What can be considered a level?

[reghrhre]

This question hit me while I was trying to figure out how many levels my episode has. There's some "levels"(?) in my episode that are just boss fights and that's it. I also have warp levels which is just the player entering a warp and it'll take them to a certain part of the World Map.

So yeah, do you guys think "levels" or stuff similar to this can actually be considered levels that add up to your episodes level count? Discuss.

[FanofSMBX]

When you say those "levels" are boss fights, are they like, a castle goes to another level which is the boss fight, or it is a boss fight in and of itself?

[Marina]

Well, I wouldn't really consider warps as levels, and the bossfights depend. Like FoS asked, are they bossfights that you get to directly from the overworlds, or do you get to them from another level because you needed different CGFX for it, didn't have any more space for the fight for the level, etc

[HeroLinik]

When you say those "levels" are boss fights, are they like, a castle goes to another level which is the boss fight, or it is a boss fight in and of itself?

He's referring to the fact that some people make "levels" that are really bossfights. Someone submitted a level for a contest on SMBX Revived that was really just a bossfight and nothing else, but I could still rate it as I was a judge on that contest. I would say that a level needs to have a certain degree of platforming that is sufficient enough so that it best represents a typical level in the game it's meant to be in the style of.

[Marina]

When you say those "levels" are boss fights, are they like, a castle goes to another level which is the boss fight, or it is a boss fight in and of itself?

He's referring to the fact that some people make "levels" that are really bossfights. Someone submitted a level for a contest on SMBX Revived that was really just a bossfight and nothing else, but I could still rate it as I was a judge on that contest. I would say that a level needs to have a certain degree of platforming that is sufficient enough so that it best represents a typical level in the game it's meant to be in the style of.

I would say it really depends on the fact if it is an indipendant level, also on how long the bossfight is. If it's just a regular 3-hit-KO bossfight, I wouldn't count it as a level, except if there is, like you said, a certain degree of platforming present.

[Dragonmaster146]

A playable one!

[RoundPiplup]

In my opinion, a level would be a not too short level to a somewhat level with power-ups and enemies/hazards.

[Magician]

To me, an episode is more than the sum of its parts, so I tend not to care. For my purposes though I wouldn't define intermediary hubs/shops/towns as levels. My boss fights, depending on how difficult or intricate they are, would have their own dedicated levels, but I doubt I'd count them as separate levels on a list either.

Then again, Donkey Kong's boss levels had their own dedicated spot on the world map so it could be like that. It's up to the designer, really.