[v1.1] Dryskull Industries

[FutureNyanCat]

Dryskull Industries
This is FutureNyanCat aka. EleCyon's entry to the Spring Vanilla Level Contest 2022. It is themed as a Desert-Mechanical-Fire type of level with some simple mechanics that confine to the limitations of SMBX2.

Story
In the heart of the desert lies a bustling industrial area - Dryskull Industries! It's led by an off-shoot variant of Fryguy's species... aptly named Fry. He's been looking to make a quick buck by mining out the rare Diamond Core, an unlimited source of power, and using it to run his industry's operations. All of his doings are reaching down into the deeper Earth, and dangerous lava is about to rise into the desert, threatening what remains of it!

Mario sets out for the mechanized desert to take on Dryskull Industries and shut it down before dangerous consequences happen!

The following music has been used:
WARNING: Some songs are from Kirby & the Forgotten Land and may contain spoilers!

Spoiler: show

Dried up Sea - Kirby: Planet Robobot
Burning, Churning Power Plant - Kirby & the Forgotten Land
Decisive Battle: Ultimate Z - Kirby & the Forgotten Land
Item Room - Super Metroid (SMBX2)

Changelog:

Spoiler: show

v0.0
- Initial release

v0.1:
- Fixed the bunker entrance. However, if the conveyor NPCs still despawn, please let me know. (You can check by leaning on the sides of the bunker door before activating it)
- Added despawn mechanisms to the turret cannons in the second half of the level because the cannon sounds are annoying to hear even if they're not in the same section as you
- Added Item Room music from Super Metroid to the boss arena
- Some item blocks have been changed to Fire Flowers
- Removed some placeholder light objects from pre-development

v0.2:
- Filled in a bunch of missing collision
- Removed the following music: Jash Bash 2: New Age of Heroes from OMORI. Did not fit the boss prelude item room music, so I replaced it with Item Room from Super Metroid.
- Redone the explosion FX in a certain cutscene so it'll load properly at different positions for the player
- A manually-activated moving gate has been changed to require pressing a newly-added Metal Switch
- The last Panser in Section 6 is now easier to dodge
- Re-adjusted the endpoint of a certain elevator to make it not look a bit too ugly upon finishing its job.
- A new secret has been added. This secret also caters to speedrunners. Can you find the moon?

v0.3:
- Changed checkpoints and balanced out their length
- Lots of sections have been redesigned to be more unique and challenging while still fun! (thanks Enjl)
- Maverick Thwomps and Thwimps have appeared as part of the workforce!
- Fry has fitted some of his security cannons with Snifit bullets...
- Pistons have been altered to use Tourian Block 3 (Block-547). This also fixes an issue where an elevating piston in Section 2 is auto-active even if it is not intended to.
- The secret has been made less obvious (Donuts removed), and the roof of the first factory house was extended.

v0.4:
The Overground Fix Update
- Some enemy placements have been tweaked or removed to make the overall level easier (in balance with the difficulty for the second half) (Thanks Master of Disaster)
- Added a sign to make players aware of invisible triggers activating doors. (Thanks Cato)
- Added a trail of coins guiding the player to the activated door to open it after it is activated via the switch in the second factory house section of the first half. (Thanks Cato)
- Lengths of certain Snake Blocks have been tweaked to make the level easier
- A setup has been changed in the overground portion of the level, thanks Master of Disaster!
- Added additional collision since I noticed accidental clipping into the orange sizables in some areas

v1.0:
Submission Update
- Fixed a faulty Snake Block in the last section before the boss (thanks Ness-Wednesday)
- Redesigned a spot where a Fire Flower ? Block is located in Section 5 to avoid clipping issues (thanks Ness-Wednesday)
- Fixed a faulty door not activating unless the guide coins are collected first, in Secion 0 (and I mean the one that involves a Clear Pipe Cannon)

v1.1:
FINAL HOTFIX UPDATE
- Weeks after submitting, I finally noticed a missing tile in Section 5 that I meant to patch out before release. This has been fixed!
- Optimized a lot of sections to make it speedrun friendly.
- A Mushroom block was replaced with a Fire Flower one.
- Added a 1-up ? Block. Shell along!
- Difficulty balances were made, including enemy adjustments.
- Finally gave the bunker a huge makeover in terms of earthly terrain as you're essentially venturing into the deep earth. The other small factory houses aren't really that deep though, so I still left them as is.
- And I added lava to the boss preparation room, because why is there lava glow around the section anyway... without the lava?

Test the level and feel free to give some feedback!
I'll need some help to polish this level for release to the Vanilla Contest! If you spot any bugs or janky stuff that may hinder your gameplay experience, please let me know!

Warning: The level can be laggy on low-end computers! It relies on base SMBX2 light sources and weather system to keep the general aesthetic flowing. They may glitch out on low-end computers too.
https://mega.nz/file/3EQjjLzS#QVP4e3qzj ... dven5Mep04

[FutureNyanCat]

A new version has been released - v0.2! Make sure to playtest it and share feedback! The changelog can be found on the top post.
https://mega.nz/file/CIhjUYaD#ral6rceuH ... WU21dR-nyI

[Emral]

It looks pretty cool but it's also really long and repetitive. I think more unique sections and 2 fewer checkpoints of length would be good.

[SuperAlex]

Dear Hexelectron! I appreciate the Feedback for testing your level, Maybe no lag for me, The cool aesthetics do have more stylish, Industrial theme, And the Boss is super cool and Figured, even the Final cutscene, Best SuperAlex. I hope your triumph.

[KnownStranger]

I've played the level and it's great! The main "gimmick" is about the metallic snake blocks. The cutscene after killing the boss was amazing and very realistic, and the length of the level is good. But I think the bill blaster base doesn't fit with the rotating bill blaster, the sections seem a bit repetitive (the sand parts merged with the metallic parts), and the level itself is linear. Anyways, I appreciate the effort made for the aesthetics, and the usage for the layers and events.

[FutureNyanCat]

Taking some of your feedback, I've released v0.3 of my level! You can download it here. Changelog is listed in the main post as usual, alongside with the download!
https://mega.nz/file/fJZznZjS#YMQFIvcpG ... k4Vr6m1VaQ

[FutureNyanCat]

Version 0.4 has been released! A lot of changes have been made to the Overground to ensure the difficulty settles in just right. You can view the full changelog on the main post. Download here:
https://mega.nz/file/CUJmjBxR#jcIEvQsZ2 ... 2DJbwKO5Zs

EDIT:
Here's the release version of my level, you can check it out here, or check the forum topic!
https://mega.nz/file/rNgn3KZJ#3-A7ppi6A ... TmIbYalI1U

[FutureNyanCat]

Here's a last-minute hotfix update I added to address certain issues such as aesthetics, difficulty, and a lot more.

v1.1:
FINAL HOTFIX UPDATE
- Weeks after submitting, I finally noticed a missing tile in Section 5 that I meant to patch out before release. This has been fixed!
- Optimized a lot of sections to make it speedrun friendly.
- A Mushroom block was replaced with a Fire Flower one.
- Added a 1-up ? Block. Shell along!
- Difficulty balances were made, including enemy adjustments.
- Finally gave the bunker a huge makeover in terms of earthly terrain as you're essentially venturing into the deep earth. The other small factory houses aren't really that deep though, so I still left them as is.
- And I added lava to the boss preparation room, because why is there lava glow around the section anyway... without the lava?

https://mega.nz/file/3EQjjLzS#QVP4e3qzj ... dven5Mep04