Anyone else really want to get back into SMBX, but is having a hard time actually locking into it?

[KingBowser24]

I've honestly been this way for years. I've used SMBX since 2010 but the last time I made anything significant with it was way back in 2018. Occasionally ill hop on it and replay some of my old levels for nostalgia's sake (some of them date back to 2012), and I've maybe done small edits here and there over the last few years, but overall there hasn't been much at all. I still have all of my old files and stuff though, backed up and everything.

And yet, for all this time there's been a part of me that really wants to get back into SMBX. Whether it's to improve or even remake my old content or build something entirely new. But I just.... can't? I sit down to do something with it and then just suddenly don't want to, even if I've been thinking about it all day beforehand? Have I simply just lost interest in an app that I used to love so much, despite still thinking of ideas at points?

Such a weird middle ground to be in. Anyone else got this going on? Is there any ways to perhaps reignite that spark I used to have for SMBX?

[archived_acc]

Maybe it has something to do with SMBX2 being harder to use than 1.3

[Prismarine]

I also got this weird feeling? I kind of feel demotivated in making a actual episode or level

[HeroLinik]

I get the same as well.

A part of me keeps pulling me back into it, however as of this point I've pretty much lost my creative spark, as well as pursuing other interests. I do still sometimes pop back in and replay some older levels for old time's sake, but the thing is that my design ways have pretty much been stuck in 2012 and design standards have moved on a lot since then. Every time I try to make a level, it always ends up falling back into my old design habits and ends up being some kind of switch hunt or something, forcing me to ditch it and start over or make major changes to the level, or I run out of ideas and end up losing motivation to finish the level.

[Emral]

i've often found that motivation is a self-fulfilling prophecy. it doesn't come until you sketch some ideas, and the more you sketch, the more ideas come.
not all are good, and a lot really really suck. but the bad ones help in the process of discovering better ones.

when it comes to level design specifically, the magic spot is somewhere in the cross section of "fun to play (for you)" and "fun to design". so it's easy to just abandon a level when it's no longer fun to play or fun to design. i think that's fine, but when abandoning a level like that, it helps me to think about what part of the process was not fun, and then to try and make something next time that tries to address this issue.
for example in a chocolate contest level a few years ago i had a miserable time building it, and it was because there was so much programming i forced myself to do, and i ran out of ideas but i wanted the level to be longer. so i started making shorter levels that require less programming, and i have a lot more fun making those.

i think smbx can also be a bit overwhelming because there is so much you can do with it and most of the tools are kinda mid to start out with. i think if you get familiar with the tools over time (the enemies, the blocks, etc) it becomes a lot easier to come up with ideas. you don't have to be super amazing at using them to learn their strengths i think.

i think design being "retro" for this community isn't necessarily bad. like yeah having a 4 switch gate door was bad even back then but if you play some of TLTimelord/Augustus's levels, they feel very retro in that sense and are fun to play. Design what you find fun. If what you find fun is single-screen puzzle levels/troll levels/combat rooms against various enemy types, then make that! don't be beholden to what others think if the point is to be creative and have fun in your free time.
and to be honest im not happy with the "meta" style of design myself.. i don't have fun doing it so there is no point for me.

some cheat codes:
- if you run out of ideas, just end the level
- if a section of a level is not fun for you, get rid of it
- if a section of a level is fun for you but not commonly considered fun in the community, do it anyway

[KingBowser24]

I get the same as well.

A part of me keeps pulling me back into it, however as of this point I've pretty much lost my creative spark, as well as pursuing other interests. I do still sometimes pop back in and replay some older levels for old time's sake, but the thing is that my design ways have pretty much been stuck in 2012 and design standards have moved on a lot since then. Every time I try to make a level, it always ends up falling back into my old design habits and ends up being some kind of switch hunt or something, forcing me to ditch it and start over or make major changes to the level, or I run out of ideas and end up losing motivation to finish the level.

Yeah honestly that's almost the exact same thing for me. I spent almost all of my free time on SMBX from like 2011 to 2013, and would dip into it here and there from 2014 to 2018. After that though, I've just never been motivated to do anything with it. There's a part of me that really wants to remake some of my old circa 2012 content, and while I've done a *tiny* bit of that it's still hard to motivate myself to do it. I dunno. Kinda like you I've also been pursuing other interests, and of course, I'm not the middle schooler who no-lifed SMBX anymore. I think I'll always love the app, but, apart from occasionally revisiting some of my old levels and all that for nostalgia's sake, I don't know if ill make anything significant with it anymore either.

i've often found that motivation is a self-fulfilling prophecy. it doesn't come until you sketch some ideas, and the more you sketch, the more ideas come.
not all are good, and a lot really really suck. but the bad ones help in the process of discovering better ones.

when it comes to level design specifically, the magic spot is somewhere in the cross section of "fun to play (for you)" and "fun to design". so it's easy to just abandon a level when it's no longer fun to play or fun to design. i think that's fine, but when abandoning a level like that, it helps me to think about what part of the process was not fun, and then to try and make something next time that tries to address this issue.
for example in a chocolate contest level a few years ago i had a miserable time building it, and it was because there was so much programming i forced myself to do, and i ran out of ideas but i wanted the level to be longer. so i started making shorter levels that require less programming, and i have a lot more fun making those.

i think smbx can also be a bit overwhelming because there is so much you can do with it and most of the tools are kinda mid to start out with. i think if you get familiar with the tools over time (the enemies, the blocks, etc) it becomes a lot easier to come up with ideas. you don't have to be super amazing at using them to learn their strengths i think.

i think design being "retro" for this community isn't necessarily bad. like yeah having a 4 switch gate door was bad even back then but if you play some of TLTimelord/Augustus's levels, they feel very retro in that sense and are fun to play. Design what you find fun. If what you find fun is single-screen puzzle levels/troll levels/combat rooms against various enemy types, then make that! don't be beholden to what others think if the point is to be creative and have fun in your free time.
and to be honest im not happy with the "meta" style of design myself.. i don't have fun doing it so there is no point for me.

some cheat codes:
- if you run out of ideas, just end the level
- if a section of a level is not fun for you, get rid of it
- if a section of a level is fun for you but not commonly considered fun in the community, do it anyway

See, I already had alot of it figured out, at least in 1.3. I made some crazy stuff with it back in the day. I've given 2.0 a whirl as well, but by the time I tried that out my motivation to make stuff was already almost gone. I think that was part of the fun of it tbh, figuring out that I can do this and that and toying with it. But maybe you're not wrong. Maybe motivation would require locking in a bit at first, whether I want to or not.

[Lemlime25]

I've felt the same way for a while about not just SMBX but other games where you create stuff like mario maker, minecraft, or littlebigplanet (which is effectively dead, but it fits into the same category). Maybe it's just me getting older and having more important things to think about and/or my creative muscle isn't as strong as it used to be, but sometimes I sit down and try to create something in these games and end up coming up with nothing great or worth developing.

I have published one new SMBX level recently, which I was working on during class when I was bored lol. It's not very fresh or anything and it is completely vanilla SMBX 2.4, but I really enjoyed my time working on it and the final product is pretty fun (to me anyway). I've also started work on a few levels here at home on my pc with slightly more ambitious ideas, but they haven't been as fun to make not gonna lie. If I were to really try working on an ambitious world or innovative level, I think it might kill the fun I'm having with SMBX right now from just opening up the editor and playing around with vanilla mechanics.

I remember when I was younger, I'd often get so hung up on the little details of projects in these games that it would kill the creative drive that I had for that idea over time. In SMBX, it was usually about getting my custom graphics to look just right before I started work on the level. I had abandoned so many projects across all these games and I could say that I had wasted my time, but I'm sure that this is a sort of universal experience with creativing anything.

As for reigniting the spark, I do sort of feel that classic creative spark light up from toying with the many, many mechanics in SMBX 2.5 and building little levels around them. But if that doesn't align with what you want to pursue (larger, more innovative/ambitious projects) you could try looking for inspiration oustide of SMBX. Look through books, movies, art; literally anything to fire up an idea for you to develop.
At the same time, I think constantly looking for Mario level inspiration everywhere in your life could become unhealthy lol... Just an idea to consider I guess.

[Prismarine]

mmaybe i should take a break since the amount of scrapped episods i have is uncanny and way too big. Prob remaking The Shinesprite altar and remake it entirely or make a new episode...

[KingBowser24]

mmaybe i should take a break since the amount of scrapped episods i have is uncanny and way too big. Prob remaking The Shinesprite altar and remake it entirely or make a new episode...

Duuuude I felt that lol

I have an ungodly amount of unfinished SMBX projects, most of which are literally over a decade old now. Occasionally I might revisit them just to play what levels I did make, but, I haven't done any real work on any of them in a long long time.

Though more recently I've been seriously considering locking back in on a remake of one of my old Episodes that I had originally planned in 2017 (Original Episode was made in 2012, remake was initially planned in 2017). Who knows though. I technically have the free time for it, it's the motivation that's hit or miss.

[Locus]

It's incredibly hard to get back into it. I often find the whole flow of designing a level from start to finish difficult to concentrate on. Be it because I think the obstacles are far too simple to get past, or that the atmosphere, the overall vibe of the level just ends up sucking. I haven't made a new level in years and only recently that mood to try again has sort of been restored.

Often times even a small nitpick can be enough to throw me off. "Man this set-up sucks at engaging me.", "Wow this feels much more underwhelming than I had in mind". And like even things with the screen size or player physics can be enough to make me lose motivation. When I tried doing Lunar Magic for a while I had much more fun crafting stages even if actually placing down the blocks and enemies was a lot less fun.

Hopefully I find the motivation I need back. And hopefully others can as well.

[Prismarine]

I have currently lost some interest in SMBX in general, as i felt burned out making episodes and levels. i had some thoughts that i have to make the episode so good, it will last a impact on the community, blah blah blah... I am more focused on Dandy's World And Classic Sonic Simulator V12 - 13 on Roblox. i have some ideas for some episodes though, that are unique (probably) and yeah, overall i lost my passion and support for this game.

also i have a new pc since the old one "sunsetted" and i lost all my episode pogress, meaning those were lost media.

[krakin]

Yeah, I’ve kept saying for quite some time now that I’m gonna get back into SMBX, and then that never happens. A number of things keeping me from jumping back in, mostly silly ADHD stuff like not wanting to get on my laptop and download SMBX again, and neither having the attention span nor executive function to see a whole project through to the end. I’m just existing on here and discord now, popping in every so often and then dipping. Back in the day, I was way more active—a little too active actually. For those who don’t know, I used to flood the forums with posts. I was posting on here every single day like clockwork, and then I had to start adulting. One of my friends on here had an inside joke with my username, and called this rapid fire posting “practical sperms”. I never thought I’d be able to stop posting here, but eventually I got burned out completely. It happens.

[Ness-Wednesday]

I do have those days where SMBX is on my mind, but I can never get myself to work on anything SMBX-related. It happens about once a year and usually lasts for about 2-3 months. The only way it ends is when my creative spark returns.

[Zeldamaster12]

I played SMBX2 like once or twice probably around 2017 or 2018 so it's been many years since I've played it. Even when I was active I didn't really play much SMBX because if I were to make a level I prefered SMF because it was more basic and easier to use. About a year ago I made a level on Super Mario Custom, which is essentially SMF's successor so maybe one day I'll revisit SMBX, even if it's to play other peoples' levels instead of making one. I do have regrets about not playing SMBX more back in the day because the things you could/can do with it is amazing and people have made some mindblowing levels/episodes over the years.

[Dynam0]

The current PC I have is prone to stuttering which has made playing SMBX exceedingly more frustrating than it should be, but finally after years of delaying doing it, I caved in and bought a new PC which is supposed to arrive later this week. I'm hoping to be able to play more SMBX as a result (I still play it pretty regularly every year), and when it comes to making levels of my own, the problem has always been, since the 1.3 days, that of excessive ambition not meeting the necessary baseline skills or the time investment necessary to actually go ahead with making my own stuff. But, perhaps, one day, I'll be able to make my own episode. I do at least want to create more NPC packs with lua in the future, though.