3-1 Falling Leaf Forest.

Postby **Witchking666** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:53 pm

Hey I made another level (geez, I don't have a life)
This actually was my weather contest entry too.
The Thwomp King said I was allowed to post it here allready, so i did!
It basically plays in a forest in the middle of fall, Filled with flutes.

Screen

Spoiler: show

Download Link in Denial.

Alagirez · Postby **Alagirez** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 11:05 pm

Judging for the screens, looks pretty nice, especially the color of the flutes. But the jumping piranah(?) plants over the flutes looks somewhat weird IMO...... I'm pretty sure that you will win that contest.

Postby **Witchking666** » Wed Jan 13, 2016 2:39 pm

Harvey36Dice wrote:Judging for the screens, looks pretty nice, especially the color of the flutes. But the jumping piranah(?) plants over the flutes looks somewhat weird IMO...... I'm pretty sure that you will win that contest.

I'm not so sure about that yet.
But what exactly is up with the plants?

Nat The Porcupine · Postby **Nat The Porcupine** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:41 pm

My humble notes of critque.

Pros:
+ The flute-pipes look super cool!
+ I appreciate the use of warning signs.
+ Gameplay itself was overall good.

Nons:
| Music file name contains spaces, which may cause problems for some people. As such, it is best to replace any spaces with "-".
| The .zip file being named "WINTER WONDERLAND!!!!!" actually made it harder for me to find it in my Downloads folder.
| The music was an OK choice for this level at best.
| I have trouble accepting the fact that music notes are sometimes fired out the wrong end of the flute.

Cons:
- Did not implement custom music properly (the level asks for "Dkctf horn top hop.mp3" by default, but "KRD Must Dash.mp3" is provided instead. I had to change the file name in the level itself.)
- The color of the foliage/shrubbery in this level is WAY too greenish-brown. This personally struct a nerve with me. Autumn is my favorite season, mainly because of the vibrant shades of yellow, orange, and red present in the leaves on the trees. The greenish-brown color that you chose for the foliage makes every plant look very unhealthy.
- The tree leaves have a rough texture that makes them stand out from the rest of the level's otherwise cartoony art style (and not in a good way either).
- Multiple instances of graphical cutoff.
- The enemy placement is pretty bad at times.
- Very lite on the number of powerups after section 1.
- I ended up dying a lot from a poorly placed paragoomba right next to the level's checkpoint.

In general, this level was pretty decent, but serious presentation issues & minor design flaws prevent this level from being something truly incredible.

Postby **Witchking666** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 4:04 pm

Thanks for your review.
The music that was provided is used in the level 1-1 Cozy Cornfields and i probably added it on accident.
Although most of your critisism makes sence and will be fixed tomorrow.
The colour thing makes no sense at all.
Autumn has all shades of red, orange, yellow brown and in some cases even purple and pink from Light to dark.
But anyway
Thanks for the review.

Nat The Porcupine · Postby **Nat The Porcupine** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 4:35 pm

witchking666 wrote:Thanks for your review.
The music that was provided is used in the level 1-1 Cozy Cornfields and i probably added it on accident.
Although most of your critisism makes sence and will be fixed tomorrow.
The colour thing makes no sense at all.
Autumn has all shades of red, orange, yellow brown and in some cases even purple and pink from Light to dark.
But anyway
Thanks for the review.

No problem. I'm happy to offer my constructive criticism anytime.

Postby **Witchking666** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 9:27 am

I fixed some shit @Nat The Porcupine mentioned.
including the music flaw.

Postby **ShadowStarX** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 10:28 am

Falling Leaf Forest review

Design & Gameplay: Great
+ There we have a very good autumn forest level. It was really fun to play and luckily it's not a cliché autumn level. I don't question the NPC placement, neither the coin placement. The NPC variety is wide enough too. I didn't have problems with the difficulty, and it was perfect for an early world 3 level. I also like that you had some moving flutes in the level and the meltable red blocks too. The Star Coins were fairly hidden. Overall, this is a really nice level and I don't really question anything about it.

Design & Gameplay: Great
+ This level did a great job with the atmosphere too for sure. The general looks of the level is really nice, and the overall autumn atmosphere was very well executed. I didn't find any clash or broken death effects either. The music fits the level very well too.
| The 1×1 slope's corner piece is a bit weird too, it cuts off a bit with the shading but it's kinda acceptable.

Score: 8/10
A great autumn forest level without any major flaws and mostly positive qualities
Moved to 'Pretty Good'

Emral · Postby **Emral** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 11:05 am

BEHLOD, THERE IS A REVIEW COMMAND

I don't know whether to like or absolutely hate this level. Let me explain:

This level is a good level. The atmosphere is nice, there's a large variety in obstacles the player has to overcome, and it doesn't repeat previously used concepts without adding anything new to the mix. The NPC placement is good and the geometry isn't a trainwreck. I have but one reason to hate this: It completely, 100%-ly feels like a chinese bootleg of Chad's level design.

I can understand that people like to follow an established formula, but when it gets to the point where the entire design feels soulless as a result, even though it really shouldn't, it's time to stop.
Taking this into account, I can't help but focus on the small things which make it clear that this level lacks the polish the levels it's trying to imitate have. I have a whole gallery of screenshots down below where I'll go into detail..

But first off, yes. This is a good level. It's actually a very good level for an episode (though it might steal from what future levels in the episode could utilise). I have already gone into detail as to why this is the case above, so I'd love to jump to criticism as fast as possible, because there's a few major points I'd like to address with this.

First off, I don't think the music fits. It's too soft, especially for a level loosely based on music. This might be just my impression, but it underlined how soulless I felt this level was. Maybe something more upbeat would help pump some life and excitement into this level? This song comes to mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOvXq3tJcV4

A problem I'm seeing a lot with people in this community is that they can't tell by showing, but rather have to write entire paragraphs explaining their level's gimmick. Chances are, if you show the player the gimmick, they're more likely to understand it than when they read about it. Here's an example. Keep in mind that this is what I feel like is the next step for you to improve as a designer, as you got a lot of the other stuff nailed down.
[rimg]http://i.imgur.com/WP1ng4e.png[/rimg]
Now, in my eyes, this entire area could've been structured differently. About one screen to the right you give the player an unlimited source of fire flowers and expect him to blast through these blocks. Removing the sign and leaving the player on their own would actually suffice in getting the message across. It's a puzzle. You present the player a problem and all the materials they need to solve it. You don't have to spell the solution out for them, that takes away from the fun.

Teaching mechanics by showing is also possible by visual indication to show differences between objects A and B. I don't know about you, but I absolutely despise these "!" - icons. They're shouting at the player: "HEY! THE DESIGNER COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO CORRECTLY INDICATE THIS GAMEPLAY MECHANIC SO I'M HERE TO TAKE ALL THE IMMERSION AWAY."
What I'm getting at is that I think you could've indicated the note-shooting flutes by giving the end piece a different colour. Maybe a more pinkish-reddish tint? It doesn't break the immersion and shows the player that something's off. Also you won't need the sign explaining that flutes shoot notes. Tadaah! No more dialogue!

So, after this lengthy excourse about how to level up your design™ it's time to get back on track. In fact, all I have beyond this point is a lot of nitpicks which indicate you didn't test this level enough.
[rimg]http://i.imgur.com/SRbxcbK.png[/rimg][rimg]http://i.imgur.com/qchDbeV.png[/rimg]
First off, how does this even happen? I've never seen this in any level I've ever played. Surely you must've noticed this, but why didn't you bother fixing it?
[rimg]http://i.imgur.com/YQixDe5.png[/rimg][rimg]http://i.imgur.com/vpPvaVC.png[/rimg]
These two are self-explanatory and could've been fixed in one test run.
[rimg]http://i.imgur.com/fDMXbQ9.png[/rimg]
The plant has the wrong height or gfxheight npc code.

So yeah. Overall I wanted to write this review to give you the showing advice. This is a good level, but I feel like it could be a lot better. My personal main gripe with it is in the overall structure of design, which makes it feel incredibly soulless, though that gripe doesn't affect the final score at all. I largely agree with ShadowStarX's score, even if my review is weighted a lot differently. I'm giving you a 7.9/10 because to me, it doesn't quite reach the 8/10 mark as there are issues which are stupidly easy to fix.