I'm chipping away at my never-ending page of bookmarks, but in the meantime two of my more recent levels haven't gotten much feedback. If anyone would try them out and sound off on the good and bad, I'd appreciate it. Please enjoy.
There's the OP. I don't know that anyone would agree that's a top 10 best of GAF (I definitely wouldn't) but there are some fantastic levels on there all the same. It's also not a best-of list and it's less than half GAF but my community showcase is full of levels worth playing (and I'm adding a new one to the list shortly).
Necessity is the mother of invention. If you want to make a top 10, I'm sure others would check it out!
The first level is pretty cool, feels very close to an official level made by Nintendo. If only I knew how to activate the P switch, d'oh!
As for the Chwomps... Well, that's the evilest thing I could imagine (sorry got carried away and had to draw it ) Very fun level, and some stunts were kinda tricky to pull off, but pretty fun overall!
It's a simple stage, is not super easy but it should not be that dificulty. If this was in a Mario game, it would be either world 2 or 3 in dificulty. (Depends on how hard dealing with the moles in platforms is, I'm not too sure myself but it could get hard if you are in the midle of the platform, easy on either side)
Also, I made it so expert players can just hold the run button and run/wall jump their way around the stage super fast, while other players will take their time going through the platforms
Edit:
Welp. Definitely cant escape now
Also, I made the bomb disapear by walking to put the spring back in place to save time. The engine just said "You dont need this bomb anyways"
This SMB2 stage is one of my all-time favourites -- I made a WarioWare DIY microgame inspired by it -- and SLA83 does a very clever job in reinterpreting it for Super Mario Maker.
It would've been easy to use the Super Mario Bros. palette with some costume instead of the more faithful look of SMB3 so a tip of the hat there for sure.
Anyone who doesn't know what my community showcase is about, it's not so much a best-of list as it is a playlist of levels that I think deserve more attention, maybe more hidden gems than the all-time greats. (Bear in mind the list started long ago, so some of these levels have garnered a lot more stars since, fortunately!) Most of them are non-GAF so even regulars to the thread will find new stuff here. Here's the others:
I decided to try a Thwomp Death Wall level after seeing it on Games Done Quick. Probably not as elegant as their's but I feel like the two level aspect could work. Feedback appreciated!
I really liked this (I've never heard of the original so I can't speak to that) but one thing I will say is when you come out of the pipe, there should be a whole pile of arrows or something. Give the first-time player some indication that they should start moving to the right way before they hit the ground and figure out what's going on!
It's a simple stage, is not super easy but it should not be that dificulty. If this was in a Mario game, it would be either world 2 or 3 in dificulty. (Depends on how hard dealing with the moles in platforms is, I'm not too sure myself but it could get hard if you are in the midle of the platform, easy on either side)
Also, I made it so expert players can just hold the run button and run/wall jump their way around the stage super fast, while other players will take their time going through the platforms
I really liked this. (It's interesting how similar in theme your level and my Moleville Mines are in theory and how entirely different they are in practise!) I also love levels that use track segments but are still speedrun friendly -- they let the player go at more than one speed, which is fabulous. I especially like the finale with the flagpole -- the mole jumps in just the right place to allow Mario to hit the 1-up. It's an excellent ending.
Two issues I had with a stage I otherwise adored: one, and this is the big one, rocky wrenches aren't a great choice for blind jumps up or down, and when the player does the speedrun wall-kick thing through, they're going through a few blind jumps. Issue two is Yoshi -- he especially fit with the level when riding the rails, and he's definitely pointless if you're trying to wall kick. I think putting him in might almost push some people from doing the speedrun thing because they won't even think to wall kick. Anyway, just some feedback. I really dug this, and I should check out more of your stuff.
I'm finding it a lot more difficult to make SMB3 style courses compared to SMB style ones. This was the first stage where I actually ran out of ground blocks.
I liked this a lot, but I think it maybe lacked a bit of drama -- there wasn't any tricky part of the stage that really stuck out as particularly interesting, nor was there anything that elevated this beyond a standard Mario level. With that said I liked the nuts and bolts of the level design quite a bit and should also make sure to check out more of your stuff before too long.
The first level is pretty cool, feels very close to an official level made by Nintendo. If only I knew how to activate the P switch, d'oh!
As for the Chwomps... Well, that's the evilest thing I could imagine (sorry got carried away and had to draw it ) Very fun level, and some stunts were kinda tricky to pull off, but pretty fun overall!
you need to keep Yoshi until the end of the stage, lick it up and out of the space, then step on it
. Thanks for the kind words, my goal is always to make a level that can slot into an official Mario game.
And I saw your Miiverse post on Chwomps and got a real kick out of it! It must have put a real smile on your face or something, I'm really honoured it gave you that sort of inspiration. Thanks so much for playing!
I think the look of this level does it a bit of a disservice. The thin, uneven walls give a sense of haphazard placement (despite the effort to decorate them with vines) but in fact the plentiful enemies and obstacles provide a well-balanced challenge that suggests that they have been placed with purpose.
Woo I beat it! I'm impatient and often give up on hard levels but with this one I found the small sections, while each being difficult at first, could, after figuring out a solution and practising a few times, be beaten without requiring too much precision execution. The exception being the music block section which is very demanding and its last bounce downright cruel! Thankfully after that part the finale is tense but much more gentle.
Oh how I laughed as I hopped above the donut platforms a few times and watched the surprise boss whizz out of sight. But I had to go back afterwards to get the full experience as that battle is a really cool idea.
I deleted the stage before I went to bed last night. It was in new arrivals last night but probably not there anymore. It was called nearly impossible.
This was a fun and intelligently laid out course. I like how the player is simultaneously thrust into danger and taught how to use mechanics, like spin jumping through bricks to land on top of the thwomp's heads.
I really liked this. (It's interesting how similar in theme your level and my Moleville Mines are in theory and how entirely different they are in practise!) I also love levels that use track segments but are still speedrun friendly -- they let the player go at more than one speed, which is fabulous. I especially like the finale with the flagpole -- the mole jumps in just the right place to allow Mario to hit the 1-up. It's an excellent ending.
Two issues I had with a stage I otherwise adored: one, and this is the big one, rocky wrenches aren't a great choice for blind jumps up or down, and when the player does the speedrun wall-kick thing through, they're going through a few blind jumps. Issue two is Yoshi -- he especially fit with the level when riding the rails, and he's definitely pointless if you're trying to wall kick. I think putting him in might almost push some people from doing the speedrun thing because they won't even think to wall kick. Anyway, just some feedback. I really dug this, and I should check out more of your stuff.
I just played your level. We could add 1 more level and a castle and release them as a NSMB Mines level pack! Some of the ideas you have in your level are the ones I wanted to implement for mine, but for space and pacing reasons I didnt, they didnt really work with the flow of my level but work great in yours.
The one thing that I didnt like were the Big Moles with the chain chomp attached. But that's just me disliking the small RNG factor they introduce to the level. That being said, I discovered I could stand on top of them without killing the mole nor getting damaged, so I used them as a platform to get through the level without using the rails, so I now have the WR!
Now about my stage. The first issue you had is more of a communication issue, I didnt mean that expert players could go super fast the first time they play the level, but if they decide to go for a fast time after they finish the stage, they will discover that they dont have to ride the platforms. While that was my original idea, trying to make the level fair for just runing on the first try meant I could not use that many botomless pits/enemies and that made the level too simple, I droped the idea and increased focus on the rails, moles and botomless pits.
For the second issue, I ran into this while pretending I was a novice player. In one of my test I wanted to skip one section because I knew it was fine, and tried to get out by walljumping while riding Yoshi. I really wasnt sure if I should remove Yoshi or not, but I decided against it because any other powerup would be underwhelming or useless as a reward for hiting that block. I also dont have any stage with Yoshi, so this would be the first.
Thank for playing, if you get around playing any other of my stages I would love to read your feedback.
Finally finished up something special I'd been working on. They're not particularly complex or challenging (except maybe the jump in the second one), but getting them built and uploaded took a huge weight off my mind as making them was something I'd wanted to do since I first got my hands on Mario maker.... And I don't really know why.
For anyone familiar with Stephen King's Dark Tower series, allow me to present my first batch of levels inspired by three scenes from The Gunslinger.... No, I have no idea why I wanted to make this, but now that it's made I can finally focus on building other things instead.
Man I could've sworn having the upper half of the grid clear for the single screen style kept you from being able to run across ceilings but I appear to have thought wrong.
Thus my latest stage is kind of botched now without massive overhauls, bummer.
Plus an experiment with water and bumpers isn't quite as grand as I'd hoped, i'm losing my Mario Maker mojo.
I think (emphasis on think as I'd need to open the game to confirm) it depends on style. With the underground style you can run on the ceiling to replicate the famous 1-2 moment, whereas some other styles prevent you from going above the top line.
In the video, you'll first see the creator play through the level. He then does an in depth talk through why he built in certain elements which includes:
The Helipad, Data Dyne offices, Cassandra, the Lifts, Dr Carroll, and more.
The way the level is designed clearly had a lot of thought. I particularly like it when the 'alarm' goes off.
Give it a go Gaf. An excellent stand a lone level, and even better if you are a Perfect Dark fan.
Reddit has a few posts about Nintendo taking down levels because of inactivity and BLOCKING the levels from being reuploaded. Now I'm super paranoid about one of my courses being taken down and ruining my 32 course SMB1 game. :/
I decided to try a Thwomp Death Wall level after seeing it on Games Done Quick. Probably not as elegant as their's but I feel like the two level aspect could work. Feedback appreciated! No Mr. M, I expect you to die!
I agree with the comment that something has to be done at the beginning so you don't die automatically if you don't press right immediately. Other than that the level is actually fairly easy but still tense. It is, of course, a blatant copy of the mole/moving track/chomp mechanic, so it would be nice to introduce a flair of originality into it. It was fun though, so build upon this foundation.
Keys aren't that odd because they were only in SMW and in one of the styles, SMB, Mario can't carry objects. The Magic Ball would be a good alternative. It was in SMB3, SMW, and the keys you get from bosses in the NSMB games do the same thing: end the level when you touch them. You could put it anywhere in the level. You could even make bosses drop it.
Themes are an obvious desire.
There's a lot of stuff NSMB can do, like having any object able to move and tons of obstacles and platform types.
A really cool thing would be the ? switch from NSMB. It was already in SMM as NSMBU's P-switch even though NSMBU has P-switches, but they changed that with the last update. In NSMB games the ? switch could do pretty much anything. It could activate scripted objects to move and stuff, make water levels change, etc.
Reddit has a few posts about Nintendo taking down levels because of inactivity and BLOCKING the levels from being reuploaded. Now I'm super paranoid about one of my courses being taken down and ruining my 32 Couse SMB1 game. :/
This happened to me yesterday. An old course that had never been starred was taken down with the message "an online course has been removed" or something similar. It still has the yellow upload arrow in my course maker, but with a red X on it. I assume I'd be able to reupload if I altered the course, but it's still kind of lame that they do that.
I think (emphasis on think as I'd need to open the game to confirm) it depends on style. With the underground style you can run on the ceiling to replicate the famous 1-2 moment, whereas some other styles prevent you from going above the top line.
Reddit has a few posts about Nintendo taking down levels because of inactivity and BLOCKING the levels from being reuploaded. Now I'm super paranoid about one of my courses being taken down and ruining my 32 Couse SMB1 game. :/
This happened to me yesterday. An old course that had never been starred was taken down with the message "an online course has been removed" or something similar. It still has the yellow upload arrow in my course maker, but with a red X on it. I assume I'd be able to reupload if I altered the course, but it's still kind of lame that they do that.
Hmm... I wonder what the criteria for being delisted like that is? Is it if it just hasn't been starred? How long it has been without anyone playing it? Now I'm super paranoid about my levels getting delisted and banned from being reuploaded. Delisted is one thing, but BANNED? C'mon Nintendo... :/
I liked this a lot, but I think it maybe lacked a bit of drama -- there wasn't any tricky part of the stage that really stuck out as particularly interesting, nor was there anything that elevated this beyond a standard Mario level. With that said I liked the nuts and bolts of the level design quite a bit and should also make sure to check out more of your stuff before too long.
After getting some feedback that my World 8 SMB1 courses were a little too difficult I think I made my SMB3 courses a little too easy. I don't have any current plans to make a full SMB3 style game and only intend on making one course in each theme for that. I guess that's why my Grassland and Underground courses are so easy.
I'm currently working on a slightly more difficult underwater stage and the eventual Ghost House, Airship, and Castle courses will definitely be more difficult.
I'm chipping away at my never-ending page of bookmarks, but in the meantime two of my more recent levels haven't gotten much feedback. If anyone would try them out and sound off on the good and bad, I'd appreciate it. Please enjoy.
I have another course ready. I love using Mario-kun, so I had to give him another go. I made a fun little puzzle/precision type level. There are two checkpoints, and I hope everyone is engaged by it and enjoys it! I'm looking forward to hear what you think!
(For more action and a slight increase in difficulty,
take the spiny route instead of the piranha plant route; both are pretty fun though!).
Enjoyed playing this level, but the first two rooms almost soured my opinion about it. Bumping your head repeatedly against low ceilings or not having enough room for jumping, more than challenging, feels annoying, and the second room with spikes and collapsing platforms was a bit overwhelming at first. I died there, and had no desire of redoing the first room again. So I exited entirely.
Thankfully I came back later, as the rest of the level felt a lot more creative and interesting, but I wouldn't be surprised if those two rooms scared away many players.
I'm finding it a lot more difficult to make SMB3 style courses compared to SMB style ones. This was the first stage where I actually ran out of ground blocks.
I played both your SMB3 courses. Both felt pretty nice and relaxing to play, first world-ish in terms of difficulty. The only flaw I can point out is that neither seemed especially memorable, but that's about it for the negatives.
Keys aren't that odd because they were only in SMW and in one of the styles, SMB, Mario can't carry objects. The Magic Ball would be a good alternative. It was in SMB3, SMW, and the keys you get from bosses in the NSMB games do the same thing: end the level when you touch them. You could put it anywhere in the level. You could even make bosses drop it.
I'm not really sure how they'd work in SMB1 style, but just the idea of keys and locked doors is probably enough to make Zelda fans tingle with excitement.
I'm not really sure how they'd work in SMB1 style, but just the idea of keys and locked doors is probably enough to make Zelda fans tingle with excitement.
There's a couple questionable parts, but otherwise it was ok. That bowser is kind of a dick move, though super easy to avoid once you learn how. That ending with the chomps is kind of brutal and might come down to luck. Somehow I got through that part on my first try, but could have died randomly at any time.
So I finally managed to actually make a normal human level that isn't intentionally punishing. Would really appreciate feedback on this one in particular.
The Third Spork Level has arrived! This level is going to be prolific, the level mixes old ideas with new, all 100% hard! I challenge you to beat the level!
Yes, that was intentional. I knew putting a secret up high and including feathers in the stage would mean someone could just fly up and grab them rather than finding them the harder way. I'm totally fine with it -- if it was good enough for Nintendo to do that in Super Mario World, who am I to restrict the player? My whole mantra with that stage was to be a fair bit easier and a bit more open to the player having different ways to tackle the same problem. Seemed like the right thing to do.
Also going up the honest way gives the player more of a hint about the actual, useful secret up there.
So, those two parts are probably my meanest tricks, but
for the first one, i don't think you can avoid a hit if you're Super, but you can extend the time before the hit by crouching after your first bounce. If you're small, it's actually easier. You just walk across it by holding right. Without holding the run button, which influences your bounce.
So, those two parts are probably my meanest tricks, but
for the first one, i don't think you can avoid a hit if you're Super, but you can extend the time before the hit by crouching after your first bounce. If you're small, it's actually easier. You just walk across it by holding right. Without holding the run button, which influences your bounce.
Yes, that was intentional. I knew putting a secret up high and including feathers in the stage would mean someone could just fly up and grab them rather than finding them the harder way. I'm totally fine with it -- if it was good enough for Nintendo to do that in Super Mario World, who am I to restrict the player? My whole mantra with that stage was to be a fair bit easier and a bit more open to the player having different ways to tackle the same problem. Seemed like the right thing to do.
Also going up the honest way gives the player more of a hint about the actual, useful secret up there.
Like I said I figured it was intentional, it's one of the reasons why I enjoyed the stage and as you said it definitely captures that chill, open ended feel of a SMW stage where there's more than one way to get to a secret.
This is one of my biggest gripes, I'm tired of the costumes, they feel like a cop out from the devs at this point. I want actual power up expansions and more themes.
They updated the Mario Maker Bookmark site. It now allows you to post on Tumblr and Facebook and has a counter for the number of comments your stage has on Miiverse.
This is me being a dick. It's not that difficult compared to similar courses, but I know there may be a couple of trouble spots. I fully expect a less than 1% completion rate.
Also, something tells me I played a level with this exact title. I uploaded it just before I thought of this. If it was someone's level here I apologize and will re-upload with a new title for you.
Also, please play my other course Escape the Rooms Redux. Only 2 people have played it and it makes me a little sad, since I think It's my favorite level I have created up to this point.
I have other levels I wish more people would try (mostly just the newer ones). Check out my profile here to give them a look.
Word of warning: if your course gets deleted from the servers, it can never be re-upped again regardless of whether you've edited it or changed the name or whatever. It's perma-banned, which is bullshit. If your courses have few plays or stars, delete them yourself and try again later.
Hmm... I wonder what the criteria for being delisted like that is? Is it if it just hasn't been starred? How long it has been without anyone playing it? Now I'm super paranoid about my levels getting delisted and banned from being reuploaded. Delisted is one thing, but BANNED? C'mon Nintendo... :/
I'm curious, too. If they're going to be so heavy handed with the bans they could at least let us know what triggers them. It's not like I made a level full of dicks or anything (at least, not that I know of).
They updated the Mario Maker Bookmark site. It now allows you to post on Tumblr and Facebook and has a counter for the number of comments your stage has on Miiverse.
I played three of your "classic/traditional style" SMB levels last night for the first time, 1-1, 1-2 and then a random choice, 4-4.
1-1: Nice, easy yet structured and captures the stage 1 feeling nicely. Good enemy placement that doesn't go too easy on the player. This level also left me wondering little things like "How would NES players have reacted to springboards in the first stage in the '80s?"
1-2: Very nice little underground stage, I completed
both the upper and lower paths which were each enjoyable.
4-4: I chose this on a whim because 4-4 is one of my favorite castles in SMB. Good castle stage, I think my favorite part was
the mini-boss room with the rotating Pirahnas plants.
I also really dug the hanging pipes with Podoboos.
I plan on trying more of these, I hope you get to keep all of them up. And if you have time feel free to try a stage or two of mine, you obviously have a lot of experience and I'd like to hear additional feedback.
Word of warning: if your course gets deleted from the servers, it can never be re-upped again regardless of whether you've edited it or changed the name or whatever. It's perma-banned, which is bullshit. If your courses have few plays or stars, delete them yourself and try again later.
Played through my batch of bookmarks. I got some feedback on a few GAF stages:
Marious 1-1, 1-2 and 1-3
I guess this was a crossover between Mario and Parodius or something. The thing is in Mario the clown cart takes more space than your average shmup character. This becomes problematic when you hit the low ceiling. The designs don't really fit in Mario, meaning tight spaces. Your average player might not know about charged shots resulting in more deaths.
Autoscroller is a bit too fast, resulting in the screendeaths. I think I jumped out of every clown cart and rushed to the end haha. Concept is great, really captures the spirit of classic shmup in Mario style. You have to be careful adapting it tho, always go for better player experience imo.
I hope this helps with future levels .
Chwomps
Great level. A lot of cool ways to utilize them both. I felt it was a bit on the short side. You should be able to more with this and improve the learning curve.
Star well deserved.
I played more stages, but I can't remember them right now. I starred most levels I bookmarked.
I really should get back to making. Here's my profile in the meantime.
Great level. A lot of cool ways to utilize them both. I felt it was a bit on the short side. You should be able to more with this and improve the learning curve.
Thank you, thank you. Chwomps is of course the maximum length of a stage but if you want to blow past it (and have the necessary skills) the level will be over before you know it. I'd rather go that way and have someone want to try another crack at it, figuring out some of the secrets
like the optional path above the ceiling to avoid the upside-down chwomps before the boss
I'm thinking there's some hidden equivalent of the Course ID baked into the stage when you start building it in the creator. Pretty crafty of Nintendo to do that!
New level! This one is thwomp-themed if you couldn't tell from the title. I hope it's fun, it's got a lot of different applications of the thwomps, a unified theme (hopefully), and some fun 1-ups to collect optionally.
Its a sequel to my most played level, Snowy Sky Lift Summit, which got over 340 stars. Went from SMB3 theme to SMW, so took advantage of the differences there. Was a blast to make! Hope you guys try it out!!
A red x appears on the yellow upload arrow that you normally see in your course maker and doesn't go away when you change the level. The base info for the course itself is marked somehow; it doesn't matter if the content is altered. I wish there were a way to copy the course elements into a new level slot to work around this.
Am I doing something wrong? Because all these expert levels have been hot garbage. I want to unlock these skins but I can only tolerate so many troll levels.
The official courses have been mostly great though. I was up way too late playing thorough those gems.
) Very fun level, and some stunts were kinda tricky to pull off, but pretty fun overall!
