Screenshot (more like a thumbnail)
A new level that I made from November to March. An inspiration between MrDoubleA's "The Forest is on fire again" with the Cloudbuddies and Darkonius's "Bulletflow Bastion" with the Woollet Bills (but mostly that top contest entry). Similar structures, exact backgrounds, and familiar setups. I did suggest way too many potential setups Darkonius could do for his entry, which I ended up doing. Aside from combining the two gimmicks, I also added some twists and tech for both to work well. The level takes place on the citadel well above the clouds, and the players have to use their buddies to boost up, jump across gaps and avoid the bills. A certain, more formidable challenger awaits.
On a personal note:
The actual level took me the whole of November, then some fixing at the end of February. Setups are decently diverse, but I can't say if the length/difficulty is alright. Using Camzone makes it better to see ahead, so there won't be visibility issues. I do concern about section 4 because it seems like I can't really balance out between the normal cloud and the spring cloud. Obviously, the normal cloud is better for survivability, everyone's going to take that for the most difficult section. Multiple paths seem too complex for a long level to implement, so in the end I opted for Star Coin 4, which requires either a spring cloud or very fast reactions. Other than that, perhaps I might need to tone the section down a bit.
Directly after November, I try making a boss. I planned to put Hyp (from Touhou FDF) into it (with very good theming to the level, plus the exact stage and boss theme used), though no such sprites exist unless someone makes a whole one, so I settled for a Boom Boom. Having little experience and slacking off, it took me 3 months to hardcode a standard boss based on a template script. Currently has 6 attacks, which is alright for a short 9-HP boss. No intro cutscenes or fancy attacks like from M&L's Delightful Adventure either, I just want to see what can be achieved before hardcoding older bosses like King K Rool or something.
There are certainly a lot of places in the Lua script that aren't optimized, so those who are very good at coding can look into it. The boss lacks better visual/audio effects (boss has limited sprites so I can't do much with extra frames), balancing issues (simple/complex attacks, probability of each one), and optimized code for movement (considering I borrowed the use of "transition.lua", which is a function outside of the state function templates). Despite that, it turned out nice compared to my expectations.
This level uses a lot of scripts, such as Camzones, warp transition, mini hud, physics patch, and all other NPC AIs scripts. No lag so far. I might consider adding Bouncypits if falling off and dying is too brutal for some segments. Other than that, I did beat the whole level in one go without taking damage, so take that as a grain of salt.
Details
- Played on: Beta 4 Hotfix
- Characters: Mario (Automatic)
- Length: 4 sections + 1 boss
- Difficulty: Medium to Hard
- Star Coins: 4 (on each section)
- Exit: 1 star
Download here
Credits on credit.txt
Videogameplay
Let me know if you enjoy the level.
