Before I go to bed I have to ask the important question,
Can you survive a ride on the world's most dangerous vine?
Find out on my new level,
One Tash One Vine
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Hope you enjoy! I don't think it's too tough to survive the whole journey.
Group 1 voting is this week.So what's the status of the contest? This thread moves too quickly.
I am sad that the secret death SFX are locked to 10/100 Mario Mode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtBsNqjotZE&feature=youtu.be&a
I never play that mode.
So what's the status of the contest? This thread moves too quickly.
first page always has your back
Made a new map!
Super Rosalina Galaxy 3EC5-0000-005D-FFED
Rosalina has caught up to Bowser's fleet and must free all her stars before confronting Bowser himself.
Any feedback is welcome.
Took down all my levels while I do another editing pass on them. Well, I left one up to do a little experiment. I want to know if I get more plays on a single level if I just have one up. I'm sure you guys will love this one. It's an even better version of...
AUTOMATIC 1-1 AMIIBO PARTY
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NOW it's a party!
I'm sure it will be #1 within days.
Don't touch anything.
3 Golden Bananas out of a Shigeru Miyamoto. There are no wigglers. There for, it's not a party without wigglers crawling about.I had fun with this level, especially with all the random costumes I had ended up with.
We all know that every story must come to an end sometime.
But let me start from the beginning here.
It was a dark and scary night...
Course ID: BBA4-0000-005D-7639
Some dev commentary with spoilers.
General stuff
It took me around 3 hours to get this done. Basically what I wanted to do at first was simple: to create an SMB3 Ghost House level, because I hadn't used either before.
I had the simple premise of Mario walking up to a ghost house. That's basically it.
The Saw-esque traps and meat grinder and Thwomp mincer in the basement were the parts where I thought to myself "I am an evil person to do that to characters from the Mario universe" which only helped to get across what I wanted to do with this level: Tell a story.
Story
The overall story is that Mario finds this forsaken house in the middle of a forest (hence the Super Leaves raining down). I would've loved something like rain, but alas, the limitations got me there. In there he is attacked by the house itself in the form of many death traps. Can he find his way out of them and also find out who is pulling the strings behind all this?
The Level Design
You start out as Raccoon Mario mainly because I didn't want the transformation sequence be a nuisance when walking up to the house's entrance.
The "spooky" piano sounds are red music blocks with Munchers hopping around on them producing cliché scare chords.
The entrance itself has Spike Traps so the player cannot abuse their Raccoon powers and fly out of the level.
The doors should signal what I was going for: Random death traps in a scary house. But instead of just being (relatively easily avoidable) death traps I wanted the player to do something to get out of there.
So the first door leads to a fire hazard course, which originally had some Kameks in it, too, but that got WAY to hard with all the fire in there. Some Fire Bars were there too, but again, that section would've been way too hard with them still there.
I'll skip the second door for now and get straight to the third door: It leads to a simple "LOL NOPE" kind of moment where you hear something crash down from above, just to see that it's a giant Thwomp, quickly crushing its way towards Mario, crushing him if the player isn't smart enough to quickly exit the room through the same door.
Door number four just leads to the exit of door number one.
Now door number 2. This leads to a falling scene where you can clearly see a giant Bowser Jr. falling to his death. This is supposed to be the first hint that there are other people in the house suffering some kind fate because of its death traps. It's also supposed to show how gruesome the big boss of this house can be, sacrificing his only child because of God-knows-what. Anyway, a well placed arrow tells the player to steer towards the right side of the room, where he will land safely on a small "island" of sorts with a pipe on it, leading to the basement of the house.
The crates you land on are supposed to be filled with spare parts of the giant machinery that the house is made out of. No way to show this, so the player's imagination is supposed to handle that. The player also immediately notices the giant saw blades with platforms above them, so the player gains an easy and safe way above the machine, up on the catwalk where he will see how the machine works. It spits out other "people", screaming for their lifes, hopelessly of course, as they immediately get grinded by the saw blades. I found it funny, yet scary how the Hammer Bros always get to chuck one last hammer before dying horribly.
The other side isn't much better. The player sees other "people" and a bowl of sorts, getting filled with them. Nothing else is happening, until the player jumps up to the second catwalk, where he notices another giant Thwomp. The Thwomp was positioned just so that the player cannot avoid it under any circumstances. He is forced to provoke the Thwomp so it falls down, crushing everyone beneath him.
The player continues his way, noticing all the cells (which are actually supposed to hang from the ceiling, but the way the camera works in Mario Maker you cannot see that, sadly). One Bob-Omb goes crazy and suicides, a Wiggler is also stark mad, a Spike Top has gone so crazy he walks up and down the walls and a Koopa Troopa became a Dry Bones, while many before him already died and rotted away in the same cell.
Then follows the player's possible escape. He walks through the door, a light is shining above him through the window through which a Super Leaf from outside made its way. The player is basically forced to grab it. The arrows are signaling to run around and fly up. Munchers are placed so the player is forced to lose his newfound raccoon ability and quickly go through the door.
While writing this I just noticed that you can get stuck in this room by losing your raccoon powers and falling down instead of going through the door. Sorry about that.
Anyway, the player goes through the door, where the big boss, the puppeteer, Big Bowser awaits him.
This battle is basically exactly the same as in Super Mario Bros. 3. I noticed that Bowser has different abilities in different Mario styles, so recreating the Bowser fight from SMB3 was a fun thing to do, although I had to work around Mario Maker's limitations once again, though using Bowser-actived P-Switches to let him fall to his doom AND opening the way for the player is something I'm kinda proud of finding it out but I don't think I'm the first to find that out.
The pipe leads once again outside and to the goal. Mario just got through a very horrible night.
There is a small easter egg in the entrance area of the house: to the right of the fourth door you will see a room filled with coins. You can actually get there. But how you can get there, you have to find out yourself (it's very simple actually).
So yeah, that's it.
I had LOTS of fun creating that level.
Thanks for everyone who read through the commentary. Even though this thread moves so fast I really hope a lot of people are able to play this level. I'm very proud of how it turned out.
EDIT:
I also recreated the Intro Stage of Megaman X just for fun, give it a try:
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I just realized springs are programmed to have different physics based on the skin. SMW springs feel just like SMW and SMB version was as finicky as original SMB. So seems there was potential for Mario to have different physics but Nintendo chose against it.
The Color Dimension (8F91-0000-005A-39AA)
Sequel to The White Dimension. To bring more variety, I made rooms based on different colors: white, orange, blue and black.
I think you're right. Having played a bunch of 100 levels, I can see that it would be tough to pull off a mode that alternates styles. It takes me a while, hours sometimes, to hone in on different Mario physics.I just realized springs are programmed to have different physics based on the skin. SMW springs feel just like SMW and SMB version was as finicky as original SMB. So seems there was potential for Mario to have different physics but Nintendo chose against it.
Lots of things do. NSMBU justified it on launch day.This game easily justifies the WiiUs existence.
Stroll through the Mole Hill
- Immediate super mario is fine. I personally prefer finding a mushroom, but this convenience is nice too. It's consistant with the 3D Mario games.
- Not sure what to make of the initial screen. Player is relatively safe, but the using a pit immediately in front of them to contain the monty mole looks messy
- Nice consistancy with mole placement. Coins may be a bit much, but it visually looks like bait for their trap, which is a nice touch.
- Giant-para-mole in an enclosed inaccessible space looks out of place.
- Nice element of exploration, though dead ends could do with a power up at the end.
- I didn't see any power ups at all along the regular path
- The gimmick doesn't smoothly escalate; adding wings to the moles is an abrupt jump in difficulty, due to the extra hit needed to kill them, coupled with the extra mobility they gain.
- Mega moles aren't positioned in a way that allows them to emerge before getting stomped on, ruining the surprise somewhat.
You need to share your Star getting secrets to me.Got 2,000 stars and my 8th medal!
Here is my second course. (Technically third)
Of ice and fire.
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I did take inspiration from Neogaf member Storm Kyleis' monochromatic stages, but I used the blue and orange for an ice and fire segment. Tried my hand at a bit more platforming as well. I'll make a presentation card for it tomorrow if I still like it then.
You need to share your Star getting secrets to me.
Congrats though!
So, I played through all of the levels of the first group of the contest. I went through each stage as if the run button was broken. If there were any obvious secrets requiring running, or major alternate routes, I went through the level a second time, just as myself.
Kuribo's shoe 1-1
- surprisingly well executed beginning. Though opening with the stage's gimmick isn't usually what a 1-1 stage does.
- Required kuribo's shoe almost immediately. Presumption placed on the player to know what the shoe is immune to and what the shoe can do (shoe dismounts in particular)
- screen arrangement draws attention to the alternate route instead the expected route.
- very disparate sprite elements used (buzzsaws and thwomps)
- coins used to mark the pipe that leads to the bonus room. There are very obvious pipes (there are two candidates) nearby that players would naturally try entering, if it weren't for the coins spoiling the secret.
- Pretty nice flow to the pipe section in general
- other bonus room directly pointed out to the player using an arrow.
- exit pipe from first bonus room literally does not work. shoe dismount required to leave, making the bonus room itself useless.
Finished my next level:
Bowser's Basement Plumbing Check
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- Bowser's castle has been having plumbing problems, and there is NO WAY he is calling those Mario Bros. so he goes down to check what the issue could be.
Please give it a go and let me know what you think / comment / star it if you like it or have any suggestions.
Cheers.
Tree of beginnings
- Initial screen is very cramped. Could do with being moved to the right a few tiles so it doesn't feel so 'in medias res'
- Jump to single tile block, followed by mandatory spring jump, followed by cramped jump across the pit Mario just spring jumped up.
- Lack of airspace in general makes it hard to get a feel for Mario's jumping or running.
- Thematically very pleasing, though the theme overrides the level design on occasion.
- Vine mechanic presented to the player without any explicit guidance that they can interact with it (they have to jump AND hold up in order to find out that they can climb it)
- Jumping dismount required from vines. Failing them tends to cause the player to die
- Nice use of multiple routes to funnel players down a path that suits their level of skill and encourages exploration
- Underground section requires skills that the player has already demonstratedly failed to acquire (running across single tile gaps). the difficulty of this section is rather high, considering it is the path that unskilled players will fall into
- fails the no-run test
- No power ups at all?
- general difficulty is far above what I would personally consider suitable for a 1-1
Unrelated to the infamous Tall-Tall Mountain portrait of Peach's Castle, Big-Tall Mountain is similar in name alone. It's here we have Mario scaling the outskirts, caves, and cliffside of Mushroom Kingdoms forgotten tower. Where giant mushroom spores accelerate growth to surprising degrees, and those lost forever inside the caverns live on to become shuffling corpses. Can Mario reach the peak?
Stage ID: 9BD9-0000-005E-AF76
This stage has our hero learning the ropes and getting back into shape for his next big adventure! Fairly linear, but not without it's share of surprises. Rumor has it...there's a strange leaf that allows you to soar into a sky of riches. Just how much of that is true?
Stage ID: 427A-0000-0051-51C6
Thanks for the commentry. I was very particular in making the first area as safe as possible without removing enemies entirely. I wanted to funnel players who didn't know how to jump, into a bonus room where they could learn in an enclosed space, but I still wanted it to look like they were being active players, even if all they were doing was walking to the right.Junahu = Koopa Plateau 1 = 46EB-0000-0046-D07B
I like the loose shell that ensures not only that the koopa can't get you, but that the player might then learn about kicking shells, plus it can't come back and kill you. The noteblocks and scattered ? blocks give veteran players something to speed through the level jumping on, while providing practice for newbies for noteblocks, though I wouldn't put springs or noteblocks in a 1-1. Nice level.
Oh dear you were right about the extra mushrooms. I'm really sorry about that, my mind must have been drifting. I can't remember why I didn't notice them the first time. It was either because I didn't need them, or because I was too focused on jumping onto every coin to bop the next monty mole. I'll edit an "[edit: this complaint is incorrect]" into my original post.There were two mushrooms in ?-blocks along the main path. You're right that the dead end below the triple jump could use something. In retrospect, I wish I had placed a fire flower somewhere in this level. Would've helped the exploration be a bit more rewarding, and likely would've helped smooth the difficulty. Thanks for the post!
I thoroughly enjoyed every level I played from the contest, and yours was definitely not an exception. It was incredibly well constructed, to the point where I totally forgot about the inherent limitations of Mario Maker that the level was surely hitting up against. It has a sense of place that I haven't really seen out of any other MM level, and I did enjoy snooping around looking for other routes and such.Fart, now I want to go back and revise again, ha! Thanks for all of this, though. Will take most of this into consideration going forward.
Ugh Imgur isn't working for some reason so I can't take a picture right now, but my latest level Terror in the jungle needs some loving. Not a single star yet and a low completion rate I don't think it's even that hard, and it's just a straight forward, fun platforming level.
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Finished my next level:
Bowser's Basement Plumbing Check
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- Bowser's castle has been having plumbing problems, and there is NO WAY he is calling those Mario Bros. so he goes down to check what the issue could be.
Please give it a go and let me know what you think / comment / star it if you like it or have any suggestions.
Cheers.
Speaking of normal being super easy and boring, I'm playing through normal right now and got 4 auto stages in a row. I haven't had to press any buttons now for something like five minutes. Hell, I'm posting here now while "beating" a level.After watching streams for a while (still haven't bought the game so correct me if I'm wrong) I'm beginning to think there's a problem with the 100 Mario challenge difficulties. Seems like normal is super easy and boring, which makes most streamers go to expert, but expert encompasses about 90% of the range in difficulty. There's pretty easy levels in expert and also incredibly hard ones. And a lot of streamers get stuck on the super hard ones which makes it not fun to watch after like 30 minutes.
I have a feeling the rate of difficulty is kind of like an exponential curve when it comes to the levels, but when organizing easy/medium/hard Nintendo decided to do something like "100-66% completion rate for easy, 66-33% completion rate for normal, and 33-0% completion rate for expert" when it should probably be something more like "100-33% completion rate for easy, 33-10% completion rate for normal, and 10-0% completion rate for expert"