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Posts by Delta

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Sleazy? You can't honestly expect the average player to want to play through an actual kaizo level in order to get 100% completion.
Perhaps if you're standing on a level tile with a secret exit that you haven't gotten yet, a keyhole icon would appear in the corner, and once you have gotten the secret exit, it would be replaced by a key icon?
@Incognito: That looks really nice! You've got a great eye for palettes. The SMB1 waterfalls work pretty well with the otherwise SMW tileset.
@NGB: It looks pretty solid so far! I like the amount of attention to detail you've given the level. I like how you've used the moving platforms to spice up the platforming in the level.
Originally posted by Colbor
Originally posted by Ladida
note to contest entrants:
- do not include references to the third reich

how about communism?

Communism works on paper, but not on Layer 1 or Layer 2
Originally posted by Dr. Tapeworm

This is super catchy. It's supplanted the abstract remix as my favorite VLDC theme. You did a good job with this!

Originally posted by S.N.N.

I'm getting some very Pokemon Mystery Dungeon-esque vibes from this, which is good in my book.

Originally posted by TheInsanity115
Factory Map - New update!

It still sounds kinda empty. There's a beat, but no real melody. Channels 5 and 6 also sound kind of weird and off-key. Try adjusting those a bit.
I agree, some of the background tiles look too similar to the foreground ones. I'd suggest darkening the background a bit or perhaps changing the color scheme of the background so it's more easily differentiated.

---



As of yet unnamed third World 2 level. This level takes place on a grassy, spring-like island out in the sea. It introduces lakitus and spinies, first through pipe-dwelling lakitus. After reaching the half-way point of the level, actual cloud-riding lakitus start appearing.

Throughout the level, many ledge structures appear, giving the player a choice between taking a higher or lower path on a moment-to-moment basis. Sliding pipes also make an appearance, increasing the risk factor posed by the lakitus as they are given more time to throw spinies down at you.
I think a good idea if you're going to make score more important would be to reduce the amount of points stuff gives you down into the single or double digits. There's a bunch of articles out there that explain why using small numbers over big numbers is a good thing, but basically it boils down into making it easier to tell how many points counts as "a lot".

Score is sort of meaningless in Super Mario World because by the end your score is so high that it's pretty much impossible to keep track of it. If you're making a hack that focuses on score, it'd be a good idea to reduce the different score values into something more manageable.
That looks wonderfully trippy, almost like an illusion.
I would add pipes anyway, mainly to act as a shortcut for people who don't feel like walking across the entire map to reach a certain world.
All of the judges' comments are linked to in the first post.
I voted for #3, although I do feel like #7 has the most creative Best submap. Having little icons that represent each individual level is just such a great idea, and it's executed very well, in my opinion.
Originally posted by Hinalyte
Welcome to a weird water level.

A lot of the strange behavior there was intentional, and accomplished through vanilla ways, by the way. Making this because I kinda just "felt like doing it". It's a strange idea that I want to pull off.

I love the way this level looks - the combination of the cave tileset with the wooden ghost house structures, and the canopy at the top. The enemy placement looks pretty good too.
I'm definitely for disqualifying kaizo and joke* levels. They basically just exist to clog up the worst world, except unlike other levels that get into the worst world, they're intentionally bad/too difficult. And then other, unintentionally crappy levels end up in the actual worlds, even if they don't deserve to be. It feels weird to have a worst world and then allow people to intentionally stuff zero-effort levels into it.

* obviously, this statement doesn't include levels that are humorous but still put effort into the design, like NONSENS ZONE from VLDC7. I'd define "joke level" as something like "ha ha here's 1F screens of nothingness" or "look at all these floating munchers and cutoff! i made this in fifteen seconds!"
I'd really like an ice remix that's more fast-paced, like something similar to the Antarctica theme from 1001 Spikes. Most ice levels seem to be fairly athletic in nature, and while the current ice remix isn't bad at all, it's a bit too calm to fit most of the situations where it's applicable.
Edit 2/11/17: Download link.

There's no way out, the only way out is to give in...





It's been forever since I've entered one of these, but I figured after the major success of the past three VLDCs, I should toss my hat into the ring for a chance at that gold. But really, even just being in one of these is a reward in and of itself, even if I end up in the worst world or something.

This level mainly focuses around the platforms that rotate when Mario steps on them, as well as the weird sprite-only blocks that are supposed to appear under wall triangles. I know the latter's old hat for most people in the vanilla hacking community, but I still think it's one of the funniest things in the original SMW, and I think I can get some more mileage out of it.

The neat thing about the platforms is that they always rotate right first, and this can be manipulated for some preeetty cool obstacles, like the part in the fourth screenshot where you need to sort of maneuver it around so you can make it swing left, while dodging the spiny and the bullet bill shooter. (I'm probably going to put another mushroom either before or after that screen; it's actually kinda tricky.)

Aesthetic-wise, I think I've mostly got it finalized. I don't want to add too many decorations to the foreground level, as I feel like that would be too busy and distracting in this sort of environment.

I've done my best to make things as noticeable as possible without detracting from the general 'feel' of the level - all foreground objects often glow a brighter color, which helps them stand out more regardless of where the background is at the moment. The munchers also stand out a lot due to their bright pinkness, which should hopefully avoid a lot of 'arrrgh, there was a muncher there?'-type problems. I'm also going to make the bullet bill shooters more visible too, since that's something I overlooked at first.

I'm trying to be a bit sparing with reset doors - in most screens, you can either backtrack to reset the position of the platforms, or you're just going to die anyway so it's not like resetting would make a huge difference. I've mainly just put them at the introduction of new concepts that might be confusing for the player the first time around, like the platforms allowing Mario to clip through the ground. I mainly want to avoid using message blocks, since I think that a good level should be able to show the player the mechanics rather than telling them?

This level really looks best in motion, so here's a quick video preview of it. Note that this video is slightly outdated - I've since changed the final screen in the video to what you see in the last screenshot in this post. (Fun fact: that screen was actually the first thing I made for this level.)

I'm also aware that the music messes with the sound effects a bit, but I actually kinda like the way that complements the weirdness of the level. There's no other song I'd want to use for it, unless someone makes a new abstract remix that's just as bizarre.

(Side note: If there isn't an abstract world this contest I have literally no idea where you'd put it. Purple world???)
I feel like the 1f0 tile works better as a supplement to the gimmick than as a gimmick on its own. There's definitely a lot of cool stuff you can do with it in tandem with other obstacles.



I've made it up to the midway point of the level, about 09 screens into the level. On my playtest it took me about 1:30 minutes to get there. I'm kind of curious to see how people will do when they play it for the first time, since I am at an advantage here as the level designer. (In these screenshots I basically intentionally screwed up so I could get a good picture of everything...)



I've also altered the screen that introduces the clipping mechanic, so it's safer for players who aren't familiar with it. The coins in this screen are blue instead of purple, which should serve as an indicator that that's where you should stand while on the platform. I also moved the spiny to a later screen. Also, I've fixed the bullet bill shooter palette.

I have a few ideas for what I'm going to do for the post-midpoint section. I'm probably going to add another sprite or two into the mix.

Originally posted by Gamma V
Maybe you could use the Abstract level remix from VLDC7 if you don't feel that that has become too overused.

The Abstract remix, while good, is definitely pretty overused, especially after last year's contest. It's also a bit too fast-paced for this level. I'll see what I can do about the samples. It's mainly just the drums, so I might be able to replace those with regular SMW drums?

Quote
It's very hard for me to tell what is solid and what isn't in this.

It's all solid except for the background, and the dotted sprite-only blocks. There's basically little to no foreground decals.
Honestly, I think it should be allowed. It's not like you're at an unfair advantage or anything; it's still entirely possible to make a garbage level with a cool gimmick. It seems like it would be weird to disallow glitches when the 1f0 tile is being used in so many entries, anyway?

This level looks cool, by the way.
My suggestion would be using the background cloud graphics for the foreground rather than the default cloud foreground. Something like this:



I think it could look very nice and "bubbly" that way.
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