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Testers Wanted : Super Julie's World

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some testers and feedback on a short romhack I've been working on:

Super Julie's World

Key Features

- No gimmicks or puzzles - This hack is focused on action platforming.
- Fair difficulty, not kaizo but significantly harder than the original SMW.
- Custom overworld and music for each of the 14 levels.
- This hack is meant to be played through in one session, can be beaten in 30 minutes to an hour depending on your skill.

Below is a video preview of the hack. Feel free to provide feedback based just on the video if you don't have time to play it. #tb{:>}



DOWNLOAD BPS PATCH HERE:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/xk41kb7doko9r4i/Super_Julie%27s_World.bps/file
I just got through playing this. I can tell it's your first hack, but I'm sure with a bit of practice and redesigning it will be improved. As I played through the levels, I made a list of problems I had and things that can be improved.

For my main comments/complaints:


- The overworld isn't bad for a beginner (those water/ledge tiles are pretty hard to get used to, so if anything your OW is actually pretty good if it's your first one), but there are still some parts of it that should be improved. I circled the main bits that have very noticeable cutoff in the screenshot, so do what you can about that. I also think you overuse the "light green hill" tile a little too much here - the overworld would look nicer if there was more variety in the decoration. It'll help to make the overworld look less bland. What's up with the castle tile up there, by the way? It looks somewhat jumbled and doesn't really resemble a fortress or castle (which I assume it's meant to be).


- Who's Leanne? .. As for further comments on this level (The Bridge is Out): Without sugarcoating too much, this is overall just not a very good level. There are a lot of points I could pick apart and nitpick, but pretty much all of my issues with the level come down to the fact that it seems as though it's not really sure what it wants to be. First of all, the name "the bridge is out" almost seems to imply that the level should be impassable, or that it's a "barrier" level of some sort blocking you from progressing (and in fact, some of the message blocks appear to imply this as well), but the level is playable and passable without any issue or any gimicks making that "outed bridge" theme worth noting. All in all, the level is full of too many empty stretches of land, and the spots that actually do have enemies and obstacles in them vary wildly in difficulty; there are spots where you're just running and jumping over singular enemies, and spots where you have to make wide jumps that require you to bounce off of koopas to cross.

The difficulty isn't the only inconsistent thing here either. This level also has a gate/fence climbing section, some water pool bits, triangle blocks, and decorations/enemies that include mini-pipes, munchers, chucks, cement blocks, walls of ? blocks, note blocks, and stretch blocks. The level doesn't stick to one theme. The problem with this is the fact that is causes the level to feel jarringly inconsistent, and leaves the impression that it's just a collection of ideas for levels rather than a level that was well-thought out. If you want the level to be memorable and something that players will enjoy more, try to decide on a theme and develop it over the course of the stage. This is something that you'll get better at with practice, so keep designing levels and keep playing other hacks (to get a feel for what makes a level truly fun) and this problem will sort of solve itself on its own. This particular level I think could use a complete redesign, after you choose a more decisive theme.

- The second level, "Green Trial", pretty much just has the same issues (bullet bill blasters + falling gray platforms + munchers everywhere = weird combination), though this level has the added complaint of feeling a lot like a blatant edit of SMW's original level 106 at points.


- The OW event didn't activate after I finished the previous level. Go through these and make sure all the events work as intended (unless the paths aren't supposed to light up, for some reason).


- The third level is a bit better / more consistent than the previous levels, which is good (though the hack is at this point starting to overdo it with the sky levels and "steep, downward slopes that you slide down" gimmick, in my opinion). I do have to ask about that message box telling you to make a "leap of faith", though. I assumed it meant to jump off of the next immediate cliff for a secret, but that just killed me. I couldn't figure out what the message actually was referring to, so I'm gonna go ahead and advise that you don't include misleading messages that will lead to players unfairly killing themselves.

On a more minor note with this level, would you put more effort into hiding your yoshi coins? All five of them are right by the goal post, so it's a little pointless. If you don't want to put them in the level, you aren't required to include them at all - it doesn't ask much of the player to grab all five of them for a quick life without really trying.


- This level is actually pretty all right for the most part, but this spot in particular is a little annoying. I don't see the need to have those spikes there when the fishin' boo is already placed so low relative to the ground height here that it's already super tough to avoid getting hit by the flames here.


- The note blocks here glitch graphically when you bounce on them. I'm not entirely sure how to fix this, but it's something I see fairly frequently in hacks, so I'm sure it isn't very difficult of a fix.


Now for some of my smaller issues / nitpicks with the hack. These are mostly subjective, so take them as you will:

- You can do better with the title screen. Unless this was supposed to be meant as a joke, you don't need to use reconstructed letter tiles from the original title screen to spell out the hack's name, since this doesn't look very good. Also, the title screen's "demo" level could probably be something a little less bland, since the way it is now doesn't say much at all about what kind of hack it is. It should be something that gives the player an idea of what to expect, or a reason to be hyped up for what they're about to play. As it stands, your current demo level doesn't really do either.



- Minor cutoff on the vines in the vacant lot. Question: Is this level meant to serve any real purpose? The title "Vacant Lot" seems to be fitting considering the fact that this level is just one screen of random objects and tiles that don't really help the player accomplish anything, but what exactly is it for?


Anyways, the reason I don't comment much on the later levels is because I really did think they gradually improved as the hack went on, but some of the core issues with the level design continued to persist throughout the majority of them. A good level will start with a basic idea or gimmick, and then grow on those ideas throughout the level, so that the level almost tells a "story" in a sense based around a select few enemies/obstacles. If you do this, then your levels will feel far more memorable. At the moment, a lot of your levels (especially early on) tend to feel as if they were collages of things you wanted to put into a level, but didn't really develop any of them super well.

I know that this is something you'll get better at with time though, so this is nothing to worry about too much. I recommend revisiting your earlier levels and attempting to polish them as much as you can so that they can be better, and make them more consistent so that they will be more fun to play.



Go through the things I listed and work them out, and then maybe the testers will be able to provide even more feedback on more minor things we may have missed. #ab{:)} Either way, good luck Julie.
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Hi K.T.B.!

It's been months - but I want to sincerely thank you for trying my hack and for your input.

Looking back on this, the overworld is probably the part I spent the most time on and I think that clearly shows, compared to the lackluster levels. What you said that most resonated with me: "a collection of ideas for levels rather than a level that was well-thought out". I think you're spot on there, as I didn't really plan my levels in advance around concepts or themes instead just starting to work on the levels one by one with no real direction.

Overall I focused too much on precise jumping and not enough unique ideas for each level / world. I may revisit this one day to improve it, or start from scratch with a more planned-out approach.

Thanks again for taking the time to write this up!

Julie