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[1E2] Crystal Lake - BPS in first post







Welcome to Crystal Lake! This underground level contains rocks, water, and, of course, crystals, as well as typical hostile presences like Swoopers and Volcano Lotuses. The heart of the cave may even hold a dark secret...

Real talk: This is what happens when you make a garbage level for VLDC9 and realize just how much you didn't do. This has a lot of things I completely neglected last time - a custom background map, layer 3, a secret exit, nonlinearity, a 3-Up Moon...all here. Hope you guys like it!

DOWNLOAD BPS HERE
I really need a layout. :<
The aesthetics of the level is really nice. It fits the theme really well. On the other hand, the level design still needs a lot of work. You should keep in mind the general theme and, of course, a pre-established overall idea of the level flow before start designing it.
Originally posted by Grugi
The aesthetics of the level is really nice. It fits the theme really well. On the other hand, the level design still needs a lot of work. You should keep in mind the general theme and, of course, a pre-established overall idea of the level flow before start designing it.


What part(s) feel poorly built? Specifics would help me make the level better.
I really need a layout. :<
The entire level will benefit from a redesign. Most enemies doesn't have a purpose on the level. They are there either to fill the level, providing no danger to the player, or to hurt the player, where the player has no space to act against it. There are several blind jumps on the level. The worst one is probably in the autoscroll section, where the player has to "guess" which hole is safe to jump and get the dragon coin. In the water section, it is really frustating to swim across a whole area to come to a dead end with a sign indicating for you to go back.
Originally posted by Grugi
The entire level will benefit from a redesign. Most enemies doesn't have a purpose on the level. They are there either to fill the level, providing no danger to the player, or to hurt the player, where the player has no space to act against it. There are several blind jumps on the level. The worst one is probably in the autoscroll section, where the player has to "guess" which hole is safe to jump and get the dragon coin. In the water section, it is really frustating to swim across a whole area to come to a dead end with a sign indicating for you to go back.

Not trying to reject your criticism (I really want to make this level not suck), but just saying "the whole thing would benefit from a redesign" doesn't really help.
As for the other points, I don't get what enemies are supposed to do other than those two uses. I could put a coin trail leading to the correct hole for the fifth Dragon Coin.
I really need a layout. :<
enemies are for building setups. you don't throw them around willy nilly to fill space, that's frankly lazy and doesn't create interesting level design. enemies are supposed to work with the terrain to create scenarios where you have to work to get through unscathed, and work with the general concept of the level. it's extremely difficult, if not outright impossible, to make a level that's engaging if the enemies are just there to fill space or cheap shot the player.

i'll play this later tonight and have more readily available and applicable criticism (if i remember to lmao)
Sorry, I should have been more specific. What I'm trying to tell is that the level needs a main gimmick to follow. The level is too generic the way it is. It just has a nice theme and that's it. But you need to find a mechanism to make the level fun to play.
I don't know if you thought about that too, but I think Layer 2 would fit really well in your level. Also, a entire underwater section wouldn't be a bad idea.

For the enemies:
- Almost all swoopers and volcano lotuses don't give the player space to avoid being hit.
- Almost all koopas don't provide any danger.

The whole autoscroll section seems a little bit off to me. I would exchange it by another section (either a underwater or Layer 2). If you really want to keep the autoscroll section, I would suggest you to start it from scratch.
i think this level, first and foremost, lacks substance. there's a consistent set of enemies but they're not used very meaningfully, like it's more of a formality to be upheld rather than a central part of the level design. i think the biggest problem with this is that, as grugi said, the enemies that aren't nonthreatening are just cheapshots. towards the beginning of the autoscroll section there's a volcano lotus, and every time i jumped over there i managed to fit into this tiny space where i was actually safe. less lucky people will no doubt get hit with a cheapshot by it more than i did, which i know i did just from being careless and wanting the first half to be over. i also missed a jump later on and fell into a pit of munchers - munchers which, due to the nature of that section, were offscreen. another big issue i have with this level is how claustrophobic some of the paths are - which kind of encourages a single linear path anyway, since most people don't want their vertical movement restricted by tight corridors.

i think it feels more like an aesthetics showcase, and the aesthetics themselves aren't super super impressive. they look good, and build an overall atmosphere with the music, but they aren't something incredibly mindblowing like making a level on venus.

overall i basically agree with grugi idk why i made a gigantic paragraph saying that lol
ngl I can follow Merc's posts better than Grugi's

The Muncher pit was intended as a stand-in kill plane to allow the swimming path to the final Dragon Coin. (This is also why it's as tall as it is - any shorter and you could've jumped out, which you obviously can't do with kill planes.)

I'll cut out that Lotus in the autoscroll part, and I'll move the Buzzy Beetle over to make it less of a cheapshot (I admit, it currently is one). The earlier Lotuses could probably also do with being axed, except for the ones guarding Dragon Coins, which adds a bit of mid-level difficulty progression, the way I see it - something like "you've made this jump before, but can you make it with enemies firing upon the area?"

I had to tone down the claustrophobia a couple times, and I'll do it again to make the level feel less cramped. Some parts (such as the sloping path after the powerup in the autoscroll part) have low ceilings to mark them as transition points, kinda like a tunnel between two openings in a cave. Or at least that was the intent; if it wasn't conveyed well, that's on me.

Anyway, update coming this weekend to apply these design fixes to the submitted files.
I really need a layout. :<
Originally posted by MandL27
The Muncher pit was intended as a stand-in kill plane to allow the swimming path to the final Dragon Coin. (This is also why it's as tall as it is - any shorter and you could've jumped out, which you obviously can't do with kill planes.)

use reskinned lava instead if your intent is to have an instant-death pit. you'd only need to use 2 additional custom map 16 tiles and it wouldn't be as frustrating for the player, especially if it was actually onscreen

Originally posted by MandL27
Some parts (such as the sloping path after the powerup in the autoscroll part) have low ceilings to mark them as transition points, kinda like a tunnel between two openings in a cave. Or at least that was the intent; if it wasn't conveyed well, that's on me.

i think the biggest issue i had when it came to claustrophobia is one particular point with 3 koopas shortly before the autoscroll room. other than that nothing comes to mind right now but i'd still look over and see if there are any others