carry on.

Extras



I should have something witty to put here (even if it's just to update dated info), shouldn't I?

Advertising Space

Cut down on the shading of the diamond patterns because they look like you went overboard on them and just plain is out of place.

Originally posted by MrDeePay
Cut down on the shading of the diamond patterns because they look like you went overboard on them and just plain is out of place.

I thought the GFX looked alright the way they were. Infact, that's the first time I didn't let the dark part take over the entire GFX file, they're actually pretty light with my style of GFX shading.
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It may just be me, but I don't think the palette that uses bright cyan and dark blue is very appealing; whereas some of the others (like the red and purple one) are more pleasing to my eyes.

tatanga
Well, I'd like to change that, but, you see, the Pallete is entirely ExAnimated, it'd take me about two days to find a pallete suitable to everyone... Btw, the pallete uses all 10 colors (minus white and black) plus, I got to try to get some new sprites for this level... specifically SP3...
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Well, I don't have a BG yet, but that shouldn't be a real problem, other than that, here is an IPS of what I have so far. Any ideas and suggestions are welcomed, as always, EXCEPT for pallete issues. The pallete is completely animated, so changing it now would be real tedious... besides, I believe it looked fine in game.

Level 137 3/8
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This is pretty bad.


It's possible to get stuck in the top left there.


The cat mummy gets stuck by constantly jumping into that block.


Blind jump.

..and I stopped after this. This level is a total 180 from your other level and ends up following every sin possible - backtracking, item babysitting, blind jumps, etc. This won't cut it. Keep in mind that this is the bonus world - you can do whatever you want. Just the flashy graphics isn't going to get the job done. If the level feels like a generic romp, it's going to disappoint a lot of people who get this far.

My advice? Start over. Keep your graphics once again, because they DO look fine in game (almost surreal and trippy even, which is great), but the level needs a more central focus. If you're at a loss for ideas, check the sprites/blocks section, try doing something interesting with the original sprites, etc. Remember, you have unlimited freedom in this world, and I know you're capable of something better. You've already proven you are with your fire/ice level.

Good luck.
Okay, I'll do just that. I'll see if I can find some sort of blocks or sprite to base the level around. But any ideas will be most helpful.

Yes, now I whole heartedly agree with you SNN. While at school, some new ideas popped into my head! I can't wait to get them out.
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Ok, after some heavy work and all, I have come up with a new design to my abstract level. Here are some screenshots.


Such a pleasant sight to me.


Great, now we got Flying Signs???


Plus, there's this weird beetle here.


S.N.N., is the bubble bar supposed to be using tile E8 and not EA? In Lunar Magic, it's tile is E8, yet in game it's EA, there for it glitches up the Desert Cat sprite.
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Okay, here is the halfway mark of my level, in IPS format. Do note that there is some slowdown in the level and the Desert Cat sprite will have a graphical glitch. I am very well aware of that, but probably not of anything else such as unfair difficulty slides and what could make what better, that's why you are here, to make this level better than it is now, it's not just my level anymore, it's the testers! So, please help me out here like you did my previous level and offer as many suggestions you like, the weekend is coming up now so I'll have plenty of time to work further on the level.

Level 137
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I just played through the level. I liked the astetics and the diamonds out there, the level design was also good, and you made a nice use of the sprites. At the beginning I thought the level was too easy for world 9, as I advanced, it eventually got harder, so I'd say the difficulty is ok. Now for the stuff you have to fix:


Any reason why this ring/firebar is not attached to a block? It's weird to see some rings spinning out of the nowhere, especially because all the other firebars in your level where attached to blocks.


Secong midpoint already? But I just crossed the first one a few minutes ago, and I didn't even die once between the two midway points. I'd advise you to keep the midway point in this picture and put the second one later in your level, I can't tell you where though, since I don't know how long the last part is going to be.


I haven't played every single level in the hack, so I don't know if these goombas have been used before, but if it's the first time they appear, you should add a warning about their behavior.


This is more like a suggestion than an issue, but I think you should add an obstacle in the lower part (maybe a parakoopa) since it's way easier to go below the platform than facing the fire bro.



Avoid putting ledges that Mario can't reach like this one, it will make the player believe there is something bellow.


The buster beetle in here attacks before it appears in the screen, making it hard to avoid the thrown block even if you already know it's there.


Not realy major, but this jumps is a bit hard to perform with big Mario.

Also, I didn’t picture this, but the final segment felt a bit empty, I'd advise you to have some more enemies in that part.

Other than what I've mentioned, the level is very good, as I said earlier.
I disagree with aj.

The level is more workable than your other one, but it still needs a lot of touching up. You have once again INSISTED on using those stupid ON/OFF backtracking puzzles to artificially lengthen your level. Why? No, seriously, why do designers do this? Did I miss the ON/OFF conference that declared backtracking is actually fun (especially when the design and sprite placement is only considered cleverly for the forward direction).

Secondly, the length. The level, as it stands, is long enough. You're going to overkill it if you continue designing from here. It took me about 4 minutes to get to the end. I also didn't see any SMWC coins, which is .. well, not good.

Specifics:


Minor, but you might want to make the font there a little more readable.


This would be a pretty ideal place for the first SMWC coin.


The sprite gets stuck on the slope.


Miscolored feet on the Goomba.


...and so it begins. Although it's not that bad here compared to later parts of the level, this is still incredibly unnecessary and forces you to backtrack. It's just .. not cool, and I'll pretty much refuse to accept the level into the base ROM with this in it. I do not want ON/OFF backtracking to become the new "item babysitting" that scarred the first game.


Unnecessary second midpoint. Don't overkill this level with length.


Blind drop here, which leads me to my next point - you really need to add some coins into this level.


Yet again with the ON/OFF backtracking, and it's even nastier this time. Why don't you make this path have a SMWC coin or something, and then have a springboard leading to the upper area?


An example of a spot where you only considered forward progression and not backwards, as this is a nasty jump to make. Of course, if you fix the screenshot above this one, this will no longer be an issue.


Bland.

-No screenshot, but the background is actually incredibly unfitting, having seen it in action. Something more crystalline (to match the FG) would work very well.

The level is workable, but you need to be willing to fix up parts of it and make it flow better. Having all of these ON/OFF switches for no reason is dumb, and it makes your overall design more messy than it needs to be.

On a side note, have you considered actually doing something more worthwhile with the floating gems? It's very easy to code a 32x32 sprite that shoots a + of fireballs followed by an X of fireballs (in fact, I actually have some code for that if you wanted it). Not only would that enable you to remove all instances of the Venus Fire Trap from your level, but it would also make your level stand out as having a more focused gimmick.

I hope you'll take these suggestions to heart, as I'm sure they'll help this level improve.

Complete