Originally posted by Delpolo
Alright, FieryIce has agreed to have the feedback posted publicly, so here it is!
For context, instead of making wholly-stand-alone levels, these are instead organized into thematically-consistent worlds of four levels where the fourth one tends to be more difficult and have more enemies aggressive.
1-1 Mushroom Plains
Good intro level! Are springboards really something that would be introduced so early, though? (Maybe dig a pit for 'em so people don't grab and throw it away?) It wasn't obvious that you'd live if you fell between those platforms in the middle, and there's cut-off in the NSMBU theme at the base of the rightwards pipe (so use bricks, I guess?), but I really like this level!
1-2 Lush Plains
Aww, I really liked this. How nice of you to give a 1-up farming spot right at the beginning! (Koopa shell killing respawning Goombas.) The bonus cloud section was cute, though it should probably lead forwards in the level, not backwards. Power-up frequency is good too! Overall very charming, I love it~
1-3 Below the Plains
Piranha plants in the very first pipes almost killed me, might wanna avoid that. Otherwise I quite liked this! Cave levels going right, then up and back, then up and forwards again, are nice because there's no death penalty if you miss a jump, which is perfect for beginners.
1-4 Lush Valley
Oooh, flowers!~ The arrow at the beginning confused me until I circled around to the fire flower; I'd probably have put way less coins and also put 'em higher, so that you don't focus on 'em when you spawn. Not much to say, platforming's simple, it was fun.
I guess there's not much to say about these levels, but I'm glad you enjoyed the simpleness of the levels! I definitely wanted to move that arrow of coins higher but I ran out of space, oh well 
Originally posted by Delpolo
2-1 Koopa Hills
Might not wanna let Goombas walk right over to people when they spawn. I loved the coin heaven bonus area! And it leads forward too, so you don't need to redo a section. Good job!
2-2 Koopa Hills 2
Not a big fan of floating-block rectangular rooms like in this, and the platform section near the end felt way too slow and safe. Door thing felt weird too, why not make people platform downwards?
2-3 Koopa Hills 3
Feels like it needed an extra powerup between the beginning and the pipe to the second area? (Maybe move the first one closer and put one between those piranhas?) I really like the autoscroller area though... but you're able to enter it from the exit and get the feather without any trouble, so you might wanna fix that. Also, make the autoscrolling stop at the pipe, otherwise people'll think there's a secret area if you hover! I tried it out and definitely wasn't the only one, hahaha. Solid platforming all around.
2-4 Koopas in the Sky
Good job with the respawning P-Switches, can't fail if you drop it! Other than watching out for designing reachable dead-ends in your level, I'd say this is a resounding success (cute boss fight!). ...The door to the end seemed pointless though.
I made 2-3 before I realized that you could get into the sub-world from what was supposed to be the exit pipe so that was totally unintended For the sake of keeping the stats, though, I haven't fixed it. The door on 2-2 was more an attempt to make the level feel like you were perpetually moving upwards, but I guess that wasn't necessary or even obvious. Oh well!
Originally posted by Delpolo
3-1 Fishy Sea 1
Ehhh. Way too easy to trivialize your level when the very first powerup is a Fire Flower, and I dislike the cannons shooting fish in such a narrow space (the top two aren't on-screen anyways so they don't do anything until after you swim up and away). Also it wasn't obvious where to go after turning around? Didn't realize there was space on top to continue. Doing the level without using power-ups was pretty fun, the only thing I'd change for powerup-less runs is the green cheep-cheeps near the end that basically forces you to wait until all of them pass by before finishing the level.
3-2 Fishy Sea 2
Another early fire flower? And a lot of them strewn about? And even a pipe dispensing 'em!? The split paths was a neat idea but it's really easy to skip the bonus area. I managed it powerup-less then died to the blooper at the end, not sure having it there is a good idea...
3-3 Fishy Sea 3
Two fire flowers at the very start!? I do like how it's not entirely a water level though, and the exit pipe to the end felt straight out of SMB3. Still, way too easy to trivialize it with fireballs...
3-4 Fishy Sea 4
Uh, wow, difficulty spike much? You'd need a powerup earlier than that, and also they should be easier to get considering it's an autoscroller (I couldn't even get most of 'em after the first one). I really dislike the giant fish coming out of cannons though, they come out way too fast and are too big to dodge reliably. Top path is way easier too.
I have to admit I'm not really that good at making water levels, or even playing them, so the excess in powerups is to help people like me  I wanted 3-4 to feel more like you were being ambushed by fish so I decided to use the cannons, but I definitely needed to add more powerups to it. Maybe I got lucky and beat it easily so I didn't realize how hard it really was.
Originally posted by Delpolo
4-1 Ghoul Palace 1
No power-up for a while makes the beginning fairly frustrating (and those two enemies at the very start were fairly intimidating, though I didn't die to them), I don't even feel like replaying to try out the left door. Boo circles here are really annoying especially considering how cramped the level is, I'd just remove them all; that winged boo cannon at the end is a mean trap, there's no way to dodge it considering how fast it shoots, so if I didn't still have a fire flower by the end... That series of ?-block floors with Stretches (the floor-boos) was interesting though.
4-2 Ghoul Palace 2
Really liked this, it felt like a true ghost house puzzle! Getting hit with the leaf (or picking up the fire flower) makes for a really long detour though, and that giant boo circle near the end just makes you wait for no reason.
4-3 Ghoul Palace 3
Didn't even bother checking the boxes at the end when the goal's right there, and respawning fire flowers feels like too much, but... Wow! Great puzzles in this, and there was even a well-placed boo circle where you need to dodge Dry Bones projectiles inside of it while the gap circled around.
4-4 Ghoul Palace 4
Not much of a puzzle this time, and there's still respawning stuff (but it's mushrooms so it's slightly better? Maybe?) Timer felt too short though, I felt like I cut it close and I didn't feel like I was taking my time. Still fun though!
I really wanted to add an earlier powerup to 4-1 because I knew the second room might be a bit frustrating, but my gimmick with the koopa shell hitting all the blocks and spawning boo circles required small Mario so I went with it. I really enjoyed making 4-2 and 4-3 especially; the puzzle style of them was a lot of fun. I tried to minimize enemies between the room where you get the leaf and the area where you absolutely need to fly specifically to reduce the chances people will have to redo the detour. That's why there's only one boo and one Dry Bones between the one-way block and the flying area. I was a little afraid that the puzzle would seem obscure -- especially for people who went through the detour before picking up the obligatory fire flowers. My intended walkthrough was that you would get to the room with the detour pipe, be forced to lose your leaf by picking up the two fire flowers next to each other, and then have to take the detour to get another leaf. As for 4-3, the respawning fire flowers in the beginning are there for a reason though -- you absolutely need to be big Mario on the main room to break the bricks and let the vine spawn to the top. So if you get to that room, you only have one fire flower, and lose it before you even get back to the main room, then you have to go around again. Whereas if you lose it while in the room, you can just pick up another one.
4-4 was another attempt at an "ambush" kind of level. The boos are fast and they chase you throughout the level, time's short too, so you have to hurry and find a way out before time runs out or the boos get to you
Originally posted by Delpolo
5-1 Giant Island 1
Ridiculously hard noteblock section sours the entire level. Also that red paratroopa jump afterwards is also kinda tough? And it's not obvious that stuff spawns from that pipe? Rework this level, the beginning exhausted me and I didn't pay any attention to stuff after the Red Paratroopa jump. I'd just remove the noteblock section completely and make the paratroopa jump easier (pipe lower, ledge lower as well). Also I managed to get stuck as big Mario because I assumed there would be a P-Switch or something to continue (as I didn't know that the pipe spawned the paratroopa), so maybe design that section to make sure that players stay near the pipe long enough for it to spawn.
...And this is what I design after playing through 100 Mario challenge in Expert Originally the section had no noteblocks, so it would have been pretty trivial to get the koopa shell to break the bricks. The noteblocks are what happens when I decide to try to make a level with a low clear rate Also I think that glitch with Mario stuck is kinda funny and I totally didn't forsee that |
