Jul -- NSMB Hacking (Archive): Level Contest Game [Pipe world! Monday 23rd May]

gridatttack

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Posted on 05-23-11 10:03:10 PM (last edited by gridatttack at 05-23-11 07:05 PM)

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Heres my level:

Level Name:

Storm Drain Sewer
Level has 3 different main routes.

Download (.nml):

http://www.mediafire.com/?33d273xzd5jtzqz

The .rar includes the 2 areas, respectively named Area 1 and area 2.

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw-Xl0Qz3Mg

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ray
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Posted on 05-24-11 03:37:34 PM

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So, now I have done it

BUT: Because i had not many time to do this, its not a big level^^

Level Name: Pipesky
Release: 24.05.2011
Author: ray
Patch (.nmp): http://www.mediafire.com/?41j2z1616d1var0
Video:
<object width="560" height="349"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kKxXnokWcgg?fs=1&hl=de_DE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="349" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

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Garmichael
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Posted on 05-25-11 05:57:38 AM (last edited by Garmichael at 05-25-11 03:01 AM)

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And that's the deadline! Critiques start now and end Friday night. Any player that doesn't critique each other player gets 20 points deducted from their total score.

Krutomisi and Luigi: You both mentioned you were interested. Are you still interested, or are you out for this round?

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ray
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Posted on 05-26-11 03:46:58 AM (last edited by ray at 05-26-11 08:27 AM)

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I start to citique and hope its right

DIRBAIO

Challenge Requirement Met: 10/10
Design: I think the bg and Tileset fit with the challenge, but your level looks most the same. The rooms at the end look "empty". 14/20
Polish: The slide has not the right tiles. There are always some pixels which are wrong. And your water (object) has not the right ground. 17/20
Points: 41

NSMB_PRO

Challenge Requirement Met: 10/10
Design: Your rooms are very small and always the same. When you play it, it is boring. 11/20
Polish: Some pipes, which are going through the ice walls are conected with a iron block, but there is always a small empty playce between wall and block. 19/20
Points: 40

GARMICHAEL

Challenge Requirement Met: 10/10
Design: Your level looks really good, but at some places, i think the blocks are set false. 18/20
Polish: Theres nothing wrong here

20/20
Points: 48

GRIDATTACK

Challenge Requirement Met: 10/10
Design: You have always set the purple iron blocks in the underwater area. This looks like you had no time and its very boring. And i think the BG doesnt fit with the grasland theme. 9/20
Polish: 20/20
Points: 39

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Garmichael
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Posted on 05-26-11 05:12:03 AM (last edited by Garmichael at 05-26-11 02:22 PM)

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Critiques

Whenever I refer to a time, I'm referring to the youtube clip you posted.

I am a harsh critic. Please, don't take anything personally!

One note: Everyone set up water + pipes to give that ugly transparent pipe effect. This is a bug and as far as I know, there's no way around it (it even happens when you play it on the actual DS). The only proper route, in my opinion, was to not use the combination that creates this effect. In the future, I will dock points for this kind of thing.

dirbaio
Challenge Met: Yes. 10/10
Design: Your level is pretty straight forward. There are just enough secrets and paths to take without it being confusing or hard to mentally remember where you are. I liked the areas with the rising water (except for one bit), and the outside area with the Hammer Bros was pretty neat. Finding the Star Coins was tricky, but not impossible.
Some of the areas are kind of annoying, however. At 2:55, that small gap is a pain to get through. Trying to get into that little vertical tunnel with the three bloopers barreling down on you (and being able to go above the water) was too tough and frustrating without fire balls. The door on the left right after that tunnel leads to an infinite loop, which was annoying because it doesn't seem like one for a few tries. The door on the right leads to an area that looks exactly the same, and the confusion about whether or not you're going in the right direction leads to sort of an analysis paralysis. Some of the tile's visual and placement decisions aren't very attractive and feel like they've just been dumped out of a big bucket and placed whereever they landed.13/20
Polish: The pipe at 1:04 exits out of a pipe that isn't connected to it. The pipe at 1:25 doesn't follow the orthographic movement (like a rook in chess) of pipes. At 2:00, if you go up right first, the button doesn't do anything. It should have been made impossible to get up there before hitting button on the left. At 3:00, it's possible to take the left route to hit the other button first. The bricks above your head will be destroyed but the water doesn't rise. From here, if you wall jump up, there are flying bloopers. The area with the Hammer Bros is missing trim on all of the tiles. 12/20

Total: 35/50

NsmB_PrO
Challenge Met: Yes. 10/10
Design: I like the general make up of this level. The first part feels like it's inside a mountain, and the second part feels like the summit of that mountain. Most of the pipe layout was great and the general flow of the level made it clear to figure out where to go. I loved the cut outs of the terrain where you can see the pipes in the first underground area.
The icicles really, really, really bugged me. First of all, they're all very tough to see and I was surprised when I died a few times. Some of them were placed unfairly (like the one on the ground when you exit the first yellow pipe), and almost all of the ones hanging from the ceiling were off camera until you jumped up and they poked you. Fixing the camera properties would have helped a lot here (the properties that determine how close to the top of the screen mario must get before the camera pans up).
Some placement of objects feels strange, like the blocks that are pressed up against the ceiling, and the coin layout at 1:35. I couldn't run fast enough to get from the red ! block to the end of the area where I could jump up the space on the right of the pipe there. That little lower level is neat (I like cubby holes), but it was unneccessary just to get a powerup. The part where you've trapped a star coin in the wall is clever, but too 'crazy'. When you break the wall with the button, the remaining tiles look bad.
There is a soft lock in your level. If you go down the yellow pipe at 1:58, you get stuck in the room with the koopa in it, since the pipe doesn't work both ways. I take off 3 full points for soft locks of this type. For future reference, I take off 1 point for softlocks that are hard to predict (like if the only way out of an area is with a vine leading up, and the player butt pounds the block, causing the vine to go down), but in this case, you just didn't test this pipe connection.
I liked the feel of the level, but it's got some issues with unfairness. 14/20
Polish: Most of the aspects of this level I would recommend polishing have already been mentioned above. There were lots of camera movements that weren't orthographic, which they almost always should be. Also, the pipe in the underground area that you go in right after pounding the switch leads you to a pipe it isn't connected to. 17/20

Total: 41/50

gridatttack
Challenge Met: Yes. 10/10
Design: This is the type of level that sells strategy guides! I love your intention, but the major flaw in your level is that it's just too much. It's a very confusing level to navigate, and I got frustrated and lost with it quite a few times for a few reasons. 1) Many of the pipes you come out of are either exit-only or go to a new area when you go back, meaning you cant go back to see what's in other pipes to help build a mental map. 2) This level is tough! The enemy placement is unfair in places, and I felt cheated a few times. After exploring for a very long time, I get killed by one of four fireballs flying in my direction and I wanted to quit. I never did find the half-way point. I'm not even sure there is one. I got frustrated with having to start over from the beginning each time, still not even sure where it was I was supposed to go.
I like how there were a lot of 'micro areas', like the bit with the trap doors (although this part took too long to get through), the part with the bricks on the floor, the pipe filled underwater area, and the little pipe maze towards the end. They served sort of as land marks where I could go "ooooh, okay, this is where I am now.. Not sure how I got here, but I'm here."
The placement design of many objects felt arbitrary and not very visually appealing. I did really like how there were three thematically different areas, though - the underwater, the ground, and the sky. If the level was shorter and it was easier to mentally map, going back and forth between these types of areas would have been a huge blast. 15/20
Polish: Aside from the points I mentioned already, this level could use some serious spit shine. There is a huge over-use of those blue blocks and plenty of opportunity to use different tiles to make it more visually interesting. Check out this image I made where I beautified part of your level. As you can see, the objects are in the same places, take up the same space, and don't alter the level design at all, but it looks more diverse and recognizable. It stands out. Most of your level needs this done to it. 15/20

Total: 40/50

ray
Challenge Met: No. I only counted eight pipe transfers. 8/10
Design: In this level, there's a certain amount of chaos going on where it doesn't quite feel like it actually exists. I can't explain it, but it just feels too random with it's placement of tiles, blocks, and coins. I liked the underground area, but I had assumed it went down farther than it actually did. Im not sure why I assumed this, but I died when hopped down from some blocks and was surprised it happened. The first ? block with the power up inside is kind of tricky to hit, and if you go right, then come back left, it's real tricky to get back to where you started. The switch in the underground area is easy to hit, but afterwards, it's tricky to get out of that little tunnel. The Star Coins are not very hard to find. Each of them have wrong sprite data. The first one goes in slot 2 and both the second and third ones goes in slot 3. The first one was tricky to get, but not too bad. The appearing blocks impact the game very little since you've already jumped over them (because if you didn't you would have fallen with the donut lift) before they even start going. Overall, it's a short, not very challenging, random level. 10/20
Polish: It's not bad polish-wise. There are some areas where you could have made it flow a little cleaner and look a little more interesting, but overall, it's pretty polished. Your main problem here is the design from the begining. 18/20

Total: 36/50

I may be editing this critique now and then, so my scores are not finalized until the critique deadline. Remember, players who don't do critiques lose points.

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Garmichael
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Posted on 05-26-11 05:13:51 AM

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Originally posted by ray
I think its right so?? xD

Go ahead and write a little bit about how you came to these numbers. You don't have to write an essay like I did, but the more you critically talk about levels (what you liked, what you didn't like), the more critically you design them. Ultimately, this is contest is to help us all become better designers

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ray
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Posted on 05-26-11 06:00:03 AM

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in my hack are 3 star coins. one in each area

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Garmichael
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Posted on 05-26-11 06:17:21 AM

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Ooops, Im sorry about that. I updated my critique.

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gridatttack

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Posted on 05-27-11 12:02:00 AM

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Dirbaio

Challenge Requirement Met: 10/10
Design: I like the feeling of the level, with the water and stuff. However I did feel the level a little too linear, but the water rising part of the level was fun. 16/20
Polish: The tiles under the slide at the beginning looks misplaced. I don't know if this was intentionally or was because the patch "patched" wrong (see image below), but just the desert tile without the corner and wall desert tiles just don't look good. Also, right after you exit the pipe after the big piranha plant, I thought the level would go lower, but I was surprised that I died

15/20

Total: 41

Nsmb_pro

Challenge Requirement Met: 10/10
Design: The small rooms are fun to play around them, but the icicles just ruin the fun. The BG of the level somehow hides this icicles and they are also out of view at some places. The red switch is completely useless unless you want to get the starcoin, as you can just jump into the pipe without the red blocks activated. You cant get out of the room with the koopa in the outside area of the level. 15/20
Polish: The blocks in the ceiling looks kinda out of place. 19/20
Total: 44

Garmichael

Challenge Requirement Met: 10/10
Design: The level itself if very good. I like how you made use of the minipipes and the extra areas are nice, especially the underwater one. However, the area of the mini pipe just feel a little bland with the paratroopas. Pretty much the level matches the pipe world feel. 19/20
Polish: I felt that some of the goombas shouldn't came in pairs at some part of the level. Also at the end of the level, the ground don't have the grassland corner tile where the pipes are coming out. 19/20
Total: 48

Ray

Challenge Requirement Met: 8/10 Missing some pipe systems to reach 10.
Design: The level seems right, however the goomba at the beginning just falls off the pipe, much like a pointless enemy, and the pipe in the up part where you start just bounces you off to the same exit. The water which is suspended seems weird. The underground part was rather short, same for the whole level. Also the object placement which is not on the play area through the level seems random. 13/20
Polish: The general lay of the level is good but short and some positions of objects looks random, but the level feels as a pipe world. 17/20
Points: 38
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also one question, can we reply to some of the critique points made out in our levels?

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Garmichael
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Posted on 05-27-11 09:02:53 AM (last edited by Garmichael at 05-27-11 06:03 AM)

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Also one question, can we reply to some of the critique points made out in our levels?

You sure can! I think it's a good idea... the more we talk back and forth about our levels, the better we all get

But please, do it in the discussion thread

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NsmB_PrO
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Posted on 05-27-11 09:11:29 AM

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HAVE i to critique other levels?

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Garmichael
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Posted on 05-27-11 06:28:44 PM

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You will get 20 points deducted from your score if you don't. All you have to do is write a few sentences for each player and give a score. If people aren't critiquing the levels, then the whole contest is pointless, right?

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NsmB_PrO
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Posted on 05-27-11 06:38:40 PM (last edited by NsmB_PrO at 05-27-11 03:40 PM)

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Yeah, I just was wondering, if I have to critique others levels

But for now, I dont have the time, to play ALL the levels, so I won't give a quritique for the pipe-world-contest.
But probably next level

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dirbaio
For future reference, "Responsible disclosure" isn't "acting like a douche about an exploit and demanding compensation".
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Posted on 05-27-11 09:56:35 PM

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I have no time to do the critiques too

Mostly because I've been working non-stop in this

It's 0:56 AM here, time to go to sleep

Garmichael
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Posted on 05-28-11 12:32:15 AM

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Since everyone's either submitted their critique or has said they wont do it, I've totaled the scores up for Round 1

dirbaio: 41 + 35 + 41 - 20
Garmichael 48 + 48
NsmB_PrO 40 + 41 + 44 - 20
gridatttack 39 + 40
ray 36 + 38

So instead of adding up all the scores for the total score of the round, I am computing the average. The reason for this is because each player had a different number of judges. Gridattack, Ray, and myself all got judges by only 2 other people, and dirbaio and NsmB_Pro got judged by 3 people.

Here are the final scores after averaging your scores, and after points were deducted for no critiques.

Garmichael: 48
gridattack: 40
ray: 37
NsmB_PrO: 22 (42 without deduction)
dirbaio: 19 (39 without deduction)

NsmB and dirbaio: As you can see, your score took a big hit for not doing critiques. If you can get them done by the end of the weekend, I will add 15 of those 20 points back since this is the first contest.

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