Mario and Sonic quest for the chaos emeralds (Demo 2.1) [OUTDATED]

[Saric]

Demo 2.1 add a new end to the 2nd level in the desert zone

Code: Select all

Difficulty:Very Hard 
Multyplayer:no
Works on:SMBX2

Screenshot

Spoiler: show

Download

Spoiler: show

https://mega.nz/file/y0ESHQjb#tY0KamDVP ... nBZ8Fyw9kQ

[AppleTheTomato]

Saw this in the SMBX Discord Server, and decided 'why not? I'lll check this out.' Screenshots showed promise, and a Mario x Sonic episode sounded cool. So, I start to play this episode, and I have found a multitude of problems.

Let me start with some nitpicks. These didn't affect the gameplay, but they were still a bit strange:
- The player and the piranha plant fireballs are displayed wrong. I think you need to adjust the sizes of them.
- Why is Luigi a playable character? From what I gathered in the story, it's only Mario who met Sonic, and Luigi wasn't with him. I mean, I like playing as
Luigi, but it was strange to see him here when he had no story signifigance.
- Why is the Cape Feather used? The gfx for Mario and Luigi you used don't use cape forms. They use Raccoon Forms. I can understand wanting to use the cape feather, as I have as well with this specific combo, but given that I've 'matured' at least a bit as a level designer makes me question my choice and now yours.

Now, the real problems:
- The exit out of the intro level isn't really clear. I thought you'd have to go down one of the pipes or go offscreen, but neither worked. Instead, in an attempt to walk offscreen, I hugged the right wall and randomly saw the warp leading to the next level. I'd suggest either a pipe or even a door, that way people know where to leave the level.
- In that first pipe level, what happens if you lose the megashroom? You can't break the wall that leads to the message box that tells you how to progress. Otherwise, you'd be stuck, unless you randomly, by some miracle, found the hidden block above the blue mushroom.
- In that same pipe level, that falling section after the checkpoint needs some real work. First off, I feel you need a bit more time to change directions, given how fast you fall. Second, one of the arrows tells you to hug the right wall, and then you fall on a spike, which isn't at all fair. And third, after the coin falling part (which is fine), if you miss the blue switch, you die. That's fine, except their's no clear indicator that that's where the switch will be.
- In the Birdo fight, I ran at the Emerald once I won, got it, and fell in the lava to the right and died. I then had to redo the bad falling section AND the Birdo fight again. Super annoying. Maybe spawn some blocks over the lava when you win?
- Some of the clouds in the cloud castle level aren't fully standable. One near the hammer bro and 10 coin block isn't wide enough. Another near the donut block spike part isn't even standable. The desert level with the quicksand had a similar issue, where some of the quicksand was, well, quicksand, and other parts of it were just BGOs. That didn't make the level worse like the clouds did, but it highlights the point that you aren't being consistent with them.
- The flying fish in that same cloud level are super annoying. They show up out of nowhere, in a giant group, and make it a lot harder to fly off the bridge and progress. Might wanna tone it down, or have the flying platform AFTER the fish bridge.
- What the HECK am I supposed to do at the yellow switch part of the cloud level? Same goes for the shell kaizo looking stuff in the first desert level. Truthfully, I haven't played much kaizo, but that stuff still didn't make a lick of sense.
- This is what I believe to be the major problem with this episode: there's no focus. All of the levels have a bunch of random ideas that are fine on their own, but when all jammed together are somewhat jarring. That cloud level, for example. You start with mushroom platforms, making me think, 'oh, a mushroom platform level. those are always fun.' then, a random climb the castle portion, and again I go, 'oh, climbing the castle. that looks fun.' then, it's janky cloud parcore, then a fish bridge, then a flying section, then a spiky corridor section, you get the point. I personally just felt like you had a bunch of cool ideas, but never took the time to flesh them out. Instead, it looks like you had one idea, then got bored, thought of a new one, got bored with that, added a new idea, and just continued like that. Also, indicators. Half the time, I was never able to see where I needed to go next. Nothing is explained. Which is fine, because putting a bunch of signs saying, 'okay, for this next part, do this' would ALSO be bad. But it never felt clear as to what I was supposed to do. I gameovered a bunch due to either poorly thoughtout sections or poor indication. It was very frustrating. I didn't even finish the cloud level or the desert level.

My suggestions (this includes the castle and town suggestions you wanted per Peach)
- Suggestion for castle: standard doors lead to special items, and star doors lead to more levels
- Suggestion for town: perhaps you need to help out the townsfolk, and if you do, Peach gives you an Emerald for your help
- Watch some videos on level design. I'd highly reccomend Chipss' videos on the subject, as he does a really good job explaining it.
- I'd highly reccomend fixing the issues I brought up. Not saying that because I feel my feedback is super important and godly, but because I'm sure others would appreciate these issues being fixed.
- I'd reccomend converting any image files to PNGs with the PGE GIF2PNG converter. I'd watch Enjl's tutorials on how to loop music with Audacity. I'd highly reccomend Caesium Image Compressor, which can make PNGs even smaller. All of this will help reduce the episode size, cause my goodness, it did NOT need to be 103 MB given the amount of content currently.

My final thoughts:
While I've come off as super critical, don't take this as me saying you're the worst and this episode is crap. But it definately is flawed. Which is ok! I've
personally made bad episodes myself, and I've taken what I've learned from that to hopefully make those episodes and my future projects better. So,
please don't trash this project just cause of this review. If anything, please finish it! I just ask that you at least consider my feedback and use it to make
the current state of this episode and the future state of it something to enjoy.

Or don't. Either way, have a great day. I truly mean that

[Saric]

Spoiler: show

Saw this in the SMBX Discord Server, and decided 'why not? I'lll check this out.' Screenshots showed promise, and a Mario x Sonic episode sounded cool. So, I start to play this episode, and I have found a multitude of problems.

Let me start with some nitpicks. These didn't affect the gameplay, but they were still a bit strange:
- The player and the piranha plant fireballs are displayed wrong. I think you need to adjust the sizes of them.
- Why is Luigi a playable character? From what I gathered in the story, it's only Mario who met Sonic, and Luigi wasn't with him. I mean, I like playing as
Luigi, but it was strange to see him here when he had no story signifigance.
- Why is the Cape Feather used? The gfx for Mario and Luigi you used don't use cape forms. They use Raccoon Forms. I can understand wanting to use the cape feather, as I have as well with this specific combo, but given that I've 'matured' at least a bit as a level designer makes me question my choice and now yours.

Now, the real problems:
- The exit out of the intro level isn't really clear. I thought you'd have to go down one of the pipes or go offscreen, but neither worked. Instead, in an attempt to walk offscreen, I hugged the right wall and randomly saw the warp leading to the next level. I'd suggest either a pipe or even a door, that way people know where to leave the level.
- In that first pipe level, what happens if you lose the megashroom? You can't break the wall that leads to the message box that tells you how to progress. Otherwise, you'd be stuck, unless you randomly, by some miracle, found the hidden block above the blue mushroom.
- In that same pipe level, that falling section after the checkpoint needs some real work. First off, I feel you need a bit more time to change directions, given how fast you fall. Second, one of the arrows tells you to hug the right wall, and then you fall on a spike, which isn't at all fair. And third, after the coin falling part (which is fine), if you miss the blue switch, you die. That's fine, except their's no clear indicator that that's where the switch will be.
- In the Birdo fight, I ran at the Emerald once I won, got it, and fell in the lava to the right and died. I then had to redo the bad falling section AND the Birdo fight again. Super annoying. Maybe spawn some blocks over the lava when you win?
- Some of the clouds in the cloud castle level aren't fully standable. One near the hammer bro and 10 coin block isn't wide enough. Another near the donut block spike part isn't even standable. The desert level with the quicksand had a similar issue, where some of the quicksand was, well, quicksand, and other parts of it were just BGOs. That didn't make the level worse like the clouds did, but it highlights the point that you aren't being consistent with them.
- The flying fish in that same cloud level are super annoying. They show up out of nowhere, in a giant group, and make it a lot harder to fly off the bridge and progress. Might wanna tone it down, or have the flying platform AFTER the fish bridge.
- What the HECK am I supposed to do at the yellow switch part of the cloud level? Same goes for the shell kaizo looking stuff in the first desert level. Truthfully, I haven't played much kaizo, but that stuff still didn't make a lick of sense.
- This is what I believe to be the major problem with this episode: there's no focus. All of the levels have a bunch of random ideas that are fine on their own, but when all jammed together are somewhat jarring. That cloud level, for example. You start with mushroom platforms, making me think, 'oh, a mushroom platform level. those are always fun.' then, a random climb the castle portion, and again I go, 'oh, climbing the castle. that looks fun.' then, it's janky cloud parcore, then a fish bridge, then a flying section, then a spiky corridor section, you get the point. I personally just felt like you had a bunch of cool ideas, but never took the time to flesh them out. Instead, it looks like you had one idea, then got bored, thought of a new one, got bored with that, added a new idea, and just continued like that. Also, indicators. Half the time, I was never able to see where I needed to go next. Nothing is explained. Which is fine, because putting a bunch of signs saying, 'okay, for this next part, do this' would ALSO be bad. But it never felt clear as to what I was supposed to do. I gameovered a bunch due to either poorly thoughtout sections or poor indication. It was very frustrating. I didn't even finish the cloud level or the desert level.

My suggestions (this includes the castle and town suggestions you wanted per Peach)
- Suggestion for castle: standard doors lead to special items, and star doors lead to more levels
- Suggestion for town: perhaps you need to help out the townsfolk, and if you do, Peach gives you an Emerald for your help
- Watch some videos on level design. I'd highly reccomend Chipss' videos on the subject, as he does a really good job explaining it.
- I'd highly reccomend fixing the issues I brought up. Not saying that because I feel my feedback is super important and godly, but because I'm sure others would appreciate these issues being fixed.
- I'd reccomend converting any image files to PNGs with the PGE GIF2PNG converter. I'd watch Enjl's tutorials on how to loop music with Audacity. I'd highly reccomend Caesium Image Compressor, which can make PNGs even smaller. All of this will help reduce the episode size, cause my goodness, it did NOT need to be 103 MB given the amount of content currently.

My final thoughts:
While I've come off as super critical, don't take this as me saying you're the worst and this episode is crap. But it definately is flawed. Which is ok! I've
personally made bad episodes myself, and I've taken what I've learned from that to hopefully make those episodes and my future projects better. So,
please don't trash this project just cause of this review. If anything, please finish it! I just ask that you at least consider my feedback and use it to make
the current state of this episode and the future state of it something to enjoy.

Or don't. Either way, have a great day. I truly mean that

Thanks i needed something like this to improve it

-i knew about the megashroom but I don't have many idea for the section

-i will put more indicators

-for the intro level i will put an arrow if that can help

-the sky castle is ufinished

-and i will insert luigi in the story in a way

-the emeralds are 7 in total i can't make that peach gives you one

thanks a lot for your feedback
i'll try to fix anything

[AppleTheTomato]

Spoiler: show

Saw this in the SMBX Discord Server, and decided 'why not? I'lll check this out.' Screenshots showed promise, and a Mario x Sonic episode sounded cool. So, I start to play this episode, and I have found a multitude of problems.

Let me start with some nitpicks. These didn't affect the gameplay, but they were still a bit strange:
- The player and the piranha plant fireballs are displayed wrong. I think you need to adjust the sizes of them.
- Why is Luigi a playable character? From what I gathered in the story, it's only Mario who met Sonic, and Luigi wasn't with him. I mean, I like playing as
Luigi, but it was strange to see him here when he had no story signifigance.
- Why is the Cape Feather used? The gfx for Mario and Luigi you used don't use cape forms. They use Raccoon Forms. I can understand wanting to use the cape feather, as I have as well with this specific combo, but given that I've 'matured' at least a bit as a level designer makes me question my choice and now yours.

Now, the real problems:
- The exit out of the intro level isn't really clear. I thought you'd have to go down one of the pipes or go offscreen, but neither worked. Instead, in an attempt to walk offscreen, I hugged the right wall and randomly saw the warp leading to the next level. I'd suggest either a pipe or even a door, that way people know where to leave the level.
- In that first pipe level, what happens if you lose the megashroom? You can't break the wall that leads to the message box that tells you how to progress. Otherwise, you'd be stuck, unless you randomly, by some miracle, found the hidden block above the blue mushroom.
- In that same pipe level, that falling section after the checkpoint needs some real work. First off, I feel you need a bit more time to change directions, given how fast you fall. Second, one of the arrows tells you to hug the right wall, and then you fall on a spike, which isn't at all fair. And third, after the coin falling part (which is fine), if you miss the blue switch, you die. That's fine, except their's no clear indicator that that's where the switch will be.
- In the Birdo fight, I ran at the Emerald once I won, got it, and fell in the lava to the right and died. I then had to redo the bad falling section AND the Birdo fight again. Super annoying. Maybe spawn some blocks over the lava when you win?
- Some of the clouds in the cloud castle level aren't fully standable. One near the hammer bro and 10 coin block isn't wide enough. Another near the donut block spike part isn't even standable. The desert level with the quicksand had a similar issue, where some of the quicksand was, well, quicksand, and other parts of it were just BGOs. That didn't make the level worse like the clouds did, but it highlights the point that you aren't being consistent with them.
- The flying fish in that same cloud level are super annoying. They show up out of nowhere, in a giant group, and make it a lot harder to fly off the bridge and progress. Might wanna tone it down, or have the flying platform AFTER the fish bridge.
- What the HECK am I supposed to do at the yellow switch part of the cloud level? Same goes for the shell kaizo looking stuff in the first desert level. Truthfully, I haven't played much kaizo, but that stuff still didn't make a lick of sense.
- This is what I believe to be the major problem with this episode: there's no focus. All of the levels have a bunch of random ideas that are fine on their own, but when all jammed together are somewhat jarring. That cloud level, for example. You start with mushroom platforms, making me think, 'oh, a mushroom platform level. those are always fun.' then, a random climb the castle portion, and again I go, 'oh, climbing the castle. that looks fun.' then, it's janky cloud parcore, then a fish bridge, then a flying section, then a spiky corridor section, you get the point. I personally just felt like you had a bunch of cool ideas, but never took the time to flesh them out. Instead, it looks like you had one idea, then got bored, thought of a new one, got bored with that, added a new idea, and just continued like that. Also, indicators. Half the time, I was never able to see where I needed to go next. Nothing is explained. Which is fine, because putting a bunch of signs saying, 'okay, for this next part, do this' would ALSO be bad. But it never felt clear as to what I was supposed to do. I gameovered a bunch due to either poorly thoughtout sections or poor indication. It was very frustrating. I didn't even finish the cloud level or the desert level.

My suggestions (this includes the castle and town suggestions you wanted per Peach)
- Suggestion for castle: standard doors lead to special items, and star doors lead to more levels
- Suggestion for town: perhaps you need to help out the townsfolk, and if you do, Peach gives you an Emerald for your help
- Watch some videos on level design. I'd highly reccomend Chipss' videos on the subject, as he does a really good job explaining it.
- I'd highly reccomend fixing the issues I brought up. Not saying that because I feel my feedback is super important and godly, but because I'm sure others would appreciate these issues being fixed.
- I'd reccomend converting any image files to PNGs with the PGE GIF2PNG converter. I'd watch Enjl's tutorials on how to loop music with Audacity. I'd highly reccomend Caesium Image Compressor, which can make PNGs even smaller. All of this will help reduce the episode size, cause my goodness, it did NOT need to be 103 MB given the amount of content currently.

My final thoughts:
While I've come off as super critical, don't take this as me saying you're the worst and this episode is crap. But it definately is flawed. Which is ok! I've
personally made bad episodes myself, and I've taken what I've learned from that to hopefully make those episodes and my future projects better. So,
please don't trash this project just cause of this review. If anything, please finish it! I just ask that you at least consider my feedback and use it to make
the current state of this episode and the future state of it something to enjoy.

Or don't. Either way, have a great day. I truly mean that

Thanks i needed something like this to improve it

-i knew about the megashroom but I don't have many idea for the section

-i will put more indicators

-for the intro level i will put an arrow if that can help

-the sky castle is ufinished

-and i will insert luigi in the story in a way

-the emeralds are 7 in total i can't make that peach gives you one

thanks a lot for your feedback
i'll try to fix anything

Got some more ideas then:

- Maybe spawn the megashroom in the same way as the cape feather in that castle level? With a bigger block, perhaps.
- I'd honestly just rewrite a bit of the dialogue in the intro to say, "great! let's get going. i think this pipe will take us forward" or something, cause an arrow pointing offscreen seems...strange.
- If you can insert Luigi cleverly, go for it! Otherwise, why not just lock him? Make it just Mario and Sonic in that case. Maybe Luigi could have a cameo in the Kingdom or something. Play off as a joke, like: "(Luigi) Mario? What are you doing here? Who's this guy? Chaos Emeralds? Man, how come I never get to come on the cool adventures?" IDK, just a suggestion.
- Speaking of those, why can't Peach give you an Emerald? If you have a plan for all 7 that's understandable, but otherwise, it would be kinda cool if she gave you one. Maybe you even have to fight her for it, showing a side of this Peach not normally seen. Or, like I said, she gives it to you by helping the townsfolk.

Regardless, I appreciate you considering my feedback. I felt bad being so critical, but it seems that was the right move. I truly think this episode can be real sick, and I just wanted to point out issues that seem to currently cloud that posibility. Anyways, hope you have a good day!

[Saric]

Spoiler: show

Saw this in the SMBX Discord Server, and decided 'why not? I'lll check this out.' Screenshots showed promise, and a Mario x Sonic episode sounded cool. So, I start to play this episode, and I have found a multitude of problems.

Let me start with some nitpicks. These didn't affect the gameplay, but they were still a bit strange:
- The player and the piranha plant fireballs are displayed wrong. I think you need to adjust the sizes of them.
- Why is Luigi a playable character? From what I gathered in the story, it's only Mario who met Sonic, and Luigi wasn't with him. I mean, I like playing as
Luigi, but it was strange to see him here when he had no story signifigance.
- Why is the Cape Feather used? The gfx for Mario and Luigi you used don't use cape forms. They use Raccoon Forms. I can understand wanting to use the cape feather, as I have as well with this specific combo, but given that I've 'matured' at least a bit as a level designer makes me question my choice and now yours.

Now, the real problems:
- The exit out of the intro level isn't really clear. I thought you'd have to go down one of the pipes or go offscreen, but neither worked. Instead, in an attempt to walk offscreen, I hugged the right wall and randomly saw the warp leading to the next level. I'd suggest either a pipe or even a door, that way people know where to leave the level.
- In that first pipe level, what happens if you lose the megashroom? You can't break the wall that leads to the message box that tells you how to progress. Otherwise, you'd be stuck, unless you randomly, by some miracle, found the hidden block above the blue mushroom.
- In that same pipe level, that falling section after the checkpoint needs some real work. First off, I feel you need a bit more time to change directions, given how fast you fall. Second, one of the arrows tells you to hug the right wall, and then you fall on a spike, which isn't at all fair. And third, after the coin falling part (which is fine), if you miss the blue switch, you die. That's fine, except their's no clear indicator that that's where the switch will be.
- In the Birdo fight, I ran at the Emerald once I won, got it, and fell in the lava to the right and died. I then had to redo the bad falling section AND the Birdo fight again. Super annoying. Maybe spawn some blocks over the lava when you win?
- Some of the clouds in the cloud castle level aren't fully standable. One near the hammer bro and 10 coin block isn't wide enough. Another near the donut block spike part isn't even standable. The desert level with the quicksand had a similar issue, where some of the quicksand was, well, quicksand, and other parts of it were just BGOs. That didn't make the level worse like the clouds did, but it highlights the point that you aren't being consistent with them.
- The flying fish in that same cloud level are super annoying. They show up out of nowhere, in a giant group, and make it a lot harder to fly off the bridge and progress. Might wanna tone it down, or have the flying platform AFTER the fish bridge.
- What the HECK am I supposed to do at the yellow switch part of the cloud level? Same goes for the shell kaizo looking stuff in the first desert level. Truthfully, I haven't played much kaizo, but that stuff still didn't make a lick of sense.
- This is what I believe to be the major problem with this episode: there's no focus. All of the levels have a bunch of random ideas that are fine on their own, but when all jammed together are somewhat jarring. That cloud level, for example. You start with mushroom platforms, making me think, 'oh, a mushroom platform level. those are always fun.' then, a random climb the castle portion, and again I go, 'oh, climbing the castle. that looks fun.' then, it's janky cloud parcore, then a fish bridge, then a flying section, then a spiky corridor section, you get the point. I personally just felt like you had a bunch of cool ideas, but never took the time to flesh them out. Instead, it looks like you had one idea, then got bored, thought of a new one, got bored with that, added a new idea, and just continued like that. Also, indicators. Half the time, I was never able to see where I needed to go next. Nothing is explained. Which is fine, because putting a bunch of signs saying, 'okay, for this next part, do this' would ALSO be bad. But it never felt clear as to what I was supposed to do. I gameovered a bunch due to either poorly thoughtout sections or poor indication. It was very frustrating. I didn't even finish the cloud level or the desert level.

My suggestions (this includes the castle and town suggestions you wanted per Peach)
- Suggestion for castle: standard doors lead to special items, and star doors lead to more levels
- Suggestion for town: perhaps you need to help out the townsfolk, and if you do, Peach gives you an Emerald for your help
- Watch some videos on level design. I'd highly reccomend Chipss' videos on the subject, as he does a really good job explaining it.
- I'd highly reccomend fixing the issues I brought up. Not saying that because I feel my feedback is super important and godly, but because I'm sure others would appreciate these issues being fixed.
- I'd reccomend converting any image files to PNGs with the PGE GIF2PNG converter. I'd watch Enjl's tutorials on how to loop music with Audacity. I'd highly reccomend Caesium Image Compressor, which can make PNGs even smaller. All of this will help reduce the episode size, cause my goodness, it did NOT need to be 103 MB given the amount of content currently.

My final thoughts:
While I've come off as super critical, don't take this as me saying you're the worst and this episode is crap. But it definately is flawed. Which is ok! I've
personally made bad episodes myself, and I've taken what I've learned from that to hopefully make those episodes and my future projects better. So,
please don't trash this project just cause of this review. If anything, please finish it! I just ask that you at least consider my feedback and use it to make
the current state of this episode and the future state of it something to enjoy.

Or don't. Either way, have a great day. I truly mean that

Thanks i needed something like this to improve it

-i knew about the megashroom but I don't have many idea for the section

-i will put more indicators

-for the intro level i will put an arrow if that can help

-the sky castle is ufinished

-and i will insert luigi in the story in a way

-the emeralds are 7 in total i can't make that peach gives you one

thanks a lot for your feedback
i'll try to fix anything

Got some more ideas then:

- Maybe spawn the megashroom in the same way as the cape feather in that castle level? With a bigger block, perhaps.
- I'd honestly just rewrite a bit of the dialogue in the intro to say, "great! let's get going. i think this pipe will take us forward" or something, cause an arrow pointing offscreen seems...strange.
- If you can insert Luigi cleverly, go for it! Otherwise, why not just lock him? Make it just Mario and Sonic in that case. Maybe Luigi could have a cameo in the Kingdom or something. Play off as a joke, like: "(Luigi) Mario? What are you doing here? Who's this guy? Chaos Emeralds? Man, how come I never get to come on the cool adventures?" IDK, just a suggestion.
- Speaking of those, why can't Peach give you an Emerald? If you have a plan for all 7 that's understandable, but otherwise, it would be kinda cool if she gave you one. Maybe you even have to fight her for it, showing a side of this Peach not normally seen. Or, like I said, she gives it to you by helping the townsfolk.

Regardless, I appreciate you considering my feedback. I felt bad being so critical, but it seems that was the right move. I truly think this episode can be real sick, and I just wanted to point out issues that seem to currently cloud that posibility. Anyways, hope you have a good day!

I put Luigi in the intro scene to include it in the story,
and i put a pipe in the intro scene because the instant warp doesn't let you go in another level.
For Peach i have an idea but it will be in a future event.
I alredy fixed the megashroom section.
again thanks a lot

[AppleTheTomato]

Of course! Can't wait to play future versions of this.

[Saric]

I also forgot to explain the story