Whew, that took a while, but here it is, Substantial Steppe, my all-time favorite level I ever made! I am very proud of the result, as it took approximately two weeks to actually make plus three days to recolor every single graphic I used in it, but yeah, I hope you enjoy playing this. It includes a lot of spicy gimmicks, with over 20 events and over 12 layers (by an educated assumption). I shall spoil one thing regarding the variation of gimmicks, however, that consists of each color of a mushroom has a different moving speed; something that has never been thought of nor used before in SMBX, I believe.
Here's all you need to know:
Music:
Breezy Mushrise Park - Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
I apologize, but I would like to bump this thread mentioning that I am extremely sorry for the messed up download link. It frankly redirected to another level of mine, Topplin' Temple, so yeah, it's fixed now. https://www.dropbox.com/s/cxgltd1h9q5zg ... Steppe.zip
Re: Substantial Steppe (Download Fixed)
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 11:12 am
by Enjl
I want to play something different from all the other levels. This one looks nice!
Let's see if it holds up to it's promises! Review: Substantial Steppe
First level of your episode, eh? Then I'll let the music slide. While it doesn't really fit with the level theme, the circumstances under which you used it turn all that aound and give it a purpose. It's also a nice remix of the music from galaxy.
With the music out of the way, I wanna talk a bit about your main gimmick of the level, being the recoloured level. It's an amazing idea, and, from what I've seen from your project, a good theme to use, since you introduce a new colour in every level. Green, orange, etc. I like that. I also have to give props to you for sitting down and recolouring every graphics one by one. This is an amazingly well working way of recolouring a level, which works around using SMBX's shitty transparency setting. I think what you did was, if you have Paint.net, create a new layer and fill that layer with some green colour with the transparency set to 30 or something and repeat until you got the colour, then reset the black colour. If you didn't do that, consider doing it. It's definetly faster than recolouring every colour one by one. I also noticed one little mistake you made with the colour gimmick. Maybe because you got kinda tired and said "screw it" when creating the Brick Block. It doesn't have a black outline and just looks weird next to all the other graphics. Just take a look and you'll see.
While it's a neat gimmick and I appreciate the work you did to masterize it, It's not my favourite gimmick. It's maybe because there's never been green mist over any grassland and I actually like the orange use for it in the dunes level with my tileset (:P), I think it's kinda too much in this level. When I looked at your thread I say some other people found it looking very monochrome and just weird. Point is: It takes some while getting used to. I won't take away any points, considering I know where you're going with this, being the different coloured levels in your episode.
Let's talk NPCs. After that, mushrooms.
I think you kinda misunderstood the meaning of pipes, which lead to some very obvious secrets: Not every pipe which doesn't contain a warp necessarily needs a piranha plant. Some can just be for decoration, like the two in Section 1, which also help you progress, but in the rest of the level every single pipe is either a warp or a piranha plant. Keep in mind that this'd be devastating if this level was a sewer, and is not the way pipes should be used. Other than that, your NPC placement was totally fine.
I like the idea you had with the mushrooms, giving each colour a purpose. That's cool. Greens are very hard to handle, though. To create the same effect on them you could've attached them to an invisible SMB1 fireball, which is set to Don't Move. It'll give the mushroom a pretty fast bouncy effect while not making it shake that much. I think that would've been nicer. Good use of this gimmick, though. Definetly fits the level.
There's one problem I've had with your level design, being the out-of-bounds mushroom section. I'd love it if you'd just extend the section borders to the bottom there so I wouldn't need to be worried about dying by standing on a mushroom. That section was also the one which was just complete pain when it came to the two mushrooms near the end. I think the ceiling is too wide here, because I needed 5 tries to get past that point because I kept slamming the wall, losing velocity and eventually missing the mushroom. Try to make this part a bit easier, please.
Red coins were cool. First one was a good way of showing what exactly the message block meant and you really took off with red coin secrets near the end. But here's the thing: When the red coins are placed individually, they don't need their own layer. They can be on default and work just like they do right now. They just take up sometimes much needed layer-space.
I don't really have any more complaints with this level. Overall, it's a good piece of work. Not my favourite, but definetly worth mentioning. You can hide the secrets a bit better by just removing some piranha plants and make the checkpoint section a bit fairer, but other than that, good job! Graphics: 2/3 Nice idea. Can get some improvement on the Brick Block and NPCs though since they seem to lack an outline, while everything else has one.
Music: 1/2 It doesn't really fit, only when you consider it's the first level of your episode and has to give that BOOM feeline, you know?
Gameplay: 4/5 Gameplay's fine for the most part. I stated above how you can improve. 7/10
Nicely done.
Re: Substantial Steppe (Download Fixed)
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 11:49 am
by silent_
Sorry to be a pain, but do you have any musical suggestions? I'm stumped really, I thought it fit extraordinarily well and to take one point away from my overall is kind of aggressive, I believe.
Sceptrum wrote:There's one problem I've had with your level design, being the out-of-bounds mushroom section. I'd love it if you'd just extend the section borders to the bottom there so I wouldn't need to be worried about dying by standing on a mushroom. That section was also the one which was just complete pain when it came to the two mushrooms near the end.
What does that first sentence mean? And what section are you trying to remark?
The brick block and the ? block had an outline, it's just that it's more greenish and monochrome intentionally to match the player's appearance (since they had a green outline, too).
Otherwise, thanks for the review even though I don't plan to update this level until I complete a few more of my project's levels.
Re: Substantial Steppe (Download Fixed)
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 12:11 pm
by Enjl
I'm talking about the Checkpoint Section, I think it's number 4.
For the music, I've got a few ones, depending on what you're trying to accomplish.
If you're in for some really calm atmosphere going along with your level, implying that players need to take their time to finish the level, look for all the secrets, this might just be it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfHbnOPMbCE
For the classic "World 1"-feel, there are a few you can use, but this is the one I think would fit the most out of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2JjIhseLw
I can't really think of more right now, but many people seem to use Kirby as their preferred franchise from which to take music from.
Kep wrote:brick block and the ? block had an outline, it's just that it's more greenish and monochrome intentionally to match the player's appearance
the thing is, the brick block is the only block which doesn't have a black outline. ?-Blocks, Tileset, Pipes, mushrooms all have it. Even bgos, but not the brick block.
Re: Substantial Steppe (Download Fixed)
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 1:47 pm
by silent_
Sceptrum wrote:I'm talking about the Checkpoint Section, I think it's number 4.
For the music, I've got a few ones, depending on what you're trying to accomplish.
If you're in for some really calm atmosphere going along with your level, implying that players need to take their time to finish the level, look for all the secrets, this might just be it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfHbnOPMbCE
For the classic "World 1"-feel, there are a few you can use, but this is the one I think would fit the most out of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2JjIhseLw
I can't really think of more right now, but many people seem to use Kirby as their preferred franchise from which to take music from.
Kep wrote:brick block and the ? block had an outline, it's just that it's more greenish and monochrome intentionally to match the player's appearance
The thing is, the brick block is the only block which doesn't have a black outline. ?-Blocks, Tileset, Pipes, mushrooms all have it. Even bgos, but not the brick block.
I prefer the first piece of music, I will add that to my level.
And what you don't understand is the fact that Mario and Luigi, the specified playable character along with the brick block, doesn't have a black outline either as it's green. Do you want me to reconstruct that or are they fine too?
Re: Substantial Steppe (Download Fixed)
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:45 pm
by Enjl
Kep wrote:And what you don't understand is the fact that Mario and Luigi, the specified playable character along with the brick block, doesn't have a black outline either as it's green. Do you want me to reconstruct that or are they fine too?
I think I didn't make my opinion clear enough.
-the players are fine as they are
-every npc has a black outline
-every bgo has a black outline
-next to every block has a black outline
has no black outline, but is a block
I just noticed the message block has none either, but I didn't notice that one before.
Where I'm trying to go with this is that it just seems odd having all blocks have a black outline and the brick block just have a dark green one.
I don't, however, understand, what the playable characters have to do with all this.
Re: Substantial Steppe (Download Fixed)
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:51 pm
by silent_
Sceptrum wrote:
Kep wrote:And what you don't understand is the fact that Mario and Luigi, the specified playable character along with the brick block, doesn't have a black outline either as it's green. Do you want me to reconstruct that or are they fine too?
I think I didn't make my opinion clear enough.
-the players are fine as they are
-every npc has a black outline
-every bgo has a black outline
-next to every block has a black outline
has no black outline, but is a block
I just noticed the message block has none either, but I didn't notice that one before.
Where I'm trying to go with this is that it just seems odd having all blocks have a black outline and the brick block just have a dark green one.
I don't, however, understand, what the playable characters have to do with all this.
Based on Emral's review, I have updated the level with better outlines, less Piranha Plants, new music, and more.
The updated version is in the original thread and I'll additionally include it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cxgltd1h9q5zg ... Steppe.zip
I also want this re-reviewed, so I'll move it out of Pretty Good and back into plain 'ole levels again. =P
Do you want another review from me stating that you've corrected everything I pointed out and that there is no way you can improve this level without redesigning it entirely, or do you want a review from a judge which writes a whole new paragraph about this level?
Emral wrote:Do you want another review from me stating that you've corrected everything I pointed out and that there is no way you can improve this level without redesigning it entirely, or do you want a review from a judge which writes a whole new paragraph about this level?
Well, considering you not being a level judge anymore I kinda want another level judge's point of view on how they enjoyed this level, and another reason would be that perhaps they found a flaw that you didn't find and want to point it out. Is this a bad thing?
Emral wrote:Do you want another review from me stating that you've corrected everything I pointed out and that there is no way you can improve this level without redesigning it entirely, or do you want a review from a judge which writes a whole new paragraph about this level?
Well, considering you not being a level judge anymore I kinda want another level judge's point of view on how they enjoyed this level, and another reason would be that perhaps they found a flaw that you didn't find and want to point it out. Is this a bad thing?
Nope, since my post kinda sums up whaz I'd have said
Design- The design of the level was generally pretty refreshing. I love a level that is very non-linear, and this level was just that. Granted it had its moments of being linear, but you still made it refreshing. I liked your use of the moving layers, except for the rapidly moving note blocks. Those were kind of blah in my opinion. I enjoyed your secret that you had to offer, but just so you know, I think you should leave secrets for users to discover by themselves, or else it's not as rewarding to the person playing. Either way, I found it before I even read the hint! Two ice flowers yeyahhh! I liked the secret stars you put in the level, kind of like something extra to do if you're not wanting to stick to the path of the level, or are looking around for secrets! The level was also a pretty nice length. It could have been a bit longer, but I'm not complaining.
Scenery- The scenery was very nice. It all fit pretty well together, even though you clashed with bushes. My only slight complaint about the bushes is that the level has heavily outlined scenery, yet the one smallish SMB3 bush has no outline. Overall though, nice job, but what's up with the whole level looking like it's in a green filter? It wasn't unappealing, it was just weird.
Replay Value- I could definitely see myself playing this level again, especially if I missed the secrets first go, (but I didn't ), and would suggest giving this level a play. As I said before, the less linear a level is, the more unique it's capable of being, and I like that your level wasn't too linear.
Misc- Umm, the song was kind of funny in my opinion, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because the song seemed a bit too spring and flowery to fit your level haha, but I mean I guess you could have picked a worse song. Again, I really liked the custom graphics you used. A small thing I would suggest is making your text boxes shorter and separate them into 2-3 text boxes. I don't like reading one big paragraph, mainly because I'm nearly blind and have a hard time reading line after line . . .
PROS:
-Nice custom GFX
-Nice secrets
-Nice replay value and on-linearism
-Yay you used moving layers. I always like seeing moving layers.
-Good enemy placement
-Uhh, cool green filter?
-Decent length
CONS:
-The few times the moving layers seemed too rapid
-Large text boxes
Score: 8/10
Moved to The Best
P.S. Kep, I don't think Level Judges are allowed to move their own levels outside of a forum which they have already been moved to. Ask Joey next time, or maybe make a new topic. I'm not sure, but I don't think you should do that.
I am honored to finally get a level moved to The Best! I shall update the things you pointed out and create a thread in the Level Judge discussion if I should move my own levels outside of a board they have already been moved to.
NOTES/QUESTIONS:
-Should I make the note blocks stationary, or just remove them altogether replacing them with solid ground?
-What do you mean by "leave secrets for users to discover on their own?" I think you should specify which message blocks I should remove.
-Not a question, but a note, the length was short because there was many secrets to find. The less secrets, the longer the level could be. However, I do not see how Chad was even capable of keeping fresh quality, hiding many secrets, while making levels take approximately ten minutes to play a piece.
-I will fix the bushes, shouldn't be a nuisance.
-Should I change the music or not? I really don't understand your paragraph, but it wasn't in pros or cons which is particularly puzzling. I'm just paranoid that after I fix the bugs in this level, that another judge will criticize the music.
-I will separate the text into more boxes, a good excuse to add more events, though what you said as it is was objective, but I couldn't blame you for your vision being poor, but it's probably due to the green effect.
Otherwise, only two cons...Whew, that's a record. You seem to be a fair reviewer, after I make this lava level I'm making right now I hope you get the opportunity to review it, though the length is colossal.
Kep wrote:I am honored to finally get a level moved to The Best! I shall update the things you pointed out and create a thread in the Level Judge discussion if I should move my own levels outside of a board they have already been moved to.
NOTES/QUESTIONS:
-Should I make the note blocks stationary, or just remove them altogether replacing them with solid ground?
-What do you mean by "leave secrets for users to discover on their own?" I think you should specify which message blocks I should remove.
-Not a question, but a note, the length was short because there was many secrets to find. The less secrets, the longer the level could be. However, I do not see how Chad was even capable of keeping fresh quality, hiding many secrets, while making levels take approximately ten minutes to play a piece.
-I will fix the bushes, shouldn't be a nuisance.
-Should I change the music or not? I really don't understand your paragraph, but it wasn't in pros or cons which is particularly puzzling. I'm just paranoid that after I fix the bugs in this level, that another judge will criticize the music.
-I will separate the text into more boxes, a good excuse to add more events, though what you said as it is was objective, but I couldn't blame you for your vision being poor, but it's probably due to the green effect.
Otherwise, only two cons...Whew, that's a record. You seem to be a fair reviewer, after I make this lava level I'm making right now I hope you get the opportunity to review it, though the length is colossal.
The note blocks should he stationary and only use few of them. The text box that tells you about the horizontal pipe with the plant coming out, where you can go over it and left over the level can be removed, and the song doesn't have to be changed. No one is going to give you a shitty review just because of the song you chose haha.
Kley wrote:The note blocks should he stationary and only use few of them. The text box that tells you about the horizontal pipe with the plant coming out, where you can go over it and left over the level can be removed, and the song doesn't have to be changed. No one is going to give you a shitty review just because of the song you chose haha.
All right, sounds fair.
However, I look back at your remarks about the scenery, but in-game I don't see how the bush "clashes" because it doesn't have an outline, since it does. Can you elaborate that statement?
Kley wrote:The note blocks should he stationary and only use few of them. The text box that tells you about the horizontal pipe with the plant coming out, where you can go over it and left over the level can be removed, and the song doesn't have to be changed. No one is going to give you a shitty review just because of the song you chose haha.
All right, sounds fair.
However, I look back at your remarks about the scenery, but in-game I don't see how the bush "clashes" because it doesn't have an outline, since it does. Can you elaborate that statement?
It's not so much clashy, but more like odd. It's weird to see heavily outlined scenery then have one bush that doesn't
Kley wrote:It's not so much clashy, but more like odd. It's weird to see heavily outlined scenery then have one bush that doesn't
Well, unfortunately I can't fix this, because I still do not understand why you think it's "heavily outlined scenery" but regardless oh well, it's fine. =P
I would appreciate a re-review from either Kley again or anyone else (I'd personally prefer a different judge's perspective of how they like this level but eh, it's fine either way). I'll move this back to levels. Someone can contact me on this thread or via PM if I should in the future refrain from moving my own thread to a different board but eh.
