ISRIERI'S PROFILE

1) Go into your level files.
2) That means the folders that say “Davenport_Sky Temple” “Davenport_Agony Castle” “Davenport_Dire Dungeon”
3) These folders have all your custom sprites in them.
4) Each of these folders should only have the custom sprites that you use in the level that it is named after.
5) None of them should have custom sprites that belong in the other two levels.
6) Take out all the custom sprites that the level the folder is named after doesn't use.
7) When you do, the level will not take 5 minutes to load.
8) I need you to do this because if you don't, I will, and I may make mistakes. You know your levels better than I do.


SKY TEMPLE

-This is pretty good. I think we're almost there!

-Good idea to have a door lead to a whole new Section! This section is much better than what you had before.

-But I do have an issue with it: If you let those blocks keep falling, they fall through the whole level. That really makes some bad lag.

-So you should 6 more events. One event for every Down Block event. And have the new events stop the down blocks from moving once they go offscreen. This will really help the level.

-You should also have the same music play through the whole level. It's too good not to.

-Good job with the crushers. Erase the blocks in the ceiling that cover up the first crusher. Just have a hole there. It will look better that way.

-I don't like the shy guys that come out of the orange pipes. You should put firebars there instead!

-Everything after the key makes the level too long. All of that needs to be cut. Your level was a good length before.

-I think you should just put Birdo in the last room and make the ? Sphere appear when you kill her.

-I like the way your level is shaping up! Once you fix all of that, I think it will be READY.

-I really like the first name for your level, Splinters in the Sky. But you don't have to change it.

DIRE DUNGEON

-I like this level! You shouldn't use so many custom graphics! When you do, your levels are much better!

-Your outside area looks interesting. But don't use the big red door! Just make it a normal SMW door instead. Click “Auto-Align” to get the door centered right.

-Just use one background for the whole castle.

-Put one note block over that lava pit before the first powerup.

-Make the first powerup a fire flower. It needs to be one in this case.

-Don't make that 1up go in the lava! No one will be able to get it that fast. Put it in a Bubble and have it float to the left. The fireballs will pop the bubble so it won't go too far. The player will have more time to get it.

-Lower the thwomp before the 1up by 2 blocks. This way the player can't get crushed. Which you don't want to happen.

-I like that plant above the donuts!

-Don't have a bunch of blue coins at the door in Section 4. Just put one coin on the warp. So the player gets it as soon as he enters.

-Good music!

FLOOD CASTLE

-Music takes a good 5 seconds to start up. I'd just use the N64 water temple theme. Or maybe Temple of Droplets from Minish Cap. I like that better than the Water Temple anyway.

-I think what nin8halos was saying is that most of the challenge in your level comes from the enemies and not from the actual level's design. Which is true! Pretty much most of Flood Castle's challenging parts in the water are because of all the fish you have down there combined with some other enemies. That means there's a lot of stuff going on at the same time, and makes your level really busy.

-But that's the challenging thing about this sort of level: Exactly how do you make water levels difficult then? You can float wherever you want in the water, and the player can easily get around static obstacles if he knows how. All it will feel like is a big waste of time. But that leaves only one way to make water levels engaging, enemies. And just having enemies in the water and nothing else is kind of boring. See what I said about water castles being hard to make?!

-This level has a bit of a problem. I made a rule no one knew about: All waterfalls must NOT be swimmable. But only masterofmayhem has used them in a level. And it's only a rule for the sake of consistency. I may make an exception for you if you retool the level well enough.

-Hey! Fish that spawn out of a pipe and then jump out of the water to get you! You're a regular chip of the ol' block aren't ya?! ;)

-The blooper in the waterfall is interesting, but I don't know if I like him yet. At any rate, uncheck Auto-Align and center him in the middle of the water.

-Well placed jumping fish at the start. I smiled when I saw one go into the waterfall.

-I like how you used the SMW Bonus background. It makes this castle feel different.

-I think the spawning slimes in section 2 is overkill. Just have one there.

-I would also take out those two bowser statues underwater for the same reason.

-I see no reason to have an automatic hammer suit just for getting the checkpoint. Take it outta there.

-The venus plant in Section 4 ought to go. Make it a regular piranha plant instead.

-I also think the bowser statue in Section 4 can go as well! There's enough stuff going on underwater the player has to worry about.

-Section 6 is kinda bleh. I like the way it looks, but I think there's a bit too much going on. The blooper can glitch himself out of the water, so he needs to go. The sparks and flying fish are neat, but I don't like both of them together. You ought to have just one or the other. Dunno about the bowser statue. Maybe have a corridor of just them? The spawning slime ought to go.

-HA! Dr. Toadly made me laugh. Nice surprise. But dude! The boss fight sucks! This one's even worse than the one in Dr. Toadly's Appearance. The bombs take too long to spawn and they take forever to learn to catch while you're swimming. You should never expect the player to have to catch bombs while they're in midair. And they take so long to fall down to the platform at the bottom, by the time they get there it's too late to pick them up. But the big problem is that the fight is boring. There is no skill involved and it feels like I'm breaking through a very thick wall of bricks. Get rid of him!

-Otherwise this isn't too shabby! Cut back on the enemies and try and make the underwater parts interesting to swim through instead of plain challenging. The trick with water levels is to make them peaceful swims instead of vigorous athletic events.

CYCLONE CITADEL
Remember that I wrote this review a couple of days ago before you uploaded your new version. So some of the stuff I wrote may be stuff you've changed already.

-Just make that first door a Ghost House door.

-AAAH! Why is there a black background in the big room now? Does that mean it's “inside” the castle? It doesn't look good here because of all the cloud blocks you have. Just have the same background for the whole level. The same background you used at the beginning.

-Make sure to put some blocks to plug up the whole at the top of the ceiling: Put them in the grey space so it still looks like a hole, but the player can't fly up there.

-Big room still looks boring! Go to the SMW tab under Backgrounds. Take the Ghost House bricks and put them all over that first room. Put them all over the place so they cover the whole room. BUT. Don't make them evenly cover the room: Have little holes so you can see the cloud background. Look at what masterofmayhem did with Babel and do something kind of like that. If you want to use different graphics, you can do that too.

-Take out those two coins under the first 1up. It's too easy to get.

-No checkpoint! You have the backgrounds there, but there's no checkpoint npc! :0

-You can't get the fire flower in the checkpoint room if you're big. I know you can get it if you squeeze under there but that's stupid. Raise the ceiling above that part so Mario can hop up there.

-Put some pillars in the checkpoint room!

-Don't have a Switch at the beginning of the tower. Have that koopa activate the blocks. Go to the koopa's Events tab and have him “Activate” event Yellow.

-The blocks in the tower don't work because when you renamed all the events (good job on that) it didn't rename the Trigger Events. So you have to go into the Trigger Event box and re-select the right events to make the level work right.

-That single yellow block you have to hop onto to get to the blue ones is still a bad idea. Just have a ladder there or something simple.

-That second koopa is in a bad spot. It's too easy for him to get glitched by the platforms, or for the platforms to make him turn around real fast. I guess you could do something with that, but the way it is now, it doesn't work.

-How did I get that buzzsaw to go left but you weren't able to? SMBX is weird. Still, you forgot to extend the rail out into the grey zone. Make sure there's one rail background that goes into the grey zone or the buzzsaw goes off of it.

-Incidentally, do you test your levels before you submit them? I mean, do you play them? Because a lot of these problems could have been fixed IF YOU HAD PLAYED YOUR LEVEL. PLAY YOUR LEVELS, JACK. That means no skipping: You have to play it from beginning each time you test it. If it gets annoying that's probably not a good thing. If there was ever any good advice I could give, that's it.

-I'd put a mushroom in a ? Block right before the part with the cannons.

-You should not have to bullet jump to make it up to the green platform. I don't like the bullets anyway because the level wrap makes more and more appear. Well, actually I think it's kind of neat. But it looks really bad. So think of something else for that part! When I said use the left side of that area, I meant put some more Switch blocks there. Make it so the player can go up switch blocks on the left and the right side. Maybe have some more buzzsaws instead?

-The tower could also use more background tiles like I told you to use in the big room. Same deal here, but don't use as many as I said to use in the big room.

-Just a nitpick here: I think it would be better if you used the “Switch” sound for when the blocks turn than the “Do” sound.

KING KOOPERS KULT KLASSIC

-Good name.

-The Top level border is a tile longer than it ought to be. I see no reason for the screen to wobble every time you jump.

-Why the SMW tiles? I thought you were making a SMB1 castle! I don't know what everyone's fascination is with SMW. You really ought to redo the whole castle to use the SMB1 tileset. It would improve your level a thousand-fold.




It wouldn't take you very long either. The Mario 1 tiles are pretty easy to implement.


-It is a SMB1 styled castle though, and that makes me very happy as it's my favorite type. Plus, there really isn't anything else wrong with it. Nice and straightforward. I only have some suggestions on improving your design.

-Donut blocks and conveyer belts would be nice in this castle. I know they weren't strictly Mario 1 things, but there's no reason to stay within the NES' limitations. The area after the checkpoint could definitely do with some donut blocks instead of the sizable platforms.

-Plus, everything seems to be spaced out too evenly. You didn't do that in Palace of Frozen Daggers! All the jumps feel too easy. I know they are easy and are supposed to be easy. But I don't think they should feel easy to the player. You need to raise the elevation of the platforms more in this level. Have different jumps be at different heights that invoke trickier timing. When they're all at the same height, it feels repetitive.

-The first corridor of firebars could really use at least one on the ground. Having them all on top and set to Bottom means the player can just run right through them. You can do better than that!

-I like how some of the blocks don't have firebars on them. The NES only did that because of memory limitations I think, so they had to reuse castles. But it's a nice throwback nonetheless. Makes the player realize how hard this castle COULD be.

-I loved the spikes that drop on you. I didn't think they would fall so quickly and caught me by surprise! But here's a trick to make this part even better: Make an alternate path. Have a tunnel that goes underneath the spikes, but make that way harder than just going up the top. Maybe have some tricky jumps with low ceilings and 1-tile wide pits with fireballs hopping out of them. Or something like that. Giving the player the option to skip that spike section will really make your castle more memorable (memorability is a thing we all need to strive for above all with our level making). Most players won't want to go under the spikes and will try the other way, but if they find the alternate route too hard they'll eventually give up and go over the top anyway. It's kind of tricking them to master the timing of the spike drops.

-The final lava pit is missing the lava fizz.

-The boss fight wasn't too shabby, but you could do to ramp up the difficulty here, make it far more interesting, and create a tighter and more visceral experience. All with a few simple positioning changes:




The big game changer here are the platforms at different heights. They create a whole new element of strategy.


-Before, the fight was mindlessly chucking shells at bowser till he fell down. But now, it's the same thing only with actual skill involved. When the platform is that high, the player has to jump at a certain height to get the shell over the lava and hit bowser.

-Since Bowser is also higher up, his fireballs are a more significant hazard than before: They will never hit Mario when he's just standing on the platform, but it's easy to run into them if he's in the air. But the falling koopas guarantee that Mario must jump or else he'll get hit! The player has to keep an eye both on his fire and on the falling koopas, both are a much more prominent danger at their closer distance. And because of the smaller area Mario has to work with. Thus it becomes a more frantic fight. Fitting for Dancing Mad music.

-But that's not all! Since the platform is higher, missing and hitting the wall also risks the shell bouncing back into Mario. Incentivizing the player to be careful with each shot. Also, with the lava 6 tiles wide at that positioning, it makes it impossible to catch your Item held in the item box without dying. That may actually be bad game design on my part. But I think it's one of those “in the eye of the beholder” things.

-That alone would be enough, but I got carried away making this example and added those two blocks before bowser that you see. But they aren't static: I made them go up and down, similar to how you evented your spike trap. So this creates an additional element for the player to keep a close eye on. It increases the chance of the player missing and bouncing a shell back at themselves, but it also is still possible to toss a shell over the barrier when it's raised.

-This all makes the fight a lot more interesting, but without making it too hard or unfair. All with very minimal (but significant!) tweaks. You don't need a whole lot to create a memorable boss fight in SMBX. It's all about positioning!

STONEBRICK CASTLE

-Sorry it took me so long to give you more feedback on this. Life sucks sometimes. :(

-You used the thwomps pretty good all throughout this castle. I don't think it was too hard. Probably a 2. Maybe a 3 if you push it.

-The ceilings all look pretty flat. Go look at Ratty's Gimmick Castle and look at how he made his ceiling up of “block” pieces. That's what you need to do to this level. (why does everyone make SMW castles)

-I don't know why you used the Reznor platforms instead of regular SMW cement blocks. It's weird seeing them floating over lava like that.

-I was wrong about the Skull Raft secret: You did have two warps down there. That was enough!

-The checkpoint should be right after Exit Warp 8. For how the level is now.

-Definitely modify that area with the one block hole and all the yellow bricks. I like the idea, but you shouldn't make Mario have to spin jump. Rework the area to have some enemies trick Mario into spin jumping instead. Like some spinies maybe.

-Don't forget to take out that lava in the Skull bonus. And put a hammer suit down there. Really reward the player for finding that secret!

-I actually thought the boss was kinda nifty. I don't think there's a lot of boss fights where you need a Yoshi. You should get rid of the egg and make both those spawns into shells, and make them spawn faster so it doesn't take as long. It's almost impossible to lose this fight, so I would let the player just destroy the boss.

-But the fight still is a bit "meh." If you can think of a more entertaining boss. You should. I can't come up with anything though.

-In the ? Sphere room. Don't make the grass tiles and castle tiles connect. Put some side-grass and side-castle tiles there instead.

SWITCHY CORRIDOR

-Was this your first time making a SMBX level? If so, you have potential!

-This castle isn't all that great. But not because you did anything wrong, per se. Mainly because it isn't very interesting of a level. When I played this, it felt more like an in-dev level that was made to try out different features of the program. Nowhere near the level quality we're shooting for. Don't be discouraged though! There were a lot of things about this level I liked.

-For instance, I like that the first switch dropped that barrel that led you proceed. I don't know why it did, I guess I thought it was cute. It made the level feel like Donkey Kong.

-The checkpoint room was pretty interesting. I didn't like the music change at first, but I got used to it as I kept playing.

-There's a lot of empty space all throughout your level. Mainly in Section 3 with the tower part. Most people who start out with SMBX make their levels gigantic, which is bad. You always want to make small and tight levels. Then once you learn how to do that, you can start trying to make bigger ones.

-You put some invisible blocks in some good spots! I don't think anyone would have found the Yoshi, but the 3up moon was brilliantly placed. Not immediately obvious, but it's a great reward for people who go exploring up there.

-Although the mix of graphics from all 3 Mario games makes your level look shoddy, the actual architecture of your level is well done. The tower part in Section 3 wasn't half bad in this regard. It needed some more meat to it though. I never felt like I was being challenged in any way.

-But you definitely need a ceiling. You NEED a ceiling. I figure you wanted the level to feel like a grand hall or another kind of big room. But no. You need a ceiling.

-I like and yet dislike your switch block puzzle. I didn't like it because it was at the end of the level, and so I didn't feel as though I truly accomplished anything once I got to the end. But I do like that it was a simple puzzle that made me have to think for a second. But I wouldn't use a switch puzzle in the next level you make, because they tend to slow the pacing of a level. You can do switch blocks right, but only if you pace them well in the level by having other stuff before and after them.

-And that's the big issue I have with this one: The level is really short and didn't have a whole lot of content! By content, I mean interesting jumps or well placed enemies. It was just stuff all over the place. Which is why I don't think it's good enough to be in the running.

-Don't misunderstand though: I'm not rejecting your level because I think you're a bad designer. You seem like a capable one! You just need more practice first, and this level isn't worth trying to save. So you ought to just scrap this one and try again.

-You should try to make a tighter and more consistent castle this time. Stick to a theme. SMB1 or SMB3 or what have you. And make a simple castle, focusing on the obstacles and design of the level itself, rather than trying to do “neat” stuff. I don't want neat levels or pretty levels, I want a boring normal level that is interesting to play.

-Here's some maps of the old Mario levels you can look at to give you some ideas. I'd look at the SMB3 fortresses and take a look at how all the rooms and corridors are shaped. Also, here's a silly level by yours truly to help give some context for the kind of levels we're shooting for.

THE LEVEL

-Well hey, Blobofgoo! This castle is actually Not Bad. If you take the time to rework it, it can become a great level. But it may take a lot of reworking. Let me start with that bad:

-All of Section 2. It is nothing more than a corridor full of fish. And it is a straight line. You need to avoid long straight lines as much as you can.

-The big problem I'm seeing with you is that you're still trying to make everything too big. But this time it isn't because you were making the castle itself big, but because you were spacing everything too far apart. That's why your level is so long. If you took this whole castle and squished it together. it would be much better.

-What do I mean by spacing? I mean that everything is too far apart and takes too long to get to. It is a very loose castle. Look at the very first jump with the thwomp. There's a big 6 tile gap between the first platform and the next, and the thwomp is way up high in the ceiling. If the player just runs as fast as he can, he can just jump right onto the next platform like the thwomp wasn't even there. That's not a bad thing when you do it early at the start, but your whole level is like that jump. It's effortless.

-When you space things out and make all of the obstacles far apart, it also starts to feel tedious and repetitive. Your castle was just a straight line for the most part. I don't think there were any pits, no lava, no spikes. It was all enemies. There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't think its a good idea to do that for a whole castle. Especially one this long.

-I think one way to fix this is to remember that you want Less Running and More Jumping. This is a good rule of thumb!

-You shouldn't have hammer bros just stand there like that. It's kind of weird, and it makes the castle feel less vibrant. You ought to put them on something like a bunch of bricks. Or on a staircase. Or even up inside holes in the ceiling!

-Now the good: You actually placed the roto-discs alright. The first time you meet two at the same time was genuinely tricky! Although I don't know if you realize why.

-I wasn't sure what to think about the flame enemies, but I've decided that they're neat. They actually add something to your level: A check to players who are just running as fast as they can (like me). The level encourages you to run, and these guys stop you. Did you put them there like that on purpose?

I REALLY like how you decided that your level would only have certain types of enemies, and then you stuck to that well.

-The hammer bro on the ninji was still great.

-I thought it was interesting how you used bob-oms. You didn't do anything really special with them except hide one powerup behind some bricks. But it was still kind of cool, no one uses bob-oms as regular enemies.

-This level also feels like a traditional castle, which makes me happy. You can easily make this into something great, even though it isn't right now.

-Let me try and guess how you made this level. You made a line for the ceiling so it was 3 blocks. And then you made the floor at the bottom. Then you added the rest of the blocks to make the actual level. Just that you made it inbetween those two lines. Believe it or not, that's not a bad way to do it. But the big problem is that you spaced everything too far apart.

-The platforms are way too big: 5 blocks is too high for Mario to jump over unless he's running as fast as he can. You also shouldn't think of the area between the ceiling and floor as your “workspace.” Instead, make the workspace as you go. Make platforms that have mario go up into corridors near the top of the screen. Or have two different corridors Mario can go into: One on top and one on bottom. This is how you make your level better.

-So I would say try to make something like you did with Section 1 and 3 again. But this time remember these things:

-Idea Sheet: Make level shorter by putting the obstacles closer together. Don't be afraid to lower the ceiling. Have more pits Mario can fall into. Less Running and More Jumping. Positioning is important! Think about how enemies are different if they are higher or lower. Think about how a lower ceiling affects jumps.

-This is on it's way to becoming a good castle! Section 1 and 3 were pretty good, but you need to have more variety in the castle's design! Use the idea sheet as a guideline!

-Deadly Danger Dungeon