Language…
8 users online:  Atari2.0, drkrdnk, GRIMMKIN, JezJitzu,  Nanako, Nemesis1407, Pink Gold Peach,  Segment1Zone2 - Guests: 250 - Bots: 332
Users: 64,795 (2,376 active)
Latest user: mathew

Glittering Grotto (final version in the OP if you want to play it early for whatever reason)

MY NAME IS KRAHM AND I FUCK EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE

(updated to the final version)

I pray to the Spirits of Good Feedback in the hopes that they may answer my plea. I need to know if this length is good enough or if I have to torture myself making another (small) section before the conclusive part (represented in this version as the END ? ghost house of death), and if there are any other issues you guys might find.

Uhh also does anyone know of a fully ambient song (ie no music just ambient noises or at least something close to that) in the music section so I can use it? It'd be really nice.

I'll upload those files to more appropriate places later MAYBE

I am dying.

I already voiced my feedback in the relevant channels on the Internet Relay Chat, but I can publicly say, for all ears to recognize, is that the aesthetics are top-tier, the colours are insanely good (like, it's unreal to me how pretty the colours in this level are), and the design is a lot of fun. The difficulty curve isn't consistent, it jumps around a lot, but that doesn't hurt the level. It just makes it feel like one cohesive whole, rather than a series of smaller sections.

I think it is a little on the short side, especially when restarting from the midway. It's not too short, mind you, but it is noticeably over right when you feel like it should be reaching a climactic finale.
ask me if i give a f*ck...
Gonna get the obvious out of the way and mention the level is fucking BEAUTIFUL.
The layer 3 bg is 👌👌👌 the bubbles are 👌👌👌 the splashes are 👌👌👌 the ambience is 👌👌👌👌👌👌


The level itself was very good in of itself too. There were some clever usage of water + sparkly non-mario-solid slopes and tiles (I really liked the puzzle where you need to kick the shell just as the water is in its lowest point, and how you had to drop the platforms).

But I found an error, right after I come out of this pipe, layer 2 stopped moving up and down. The first time I played I didn't even notice, and when I reached the end I had no idea what to do since the orange platform never dropped and I had to do some real shady stuff to get it to drop, and had to enter the pipe while it was falling. Second time I played I skipped the pipe and realised it was supposed to move due to layer 2.

Other than that, I can't really find anything weird or unfair; it does get kind of hard sometimes but it's all good fun! #tb{^V^}
LINKS Twitter | YouTube | SoundCloud | Fortaleza Reznor
to hear birds and see none.
That one cave remix from vldc9 is pretty ambient, the one used in Night Swimming.

Haven't played the level yet, but the aesthetics look super solid.

EDIT: Played, it, and it's a pretty great level. The level looks incredible, and, while it doesn't exactly stretch the boundaries of creativity, it does what it wants to do fairly well without many issues.

And yes, the length isn't too bad. I think it could afford a little bit more at the end though.

Overall, the biggest problems were general feelings of claustrophobia, and the pink bubbles being instant kill were slightly annoying. I know that, if you make them tile 12F, it would be weird cause you could stand on it, but the instant kill nature of most of the obstacles mitigated the use of powerups slightly? I'm not sure.

I think the creativity in design could have been stretched slightly more. For instance, a few of the dragon coins weren't exactly hard to figure out... I personally prefer dragon coins that make you think, rather than deal with precise obstacles. That way, it doesn't make an all dragon coin run feel twice as hard, but instead, it feels more rewarding.

Overall, the use of tile 1f0 was pretty well designed, but not exactly creative, which isn't a bad thing. There are some cases where I would raise the ceiling a bit, since it felt cramped sometimes.

So I would get rid of the red koopa here, as it's an annoying obstacle.



I don't think I liked the ending here. The bottom most bubble pretty much results in death, since you can't make it up. It's basically waiting and dodging enemies, and if you pick the wrong bubble to wait in, you could get screwed over.



I don't know what the point is of the bubbles down below in the orange platform puzzle thingy. If you take the bubble "route", instead of just falling down through the tile 1f0 sparkes, the floating carrot platform despawns anyway. Speaking of that puzzle, I didn't find it very hard to lower the platform.

And this puzzle, which I mentioned earlier, I believe could be made slightly trickier. I would remove the red urchins a bit, so it isn't so precise, and instead, maybe have the ground below have a layer 2 section that moves up and down, so you have to time throwing the red shell so it can hit the vine block. Difficulty through timing is usually more effective than precision, since it is a bit more fair, and can be learned quickly.

http://bin.smwcentral.net/u/17388/glittering%2Bgrotto001.png

Overall though, I thought it was good!! To be honest, I thought it was more enjoyable and creative than turn block treeway. It could definitely stand to be longer though.
So I only saw you edited your post after the deadline WOOPS

Originally posted by GbreezeSunset
For instance, a few of the dragon coins weren't exactly hard to figure out... I personally prefer dragon coins that make you think, rather than deal with precise obstacles. That way, it doesn't make an all dragon coin run feel twice as hard, but instead, it feels more rewarding.

I'm an average ass level designer and am completely incapable of coming up with puzzles so yeah

Originally posted by GbreezeSunset
Overall, the use of tile 1f0 was pretty well designed, but not exactly creative, which isn't a bad thing.

It's not 1F0 smh it's the lava slopes (which yeah is basically Tile 1F0 But The Sprites Don't Act Weirdly On It Also It's Angled). Too late for me to change ceilings lol.

Originally posted by GbreezeSunset
So I would get rid of the red koopa here, as it's an annoying obstacle.

I know this doesn't really say or prove anything, but I didn't find it annoying myself, and its real purpose is to help you get rid of the disco shell (which imo is way more annoying an obstacle). I would've considered changing it of course but DEADLINE.


Originally posted by GbreezeSunset
I don't think I liked the ending here. The bottom most bubble pretty much results in death, since you can't make it up. It's basically waiting and dodging enemies, and if you pick the wrong bubble to wait in, you could get screwed over.


But there's only 1 bubble to wait in...

Originally posted by GbreezeSunset
I don't know what the point is of the bubbles down below in the orange platform puzzle thingy. If you take the bubble "route", instead of just falling down through the tile 1f0 sparkes, the floating carrot platform despawns anyway.

They're just there to be used as safety nets -- this part was hard(er?)/annoying without them.

Originally posted by GbreezeSunset
Speaking of that puzzle, I didn't find it very hard to lower the platform.

I mean it's barely a puzzle lol but I'm actually glad you found it easy. If you step on the orange platform when the bubble is rising you're pretty much guaranteed to die.

Originally posted by GbreezeSunset
And this puzzle, which I mentioned earlier, I believe could be made slightly trickier. I would remove the red urchins a bit, so it isn't so precise, and instead, maybe have the ground below have a layer 2 section that moves up and down, so you have to time throwing the red shell so it can hit the vine block. Difficulty through timing is usually more effective than precision, since it is a bit more fair, and can be learned quickly.

I wanted the moving layer 2 thing to be exclusive to the second "half" (it's lopsided tbh) of the level so I guess even if I had time I wouldn't follow through with your suggestion. It'd also ruin my S I C C cutoff evasion trick with the eaten rope!!
Not saying I disagree with your sentiments about fariness and whatnot though I'm just bad at making puzzles lmao.

Originally posted by GbreezeSunset
To be honest, I thought it was more enjoyable and creative than turn block treeway.

I'm very, very happy to hear that.

Thanks a lot for your feedback, even though there's nothing I can do about your issues with the level now. And that Nightswimming suggestion was great! It's exactly what I needed for the intro section #ab{:D}.

If you or anyone else wants to try out the finished version, it's here (in the first post too). And if you don't want to, you'll have to play through it in the collab anyway LOL


Krahm....? Krahm... Krahm.................? Krahm who?
Switch: SW-2766-9108-9399Twitter: @Vine_STYouTube: that ivy guy