''Another Typical Level''

[TDK]

This is my CC12 level entry.
EDIT: The level requires LunaLua v0.7.3.

Screenshot:

Video:

Spoiler: show

Download and enjoy:
https://www.mediafire.com/?1pjmyvogmvdo92w
Updated version:
https://www.mediafire.com/?vpnsym6c0tdam04

Constructive criticism would be appreciated.

[Darkonius Mavakar]

i must say the writing of this novel was great, the characters all had distinct personality and they were all intresting, i liked chapter 3 especially, i must say that the experience was a bit on the short side.

7/10 would cook again

[TDK]

... anyway.

I would like some actual feedback for my level.
Also the level required LunaLua (although the level is playable with just LunaDLL).

[Imaynotbehere4long]

Okay, I have to ask: what version of LunaLua did you use when you made this level (or did you use SMBX 2.0)? Because, despite having LunaLua v0.7.2.2, everything Lua related about this level broke for me. Like, apparently Section 13 had a darkness gimmick?? Thank goodness that broke. On top of that, the pipe cannon just functioned like a regular pipe warp and the multipoints just caused SMBX to give up loading the level and go back to editor mode (I had to manually re-position the start point and click Reset Game for each checkpoint). Since I'm not familiar with how Lua works, there may be some other things that broke that I'm not aware of, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

And now, my review:

When I first saw the screenshot for this level, I laughed, but the joke was on me since that's just a fake-out! It would have been a clever fake-out, too, if only you had remembered to set npc-152's frames=3; the "star" flashing black was a dead giveaway.

Anyway, when I actually started the level, this appeared:

Spoiler: show

and it appeared each time I had to restart the level, but you already know that the Lua broke for me.

and I was greeted with a generic SMW grassland: flat block placement, limited enemy variety, etc., and I thought oh no, this really IS going to be another typical level! In fact, I'm just going to go ahead and say it now: you can cut out sections 3-10 and not lose anything except filler (and Section 2 can be replaced with a simple LunaDLL filter). Even in Section 5, all the player has to do is stay on the left edge of the screen to avoid all of the generators, only having to jump to avoid the occasional enemy. Although the transition from day to night in Section 8 was kinda neat, it doesn't justify everything before that part and can't really stand on its own as an intro, either, so it would just be best to move the start point to the beginning of Section 11.

Also, before I forget:

Spoiler: show

I don't know who's SMW berry you used, but it has obvious issues. If you ever want to use an SMW berry in one of your levels again, you should always use Darkonius's accurate SMW Berry. Fireballs, spin-jumps, and enemies go right through it, but it can still be eaten by Yoshi. Even if you want a different color, just rename the recolor so that it matches the NPC I.D. of Darkonius's berry.

Anyway, like I wrote earlier, the real level begins at section 11, but this is also where the level's problems begin to show:

Spoiler: show

First of all, why didn't you make a recolor for that one part of the tree trunk or the entirety of the tree leaves? It looks incredibly awkward and amateurish to have sudden light and dark BGOs juxtaposed like that. Second, the jump1 blocks won't jump at first if the player enters this section from the top pipe. Instead of putting the Podoboo on the water, you should have put it directly beside the blocks so that it will activate and move the blocks no matter which pipe the player comes from.

Seriously, though, if you're not willing to recolor everything, recolor nothing. I don't mind clash, but this is just ridiculous.

But the level's biggest flaw is probably this:

Spoiler: show

Okay, if your level is so large that you're having to use sizables of all things in place of BGOs, that should be a clear sign that your level is way too large. The worst part is that this can be encountered during normal, non-cheating game-play: I have several screenshots of me standing on what appeared to be air wondering what the heck you did. For this screenshot, all I did was perform a running jump and I got stuck up there! When I selected the platform to fall down to the spring, SMBX crashed because your sizable was too large. Seriously, though: use friendly, nogravity=1 NPCs before resorting to freaking sizables.

Honestly, I recommend removing the trees entirely since they seem to be the cause of quite a few problems.

On to the cave section: like I wrote earlier, the lighting gimmick broke, so I was able to enjoy this section more than the contest judges. However, the Swooper resprites are still really difficult to see before they move since they're just dark outlines until then (and against dark blocks, no less!). It is obvious that the NPC sprite-swap should be changed so that they're easier to see, but their effect sprite also has problems:

Spoiler: show

Killing a Swooper that has been sprite-swapped to look like a Boo causes it to turn into...a Beach Koopa? Why?

Also, the grey Spinies have the incorrect effect sprite as well (if they're killed with a hammer, they turn red again).

Despite everything, the level quality drops in Section 14 because it goes back to having those same long stretches of flat block placement as the former filler sections, but on top of this, it makes the player backtrack. Backtracking is something that's difficult to do well since it requires the way back to play differently enough from the way forward so that it isn't boring, but all this does is make some of the blocks act like Roto-Discs; the main land masses stay flat as ever (the enemies and generators don't even change direction!!). The worst part is that there's no indication that the player has to backtrack, and when I first made it there, I used the spring to bounce on top of the trees and got stuck.

Remember: just because you have enemy variety doesn't automatically make your level good: Mario is a platformer; the enemies need platforms to work off of, otherwise the player can just run and jump over everything and there's no challenge!

With that said,

Spoiler: show

having to make jumps on moving platforms is rather finicky in SMBX, so if you want to make the player do this, you should introduce it in a safe area where failing won't cause the player to die. That way, the player can get used to how the physics work before being presented with any danger, and that means if the player dies, it's the player's own fault. This is true for any gimmick, too.

You did not do this for the Roto-Disc platform, so the player is presented with a sudden change in physics and gets killed if he/she can't adapt quick enough. That is not good level design. The worst part is that this concept is quickly abandoned, so it would benefit the level for this part to be removed completely (just replace them with normal, non-Roto-Disc-like blocks).

Also, it's a good idea to keep the Roto-Disc blocks from going into the ground, because otherwise, this happens:

Spoiler: show

Section 12 isn't too bad, but it is a bit cramped at first. When I made it to the top, the pipe cannon didn't work (I didn't know it was supposed to be a pipe cannon at the time, though), so I just continued climbing the vines and this happened:

Spoiler: show

I'm going to assume that this happens even if the player has the proper version of Lua and chooses to continue climbing the vines instead of entering the pipe cannon, so you may want to do something about this.

When I finally figured out what all the problems were and how I could continue playing the level, I fought the star boss. Although the concept of the star resisting capture is neat (though you were beaten to it by Catch That Star), the execution is rather lacking. A Mother Brain and four Rinkas? That's it? Where's the boss that Chad fought??? Also, while the rest of the level would sometimes lag on me, the boss fight lagged constantly. I'm guessing this is because you have the entire Default layer moving down and don't have any event to stop it. It would be better if you had each block in the boss's section on its own layer and had that move down instead.

In conclusion:

This level has a few neat ideas, but it's obvious that you wanted to make a long level and ended up stretching yourself too thin (*COUGH*SIZABLES*COUGH*), resulting in a mostly boring level with a few neat parts. If there's anything to take away from this, its that you should learn when to stop and what parts would be best left unused. We would all rather play a great 2 minute level than a mediocre 10 minute level. Quality over quantity. Although I can't give a specific score since the Lua codes broke on me, I agree that this level deserves to be in Average.

[TDK]

Okay, I have to ask: what version of LunaLua did you use when you made this level (or did you use SMBX 2.0)? Because, despite having LunaLua v0.7.2.2, everything Lua related about this level broke for me. Like, apparently Section 13 had a darkness gimmick?? Thank goodness that broke. On top of that, the pipe cannon just functioned like a regular pipe warp and the multipoints just caused SMBX to give up loading the level and go back to editor mode (I had to manually re-position the start point and click Reset Game for each checkpoint). Since I'm not familiar with how Lua works, there may be some other things that broke that I'm not aware of, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Forgot to mention that the level required v0.7.3 Luna, so sorry about that.
The lack of lua broke a lot of things, for example standing on the sizables, the clash and other things.