LSASOUE

[Quote]

You shouldn't have to explain that here, it should be conveyed in the level.  Only people who have read the books would know the plot, and even then they would have to interpret a lot of it.

[AlexINF]

Hardness: (Easy)
Errors I found:
No roomnames. Couldn't think of any. -> Then that's an error, you have no point.
Repeated rooms. Intentional. -> Well, that's boring and good levels don't have almost any of those.
Many no-obstacles rooms. Breathers. -> Really? 5 breather rooms in each "dimension" for such easy level?
Rooms only made to fill the map. Nope. -> That's actually true. In one of the dimensions, there are LOTS of unfilled rooms with only a big hallway.
Random face change for no apparent reason. What do you mean? -> Before you even mentioned the """"story"""" you made up there, there were random face changes with no noticiable reasons at all.
No music for 20 entire rooms. Would you want music in a burnt-down mansion? -> Really? In a burnt-down mansion there are spikes and conveyors, and the tileset is "Outside"?
No story. I will tell you the story later. -> ...

In conclusion, I hate to say it, but you could improve it a little more. If you fixed those problems here in the next map you make, it would be awesome!

Cheers,

A random reviewer

[Ally 🌠]

It makes no sense to have the story outside of the actual level- you could have at least put that in a couple of textboxes.

No excuse for no obstacle rooms, as you should never have them, unless it's a hub or overworld. There are some exceptions, but "breathers" isn't a good excuse.

[QwertymanO07]

And what do you do when you have a linear level without an overworld or hub?  See, you guys really have a lot to learn from pattoo.  Even if his levels are quite poorly implemented and he gets a lot of things wrong, he gets other things right that I rarely see in other levels, one of which being these breather screens.  Now, to be fair, he absolutely overdid it here, but it's not much worse than non-stop difficulty ramping, which just causes player fatigue.  This level would be much worse without those screens. 

Even the main game has breather screens—look at Green Grotto, Merge, or Wheeler's Wormhole—and it's not to the detriment of the levels!  In fact, they serve an important purpose as the lowest points on the game's interest curve, basically how engaged the player is.  It would be easy to assume that more engagement is always better, but it's not the case.  Every time that is attempted, it only ends up being draining and frustrating, ironically unengaging.

This level's main flaw isn't the fact that is has no-obstacle rooms, but rather that it doesn't use them well.  The main problem is that he doesn't have anything to build on, so the interest curve is always too low.  It's also overly-long, which doesn't help matters at all—everything past the third level or so could get axed, or just merged into one.

In short, don't mistake this level's use of filler as a reason to avoid no-obstacle rooms.  They really do serve an important role in level design, and can take a level out of the gutter.  Without breather screens, you can only make utter crap.

[Ally 🌠]

Yes, if it's a linear level then you can have breather screens, but not that many if it's extremely difficult. Plus you cal always save and exit, because that feature exists.

[QwertymanO07]

You're getting it backwards, it's not the difficulty that affects the amount of breather screens, it's the amount of breather screens that affects the difficulty.  You can alter a level's difficulty by changing that amount, something incredibly useful.  Additionally, the save game feature does not exist, at least not for the consideration of level design.  The save game feature is there to allow for exit points; if the player exits in the middle of a level section, they're likely never going to come back.  If you must rely on things outside of the game, you've failed as a level designer.

[AlexINF]

You can make a "breather" with a 4 block platform with a checkpoint... 

[QwertymanO07]

If you want to severely hamper your level's pacing, perhaps.  A level is only moving if the player is advancing, and pacing is all about how the level flows as it's moving.  Your solution stops a level dead in its tracks.