GRcade

500th reply

I've committed to a concept much earlier than I usually would so I have more time to implement it. Bit of a gamble but fingers crossed!

OldSoulCyborg wrote:I could write a paragraph or two (or ten) about a lot of the puzzles in the level... I might.

I did as I said I might.

And you can read it all here:
Google document (with pictures!)
(all written on an Android tablet with no access to my PC so not sure if it looks okay on any other computing devices)

OldSoulCyborg wrote:

OldSoulCyborg wrote:I could write a paragraph or two (or ten) about a lot of the puzzles in the level... I might.

I did as I said I might.

And you can read it all here:
Google document (with pictures!)
(all written on an Android tablet with no access to my PC so not sure if it looks okay on any other computing devices)

Really interesting!

Using the spring as a step to get into a pipe was completely lost on me, was it only necessary if you went into the vine room with the switch set to blue? I thought it was pretty obvious to bomb the switch in the room before so I didn't have to go back through and the reason for that spring was unknown to me. If you do it that way you don't learn about the respawning vine block there either.

The hidden flagpole at the end was great, perfect how it blends in with the colour of the door and gets covered by the track of the door block!

OrangeRKN wrote:
Using the spring as a step to get into a pipe was completely lost on me, was it only necessary if you went into the vine room with the switch set to blue? I thought it was pretty obvious to bomb the switch in the room before so I didn't have to go back through and the reason for that spring was unknown to me. If you do it that way you don't learn about the respawning vine block there either.

How would a player who's never seen the level before know to do that when they haven't seen the next room yet?

Because there are blocks that can be blown up, so why wouldn't you blow them up?

When I'm playing as Link I destroy every block I possibly can

OrangeRKN wrote:Because there are blocks that can be blown up, so why wouldn't you blow them up?

When I'm playing as Link I destroy every block I possibly can

I thought it had more to do with the fact you'd watched it on the stream first and therefore knew to activate that switch before going in the pipe.
Seems I forgot to account for some people's pent up destructive tendencies when placing that hard block as a hint.

I knew the trick with the vine from the stream, but to be honest I don't think I ever noticed the switch blocks blocking the way to the vine block in either the stream or when I was playing it I can't recall if Devlin had to go back through to hit the switch now!

With complex contraptions and puzzles there is often so much to read on screen I end up tuning a lot of it out. Mario Maker levels (my own included, especially last weeks) can be quite "noisy" with contraptions that aren't directly relevant to the player I think, which has sort of trained me to do that. Probably why I find tracks a lot less egregious now than I used to - I've just got better at not seeing them

Really interesting write up OSC, I definitely enjoying reading about the various design processes people go through on these!

My main feedback in response to the design of your level itself would be that I only really had a couple of issues with it:

First was that I personally found the "sword juggling" to raise the trampoline too tricky, I'm sure it was just me more than anything but the timing of jumps and sword swipes to get the thing to bounce up to where it was needed felt almost impossible at times. I spent far longer than I would care to admit on that bit and if it wasn't for checking the stream to see that this really was the solution I would probably have given up far earlier!

Second was that in the "vine puzzle room" I was caught out a couple of time because to climb a vine the player has to press up, but to enter a door you also have to press up. As the vine that grows out of the block leads the player directly up and under a door I found that just by doing what I was supposed to I was being sent back through the door and had to restart the puzzle. After a couple of times I decided it was safer to jump off the top of the vine instead of climbing up!

I didn't have a problem with the spring juggling at all - all you have to do is spam y for sword, no timing needed? I'm not sure where you must have been going wrong.

OrangeRKN wrote:I didn't have a problem with the spring juggling at all - all you have to do is spam y for sword, no timing needed? I'm not sure where you must have been going wrong.

All I can say is that it didn't work for me!

There is definitely timing involved, particularly as you have to jump and slash the sword at the same time - how early/late you slash after jumping will affect how many times you can hit it etc.

Karl_ wrote:I've committed to a concept much earlier than I usually would so I have more time to implement it. Bit of a gamble but fingers crossed!

I am now starting to decide I don't like this concept that much

I'm still in the "thinking about it" phase. I haven't really thought about the changes the moon offers before so this is a nice chance to explore those!

I played around briefly with each night theme, decided on a theme, added an opening section with a different theme, and now have dropped the original theme I picked to just expand on the opening instead

Sounds like the exact same thing I've now done and I'm very pleased with the result. Now it's just a matter of gameplay, implementing obstacles and whatnot...

And submitted. Hopefully I've not overlooked anything level-breaking by not sleeping on it, but TLOU2 is out tomorrow so I wanted to get the level done!

Woke up worried enough about one specific obstacle that I'm resubmitting. Luckily the PM was still in my outbox

EDIT: And submitted... actually this time

I’m so torn on my level, I’ve played through it close to 30 times in its current form having finalised it on Tuesday, so have it down pat, but it doesn’t seem very long when I’m able to rush through it and I feel like I need to add another section...

However, the first 10 or so of those times even I was finding the level a little on the harder side and taking a while to complete and so on the other hand I feel like I should leave it as it is...


Also, like Racoon, I started The Last of Us 2, and also had Pokémon expansion and the new Fortnite Season to start. I’ve also been playing through Sonic 1-4, CD and Mania so been super busy

I think I've learned the reason im not doing well this season. I'm not ending up with anything made until the day of submission where I finally have an idea and try and make something >_<

Just got mine in at the last minute for me down under!

I toyed with the idea of adding an extra section but ultimately decided against it. Looking forward to what Devlin makes of it on stream


Good luck all

Mine is in too!

Supachipz wrote:I’m so torn on my level, I’ve played through it close to 30 times in its current form having finalised it on Tuesday, so have it down pat, but it doesn’t seem very long when I’m able to rush through it and I feel like I need to add another section...

However, the first 10 or so of those times even I was finding the level a little on the harder side and taking a while to complete and so on the other hand I feel like I should leave it as it is...

I wouldn't worry about how long it seems after you've been doing it again and again all evening. When someone new sees it it'll naturally be much harder for them, so that'll make it seem longer. I think sometimes if it's too long and too hard that can actually be less satisfying to play with.