Your Journey Awaits

[Cedur]

Welcome back!

In the meantime, all the data could be retrieved, an exact copy of my PC has been created on an external hard disk, however I can't say when I will get a new one (I can only be online at college and secretly on mom's PC, both where I can't play SMBX)

[IgorDML]

Judging by the screenshots, I thought promising. I'm going to download it, for sure.

[Daring Tombstone]

Hope you have a good time with it Igor. If you happen to come across any bugs feel free to post them. I also take those difficulty spikes and try to smooth them down a bit if you come across a part that seems really hard in comparison to other parts of the level. I did try to add a natural progression of difficulty as you progress in this episode.

Tiny backstory, when my last computer failed to bootup and I was convinced I had to get another one levels stopped being made around the caves world. If you notice a weird transition of difficulty here, that's probably why.

@Cedur, I'm glad to hear you could recover your valuable data. Maybe sometime soon you'll be able to get a new computer to work with, but don't go out of your way to help me out with this episode. You're own life comes first, but I appreciate your time all the same.

[IgorDML]

Friend, I'm playing and I'm already in the world 6. Your episode is simply sensational. In particular, the "Dark World" phase. I think a Dark World episode made by you would work great. I had such a project.
And yes, I found some Easter Eggs.

[DryBoneJr]

Very unique and interesting. great job brotha!

[Daring Tombstone]

Late reply but I forgot to a week ago when I read over it. Hopefully you take no offense haha. The dark world phase you mentioned, did you mean the dark world (world 6 I believe) or the dark world level (in the desert world)?

I've been playing back through this episode myself to see if I could find any bugs and only found one in the very last level with a timer block out of place during the last boss fight. Heading back to the left to the elevator after one phase of the fight shows a timer block floating in the air. Forgot to remove that when I was testing it, oops.

[Cedur]

ping

Okay, so: I don't know if I'll ever see my old 2.0 data again, and maybe I won't redownload 2.0 in the meantime until Beta 4 is out; I'll probably redownload it for 1.3 and create a warp to World 7 or the like. So, I'll start revealing all feedback that I had gathered until my old PC died.

Spoiler: show

General Feedback

1) Please reorganize your episode folder. Upon extracting the zip, the episode is hidden two subfolders deeper. All of the episode content should be on top, otherwise I'll have to do that myself to make it playable. The Readme can be in the same folder as all the levels without trouble.

2) Speaking of the readme, it's kind of cynical and self-pitying. Don't say "don't whine to me about Element of Agility, it's optional anyway" when it's beyond all good and evil (main criticism: it's way too long for a kaizo level), and don't say "use cheats whenever you want, I don't mind". Cheats are ideally not supposed to be necessary at any time. If you can't imagine to beat a level without cheats, it means that it's too hard or functionally broken in some way, which you as the designer should try to avoid.

3) There are ~100 levels, which indeed counts as a long episode, but it's not the overwhelmingly longest ever (Airship Attack e.g. has 155 levels). The length of the episode is no problem at all, it makes the adventure and the experience really worthwile. Anyway, you shouldn't say "there could be bugs left everywhere because it's so long". Ideally, before releasing an episode, you should test everything by yourself one last time (or have beta-testers who signed up to do that) until you can say "it's fine the way it is". Of course if you have awesome playing skills, you think some section is doable while normal players get exasperated with it (that's an extra benefit of beta-testers, they usually have reliable playing skill). But some things like secret exits also opening the normal path become immediately apparent once you do a test run yourself.

4) Also, a minor thing, you've still included a .sav1 file from your own LP. Anyone who wants to play with 2.0 would like to use the first slot as it's chosen by default when opening the launcher. If you intentionally want people to have an already started LP available, you can just change it to .sav2.

5) Two general things: First, as I already said, some secret exits still unlock both paths because the regular one is set as "Any". The regular path also always needs a specific setting. This pertains 3-4 (The Dark World), 4-3 (Industrial), 4-Castle (Ludwig's Castle in the swamp), 4-6 (Sunlit Cavern), 5-4 (Velxtra Coastline), 6-3 (Sky Factory), 7-2 (Ravine Lake) [and maybe some more ...]

6) Second, some of the levels are so long or have such a long streak of deadly elements that they would really need multiple checkpoints. As long as Beta 4 is not out, you need LunaLua to do them, it's not trivial, but maybe you can ask the Lua experients such as Enjl, Hoeloe or PixelPest.

Anyway, you've done an incredibly impressive job over these four (!) years. Whenever something is wrong, it's usually "too much of a good thing", and that means something. You have a very wide palette of aesthetics and gimmicks. The structure of the episode is harmonious. Once all bugs and "nuisances" are gone, I somewhat see this to be a featured episode.

World 1

World 1-2 (Bat Caverns): If there's a specific power-up needed to access the secret exit, then it should be made sure that it can always be provided. If you don't access the blue switch (erm ... random pipes?!) and you lose your power early on, you don't get the leaf back and you have to repeat. Or when you play the level for the first time, you don't know that you'll need a leaf anyway so you end up only having fire flowers. It would be all fair and square if the ?-block after the checkpoint contained a leaf and not a fire flower. If the player loses the leaf after that, you can still say it's their fault.

World 1-Toad House and World 1-Tanks: Yeah, he difficulty of the tank level is bearable now, but on the other hand, the hammer bro suits obtained from the toad house are a very strong asset. They're also very cheap to get at the toad house, easy strategy is let dark bowser stand on a mushroom surface and batter him from vertically below. Anyway the length of the tank level is still over the
top, it should be reduced by at least 30%. Otherwise, if you happen to not make it first try and you can't do it with mushrooms only / you'll have to play the toad house again, the dragging and frustration will be significant.

World 2

World 2-1 (The Old Way): You can e.g. look at Valtteri's "Valtteri Island Revisited" for how to do a functional SMB1 goal flag. Then you don't need a fake flag with a classic SMB3 exit.

World 2-3 (Antique Landscape): Yeah as you admitted in the thread, the secret exit is a bit badassio. A pattern of alternating ?-blocks and turning blocks is known to sometimes have a hidden block in the middle, so change it to that I suggest.

World 3

World 3-1 (Those Cheep-Looking Pyramids): I think the level length and the amount of enemies are enough to warrant a checkpoint.

World 3-Fortress (Pyramid Ambrush): Good job fixing the starting sequence. Now, using Luigi's extra jump height for the lava rise makes it quite a cakewalk (alter the height of the platforms a little to keep the difficulty). And maybe try to add a little hazard to the Boom-Boom battle so it's not completely trivial?

World 3-5 (Royalty): As I said above, this is very long and should have two or three more power-ups, especially for the Dark Bowsers! The cutscene is also a bit clumsy, because you would expect the flame killing the chancellor to disappear, but it doesn't, so if you stand close to the chancellor you'll also be hurt.

World 4

World 4-3 (Industrial): The squashing areas are too deadly. Please don't force the player to continuously duck while being pushed by the conveyor and needing to find the perfect timing to jump forward. Needs one more free row at the safe spots (being small is somewhat ironically a benefit here) and the gimmick is also too long. (I skipped this in my first playthrough because, yeah,
secret exit)

World 4-6 (Sunlit Cavern): Too much sunlight! The player being almost in blind and surrounded by almost undiscernable enemies is just shit. I especially got hurt at the springboard, I jumped up straight at the wall and there was a beetle. No extra power-up at the start of that section is also ... And later on you even have to deal with munchers and platforms moving in sunlight. This has
definitely gone over the top. (I also skipped it in my first playthrough)

World 5

World 5-1 (Eternal Night): There's too few power-ups here, especially after the checkpoint. Even when you bring power-ups, one or two hits quickly bring you into huge jeopardy and you can't really recover.

World 5-2 (Celebi's Leaf): Love the idea of a challenging flight, but the first platform to land on is really narrow. It should have about the doubled length, and I would also like to have a hint that flying as high as possible is counterproductive. When arriving at the very cramped water section, the leaf is now the most unskilled power-up to have. It would be good to put a fire flower there. Also on the world map there's a music item which makes the world's music restart.

World 5-Ghost House: Thanks for expanding the cage, but the sudden changes of direction are still a threat and should be visible in some way. (keep in mind this has to be passed twice)

World 5-3 (Mirror Castle): Boy. The rooms after the checkpoint are not cool still. There's more than one power-up needed and the water is annoying for those who don't have a leaf. It's been three rooms before the checkpoint, so it would also be logical to have three rooms after it. (I'd recommend removing the room with platforms moving over lava, apart from bringing a cheap trap it's
just boring).

World 5-4 (Velxtra Coastline): How do you get the secret exit? Are you sure you didn't forget to place a warp?

World 5-5 (Black Caverns): There are several death threats and traps here, so please, include a checkpoint! There can be one right before the green switch room.

World 5-6 (Hidden Ruins): I have no idea how to figure out the puzzle at the start, too convoluted. Same with the shell throw - the sign just stands right in your way when you want to hold the Up button. Also the path split on the world map between 5-5 and 5-6 is unaesthetic.

World 5-7 (Circular Motion): can there please be a leaf at the start instead of a fire flower, because jumping down on this fast spinning platform is impossible to time. Also FUCK these invisible blocks in the ghost house.

World 5-8 (Upwards, the Portal awaits) Can there please be two power-ups, like, two tanookis, right at the start? I really don't want to go the long way back to the power-up house everytime I fail this (and even with tanookis you can easily fail)

World 5-9 (The Portal): Jesus christ, there's so many cutscenes and waiting sequences. They do a good job of making this place feel like a hallucination and they're great for the story, but at the same time they kill the flow gameplay-wise, and what if you die? Why no checkpoint to be safe? After the lava fall, you might want to check the warps, it seems like Mario dies if he's not small.

World 6

Please make the path corners curvy and not edgy.

World 6-2 (Cloud Switching): The parakoopas at the start of the yellow switch ride are placed awkwardly, it's too hard to dodge for those without a leaf. The chasing paragoombas also stink.

World 6-3 (Sky Factory): The length of the level is fine per se, just add a few more power-ups!

World 6-4 (Natural Growth): C H E C K P O I N T

World 6-5 (Skyward Sawmill): Ok there's a checkpoint here but don't you think it's a bit remote to the next power-up? And the bottom of the pipe maze is so tiny that you're likely to lose your mushroom again. I hated this so much that I placed a warp after dying 15 times.

World 6-Castle (Cloud Tower): You've forgot to include power-ups through pretty much the whole level (except for the boss room)

[Daring Tombstone]

Thanks for the list, this will give me something to productive to do. Lot more problems than I thought with some of these levels. Lack of power-ups seem to be a recurring issue. Some levels are also missing checkpoints. Getting another point of view on these levels are wonderful. I'll get to revamping on some level sections as well and flatten those difficulty curves.

I'd also think that the last boss would be an issue as well (difficulty) and wish I had thought of a better way to execute it.

I'll immediately copy/paste this onto my desktop and get to work when I get the free time. Some of the world map issues you mentioned (secret exits opening both paths) was intentional. If I remember right the secret exits for those levels were near the end and I thought it would be a bit monotonous to go to the end, take secret exit, then redo level again for regular exit. But if the recommended way of doing it is changing the exit settings then I'll hop to it.

Thanks again for the help. It's appreciated.

Edit: Download link was updated to include all the fixes I made.

[Cedur]

so, have you gone through with all the fixes? I could resume playing now.

[Daring Tombstone]

Sorry for not replying in ages. I've been caught up making a new episode.

Not that it probably matters at this point but I did go through the list you gave me and pretty sure I knocked them all off the list. The only bug I noticed was in the level "Black Oasis" where a textbox just shows up and tells you nonsense. That wasn't intentional. I should have fixed it long ago but I keep forgetting about it.

[Cedur]

Cool!

I have another one for 6-2. That blue switch appears very late, I didn't remember and I panicked and died there. It should be visible from the beginning

[Daring Tombstone]

I checked it and yeah, it's meant to appear a little earlier than that. That will be fixed as well as the unintended text box is Black Oasis. If you happen to come across anything else let me know.

Also, in the level "Sulfuric Sprint" (near the end of the episode) there's a smbx 2.0 bug where Mario cannot make a jump. You're required to jump off an enemy to reach a higher ledge but in 2.0 Mario falls just short of making it (at least when I tested it in 2.0). This will also be fixed.

I just threw in "The Nostalgic Companion" (A special world level which is actually in the screenshots spoiler) in the 2.0 editor and it's pretty bad. This level was not meant for 2.0. It's not as dark, the sunlight effect turns the player practically invisible, and it makes Squawks (a npc which follows you with a light) worthless. If you're playing this episode in 2.0, I really recommend playing in 1.3 if you have it available. There could be other levels that doesn't cooperate with 2.0 very well.

[ElectriKong]

A 1.3 level that does not work in SMBX2 ... What?

[Cedur]

I already played my first run with SMBX2 (which is also why I couldn't retrieve the data from my old PC), and nothing bad of that kind happened. It's a known fact that Mario jumps shorter than Luigi, so maybe you just didn't take enough inrun while testing. Speaking of SMBX2, it should also be your primary engine for this episode as you should place multipoints at many places (I'll figure out for you how to do it).

Anyway, I'm back at World 7, and bugtesting / feedback will continue from now on! Beforehand, did you change anything on The Element of Agility?

[Daring Tombstone]

I did change Element of Agility a little bit to be easier but it's still hard in comparison to other levels. If I ever get the time I will probably change it a bit more.

The thing I said about Mario not being able to make a jump in 2.0 is false. That was me being stupid and not testing the part a little bit more. It does work, you just need that little run and start. I still want to change it though so the run and start won't be necessary.

"The Nostalgic Companion" as I mentioned earlier is the dark level in the screenshots spoiler. This is how it looks in 2.0 if you want to compare those two screenshots.

Spoiler: show

The sunlight is much more harsh in 2.0 than in 1.3. The masks of the darkened background seem to act different on 2.0. There's also those darkened blocks around the sunlight as well. You can spot those in other spots in this particular level.

And no need to teach about multipoints. The new episode I've been working on will feature them.

[Cedur]

Good thing you already know about multipoints. You should include them here as well, basically whenever it can be said that a level is very long and many difficult passages need to be endured and whenever "saving progress mid-level" makes sense. (kind of self-explanatory)

[Daring Tombstone]

Multipoints would be amazing but I wish the 1.3 version had them. I know some people hate using 2.0 (for some reason) so I wanted to keep this 1.3 if possible.

I could however have a download link for 1.3 as well as one for a 2.0 with multipoints. Would this be okay to do or would this be a bad idea?

[Cedur]

You can place the multipoints last and provide both versions, which essentially means that these people pay the price of frustration for avoiding 2.0. If I were in your place I wouldn't cater for them, SMBX2 is the future of the game, there are other X2-exclusive episodes and projects as well

[Cedur]

Finally done with testing!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jXo ... sp=sharing

[Daring Tombstone]

Thanks for the list, I'll get to fixing these problems as soon as possible. I'll put off a day of working on my new episode to tend to this one. To answer one question in that list. Yes the castles near the end are meant to be seen on the world map. Kind of like how in Mario world you can see bowsers disco castle before actually getting to it. Everything else is super understandable. Just because I'm able to do these levels doesn't mean others won't have trouble.

The Game Changer is my personal favorite and was fun working on it. I most likely just got carried away with it. At the end with the arrows in the boss, it's meant to be like, "Much like these arrows bounced you back and forth, it's bouncing this hazard now" but I can see how it's confusing to some.

In Nostalgic Companion there should be a checkpoint (It's resprited into a bell for this one) right before the pipe exit in section 2 I believe. I'll have to double check it. (if you played it in 2.0 the sunlight probably did a good job masking the bell).

Since I had already uploaded a small fix to the text box in Black Oasis, the Switch appearing late in Cloud Switching, and fixed the small issue I mentioned previously in Sulfuric Sprint, I just went ahead and updated the download link with it. The next update will fix the issues in the doc.

Thanks again for taking the time to help out with this. Thanks to everyone else giving it a try.

Edit: Currently doing some fixes and got to "The Hottest Cave" level where you asked how you access the secret exit. The pink switch is located on the other side of the wall with a chase turtle near it. You're meant to take the turtle shell, jump on the other side of the pink switch wall, then kick the shell toward the switch. The shell hits to switch activating it with you on the other side. I can probably make some other way of doing this though if it seems to out of place.

In "The Resistance" after defeating the lemmy a pipe is supposed to slide out from the right side wall. I just got through testing it and it worked properly for me. Unsure why it failed to trigger for you.