Postby 55jedat555 » Wed Aug 15, 2018 2:33 pm
Alright, I played through your episode, and there are a few things I would like to point out.
Firstly, in the hub, there is a level entrance that can only be accessed after hitting an invisible block which contains a vine for you to climb up. I highly recommend you avoid hiding stuff that you're supposed to beat in order to progress, because it's very confusing for the player (for instance, I couldn't find it, so in the end I just looked in the editor). An easy solution to this is either making the ?-block with the vine visible or moving the level entrance lower, so it actually enters the player's field of vision. What also confused me for a bit were the random talking NPCs, although I don't see that as a major issue.
The levels were on the short side (with the exception of Veggie Forest and Darkside Desert, which were slightly longer), but they presented a neat idea of a star hunt, with various NPCs giving you hints on where to find them. The first two levels felt a bit plain and empty, adding a few ?-blocks, bricks, coins and power-ups would be a good idea. The ghost house could be executed a bit better, as the whole 'Run from the Eeries!' gimmick can be completely ignored if the player avoids the axe. The existence of the Hammer Suit in the first level makes the Big Boo fight easy as pie, while if you don't have the aforementioned Hammer Suit it's ridiculously hard, since you'll have to lure the Boos out of the way while being shot at from both sides. Removing either the Boos or the Bill Blasters would make this fight a lot more appealing. I don't have much to comment about Veggie Forest, the level works out nicely, both aesthetically and gameplay-wisely. The last two levels were a bit of a let down. Darkside Desert felt all over the place, without a consistent gimmick or theme. The sprites in the first section are weirdly coloured and the quicksand is inconsistently placed. Sometimes there's no quicksand on the spots where the BGOs are, while sometimes it is. But even when it is, it only goes one tile deep from the surface, which essentially means that you'll drop through and die, should you stay in it for too long. The cave section, again, just threw random obstacles at the player, from subcon enemies to a water section to a dodge-the-bullets linerider. And to top it all off, there's a generic Boom-Boom fight at the end, which, again, feels like it has nothing to do with the rest of the level. Also, one of the stars is placed on top of a high bonus-themed room that first makes you fall down to the bottom, and then climb back up by jumping on blocks with nothing threatening you other than falling asleep because there's not much going on. But hey, at least you get a Hammer Suit for doing that. Koopa Castle could use a complete rework in my opinion. As it is now, it's just a flat corridor filled with enemies and occasional lava pools, then there's a 10 second skull raft ride and you're at Bowser. Blast him with hammers and you win. Also, careful when placing exit stars, since the player can still die after grabbing the one at the end of Koopa Castle and the one in the cloud section of Mushroom Paradise. You might consider putting a few walls in to prevent that from happening.
Overall, it's a very short episode, beatable in under 20 minutes even for a first time player, but I think that in this case that's an advantage, because you'll be able to focus more on individual levels and perfect each one of them. I believe that it can turn out as a neat little episode. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
