Rustic Dunes [Featuring LunaLua Fire Snake & Pile-Driver Micro Goomba]
Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 9:22 pm
by Nat The Porcupine
So, Valtteri's Nighttime Wasteland really inspired me to make a level with two custom enemy APIs of my own, and this was the result; a simple & fun SMB3 styled desert level with world 2 difficulty and two custom enemies that are really kick-ass! I was originally going to post this in the casual levels section, but I want it to be legitimately reviewed, so that's why it's posted here.
Download! (LunaLua is required for Fire Snake & Pile-Driver Micro Goomba)
Feel free to constructively criticize this level with brutal honesty! I really want to become a better level designer, so don't sugar-coat the feedback at all.
One more thing: I used LunaLua to load the custom music too (I wanted the music to loop), so music won't play in the level editor, but it should start when the level is actually being played. Also please make sure you have the latest version of LunaLua, otherwise the music may get screwed up... badly. You have been warned.
Well, this was a great level, I enjoyed playing it. Keep it up. Also that underground music was pure ear rape lmao, because the music file had 48000 Hz instead of 41000 Hz for some reason. Guess I have a reason to update my LunaLua now, since it doesn't screw up the music files in the latest versions.
tl;dr great level with lots of neat things to see.
h2643 wrote:Well, this was a great level, I enjoyed playing it. Keep it up. Also that underground music was pure ear rape lmao, because the music file had 48000 Hz instead of 41000 Hz for some reason. Guess I have a reason to update my LunaLua now, since it doesn't screw up the music files in the latest versions.
tl;dr great level with lots of neat things to see.
Yeah, this was made & tested with the latest version of LunaLua. Staying up to date is typically good practice
Anyway, thanks for the feedback.
EDIT: I edited the initial post urging people to update to the latest version, so hopefully there won't be anymore ear bleeding.
Mushroom King wrote:What about the Fire Snake body? I guess the Fighter Fly is used only for the head, right? Player is able to spin jump on it but get hurt by the body.
The body is comprised of PNG images & colliders drawn at the previous coordinates of the Fire Snake's head.
Just to be clear, I will be releasing these APIs separately soon enough, so feel free to take a look at the code & resources if you want.
Level Design/Gameplay (weighed 70%): 5.2/10
The overall layout of this level was okay but it seemed very cluttered. There were just too many BGOs, especially at the beginning. There also wasn't a good spread of coins. In some spots there were a good amount, but in most spots there were too many or too few. The pyramids of normal brick blocks and of metal sizables just didn't look very appealing and the bricks block pyramids really didn't serve any purpose other than to slow the player down. Other than the custom NPCs, this level didn't have much to it either. Although the parts with the pink pipes provided a little bit of variety, it wasn't overly enjoyable. This level really needed some kind of gimmick, since although often a really solid level doesn't necessarily need a gimmick to make it stand it out or interesting for the player, I wouldn't consider this a solid level. The custom NPCs were quite well-made, although just a recommendation (I didn't take off points for this), it would be more fun in my opinion of the Piledriver Goombas had playerblocktop=1, like in NSMBDS and could only be killed by spinjumping. I also didn't understand the level's name, since there wasn't anything rustic. I was expecting some kind of ruins/desert-themed level but I just got "Dunes".
Graphics/Sounds (weighed 30%): 6.5/10
Although the graphics for this level were pretty good and they stuck to the SMB3 theme, the music did not fit very well. The level's overall atmosphere would have been so much better if you had used some type of desert-related song, such as the World 2 music from NSMBWii.
