Originally posted by keckcellentI'm not completely done playing through the new parts first but if there was any word to best define this hack, it would be 'sublevel'. My favorite part of this hack, by far, is coming across a little pipe and discovering what and who lies in it. There are just so many little sublevels to explore. Thats part of the reason why I haven't posted feedback yet, just looking around, exploring, doing things. Palettes are great for the most part, there are a couple I wasn't crazy for but thats bound to happen.
It's nice to know somebody is actually going through finding and enjoying all the things I put into my work. I'd be willing to take any suggestions you may have about some of the palettes if it really bothers you. (I know there were some palettes I thought I could never get right. Especially the End of Demo levels.)
Originally posted by keckcellentThe challenge was a little bit iffy. While there were tons of areas that offered a legitimate challenge, there were little points here and there that I felt had an unreasonable thing thrown in. There was a point in The Goldfields where I hopped up in a 2 block gap between a row of munchers and a wall. Without any warning - bam! Paragoomba in my face. There are a couple other little sections like that as well.
I'll have to look into that. If you could tell me where these other sections are as well, it'd be much easier for me to fix. (I remember there being one section in Cooking Classes that I had to change multiple times so it was possible to get through unharmed after about twenty tries.)
Originally posted by keckcellentMy favorite level so far has been A Change of Seasons. While this is one of those 'its been done before' gimmicks, you executed it really well and made me really curious what Autumn was really like where I was at. I was able to break the level in a little bit by spinjumping into the terrain at a 1-block tall passage. In terms of visual aspects, no contest: Crystaline Caverns. For some reason, the level reminds me of LEGOs and that makes me happy.
A Change of Seasons was one of the most fun levels to design as well, though quite tedious (because I was essentially having to make the same level four times). The same with Flipping Fortress (except only two times, but it was harder because I had to flip everything as well). I'll have to find that 1-block high passage you're talking about, I don't remember it. Crystalline Caverns was a pretty fun one too, I remember I had had the idea for the level long before actually designing it.
Originally posted by keckcellentOther minor nitpicks - I felt like there weren't too many coins in the levels. Most levels had only the dragon coins, an odd coin block near a powerup, and maybe some guiding coins to help with blind jumps. I don't know if that was a conscious decision or not. Also, layer priority issues popped up here and there. You may want to fix some of the more glaring issues with that.
I've noticed that I don't put many coins in when designing levels. Probably because I find them to be completely useless. I plan to eventually go through and add coins in places though. The thing about layer priority issues is that they're basically impossible to locate and fix in Lunar Magic. I need some better beta testers. (You seem like you'd do a pretty good job yourself.)
Originally posted by keckcellentEdit: I made it to the end of the Demo. I am still missing 10 exits though, which I'll hopefully find soon. I really did not like Forest Camoflauge. While the visual aspect was great, especially in the second half, it was just a whole lot of visual confusion. I fell through the earth a couple times in the first half because the slopes didn't properly connect in the first half and I didn't know what was a log and what was just background design. Other than that, Lakeside Stroll was pretty nice. I didn't realize how close I was when I made my original post.
Hmm, I only came across one broken slope in my preliminary testing. Guess I better go through and fix them all up. Also, what in particular was confusing? I didn't have any trouble distinguishing foreground and background myself (although that may be because I already knew the design of the level). Should I make the background darker/paler? Forest Camouflage took just about a month to make, the longest if I remember correctly, and I still managed to screw it up? Oh well.
As for GS's post:
Originally posted by GoldenSonic15When you beat the secret level Walking Up A Hill, you gain access to another pipe leading to another End of Demo submap. You can go to the left of that pipe, and enter an endless bonus game. Fix?
That's something I never could have found on my own. I think I might have an idea of what might be causing that. If I'm right, there might be an issue with one of the other End of Demo submaps.
Originally posted by GoldenSonic15Oh, and I found some bg glitchinnss when I found the secret of A Change of Seasons. It appears after leaving the cave area.
Another issue that can't be found in LM. Having to go through and fix all the broken FG/BG positioning was so much of a chore that I eventually gave up and expected a beta tester to find all the BG glitchiness for me. Obviously they didn't.
Note to self: in future, hire competent testers.
Anyway, in regards to updates, I'll probably get to work on some new stuff after ironing out all the bugs in the current Demo 2 and updating the version on this site. That's assuming that it's accepted soon.
I'll probably be taking a different work approach from now on. The whole "make everything, test after" approach doesn't seem to be working for me. Also, would you guys prefer if I updated with in-game screenshots, or if I continued my old style of updates with editor images?
So, yeah.
REALLY NOT VERY fun fact: After fully typing up this post (which took most of an hour), I managed to somehow press the Back button in my browser, making me have to retype the post completely. Doing so has taken up another half of an hour.
May we meet again outside the battlefield.