(Idea) SMBX Level Portal.

[Snessy the duck]

So, I've had this idea in my head for a while. Basically, I was thinking we could make a website dedicated entirely to posting levels made in SMBX. I was inspired by Hello Fangaming, who did something similar with his Mario Level Editor, Mario Editor. He basically made a seperate website where you could post levels made in it, which you can see here. So I thought that maybe we could do something similar. I was also inspired by Course World from Super Mario Maker a bit.

So, here's how it's gonna work: The website will be split up into different sections, each shown at the top of the screen like how SMBX.org and Course World does it (Maybe you could make it so it always stays on the top of the screen), the first being "Levels".

Basically, Levels is laid out similarily to the ME showcase website, with each level having it's own page, description and screenshot gallery. There would also be 3 categories in Levels, being Browse, Featured and Popular, kinda like ME showcase, that will be shown on the top of the Levels window similar to how Course World does it. The system would work similarily to that, with Browse allowing you to browse all the levels (With the ability to sort them by things like downloads and popularity), Featured having featured levels that will be chosen by the staff, and Popular having levels that have been downloaded a lot. There would also be a comment section in each level page like MES and a Like/Star feature like CW (And maybe a review feature like MFGG?), and the ability to mark if your level requires LunaLUA/2.0 Beta or not. Also, a level seach feature would be pretty cool too.

Then, there would be the "Users" section, which allows you to browse various users and the levels they've uploaded, similar to the Makers section of CW. The users can create their own homepages and organize their levels in different sections and even add images to their page, kinda similar to how the current Level forum works. There would also be the ability to make comments on the user's page. There would also be a follow feature similar to CW except you would actually recieve a notif when your followers upload a level. There would be 4 categories, being Popular, Featured, Browse and Followed users. Popular users would be users whose levels have been downloaded a lot, featured users would be users who have been featured (duh), Browse users would basically allow you to browse all the users on the site (With the ability to sort them like the browse section in levels) and Followed users lists all the users you follow, like CW. Users would also have a seach function like the levels section.

Then, there's the chatroom, which would basically work kinda like the forums (Except it would only be about SMBX levels, or else it would make the forums pointless). People could basically share their level design tips, post previews to upcoming levels, and generally chat about stuff related to SMBX. I don't know is this is a good idea at all, since that kind of stuff would maybe be more fitting in the forums, but it's still a cool idea!

I also have another idea for a main page. The main page would basically be kinda like the non-forum parts of SMBX.org mashed together, like having a Legacy SMBX, LunaLUA and 2.0 download, a link to the forums, and showing the featured levels with staff notes similar to the worlds and gfx parts of SMBX.org. It would also have an introduction to the site aswell as credits.

Also, the site shouldn't be so bland like ME showcase, instead having a background and a theme that would change depending on what part of the site you're on, like SMBX.org. Also, there would be a user page, where the user could customize their avatar and homepage and edit various settings (Like if you should recieve notifs if someone you follow uploads a level). The site would also use direct downloads like ME showcase and MFGG.

All in all, this is a pretty cool concept, and it would be much easier and faster to upload levels than creating an entire forum page filled with dropbox/mediafire downloads and imgur screenshots (Yeah, the site would also allow us to upload screens directly without the help of something like imgur). I definetly hope something like this happens in the future!

Be sure to post what you think about this, aswell if there's some cool ideas you have for this!

[Snessy the duck]

Bumping this so it won't be forgotten about, don't know if this is allowed or not, but I really want people's opinion on this.

[Shadow Yoshi]

Having a dedicated place to access levels, rather than a forum, is a great idea. Ideally, at some point, I'll write an MFGG-like system that can be used to host graphics and levels, but I can't make any promises on that.

[ElectriKong]

Having a dedicated place to access levels, rather than a forum, is a great idea. Ideally, at some point, I'll write an MFGG-like system that can be used to host graphics and levels, but I can't make any promises on that.

I guess you could make it similar to the Last Legacy portal or work similarly.

[Kevsoft]

Would be also interested in that. Especially if we could get that integrated into PGE for grapics and such.

[Cedur]

I guess you could make it similar to the Last Legacy portal or work similarly.

definitely yes, just without the bugs the LL portal has :3

In short, I would prefer to have linkage to the forums preserved, so users can post in both portal and the forums. And if we have a 2nd portal for complete episodes as well, we also have the problem of "featured episodes not being updated" solved (meaning that all episodes get more attention).

[deleted_account]

Definitely supporting this. ALSO A WAY TO REQUEST GRAPHICS HUH

[Snessy the duck]

Yeah, we could do this for GFX and Episodes too! Maybe we could even put them all into 1 huge portal like MFGG?

[The Dwarven Digger]

This sounds like a really good idea! Maybe you could have a difficulty rating for each level shown, with 1 being really easy, and 10 being Kaizo hard. That means you can easily see which levels best suit your ability without downloading the levels and finding you can't do them, or you found it way too easy and boring.

[Snessy the duck]

This sounds like a really good idea! Maybe you could have a difficulty rating for each level shown, with 1 being really easy, and 10 being Kaizo hard. That means you can easily see which levels best suit your ability without downloading the levels and finding you can't do them, or you found it way too easy and boring.

Yeah, that's a good idea! I do think it would be a little better if we toned it down to only 5 difficulty levels plus a K level for kaizo, so it would be like this:

1=Very easy
2=Easy
3=Normal
4=Hard
5=Very hard
K=Kaizo

Also, a bookmark feature would be nice too, and there could possibly be contest held at some points?

Also, making the Level/GFX/Episode portal part of SMBX.org replacing the Worlds, GFX and Links (Links is pretty much useless and world and gfx are pretty much dead) would be a great idea too. This way, the portal will be much more open to newcomers, and it will be super easy to acess it. I'm really hoping that this happens, since it would completely revamp SMBX.org for the better!

[ElectriKong]

This sounds like a really good idea! Maybe you could have a difficulty rating for each level shown, with 1 being really easy, and 10 being Kaizo hard. That means you can easily see which levels best suit your ability without downloading the levels and finding you can't do them, or you found it way too easy and boring.

Yeah, that's a good idea! I do think it would be a little better if we toned it down to only 5 difficulty levels plus a K level for kaizo, so it would be like this:

1=Very easy
2=Easy
3=Normal
4=Hard
5=Very hard
K=Kaizo

Also, a bookmark feature would be nice too, and there could possibly be contest held at some points?

Also, making the Level/GFX/Episode portal part of SMBX.org replacing the Worlds, GFX and Links (Links is pretty much useless and world and gfx are pretty much dead) would be a great idea too. This way, the portal will be much more open to newcomers, and it will be super easy to acess it. I'm really hoping that this happens, since it would completely revamp SMBX.org for the better!

I think the full names would be OK for difficulty.

[The Dwarven Digger]

This sounds like a really good idea! Maybe you could have a difficulty rating for each level shown, with 1 being really easy, and 10 being Kaizo hard. That means you can easily see which levels best suit your ability without downloading the levels and finding you can't do them, or you found it way too easy and boring.

Yeah, that's a good idea! I do think it would be a little better if we toned it down to only 5 difficulty levels plus a K level for kaizo, so it would be like this:

1=Very easy
2=Easy
3=Normal
4=Hard
5=Very hard
K=Kaizo

Also, a bookmark feature would be nice too, and there could possibly be contest held at some points?

Also, making the Level/GFX/Episode portal part of SMBX.org replacing the Worlds, GFX and Links (Links is pretty much useless and world and gfx are pretty much dead) would be a great idea too. This way, the portal will be much more open to newcomers, and it will be super easy to acess it. I'm really hoping that this happens, since it would completely revamp SMBX.org for the better!

I think the full names would be OK for difficulty.

Yeah, maybe 10 would be too much. 5 Difficulty levels (+Kaizo) would probably be enough, and less confusing. Also, the names probably make it easier to understand than a number.
Also, maybe there can be a separate section for contests? Each contest could have its own page, and you can post levels on that page. Plus, you could hide your name on contest pages so only the person who made the contest knows which level belongs to which contestant. You could also have some buttons for signing up as a contestant, a judge or a backup judge, and a bit which shows who is competing. That way, the makers of the contest don't have to keep manually updating the OP.

Maybe you could format it like this:

Spoiler: show

Contest name | Deadline
Status (Submision, judging, or results)
Sign up | Become a judge | Become a backup judge
Contest description
Rules (Maybe hidden in spoiler or something?)
People in the contest
Submit level button (Only shows if signed up)
Space for user questions etc.

[Super Mario Channel]

We need some kind of mobile app. Maybe someone in SMBX is good at making apps?
It would help with easier communication, with those who have smart devices. It would be a SMBX Facebook or Twitter

[The Dwarven Digger]

Can you actually get SMBX on a smartphone or tablet?

[PixelPest]

There's just a very limited PGE Editor. Why would you even need a mobile app though if you have Internet forums, Discord, and can't even play levels on a cellphone, etc.

[Fuyu]

I would definitely like to see this. Also, as an extra feature, if people like this so much, we could implement the ability to make signatures out of profiles, showing how many levels that user has made, the general ranking it has and the current project as well.

[The Dwarven Digger]

I would definitely like to see this. Also, as an extra feature, if people like this so much, we could implement the ability to make signatures out of profiles, showing how many levels that user has made, the general ranking it has and the current project as well.

So adding information from your SMBX Level Portal profile to your forum signature? I think that would be a really good idea!

[Snessy the duck]

I would definitely like to see this. Also, as an extra feature, if people like this so much, we could implement the ability to make signatures out of profiles, showing how many levels that user has made, the general ranking it has and the current project as well.

So adding information from your SMBX Level Portal profile to your forum signature? I think that would be a really good idea!

Yeah, like a Steam signature! That would be a neat concept, and you could even use it on other sites!

[Fuyu]

That's pretty much what I had in mind, a Steam signature but for this SMBX Portal.

[Inspirited]

Something much more important: An episode portal