Watching 645 play my level (Mysterious Mansion) was very interesting. It made me want to do a write up about how I made the level to be played. It isn't a challenging level, nor is it all that great either. It is more of an experimental level. If you want to play it before you read this, here is the code: F917-0000-005A-9237
So here is the start of the level:
You can see you have what seems to be 3 options, you can go to the right due to pass-through platforms, try to reach the vines, or go through the door.
Going all the way right leads you to a hidden block with a 1-Up Mushroom.
https://36.media.tumblr.com/cf7c64d9f9bdfcce1115a4ce8d860c4a/tumblr_nv4togyC301ux7li8o1_540.jpg
And the vines, you can reach it and go across to the last vine and then go on top of the house. But you get nothing other than a laugh track playing when standing on the middle of the roof (which 645 did). The real secret comes from jumping away from the roof.
This just leads to an upper path with a visible block with a mushroom inside and a pipe going to a section that comes up later if you go through the door. To be honest, this secret + reward sucks, but that's because of another bigger secret I wanted players to find through the normal path.
Now for the door path.
You can see it is a nearly symmetrical room with a pipe outside on the right side. Now I know everyone likes their symmetry and usually know something is up when it isn't symmetrical, so there is a hidden block with a mushroom on the left side.
https://41.media.tumblr.com/febddbafdd47c504e5121ede68885d7f/tumblr_nv4t7fycyp1ux7li8o1_540.jpg
Now on to what's on the other side of the pipes. If you go through the left one...
You actually can't get through.
Now for the right pipe.
You get here. You may have noticed the note blocks behind each pipe. That's to mark the pipes as ones that head to the start as a visual cue.
The pipe on the right is where you come from if you go to the secret entrance, so yea, not a good secret/reward. You go up and have to lead to the left pipe. Which leads to this area.
Straightforward area. You come up from the left pipe with brown blocks below them, so if you look at which pipes contains brown blocks, you'll see which pipes you can head towards. The area you see above is the secret entrance.
Now on to the next area through the pipe:
https://40.media.tumblr.com/6fa247b600683097c56cba98184d591e/tumblr_nv4tcoAr9b1ux7li8o1_540.jpg
Nothing to say here...maybe. That's for you to decide.
Now you head through the pipe on the top-right to go to this area.
This is where you start to see hidden blocks over grandfather clocks, but there is no real indication to what grandfather clocks mean, so that could be worked on. The one on the left had a mushroom, and the one on the right had a 1-Up.
There's a door there floating, which could confuse people, but there is another door just above the ceiling of this room:
https://41.media.tumblr.com/78853bd8833fba2c9a3357d668289ab0/tumblr_nv4tr90Vfi1ux7li8o1_540.jpg
Why are they there? Who knows.
Once you go through the pipe on the left, you end up here.
https://41.media.tumblr.com/63ba1b88359e74f3cadb26aa4eafbacb/tumblr_nv4y1lmP8O1ux7li8o1_540.jpg
There is nothing significant here as much as it seems like it may hold some secret.
So you head through the door...
And end up here, which is the other side of the first pipe. The block above the door is hidden and had a mushroom. There's also a peculiar brown block in between stone blocks. Since you have the spiny helmet, you can break that, which allows you to do this:
https://40.media.tumblr.com/9c25c88d743f41ba8e8be4a8bfb7e176/tumblr_nv4y49IyI71ux7li8o1_540.jpg
And now you break through the brown blocks to head to the starting area.
You may remember the brown blocks at the top of the starting area, which is what you need to break to be able to head to the pipe outside.
One of the things to note is that you can't see the pipe once you get to the top of the starting room, so you have to make that fall semi-blind. I wasn't sure whether to keep it like that or not, but decided that people know that the pipe is there so they should be able to make it (the level has a 25% completion rate).
You go through the pipe and head here:
You can get another spike helmet if you lose it in this room if you want to. And here you see a grandfather clock with a hidden block containing the star. You can use the star to get through this area easily, but you can easily do it without a star (645 did it easily).
There is a hidden mushroom at the end:
https://40.media.tumblr.com/9569532fbcbef88b2f1f465dc59260ac/tumblr_nv4twxvsjm1ux7li8o1_540.jpg
I expected people to continue running and then jump once they hit the wall. I know not everyone has this habit, but for those who do, here's a surprise lol.
And then on the other side of the door, you get to this room:
You have to get through without getting crushed. Now if you managed to keep your spiny helmet, you can get through this part easily since every block here is breakable.
And you can see there is another grandfather clock. Again, there is a hidden block above it, but it only contains a coin. That's cause it acts as a sort of warning. for the next set of crushing blocks...
The first track seems to be empty, but it actually has a hidden block.
https://40.media.tumblr.com/ac9c78bcc80b24a434183124b45a9489/tumblr_nv4u3u3fmQ1ux7li8o1_540.jpg
So if you have a spiny helmet, you may not want to try to jump around trying to destroy every block lol. There's also a hidden 1-Up next to the door at the end of this area.
Once you head through the door, you come to this crazy room:
Arrows pointing all over the place. There are grandfather clocks are below the correct pipe which leads you to the level exit.
And that's it. Sorry for all of the pics, I linked the ones that I feel aren't all that important instead of embedding them. Hope you enjoyed the level and/or the write-up. The big secret in this level involves you finishing the level with Tanooki Mario. I know people have found the secret area, but seeing where they died is pretty funny.
Another reason as to why I made this write-up is that this level is something I used as a sort of basis for my next two levels.
Tricky Doors & Pipes
C684-0000-0065-5B9C
This level just has you navigating through pipes and doors and has multiple ways to finish it. This is a much more expanded idea of using background elements to lead the player towards the goal. It's really hard to die in this level, but I think it is fun to complete.
Pipe Maze
04C9-0000-0065-5440
This level is just a pipe maze, no hints at all really. It uses all of the pipes trickery knowledge I have. I recommend playing Tricky Doors & Pipes first before this one. I was confused while making this level, that's how confusing it is lol.
The best part of this level though is that you can complete it within about 10 or so seconds, but you can also prevent yourself from doing that and would have to take the longer way.