48 Hour Contest X1 [RESULTS!]

[Taycamgame]

Theme: Evolution

Rules Thread

You have 48 hours to create your level.

Submit your levels in this thread!

The Judging period is over! Scroll to the bottom of this page to find them (or click here: Results)

Thanks to all who took part!

[NicoBros]

pog

[Valentine]

I haven't slept I've been making this level for the last 22 hours.

-1 main exit, 1 secret exit
-1 bowser

Enjoy
Those Unwilling

[TheTrueMarioMaster]

Since the theme was revealed I already had an idea for a level that could fit that theme so I decided to make it. Probably the shortest level I have done as of yet. It has only one exit.

Evolution of Grasslands

[Waddle]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ynOLck ... sp=sharing

Enjoy!

EDIT: found a gamebreaking bug, reuploaded. Use the same link!

[squp]

this is the first thing ive made in smbx in over half a year

level name: "Karkat Vantas (as in homestuck)"

Karkat Vantas (as in homestuck)

have a fun

edit: fixed a feature

[computerfan0]

My level: http://www.mediafire.com/file/9osgjul04 ... .lvlx/file
Title: Evolution of Koopas
Exits: 1 SMB3 Orb

EDIT: I made 2 levels for this contest, the second of them is here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/6nahroa5y ... s.zip/file
1 SMW gate exit, name is Super Evo Bros.

[Taycamgame]

Submissions Closed!

[georgespezi12]

Royal Devolution should get a high score.

Added in 31 seconds:
The small submission count should be easy to judge

[Cedur]

Five submissions overall

[Enjl]

Five submissions overall

Six.

[Cedur]

Five submissions overall

Six.

Ok I saw the edit from computerfan0

[Taycamgame]

And the results are in!
Once again, a big thankyou to all who took part.
Without further ado...

6th Place

REVEAL: show

Super Evo Bros. by Computerfan0

What the hell did I just play? Did I even play anything? This… “level”, if you can even call it that, failed to impress me in the slightest. First, let’s discuss the gameplay: there is none. Seriously, you walk to the right, jump across a few small gaps and reach the end. That’s it. There is a group of Lakitus, but they don’t even pose a minimal threat - they’re completely useless! Also, what purpose does the top route serve? These conveyor belts stretch halfway across the level and then they abruptly end.

Next up, functionality. Well, the level works. Ofcourse, there’s nothing on the level that could possibly break. No softlocks, no glitches, no lag. Nice job! The only issue I have is that this isn’t really a level and, as a result, the functionality of it is meaningless.

In terms of aesthetics… well, first, the background. Why is it a picture of a car? Not to mention the fact that it has an awful loop. Thankfully you’ve avoided legal issues by covering up the number plate. Then we have the use of red SMB3 wood and conveyor belts and I have to be frank, they’re incredibly bland. There’s no decoration or anything; this level looks like a skeleton.

Finally, as for the mystery theme, well… nothing really evolved. Sure, the number of Lakitus and gaps increased as the level progressed, but at the same time, for what purpose? They didn’t pose any difficulty increase at all. Also, just because “evo” is in the title, it doesn’t mean there is anything evolving. Nice try.

My advice for the future? Make full use of the 48 hours given. This “level” was clearly made within 2 minutes and it shows. You’re lucky that the functionality scoring rules in your favour.

Design / Creativity - 6/40
Functionality - 25/30
Aesthetics - 3/20
Mystery Theme - 2/10

Overall Score: 36/100

 
5th Place

REVEAL: show

The Evolution of Koopas by Computerfan0

This level is basically a boss rush except it’s normal enemies instead of bosses. First thing that bugs me is the small alcove in the first section - why is it there? It’s not necessary. In some of the sections there are Goombas which aren’t required to be beaten. I must, therefore, question their existence. Why are they there? Do they serve any purpose? Not at all. Also the layout of each room is basically identical and I strongly dislike the repetitive nature of this level. In the section with a Lakitu, why did you use a SMW Galoomba as opposed to a normal koopa shell? That would have been more consistent with the level’s overall theme of Koopas. I appreciate the inclusion of a powerup station before the battle with Bowser, but where’s the checkpoint? It’s not like the boss is difficult, but still. There’s not much else to say about this level. It feels incredibly rompy and it’s rather bland, but it’s not terrible at least.

Functionality. The level works fine. No glitches or softlocks, but that makes sense given how simplistic the level is.

In terms of aesthetics, it’s really bland. Each room is shaped exactly the same and there’s no decoration. And no, the pointless lava pool doesn’t count as decoration! I do like the usage of blue walls with a red flooring though, since the colours go pretty well together.

For the mystery theme, this level actually evolves rather nicely. It starts off with a basic pair of beached koopas and progresses through the Koopa ranks up until we reach Bowser. Nicely done! It’s unfortunate that the difficulty doesn’t really scale alongside this.

For the future, I’d suggest trying something more interesting than a simple “kill the enemies to progress” level. Wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t very exciting either.

Design / Creativity - 11/40
Functionality - 23/30
Aesthetics - 6/20
Mystery Theme - 6/10

Overall: 46/100

 
4th Place

REVEAL: show

Evolution of Grasslands by TheTrueMarioMaster

Nice. This level remixes the first level from each of the 4 original Mario games within one. This is a pretty neat idea! However, a lot of the level feels like a copy from one of the four games. This is a nitpick, but I dislike the fact that you can die upon loading the level if you don’t move. I’d advise against allowing the player into these situations; however the time allowance given here does make up for it, slightly. One minor thing that disappointed me about the design of this level is that it completely excludes the bonus areas from the original games. Why is there so much grass in the SMB2 section? Literally every flat surface is a coin mine and my question is - why? Also, I was hoping that something would happen upon collecting all the cherries, but nothing did. No bonus, no 1-up, nothing. Btw, I’d recommend putting a checkpoint at the start of the SMB3 area. Not that it’s hard or anything, but generally it’s a good idea to put a checkpoint near the middle of a level. The SMW section is the worst part of the level: it seems you have fallen victim to the classic phenomenon known only as “enemy spam”. Why did you have to ruin a good level with enemy spam? Maybe you were running out of time by this point but there was no need to place dozens of npcs! The design is not bad, however it just feels like you copied segments from the 4 games rather than creating your own thing. Good effort, though!

Functionality. The level works pretty well! There are no glitches or softlocks or anything of the sort. There’s not a lot to say for this level, since it doesn’t really try anything complex.

The aesthetics were good. Even though they were vanilla, they weren’t actually bad. I appreciate you adding decoration to the level too, though I’d admit that it did feel slightly repetitive. Also, in the SMW section there is a mystery bubble just sitting on the ground. This doesn’t serve any purpose and just sticks out like a sore thumb.

The level evolved well! From SMB1 to SMW, it felt like a journey through the ages. In terms of gameplay there wasn’t a whole lot of evolution but the difficulty increase is much appreciated.

On the whole, good job. My advice for the future is to submit something unique. Remixes of grassland levels have been done to death at this point, and I’d like to see something more from you!

Design / Creativity - 18/40
Functionality - 24/30
Aesthetics - 9/20
Mystery Theme - 6/10

Overall: 57/100

 
3rd Place

REVEAL: show

Karkat Vantas (as in homestuck) by Squp

This is a pretty neat level! Focusing on the gimmick of crabs, this level feels like a joy to play through. The use of passthrough blocks was a great idea as it clearly allowed you to create more than would typically be associated with an enemy as basic as a sidestepper. What’s more, the level evolves really well - you’ve managed to integrate 4-step design nicely. There are only two things I disliked about the first section: the narrow spaces, making it slightly harder to dodge the crabs, and the checkpoint being placed after the toughest part of this segment (also, the corridor right above the checkpoint is too narrow to avoid taking a hit as Big Mario). The next section is kinda weird… we start off in a pitch black room, we interact with a sign - and then a wikipedia article is read out (seems to be this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinisation)? However, this is actually pretty clever and I’ll explain why in the Mystery Theme section. Progressing through the level, it’s actually really fun. The final challenge is a perfect way to top it all off. However, I’ll admit that I was kinda disappointed in the level being unfinished at the end. What you had was great, and I’d love to have seen more from this.

In terms of functionality, there were no issues. No bugs or glitches encountered, not even with the wiki page. Great!

With aesthetics, this level looks pretty cool. Although you didn’t use much decoration, the use of the background walls added to the atmosphere. Now, there is just one thing I found weird about the aesthetics, and that is the music. Sure, it sounds cool, but I’m not sure that it relates to the level in any way (it seems to be singing about beer and stuff). Maybe there’s a reference to crabs that I completely missed but let’s be honest here, you missed an opportunity to use Crab Rave within a SMBX level. Point is, I feel that the music used in section 1 would have been better to keep throughout the rest of the level. This is more of a nitpick, though.

For the Mystery Theme, your level evolved really well! Started off with simple crab dodging, moved to crab evasion, and then you topped it all off with crab spinning. Really good. As I mentioned previously in this review, there is a section which reads out a wikipedia article. This was a very clever idea; Carcinisation relates to the evolution of creatures into crab-forms, and this perfectly ties in with the level and contest theme. This is even backed up by the fact that the crabs "evolve" into a faster, more common form in the final segment. It's brilliant, so well done.

In future, I recommend making full use of the time and choosing a gimmick that you will enjoy implementing. This level was really fun but it was a shame to see it just abruptly end like that.

Design / Creativity - 32/40
Functionality - 27/30
Aesthetics - 11/20
Mystery Theme - 8/10

Overall: 78/100

 
2nd Place

REVEAL: show

Those Unwilling by Sancles

I honestly have mixed feelings about the design of this level. Going through it chronologically: we start off in a segment where, unless you respond within like half a second of spawning, you will instantly die. I love that there’s a checkpoint right there, but then it just disappears before you can reach it. Anyway, basically the entire first room is a mini kaizo and although it’s pretty difficult, it’s actually pretty cool! The next room is quite unique in the world of SMBX; the player must overcome a few math equations to progress. I’ll admit that I had no idea what the 3rd problem was, so honestly I was forced to take a guess on this one, though I really appreciate the dramatic lighting for it! The section also has a pretty interesting, uh, “glitchy” ending… next up, it’s another difficult section. Not because the objects are difficult to overcome or anything, but it’s really dark here. Pretty good little rooms though. The outdoor section after this was quite good as it had traditional platforming elements - however, this was also the most frustrating part of the level. There is a machine which you must use, and it forces you to wait 12 minutes to progress. What’s worse is that partway through, koopas will spawn above you - potentially leading to an unexpected death for any who weren’t expecting something to occur. This is then followed by my favourite part of the level - koopas moving in a circle / arc that you must dodge (or spin upon) to ascend a really tall tower. I love this section so much and it’s quite a shame that I had to wait 12 minutes to access it. We then fight Larry and climb a set of stairs. Moving on, the next section is also a fun one - it pieces back together the various setups used throughout the section (Thwomps and Koopas, mainly) and is genuinely decent to play through. After this we come to the realisation that we have been on the wrong path this entire time and the Bowser Battle goes nowhere. Spoiler but for some reason the actual exit is in section 2, and all you do is walk to the left offscreen. It’s trollish, but I actually found it amusing. Anyway, this review turned into a bit of a recap of the level, but there was so much variety that I felt the need to cover everything. Overall the design of this level varies; some parts i hated, others i actually quite enjoyed. It’s unfortunate that the only segments of the level that need to be played are the first 2 - progression beyond that is a softlock in disguise.

Functionality. This level uses a lot of interesting concepts and lua / layer / event shenanigans, and yet it never breaks. Great work! However, I did find it weird that the level didn’t actually end in the final area, and the majority of the level is a softlock, but this was the only issue I had in terms of functionality for this level.

In terms of Aesthetics, it’s also a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the custom graphics used are of very low resolution - examples include the 3rd maths board and the 3 signs in section 9 (I couldn’t read some of the text on them). With that said, you make excellent usage of a range of vanilla graphics and honestly, this level feels like one big storyline because of this. Also, those paths that are made by the Koopas look really awesome, and who doesn’t love a bit of Dr Phil? Overall, great work.

In terms of Mystery Theme, this level evolved pretty well! For example, the final main section ties all the previous gimmicks together and it feels so good to explore. One little touch I liked quite a bit was the starting screens of sections 2 and 5 - in 2 we have a small Thwomp, in 5 we have a larger one. This “evolution” is just a neat thing that I was pretty impressed by, so great work.

In future, I’d suggest making the difficulty a little more consistent; the first section was probably the hardest, for example.

Design / Creativity - 35/40
Functionality - 28/30
Aesthetics - 15/20
Mystery Theme - 7/10

Overall: 85/100

 
1st Place

REVEAL WINNER: show

Royal Devolution by Waddle

This was an amazing level. You used 4-step level design in the best way possible and this allowed your level to flow perfectly from start to end. The idea of throwing Rex Shells to make use of the Rex inside AND the “devolving” of them back into shells after defeat is incredible! I’ve always enjoyed a good ‘ol puzzle-platformer level, and this certainly doesn’t fail to impress. There are a ton of setups in this level which slowly build on from previous iterations; first you might be throwing a rex onto a simple passthrough platform, then you’ll be defeating Reznors with the eggs, and after that you’ll be platforming as you go along. The idea, and execution, of this level is brilliant. The one thing I disliked about this level was the checkpoint placement, specifically the one after the Reznor / Bomb area; this mini-boss is slightly annoying to deal with, and if you die at any point within the next 3 sections, you’ll have to battle it again. With that said, the rest of the level was really fun to play through and the boss at the end was a perfect way to close off this fantastic level. Great job!

In terms of functionality, nothing in the level breaks and, due to the egg generators, you’ve avoided any possible softlocks. I’m going to give you a perfect score for this just because of the complexity involved within the level. Some setups felt like they had opportunities to break (i.e. the possibility of losing a rex shell or it despawning), but they never did, so great job!

Aesthetics. I really like the look of this level; the usage of a jungle background, mossy rock forms, dinosaurs and carefully placed decoration all add to the feeling of devolution. There was only one issue I had with aesthetics and it’s a very minor thing: one set of eggs in a specific section spawn lava bubbles instead of dinosaurs, yet the egg graphic is identical to the rest. It’s not a huge deal, but maybe a simple colour swap could be a good idea in this case. Also, the music choice was perfect.

In terms of Mystery Theme, absolutely spot on. The level focuses heavily on devolution and this is backed up with the prehistoric setups throughout. The setups progress smoothly and overall, you’ve nailed it.

In future, basically keep up the good work. This was a brilliant level and it’s really impressive that you made such a great piece of content within such a short time.

Design / Creativity - 37/40
Functionality - 30/30
Aesthetics - 18/20
Mystery Theme - 10/10

Overall: 95/100

[Waddle]

heh, neat! I really appreciated this chance to be prompted to make something within 48 hours; I've been in something of a level design rut, and this got me out of it quite effectively! Thanks to everyone else who participated, and here's to hoping we can do some bigger ones in the future

[squp]

you named my level wrong

edit: thanks

[Cedur]

My first impression when I read the first judging is "maybe don't be condescending with the quotation marks and if you want to say it's a bad level then you can say it less wordily"

[computerfan0]

...the background. Why is it a picture of a car?

Have you ever heard of a Mitsubishi Evo?

EDIT: Also, the alcove in Evolution of Koopas is for Player 2 to spawn.

[Valentine]

[TheTrueMarioMaster]

Can't believe I forgot to leave any commentary about my level almost a year ago but I guess it is better late then never. I tried to make each area feel like something from the original games while still trying to keep it original but as a kid when I got my first console which was a Super Nintendo that only two games I had for it were Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario World which I would play over and over again as a kid until I mastered them which is also kind of backstory behind my username and why I am so connected to the Mario series but anyway because of that I probably subconsciously have the levels from those games ingrained into my mind so I probably made them too similar to the originals. Yeah I completely forgot about adding in the bonus sections for that would have made the level so much better. For the checkpoint I believe I left it out because I thought it would clash with the SMB3 aesthetic that I was going for and having the checkpoint in the SMW section felt way to close to the end which is probably why I ended up not adding one in. Collecting all the cherries is suppose to make a star come up from the bottom of the screen which allows you to skip half of the SMB3 section so I don't know what went wrong when you played the level. For the end section I should have probably just went with the monty moles like I planned instead of adding in the rexes and rhino dinos. If I remember correctly that mystery bubble was suppose to have a mushroom pop out of it like in SMW but I guess I forgot to set its container content. Guess it is just a simple romp level with not much gameplay though that is what early levels of the 2D Mario games are like for if you don't bother to interact with much in the level it is easy to speedrun through. Usually I create much harder levels but this time I went with a simple gimmick and gameplay which was pretty easy for me to beat over all. Hope this commentary helps you understand my level more and if I did have more time since I think I made this level on the second day so it was only 24 hours though I believe I made it in much more complex concept since I think the most unique think about this level is how it transitions from one section to another where things just change right away rather then just accessing a pipe or door to move onto the next area.