Super Mario Bros. X Forums

Download link (1-1):
https://farlingayesuffolkschuk-my.share ... 617ed79434
Screenshots (1-1): NEW Download link (1-2):
https://farlingayesuffolkschuk-my.share ... d94e6f00f2
Screenshots (1-2): Enjoy these levels from my upcoming project!

Judging by the screenshots, there are a lot of coins and the aesthetics needs to be improved.

And don't do this, this is ugly and not natural, just make a normal ground, with nice slopes and other things... If you didn't made that, the aesthetics could be A LOT better than this.
Anyways, good lucky on our project and practice more!

Those parts of the ground move up, down etc.
How could I make it look better without removing this gimmick?

Taycamgame wrote:Those parts of the ground move up, down etc.
How could I make it look better without removing this gimmick?

You can't.He said it would be better without moving.It's not the best level but it is a good start for a 1-1 level.

Taycamgame wrote:Those parts of the ground move up, down etc.
How could I make it look better without removing this gimmick?

You can do with other objects/blocks, these gaps turn the aesthetics strange.
Just think in another way to put this gimmick in your level

This was a pretty nice level! It was fun to play and had some good little secrets in it. Overall it was of suitable length and difficulty for a 1-1 level. Aesthetically, the level felt a little cluttered in terms of how many BGOs were used in places and the excessive amount of grass decorations in the ground, however it wasn't too bad. Being a 1-1 level, it was really nice to see that you kept the player safe on the first screen of the level and that no enemies appeared until they began moving forwards. The idea of the moving layers was interesting and I found that there were some very nice, progressive set-ups in the first section with enemies and simple layers moving up and down. However, when you started to throw in layers moving left and right the level suddenly lost its flow as there was a significant amount of waiting at times compared to the fast pace I took with the rest of the level. The red coin challenge was an interesting feature of the level, however I think that suddenly spawning the goombas was a little bit of a risk, especially if the player just hits the switch and continues running forward. Maybe find a different way to spawn them, such as via a warp pipe or something else less sudden and unexpected, that could result in the player taking a hit. The level had a good difficulty curve for the most part, however I think in the context of the first level of an episode, the last portion of the level was a little too difficult; parakoopas in a tight space are not easy to avoid and then the player is forced to make a jump onto a small platform with a goomba that they either have to jump onto or immediately over after landing. I feel like the coins weren't placed very effectively and could've been better-used to lead the player a little more, especially in a 1-1 level with moving obstacles and some tricky enemy set-ups. I didn't feel like the mechanic got a stagnant or repetitive, which was very good.

Overall I'd give this level about a 7/10. It isn't aesthetically spot-on, but neither is it repulsive in that sense, and overall the gameplay mostly fits the context the level was created in. There was also obviously a lot of thought that went into the enemy set-ups, and although the sideways moving layers weren't incorporated ideally, it was a good twist on the level that kept it fresh. Nice job!

EDIT:

TheNewGuy wrote:You can't.He said it would be better without moving.It's not the best level but it is a good start for a 1-1 level.

AlphaFenix wrote:Judging by the screenshots, there are a lot of coins and the aesthetics needs to be improved.

And don't do this, this is ugly and not natural, just make a normal ground, with nice slopes and other things... If you didn't made that, the aesthetics could be A LOT better than this.

Y'all should play the level instead of judge it from the screenshots. It's not as bad as you seem to be assuming

Thanks for the review! To make the platforms that move left and right better, should I speed up their movements, or replace them with ground that moves up and down?
Also, which type of parakoopa was the main problem? I will remove that type to make it better.

PixelPest wrote: Y'all should play the level instead of judge it from the screenshots. It's not as bad as you seem to be assuming

LET'S DO IT

Our level gimmick is about moving blocks. You applied very well this gimmick on the level design, i really liked some aplications, like crushers, moving plataforms that you need wait and make a good jump, and the Red Coin part is pretty darn cool, it's very creative. That is a basic gimmick that you make awesome aplications.
The difficult is very basic, since this the first level of your project, but the final part offers a nice difficulty, comparing to the whole level.
And about the coin placement, there are some places that have a lot of coins, so you can redistribute these coins along the level, make them less cumulative and redistribute with similar amounts in the places.
The aesthics it's where you need to improve on your level, there's ground grass everywhere and there's grass bgo everywhere, especially on the first section. Remember: Overdecoration can be a bad thing. If you controlled the use of bgo (and the ground grass), the aesthics could be better. If you want, you can place custom gfx for the grass bgo and maybe for the background, but also remeber: custom gfx doesn't make a level.
This is a personal opnion, 30° slopes make a level more natural, so you can use more them. You can use combinations of 30° and 45° slopes, and make our level very neat!

This level is much better than expected, i see why you make these gaps, and it's was fun! Overall, i give a 8/10 for you, the level design is very good and you should improve a little your aesthics.

This is my first complete review, when i saw other levels, i only juddged by the screenshots, and didn't make any true review. Sorry about that! Like i said before, good luck with your project, and keep improving, and how do you keep improving? Making more levels and try hard to improve the weak points.

Updated Link:
https://farlingayesuffolkschuk-my.share ... d39ba12245
You can still access the original via the OP.
Not much is changed, except there aren't too many BGO's and coins, NPC placement has been altered slightly and new platforms have been placed at the areas with left / right moving platforms. I hope I didn't make it worse!

Hi Taycamgame, I downloaded your level and here's what I think after playing it:

- Your download link in the description is broken as I got an error message, please make sure to update it in the description as that's where most people would look rather than in the comments below.
- I think the playthrough of the level is enjoyable. It's not very challenging but then again, it's a first level in a future project so it's understandable.
- Music was fitting and uplifting, matching the atmosphere and vibrant colours.
- I didn't spot any cut-offs or awkward tileset choices. I do like the custom GFX for the green blocks.
- There were plenty of coins to collect. I would actually suggest putting a timer for the red coins to make it more of a challenge for getting that star.
- Speaking of stars, will the player be given any info on how many stars there are in each level in your future project?
- The first star was so easy to find. Perhaps if there are more pipes throughout the level with some of them having Piranha Plants?
- Most of the blocks were moving up and down and only a only few were going left to right and it would've made it more varied if the up-down and left-right blocks were more mixed to make it less monotonous.
- Enemies were fine in terms of numbers. Are you planning on using custom enemies in the other level of your project?

Overall, I enjoyed playing the level, I wish it was a tiny bit longer though or maybe giving the player more chance to explore. I will give this level a rating of 7.5/10.

Shadow_Flame wrote:Hi Taycamgame, I downloaded your level and here's what I think after playing it:

- Your download link in the description is broken as I got an error message, please make sure to update it in the description as that's where most people would look rather than in the comments below.
- I think the playthrough of the level is enjoyable. It's not very challenging but then again, it's a first level in a future project so it's understandable.
- Music was fitting and uplifting, matching the atmosphere and vibrant colours.
- I didn't spot any cut-offs or awkward tileset choices. I do like the custom GFX for the green blocks.
- There were plenty of coins to collect. I would actually suggest putting a timer for the red coins to make it more of a challenge for getting that star.
- Speaking of stars, will the player be given any info on how many stars there are in each level in your future project?
- The first star was so easy to find. Perhaps if there are more pipes throughout the level with some of them having Piranha Plants?
- Most of the blocks were moving up and down and only a only few were going left to right and it would've made it more varied if the up-down and left-right blocks were more mixed to make it less monotonous.
- Enemies were fine in terms of numbers. Are you planning on using custom enemies in the other level of your project?

Overall, I enjoyed playing the level, I wish it was a tiny bit longer though or maybe giving the player more chance to explore. I will give this level a rating of 7.5/10.

I disagree with a few things said in here. The level is a 1-1; it doesn't need to be harder and definitely doesn't need Piranha Plants which I feel in the current context would add artificial difficulty and there's enough to manage with moving layers already. How can such a short level be monotonous? I think you underestimated or lacked appreciation for the simplicity but at the same time the intuitive and varied enemy set-ups, in the first section especially. Mixing the horizontally-moving blocks earlier on would make the level much more shallow, as it abandons the concept of 4-step level design (introduce the gimmick/mechanic in a safe environment--done at the very beginning, expand on it--done throughout the first section through different sizes and heights as well as changing enemy set-ups, throwing a spin on it--started in the second section which introduced platforms which moved horizontally instead of vertically, and then including a final challenge to test the player's mastery of the mechanic). Why does the player even need more chance to explore and why does it need to be longer? Consider the context of the level as 1-1 and that linearity can be a good thing and all levels don't have to be exploration-based. I think the length was definitely suitable

Updated OP with a new download for 1-2, Blocky Bitlands! Yes. The main gimmick of the stage is the Sizeable blocks, use them to your advantage! You even get to go inside a small Wooden fortress.

Good levels!

This wouldn't work so well as a standalone level. but it's just 1-1 with free coins so there's not a problem.

DryBoneJr wrote:This wouldn't work so well as a standalone level. but it's just 1-1 with free coins so there's not a problem.

Neither of these levels are stand alone ones, they are for my upcoming project.

Taycamgame wrote:

DryBoneJr wrote:This wouldn't work so well as a standalone level. but it's just 1-1 with free coins so there's not a problem.

Neither of these levels are stand alone ones, they are for my upcoming project.

Yeah I figured that out from the title, good luck on the episode I guess

Could I get a review of this 1-2 from someone? Thanks in advance.

Taycamgame wrote:Could I get a review of this 1-2 from someone? Thanks in advance.

Alright, I will review this level!

First off, the level uses some custom GFX that you wouldn't expect, but still give make the level look really nice! Also, glad that there are 2 player start points, some levels I played only have a 1 player startpoint, but have multiple playables in the actual episode. There was a fine balance in difficulty, most likely because of the multiple coins and mushrooms, but for a 1-2, there were a lot of koopas and not many goombas, this isn't terrible, but I felt like it was a tiny bit annoying killing them all by cliff, but there is a secret that requires a koopa shell early on to hit a switch, and since there are so many koopas if you miss it, there is a lot of times you can retry, which helps balance difficulty. Sort of. The first secret requires a green block to be hit in order to enter the hidden room, where if you hit a magic block, a large platform will extend upwards, allowing you to obtain a star. There is another secret blue block after the door that leads to another area. Hitting the block makes light blue blocks appear, letting you access an area with a parakoopa generator, and a star. Again, for a 1-2 level in mind, I let a younger friend play test this level and he died on this spot several times. I doubt 10 year olds will be downloading these, but you never know. After that you enter a door that leads to a checkpoint. This area has some more blocks, coins, and koopas. The secret area here requires an orange block to be hit. It is under a semi hard to access area, and when you go to the secret area section, you must jump over some really well made wooden spikes. You enter a pipe that feels like an easy Zelda dungeon, and collect the third and final star. After that is a nice red coin bonus that rewards you with a 1up. It works well, but I feel like a red ring would be better, rather than a block. After that is a block with a mushroom, some more sizable blocks, parakoopas, a coin block, and on last platforming section. You jump off the highest block that has 2 coins on it, then enter a SMB3 style level end, or so I thought. You actually hit a switch block, make a door appear, then enter the door. It is kind of random, but I guess its okay.

This wasn't a bad level, and I like it for being unique, since 1-2 is usually underground, the custom graphics look really nice and fit the SMB3 theme, while there were some annoying things, like the large amount of koopas, and the weird level end, I really liked the level, and as a 1-2 level, I will give it a solid 9/10. Not bad!