Played it, liked it and starred it! I really liked how you introduced the difficulty progressively. I was very easy for me and a bit too forgiving. You can skip all the challenge if you want so I didn't feel very rewarded. As a result of the sub screen being used for the bonus rooms , the main challenge feels a bit short. The secrets are a bit useless in SMM in general. But I followed you. I would like to this "gimmick" expanded.
Thanks for the comments and the star
I will have that in mind when doing Circular Platforms 3, I tried to tone down the difficulty but it seems I overdid it. I´ll use a different approach from now on.
I agree with your comments, I will rework 1-1. I'm starting to notice the -30% difficulty rule is quite true.
About the mushroom, it would allow you to skip the puzzles
Thanks for your input!
Oh right, anyway, the tension really added something to the level and made the run to the goal even better.
A few impressions, but first, since a lot of you slept through this going live last night, my latest:
Caramel Cliffs!
F7F6-0000-0049-5E19
I've seen enough people on 100-Mario Challenge trying and failing to do a vertical level and I thought, I could do better! Tried to make this a bit harder than my other levels -- I picked up a Super Mario World Special levels vibe and kinda ran with it, difficulty included. I hope you all enjoy!
This is good, the level was challenging and fair. My only complaint is that once I died because of the camera wasn´t showing the top of the screen where some spikes were and I jumped too high. Sometimes placing an object there (question block or coins usually work) can push the camera in their direction so you can control what the player sees to some degree.
Also, the spiky bug near the goal almost gave me a heart attack, I was jumping around dicking with the coins and almost fell on top of him...what did you put it there for? It would´ve been really frustrating dying there.
I died another time because I rushed down once and fell in a cliff, but it was totally my fault for ignoring the path the coins were clearly showing.
Even after dying twice I had no problem replaying the level because it was fun, challenging and fair. You did a great work.
Good! You introduce the platforms well. Two points: One, I'd have the exit pipe for the subarea end much higher. It's too easy to go in the other end, and the pipe is pretty long, so I'd shorten it so people can't go in the wrong end. The other point is you probably have one mushroom too many. Your level is fair and has very few enemies, so the only reason someone will take a hit is if they don't understand how the platforms work or they are being careless -- you don't want to reward either!
Two minor points. I definitely would recommend the stage.
Thanks! Good catch on the pipe, I´ll be more careful with things like that from now on. About the mushrooms, it seems I was too overprotective of the player, I´m thinking of a different approach for the next level: if the player fails a jump he won´t die, but he´ll fall to the ground and he won´t be able to retake the main path and instead will have to take a path that presents the same challenges slightly modified, so he has another chance to learn the necessary skills for the level before getting to the harder stuff. If he succeeds however, he will have access to an area with harder challenges, but with a powerup that will allow him to open new paths later in the level. So the level will have 2 paths, hard and easy, which will merge and divide throughout the level. Also, there will be a sort of Metroid evolution where, if the player constantly succeeds in the harder challenges he will get a new powerup that will allow a later unlock of another secret area. That in turn will give access to another powerup and so on. I think this will add depth to the level and replayability, provide an easier path for the less skilled players and a real challenge for pros
I´ll leave here my level again, it seems to be getting a very good reception:
This is my latest level, an expansion on circular platforms. I used few elements, but combined them in different ways to create new situations. There are some challenging jumps, but nothing too crazy and everything is introduced one step at a time. The level is slowly paced with rewarding moments between the different challenges. There are 3 secondary areas with cool rewards that can help you bypass the most difficult spots and in some points there is more than one way to take, so even though the level is mostly built around around platforming, there is some exploration in it too.
No instant deaths, crazy bosses or random chaos in this level
Please let me know your opinion!
