Level Naming Conventions

[BrokenAce]

What's the best way to name levels in an episode? Just leave it as numbers ala SMB1? World name and number ala SMW? Or just random funny titles like in Crash Bandicoot or Donkey Kong Country? And as for secret alternate path levels, should they be lettered, or should they just continue from where the main path's numbers left off?

I'm thinking of using the SMW naming convention for my in-the-works episode, but since I plan on having both Airship levels and secret levels I'm not sure if having [World Name] A and [World Name] Airship in the same world is really ok, you know?

[MarioLover64]

SMW had Vanilla Secret 1, problem solved

[55jedat555]

I think that unless you're specifically aiming to capture the feel of SMB1/SMW in your episode, following any naming conventions is completely unnecessary and up to your choosing anyway. In my opinion the best approach to naming levels is how it was done in JUMP and various kaizo hacks for instance, that is giving levels a name that has some correlation to the actual content of said level while also not being strictly restricted to, say, geographical features (e.g. Grassy Hillside, Deep Caves, etc.). In short, there's no reason creativity shouldn't be allowed when naming levels.

[Enjl]

for me the name and concept are usually the first things i come up with for a level. it's a pretty fun way to work if you finish the level before the idea gets stale in your head.
short sample list:

Spoiler: show

Boom boom level -> boom boom's room room
music: funky area. and things are fast -> funky area
dolphin village -> thesaurus usage -> grampus hamlet

names are kinda like the cover of a book. a first dash of personality, and i like making them expressive and chaotic.

[BrokenAce]

So I've decided I want to use a kind of SMW/NSMBU-like naming convention for my project, with each level being the world name and then a number or indicator e.g. Muncher Park 1, Muncher Park 2, Muncher Park Airship, etc.

The problem is, I have no idea how to name secret levels, of which I want to have two of in each world.
Now I could go for A and B like how a traditional Mario game would do it (e.g. Muncher Park A, Muncher Park B), but then there's the issue that most worlds will have an Airship, which leads to confusion if A and Airship are in the same world.
Alternatively, I could just call them Secret 1 and Secret 2 like how SMW would do it, but I feel this is a bit wordy given how my naming convention uses the full names of the worlds like in NSMBU, not to mention it'd lead to numbers 1 and 2 being used multiple times.
I could also go for a less traditional system of naming them X and Y (e.g. Muncher Park X, Muncher Park Y), but I'm not sure if that sounds too ridiculous or not.

As you can see, this stuff gets to me more than it probably should. What do you guys think works best? Is there some other alternative I didn't think of?

[Enjl]

NSMBU gave each level a proper name, so this sounds like an issue born from overcomplication. Name your levels whatever you feel like works best for the level. Thinking about which iteration of Nintendo's homework to copy and applying it for something different seems like time that could be spent developing a new system properly suited to what you're going for. One that you embrace because you like it, rather than settle with because it's the least unfitting you could find.

[BrokenAce]

Yeah, fair point. I just don't think giving the levels random names is a good idea since there's no way of having obvious World names that way (they could be seen while warping from one world to another through a pipe, but this means you wouldn't find out what the first world is called until beating it, which seems kinda flawed imo). Plus, I like the idea of the secret levels being special, and if they just have random names then players might not even remember that they're secret levels.

Giving the secret levels X and Y markers isn't really Nintendo's style, but given your point about not needing to follow strict traditions, it'd probably be best for my project. I just hope it won't come across as confusing to players.

[Enjl]

An alternative approach to revealing the world's name early is by having a warp leading to the world, or an "entry level" type deal early on that establishes the upcoming location. Just as a thought.

[Taycamgame]

The problem is, I have no idea how to name secret levels, of which I want to have two of in each world.

Muncher Park S1, Muncher Park S2
Alternatively, maybe you could include a custom symbol somehow, much like the special levels in NSMBU. I think you'd have to manually render it to the screen in that case, though, since it'd be an image not text.

[SergioZen25]

I think it's very subjective, personally, I like when levels have wacky names and/or refer to the gimmick in the name. Having a level called somethin like "Donut Mountain 3" seems devoid of personality, like, what makes it different from "Donut Mountain 1 or 2"? If you want to number them anyways, you could always resort to putting the world and level number, ex: 1-1, 2-4, and then adding a proper name to make it easier to remember.

But in the end, you are the one that has to name the level, so just name it however you like it.