"Deja Verdigris": first level designed by Ciolf

[Ciolf]

Hey folks, I'm not sure if I'm going to do this properly for my first post, so please be gentle.  Here's my first level to be released, called "Déjà Verdigris".  It's a relatively small map (7x6 with 4 unused areas and 3 others that are barely used) with regularly increasing difficulty.  By the title, I'm guessing some of you can figure out the general premise of the level.  Here are some screenshots:





Let me know if everything worked out okay, and feel free to offer feedback!  Thanks, guys!

[xTwoTails]

-- Typin' and Playin' --
Note: I will type how I feel while playing~
Let's boot this baby and see what's in store for me.

STOP VIRIDIAN!
  Triiiiinket~
-- Game Starts --

Hmmm... very interesting design for a level, very clever, the checkpoints are mean tho! XD
*1st crew member rescued*
Floating Checkpoints? XD
I think I know someone who's going to get upset at that, normally Checkpoints are meant to be put on the ground.
*keeps playing*
In the yellow stage, there is one checkpoint that WILL kill you as soon as you enter a WarpToken, since this room has no name, I can't really tell which one is.
Oh, the last room of the YellowStage

*2nd crew member rescued*
Interesting... I see why you put the Floating CheckPoints now.
Whoa...! The WarpToken after the first screen on the Red Stage kills you. D:
...and the second...and the third...and the fourth..and the fifth...
Fifth room... that was mean! D=

*3rd member rescued*
Purple Stage, intere--- conveyors... oh god, I'm afraid XD
I think it's the 4th room... you are one mean person. 3=
5th room on the purple stage... dear god, I don't like you D:

*4th member rescued*
Finally...
*hears music*
Oh no... let's keep going.
Was this leve made to stress me out? :<
That green stage was brutal... I hated those jumps with all my life...

Interesting way to finish the Level, got the last trinket here...

Now here is something Funny I found.
If you exit the room after getting the Trinket, the warps will dissapear, on the upperpath, Viridian will say "All Set Now!"  then go down to the room on the right, come back , hit the warp and Viridian won't say the "Destrop Warm Token script"

I beat the game, but they're trapped. XD

[Ciolf]

Oh, jeez, I totally missed the fact that I left the upper part of the ending scene open.  I'll fix that.  I also move the checkpoints in the green levels onto the platform itself (they should still be hit when using the warp token, though).  I also added a platform under the checkpoints in the purple levels, so it'll give people a little bit of time to gameplan.
I'll go back and edit the first post.

Thanks for the tips!

[PJBottomz]

CHECKPOINTS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO FLOAT, EVEN IF THERE IS A PURPOSE TO IT!

WHY DO NONE OF YOU EVER LISTEN TO ME?!

[Hours Later...]

Okay, so here's some things about your level that I didn't like:

Too hard
Bad design
Too hard
Floating Checkpoints
Too hard
Not enough trinkets
Too hard
Single tiles look bad
Did I mention it was too hard?
Lack of scripts
Way too hard
Text gave me the feeling of a third-grader writing a paragraph
ENTIRELY too hard.

Things I did like:

Challenges were creative
The last script was somewhat funny
The idea of difficulty-increasing zones is cool (reminds of Eversion)
Your scripts are actually decently put together and don't crash the game or look glitchy

So, it was an okay level - I liked the concept, but hated the design, and despised the difficult. Good luck in your future levels!

[Terry]

Just played it. I liked this one a lot! The main concept is very clever, and very well implemented. I found it maybe a little on the hard side, but I appreciated that the build up of difficulty across the loops is actually integral to the concept (as opposed to just being arbitrarily difficult like a lot of other levels posted here are).  I also liked your use of scripting - just enough to give the level some personality, but not so much that interrupts gameplay.

Some issues I noticed:

 - A couple of the blue rooms warped you directly onto a threadmill, which meant instant death! Which felt unfair.
 - There are quite a few places with single 1x1 tiles floating, or horizontal/vertical lines of tiles which can look a bit ugly - not a big deal, though.
 - Almost all of the red stage can be completed by just warping on the left at the start, which makes is pretty trivial to solve.

Are you going to continue polishing this one up? I'll keep an eye for updates!

CHECKPOINTS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO FLOAT, EVEN IF THERE IS A PURPOSE TO IT!

Not true at all - function always trumps form, as far as I'm concerned, and it makes sense here to have the player start in midair with the restrictions imposed by the concept.

[xTwoTails]

I knew PJ was going to act like that! XD

Like Terry said, those checkpoints had a meaning, but they could be moved to not cause an unfair death.
 
Might want to tone down the difficulty to a point where it still difficult but without killing you unfairly.
give it a go and do your best!
That's why we're here to test this for you XD

[Dispensers Heal]

Listen to PJBottomz.

He is logical.

^{Urk...   VIOLET TRAIN.  GORDON FREEMAN}

[PJBottomz]

Well, checkpoints floating highly irritates me. Maybe turn it upside down and put a 2x2 block above it?

[Ciolf]

I can understand your complaint, PJ - it does look a little strange to see a floating checkpoint.  But sometimes they can't be helped.  Particularly in the red section, it would undermine my intentions for those levels.  The idea is that you have to complete the level falling downward, and just when you get the hang of it, that's when I put the platform in to force you to complete the level in the opposite direction.  If the platform had been there the whole time, it would've made the level fairly more linear.

And thanks for pointing out the glaring error in that red section, Terry - I had been meaning to fix that but never quite got around to it.  I also fixed the conveyors in the blue section (but I think I'll leave the shortcut in the last blue stage - it considerably shortens the level, but it still presents a challenge to the player).

I'm going to go back and see if there's a way to tweak the yellow section so it doesn't kill you straight out of a warp, but is still as challenging as I intended it to be.

Thanks for all the feedback, guys!  I'm going to continue fine-tuning it for now.  Maybe when the patch gets released, I'll modify the script a little, as well (maybe to something on more of a fourth-grade level).   

[PJBottomz]

I guess so. I do have an idea that might help it though - put the checkpoint on the bottom of a single conveyor tile, then put spikes on the top of it.

[Damn It AL to Hell]

Good level, pretty good, but I got super pissed after room 3 , good job nonetheless 9.4/10

[Terry]

I was sorta hoping you'd update this level, but at this point I guess that's unlikely. Anyway, just featured it!

[SirBryghtside]

Is it just me, or is PJ... not that good at VVVVVV? Like, seriously. He even puts 'too hard' for the story based ones

Anyway, nice level! There were a few parts where the difficulty was a bit faked (like the purple level could have been given 2 checkpoints), some parts which were frustrating (like the end of the purple level having no checkpoint, but that was probably an accident), or it was easy to get round (every red level but the last one was easy to bypass).

But overall, I liked it. Didn't care about the floaty checkpoints, but the 1 block-width lines were annoying.

[Ciolf]

I was sorta hoping you'd update this level, but at this point I guess that's unlikely. Anyway, just featured it!

Whoa!  I totally wasn't expecting that!  I had worked on it a bit, but I got caught up working on Alphabet City and a new big one.  Still, I'm psyched that you decided to feature this one.

Thanks!!!

-Ciolf

[PJBottomz]

Is it just me, or is PJ... not that good at VVVVVV? Like, seriously. He even puts 'too hard' for the story based ones

Eh, excuse me, we do NOT take shots at people on this forum! I have never put "too hard" on a story level!