Sigh, can't believe I am gone for just a moment and shit hits the fan so hard it is unreal.
Guess I will add in my two cents because I can.
First off, my complaints about the actions you took Cedrik.
First off, let us define plagiarism:
Plagiarism: the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
Cedrik, what you did here is downright plagiarism. You took not only the graphics, folder, music and structure, but you literally took the section's height and width and simply edited the content therein. You stole zlaker's gimmick of time manipulation as well as the structural design choices zlaker had, such as floating broken pillars and upsidedown mushrooms. This is only added to the fact that, according to other's posts, you didn't even bother to remove the original level that zlaker made from the file itself. It is one thing to be lazy, but this is pretty much photo-copying someone's essay and writing your name on it.
The procedure to take gimmicks or graphics is nothing new, and typically overlooked so long as you give the original designer credit. Take my past levels for example, a majority take the poorly constructed CC level's graphics and gimmick. After I see these poor levels, I reconstruct a level with the used content in hopes of making a level akin to what the original designer was trying to create. This isn't plagiarizing as I am taking something bad, but I am using it in my own fashion in the LIKENESS of the original design. What you did, instead, was literally taking the entire gimmick, style, structure and atmosphere from zlaker without so much as a credit to his level. In fact, you seem to completely disregard the fact that this is even remotely similar to zlaker's level under the pretense that "val said I didn't need to."
Just because Valtteri said you didn't "need" to credit or apologize doesn't mean you are in the clear. The entire community will most likely label you as a thief unless you were to come clean and at least credit zlaker or apologize for legitemately trying to trick the judges. I can safely say that, if I were a judge, I would have disqualified you if I had known that this level was this similar to zlaker's. Of course, I don't control nor participate in the CC events with that type of power, but this is only my comment.
While I couldn't care less about what people do in this community, I still find this action outright horrible. That being said, I highly recommend you edit the first post in this topic, otherwise you will most likely just get tagged as a thief by the community. I say this because the original post doesn't credit zlaker in the slightest despite the clear similarities of the two levels.
My biggest concern with what happened isn't entirely what occurred here, but the actions that were taken afterwards. I detest the idea that this wasn't disqualified despite being so similar to the original. This means that practically speaking, the rule saying that we need to be the sole designer means absolutely nothing if we can carbon-copy someone else's work and be perfectly fine.
But, I won't be a hypocrite and disregard the rules I uphold, so I will give me two cents on this plagiarized level as well.
Atmosphere:
You focused more on the sky properties rather than an actual "ruins" level. This kind of kills the level's purpose if it isn't an actual ruined temple or dungeon of sorts. In fact, the dungeon/temple itself is in perfect shape outside of the pillars. So I find the atmosphere to be in direct opposition to the level's content.
Level Design:
In addition to stealing zlaker's original design, I will still note that this level is painfully linear. It doesn't appear to challenge the player visually, mentally or physically nor propose a new gimmick (lol) to bring to the table. So on top of being painfully dull and linear, it is nothing short of just a typical sky level with the title acting as an excuse to use a dungeon tileset (but not the enemies though).
Overall, the level itself is not bad in its own right. However the similarities to zlaker's version means I will most likely never play this level.
Course, don't consider this an official review either, but just my quick two cents based entirely off of the full-section screenshots I was provided.
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To the other users, can we kindly stop with all of this hatred? Cedrik screwed up and the contest's bias is keeping him from being disqualified, big whoop. This thread doesn't need to get entirely derailed because of his actions.
This a level, whether stolen or not, and should be treated as such.....not like it is poison spewed from Donald Trump's mouth.
Number 1 rule of the forums: All other users deserve respect as well; flaming, insults, and other forms of harassment are not tolerated.
So, if we can kindly stop acting like cavemen now..
