THENECROMANCER'S PROFILE

post=Emirpoen
- That would be the backdrop water. I kinda figured the visual difference between that and the water before it would be a cue, but I guess I was mistaken.

It's actually a rule to make all water swimable and actually all water tiles are "backdrop" tiles.

Water and waterfalls are swimmable as per Mario Bros 3. (No Mario 2 and it's waterfalls don't count). If you want lethal liquids stick with red lava. This is for clarity for players. Blue = Swimmable, Red = Danger!

-A little patience never hurts, especially if you consider what in the box that you could be standing on while waiting... however, if I get enough request to do so, Ill try to think of a way to make it a less agonizing wait.

There's patience and then there's boredom. The moving platform sections are long winding paths with nothing to do. What's in the blocks is poison mushrooms, or death if you will. So you can sit and wait or seek out your death? I would suggest to EVERYONE to never put a poison mushroom, it's so stupid. And to you I would suggest putting flying enemies or some kind of obstacle that you need to try and dodge. OR you could just make the track for the platform straight lines.

-a running duck jump can deal with the vine, but if thats too unknown of a move, moving it a up a square wont be an issue at all.

There's really no need to make the player try hard just to hit a block to move along the stage. I'd say just move the block up.

post=Ratty524
Okay, I submitted Version 3 of Techno Underground.

Getting better. I would still like something more than a mushroom in one of the blocks when you fall in the water pit.

post=Racheal
That part I was actually aware of :) The level would be quite impossible if not. I was mostly just surprised they were immune to the fire, but I suppose there are no fire flowers in 2? It's been a long time since I've played that one. I did find the leaf in my travels (and enjoyed the extra freedom it gave me when exploring).

Nope, no flowers in 2. I actually didn't know until last night that toad got a second jump with the leaf. I gotta make some levels around that feature now :D

It wasn't the ladder part I had issues getting out of. It was the area to the right. Mostly coming from the fact I keep forgetting about floating (/killed the cactus guy after he re-appeared)

I see. Yeah, the engine has problems with NPC's off screen sometimes. They can disappear and reappear seemingly at random.

One option would be to put an info box by the character box that gives a quick overview of the character and the levels. I seem to remember that when you selected a player in 2 you were given basic traits. (Or maybe that was in the manual? I just remember reading it long ago)

Good Idea. I'm going to work on something like that. It wasn't ingame in SMB2 though, must have been the manual.

post=Davenport
I tested a few levels to compare other levels with the ones I recently submitted.
Topsy Turvey: Good but a little too short. Simple. Simply adding those aquatic bubbles so mario
can float above make my levels look well tamed.

Oh my...well thanks for all the comments. These levels are not short, your levels are just ridiculously long. I wouldn't compare your levels to anything, the outcome for your levels would not be good.

Mushroom kingdom: Too much like Mario bros 2. It's good as far as it goes..

Are you saying that Mario 2 was a bad game? That's just not true and if your the only one who thinks that I'm not too worried.

Were you actually stupid enough to fall into one of my pits?
Oh, by the way I know how suspension bridges work!
I got A's in physics. I bet a moron like you would not
even pass.

I...wouldn't suggest trying to talk down to anybody on this website. Nobody gives a flying fuck what you got in Physics and it has obviously done nothing for your game making skills. One look at your portfolio and it's clear you have zero credibility. Nuff' said.

I had a good laugh at the following insults. It's been a little while since we had some drama here xD

post=The Real Brickroad
Mushroom Kingdom: Tricky! I would cool it a bit on the Snifits; they're tougher than you think. Both paths are decently fun, if a little unfocused. If you're going to have a sign in the Peach path telling people how to set items down, you should probably put one in the Toad path where it's actually necessary. And don't put vines that lead down off the screen unless something is down there.

Yeah, I just took out a few snifits. That was the place I got hit most often and never even thought to take some out. Unfocused explains exactly my process for making levels haha I started with the pipe and just extended paths in random directions until I got sick of drawing them. I like how it turned out though. But how is it necessary to drop blocks in the Toad path? The only time you need any kind of boost from a block, or even a shyguy, is one of the yoshi coins. I could take out the vines, never really saw a problem with it. I put a cloud in the way so you cannot climb the vines to the bottom of the screen. Do you think that's fine or should I take out the vines? I kinda like em tho... hmm, actually I have an idea on what Im going to do. I'll have the player(s) be climbing the vines as the level starts and they will move up past the clouds so it prevents you from going back down.

post=Racheal
The fire flower power-up didn't seem to do me any good besides an extra health point though. It appears that Shy Guys are immune to it.

Yeah, I know. I just wanted to give the player something different than a mushroom and possibly carry it on to the next level. It's the only other powerup that is "along the way" so I didn't want to make it too powerful. Getting any other powerup changes the dynamic of the level too much. There is a hammer suit in a somewhat hard to find room and a leaf in there somewhere so you can still get the good powers but you have to earn it. You can pick up shyguys and toss them at each other and there are vegetables all over the place to kill them. Maybe I should put in some tips for that. I kind of wanted to keep the same SMB2 feel while introducing the player to the new elements. The only reason to explore all the paths is to collect Yoshi coins anyways, and the other power ups.

if you enter the lower-right area where the exit is before you trigger all the switches

Ah, never would have caught that. I'll fix it.

A point that was not level-breaking but bugged me, is that there is no nice return door after the green switch. It's inconsistent with every other switch, and really bugged me when I had a hard time getting out of the area.

Hmm, never really thought it that way. Your right, it is inconsistent. I guess whenever I played it i would do it in the same order every time, and that would be the last one I get so I was already close to the end so I didn't put the door. Also, I wanted an excuse to make the player create a ladder with blocks, you press down in the air to drop a block in front(again, should put in a hint for that). I was going to make it easier to get out but forgot to change it. I'll just put in the door and try and give an incentive for anyone who wants to make the ladder.

And speaking of that area, how do you get to the area to the left of it? It didn't seem to serve any purpose but I couldn't figure out how to get in there.

It has a Yoshi coin. This level was created with a specific purpose, once I realized it wouldn't work I had all these useless rooms haha So I stuck Yoshi coins in them.

From the start you pass the yellow blocks, go down a level at the first ledge, then go left under the pillar and from there you have access to that area, plus another with a power.

And lastly, I personally had forgotten that Peach/Toadstool can float and was quite stumped on a couple parts of the level at first. You might want to include some sort of reminder of this trait.

Ah, another good point. I sometimes take for granted that I'm so familar with all this stuff. I'll put that in because you can also use the alternate jump button so you can just hold it in to autofloat whereas if you use normal jump you have to press it a second time to float.

Thanks for the feedback :) I fixed that stuff and reuploaded.

post=Desmo360
Davenport, I played your new level, nimbus night 2, and- !

...I'll let Brick say it.

There's really nothing else to say about those levels.

post=ldida1
The M block also opens the door. And i thought i deleted that pipe/shortcut...

But that still uses a very specific block for the wrong purpose. Those player blocks are for changing characters, anything else is just confusing. Use ANY other block.

post=Desmo360
Here is a level from Super Desmo Bros. I think Link will love it!

Oh yes, I remember this. Meh. It's kinda short and unsatisfying.

@ Rachael

Being able to fly really does make this far too easy. I can only say that because I know where to go however, so it's hard to say if it really matters. All you gotta do is fly up in the first room, grab the P, glide over everything, go in door, glide over everything, go in door, the end. It's up to you but I would either prevent flying to the P or put ghosts up there to make it harder. I felt this level carried the spirit(har-har) of a ghost level perfectly and would hate for players to try and skip past it.

I think we should just name levels based on the world. 1-1, 1-2...and so on. If the creator gave the level a name put a message block or sign at the start with that info. Some of these names....yikes(not @ Rachael!).



Also, if this is a world map game

Level Rules

* The end of level marker is always a star. Each level can only have one star in it. Stars give a progress indicator throughout the game and for individual levels and since all levels will be available at the start of the game Stars are the best way for players to know what levels they've already done.

how exactly will we know if we got the star in the level already?

I'll just advocate Rm2k3 for life out of spite ^.^ haha kidding.

Cool game but it's the clash of hi-res and low-res (and RTP) that ruins it for me. Good effort though, it's definitely closer to my tastes. I just like everything being 16-bit. The text, the icons, the monsters, the backgrounds. It's not a logical preference, it's totally a personal and nostalgic feeling that won't be changed.

*waits for things to get personal*

I think the OP has all the info he needs at this point. Now this will probably turn into the spill over of the "which engine is better" debate. Fun.

post=Ratty524
I actually missed your previous comments on Techno Underground, so that explains why I didn't address the other issues. xP

Ah, it's all good. Mostly just the conveyor belt thing and the sparks right after. I would suggest at least turning down the generation time on those bombs.

I'll see what I can do to tweak it a little. The point of the level is, essentially, to be a trap-filled level.

Yeah, I guess so. I'm just not sure a trap filled level should be in RMN Bros. In your own game you can torture the player, but I think the aim here is to just have fun :P The worst trap is the one where you fall in the water when you hit that ? block. It's so time consuming to do that part in the water then swim all the way around and you don't even get anything out of it. There might be a power-up in one of the many ? blocks but when I'm in that pit I'm not interested in hitting every block especially when they are surrounded by deadly jellyfish. Give something obvious so I'm not so pissed I just fell in that hole. I can't remember but was there enough power-ups in the whole level?

For Aquatic Ruins, what in particular did you not like about Section 7?

It's a trap(in my best General Akbar impression). I can tolerate it in a level that's supposed to be all about traps, but randomly springing a trap on the player is not fun. It goes against that idea of making fun levels. When I hit the block I didn't just wait underneath it, I moved around to maybe get whatever powerup comes out. When I saw things falling I tried to make it to the open space to the right, but I'm underwater so I can't move fast enough. Ironicly I would have been safe if I didn't move after hitting the block but nobody does that. I would have been pissed if that had killed me, and if I remember correct there was no reward. I just had to move on to the next pipe. It's not a good idea to make the level "trial and error" just to survive.

As for the graphic, it's a rip of the Big Boo from Yoshi's Island. I thought it would be good to put in, as it looks more like the official design of Boo today

The reason it looks bad is because it's lines are 2 pixels wide but everything in SMBX is only 1 pixel wide. If you felt like editing it to make it match, it would be cool. The graphic looks like someone took a small ghost and just magnified x2, it's too blocky and zoomed in. I would rather see a color edit on the current Big Boo.

post=The Real Brickroad
Man Link, you really hate slide levels. If I had time, and hadn't used up all my ideas, I'd make another one just to see how many shades of red you turn before blowing a gasket.

HAHA I wasn't all that mad and I wouldn't get THAT mad over something like Mario levels, sorry. If I saw another one from you I wouldn't really say anything, didn't you already say you don't plan on making levels for the game? What bothers me is that instead of clever new ideas I keep seeing knock-offs of a Brickroad original. I know there's only a few but I just had to say something to try and prevent too many of them. Nip it in the bud, so to speak.

post=ldida1
THERE IS NO WHOLE OTHER LEVEL FOR LUIGI. Thank you.

When you put a section of the level that is only accessible by hitting a Luigi block, then you are telling the player that this section is for Luigi. Whether you had other intentions doesn't matter. That's the point of the block, to turn into Luigi because you have to. If you just want to open up the section for anybody use a block different than the green L.

post=halibabica
I can't assume the player still has a Hammer Suit by those points.

Good point. But I did like your edit on the fire spitting flower :)

And, yeah, I played a level where every fish I killed was worth 5up. What's up with the ridiculous bounties of extra lives?

Inexperience on making a balanced mario game. We're all pretty inexperienced here, I just hope those people will understand why it's bad and learn to put less 1up's.

post=Racheal
because Fire Flowers provide absolutely no advantage in a ghost house like this,

Ah, excellent point. I hadn't thought of that. No need to change it at all then. I wouldn't put a leaf if there is any section where you can get enough speed to fly as that would break the puzzle. If you want to give the leaf just edit to make sure there is no "runway" to start flying.