Frozen Boo wrote:You wanted feedback? I'll give you feedback.
First off, the doors that you used for teleporting to later points of the level, while the idea was good it's very exploitable (If you used SMW stars that could've been avoided. But i'm not gonna get mad at you for that because i mean. It IS your first level) and i mean, 4 checkpoints is a bit generous.
The level doesn't give you much room to move since it has very small passages you have to go through while snifits shoot at you (most of the time) and in one specific area you have to dodge a barrage of jumping cheep cheeps in a small area while jumping on a higher platform on which there is enemies, also not to mention in that one screen alone there was SMW world cave and SMB3 water in a mostly SMB2 level and after that it felt like you couldn't decide on what your level theme was even. Most of the last part of the level was SMW cave with that SMB3 block fill background object background. At around the ending point of the level there is a shy guy generator with 3 one block platforms that's basically impossible to dodge without having something to throw at him. Also i get that it's SMB2 styled (mostly) but the first power-up i got was an SMB3 mushroom and another one right at the end of the level which felt a bit unnecesary. The level isn't all that long and it didn't require like 4 checkpoints, you could've had only that one at the end of the first section and it'd have been fine.
Don't take this the wrong way i mean, it is your first level, it doesn't need to be something that would win you a contest. I had fun playing it but it could've been better. Continue making levels and you'll get better at it. But for now i'd say this is a
5/10
>the doors that you used for teleporting to later points of the level, while the idea was good it's very exploitable
Yes, they were only a stand in until I get a better grasp on how the Events work in SMBX. I'll have to look into using the SMW stars so that people can't just skip ahead.
>4 checkpoints is a bit generous
Hmm... I thought the level was kind of difficult, but I'm by no means a very good Super Mario player in general, so I may have under estimated other players, good to know.
>The level doesn't give you much room to move since it has very small passages you have to go through while snifits shoot at you
Yeah, it was an idea I was playing around with (limited area). I can understand why it would be frustrating though, most people want to take advantage of Mario's full jump, and don't like feeling trapped in small spaces. I probably over used that concept.
>in one specific area you have to dodge a barrage of jumping cheep cheeps in a small area while jumping on a higher platform on which there is enemies
Haha, I didn't think it would be that bad. Was the spawning too quick? Or the space too tight? I thought that the area to which they jump at you would force you to hurry and either kill the blue shy guy for space or pick him up and use him for defense, perhaps the rushed element was too extreme, or it just seemed sloppy/busy.
>not to mention in that one screen alone there was SMW world cave and SMB3 water in a mostly SMB2 level and after that it felt like you couldn't decide on what your level theme was even
I didn't think the mixing and matching was too bad. I tried to stay away from elements I thought clashed too strongly. It's probably mostly bias on my part, I chose the graphics I thought looked the nicest regardless of their origin. For instance I chose a lot of SMB3 graphics and SMW graphics, even though the main theme was SMB2. It wasn't a big deal to me, but I'm far less involved in SMBX than most of you are, so I can understand why you'd see that as unappealing. I'll try to keep it to one theme. Ideally, I'd use my own graphics, so perhaps this problem won't be so huge in the future.
>At around the ending point of the level there is a shy guy generator with 3 one block platforms that's basically impossible to dodge without having something to throw at him
Yes, I wanted that obstacle to be impossible without having something to hold to block/destroy one of the shy guy. Is that type of gameplay discouraged? Or was it just too unexpected? If it's really annoying or a nuisance, I won't do something like that again.
>Also i get that it's SMB2 styled (mostly) but the first power-up i got was an SMB3 mushroom and another one right at the end of the level which felt a bit unnecesary
Yeah... I just figured the differing mushrooms wouldn't matter, that's my oversight. The mushroom at the end is actually there incase someone was small but needed to access the secret still (being large Mario is necessary to access the first part of finding the secret). But yeah, if you don't find the secret, it will seem purposeless.
>The level isn't all that long and it didn't require like 4 checkpoints, you could've had only that one at the end of the first section and it'd have been fine
Okay, I thought it was pretty long and difficult (again, I'm not the best Super Mario Player, I die quite often) Again, that's me under estimating other players. Good to know.
>Don't take this the wrong way i mean, it is your first level, it doesn't need to be something that would win you a contest. I had fun playing it but it could've been better. Continue making levels and you'll get better at it.
Thanks, I totally understand what was bad about it. I have reasons (or excuses) for everything I did, haha. But at the end of the day, I'm not just making levels for myself. If other's see things as problems, I have to take that into account. Thanks for your input, I'll probably trash this level and take your words into consideration in future levels.
Tervantez2345 wrote:PaperBagL's first level review
Design & Gameplay: 3/10 (counts 70%)
Maybe the level has a not that good design (which I'll explain later), the level was fun to play. (and not in the so bad it's good category) The difficulty was fair too.
The powerup vs. enemy ratio wasn't done too well but still meh. The NPC placement and variety is okay too, but you shouldn't make narrow paths in your level, especially if you can jump over something only as small Mario without getting hurt. The coin placement is bad, you shouldn't place them on the ground, at least not most of them. (except if it's in a hidden area) Backtracking doors are also unnecessary, especially if they can make the whole level completable 50% quicker than it would be. (noticing the player to don't enter it isn't a good idea, you should remove this feature from your levels) The other thing that can break the whole level is if the player is big Mario and there is a 1 block tall hole, he can glitch through the wall. (watch a bossedit8 video to see what's that) The key is also hidden in a not good way. (using trap-looking things to hide it isn't too good idea)
Atmosphere & Visuals: 3/10 (counts 30%)
This was an alright looking as a vanilla (no custom stuff just a lvl file) level until the checkpoint, it had just some cutoffs and nothing else for graphical flaws. (I'm going to explain the second half later)
The music isn't that fitting but still okay.
The second half was visually bad but not horrible yet: smw cave tiles, smb2 overworld tiles and smb3 water tiles (both waterfall and pond) are bad looking together, they're clashy. Also there are way more cutoffs than the first half.
Score: 3/10
Moved to 'Average'
Note: for a first level, it's really good, even the best designers started with bad levels. Check out some levels in the best subforum and get inspiration from them. If you want to get some help, come to the IRC chat of smbx and ask me about stuff. Keep up the designing!
>The powerup vs. enemy ratio wasn't done too well but still meh
Which one was there too many of?
>but you shouldn't make narrow paths in your level, especially if you can jump over something only as small Mario without getting hurt
All obstacles are possible as large Mario, I tested every area myself. It's more difficult (almost to the point of needing to be pixel perfect), but still possible. Narrow paths in general seem to be discouraged though. I'll try to stay away from that type of design.
>The coin placement is bad, you shouldn't place them on the ground, at least not most of them
Yeah... I knew that looked bad. Originally, I wanted all the coins to be buried, but then I found out that holding a coin kills an enemy (I don't think it did that in the original SMB2 game), making the level far too easy, so I just replaced them with unburied coins. I thought the level was difficult enough to warrant a generous amount of coins (to earn lives) but yes, it looks bad. I won't be doing that again.
>Backtracking doors are also unnecessary, especially if they can make the whole level completable 50% quicker than it would be. (noticing the player to don't enter it isn't a good idea, you should remove this feature from your levels)
Yes, I absolutely agree. The doors are only there as a place holder until I'm more familiar with Events. I would never leave those in a "finished" level.
>The other thing that can break the whole level is if the player is big Mario and there is a 1 block tall hole, he can glitch through the wall
Yeah, haha. I noticed that. I figured no one would bother to try. Also, every time I tried it, it didn't do anything to drastic, just pushed me to the other side of a wall or something, so I didn't think it was a huge deal. None the less, yes, that's poor design, I shouldn't have made that possible so often, or at all really.
>The key is also hidden in a not good way. (using trap-looking things to hide it isn't too good idea)
I wanted the key to be tricky to find. Also, the whole concept of the level was to reward players who make mistakes. I made being small Mario advantageous, and you can only find secrets if you've made a mistake (fallen into a pit). Looking back... this isn't the best idea, since it doesn't reward good players, which I should have given more priority probably.
>The music isn't that fitting but still okay
I wasn't sure which song to use, so I just chose one I liked that wasn't too off. But yeah, I'm sure there are better choices.
>smw cave tiles, smb2 overworld tiles and smb3 water tiles (both waterfall and pond) are bad looking together, they're clashy
I didn't think it was too bad... But like I said in my other response, I'm less experienced with the program, so I probably don't see it as a big deal where other people who play it more often probably do. I'll stick to themes better in the future for sure, and explore custom graphics.
>Also there are way more cutoffs than the first half
I'm not even sure what you're talking about. Is this when graphics fight for order priority? Like, which thing goes to the front? If so, I tried to fix that, and it worked for me, but it may have not worked in the download. In which case, I'll just avoid over using graphics.
>Note: for a first level, it's really good, even the best designers started with bad levels. Check out some levels in the best subforum and get inspiration from them. If you want to get some help, come to the IRC chat of smbx and ask me about stuff. Keep up the designing
Thanks, the level took forever to make, haha. Hopefully I get better, and like I said, I will be exploring custom graphics once I get a better grasp on Events (Gameplay is more important than graphics). I'll definitely be playing more levels made by other people now that I'm more used to the program. Thanks for your input, I'll definitely be taking what you said into consideration. And I might stop by the Chat if I can't figure something out. I'd like to get more involved in making levels, so the criticism is really appreciated.
