Mysterious Planet: A Short Story

Started by Krief, June 27, 2014, 06:23:23 AM

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Krief

I hope someone gets to see this...

Hello there! My name is Krief (username, not actual name) and I made a VVVVVV level!



This is really intended to be a small, short, level that you can breeze through in an hour or less... Tell me how that
works out...  ???



The story is that Viridian is on a planet and has no idea what he's doing there. As he explores, he finds the story of the
people who lived there...

I built this in a couple of days after getting the make-and-play edition of VVVVVV. The story I came up with to go along with it
was sort of an out-of-the-blue decision and absolutely probably not canon... but whatever... I enjoyed it.

The design, I decided, would be simple. A tower section and a labyrinth section. Not complicated, completely linear. Very easy to
tell a story in. I spent a good chunk of my time dreaming up how the story would play out. Three days later, I completed it. Three days, hopefully well spent.

The level features scripting, but not internal scripting. I'd be willing to make the upgrade, though, if you guys care enough. Same goes for updates. While I did check everything, I'd be willing to start from scratch if you guys hate it or add sections to make the level more epic...

Things I'm Happy With

  • Most of the Tower Section, sans the Not Fun Room
  • The Story and Dialogue

Things I'm NOT Happy With

  • The Not Fun Room. While testing the level, the game crashed and I lost it. I tried to redo it, but it didn't turn out quite the same...
  • The Labyrinth. It's fine right now, but I wish I had added more flair to it.
  • There's a wall above one of the atmosphere grav lines. That's because I don't know how to destroy just ONE grav line, and flipping upwards there would break the game. It annoys me that I have to put a wall there because it breaks the mood, but I don't know if I CAN remove just one grav line. Oh well.

So yeah, I spent three days making a rough level of VVVVVV and shared it on a kinda stagnant forum! Please, leave comments and critiques. I would love to hear them, as long as they're not too scathing!

Happy VVVVVVing!

EDIT: I finished the fix, I think! I'll keep the original one up so if you guys like the first one better, you can still access it.

Fix List:

Gameplay

  • Made the Not Fun Room more fun, possibly...
  • Reduced Enemy Count in It's Simple, Really to three and made the enemies farther apart, I think...
  • Victoria is now impossible to pass.

Scripting

  • All of the gravline terminals run once.

Graphics

  • Went in and used Direct Mode to add invisible wall tiles to the top of the atmosphere.
  • Used Direct mode to touch up one-tiled walls. I'm actually NOT happy with the way most of it turned out, but it's mostly because neither the Outside tileset nor the Space Station tileset have three-bordered walls, and I think all the additions look slightly worse. Whatever, it was bugging you guys.

Like I said, small fixes. Thanks for standing by, and if there's one or two things you think I should change, then feel free to post about it.

.

First, it's pretty challenging. I may argue that It's Simple, Really (lower part) and Not Fun Room maybe a bit too pixel perfect though.
If you want to make the labyrinth more interesting, you may add some spikes/enemies or even some VERY simple challenges. It's confusing enough though.
For the gravity lock, you can use a warp gate instead. Find invisible wall tiles in Direct Mode (F10-->Ctrl to select) to replace those wall tiles above the gravity lines may seem a good idea.
Try to avoid single-tiled wall or use Direct Mode to make it look better.
A (very) good level for a first attempt.  :viridian:

vitellaryjr

Is this your first level? This seems way too good to be a first level. I liked the story. If you can, maybe you could make levels about how Viridian found the other crew? Maybe that could be my next project! :viridian: I'm almost done with my level...

The difficulty was perfect for me. Some rooms were a little to hard, but not frustrating. I think my hardest room was the lowest part of It's Simple, Really. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to get onto the platform, and even more trouble getting onto the platform. But otherwise, perfect level.

The scripting was cool. I think I'm appreciating the story a little too much, but I have trouble coming up with stories, so maybe that's why. :) I'm pretty sure all of the scripts don't repeat (I didn't test them), but I know the communications with Violet didn't repeat.

My only complaint is that if (for some reason), someone skipped saving Victoria, it is impossible to complete the level without starting over. This can be solved in two ways:

1. Make it impossible to skip Victoria (I would prefer this)
2. Make a warp past Violet that takes you back to Victoria (but who would want to go back to a collapsing planet?)

I'm looking forward to your other levels!

Krief

Thanks both for the kind words!

Quote from: Vitellary on June 27, 2014, 06:54:48 PM
Is this your first level? This seems way too good to be a first level. I liked the story. If you can, maybe you could make levels about how Viridian found the other crew? Maybe that could be my next project! :viridian: I'm almost done with my level...

Yes, this is my first level (after a test one), and thanks for the compliments! More "How the Band Got Together" episodes are on the table, but that's something else...

I'm currently working on some quick fixes to the harder parts of the level. I think I made The Not Fun Room more fun just by moving a few spikes around so it's easier to get places, as well as decreasing the enemy count in It's Simple, Really to three instead of four. I also made the trinket easier to reach. Hopefully this answer's Nicholashin's concerns as well, but there is one other thing s/he mentioned...

Quote from: nicholashin on June 27, 2014, 09:35:24 AM
For the gravity lock, you can use a warp gate instead. Find invisible wall tiles in Direct Mode (F10-->Ctrl to select) to replace those wall tiles above the gravity lines may seem a good idea.
Try to avoid single-tiled wall or use Direct Mode to make it look better.

Thanks for the feedback, and I'd love to implement those changes. Problem: I don't know how to use Direct Mode. I have the menu up, I just don't know how to use it. If someone could just link me to a tutorial or just tell me how, I'll get on those problems.

Noob problem, I know, but if someone could give me a heads-up, it'd be great.

Once again, thanks for trying it out! I'll probably put up a fix to the difficulty and other glitches once I'm happy, and then work on another level. Hopefully I can hold an upward trend...

Thank you!

vitellaryjr

To use Direct Mode, first check to see if it says Tile: #. If it doesn't, then press FN+F10. Then hold CTRL and use the arrow keys to select. You will then place the tile you selected! Hope that helps.

Krief

Finished the fixes! Look at the first post for the fix list.

vitellaryjr

Love the fix! You're pretty good at Direct Mode for someone who just started!

DeadlyGoomba

I wish my first level was this good, I think humbly of my levels, but at this point im beat  :-*