Iko's levels

[Iko]

This thread is the showcase of my levels.
So far, I have done just 2 levels, but maybe in the future I will do other levels as well...

All my levels are made using the Version 1.3 of SMBX and despite being uploaded only now, they were made by me in the past years (I can't remember the precise date).

I was planning to use them for an episode called "Star Quest" but I never completed it and now the project is canceled (who knows, maybe I will continue it again in the future, for now it's just dropped).

My difficulty rating is:

Tutorial
Very Easy
Easy
Medium
Hard
Very Hard
Experienced players only
Hell

Let's start with the levels:

Grassland

A very short level, that was meant to be the beginning of the adventure.
Difficulty: Easy



This level is not final, there are a couple of things that I want to correct, anyway it's still fully enjoyable; there is a toad who is just a memo for me, all what he says is not important for the player and it will be removed soon.

Download: https://mega.nz/#!rghmWCSb!3rpC3jyh01Dq ... fZuOnCENto

Peach's Castle

This level is special, I won't spoil anything, I'll just say that it has some secrets and some dialogues. In the canceled episode it was going to be a level that moved the story forward, a story level.
Be sure to complete the level twice, one normal (0 stars) and one with at least a star, since the levels has 2 different exits and one of them requires at least 1 star.
Difficulty: Medium



Well, to be honest, this was supposed to be the real firts level, but despite I tried to make it as easy as possible, it's still a bit complex for a beginner, so I think that if I will ever restart the project, I will put an introduction world that works as tutorial/training before this level... I want to make an episode that's accessible by any player.

Download: https://mega.nz/#!KhBUwIoB!ybeCtaOpEGQT ... pumRdU50ss

[PixelPest]

Posting levels made by other users that you have modified is not allowed. Remixes are, but using a pre-made level as a base and just changing/adding things to it is not

[Iko]

I think I was ninja'd by you at editing the post, anyway, then ok, I (or you) just removed it.

[aero]

Peach's Castle was actually not half bad. The one thing that I actually though was pretty cool was how you kept the player from glitching around at this part, usually people just avoid the gaps with visible blocks:



Some of the layout you used is kind of amateurish such as the mixture of desert and grass tiles, and ending one section of grass and starting a new section with no gap between. Both shown here:



I do have to say though that the plumbing part was enjoyable, and maybe if you expanded on it then your level would be much more fun. You've got some abilities, but you should probably play more levels before making them to get a feel for improving your design technique. This includes playing Nintendo levels, but you should also check out the levels in the archives forum marked under "Average" and "Pretty Good" or just play other levels in this forum. There's not that much more to review, so I hope this covered everything. Keep it up.

[Iko]

Thank you very much for the review! This is actually my very first level made in SMBX, I did it (I can't remember) like 3 years ago or more, and in all these years, sometimes I modified it to fix issues and add stuff when I had some free time and when I wanted to; this is why there are many different parts that may be unfitting each other in the same level.
Anyway, your feedback is very useful and I will learn from it and apply what I learned in my future levels; I'm already playing some levels here on the forums to see what can be done with the editor.

In this level I tried to fix all the possible glitches, and I tried to adjust the level design to make it compatible with both horizontal and vertical splitscreen in 2 player mode (this explains all those mushrooms and flowers, that are too many for the single player mode). Having all these events and managing to not glitch them in 2 player was also a challenge.
This at the expense of the custom graphics... it's not that I don't like it, it's that I prefer to use my time to improve the level design and to make new levels instead of drawing custom sprites; maybe in the future I will update my levels with custom tilesets but I give it very low priority.

the splitted grass section, it's Kirby's fault XD it's something that happens very often in many Kirby games and I was influenced by that.
I will probably remove it but I don't want to remove it before trying to see how it looks with a custom tileset made by myself; if it will look bad then I will correct it (I'm not planning to make a custom tileset soon but I'm definitely planning to do it some day).
The sand pool instead is there for a reason, and I'm working on that just in these days...



It's the "secret" exit (not really secret, it's all story driven and it's required to advance in the map) that brings you to the easier levels meant to intoduce the novice players to the game.
(I raised the amuont of stars required to complete the level, now 1 star is required to enter the castle and the door of the plumbing part requires 2 stars now, but I temporarily placed them in the level so it's not required anymore to cheat or get them in a different level in order to try out things).

I will definitely expand on the plumbing part as a separate level, I'm happy that you enjoyed that! Though, this level is too much complex already, it has lots of events and layers and it's a mess, I don't think I will expand this one (so I will use these concept in a different level and expand them).
Also, don't ever expect long levels from me, I hate them, I prefer going for the SMB3 lenght for my average levels (grassland is even shorter but that's an exception).

P.S.: the layer order of the waterfalls is glitchy, they look bad when played in window, but they are just fine if played in fullscreen mode (at least on my PC).

I'll join all the levels into an episode when I will have enough of them, I already sketched the map for World 1.

[HackPlayer7]

UNOFFICIAL REVIEW OF GRASSLAND
Alright I may be new to the site but that won't stop me from doing this unofficial review.
Skip to the end to see the actual feedback.....
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So we start the level and it seems like we are on a grassland near a bunch of hills.
And then um, there are some odd bushes placement.
There are bushes on floating blocks and it looks odd.
When you continue there is a checkpoint. I understand this is a 1-1 level but placing a checkpoint after 12 seconds of gameplay? Either extend the level or don't put any checkpoints.

I liked the concept of the moving platforms, but they were really easy to cross since they were right next to each other.
Then you get another moving platform making you skip the spike part. Only it's really tricky to get the right timing since you don't get that much space to jump.
Then the levels end and I noticed two bad things
-The random holes in the ground
-A boss exit but with the black background
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So.... here are the things to improve:
--Remove the bushes on the small floating blocks
-Remove the holes at the end or put them everywhere in the level (which makes it look cool )
-Make the moving platforms more challenging
-Make the level longer
-Make the elevator thingy go lower, so we have more space to jump
-Use the SMB3 Mushroom-Flower-Star exit or remove the black background


Other than that, I actually liked the level. It's simple but not too hard and has a great atmosphere.

[Iko]

UNOFFICIAL REVIEW OF GRASSLAND...

Thank you for the review!
The things that you pointed out are actually very interesting.

I will surely take feedback from them, but I won't ensure you that I will modify the level, since I prefer to apply the experience and the new skills to a new level instead of updating the older ones (though an improved version of the level is already almost ready, I will update it soon probably... just a couple of level design fixes, nothing important, but I removed the black background at the end).

I have an updated version of Peach's Castle too, with the tutorial exit under the sand pool, but that's not released yet too and I need to do a couple of things before releasing it.
The new exit is basically a big interactive cutscene, you can't enter Peach's Castle because you don't have a present for Peach, you meet a Toad, and while you are talking to him, you see a shooting star falling (it's animated using layers, events and a Sonic ring with custom graphics to look like a star exit but you can't interact with it); the Toad says that it was a power star and that it was a perfect present for Peach, so you start a trip to find that shooting star, using an ancient shortcut in order to reach it before anyone else (the pipe under the sand pool).
It was needed because of how I want to make the structure and the world map of my episode (an episode is not planned yet, for now I'm only experimenting).

P.S.: has anyone noticed my Hotel Mario remix made with Wario Ware D.I.Y.? It's not perfect but I think it's better than the original (not that it was difficult to do something better than that thing).

Unfortunately I'm not very much active with SMBX so I don't know when I will release the updated stuff; I will anyway, sooner or later.

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5/14/2023

EDIT: After all these years, I still exist. The bad news is that my old hard disk broke, and I've lost all the changes made to the levels, including the pipe under the sand pool thing. At the moment I'm working on a Super World of Super Mario Maker 2 all based on the 3D World style, and I'm at 20 levels out of 40; BTW those SMBX levels were full of flaws, I'm not sure if I will ever revisit or continue the project... it's even more canceled than before.
Though, I may do more SMBX stuff in the future, after I will finish with Mario Maker 2.