Paper Plains - CC8 Level

[Marina]

This is my level for the 8th community contest and my first community contest level ever. (30th place yaaaay)
All the gfx were done by me.

If you played Super Paper Mario, you may find this level to be somewhat familiar, but completely different.
The story is basically, Toad gets trapped on the top of Castle Bleck, and has to be rescued from Dimentio, who has taken over the castle.

I've gotten feedback from the judges and DarkMatt and will try to do a little better next time, regarding length and level design and difficulty... but over all I thought I did a decent job.


Enjoy (or if you are DarkMatt, don't play it )

Screens:

Spoiler: show

Reviews:

GLuigiX - Paperplains - 7.059/10

Spoiler: show

bossedit8: 7.895/10

Ah, casual SMB Theme at the beginning (except that you only gain a Mushroom at the beginning, why). After you talk to a Toad, there is a Switch that you have to press and after that... a Black Castle from the Bottom just goes up and you are now inside the castle of blackness for whatever reason. The first thing you have to do is somewhat a Puzzle that you need to work with even with different playable Characters. Nice idea but for the first time it can be leaded into confusion because you have to do this in order. Peach, Mario and then Luigi. Why? Too unsure but you have to do this in order. One Section where you have to stay in the Light is if you are not inside the Light anymore you are pretty much dead but problem is if you are entering this room again (example: you forgot the springboard) the block that controls the light is not at the same place which means you are forced to die. Not nice. There is one section that if you fall it takes a while to even get at the bottom. Other section if you fall down where Bowser is there is just a long pointless walkway to the left and/or right (depends where you fall off from the top). Kind of unnecessary. Better use a door or warp pipe so you should not walk almost endlessly to a specific spot you want to go further on on this Level. After the Puzzle and the Room were it Wraps around you gain into a vertical section with a lot of moving and falling objects laughing at you. Halfway Point is also there. Sometimes tedious of how to jump up without getting hurt but it is kind of possible. After that you get to a Linerider which is boring because you literally can just wait out (maybe there are places you need to avoid but later on not really). After that you get to the Boss, Dimentio. He/She was not all that simple to deal with but I pretty much like that Boss especially the Events. After that youn gain a Toad and then a Star.

Chad: 5.5/10

This is certainly an ambitious level. It's long, has different paths for each character, and takes inspiration from the Super Paper Mario storyline and Castle Bleck scenario in order to try some different things with it. However, I found many aspects to be poorly executed, which made the level not very fun. For starters, there's no indication that the characters must be used in a specific order, or how important each one is. I checked the readme before playing the level so I assumed that I was supposed to play as Luigi the whole way through, so I did, only to find a dead-end in his room. I got the springboard from Mario's area, took it to Luigi's and made it to the door up there, only to be stopped once again by the black switch blocks. So then, I had to switch to Peach, take care of her room, then go back through Mario's again, and finally complete Luigi's. Mario's room is tedious, because you have to alternate carrying the magic block and keys, setting each one down gently every few feet so you don't go outside the circle. Peach's section is awkward because there's little indication as to the timing of the blocks and which ones vanish, and you can glitch through the walls towards the end. I also have no idea why Link blocks exist when he's not available. The second half is also iffy, as it's very full of surprise Thwomps, unpredictable platforms, and invisible lines to keep track of while avoiding way too many Rinkas. This room takes a very long time, too. I will say, however, that this level has a lot of ideas and great variation in challenges and gimmicks. The boss is interesting as well, and all of the visuals there are fantastic. The battle is very well designed with creative phases and great event usage, but Dimentio's a bit too big, and an easy fix to stepping on the Lakitu version of him would be to remove the ceiling. Overall, the boss is good, but the rest of the level has irritating gimmick execution, and the level design other than that feels very flat and barren. I know it's Castle Bleck, but the layout could be changed up a bit. (Also, you made the coins in the SMB1 area invisible, which is weird when starting out as Luigi.)

Emral: 7/10

OH MAN SUPER PAPER MARIO I LOVE IT.
In all seriousness, at first I thought this was gonna be a boring SMB1 level, but damn surprise it's a really clever Castle Bleck type level. I enjoyed it. The boss fight was really interesting and this level reminded me of how much I love Super Paper Mario (and its music). The puzzles were fine. The light block one was clever and the peach one easy. I don't know why you had a "Bowser" path though. An episode, maybe? Anyways... Maybe add coins in your future levels? That's what this one lacked. And I feel that design-wise it wasn't really the best one out there. Maybe you could've taken a bit from SPM Castle Bleck's castle structure into this? Anyways, good job!
Guess: imaynotbehere4long

Quill: 8/10

There are some really cool and creative gimmicks in this level! It really helps give it more life. One complaint is that it's not clear to the player that the 3 initial doors have to be done in an order. Luigi's area requries a springboard gained in Mario's area, but to exit Luigi's area you need to hit a switch in Peach's area. Give some indication that you have to do it in order as if someone goes through Luigi's section first, they'll be wasting their time and be confused. The boss was a little strange. It lagged at times for me but from what I could make out it was interesting. The part where he became mother brain and you had to hit him 10 times was pretty bland though.

TNTtimelord: 6.9/10

At first, I thought this was going to be a really boring level, but then it escalated quickly into a Bleck styled castle that was actually kind of obnoxious to play. I NEVER want to see that creepy platform face ever again (it wasn't bad, actually a pretty good inclusion)! The boss was really where this shined, minus the crazy wave of the boss, and it's never a good thing to require a power-up to continue in a level or boss. Still, the boss is amazing. Whoever made this definitely knows how to make bosses.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/npsd15qm3e2odcy

This is the level as I sent it to Valtteri. Nothing is changed, and this is how the level will appear in ToB7.

[Darkonius Mavakar]

This wasn't a bad level, but like, the vertical part at the checkpoint was a bit tedius :/
otherwise, nice work!

[Imaynotbehere4long]

Normally, I'd give this a full review, but I'd basically be saying what the other judges have already said, so instead, I'm going to do exactly that:

AND NOW, MY REVIEW-COLLAGE OF PAPER PLAINS:

A few words from myself to begin: the beginning SMB1 part was pretty unnecessary and just felt like it was there to pad out the level. The level should have started inside the caslte, or at least right by the Toad. Also, the Super-Metroid-explosion-sound-effect ends before the castle has fully risen, which is awkward. I also feel that the floating torches should be reserved for the ridiculously short section where they indicate invisible blocks, because it just looks weird otherwise. Something else of note is that the entrance guard says that only "the heroes of the prophecy" can pass, but lets me in anyway without so much as a "Oh, you ARE one of them. Proceed." Speaking of the entrance,

I thought the event would hold Mario in his place long enough so the player wouldn't be able to jump on the top of it.

The event only stops the player for a second at most. This is because only one event is programmed to stop the player; none of the other events have a player-control checked, meaning that, when the next event is activated, the player can move again. Also, the entrance warp is not on the same layer as the castle, meaning the player can enter the castle without talking to the Toad in the first place.

The first thing you have to do is somewhat a Puzzle that you need to work with even with different playable Characters. Nice idea but for the first time it can be leaded into confusion because you have to do this in order. Peach, Mario and then Luigi. Why? Too unsure but you have to do this in order.

Give some indication that you have to do it in order as if someone goes through Luigi's section

or Mario's section

first, they'll be wasting their time and be confused.

I got the springboard from Mario's area, took it to Luigi's and made it to the door up there, only to be stopped...by the black switch blocks. So then, I had to switch to Peach, take care of her room

Another thing about the player-change section: I was exploring the room and took a hit when a fire-plant-sprite-swap came out of an unmarked block near the far right of the room. You should give some sort of indication as to where they are.

One Section where you have to stay in the Light is if you are not inside the Light anymore you are pretty much dead but problem is if you are entering this room again (example: you forgot the springboard) the block that controls the light is not at the same place which means you are forced to die. Not nice.

Mario's room is tedious, because you have to alternate carrying the magic block and keys, setting each one down gently every few feet so you don't go outside the circle.

In fact, that entire gimmick was criminally underdeveloped. You should have had that as a running theme throughout the level! You could have had a section where you were trapped in a room with enemies and the only way to progress would be to kill them, but the only way to do that would be to throw the light block at them. That would even add a layer of strategy to your level. Also, 4x4 pixels; it's not that hard to create a circle in MS Paint that's half the size you want it to be, and then resize it to being 2x2.

There is one section that if you fall it takes a while to even get at the bottom. Other section if you fall down where Bowser is there is just a long pointless walkway to the left and/or right (depends where you fall off from the top).

However, if you go right, you reach a dead end and have to go aaaaaaaaaaaall the way back to the left.

Kind of unnecessary. Better use a door or warp pipe so you should not walk almost endlessly to a specific spot you want to go further on on this Level.

The second half is also iffy, as it's very full of surprise Thwomps, unpredictable platforms, and invisible lines to keep track of while avoiding way too many Rinkas.

Speaking of those Thwomps, I had no idea that the first one was a Thwomp, so I took an unfair hit. You should provide more warning than just an extra frame.

After that you get to a Linerider which is boring because you literally can just wait out (maybe there are places you need to avoid but later on not really).

I got so bored after the second time that I just moved the midpoint to the boss's room just so I wouldn't have to sit through that again (screw the power-ups in that section; they're not needed because the boss gives you some after being hit). The entire boss fight wasn't impressive, either; it was just "Throw a block at Lakitu, stomp on Lakitu, then kill Mother Brain." In fact, the only reason the boss killed me at all was because

Dimentio's a bit too big, and an easy fix to stepping on the Lakitu version of him would be to remove the ceiling.

The part where he became mother brain and you had to hit him 10 times was pretty bland

IN CONCLUSION:
This level is...okay. I'd probably give it a score of 5.5/10. It's pretty ambitious, but it has too many faults to deserve "Pretty Good" status in my opinion. It's not that bad, but it's not that good either.