RISE feat. Other Projects (still dead as always, but somehow posts all of a sudden)

*Breathing heavily while performing CPR*
"Oh my god, thread, you're alive!"
"Ki- Kill... me..."
"Shut up, you're fine. Get up, idiot."

Aaaand we're back! Been a bit *cough* about 7 months *cough* and I feel like I'm slowly drifting away from hacking, though I have been working on other projects while putting this on hold.

I'm not exactly sure how much time I can still put into this, since I'm way more busy than I was when I started this like around 3 years ago (really doesn't feel like it should already be 3 years). Of course I also want to continue working on my other projects, I hope you guys understand that and don't expect me to update this thread every other day.

With that out of the way have a short gif showcasing some aesthetics. (It might not be perfectly smooth, my laptop is kind going to crap, I'm getting a new PC next week though, so I'm really looking forward to recording more of these... if I actually get some levels done lol)



The gameplay is just a placeholder for now, but I hope to spice my levels up a bit from now on, since I'm not really in my prime with traditional level design. But don't worry too much about that, I'll find a solution, just trust me

Also here is a userbar I made like I usually do when I revive this thread. Maybe it'll actually help me not forget about this for another half year this time around


<a href="http://smwc.me/944547" title="RISE: This is still a thing?" rel="nofollow"><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47059441/rise/RISE%20is%20back.gif" alt=""></a>

Nice to see this back! The level looks pretty neat - the gameplay might be a bit too simple, but it works well (and it's apparently a placeholder) anyway. Great work with the aesthetics as well.

Wow, this is looking fantastic. I'm glad to see that you're still working on this~

Please finish this hack. It's so good aesthetically that it would be a shame if you don't.
The only thing I'd add as extra may be an HDMA scroll for the sea, though feel free to ignore since I see a lot going on there already.
You have my support, please keep working.

I have to wonder how you get those gorgeous, full-looking palettes? Is it an HDMA trick, or just some pure skill?

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I've become very grumpy these last few years, and have been biting my tongue here in SMWC's forums quite a bit. I just want to let you all know that if ever I come off as harsh, I still care about you all. You guys are great.

(Avatar by http://reyleias.tumblr.com/, butchered by me)

Great aesthetics as always. You have done a nice job with your palettes, they look very nice. The design looks somewhat simple, but I guess it's a placeholder. Anyway, keep it up.

I am horribly sorry for what I'm about to say, but I guess it can't be helped. Today I tried to work on the level I showed earlier (the gif) and I simply can't do it.

I have no sense of level design at all anymore (not that I ever had). I starred at the screen and tried to think of obstacles and enemies to fill it with, but I couldn't think of a single thing to put there.

Now, as you might have noticed, I've mostly been hacking for myself. When I started out people told me to get rid of some deco because there was "too much". I simply ignored them, because I liked it. Since then I've been changing things here and there, but only when I liked the way it looked after I made a suggested change. Or so I thought. People's biggest gripe with my levels has always been, that my level design is medicore to bad and I've tried to get better at it ever since that started. Well, guess what. I actually hate designing levels.

Don't get me wrong, I love coming up with ideas to fill a level up with deco, creating a cool atmosphere and tweaking palettes, but everything after that is really, really forced. At one point I had about ten levels with one screen finished each and simply hated the idea of having to finish them.

I guess the reason for why I don't like designing levels is because I don't understand the difference between good and bad design. Yes, of course I can tell if a level is absolutely shitty, but if the problems aren't glaringly obvious, I couldn't tell a well designed level from a medicorely or badly designed level. That's why level design feels so uninteresting and irrelevant to me. Whenever I played a hack it was solely for the aesthetics, music, atmosphere and story (in rare cases), but never for the "awesome" design, which I couldn't even notice.

That's basically the reason why I simply can't get myself to design a single level for this anymore. I hope you can relate to me at least a bit after this wall of text (kudos if you actually read through the whole thing). Again, I'm sorry for posting this after getting hopes back up, but I had no idea that I would be completely unable to continue working on this.

Please let me know your thoughts on the matter, I'd love to find out if I'm really the only one with this kind of level design "phobia" on here.

P.S.: With that said though, I'd like you to know that I'm not giving up on hacking completely just yet. I have a few ideas and a project in work that I actually enjoy working on, because they don't focus on level design at all. So don't be too worried!

...wow.
That exactly is how I feel. I'm surprised that I'm not the only one. Sad to hear, though.
Also, yeah, like I said on IRC, a collab, maybe?

I wouldn't mind teaming up with a good level designer, but I guess it would be rather difficult to find someone who'd be willing.

Also I don't think doing it all yourself is an unhealthy attitude, you just gotta do what you want to instead of what is expected of you.


A collab would be cool, even though I wouldn't be leading it, since I'm done with this kind of hack, but I would be willing to just pass it on, even though that probably doesn't make much sense. Especially if you were to look at how I "managed" my resources

Hello Underway,

You could always continue to hack, but to ignore simply the feedbacks of other people. If you take example of my hack at SMRPG, I took some suggestions, but I still keep my opinion more dominant. If someone thinks it's a bad idea to do something, and I don't think it's a bad idea, well too bad for him. ^^

Something I noticed it's that, in the WIP forums, people always suggest something(Including me) and tells that something doesn't look right for themself.

As an example, I said in Tapeworm's thread that the coins doesn't look right to me. I don't know how I sounded, but I meant: It doesn't look right to me, but if you think it's right, keep it. I don't recall him replying to me about this, and I'm happy he didn't.

I think hackers shouldn't use the feedbacks as a guide to where their hack should head, which I think a lot of people does.

Personally, I use feedback as a way to judge the interest the SMWC community has to my hacks and who is interested and who is not. I also use feedbacks to polish very minor things, but it never changed my vision. And most importanly, if it creates the exact impression I'm looking for. For example, I created a very small room, when I posted this screenshot, I hoped someone will point it out to me, and someone did(SuperZora . That way, I know I'm doing a good job since it reached my goal.

Maybe you're not following yourself? I say that because you said this: " I don't understand the difference between good and bad design.". You're maybe trying to create a good level design according to some definition out there that aren't maybe the same than your definition of good level design? Or even... You're not doing what you want to do for this hack. See next paragraph.

Also, since you said: "Whenever I played a hack it was solely for the aesthetics, music, atmosphere and story (in rare cases), but never for the "awesome" design, which I couldn't even notice." I'm sorry for suggesting this, but how about heading your hack toward this direction? I think you're not hacking the way you should.

I don't want to sound harsh, I want to sound helpful.

Niamek

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@Niamek: Thanks for the reply. I know what you're talking about and I've actually come to the same conclusion as well. If you look near the bottom of my post, I actually said that I found a way to make projects that I enjoy working on

I've been working on one of them for over a year now in secret and I feel like that's really helped me with hacking the way I want to.

Me cancelling this hack doesn't mean that I don't know how I want to hack, rather it means that I don't see a way to save it anymore with the change of mind I've had.

@MercuryPenny: Yeah, I've been doing things for the sake of the hack a lot and I don't see the point of doing that anymore. I think it's way better to just do what you want and look for new directions instead of going with what is expected from a hack.

@AlwaysANoob: Oh, I guess I could release what I got done at some point. I'll look into it tomorrow, but know that there are only 2 finished levels (3 if you count yoshi's house, which really shouldn't count). Thanks for the kind words

That's very important things you said. ^^

Glad to hear you found your way. And you're very welcome.

Niamek

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Just take a long break dude. It really helps. Do whatever you want to do when it comes to hacking. Remember it's a hobby so if you feel burnt out go do something else.

;')

Dont ask me why I aint been on Steam in ages.....

Oh man I can so much relate to what you wrote! Like really, I always concentrated on the look of each level I made (although of course it´s not comparable with yours at all), but at the same time I had problems with the way it "felt" like eventually. At first I was unable to estimate the ranges correctly, Mario never "fit" into the levels I made, and during my later projects I did not even notice that I hardly placed more than one enemy per screen. So, I don´t know if it´s helpful in any way to hear that from me, but you are definitely not the only one with this problem!

btw the idea of teaming up with somebody sounds good. Somebody, who´s favourite type of hacking is vanilla, could create some levels at first and you let your full creativity flow into the aesthetics afterwards? I´d even offer to do that myself, if I would not have the same problem like you... At the moment I try to make levels without any decoration at first, but it still doesn´t really work. Anyways, somebody should be willing and able to help you for sure! ;)

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C3 stuff: http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=67626 HDMA-Codes and Custom Music included!

1 Island Of Vanilla Feeling: http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=5988

MaSeHiHa World 1: http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=6055

DINGS Demo: https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=12147

Who said I will let you cancel it?!

This hack is simply amazing. I didn't post it because simply because I'm not a much posting guy. Seriously, you're doing the worse decision by canceling something that you have been working for a while. Don't give up man. Your level design looks okay. In fact, what makes a good level design is not the complexity of it, gimmick x, y and much less non-linear or something like. The best level design is simply from what comes fun for you.

Don't really think on what other people say (or don't say, because self-experience, SMWC is poor in motivational/support terms), think on what makes the level fun and interesting to play. In general terms, we don't need to go with complexity or anything, a short, balanced but interesting level is the key for everything. Creativity helps a lot and to get creativity, start looking for various games, other hacks or even watching streams, let's play, etc., it helps a lot in inspiration.

But of course, nothing is perfect, it's impossible to make something that everyone will be happy, including yourself, but once you finish it and look: "man, I did it!", dude, that's the best feeling ever you can get. It's really hard yeah, sometimes your head simply freezes, you look into your project and you feel like there's nothing I can do to work on it, either it's unfun to work more or simply you don't feel doing it anymore. I know this feel and it's pretty much what me and Wakana are feeling in our hack too, lot of people have that. Again, to help on that, changing what you do daily is important, you can play other hacks, study at something new like ASM or make a minor project that isn't related with designing levels. But please, don't give up at this rate.

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I was probably one of the only people who actually liked the Choconilla Rise demo, especially with the "final level" that was presented in there. Over decorations aside, it wasn't the best level design but it isn't horrendous either (I've played my fair share of terrible level design, and let me just say you're miles far from what I experienced). I even got out of my way to speedrun it off camera for a race against a couple friends, which never happened.

I suggest you take a hiatus from hacking for a bit if it's too stressful to work on your hacks. Usually ideas spark in your head after a long period of time, which makes you interested in experimenting again, and that's when the hiatus ends.

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Want progress on 100 Rooms of Enemies: The Nightmare Edition? Go here to see.

(rip my other userbars momentarily)