Save non linear heavy visual levels from dying!

[Ness-Wednesday]

If you're noticed that in CC12, several levels that were non linear and with heavy visuals got placed low.
This is becuase, they're starting to die out!
We must do something before linear levels become the best top thing!
I have decided that we should have a war between linear and non linear levels, to hope for more better levels reaching top 10 instead of shitty things like inearness.
Now let's go through two examples from CC12:

-People who are happy that they're dying, this like pissed me off.

-Rofl, this quote by meme Princess:

Spoiler: show

Honestly though, for every content creator, there comes a time where you put out something that you think is great, only to realize that people don't like it as much as you thought they would. You need to step back and think about why the level got the score it got. The judge reviews are there for a reason. Try to find out what went wrong. Only by taking criticism you can actually improve. Of course, as QUill already mentioned, trends change and the things that people like change, so it's important to stay up to date with the times. Another thing to consider is wether you want levels with an overload of custom graphics that are super complex and possibly confusing, or "simple linear levels" that may not be amazingly innovative but still fun to play. You have to find a good balance between complexity and fun. Making levels these days isn't about making crazy gimmick shit with 90 million tilesets anymore. I think things like MAGLX2 made people realize that the core essence of level making is still to make levels fun. If you have the innovation, but not the fun, it's just gonna scare people away.

Now believe me, this should be left in the Talkhaus unless you're a Talkhaus member but, don't think this is an advantage for hoping to get rid of my favorite levels.
Me, Sux, Shibison-Kof, and MECHDRAGON777 have decided to get vengeance on those who shall be against non linear level design with cool tileset mixes and defeat them linear levels.
Irc you can also be a supporter of this and fight for the more powerful levels to be higher and let those horrible levels stay in the worse rankings.
If you would like something else that's stupid and crappy like a level that's effortless, then you shall beware!
So who will you fight for, linearness or more open heavy visual levels?
Hurry, becuase this will only last up to April 1rst 2k16 11:59pm, otherwise this topic will be locked by a staff and archived on April 2nd, 2016.

Further information considering this shall be comparing levels that I and Sux were better than that crap (GG, I don't mean any offense to you Tier 3 people, but it's just my opinion), and looking at the past CCs, or maybe watch SnoruntPyro's playthrough of the old TAOK episode thingy (Idk).
Otherwise, you're on you're own becuase I'm not helping you find the information 100% all the time.
Afterwards, we'll fight to stop joke levels from being poorly designed and help stop old users betraying us via crappy joke levels.
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to work on Chapter 6.5 of my fanfic and whatever I need to do.
That is all! (Yes, this is an "April Fools" post, so Idc if you shitpost rather than laugh like a raocow)

[Duster]

IMO, Sanctuary Fortress 2 is a great example of what greatness we can achieve with anti linearity, let them linear levels rot and slet us start a new golden era of level design with 30 minute long explorative levels.

[Gameinsky]

Just let people enjoy what they like.

[MrPunchia]

Non linear =/= always good, you know. I mean, there can be geniusly designed open-world levels, and then the poorly done non-linear levels *cough* My CC12 level *cough*

[ssumday]

The biggest problem of non-linear levels are the quantity of backtracks.
My CC12 level is non-linear with heavy visual and I got 2nd (my level don't have backtracks).
So non-linear levels without a annoying design still better than linear levels.

[underFlo]

don't forget switch hunts, those shouldn't die out either

[MistakesWereMade]

I still don't know why people preffer non-linear levels more than linear levels on smbx, i'd rather go through a path with new shit along the way than going back through the same obstacles over and over again

[Ness-Wednesday]

Bald Toad's Peak and Desert of Angels had suffered with a 3 in fact, Bald Toad's Peak got 3 threes!
This proves on that it's dying, but in theory FireLink could've won if didn't start to happen, as Chad's level didn't have heavy visuals and is a rainbow Ice cream water place.
We need to steal Chad's ideas because he won CC12 and people love his gimmicks.
And what we need are switches with a warp leading to the beginning!

[Alagirez]

IMO, Sanctuary Fortress 2 is a great example of what greatness we can achieve with anti linearity, let them linear levels rot and slet us start a new golden era of level design with 30 minute long explorative levels.

You forgot to add Rotten Flesh Spell and Darkyjungle Nerve Impulses
jk
but yes, they needs 10-30 mins to beat these demon levels.

don't forget switch hunts, those shouldn't die out either

I second this, since i'm still a switch fan.

[MECHDRAGON777]

Whybdid you mention me? I never signed up for that? I may prefer non-linear levels, but they are just a pain to speed run. If you play my CC12 level, you can see it was linear.

Also, switch that leads to the beginning of the level? You mean like my CC8 level?

[Witchking666]

Fuck you, die, and rot in the fires of hell.

No seriously now.
Linearity and nonlinearity can both be good or bad.
I have both types in my episode simply because some gimmicks work better with linear gameplay .
I do agree that 10 minutes long, uninteresting, 1 section levels are bad aswell as 1 hr long explorative ones.
Learn how to be in the middle guys.

[MECHDRAGON777]

No seriously now.
Linearity and nonlinearity can both be good or bad.
I have both types in my episode simply because some gimmicks work better with linear gameplay .
I do agree that 10 minutes long, uninteresting, 1 section levels are bad aswell as 1 hr long explorative ones.
Learn how to be in the middle guys.

Umm, Why do I fell that rage is directed at me?

[Witchking666]

Its not, its meant at ness-wednesdays statement.
I tried to say that both linear and nonlinear levels can suck or be good

[Mable]

So non-linear levels without a annoying design still better than linear levels.

Not true. Both can be good it depends how you design it and if others also like it the way you made it. Most of my levels are in the linear style and some people prefer them over some of the non linear ones.

Probably bc i don't do switch puzzles in my levels. No one likes them so much anymore.

[HVMetal]

(Yes, this is an "April Fools" post, so Idc if you shitpost rather than laugh like a raocow)

[Mable]

Actually, the joke was so bad i didn't even laugh and decided to not shitpost in this like i actually wanted to.

[Emral]

Interesting how people try to defend this as an april fools thread, while there's actually some proper discussion we can get out of this thread.
I don't know if this thread will stay, regardless I'll drop my own opinion on the topic:

Nonlinearity in levels, even fake nonlinearity, is often used to make the world of the level more immersive and vast. If pulled off correctly, this can make the level absolutely amazing.
However, it's kind of a risk vs reward thing, as nonlinearity can easily confuse the player, which is something you want to avoid at all costs because it rips them right out of the experience. Laying down the path for the player or basing your level around exploration are two ways to approach this issue, you just have to make sure the approach doesn't ruin the experience.
The main path of a level should always be the most obvious and should never need a blatant indication, in my opinion. If the player isn't smart enough to figure out where the level continues, it's probably the designer's fault for hiding the intended path between several secrets and side paths (* note that ghost house type levels are partially exempt from this because they're meant to require some problem solving to beat properly. However, in a game scenario, putting a "fake" exit which doesn't extend the path at the end of a rather obvious route might be a good idea). The only scenario in which you want to give the player an indication on the main route is if there are two equally weighted paths to progress in the level (while most people would put a toad or message box saying "choose your path", placing a sign pointing to either path is enough) (see "No Disguise from that Double Vision" by Sturg. He had a very clever approach to split paths).

This community's past focus on nonlinearity has created some rather weird traditions which I've been seeing. Compare dragon coin placement in SMW and SMW hacks to dragon coin placement in SMBX. SMBX levels sometimes design entire sections just to hide a dragon coin. Guys! That's 1/5 of a 1-up. You're placing so many coins in your level that going for these secrets is hardly worth it.
This "focus" on nonlinearity has, in my opinion, also created some kind of cookie-cutter design philosophy where a level needs to have x secrets, y split paths and z sections to be considered universally good. A level doesn't have to have a main driving force to stand out among other levels, other than the tileset, which then leads to people attempting to create episodes out of "good" levels which all play the same and just get really repetitive.

There are some neat levels in Maglx2 which approach nonlinearity in an exploration kind of way. Willhart's and Ignoritus's levels come to mind. Just make sure if you're making a collectathon that your data is saved between deaths, because otherwise it can get easily frustrating.

I'd personally like if there'd be a heavy decline in "non linear heavy visual levels", because playing levels which actually have something to make them stand out, be it just a joke that drives the level, are way more fun and interesting to play than levels where you think "oh I guess I have to go through this area which looks exactly like the last area".

[Ness-Wednesday]

I'm really dissapointed that I'm treated like shit and fact that Enjl was the only one who understands.
Lol, I'm not why would I, this is the Internet for crying out loud.
And no, this was only to stay for April fools and I'm hoping this to be moved with the other April fools 2016 threads.