Level Design Tips

[Radiance]

For me, I find music first, then think a theme that fits the music, find CGFX that fits the theme, make gimmicks, and do the level.
184. Try to make a skeleton of your level first especially underwater sections to prevent cramped areas.

[arcade999]

Another tip (from me): DONT abuse of hammer bros!

[MacDuckBeat]

Another tip (from me): DONT abuse of hammer bros!

I think this is not a good idea unless you make a joke level.

[Cedur]

Every kind of overusing heavy enemies (hammer bros, venus fireplants, volcano lotus, lakitus, boos / eeries, kamikaze koopas) is quickly grounds for being a severe letdown to the level's enjoyability

[Snessy the duck]

185: Try to hint at secret areas in your level, like having a warp pipe to a secret area go down in the ground or having coins guide you to the area. You shouldn't be hugging yourself against every pipe you come across in the level hoping you find a secret area, cause that isn't fun at all. Having the secret area hinted at in some way, even if very little, makes discovering that secret area all that more satisfying and rewarding than just finding one by pure luck in a random pipe.

[Emral]

185a: Secret areas should be a reward, not a chore or something required. As for secret exits: The most enjoyable ones add some twist to the level. Having a secret area be hinted at can make the experience feel like a predictable checklist and if your level goes into many directions, players will easily lose all the fun they had by just exploring every part of it.

[dynastylobster]

34. Effects have to have the same sprite as the npc.
35. Open levels are always great, but if that's all you do and can't figure out how else to make your level enjoyable without making it too open? Lots of slopes and varieties of blocks.

34. eh.... if the effect doesn't look like the sprite already
for example , a giant green magikoopa that turns small and blue when killed , would be fine
but if its a chuck that turns into a hammer bro , there might be a problem

[Snessy the duck]

That was also what I was getting at with it only being hinted in small amounts, and not being totally randomly placed. It shouldn't be completely obvious, but not completely cryptic at the same time.

[dynastylobster]

186. if you are using enough objects to lag the game (and if not spamming) , move some of them to another section , you will thank yourself later

[minerdude456]

187. Don't make an unnecessary tutorial level like the one I cut from my main episode. It just ends up being freakin' annoying. Not to mention completely pointless and not at all humorous.
188. Go for technically impressive if you like, but make sure things are implemented well, keep in mind that older and slower computers are less likely to take it well, and as dynastylobster said, don't lag or spam, and move objects to separate sections if needed.
189. Don't design bosses to piss off the player too much. That's not going to get you a lot of likes.
Hopefully I don't have to edit out either of these. Who knows if someone already posted one like the ones above before I did?

[arcade999]

Another tip (from me): DONT abuse of hammer bros!

I think this is not a good idea unless you make a joke level.

Exactly (or a kaizo).

[dynastylobster]

190. make the level funny if you can , but don't over-do it , you could have toads that scream "0 out of ten , grass growing upside down" or "550 out of ten , no level"
it will just add charm and make people play it more , another thing that a toad can say is something that is rational in real life , but just stupid in mario , like"how is that keyhole floating" , but you should make a funny level name , to go along with it , for example "the danger castle" is a level i made that contains a toad that says"you'd swear this was named by a six year old, and it was" because my sister told me to call it "the danger castle"
but as i said , over- doing this will slow down gameplay

191. use layers and events , valterri is king of this stuff , its pretty amazing what you can achieve with this , for example , there is a chase koopa that looks like a tanooki koopa , ,it is attached to an invisible leaf layer , and when it dies , the event is triggered to show the leaf , but since it was attached to the koopa , it appears over the koopa under any circumstance .

192. introduce new concepts , it just adds more charm , (once i was watching an smbx let's play , roundthewheelrwt played a level(time twisted) twice in a row, because of the awesome giant enemy mechanic, and the fact that everything was so cool looking) again , don't over-do it or it will become dry and boring

[Emral]

191. use layers and events , valterri is king of this stuff , its pretty amazing what you can achieve with this , for example , there is a chase koopa that looks like a tanooki koopa , ,it is attached to an invisible leaf layer , and when it dies , the event is triggered to show the leaf , but since it was attached to the koopa , it appears over the koopa under any circumstance .

Compared to some of this stuff, attaching a layer is pretty basic. Not to mention the fact lunalua makes events basically obsolete.

[Ness-Wednesday]

192. Insta kill blocks aren't necessary to do, they'll cause the player to fall into them easily without any warning.
It's better off using lava or Poisonous water (or acid?), if it's fitting in your level's environment.
If you're making a level that wouldn't work well with lava or such other reasonable Instant killers, you're better off not using them.

[Zeldamaster12]

Insta kill blocks should be okay as long as you warn the player ahead of time.

[Cedur]

Fence glitches only happen after the player collided with a moving layer. They don't happen with vines. Use vines instead.

lol, right when I started playing ToB7, the glitch happened on the chain rope in the starting room, it pulled me down insanely, although I didn't do anything in terms of moving layers before. It seems to be a weird glitch

[ElectriKong]

Maybe use fence GFXs on the vines GFXs?

[krakin]

193.If you're going to allow a certain character/characters to be in your level, make sure the platforms, pipes, and any other areas can be accessible with any character. One time in an Episode, I had to switch back to Mario because Bowser couldn't jump as high as him.

[RPG_Magician]

193.If you're going to allow a certain character/characters to be in your level, make sure the platforms, pipes, and any other areas can be accessible with any character. One time in an Episode, I had to switch back to Mario because Bowser couldn't jump as high as him.

Isn't that because most episodes haven't adapted to the new characters, but rather to the first five?

[ElectriKong]

193.If you're going to allow a certain character/characters to be in your level, make sure the platforms, pipes, and any other areas can be accessible with any character. One time in an Episode, I had to switch back to Mario because Bowser couldn't jump as high as him.

It really depends on how your episode plays. If one wanted to make an episode where you have switch characters in order to progress, then they could just discard this tip.