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Sound Shapes |OT| A Game For Vita (and PS3)
- Thread starter kassatsu
- Start date
Dead Prince
Banned
are alll the editor unlocks during the normal run?
CorySchmitz
Junior Member
I believe so.
Same, more from Beck PLEASE. Cities is my favorite track so far, sooooo catchy.
Now im gonna check out the cool levels some people have been making!My initial reactions to this game were very positive, and some still remain. I love the overall presentation; lots of color, simple menus, very easy to navigate. This seems to extend to the level creator too, though I haven't delved into it other than the initial tutorial, however I think I will make levels for this game, and I've never said that about any other game; it's that easy.
The campaign is wonderful in how it never punishes the player, with lots of checkpoints and very quick loads, though there is some very minimal stuttering once in a while. I was impressed with the amount of variety there is in the standard platforming and movement, and that was a nice little surprise. The music, of course, is wonderful, though I was hoping for more of it and levels, but hopefully the community/tools take care of that.
Also, I was glad to find that the Death Mode trophy levels aren't just the same levels from the campaign in which you cannot die as I feared they would be, but rather shoot little segments/revamps of parts of those levels that you can complete in under a minute. That was great.
... What isn't great is the design of many of these levels, and of the trophies themselves. Here's the worst example; there is a level with four vertical beams that become electrified every, let's say, second-and-a-half, and you have to collect say 15 notes in under 25 seconds. All the notes appear above the beams, and you have to hop back and forth to grab them while avoiding the electricity. Simple enough.
However, the design of these Death Mode levels involves having a set amount of placements of these notes, and having their appearance in those placements be randomized. So, I found myself making what was a near-perfect run, in which I didn't meet the requirements simply because the hand I was dealt involved one note appearing on the far right, then the far left, then the far right, then the far left, for probably 14 out of the 15 notes. There was quite possibly nothing I could do in that run to beat the level. Yes, I got it about ten tries after that, and it wasn't very hard, but that doesn't change how aggravated I was at the time, and that the entire design is flawed. I understand the reasoning for the randomization; to require skill rather than memorization (both mental and muscle) to beat the levels, but just randomizing the layout is misstep. The right approach is to have let's say thirty approved and tested layouts, and then randomize those. You could even fuck with people by making sure one specific setup wouldn't come up for another hundred tries if someone nearly made it but didn't.
This wasn't the only place something like this happened; I can think of a few other examples where I was running back and forth across a stage because of dumb luck. Actually, in a few, if I saw the first note pop-up WAY on the other side of the screen, I just died and restarted. Why wouldn't I?
There are also some weird glitches in the game, which didn't affect the campaign much because of the awesome checkpoints, but will make you grind your teeth in the Death Mode. Pushing to the left and jump to leave an anti-gravity binary column and avoid the ceiling-of-death above, only to have your character jump up anyway because, hey, you pressed the jump button, sucks. It also sucks to restart a level and die because the spawn is in the middle of a missile path, which never stop once the level starts.
Overall I'm still enjoying the game, and will get all the Death Mode trophies at least (only Deadmau5 left to go), but that doesn't change the design issues that have nagged me today.
Oh, and on a totally petty* note, I'm always a little disappointed to see the trophy images of a game all be either one or two pictures. Why isn't it a rule yet at Sony that every trophy needs to have its own image, even if they're just slightly different?
*Where are the Tom Petty Levels?
The campaign is wonderful in how it never punishes the player, with lots of checkpoints and very quick loads, though there is some very minimal stuttering once in a while. I was impressed with the amount of variety there is in the standard platforming and movement, and that was a nice little surprise. The music, of course, is wonderful, though I was hoping for more of it and levels, but hopefully the community/tools take care of that.
Also, I was glad to find that the Death Mode trophy levels aren't just the same levels from the campaign in which you cannot die as I feared they would be, but rather shoot little segments/revamps of parts of those levels that you can complete in under a minute. That was great.
... What isn't great is the design of many of these levels, and of the trophies themselves. Here's the worst example; there is a level with four vertical beams that become electrified every, let's say, second-and-a-half, and you have to collect say 15 notes in under 25 seconds. All the notes appear above the beams, and you have to hop back and forth to grab them while avoiding the electricity. Simple enough.
However, the design of these Death Mode levels involves having a set amount of placements of these notes, and having their appearance in those placements be randomized. So, I found myself making what was a near-perfect run, in which I didn't meet the requirements simply because the hand I was dealt involved one note appearing on the far right, then the far left, then the far right, then the far left, for probably 14 out of the 15 notes. There was quite possibly nothing I could do in that run to beat the level. Yes, I got it about ten tries after that, and it wasn't very hard, but that doesn't change how aggravated I was at the time, and that the entire design is flawed. I understand the reasoning for the randomization; to require skill rather than memorization (both mental and muscle) to beat the levels, but just randomizing the layout is misstep. The right approach is to have let's say thirty approved and tested layouts, and then randomize those. You could even fuck with people by making sure one specific setup wouldn't come up for another hundred tries if someone nearly made it but didn't.
This wasn't the only place something like this happened; I can think of a few other examples where I was running back and forth across a stage because of dumb luck. Actually, in a few, if I saw the first note pop-up WAY on the other side of the screen, I just died and restarted. Why wouldn't I?
There are also some weird glitches in the game, which didn't affect the campaign much because of the awesome checkpoints, but will make you grind your teeth in the Death Mode. Pushing to the left and jump to leave an anti-gravity binary column and avoid the ceiling-of-death above, only to have your character jump up anyway because, hey, you pressed the jump button, sucks. It also sucks to restart a level and die because the spawn is in the middle of a missile path, which never stop once the level starts.
Overall I'm still enjoying the game, and will get all the Death Mode trophies at least (only Deadmau5 left to go), but that doesn't change the design issues that have nagged me today.
Oh, and on a totally petty* note, I'm always a little disappointed to see the trophy images of a game all be either one or two pictures. Why isn't it a rule yet at Sony that every trophy needs to have its own image, even if they're just slightly different?
*Where are the Tom Petty Levels?
Dead Prince
Banned
Unsure if this is the OS or the game.
Was on Beat School.
That looks fake as fuck.
Unsure if this is the OS or the game.
Was on Beat School.
It's not properly capitalized and it says recommend instead of recommended.
Dead Prince
Banned
That's Mak for you.
So how is everyone syncing up the music with the platforming. Cause I'm not getting it at all. Its sounds cool having the fireballs cue up from the pit on the downbeat of the musical rift but the downbeat doesn't just play for the fireballs it goes throughout every level chunk. So by the time I get to the fireballs I don't have a strong association between the two. And without normal sound effects, everything feels a bit disconnected. Honestly, I get much more feel for rhythm in a normal platformer.
Your profile in community under favorites. The +'s are queued levels
lastflowers
Banned
Dog Problems
Banned
So Beat School is fun but too easy. I flew through that in no time. Death Mode is too luck-based for my liking so I doubt I'll finish that. I would have liked the campaign to be longer with more artist collaborations but what's there is damn near perfect, in my opinion.
I guess there's DLC to look forward to.
Tallshortman
Member
Such a great game and plays so well as a "mobile" game. This is what the Vita needs more of.
pharmboy044
Member
Was this hinted by anyone or we just assuming because the game feels perfect for DLC?
Wired All Wrong
Member
Just got sucked into the editor for a few hours again tonight and came away with something I liked. Check it out.
http://soundshapesgame.com/level/L0bqcmQP
I just loving making songs and levels for this game. I do like the song creation part better though. I've never been one to do much with level editors, but this game is different with how the music you make helps you create the levels.
Does anyone here make the levels first, then make music around that? I haven't tried it myself, but that seems like it would really restrict you. Though it would be fun to recreate some classic platformer levels and try to make a cool song out of it. I'll have to give that a shot sometime.
http://soundshapesgame.com/level/L0bqcmQP
I just loving making songs and levels for this game. I do like the song creation part better though. I've never been one to do much with level editors, but this game is different with how the music you make helps you create the levels.
Does anyone here make the levels first, then make music around that? I haven't tried it myself, but that seems like it would really restrict you. Though it would be fun to recreate some classic platformer levels and try to make a cool song out of it. I'll have to give that a shot sometime.
Impressive man, there's a jump that was hard to do though, near a checkpoint. It was like a few screens away from the end
I think it's all leaderboard related.
http://soundshapesgame.com/level/VMoCYzE1
First level! In anything in fact (I always try to make levels in level creators but get bored half way through.) It's not particularly hard or long, I just wanted to make a pleasant little level.
Can't wait to make another!
First level! In anything in fact (I always try to make levels in level creators but get bored half way through.) It's not particularly hard or long, I just wanted to make a pleasant little level.
Can't wait to make another!
I actually tried it when I was browsing the new levels in the game. It was actually quite pretty to look at.
Anyone got a link to that Silent Hill level someone was pimpin a few pages back?
Thanks that's what I figured.
Iacobellis
Junior Member
Unsure if this is the OS or the game.
Was on Beat School.
I got that same error when I was trying to undo a change to my level. I'm sure it was coded by the devs, but made to mimic the UI of the Vita.
One of the devs said on reddit that nothing can be said at the moment but that the more people were interested the better.
lastflowers
Banned
Same. The error is also pretty funny if you don't leave. It's like "are you suuuuure you don't want to quit?"
Thank you! It was just a quick little thing, but I'm quite happy with it.
Dog Problems
Banned
Keep at it and you'll probably get a round where all the notes appear in the same area making it very easy. It's happened with three levels for me now.
Iacobellis
Junior Member
Haha, yeah that's what happened to me. Was pretty bummed to see that the game DID actually freeze after.
CorySchmitz
Junior Member
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coryschmitz/7741970388/in/photostream
I took picture of video game. Man, the Vita is so damn beautiful.
CorySchmitz
Junior Member
I still haven't beaten any death mode levels
I feel shame.
Don't feel bad. It's not like you need those trophies.
CorySchmitz
Junior Member
This level rules: http://soundshapesgame.com/level/V5o2dfJl
Dog Problems
Banned
I still haven't beaten any death mode levels
I feel shame.
The ones I did complete without relying on luck took me awhile. I'm pretty bad at them also and there's no way I'm going to finish them all.
Whoever made the Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho level is really good. I love all of the art, the music, and the little touches. If you get a chance try it out. Just played it for the first time and it's an awesome user-created level.
http://soundshapesgame.com/level/orPI6x7G
http://soundshapesgame.com/level/orPI6x7G
Lucent
Member
Just tried it. Def the best I've tried so far. It was good. The only thing that sucks is I couldn't figure out how to get one of the coins in the 2nd screen with all the vines. It was on the very right and it was like there was no way for me to get to it. =l
Shuhei Yoshida made a stage lol. I wonder how long my first place on it will last.
I was number one earlier today. I've been passed four times. Some of my number one times still stand on pretty popular levels though. It's only a matter of time before someone beats a time.
CorySchmitz
Junior Member
Actually, if you just go down to the bottom of that vine, you can wrap around to the right side at grab it! I love the end of that level so much.
http://soundshapesgame.com/level/fobZNFcK
More experimenting, this time using mostly Superbrothers/Jim Guthrie stuff. I definitely like the aesthetic of the first two albums the best, but occasionally things from other albums come in handy.
More experimenting, this time using mostly Superbrothers/Jim Guthrie stuff. I definitely like the aesthetic of the first two albums the best, but occasionally things from other albums come in handy.
Shuhei Yoshida made a stage lol. I wonder how long my first place on it will last.
11.11 make a wish
lastflowers
Banned
Check out my latest: http://soundshapesgame.com/level/wIV6ca8S
I'm really proud of this one. The beats, platforming, and environments mesh really well together.
I like the stage. I'm really impressed with what you do with the backgrounds! I'm looking forward to more of your stuff.
I'm really proud of this one. The beats, platforming, and environments mesh really well together.
I like the stage. I'm really impressed with what you do with the backgrounds! I'm looking forward to more of your stuff.