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Rise On This Island Demo Beta Test

(Rise On This Island Demo)
LEVELS(4)
EXITS(5)
DIFFICULTY: Normal
This hack is base on a dead hack name rise.
Screenshots




Userbar made by Green Jerry




Let's go. (my english risk to be bad, sorry about it)

Green Woods:

I like the aesthetics of this level. It is rather well decorated and I like the mix of semi-vanilla.
But, I find that it lacks of sprites because on 2 screens there is only one sprite, it lacks a few peps it is still supposed to be a hack of difficulty "Normal" ^^'
Except that, really good level.

Pipe Mountain:

Again I enjoyed the aesthetic, the level is nice and makes you want to play.
But, I find that the pipes where Mario can get through are not quite different from the normal pipes.
Also I noticed that in some places i can't know where I are going to fall, in any case where it happened nothing could happen to me, but watch out for the future if you make levels more difficult to not reproduce it ^^


Night in the forest


Nice level again. The level is pretty similar to the first but I like how the pipes are used or Mario can cross them
That said, the secret exit is too easy. I found it by chance without really looking for it at the base.
Aside from that, the level is pretty nice.


Pipeworks Castle


The level design is pretty nice here. But I'm not very fan of the background pallette of the second part I find it too green.
After my opinion, I find that the level is a little short, but it remains nice as it is.

It's a bit early to make a big review, but I like the aesthetics of the hack, it makes you want to continue playing.
The levels are well done and are nice. Afterwards for me the difficulty is EASY not NORMAL.
I look forward to seeing the rest. Good luck for the rest!
Layout by Koopster
Ah, a hack that is not that long. Surely I can test this one in the meantime while I am continuing to struggle with the others?

Here we go.

The intro thing with 'Chapter One: A New World: works fine, but it's very bland. Try spicing it up with a non-clashing background, for example.

The overworld looks very solid, even if it isn't ground breaking by any means. The music gets old fast though, it's too high pitched.

A Old House: I want to point out that it's 'An Old House', not 'A Old House'. It's minor but keep that in mind. Since the level is not complete, I guess I can't judge on it, but I would reccomend making in inaccesable instead of dropping a bunch of cement blocks in the way.
Green Woods: I gotta say, this level is impressive! The design is nice, the aesthatics are right on and the difficulty is good for a first level. One point of doubt is that there a lot of places where it looks like there could be a secret, but there isn't. Maybe that's something to look at, but luckily it's nothing big. The music could be a little less intense but it works.
Pipe Mountain: Again, this is a neat level, full of quality and good fun. There are a few awkward moments though. The level seems a bit devoid of enemies, which is okay, but for a Normal hack it's good if you add more. There's also this blue pipe here, which leads you believe there's something in that and that you can walk on the bottom layer of the map. Needless to say, you can't. It's a little unneccesary. For the rest, this is all good.
Night At The Forest: This level is of a slightly lower quality than the previous few levels, but it still works just fine. The dark palette of the pipes is a little awkward. It doesn't look completely right compared to the light blue and yellow ones in my opinion. The secret exit is a little too simple to find as well, seeing as it leads you to Star World. There's one thing that tops the sheet of problems and that is that when you check the sign, the game behaves a little awkwardly. You can still use your item box and jump around in some sort of box, and that doesn't work really well. Also, leaving by pressing Up is not logical and it should be mentioned when you have to do so, as most people want to press A or Start instead. The tip itself is a little bit too direct too. I would be a little more cryptic. That's all I could find, it's still a good level, mind you.
Pipeworks Castle: Wow, this level is so solid, I literally have nothing to say on it. I just have to repeat that it's okay to add some more enemies to your level, as the difficulty is Normal and not Easy. A question I would like to ask you though is: Why is there no boss at the end of the level? Was it unneccesary for you? Does it glitch? Or is it something else? It's of course not a problem, but i'd like to ask you since it's a castle.
End of demo: Same as A Old House. It would work miracles to not be able to enter the level.

Other things I noted:
-During transitions, there's an awkward HDMA effect. I'm sure that pops up in other hacks too, but it's odd nontheless. If there's a fix that's within your reach of skill, go for it, but if it isn't, it's okay. Definetly not something that would get your hack removed.
-The background on the OW changes to black once you beat Pipeworks Castle. It fixes itself once you enter a level.

That's all. So far, so good! I wish you good luck on this, hopefully you can keep it up.
First hack tested! Hopefully, I did this ok... Also,
I will be writing this almost without paying attention to the other posts, just to hammer home how much people are going to notice these things.

EDIT: Fixed an error in the 'Pipeworks Castle' part


Title screen:
REALLY recommend you change this up, as the original wood border blocks it, making it worse to the eye. Image

Green Woods :

The use of the trees and layering of the foreground enhances the feeling of depth in the level, which I really like. Other than that, generally for being a 'Normal' hack it feels like it's between the Easy - Normal Barrier. Some enemies are placed in such a way that it makes it easy to get across them, so I would advise making it a smidge more challenging.

Pipe Mountain :

For being a mountain level, I would have expected a pallet more gray or brown, but generally, my experience with mountains is usually the Rockies. Now, here I'd like to mention the darker green pipes. I got somewhat confused here if I was gonna die because of the rising platform being directly under those dark green pipes. I do like how they add a little depth, but a message box would have been preferable. Also, the slanted donut bridges look really weird. I would have added the rails and made the slant less noticeable. Image

Night at the forest :

This is a moment where I would change up a bunch of things. Here I would change up the area and the area surrounding it just for the fact that it has cut off and again, dark green pipes need a message block, not a sign. Also, it took me a while to realize I needed to press up, as Minuy600 mentioned. A message block is really needed to indicate some of these mechanics, or something else really. The overworld pallet and level pallet conflict a bunch, for being a night level it seems like it's all morning in the OW.

Here I would generally encourage that either you change the color of the pipe, as it is very obvious that it leads somewhere. By the way, why are there trees underground?

Pipeworks Castle :

Kinda confused at the outdoor castle thing. But kinda understandable, but I would have 2 screens of a mini level then a moat/
castle opening of some sort. This also applies to the ending of the level. This level also feels like it can be sped through, and the use of chucks is odd in this level, as they are generally used for a plains level. I would have added a boss, but many SMW bosses are easily defeated. Maybe a custom boss? I dunno. As a final note, level transitions have an odd gradient that looks blocky, so please change that.

FINAL RATINGS

Level Design: 19/40
Lacking enemy placement and explanation of mechanics confuses or disengages the player.

Overworld design: 14/15
Love the pastel look to it and the general design but would have made minor event edits.

Aesthetics: 14/15
Uses of depth and minor pallet and GFX edits enhances the experience. But some cutoff is found.

Grammar: 4/5
Minor grammatical errors are found,
but don't kill the gameplay.

Music/SFX 21/25
Many music choices strengthen previous choices, but a few unedited tracks feel off.


TOTAL: 72%

About a third needs to be changed with the current situation, but many choices give a generally pleasing experience many will like, and it appeals to many with the easy design.

Keep working at it!
Surprise! I'm using the forums.