These rules will be STRICTLY ENFORCED AND YOU COULD VERY EASILY RECEIVE WARNINGS BY BREAKING THESE RULES. Furthermore, FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE STANDARDS MANDATED HERE MAY RESULT IN YOUR ABILITY TO POST THREADS ON THIS FORUM BEING REVOKED. We take this forum very seriously around here. If you cannot abide by these rules then, again, that's what Casual Levels is for.
***RULES OF THE LEVEL FORUM***
1) We need to be able to play your level. Please ensure your thread has a working download link before posting it on the forums.2) Don't claim assets as your own. The staff doesn't hound your levels to ensure everything you use is credited. HOWEVER, if someone notices you're using their content and saying it's yours, then that's a real big problem now ain't it? We're generally lax with you forgetting to cite your sources or you getting the credit wrong, but we won't tolerate blatant stealing. In general, neglect properly crediting sources at your own peril.
3) Concerning offering feedback to levels.
-You must have played the level beforehand and you must talk about it. (I've noticed people skirting this line: so I'll clarify. Posts like, "I have started playing it and I'll give you a review when I'm done," are acceptable. I dunno why you'd do that instead of just wait until your review's done, but by all accounts that's okay to do. Posts like, "That looks cool," or, "I'll have to give it a try," or, "I'm not going to play this," will break this rule and you will receive a warning.)
-If you do not have any idea how to improve the level you're responding to, then you shouldn't post a review. Anything less than a serious digest of the level will give you a PM saying you shouldn't do that, and if you continue to do so, you'll be getting warnings for it. We enforce a strict quality control on criticism, and we won't allow lazy reviews around here.
-If you absolutely must throw a compliment to the author instead of a review, we recommend you either PM the author or give him a reputation point. Such praise is really for his ears only; you don't need to post it in a public thread.
-Off-topic banter is also not allowed in most circumstances. Talking about feedback, posting videos of you playing it, and talking about the level without critique is perfectly okay, but making useless posts will get you warned. Rule of thumb: talk about the level in the thread, the responses to it, and nothing else.
-Keep in mind that the author can freely disregard any part or the entirety of your criticism. You are to respect this right, otherwise you will be warned. We do not tolerate trying to force your way of thinking down the designer's throats.
4) You don't get to cherry pick your feedback. Likewise, you, as a level designer, do not get to complain about the feedback you get. The only requirement is that it must be constructive, and that doesn't mean it must be nicely worded or agreeable. Copping an attitude over critics will get you warned and possibly get your thread rights revoked. Either ask why the critic thinks that way, or do not respond. No, going "lolurjustatroll" or "tell me what you liked instead" is not an acceptable way to handle criticism. Furthermore, if you blatantly refuse to learn from feedback and critique, then this is not the forum for you, and your thread rights will be revoked.
5) We do not encourage elitism here. The Levels forum may be a place to impress the community, but we will not tolerate bigotry over your presence in this forum. You're here to impress, not to garner popularity and laugh at those who aren't prestigious. Lauding over posts in the Casual subforum or flaunting your levels to other people will result in your thread rights being revoked.
***A COUPLE EXTRA GUIDELINES***
A) At least one screenshot is required when posting your level.
B) While not explicitly a rule, please try to keep a professional conduct when giving/responding to criticism. We warn users about venomous comments outside the Levels forum anyway, so do try to keep your frustration within reasonable levels.
C) In general, if you forsake the standards of this forum, by which I mean, you do not take your craft seriously in your threads there, said threads can very easily be moved to the Casual subforum and treated like a Casual level. If you are consistently lax about your level design, then we may revoke your thread rights.
D) We have 5 "Ratings" subforums that we use to chronicalize levels of their proper quality once they have ran their course and enough Level Judges have offered feedback on it. Your level should be around the main forum for at least a week before it is moved to a rating subforum. Once a Judge finds you have received adequate age/feedback, he'll move your thread to one of the following:
(Do note that these are magic numbers and not concrete opinions. Scores are rounded down when determining where to place the thread.)
-The Best: Average score of 9/10 or higher.
-Pretty Good: Average score of between 6/10 and 8/10
-Average: Average score of between 3/10 and 5/10
-The Trash Can: Average score of 2/10 or lower.
-The Awesome Black Hole: Threads too old (A month+) but with inadequete feedback are moved here until enough criticism is offered. (This doesn't exist yet, but it should.)
E) This isn't an explicit rule here but it does apply: We do not accept Joke levels in any way, shape, or form. Read the Casual rules for more details.
F) Concerning custom music: Please don't shoot the file size of your level through the roof by using or "ripping" very long music tracks. If you are ripping off a 15/30/60 minute video, then please cut and fade the track in the audio editor of your choice or find a shorter video to rip the audio off of. MP3s are much larger than the level and graphics even when it's only a couple minutes long, and there is a difference between a 2 (or less) megabyte file and a 20 megabyte.
G) Remakes of Nintendo levels of any sort should be posted on Casual Levels.
Now that you have read the rules in full, you may feel free to put your level up for peer review here. Just remember, if you aren't serious about your levels, then we will have to force you into Casual Levels, so please don't break the rules here.
