Fantastical Incursion

Subforum for the SMBX Chocolate Level Contest 2021.
Zatsupachi
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Fantastical Incursion

Postby Zatsupachi » Thu Aug 05, 2021 9:52 am

Pls test this for me if there's any places to modify or balance:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FeODjq ... p=drivesdk

^ Hopefully this is the updated link.

>Updated Wart's Death Sequence (from having none to having one.)
>Changed Shelled Kedama Behaviors at end of large cave section.
--Instead of containing every behavior variant, there are only 2 there (180° fixed angle spread shot, 180° sweep)
>Common bullets have a transparent outer color while the center is opaque
Last edited by Zatsupachi on Fri Aug 06, 2021 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

cato
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Re: Fantastical Incursion

Postby cato » Thu Aug 05, 2021 1:05 pm

It looks like you have been in Touhou or something and want to make a level with bullet dodging. Interesting level, with the character gimmick of different shots, as well as the platforming. I see a lot of Touhou references, like the fairies, the Danmaku summoning circle, the shrine etc. That's a lot of effort put into making custom enemies, custom playable characters and the custom boss.

However, to break it to you, bullet hell platforming is a very controversial level genre in all SMBX. People tried to create something like a stage with bullet dodging but fail because of 2 problems. One is that the player's hitbox is too big for small bullets, and another being that the player can't fly and take multiple hits. I have seen a couple of Touhou-themed levels with Danmaku level elements, and to be honest, I don't like them because of how messy they can be.

It is quite creative of using the player's ability (such as the ability to freeze to create platforms, the ability to shoot to destroy bricks, and the ability to dodge stuff by jumping backwards). It is also nice for you to solve the two problems above by having a hitbox visible and a health bar for the player.

The biggest problem of this level is how messy it gets. You have to dodge bullets constantly while making perilous jumps (i.e the part in the mansion where you destroy the bricks and freeze the falling bullets). Meanwhile, the screen gets filled with bullets, and basically, I just tank all the damage through the level. I suggest you separate between the run-and-gun segment and platforming segment, or make them easier so that you don't have to constantly get hit. As far as I am concerned, the segment in the castle to quite difficult. By the way, you should also refill the player's health once they reached a checkpoint.

As for the boss, it is quite a blast. At least, there is more action than the rest of the level. Wart throws out all kinds of attacks and it was fun to obliterate him. It can go both ways depending on how good the judges are at playing the level. They may struggle because of all the jank projectiles fired at them, or they may enjoy dodging projectiles. Also, there is a cheese strat for the boss. If Wart stays on the ground and does not jump, you can defeat him with laser spams way before the Danmaku summoning circle spawns in the second phrase (by the way, you can despawn the circles if you make them go off-screen).

Zatsupachi
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Re: Fantastical Incursion

Postby Zatsupachi » Thu Aug 05, 2021 4:42 pm

cato wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 1:05 pm
However, to break it to you, bullet hell platforming is a very controversial level genre in all SMBX. People tried to create something like a stage with bullet dodging but fail because of 2 problems. One is that the player's hitbox is too big for small bullets, and another being that the player can't fly and take multiple hits. I have seen a couple of Touhou-themed levels with Danmaku level elements, and to be honest, I don't like them because of how messy they can be.
I am aware. Hence, I'm taking notes from how Koumajou Densetsu, Luna Nights and Rabi-ribi does this. Hitboxes are tiny for the player and bullets. The player's hitbox used to be even smaller than it is right now, but I don't plan on making super-dense bullet waves.
cato wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 1:05 pm
It is quite creative of using the player's ability (such as the ability to freeze to create platforms, the ability to shoot to destroy bricks, and the ability to dodge stuff by jumping backwards). It is also nice for you to solve the two problems above by having a hitbox visible and a health bar for the player.
That is the point, let the player familiarize their moveset and capabilities. I have laid out certain screens for teaching the player.
cato wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 1:05 pm
The biggest problem of this level is how messy it gets. You have to dodge bullets constantly while making perilous jumps (i.e the part in the mansion where you destroy the bricks and freeze the falling bullets). Meanwhile, the screen gets filled with bullets, and basically, I just tank all the damage through the level. I suggest you separate between the run-and-gun segment and platforming segment, or make them easier so that you don't have to constantly get hit. As far as I am concerned, the segment in the castle to quite difficult. By the way, you should also refill the player's health once they reached a checkpoint.
To me, a lot of this is a very cowardly/sterile design choice. By the later portions of the level, you've most likely been already taught the potential of your 2 other weapons—this is a risk I take if players were paying attention to what they've been doing throughout the level, is that, beyond their utility, the other 2 weapons do have combat merit.
I was also thinking of health recovery during checkpoints, I might do something for that BUT not a full recovery. (12 hits is a lot)
cato wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 1:05 pm
As for the boss, it is quite a blast. At least, there is more action than the rest of the level. Wart throws out all kinds of attacks and it was fun to obliterate him. It can go both ways depending on how good the judges are at playing the level. They may struggle because of all the jank projectiles fired at them, or they may enjoy dodging projectiles. Also, there is a cheese strat for the boss. If Wart stays on the ground and does not jump, you can defeat him with laser spams way before the Danmaku summoning circle spawns in the second phrase (by the way, you can despawn the circles if you make them go off-screen).
I don't care if there is a cheese strat for Wart tbh. You're meant to be super aggressive anyway, and I don't wanna take away the player's ability to deal damage when they can.
From what scenario you described, that seems to be good RNG. There are 2 points in his schedule where he decides to jump or walk. And plus, just because it's expecting good RNG, doesn't mean it's free since there needs to be execution.

Yeah spell circles during this battle are weird since I've been going around my code to see what I can optimize, I figure something out for that.

--

This is meant to be a "take that!" On bullet hell platforming and touhou level. I want to at least quell the stigma around it but at the same time making a decent challenge with it. I don't know if the judges will come fuelled with the stigma, and we'll just see.

I'm mostly here to know if I'm designing the level right.

deice
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Re: Fantastical Incursion

Postby deice » Fri Aug 06, 2021 8:38 am

Image

Zatsupachi
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Re: Fantastical Incursion

Postby Zatsupachi » Fri Aug 06, 2021 10:25 am

Yeah, the health bar is kinda off, one of things I'm still kinda bothered with tbh. It's strange because this re-uses a lot of the healthbar mechanics from Arsenal Library Complex. Though I may have screwed something up with all of that spaghetti. Will fix.

The difficulty is a bit lame yeah, ngl. But I wanted to strike a balance between easy-enough for the average player to play through it if they're not too comfortable even with the reduced hitbox and sprinkle in some "can you pss through the place?"
Spoiler: show
Will remain undocumented even after submission, there are two hidden extra areas with brutal difficulty. These are totally optional and have no reward besides skipping a screen/section.
Yeah, dodge move is too powerful—again that's a decision I went with. 16 frames is very meaty (and, if you're frame-perfect, you can chain dodges for infinite invincibility.) This is twice the amount of Invincibility Frames from Arsenal Library Complex's dodge. So I'm contemplating whether or not to revert it since 8 frames was enough to prevent infinite invincibility from chain-dodging.

Wart's purple attack phase is a bit boring yeah though it may stick unless I can pull off something better for it.

The recolored stuff is because I just can't be bothered to make more props. So those are my lowest priority bits.

deice
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Re: Fantastical Incursion

Postby deice » Fri Aug 06, 2021 11:06 am

Spoiler: show
i did both of those hidden segments (the second one is hidden a bit too arbitrarily, i had to go into the editor to find it) and i can say that they're pretty fun! honestly i personally wouldn't mind if the entire level was like that (though i did beat both on my first try so maybe i'm not a good metric), and i guess since those will be undocumented they shouldn't really change my opinion of the level as a whole

also i found two other technical issues:
- you can't double jump off of a downward diagonal slope, at all
- the exit to the first hidden area is a door instead of what i am assuming is supposed to be an instant warp


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