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Super Mario Maker |OT| Miyamoto Simulator 2015

GokouD

Member
I've been working on this level for a bit and I have a few other ones, but this I have put a lot of effort into. It's based around a factory aesthetic so I have the level design and the puzzles in it work around that. I had some really cool ideas, but many of them towards the end didn't work out so well, so it didn't end up as good as I hoped but I still would like some feedback and I might work on a similar idea for a level another time.

Please tell me what you think.

WVW69ib-mlEPeUz9Ft


1E0F-0000-007D-4BBF

Nice level, I can see a lot of work went into this, the section with the moving p switch was especially cool. Lakitu is the devil though, I would avoid using him, especially in confined spaces near the end of a long level.
I've also made a level with a factory theme if you're interested, it's called Frantic Factory. It's a straight platformer rather than a puzzle level, quite hard but short so persevere!

9FDC-0000-0043-C318
 

jholmes

Member
Thanks! I'm about to go live in a couple minutes :D

www.twitch.tv/xindicate_gaming

Restarting my computer in hopes that my microphone works, lol

Thanks for playing my level! So, the 1-Up on the conveyor belt, the P-block directly below will stop the conveyor belt. I figured most people would be curious and hop on the block and find that out if they didn't know that, or if they wanted... I guess they could keep the P-block and get the 1-up while waiting? Just didn't want you guys confused, I didn't make that to waste your time!
 

ciD_Vain

Member
The spring at the beginning is just there for help and a bit of fun. The first section is basically not something too difficult and gentle introduction. It's also an introduction to the tower idea e.g you go down and then all the way back up and vice versa.
The problem with the various powers such as fireflower etc is that they aren't vital to completing a level in mario games. Their only purpose is to make things easier. Conversely it also also the strength of mario games as it means nothing is vital to doing a level. You can do any level just as small mario. Exploring levels though and getting the most out of them is where the power ups work well.
I was very conscious of making each section as doable with small mario as with a powered mario. It's the way nintendo do it so I try and follow that way.
As for the sections where the jumping (height wise) is tight, well that's part design (making it difficult) but also the problem with a tower idea. You only have so much vertical space to play with so it's tricky to make some interesting.
Anyway thanks for the constructive criticism. Very much appreciated. Now if you want a real challenge you should try my Fire and Ice level...
Just tried out your Fire and Ice level. Wow! I really like this one. So tough! Haven't beat it yet
 

Simbabbad

Member
Thanks for everyone who watched my stream. Played a lot of levels and pretty much every single one was a lot of fun and/or very creative.
If anyone missed the stream, wants to rewatch it or both, you can do so on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUgXNztdJs4
Thanks for playing my Metroid/Tourian level, I'm glad you liked it enough to star it! It was really interesting watching you play it, because you have a completely different method from mine: I methodically kill each blooper/metroid one after the other, while you run into the mix and elegantly dodge them. I'm happy both work pretty well.

I guess my Brinstar level, on the other hand, was too slow or puzzle/adventure like to be properly played in the context of a twitch stream ;-) ! Oh, well...
 

CrisKre

Member
Ok ! Finally just completed my first platforming only stage with Super Mario Maker ! It is called the Chain Chomp Palace ! It is a very acrobatic and platforming heavy stage that I would say is an intermediate to hard stage. There is no unfair death or invisible blocks that will mess you up. It's just pure platforming and nothing else with a dose of chain chomps along the way. It is a short but sweet stage and I am thinking I will probably have to make changes to this stage later on to improve it even more. However, I really hope you guys have fun with this and please provide feedback whenever you have the time. I've been streaming several session of GAFer's Mario stages, so I hope I can also get some feedback back myself as well in return. Anyways, here it is, please take a look:



Name: Chain Chomp Palace
ID: 0A00-0000-007B-F75E

I've also provided a video of my play through for this stage just in case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT0bSbeTLmc&ab_channel=ShibaFanGaming. Obviously I'd love for you guys to play the stage first, but I've finally found the "best practice" per say, for this stage after many many tries. So if you're stuck and would like to see how I survived, please watch the video for the little things I did to survive :)

Feel free to also use my Youtube link to look up all the other NeoGAF stages I've played previously in my Super Mario Maker playlist :)

Anyways, feedback welcomed !


Great level! I like the pacing a lot. Difficult but not unfair.
 

correojon

Member
After the feedback received (BIG THANK YOU to Koopa Kid and J-Fr for their spot-on reviews) I´ve remade Dry Bones' Disposal Center 1 totally from scratch. The level focuses on the same mechanics (Dry Bones and moving walls) but is totally different. I made the level in about 3 hours (plus 1 hour of planning), then spent around 3 more hours polishing it. These are the main differences:
  • Toned down difficulty A LOT.
  • Removed all situations where instant death was possible.
  • Total overhaul of the moving walls sections, making them easier, faster to get through and mixing the main mechanics better.
  • Used yellow bridges for the platforms in the moving walls sections so they stand up more and the path to follow is clearer.
  • Used coins extensively to mark the path.
  • Less Dry Bones used, placed in more accessible locations and no bones will come from offscreen.
  • Implemented a cool password system (big thanks to Reddit user genotaru). This allows for 2 checkpoints in the level in a much user-friendly way.
  • The whole layout is clearer and less confusing.
  • Mechanics are introduced and expanded in a much better way.

I´m pretty happy with the result and I really think the level has improved a lot, so please, play it and comment:

Dry Bones´ Disposal Center 1.1
CCC0-0000-007D-5C55
WVW69ib-yEAwSb7nrz


Hope you guys enjoy it :)
 

NetMapel

Guilty White Male Mods Gave Me This Tag
That's a very cool stage. Managed to beat it without watching your video. Was very challenging but I always knew where to go and what my fault was when I died.

Great level! I like the pacing a lot. Difficult but not unfair.

Hey thank you guys for your kind compliments ! Really glad you enjoyed it. Any feedback like maybe particular areas that don't make sense to you or anything like that ? I am always happy to hear critiques to improve my stage. Is it too short or anything like that ? Thanks for the feedback.
 
What happens if you delete levels so that your star count is under the requirement for a medal, does that remove the medal? Anyone try that yet?
 

StAidan

Member
OK makers, I exported some Twitch highlights so you guys could see my playthroughs and thought processes of your levels. Long story short, I liked all 5 of the ones I've done so far. But hopefully watching these will help you in your quest to achieve level design perfection! Here's the list:

Cloudhigh Skyway
Xandaca
3E51-0000-0079-D0C8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYNRoFWT894

Bowser's Heavy Metal Battalion
B-Bech
721B-0000-0025-1463
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rORJ323S-ZM

Bowser's Tower
Balohna
FCA7-0000-0058-82F1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3aM9Ow-o60

Frost Fossil Depths
Kebiinu
232B-0000-0072-C515
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MhB9MFhSmw

Rosalina and the Floating Towers
Neki
BBB0-0000-0074-53B1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ1ix5ToZAY
 
You're spot on. I do power ups for theme, and to make sure the player has the best chance of performing as well as they can. I don't want my stages to be endurance tests, I don't want a player to lose because they had to go through the whole level with one life, if a player dies it's because they died from something they could control, all goes back to player choice. That's why I hate invisible hazards or invisible blocks or areas where you need to die because you have no knowledge of the area otherwise. It doesn't feel fair to the player otherwise. I'm okay with people having to start over, as long as it was not the stage's fault for cheesing them or being unreasonably hard.

All coming from an intermediate map maker, so take it with a grain of salt

Playing Mario Maker has been really eye opening, seeing what other people like to design and play. Me personally, I really like levels that take a lot of repetition and patience. Like the Rocket Barrel levels in Donkey Kong Country or the Donkey Kong pipe cart game in Nintendo Land. There's a high I get after finally conquering the level once I've figured out and executed the perfect run after so many tries. So personally, again, I don't put in many power ups, and when I do, it's a risk-reward decision to go for them. That way you have to play at the highest level to advance. It's probably also why I'm not a big fan of games like Rayman Origins which have no lives and respawn you right before you failed. That kind of design doesn't reward or enforce mastery.

But you and others have showed me that they don't look at platformers in the same way. That many expect and prefer the level to give you plenty of head's up and not make you go back to the beginning as much. It's more methodical, but satisfying in its' own way. I'll definitely try my hand at that approach as a personal challenge with a future level. As for the fast paced gauntlet levels without many warnings, I'll be sure to label them as "Lost Levels" style. That sounds like a pretty fair and descriptive warning, right?

Heck, you might want to try making a fast paced, unforgiving Lost Levels 8-4 style level sometime and see what you come up with :)
 

urfe

Member
You can't turn it off. However people can comment on Miiverse without starring from the level list (without loading the level). Just check the comments an comment directly on Miiverse. Most people don't seem to know...

Thanks! In that case, I'll take the stars!
 

jnWake

Member
Do you think you're good at wall jumping? You beat Super Meat Bros and think you did everything? Are you a master of vines?!

Then, I have a level for you!

WVW69ib4MaMLwr6i_T


Mystery House Climb: 3EEC-0000-007B-A7E4.

Mystery House Climb is the fourth entry in the long running, accolade winner "Mystery House" series. In these levels, you have to complete, under a strict time limit, small challenges based on one core concept. The challenges start easy and gradually become hard. In the Climb edition, you must clear 8 challenges involving wall jumping or vine climbing.

This one can be a bit tricky, depending how good you are at NSMBU. Some of the jumps are strict but there's nothing as cruel as Super Meat Bros.

If you like this level, you can try the other 3 Mystery Houses:

Mystery House Bounce: 15EA-0000-0048-B42C.
Quickly clear a set of cannon ball bouncing challenges! SMB skin.

Mystery House Surf: E3B1-0000-004D-050B.
Quickly clear a set of beetle surfing challenges! SMB3 skin.

Mystery House Spin Bounce: 2355-0000-0063-E9D7.
Quickly clear a set of spin bouncing challenges! SMW skin.
 
If you skip a level it doesn't show up in your played levels list and sometimes I just want to comment on the part of the course like "This jump right here, over the pit, with the wall of Bowsers that suddenly appears on your head, is terrible."

As it is, you have praise with no listed reason which serves you no purpose other than stroking your ego, if you want to talk about constructive feedback.

I get that Nintendo doesn't like to operate in this way but if there is no other way to balance things out, and things already start skewing in a disproportionate direction in a way that was not intended, and in the case of 100 Mario Challenge, which is a big part of the game and how people stumble upon random levels, it serves to it's detriment.

The system could be improved but I'm a huge opponent to dislike buttons. They dont encourage peopole who dont care to do better. People may dislike the 100 man mario mode but the point was never ever about being a sea of gems where shit gets boo'd out of existance. It was to play a level made by all different users and for everyones level to have a shot at being played. Better community and search features are welcome but a dislike button for the purpose of shitting on everything people dont like is a horrible idea.
 

Simbabbad

Member
Gnat Attack becomes ridiculously easy to complete once you start ignoring the bombs whenever the boss is onscreen. I beat it with about 8 seconds to spare.
Thank you so much! Thanks to your post, I just beat it.

I exhausted the Normal 100 Mario challenge when it comes to unlocking costumes, though. Expert 100 Mario challenge is really horrible.
 

jnWake

Member
I just watched through the streams. I wish Smexy's stream had voice since it makes it so much fun. Both Kyzon's and Smexy's runs through Mystery House Climb were pretty good and it seems the obstacles worked well. It was funny seeing Kyzon struggle with the moving vine!
 

Neki

Member
Playing Mario Maker has been really eye opening, seeing what other people like to design and play. Me personally, I really like levels that take a lot of repetition and patience. Like the Rocket Barrel levels in Donkey Kong Country or the Donkey Kong pipe cart game in Nintendo Land. There's a high I get after finally conquering the level once I've figured out and executed the perfect run after so many tries. So personally, again, I don't put in many power ups, and when I do, it's a risk-reward decision to go for them. That way you have to play at the highest level to advance. It's probably also why I'm not a big fan of games like Rayman Origins which have no lives and respawn you right before you failed. That kind of design doesn't reward or enforce mastery.

But you and others have showed me that they don't look at platformers in the same way. That many expect and prefer the level to give you plenty of head's up and not make you go back to the beginning as much. It's more methodical, but satisfying in its' own way. I'll definitely try my hand at that approach as a personal challenge with a future level. As for the fast paced gauntlet levels without many warnings, I'll be sure to label them as "Lost Levels" style. That sounds like a pretty fair and descriptive warning, right?

Heck, you might want to try making a fast paced, unforgiving Lost Levels 8-4 style level sometime and see what you come up with :)

I don't think you'll ever convince me to make a fast paced unforgiving map, that's just not my mantra. :p I will play levels like those, but I'll never feel right forcing a player to learn the mechanics of a stage only through death. But I don't mind playing those map, sometimes. :p
 

R00bot

Member
Hey guys, here's my newest level.

It involves exploring a cave with multiple secrets to find, two exits, many hidden 1-ups, an interesting gimmick, a puzzle that shouldn't be too hard for most of you gaffers (although nobody has beat it yet), and quite a bit of effort put into the flow and feel of the level.

2CE1-0000-007C-7F5F

WVW69ib7xuE5YEhOmW


Also, I'll be playing through GAF's levels for the next 30 mins or so so feel free to PM me your level if you want to ensure it gets played :)
 
I don't think you'll ever convince me to make a fast paced unforgiving map, that's just not my mantra. :p I will play levels like those, but I'll never feel right forcing a player to learn the mechanics of a stage only through death. But I don't mind playing those map, sometimes. :p

Again, it's really interesting to see how others look at things, not good or bad, but different. I grew up on Castelvania, Mega Man, Adventure Island, Contra, et al...

In those games, you're going to die a lot and learn by dying. I'm completely desensitized by it to the point that dying in a game isn't even remotely negative to me, but part of the problem solving process.

Anyway, keep up the good work with these levels, I'll look out for your new ones.
 
What does the star number next to the number in brackets mean in the makers section? The brackets indicates total stars but I cant figure out what the Star number means.
 

Jeeves

Member
Hi everyone, I just finished my most ambitious creation so far since getting the game the other day. Well, I say finished, but I keep revising it.

Sabotage the Mole Fleet! (EDIT: revised version)
6D49-0000-007D-99EC


It's a long airship level where you have to sabotage each ship to proceed to the next, the climax seeing you blow up the mother ship's engine room and briefly making a somewhat "cinematic" escape.

I really agonized over making the intended mechanism in the final room be pretty foolproof and also not allowing the player to become trapped in the engine room with no way out. I worry about people not finishing it just because of the level length, but hopefully those who make it through will be glad they did. To that end I tried to keep the platforming and puzzle difficulty reasonable.

Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

I've uploaded a new version of this! I took all GAF/Miiverse feeback into account to smooth things out a bit.

Sabotage the Mole Fleet! (Version 3 - Bug fixes!)
6D49-0000-007D-99EC


Most importantly I made some adjustments to the layout of the engine room. It should be extremely hard to make that room go screwy or get to where you can't escape. I'd really like to see people clearing that room on their first attempt now! There's something very fulfilling about puzzling out a design/engineering problem like this until you have your breakthrough moment.

Also threw in some things to thwart would-be sequence-breakers, slightly adjusted some enemy and platform placement for a smoother experience, and made a few small cosmetic additions.

I hope with the adjustments everyone can get the full experience with minimal frustration now. Go ahead and give it a spin, enjoy and tell me how it goes!
 

ohNOitsRO

Member
So I've been working pretty hard on this level to get the feel right... Since Game and Watch is my favorite Smash character, it was only fitting that I try to recreate his gallery games!

Simply named:

"Game and Watch Gallery"
ID: C8BC-0000-007D-B926

I'm planning on doing a series with about four mini games in each stage. This one started off with the original four from the first gallery game. I'd love to hear any feedback on this, as I think the last part might be a bit too hard..
 

Cuburt

Member
The system could be improved but I'm a huge opponent to dislike buttons. They dont encourage peopole who dont care to do better. People may dislike the 100 man mario mode but the point was never ever about being a sea of gems where shit gets boo'd out of existance. It was to play a level made by all different users and for everyones level to have a shot at being played. Better community and search features are welcome but a dislike button for the purpose of shitting on everything people dont like is a horrible idea.

Your assumptions is that people's only purpose would be to dislike something that has value and bury it, but I'm not convinced that people can make stuff that would offend others enough to unfairly target it. Sure, certain themed types of levels can get unfairly targeted as much as things can become overly praised on the inverse (picture auto level being pretty divisive in reality, but you wouldn't know that just looking at ranking for some levels as it is now) yet I would argue, similar to YouTube, if something has value, there are still going to be people who like it and unlike this idea where something divisive becomes a pariah where it is shunned and ignored, it simply become controversial and that holds a certain interest for people as well.

I just don't like that people want to rid the creative process of criticism when that is the most helpful thing about sharing our levels. Not just to have people praise what we do and stroke our egos but tell use where they were getting stuck, how they got trapped in part of the level, how that blind jump or random enemy ruined the flow of things, etc. but since it's set up so you can't comment in the level without leaving a star, it's already discouraging anything BUT the positive comments from people who already "like" it.

It would be much more beneficial for me for the15 people who actually bothered to play my level to have some of those people give a dislike rather than getting 2 stars (yay I guess), 6 completions (was it too easy? was it fun? was it boring? was it memorable), and a bunch of people who didn't finish and didn't star it that gives me no comment or feedback of any sort, from the game or otherwise. Granted, if 100 people played it and there were only 2 stars and 6 completions, that could tell you something, but given that I have a few levels I've uploaded a few days ago that have had next to no plays, that complete lack of feedback isn't made up for by the amount of people who play it.

I don't think a dislike has to be the only solution, but I'd argue a game like this needs something like that and the discouragement of criticism is something that I think was a poor decision with this game while I've defended and agreed with Nintendo's use of it in other instances. No dislikes in Miiverse made it a more positive community. This is different because of how you are presented with a level unlike on a Miiverse message board. Reminds me some of the Flipnote community for the DSi which only had stars and it kind of works the same where there would be certain trends that would emerge and people would make animations for stars or outright ask for stars. People begging for yeahs on Miiverse doesn't do much, but in Mario Maker where you aren't allowed to upload more levels unless you receive a certain number of stars, I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing more of that type of behavior, because that's what this system encourages.
 

KenOD

a kinder, gentler sort of Scrooge
I refined one of my previous stages, but I'm sure it could still use some work. So any thoughts or suggestions is more than welcomed.

Boss battle against Bowser using Yoshi's ability to spit back out those fireballs.

Yoshi Spits Fire : F037-0000-007D-94E0
1JyN5cf.jpg


How about this one I just posted?!

Game and Watch Gallery
ID: C8BC-0000-007D-B926

Join the stream and type !mario to get a spread sheet to enter it into
 
Just made this level.


zBPmNXK.jpg


Name: Freezer Burn

ID: 18FE-0000-007D-AC18


Making this level made me realize we need more platform options. Had fun making it and it has 3 1ups hidden. Have Fun!

Played it. Its a cool take on the flip concept. Replayed a few times to find all 3 lives. The only thing I am not super down for is that the arrows tell you where to ho but in turn you miss large portions of the flip and the arrows are begging to be ignored when you have a nice big platform right near it just asking to be explored. In a few sections exploring basically means you die. May need to tweak it so you can get back up near the long top pipe. Good level though.
 
Played it. Its a cool take on the flip concept. Replayed a few times to find all 3 lives. The only thing I am not super down for is that the arrows tell you where to ho but in turn you miss large portions of the flip and the arrows are begging to be ignored when you have a nice big platform right near it just asking to be explored. In a few sections exploring basically means you die. May need to tweak it so you can get back up near the long top pipe. Good level though.
I added the arrows hoping people would follow them but sadly they lead to people thinking they are a lie. The pipe is also just there if you decide to get the cloud on either side. I wanted it so they would explore each side. If i had more platform options I would've made it more of a you pick the side you want but sadly couldn't :( thank you for playing and for the feedback!
 

Sephzilla

Member
I have a few more levels available! My output has been a little less in recent days but I think the three new ones I have are fun and challenging. Hope you enjoy them all!

Game of Thwomps: Season 2 - (B200-0000-0076-5097) - Mario Maker Hub
A sequel level to my original Game of Thwomps level. It's a fairly simple puzzle/race type stage where the objective is to survive a gauntlet of Thwomps. I think this one is a tad easier than my previous one but I feel like it's still pretty fun.
WVW69ibkuC4mD0WW9g


Ice Hills & Cold Caverns - (17E1-0000-0076-F781) - Mario Maker Hub
My attempt to create an ice & winter themed stage. I tried to use white semi-solid platforms from the Mario 3 set to mask the green background items and create a more winter-like environment.
WVW69ibml_8JKMn5qt


Lakitu's Lava Bubble Emporium - (5686-0000-0076-F7F0) - Mario Maker Hub
When playing Mario Maker at a friends house we realized that if you let a Lakitu throw a lava bubble, the lava bubble will become "set" to the position it hits the ground at and then act like a normal lava bubble meaning that if you let this occur enough a level can become surprisingly hazardous. So I decided to make a Mario World level based around the theme. Additionally, I used auto scrolling and Super Thwomps to kind of recreate some of the "big stompers" you see in some Mario World castles.
WVW69ibmmRIV0mnmsK
 
This is the greatest game. I would love to see them add in the three collectable coins as well as check points. I'm willing to pay for this. Make it happen Nintendo.
 
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