It's been a minute since I streamed this game, so I'll be streaming user-submitted levels again at about 9:30 PM Eastern (approx. one hour from now). Post a code for a level and I'll stream it. Quote this post to make it easy for me to see. You can post as many levels as you like, but I might not get to all of them.
Oh, awesome. I haven't been able to catch people streaming lately so I've got two levels:
Lovewind Manor - (56BB-0000-00C9-2B02)
Simple level, I mostly want to see a live reaction, shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes so it'll be VERY easy to fit in a stream.
Castles & Koopas(Checkpoint ver) - 0A36-0000-00D6-7A37
This is an old level parodying Dungeons & Dragons but I added a checkpoint to it, and I want to see if more than one person can beat it (it is a hard level but should be far from impossible)
It's been a minute since I streamed this game, so I'll be streaming user-submitted levels again at about 9:30 PM Eastern (approx. one hour from now). Post a code for a level and I'll stream it. Quote this post to make it easy for me to see. You can post as many levels as you like, but I might not get to all of them. If I don't get many submissions I'll just pull from random levels posted on the last few pages.
In the meantime, you could also try my stages (ordered from newest to oldest):
It's been a minute since I streamed this game, so I'll be streaming user-submitted levels again at about 9:30 PM Eastern (approx. one hour from now). Post a code for a level and I'll stream it. Quote this post to make it easy for me to see. You can post as many levels as you like, but I might not get to all of them. If I don't get many submissions I'll just pull from random levels posted on the last few pages.
In the meantime, you could also try my stages (ordered from newest to oldest):
Oh, thanks for playing and sharing the video! Really appreciate it, and yeah I second-guessed the Bowser battle but I wanted it to be a decent capper if anyone ever got it as their final level in their 100 Mario Challenge.
If you join late, remember that you can rewind the stream at any time to catch what you missed. Also try picking a lower resolution/quality setting if the stream is lagging for you.
"I'm just gonna skip all of this nonsense" I'm glad you did, that's pretty much what you're supposed to do at that part.
And yes, the Thwomp was intended to be a troll. ;P I have no regrets adding it in.
Lovewind Manor is a visual set piece, you didn't skip any of it.
EDIT: I have to give props to somebody that managed to make a level look like something from Beetlejuice.
EDIT 2: If you need another level, I did make this as well: (DBBC-0000-00DB-0926) though others that have played it consider it more of a concept level which is why I didn't try to get it on stream to begin with.
I updated my favorite level I did with checkpoints and tons of cool stuff; it's a lot more fun now, I'm really proud of it. It's a tower level based around bob-ombs and destructible walls. It's pretty hard but not troll-level hard. There's 3 main ways to finish the level, 3 hidden question blocks and a ton of little secrets here and there. Please check it out!
Raid Bowser's Floating Fort II // 065C-0000-00E5-4D1F
It's 2-1 in my game. After wrecking Bowser Jr.'s airship, Mario descends through a series of colorful and tricky mushrooms. First half features 3 different-colored versions of the same room and the second half features 3 paths to choose from to reach the exit.
(1-1) Garden Garrison (B8EA-0000-004B-81DE)
(1-2) Color-Coded Caverns (8ED7-0000-005D-D2E9)
(1-3) High and Dry Dock (759E-0000-0082-DAC4)
(1-4) Junior Airship Showdown (1B6D-0000-00A3-FD76)
If you join late, remember that you can rewind the stream at any time to catch what you missed. Also try picking a lower resolution/quality setting if the stream is lagging for you.
Uploaded some videos of GAF levels: Super Mario Planets - Planet 2-2
Featuring: Super Mario Planets - Planet 2-2 (025A-0000-00E4-A23E) by KoopaKid: Wow, this is hard! I didn´t complete it, in fact I don´t think I made much progress, just a bit after the first checkpoint. There are many ways to die: miss a jump and fall to a bottomless pit, get pushed by a Blaster, get crushed between 2 Blasters, get crushed between a Blaster and a wall, get hit by a homing Bullet Bill...I think it may be too much. This was the first level I played so maybe I just needed some warming up, I´ll try it again another day, but I can see many players running away from this level screaming with tears in their eyes.
The Blaster + Cloud mechanic is very cool, but you may have overdone it with the conveyor belts. Also, the big Wiggler felt a bit out of place.
I think that the main problem is that you didn´t identify the main mechanic correctly: The first part of the level is a nice ramping introduction to conveyor belts and moving Blasters, however the most defining element from section 2 (the cloud) is not introduced at all and it changes completely how the elements seen in the previous part work. It feels like the level is going in one direction and then suddenly changes idea and starts working with something else. An introductory part with the cloud would do a lot of good to the second part, somewhere where you can play with the cloud and Blaster without impending death, I really felt like I didn´t fully understand how it´s moving pattern works and was just running forward and betting it all on reflexes and nothing random too bad happenning, which only took me so far. I tried experimenting a bit, but the environment was so unforgiving that it didn´t allow it: any mistake (or just any test really) easily led to being pushed or falling in a bottomless pit.
G-Day (E1C0-0000-00E0-4317) by Schlomo: I liked this one a lot, specially for the "story", it was really cool to get to the ship and see where the Goombas where falling from. Good level, I liked a lot how the Goombas where falling all around at the beginning but they were masterfully placed to create a very threatening feeling without actually putting you in danger. Some suggestions:
The autoscroll is a tricky mechanic: sometimes the player has to push forward, while others he has to wait on the back to see the obstacles load. There were some instances where this caused some problems. Maybe you could use some coins to guide the player: if he has to wait put some coins in a vertical line or a coin block so the player stays there getting them while the screen advances and if he has to push forward put a trail of coins asking him to do so.
The part where you have to jump on Goombas flying on Beetles had some coins which were misleading: they showed a jumping arc but in fact, as the Goombas were moving, they may lead you to your death if you followed them or just confuse you. I think you should remove them and instead add a straight horizontal line of coins at a given height.
The Goombas with wings were a bit tricky, I had never encountered them in any stage that forced me to deal with them so I was not aware they could turn around so quickly, you could show this in some sort of minichallenge before using them as real obstacles.
The last puzzle with the bombs is a bit confusing, I got the solution right the first time by fluke and wasn´t even aware of it so I died anyway . There was also a place where you can fall to your death which mislead me once. There were so many different elements, some of them moving and which you had to deal with, that it wasn´t clear where you had to put your focus on. As a consequence of all of this, i didn´t feel very accomplished when I solved the puzzle, I think Noncturnowl said something similar about it.
Anyway don´t let this list make you think that tI didn´t like the level: I enjoyed it a lot! I thought the theme was very funny and brilliantly executed. The mechanical progression was really well done; I was amazed to see all the different and interesting uses you managed to get out of something as simple as Goombas, so congratulations!
8:43 Traveller of the Cosmos (480C-0000-00D6-A701) by Neki: Not much to say about this one as I extensively reviewed the original version. I had some complaints with the last challenge in the ice world and the limitation of PSwitches and both have been solved in this one. Also, the checkpoint right after the Ice World is an awesome idea.
This is the definitve version of an already AWESOME level and one of my alltime favorite SMM levels so far.
The Great Deku Tree! (C70B-0000-00E3-6BAD) by deafsox987: Great idea remaking the OoT dungeons, it was very atmospheric and was constantly making me remember the original game. Great use of simple puzzles, though I didn´t like the first one to get the spring: it was very easy to make both platforms fall and get trapped with no chance but to suicide, I would make some changes to that.
I didn´t like being forced to relinquish the Fire Flower, I saw no reason for that, specially because if I remember correctly from then on you´ll just be facing Wigglers which are immune to fire. Forcing the player to take a hit is a very user-unfriendly thing to do so it needs to have a big justifications behind it and I saw no reason except a cheap way to hurt the player, specially seeing how you got the cape right after that.
All the first part was very nice, but the second part felt a bit too short and simple, specially compared to the first.
Also, HUGE MISSED OPORTUNITY with the Thwomp at the top of the tree: everything was screaming that I should spin jump through the hole to fall to the bottom, but the Thwomp´s placement made it really tricky (maybe impossible) to do, so the player will end falling normally and making a spin jump right above the yellow blocks to break them. It was a great moment and an awesome call back to the OoT level, but not being able to make all the fall to the bottom was a bit of a let down.
Conclusion: I liked the level a lot, specially for what it represented and the great atmosphere and theming, but it´s a bit unbalanced in which the first part is much better than the last and there are some missed oportunities.
4:59 Zero Escape: Yoshi's Last Reward (BF58-0000-00E2-1CF4) by Thud: Awesome level, I really enjoyed it! This level is really 2 levels in one: depending on if you choose to take the upper path, or go into the underground the experience is totally different. The upper path is more platform-action oriented and straightforward, while the lower one is more about exploration and puzzles. I will replay this one as I think I left some secrets at the cave. Great layout in both parts, specially in the cave, I lost all references while searching for secrets which made the cave look huge. Also, very good mechanic progression in both paths, specially in the upper path.
Minor complaint: I found a door in the upper path that took me back, I understand it was there as a fail safe for players who didn´t trigger the vines or failed the jump in an introductory challenge, but as I found it by exploring it seemed I was being punished for exploring, specially because taking the door back made the vines despawn and I couldn´t get back up. You should change that part somehow. But just a minor complaint, I liked this level a lot and will be cheking the rest you´ve uploaded as I really liked your style.
Muncher Plains (E471-0000-00E0-B799) by Gotdatmoney: I think I need to replay this before giving a review, it was somewhat similar in some superflual things to Zero Escape (SMW style, munchers...) but it didn´t leave such a lasting impression so my head is mixing things :S
Rise after fall (7162-0000-00E3-82F5) by Bydobob: I couldn´t finish this one, there were some good ideas but it was very frustrating and had too much trial and error. I felt like I was constantly dying to discover how to get a little further, only to find a new wall to bang my head against.
There was another recurring problem in all the stage: the vertical scroll isn´t as fast as the horizontal, so jumping upwards where an enemy is (or worse yet, where an enemy moving downwards appears) almost always guaranteed a hit.
Also, there were some very unfriendly challenges. By unfriendly I don´t mean difficult, but raw challenges that haven´t been polished to make the player experience better. Examples of this are the breakable blocks with Piranha Plants on top: If you took this challenge as Super Mario you would break the blocks complicating your climbing a lot. You then had to repeat the same jump 4 or 5 times and missing one meant going back to the start of the challenge. They weren´t funny or interesting jumps so this part was really tedious and made me ignore the previous Mushroom in successive attempts.
The part with all the Munchers on Note Blocks hasn´t been designed very thorougly as the best thing to do in the end is to just circle around it and ignore almost all the challenge. The Chain Chomp right after it is very tricky, random in it´s behaviour and felt out of place. The Goombas on a track where impossible to anticipate due to the vertical scroll. Also, after a few tries I found the shell triggered the vine by accident, but it´s really easy to just reach that part without doing so as the player has no way of knowing it when he sees the Red Koopa Troopa: the block with the vine is a screen apart with other much impending challenge between it and the player.
I could go on and criticize every challenge, but I think that it all coms down to this level accussing severly the lack of a conducting mechanic so the player can anticipate to a point what to expect and he experiments a feeling of accomplishment. In this level every challenge is totally independent of the rest, uses different unnanounced mechanics, it even doesn´t have a fast rythm so it could excuse this in focusing on reflexes as some challenges are more puzzly while others rely just on "slow" platforming.
I liked a lot the main idea of going up and down constantly, but I think you should just focus on a single mechanic, develop it through the entire level and get rid of all the trial and error challenges.
Metroid Resurgence: Brinstar (A658-0000-00E0-A2DD) by Simbabbad
Very cool homage to Metroid, I could recognize a lot of locations of Brinstar through the level, to the point that some of them gave me the impression of being 1:1 copies (I´m saying this as a good thing!). It´s a pity you can´t keep the Samus costume after getting the fireball (this is Nintendo´s fault, not yours). However, I think you should give the player a Samus Costume right before the goal to hear the Metroid tune when completing the level
My only complaint is that there may be too many enemies everywhere, which in a level focusing around powerUps like this one will force you to backtrack a lot if hit, but if you take your time you can get rid of most of them easily so it´s not that bad.
I will try the rest of your Metroid series, this was a very nice start!
Nice level again with another good core mechanic. Only had time for a few goes so didn't complete it but got to the first checkpoint. You know how to make a level that just begs for one more go, it's tough but fair and it seems achievable.
Another planet, another interesting twist on expectations, who knew that cloud riding bill towers could make a level gimmick, nice and frantic.
Also the musical dissonance completely changed the tone of that ghost house.
Did you beat it?
The completion rate is low so far (4.5%).
I'm really curious how many players manage to finish an official Mario game. My levels are not that hard but the completion rate is rarely above 20%. I think people try harder when it's officially made by Nintendo (See the "Official" stages).
Oh well, I'm not dumbing down this one! (EDIT: Ok maybe...)
Uploaded some videos of GAF levels: Super Mario Planets - Planet 2-2
Featuring: Super Mario Planets - Planet 2-2 (025A-0000-00E4-A23E) by KoopaKid: Wow, this is hard! I didn´t complete it, in fact I don´t think I made much progress, just a bit after the first checkpoint. There are many ways to die: miss a jump and fall to a bottomless pit, get pushed by a Blaster, get crushed between 2 Blasters, get crushed between a Blaster and a wall, get hit by a homing Bullet Bill...I think it may be too much. This was the first level I played so maybe I just needed some warming up, I´ll try it again another day, but I can see many players running away from this level screaming with tears in their eyes.
The Blaster + Cloud mechanic is very cool, but you may have overdone it with the conveyor belts. Also, the big Wiggler felt a bit out of place.
I think that the main problem is that you didn´t identify the main mechanic correctly: The first part of the level is a nice ramping introduction to conveyor belts and moving Blasters, however the most defining element from section 2 (the cloud) is not introduced at all and it changes completely how the elements seen in the previous part work. It feels like the level is going in one direction and then suddenly changes idea and starts working with something else. An introductory part with the cloud would do a lot of good to the second part, somewhere where you can play with the cloud and Blaster without impending death, I really felt like I didn´t fully understand how it´s moving pattern works and was just running forward and betting it all on reflexes and nothing random too bad happenning, which only took me so far. I tried experimenting a bit, but the environment was so unforgiving that it didn´t allow it: any mistake (or just any test really) easily led to being pushed or falling in a bottomless pit.
Another useful feedback from Master Correojon! And as usual you're right, I thought about all this. Some Super Mario Galaxy levels play with several ideas within the same level so I thought why not!
I'm probably going to make 2 levels out of it and replace the first part with an introduction to the clouds. I will remove the Wiggler and conveyor belt too.
You will still be crushed by a wall if you're careless!
When I play 100 Mario mode I only give a few tries to each level before skipping, but when I play GAF or Official levels I try much harder to beat them. I think everyone does the same, as my levels usually have around a 30% completion rate or higher shortly after posting them but with time the completion rate starts falling lower and lower once they start popping up in 100 Mario mode I guess.
Gracias!! Glad to see the changes worked as intended I think the original version was only good for people like us who enjoy getting lost and having no idea where to go next and I overdid it in that aspect. Also, I took a lot of inspiration from your "overloaded" design style, so maybe that´s why you were of the few who enjoyed the raw, original version
I didn't die so I'm assuming the changes worked? you know a maze like stage has worked when you spend the level feeling lost but are in fact actually making constant progress.
Great, glad people are enjoying it now. Thanks a lot for the comment about getting lost, I was going for that with this one and it´s nice to hear I managed a good balance between that and making the player not feel stuck
last week was my birthday and I got Mario Maker from my girlfriend. I'm currently working on my first real big and hopefulky well-designed level, the theme of which I won't yet tell 😉. I have uploaded some but basically noone played them and they are not really shareworthy. However, as I'm working on my last third, I need some help: In a great Dark Souls Asylum level, there were some text bubbles like "praise the sun" and I need to do something similar. Is it possible, especially to simultaneously prohibit other users texts. The text is necessary for my and the player's completion.
On a different note: Is there some kind of comprehensive and searchable levellist?
You can´t disable user comments as far as I know. Also, it may not be a good idea to require text to solve the level, as anyone not speaking english or with comments turned off won´t be able to beat the level: you should try to tell the player what you want through the level design.
If you want to search for good levels most of the ones in this thread are pretty good, or you can visit the GAF recommendation thread, all levels there are awesome: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1115465
4:59 Zero Escape: Yoshi's Last Reward (BF58-0000-00E2-1CF4) by Thud: Awesome level, I really enjoyed it! This level is really 2 levels in one: depending on if you choose to take the upper path, or go into the underground the experience is totally different. The upper path is more platform-action oriented and straightforward, while the lower one is more about exploration and puzzles. I will replay this one as I think I left some secrets at the cave. Great layout in both parts, specially in the cave, I lost all references while searching for secrets which made the cave look huge. Also, very good mechanic progression in both paths, specially in the upper path.
Minor complaint: I found a door in the upper path that took me back, I understand it was there as a fail safe for players who didn´t trigger the vines or failed the jump in an introductory challenge, but as I found it by exploring it seemed I was being punished for exploring, specially because taking the door back made the vines despawn and I couldn´t get back up. You should change that part somehow. But just a minor complaint, I liked this level a lot and will be cheking the rest you´ve uploaded as I really liked your style.
I got that complaint in my earlier version so I added a little secret to it:
If you jump to the left on the semi solid platforms you can keep going till you get to the yoshi egg. There's a coin there with a comment next to it. You can actually see the coins on the thumbnail I made for the level preview.
The door does take you back one screen. I did it so if you fall down for any reason you can practice with the vines a bit more and it blends well with the checkpoint area. Despawning the vines is a bit of an oversight. I'm gonna look into that.
Oh neat. Incremental power-ups work even if they're not in Question-Mark blocks, the power-up they show up depends on what Mario is when it spawns on screen.
Yamashita says these sorts of updates will continue, and that he views the game as more of an ongoing service than most other recent Nintendo games. He sees this approach as a new sort of challenge for the company, though stops short of committing to a certain number of updates, or a general timespan for them.
[*]Rise after fall (7162-0000-00E3-82F5) by Bydobob: I couldn´t finish this one, there were some good ideas but it was very frustrating and had too much trial and error. I felt like I was constantly dying to discover how to get a little further, only to find a new wall to bang my head against.
1 There was another recurring problem in all the stage: the vertical scroll isn´t as fast as the horizontal, so jumping upwards where an enemy is (or worse yet, where an enemy moving downwards appears) almost always guaranteed a hit.
2 Also, there were some very unfriendly challenges. By unfriendly I don´t mean difficult, but raw challenges that haven´t been polished to make the player experience better. Examples of this are the breakable blocks with Piranha Plants on top: If you took this challenge as Super Mario you would break the blocks complicating your climbing a lot. You then had to repeat the same jump 4 or 5 times and missing one meant going back to the start of the challenge. They weren´t funny or interesting jumps so this part was really tedious and made me ignore the previous Mushroom in successive attempts.
3 The part with all the Munchers on Note Blocks hasn´t been designed very thorougly as the best thing to do in the end is to just circle around it and ignore almost all the challenge. The Chain Chomp right after it is very tricky, random in it´s behaviour and felt out of place. The Goombas on a track where impossible to anticipate due to the vertical scroll. Also, after a few tries I found the shell triggered the vine by accident, but it´s really easy to just reach that part without doing so as the player has no way of knowing it when he sees the Red Koopa Troopa: the block with the vine is a screen apart with other much impending challenge between it and the player.
4 I could go on and criticize every challenge, but I think that it all coms down to this level accussing severly the lack of a conducting mechanic so the player can anticipate to a point what to expect and he experiments a feeling of accomplishment. In this level every challenge is totally independent of the rest, uses different unnanounced mechanics, it even doesn´t have a fast rythm so it could excuse this in focusing on reflexes as some challenges are more puzzly while others rely just on "slow" platforming.
I liked a lot the main idea of going up and down constantly, but I think you should just focus on a single mechanic, develop it through the entire level and get rid of all the trial and error challenges.[/list]
Thanks for playing and for providing such thorough feedback. It's a hard level so expected some criticism but not quite on this level! I will have to take you to task though because quite simply I think you're off the mark on a number of points.
1 You're probably talking about the Goomba and Spiketop parts here. For the Goomba part it is not advised to climb up the vine while all the Goombas are still on their tracks – it's possible, but the vertical scroll doesn't suit this approach at all. The vine plays a supporting role for those struggling to clear the jumps. It can also be used as a means of climbing down and squishing the Goombas beneath you.
As for the Spiketop part I'd point out a couple of things. This is late in the level, you've just played an entirely vertical level knowing full well the limitations of the upwards scrolling, why would you then rush upwards onto a platform you can't yet fully see? The vines under the clouds are there precisely so the player can hang while the scrolling catches up. I might extend the last vine though after watching your video, I left it at 3 blocks thinking players would have the technique mastered by this point. Finally may I point out the availability of the helmet immediately beforehand. If you manage to get this you can simply bash the spiketops out of the way.
2 I've already suggested to players that they ignore the mushroom if they're struggling. I'm well aware some parts are easier as small Mario, I can assure you it's all very calculated! There's an unwritten rule where people think they must pick up every powerup going, well I wanted to provide genuine choice to players and reward them in different ways. The breakable blocks part is much easier with Super Mario if you do it first time though. After that you just have to be delicate with the jump button.
3 I expected players would look at getting the mushrooms here, which forces them to the centre, those that choose not to rightly have an easier passage. I didn't expect you'd have quite such an easy time here though, I'll probably block the side bits off now. I saw you make a lot of bad jumps here though that could have been avoided, you didn't seem to be aware that the absence of any buzzing sound on the blocks is the sign that you are safe to jump.
Your criticism of the vine triggering is odd. You're not triggering is by accident, the line of question marks is a clear indication that the Koopa shell should be chucked down there. I like the fact the vine is triggered a screen away, it gives the player a sense of surprise when they arrive to see it extending upwards in a “cool, did I just do that?” sort of way. You can always choose not to trigger the vine anyway, I'm not a fan of closing off levels if players don't fulfill certain criteria.
4 I'll record a speedrun some time and show you some rhythm suffice to say 'flow' is a big focus in all my levels. You're right that every challenge is independent of the rest, but they're all tied by being vertical. The idea was to provide players with a smorgasbord of ways of going up and down, it's therefore a shame you didn't enjoy the variety. As for trial and error a lot of what I witnessed in your video was principally down to human error if I'm honest.
Genuine thanks though for giving my level such attention, I've read your feedback of other's levels here and think you do a sterling job. I'll also amend two sections off the back of watching your video so it's been beneficial even if we're not in agreement!
1 You're probably talking about the Goomba and Spiketop parts here. For the Goomba part it is not advised to climb up the vine while all the Goombas are still on their tracks it's possible, but the vertical scroll doesn't suit this approach at all. The vine plays a supporting role for those struggling to clear the jumps. It can also be used as a means of climbing down and squishing the Goombas beneath you.
For the Goombas, I discovered that jumping from side to side was much safer than going up the vine, but it took me some attempts to do so and I had no way of knowing that before taking on the challenge. You coudl maybe put some coins to show that this is the correct approach?
As for the Spiketop part I'd point out a couple of things. This is late in the level, you've just played an entirely vertical level knowing full well the limitations of the upwards scrolling, why would you then rush upwards onto a platform you can't yet fully see? The vines under the clouds are there precisely so the player can hang while the scrolling catches up. I might extend the last vine though after watching your video, I left it at 3 blocks thinking players would have the technique mastered by this point. Finally may I point out the availability of the helmet immediately beforehand. If you manage to get this you can simply bash the spiketops out of the way.
For the Spiketops my problem was that the vine was too short, so even though I was expecting the last one that killed me, I pressed UP to grab the vine and that made me climb it just enough to touch the spiketop and die. Maybe you could use red spiketops and try to set them so the player gets a safe landing even if he climbs the vine a bit, or make the cloud platforms 2 tiles high to give an extra space? You should do something like this at least in the first jumps, so the player can safely understand what the challenge has in store without being punished for not foreseeing something new.
Regarding the helmet, I could not grab it in any attempt :S
2 I've already suggested to players that they ignore the mushroom if they're struggling. I'm well aware some parts are easier as small Mario, I can assure you it's all very calculated! There's an unwritten rule where people think they must pick up every powerup going, well I wanted to provide genuine choice to players and reward them in different ways. The breakable blocks part is much easier with Super Mario if you do it first time though. After that you just have to be delicate with the jump button.
I really think this part should be reworked, the other challenges had something going for them, but this one was just tedious, maybe because there was no risk involved other than having to repeat the jumps.
3 I expected players would look at getting the mushrooms here, which forces them to the centre, those that choose not to rightly have an easier passage. I didn't expect you'd have quite such an easy time here though, I'll probably block the side bits off now. I saw you make a lot of bad jumps here though that could have been avoided, you didn't seem to be aware that the absence of any buzzing sound on the blocks is the sign that you are safe to jump.
The thing is that the way leading to this challenge was already hard, so a Mushroom wasn´t a reward seductive enough to make me risk progress for it. I wasn´t aware of some note blocks not sounding, that is a cool idea.
Your criticism of the vine triggering is odd. You're not triggering is by accident, the line of question marks is a clear indication that the Koopa shell should be chucked down there. I like the fact the vine is triggered a screen away, it gives the player a sense of surprise when they arrive to see it extending upwards in a cool, did I just do that? sort of way. You can always choose not to trigger the vine anyway, I'm not a fan of closing off levels if players don't fulfill certain criteria.
Yeah you´re right, I forgot about the line of question blocks. I still think you should do something about the Chain Chomp there, either change it for a different static enemy, or get rid of some Piranha Plants below. And add something to allow the player to retry if they miss the first shot and loose the shell.
4 I'll record a speedrun some time and show you some rhythm suffice to say 'flow' is a big focus in all my levels. You're right that every challenge is independent of the rest, but they're all tied by being vertical. The idea was to provide players with a smorgasbord of ways of going up and down, it's therefore a shame you didn't enjoy the variety. As for trial and error a lot of what I witnessed in your video was principally down to human error if I'm honest.
I think you may be not seeing the whole picture here: of course you´ll be able to cross your level at highspeed, you designed it and know where everything is and how to beat every challenge. But anyone else who plays that level won´t, so they´ll do stupid things until they find the right way to get over each challenge. I´m sure there were lots of my deaths were you thought that I´m stupid or a horrible player and, not trying to defend my skill or intelligence here, but in some of them I would surely be trying something or focusing on something meaningless while the real challenge escaped me. Those are what I call "trial and error" deaths, when I don´t have enough information on advance to take a decission whose outcome will either help me beat the challenge or make me die.
Making all the challenges vertical ties them thematically, but not mechanically, or at least not deeply enough. Think about it this way: if I make a standard horizontal level and throw everything I can think at the player I won´t be able to say that the challenges are tied because they all require you to go to the right, will I? If I divide this level in rooms in which each one forces you to alternativelly go to the right and left: the mechanics inside each room are still totally disconnected from each other. If I then rotate them and instead of going left and right you have to go up and down the relation in the mechanics is still non-existent. That hurts the feeling of progression and accomlpishment as anything the player learns in one challenge is instantly rendered obsolete by another new, unrelated challenge.
If you´re going for a "minigame" approach, you should make sure that each challenge presents itself fully to the player so he can take on it with guarantees and maybe do something to highlight the start and end of each one (changes in backgrounds and tiles, some kind of SFX, a door, a reward...), to provide some feeling of progression or making him feel he has accomplished something before telling him "that´s nothing here´s something else".
Genuine thanks though for giving my level such attention, I've read your feedback of other's levels here and think you do a sterling job. I'll also amend two sections off the back of watching your video so it's been beneficial even if we're not in agreement!
Thanks! Of course this is just my non-educated opinion, so feel free to tell me to shut up If you update the level I´ll gladly try my best to suck at it again XD
Even if it's paid DLC, I'd do it. Luigi can't be that hard to implement. And his unique mechanics would change up the game, some cool levels could be made with higher jumps, slippery walking and his unique SMW Yoshi mechanics (if they use those, which they should)
I may have got some inspiration here from KooopaKid's recent stage (and by the way I did indeed beat it).
I had no idea cloud based pursuers had Lakitu levels of speed and such though it's his cloud so I shouldn't be surprised.
So knowing this I whipped up this stage...
Sweltering Stalkers
(EB27-0000-00E5-F015)
It's like having a substitute for this game lacking a good ol' Porcu Puffer (to the point I was going to name the stage piranha puffer) minus the awesome design of that fishy fellow.
Keeping the stage in a rather compact tunnel like form made obstacle variety tougher to come by in the sub area but for something I threw together last night with my inability to sleep I quite like it.
Even if it's paid DLC, I'd do it. Luigi can't be that hard to implement. And his unique mechanics would change up the game, some cool levels could be made with higher jumps, slippery walking and his unique SMW Yoshi mechanics (if they use those, which they should)
G-Day (E1C0-0000-00E0-4317) by Schlomo: I liked this one a lot, specially for the "story", it was really cool to get to the ship and see where the Goombas where falling from. Good level, I liked a lot how the Goombas where falling all around at the beginning but they were masterfully placed to create a very threatening feeling without actually putting you in danger. Some suggestions:
The autoscroll is a tricky mechanic: sometimes the player has to push forward, while others he has to wait on the back to see the obstacles load. There were some instances where this caused some problems. Maybe you could use some coins to guide the player: if he has to wait put some coins in a vertical line or a coin block so the player stays there getting them while the screen advances and if he has to push forward put a trail of coins asking him to do so.
The part where you have to jump on Goombas flying on Beetles had some coins which were misleading: they showed a jumping arc but in fact, as the Goombas were moving, they may lead you to your death if you followed them or just confuse you. I think you should remove them and instead add a straight horizontal line of coins at a given height.
The Goombas with wings were a bit tricky, I had never encountered them in any stage that forced me to deal with them so I was not aware they could turn around so quickly, you could show this in some sort of minichallenge before using them as real obstacles.
The last puzzle with the bombs is a bit confusing, I got the solution right the first time by fluke and wasn´t even aware of it so I died anyway . There was also a place where you can fall to your death which mislead me once. There were so many different elements, some of them moving and which you had to deal with, that it wasn´t clear where you had to put your focus on. As a consequence of all of this, i didn´t feel very accomplished when I solved the puzzle, I think Noncturnowl said something similar about it.
Anyway don´t let this list make you think that tI didn´t like the level: I enjoyed it a lot! I thought the theme was very funny and brilliantly executed. The mechanical progression was really well done; I was amazed to see all the different and interesting uses you managed to get out of something as simple as Goombas, so congratulations!
Thanks for the praise and helpful criticism! Can't really disagree with anything. It was definitely more of a narrative-type level, I didn't spend that much time for fine-tuning the gameplay this time. I'll watch the video later today. As for the final puzzle, I think most people so far said they enjoyed it (including Nocturnowl unless I misunderstood him
Glad you find the feedback useful and if I seemd harsh at any moment please excuse me, my intention is purely to help
For the Goombas, I discovered that jumping from side to side was much safer than going up the vine, but it took me some attempts to do so and I had no way of knowing that before taking on the challenge. You coudl maybe put some coins to show that this is the correct approach?
For the Spiketops my problem was that the vine was too short, so even though I was expecting the last one that killed me, I pressed UP to grab the vine and that made me climb it just enough to touch the spiketop and die. Maybe you could use red spiketops and try to set them so the player gets a safe landing even if he climbs the vine a bit, or make the cloud platforms 2 tiles high to give an extra space? You should do something like this at least in the first jumps, so the player can safely understand what the challenge has in store without being punished for not foreseeing something new.
Regarding the helmet, I could not grab it in any attempt :S
I really think this part should be reworked, the other challenges had something going for them, but this one was just tedious, maybe because there was no risk involved other than having to repeat the jumps.
The thing is that the way leading to this challenge was already hard, so a Mushroom wasn´t a reward seductive enough to make me risk progress for it. I wasn´t aware of some note blocks not sounding, that is a cool idea.
Yeah you´re right, I forgot about the line of question blocks. I still think you should do something about the Chain Chomp there, either change it for a different static enemy, or get rid of some Piranha Plants below. And add something to allow the player to retry if they miss the first shot and loose the shell.
I think you may be not seeing the whole picture here: of course you´ll be able to cross your level at highspeed, you designed it and know where everything is and how to beat every challenge. But anyone else who plays that level won´t, so they´ll do stupid things until they find the right way to get over each challenge. I´m sure there were lots of my deaths were you thought that I´m stupid or a horrible player and, not trying to defend my skill or intelligence here, but in some of them I would surely be trying something or focusing on something meaningless while the real challenge escaped me. Those are what I call "trial and error" deaths, when I don´t have enough information on advance to take a decission whose outcome will either help me beat the challenge or make me die.
Making all the challenges vertical ties them thematically, but not mechanically, or at least not deeply enough. Think about it this way: if I make a standard horizontal level and throw everything I can think at the player I won´t be able to say that the challenges are tied because they all require you to go to the right, will I? If I divide this level in rooms in which each one forces you to alternativelly go to the right and left: the mechanics inside each room are still totally disconnected from each other. If I then rotate them and instead of going left and right you have to go up and down the relation in the mechanics is still non-existent. That hurts the feeling of progression and accomlpishment as anything the player learns in one challenge is instantly rendered obsolete by another new, unrelated challenge.
If you´re going for a "minigame" approach, you should make sure that each challenge presents itself fully to the player so he can take on it with guarantees and maybe do something to highlight the start and end of each one (changes in backgrounds and tiles, some kind of SFX, a door, a reward...), to provide some feeling of progression or making him feel he has accomplished something before telling him "that´s nothing here´s something else".
Thanks! Of course this is just my non-educated opinion, so feel free to tell me to shut up If you update the level I´ll gladly try my best to suck at it again XD
I would never do that, your comments have sparked a lot of interesting debate!
Some good points in here but I'm time-pressed so can't respond individually to them all. I disagree fundamentally about a level having to be mechanically the same. I think back to Champion Road for example, a genius level that couldn't be mechanically more diverse or uncompromising. Is the beat block section suddenly obsolete just because you never see them again in that level? Absolutely not. I think there tends to be an obsession here about themes, or indulging the player with baby steps of progression. My goal here was to challenge people's opinion of verticality in Mario Maker, show them that there are many ways to skin a cat and that climbing and falling can be fun! OK, you'll die lots in the process but I made no bones about this being a challenging level.
Not quite sure I understand your point about speedruns. Does anyone really expect to be able to do this on their first try? They take a lot of practice, my point was that once you master this level it's really quite dynamic and not stop/start at all.
All that said, I have made more changes than I expected thanks to your feedback. In order:
-First jump off the blue platform has a block removed giving more margin for error
-Platforms in the following Piranha plant section have now been staggered. It's now a lot easier if you make a mess of it the first time with Super Mario.
-Note block cheese route blocked off. I used aa platform rather than a muncher here to allow the player to recover the shell if it slips down.
-Last vine beneath last Spiketop lengthened by one block, sorry, that's all you're getting!
-More coins dotted around, for some reason I abandoned them towards the end.
And that poor Chain Chomp stays right where he is! He acts as a guardian to the descent and is entirely predictable in his movements, you just haven't worked him out yet. Or just knock him away with the Koopa shell.
There is a progress of verticality in it, however, that illusion gets destroyed in the last sequence of the level, lol.
It has a similiar last part as my other level, Overgrown Ruins, where you end up at the beginning of the level after a certain
time and then have to beat it a second time, just another route. It also includes checkpoints, of course.
Very rarely you lose the shoe on the saw blades. Didn't see a possibility to control that.
Hey all. It's been a long time since I dipped into this thread but I return bearing courses. Any feedback would be appreciated
Shelmet Temple & the Long Bridge (6DFA-0000-00D8-F21F)
- The stage I'm proudest of. Built completely around the helmet mechanic (either grab a shell and crouch, or throw it up and have it land on your head), the stage features a variety of different play styles and a secret item that allows you to really mess with the enemies and even the course itself...
Alien Home World (7993-0000-00E0-B769)
- A classic NES platforming stage focused on weird alien geometries and vines. I was really going for a certain mood on this one. Can you find the hidden costume and room?
BlingWings Take Flight! v.2.0 (75E5-0000-00E5-6B38)
- A revised version of my first stage. Added a checkpoint, rebalanced the difficulty, and tried to accentuate what I think was enjoyable about the original: snatching those fluttering golden coins from the air!
Beetles-Bling-BOOM!! v.2.0 (FFE0-0000-00E4-9EFE)
- A "sequel" to the last course. This one takes the flying coin gimmick and puts it in an air ship stage and adds bobombs and destructible stage elements (don't worry the ground never completely disappears, no matter how much chaos is going on around you )
As a bonus, I also have two boss fight stages that my friends seem to enjoy. Maybe enjoy is a strong word -- they find them addicting and soul-crushing in equal measures. You can find them under my profile. Give'em a shot if you're up for a one-screen challenge.
Hahaha, sweet! That is a long one, i know. (Thats what she said....)
Ill be playing more of you guy's levels when i get home from work tonight, especially RagnarokX new level, who kindly has been commenting on my stuff! Cant wait to try it out!
Ok taken feedback into account! Should be much more manageable now without dumbing down the concept of the level.
Change logs:
- Completely scrapped the first part to introduce the main mechanic early and with a cannon throwing only coins for starters
- Removed all conveyor belts and the wiggler
- Changed the layout in the second area here and there
- Made the mushrooms green when you're safe and red and yellow when you're in danger.
- Made the cannons throwing black bullets only
Code: BF46-0000-00E6-1C99
Super Mario Planets - Planet 2-2
I'll make a harder level with red cannons in a next planet!
Finally, improved search options coming next month. Being able to queue a playlist from a web browser has been one of my most wanted features but I never expected Nintendo to actually implement it. Odd that the extra search filters won't be in game, though.
Uploaded some videos of GAF levels: Super Mario Planets - Planet 2-2
Featuring: Super Mario Planets - Planet 2-2 (025A-0000-00E4-A23E) by KoopaKid: Wow, this is hard! I didn´t complete it, in fact I don´t think I made much progress, just a bit after the first checkpoint. There are many ways to die: miss a jump and fall to a bottomless pit, get pushed by a Blaster, get crushed between 2 Blasters, get crushed between a Blaster and a wall, get hit by a homing Bullet Bill...I think it may be too much. This was the first level I played so maybe I just needed some warming up, I´ll try it again another day, but I can see many players running away from this level screaming with tears in their eyes.
The Blaster + Cloud mechanic is very cool, but you may have overdone it with the conveyor belts. Also, the big Wiggler felt a bit out of place.
I think that the main problem is that you didn´t identify the main mechanic correctly: The first part of the level is a nice ramping introduction to conveyor belts and moving Blasters, however the most defining element from section 2 (the cloud) is not introduced at all and it changes completely how the elements seen in the previous part work. It feels like the level is going in one direction and then suddenly changes idea and starts working with something else. An introductory part with the cloud would do a lot of good to the second part, somewhere where you can play with the cloud and Blaster without impending death, I really felt like I didn´t fully understand how it´s moving pattern works and was just running forward and betting it all on reflexes and nothing random too bad happenning, which only took me so far. I tried experimenting a bit, but the environment was so unforgiving that it didn´t allow it: any mistake (or just any test really) easily led to being pushed or falling in a bottomless pit.
G-Day (E1C0-0000-00E0-4317) by Schlomo: I liked this one a lot, specially for the "story", it was really cool to get to the ship and see where the Goombas where falling from. Good level, I liked a lot how the Goombas where falling all around at the beginning but they were masterfully placed to create a very threatening feeling without actually putting you in danger. Some suggestions:
The autoscroll is a tricky mechanic: sometimes the player has to push forward, while others he has to wait on the back to see the obstacles load. There were some instances where this caused some problems. Maybe you could use some coins to guide the player: if he has to wait put some coins in a vertical line or a coin block so the player stays there getting them while the screen advances and if he has to push forward put a trail of coins asking him to do so.
The part where you have to jump on Goombas flying on Beetles had some coins which were misleading: they showed a jumping arc but in fact, as the Goombas were moving, they may lead you to your death if you followed them or just confuse you. I think you should remove them and instead add a straight horizontal line of coins at a given height.
The Goombas with wings were a bit tricky, I had never encountered them in any stage that forced me to deal with them so I was not aware they could turn around so quickly, you could show this in some sort of minichallenge before using them as real obstacles.
The last puzzle with the bombs is a bit confusing, I got the solution right the first time by fluke and wasn´t even aware of it so I died anyway . There was also a place where you can fall to your death which mislead me once. There were so many different elements, some of them moving and which you had to deal with, that it wasn´t clear where you had to put your focus on. As a consequence of all of this, i didn´t feel very accomplished when I solved the puzzle, I think Noncturnowl said something similar about it.
Anyway don´t let this list make you think that tI didn´t like the level: I enjoyed it a lot! I thought the theme was very funny and brilliantly executed. The mechanical progression was really well done; I was amazed to see all the different and interesting uses you managed to get out of something as simple as Goombas, so congratulations!
8:43 Traveller of the Cosmos (480C-0000-00D6-A701) by Neki: Not much to say about this one as I extensively reviewed the original version. I had some complaints with the last challenge in the ice world and the limitation of PSwitches and both have been solved in this one. Also, the checkpoint right after the Ice World is an awesome idea.
This is the definitve version of an already AWESOME level and one of my alltime favorite SMM levels so far.
The Great Deku Tree! (C70B-0000-00E3-6BAD) by deafsox987: Great idea remaking the OoT dungeons, it was very atmospheric and was constantly making me remember the original game. Great use of simple puzzles, though I didn´t like the first one to get the spring: it was very easy to make both platforms fall and get trapped with no chance but to suicide, I would make some changes to that.
I didn´t like being forced to relinquish the Fire Flower, I saw no reason for that, specially because if I remember correctly from then on you´ll just be facing Wigglers which are immune to fire. Forcing the player to take a hit is a very user-unfriendly thing to do so it needs to have a big justifications behind it and I saw no reason except a cheap way to hurt the player, specially seeing how you got the cape right after that.
All the first part was very nice, but the second part felt a bit too short and simple, specially compared to the first.
Also, HUGE MISSED OPORTUNITY with the Thwomp at the top of the tree: everything was screaming that I should spin jump through the hole to fall to the bottom, but the Thwomp´s placement made it really tricky (maybe impossible) to do, so the player will end falling normally and making a spin jump right above the yellow blocks to break them. It was a great moment and an awesome call back to the OoT level, but not being able to make all the fall to the bottom was a bit of a let down.
Conclusion: I liked the level a lot, specially for what it represented and the great atmosphere and theming, but it´s a bit unbalanced in which the first part is much better than the last and there are some missed oportunities.
4:59 Zero Escape: Yoshi's Last Reward (BF58-0000-00E2-1CF4) by Thud: Awesome level, I really enjoyed it! This level is really 2 levels in one: depending on if you choose to take the upper path, or go into the underground the experience is totally different. The upper path is more platform-action oriented and straightforward, while the lower one is more about exploration and puzzles. I will replay this one as I think I left some secrets at the cave. Great layout in both parts, specially in the cave, I lost all references while searching for secrets which made the cave look huge. Also, very good mechanic progression in both paths, specially in the upper path.
Minor complaint: I found a door in the upper path that took me back, I understand it was there as a fail safe for players who didn´t trigger the vines or failed the jump in an introductory challenge, but as I found it by exploring it seemed I was being punished for exploring, specially because taking the door back made the vines despawn and I couldn´t get back up. You should change that part somehow. But just a minor complaint, I liked this level a lot and will be cheking the rest you´ve uploaded as I really liked your style.
Muncher Plains (E471-0000-00E0-B799) by Gotdatmoney: I think I need to replay this before giving a review, it was somewhat similar in some superflual things to Zero Escape (SMW style, munchers...) but it didn´t leave such a lasting impression so my head is mixing things :S
Rise after fall (7162-0000-00E3-82F5) by Bydobob: I couldn´t finish this one, there were some good ideas but it was very frustrating and had too much trial and error. I felt like I was constantly dying to discover how to get a little further, only to find a new wall to bang my head against.
There was another recurring problem in all the stage: the vertical scroll isn´t as fast as the horizontal, so jumping upwards where an enemy is (or worse yet, where an enemy moving downwards appears) almost always guaranteed a hit.
Also, there were some very unfriendly challenges. By unfriendly I don´t mean difficult, but raw challenges that haven´t been polished to make the player experience better. Examples of this are the breakable blocks with Piranha Plants on top: If you took this challenge as Super Mario you would break the blocks complicating your climbing a lot. You then had to repeat the same jump 4 or 5 times and missing one meant going back to the start of the challenge. They weren´t funny or interesting jumps so this part was really tedious and made me ignore the previous Mushroom in successive attempts.
The part with all the Munchers on Note Blocks hasn´t been designed very thorougly as the best thing to do in the end is to just circle around it and ignore almost all the challenge. The Chain Chomp right after it is very tricky, random in it´s behaviour and felt out of place. The Goombas on a track where impossible to anticipate due to the vertical scroll. Also, after a few tries I found the shell triggered the vine by accident, but it´s really easy to just reach that part without doing so as the player has no way of knowing it when he sees the Red Koopa Troopa: the block with the vine is a screen apart with other much impending challenge between it and the player.
I could go on and criticize every challenge, but I think that it all coms down to this level accussing severly the lack of a conducting mechanic so the player can anticipate to a point what to expect and he experiments a feeling of accomplishment. In this level every challenge is totally independent of the rest, uses different unnanounced mechanics, it even doesn´t have a fast rythm so it could excuse this in focusing on reflexes as some challenges are more puzzly while others rely just on "slow" platforming.
I liked a lot the main idea of going up and down constantly, but I think you should just focus on a single mechanic, develop it through the entire level and get rid of all the trial and error challenges.
Metroid Resurgence: Brinstar (A658-0000-00E0-A2DD) by Simbabbad
Very cool homage to Metroid, I could recognize a lot of locations of Brinstar through the level, to the point that some of them gave me the impression of being 1:1 copies (I´m saying this as a good thing!). It´s a pity you can´t keep the Samus costume after getting the fireball (this is Nintendo´s fault, not yours). However, I think you should give the player a Samus Costume right before the goal to hear the Metroid tune when completing the level
My only complaint is that there may be too many enemies everywhere, which in a level focusing around powerUps like this one will force you to backtrack a lot if hit, but if you take your time you can get rid of most of them easily so it´s not that bad.
I will try the rest of your Metroid series, this was a very nice start!
Thanks for playing my level again, despite how long it is. Your criticism definitely helped make it much more fair and I think it's a much better level because of it. You also didn't need two videos to beat the ice planet either.
Almost beat it on my first run only to be foiled by the hidden block that was ironically placed to bypass the final hazard, I unexpectedly bopped into it and into the flames.
Probably a good thing though because I then found out that there was a whole P block element to the stage that I missed (I flung myself onto the munchers originally as regular Mario).
[*]Muncher Plains (E471-0000-00E0-B799) by Gotdatmoney: I think I need to replay this before giving a review, it was somewhat similar in some superflual things to Zero Escape (SMW style, munchers...) but it didn´t leave such a lasting impression so my head is mixing things
The new search looks very nice, I was really surprised it was on PC / smartphone only, but glad it syncs with your Nintendo account so it doesn't matter too much. Hopefully this means others can link to that new search function so it automatically adds the stages for you, without typing in the entire code! So glad they added a filter for music / auto stages.
I already played your old school series, which i loved, but now got around to playing your metroid series with Brinstar. Wow, great progression and astonishingly well put metroid flair in there. Absolutely loved this! Two nitpicks I almost run out of time, which took a bit of fun off of exploring, and the enemy count was a tad too high for me. But yeah, ill be playing the rest for sure.
Glad you liked it! The time limit is a real problem for Metroid levels because, even set at maximum, it indeed discourages exploration - checkpoints help to lighten that issue, though. For the enemy count, I guess you're thinking about the room with the jumping Koopas? In each update I thought about changing it, but each time I tested it in different configurations, I had no problem with it and found it fun, I couldn't resolve myself to simplify it.
The Fire Flower helps if you can unlock it by breaking blocks, and if you can't, the room is intimidating enough to indicate it's not the right way.
If you're thinking about the ending,
at this point you "should" have the big black boot and the Fire Flower which make the enemies sitting ducks, and even if you run blindly, the invulnerability after a hit should be enough to run to the post (you can get touched three times without dying) - the Spinies help getting rid of enemies, too
, so I thought having a more "action" part was fine. It's also pretty easy to backtrack and collect back the items you already unlocked, once a room is unlocked you can pick up its item as little Mario, and there's always the checkpoint. But some parts are maybe a bit too heavy depending on the player.
The other levels are faster and have less backtracking. I should publish the next two chapters in the Old School Super Mario series pretty soon.
Metroid Resurgence: Brinstar (5E20-0000-0103-7CF6) by Simbabbad
Very cool homage to Metroid, I could recognize a lot of locations of Brinstar through the level, to the point that some of them gave me the impression of being 1:1 copies (I´m saying this as a good thing!). It´s a pity you can´t keep the Samus costume after getting the fireball (this is Nintendo´s fault, not yours). However, I think you should give the player a Samus Costume right before the goal to hear the Metroid tune when completing the level
My only complaint is that there may be too many enemies everywhere, which in a level focusing around powerUps like this one will force you to backtrack a lot if hit, but if you take your time you can get rid of most of them easily so it´s not that bad.
I will try the rest of your Metroid series, this was a very nice start!
Thanks a lot for your video and comments. At first, while I watched your video, I was really surprised that you thought there were too many enemies because your run is nearly flawless until the last powerup. I purposefully actually didn't put much enemies in most of the rooms until the end for the reason you said, and the ones that are there have very predictable patterns and are easy to avoid, it's only in
the Fire Flower room (where the Fire Flower and/or boot make things easier) and at the very end when powerups don't block your progression
that there are actual hazards.
In fact, the problem in your playthrough is that it took you 3mn to
notice that the pipe in the stiletto room dispenses mushrooms. With that mushroom, you can then take the Fire Flower en route without wasting time, and the last segment then is very manageable with Fire Mario in a giant flying black boot, as can be seen at the end of your video. In that stiletto room, at this point in the level, since the pipe is very visibly blocked with bricks that the stiletto can brake and the layout is the exact same as other pipes dispensing powerups, I thought people would overcome the damn pipe delay/activation range and understand there was something in there. But in context, I understand people may miss it. And then, even after you got it, you lost patience in the Koopa room and started to actually play worse there as Fire Mario in the giant stiletto than as Samus in the Goomba's Shoe ;-) !
Actual Metroid levels are pretty hard to do in Mario Maker because of many constraints and the difficulty to foresee user behaviour. Looking back, thanks to video feedback, I'd maybe make more adjustments to keep that level as more of an exploration/puzzle level to broaden its appeal, but it's way too painful to update, and honestly I can go through the Koopa room as little Mario with no problem, it's not hard if you're a bit patient, at this point the issues are too minor vs. the disadvantages to update. Your feedback and feedback in general is incredibly helpful for my next levels, though. It's fascinating how this game allows to understand better the process of game design and how players naturally play levels.
The other Metroid Resurgence levels are quite different from Brinstar, you'll see.
The most impressive, in both your levels, is the pacing and flow, they're absolutely stellar, especially in the second level and its perfectly timed events. Tons of fun. I hope you'll get the visits and stars you deserve.
That was fun, nice use of what is respawned or not when you use a pipe! I guess the door wasn't in the first version? IMO its presence sort of spoils the "Groundhog Day" aspect of the level, you can skip the entire level that way, and apparently it doesn't help people to "get it".
Since im here, i just uploaded one of my oldest levels with changes and checkpoints. Im very fond of this level for some reason, so id love if you guys could give it a try:
Deep steep forgotten mines!REDUX
0957-0000-00DD-73A7
I seriously loved this level, because it reminded me a lot of old 8-bit computer (like the Spectrum or Amstrad) platform/adventure games, except without all the bad aspects. There are tons of areas to explore and the layout is very rich. I had a blast.
That was really well done and fun, I loved the Punch-Out!! section in particular! Only thing that surprised me is, why wasn't it arranged in chronological order?
At this point the team has to be aware it's not a particularly enjoyable exercise based on the type of user-made levels that have been created. It's actually quite the opposite and very antagonistic. I hope they patch the Easy and Normal caps out some day. There's loads of costumes in the game to unlock that would be a lot of fun to employ, but you simply can't have a good time trying to do the unlocking.
They'll never allow you to be able not to play Expert levels, because the Expert 100 Mario Challenge is the main way Expert levels are played and evaluated at all. If they did the update you requested, Expert levels would be much, much less played than they are now.
What they could do, though, is get rid of the 100 lives limit, or lessen that threat. I always end up the challenge with at least 20 lives left, but it's incredible stress. Not having to worry about lives and maybe eventually losing all your time and effort on stupid levels would make the process much more bearable. Or at least, change the challenge length to 8 levels instead of 16, it'd be effortless and would change everything. Or allow you to choose the costume you want to unlock by picking its number on the list. There are various ways to make that mode much more fun. Even some very hard/trolling levels would be amusing if you didn't have to worry about live count.
But hey, what can we expect when even Nintendo publishes the exact same sort of shit, trolling and laughing sound effect included? Have you seen the Cat Peach challenge?
=> What I do:
- Always have the minus button pressed as I start a level to avoid instant deaths and skip stupid looking stages (including ones with doors on the first screen) right away.
- If the level doesn't look stupid (15% of cases), pause and check its number of visits and stars.
- If the level has practically never been played, I give it a shot. If the star/visit ratio is good, I give it a shot. If during my playthrough the level turns out to look stupid, I skip.
That way you do skip 90% of levels, but you lose much less lives. The challenge is much less stressful when you keep a good number of lives. Hell, I'd gladly pay DLC to unlock the costumes I want as long as it's under 2 bucks each - at this point I'd even pay 5 bucks each for the ones I really want. I'm nearly thinking of buying the associated amiibos and sell them after I scanned them, which maybe was the plan all along.
Super Mario Planets - Planet 2-2
Great level, but the cloud mechanic was a bit frustrating. Dying to the clouds never felt good, I can't imagine what it was like with the red bullets. The mechanic is fun but bottomless pits combined with it made it really unfun when I died.
Shelmet Temple & the Long Bridge
Fun use of the shell, but you have a spot in your level which you want to jump but doing so you are stuck. The only safe solution felt like damage boosting. A neat little puzzle was in there and it would have been cool to see some more of them, it was fun. I'd prefer more puzzles over auto scrolling.
Sweltering Stalkers
Fun use of the cloud mechanic, kept me on my toes. Main issue is the second area has little vertical wiggle room, the chain chomp is hard to avoid when you can't jump, but this could be intended. A nice fun short romp.
Multicolor Mushroom Madness
Great use of visuals to create mirror worlds. It was fun and visually appealing, back tracking for a shellmet was a minor annoyance, and you can also keep a shellmet in hand for the second section, which totally broke the level. Multiple paths was fun though, great use of space and mechanics to make the same space so different depending on which door you picked.
Fiery Spikes in Reversible Cave
Fun level, I like how it teased you with where you could go if you had the right power ups. I never played the old version but removing bottomless pits is great, I would have died three or four times if pits existed at the part where I think you added a safe zone buffer. You punish the player by making him do that part again instead of starting over, which makes the game feel more enjoyable. I never felt like the stage cheated me, but it was easy to get lost. Back tracking for power ups is always a tough thing to balance but you managed it well. I beat the level with sub ten seconds left. You also always made it feel like progress was being made, which is rare in maze type levels. Good work!
Castle and Koopas
I thought the level was fair besides the fire bars off screen and the thowm off screen. Falling down the pit you can hit a fire bar, I feel like showing the player the hazard before exposing it to them leads to less frustrating deaths, it doesn't feel good to fall down or take damage, or climb up vines and get hit by offscreen piranha plant fireballs. Definitely an issue with Mario's vertical camera and not inherently your level. The off screen thowmp is mean though, the arrows make you believe that's the correct way and it isn't. The rest of the level was manageable though, and challenging in a good way. The flow of challenge was very hard at the beginning to easier later, which can definitely discourage people from going deep, I didn't even need the checkpoint because the last half is managable in a way where player skill dictates if you beat it
Raid Bowser's Floating Fort II
Great use of props to make the fort feel alive. The cape can trivialize all enemy encounters though, so the difficulty can definitely spike. Without the star, dealing with Bowser can be very monotonous, another mechanic to bypass or beat Bowser when you lose the cape could be helpful as my first go around I had to use so many bombs to kill him because he kept blocking the wall. Fun level and cool secrets.
Check out my levels if you guys get the chance, the update really killed all the plays on my level, it went from five to six every couple of days to one or two now, popularity and stars really help.
Edit: Re-uploaded with a new code after changing a few small things.
Just finished up my third level, and I think it's definitely my best work thus far.
Level: Don't Stop, Get It Get It Code: 0BCA-0000-00EC-567F Difficulty: 3.5/5
Gotta go fast! Stopping even for a second means failure to finish the stage.
Catch up with the beetle shell racing on the platform above you while dodging obstacles below.
Short, but sweet. The level is as long as the editor allows for, but the fact that you are constantly running with no stopping makes it breeze by. No checkpoint needed.
Clean design with no annoying, unfair quirks. Enemies are kept to a minimum in favor of forcing you to find the optimal path through carefully placed hazards.
If you like it, go ahead and check out my previous levels as well:
Alright. I'm back with my second published level so far, and I've gotta warn ya... it's a bastard. I went nearly insane trying to beat this before it could be uploaded.
Bowser Jr. has constructed a series of devilish puzzle rooms from which you must escape.
As you attempt to reach the exit door of each room you'll have to deal with Bowser Jr. generally being an asshole and doing everything in his power to interrupt your progress.
Make it out of the gauntlet and get a chance to exact revenge on your captor.
Keep an eye out for ice blocks. They signify hidden objects.
Power-ups are scarce and hidden, but they can make the difference between dying for the 30th time in the same room or finally progressing onward.
There are hidden paths that allow you to skip over entire sections of the level.
Don't get discouraged. The level is split in half with a checkpoint in the middle.
When in doubt, search the room for hidden boxes.
If you want something a little less rage-inducing, feel free to check out my first level.
Multicolor Mushroom Madness
Great use of visuals to create mirror worlds. It was fun and visually appealing, back tracking for a shellmet was a minor annoyance, and you can also keep a shellmet in hand for the second section, which totally broke the level. Multiple paths was fun though, great use of space and mechanics to make the same space so different depending on which door you picked.
Goin back to get a shellmet if you lost one shouldn't be much trouble since you can open a shortcut to it as soon as you get it. Keeping a shellmet for the second half is to your detriment since all having it does is make the yellow path impossible since you'll destroy the blocks containing p-switches, make it possible to make the red path impossible by killing the wiggler you have to ride, and you can't take more than one hit on the green path anyway since you'll lose yoshi and die. That's why I force you to lose it.
Shelmet Temple & the Long Bridge
Fun use of the shell, but you have a spot in your level which you want to jump but doing so you are stuck. The only safe solution felt like damage boosting. A neat little puzzle was in there and it would have been cool to see some more of them, it was fun. I'd prefer more puzzles over auto scrolling.
Thanks a bunch for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed it. I've seen people run into issues with getting stuck on that puzzle, so it's something I'm going to work hard to address on my next revision. There needs to be failure states, of course, but not at the expense of forcing the player to restart the stage. By the by, did you find the secret room? I've gotten great feedback on the reward in there...
To find it, spin jump off of the first Thwomp to reach a hidden area to the left.
Apparently spiny helmets can break through stone blocks (but not dirt blocks), which allows you to plow through the level and kill otherwise unkillable enemies. Gives the entire level a different feel. Lol.
Castle and Koopas
I thought the level was fair besides the fire bars off screen and the thowm off screen. Falling down the pit you can hit a fire bar, I feel like showing the player the hazard before exposing it to them leads to less frustrating deaths, it doesn't feel good to fall down or take damage, or climb up vines and get hit by offscreen piranha plant fireballs. Definitely an issue with Mario's vertical camera and not inherently your level. The off screen thowmp is mean though, the arrows make you believe that's the correct way and it isn't. The rest of the level was manageable though, and challenging in a good way. The flow of challenge was very hard at the beginning to easier later, which can definitely discourage people from going deep, I didn't even need the checkpoint because the last half is managable in a way where player skill dictates if you beat it
I actually made the last part a little easier than from the checkpoint-less version (by taking away maybe one enemy) because the checkpoint created a scenario where you're not loaded up with so many power-ups that help you tank the rest of the level.
I never realized how problematic the camera was around the firebars though, that is a legit bad mistake on my end.
It's 2-1 in my game. After wrecking Bowser Jr.'s airship, Mario descends through a series of colorful and tricky mushrooms. First half features 3 different-colored versions of the same room and the second half features 3 paths to choose from to reach the exit.
(1-1) Garden Garrison (B8EA-0000-004B-81DE)
(1-2) Color-Coded Caverns (8ED7-0000-005D-D2E9)
(1-3) High and Dry Dock (759E-0000-0082-DAC4)
(1-4) Junior Airship Showdown (1B6D-0000-00A3-FD76)
I loved loved loved this level! Once more RagnarokX thinking out of the box and looking at the potential of MM tools outside of the obvious. Amazing stuff mate! Chose green btw. This and color coded Caverns are my favorite levels of yours btw.
