My level is called "Soul Searching." It features two major new concepts to explore (to my knowledge, that is--I haven't worked through everybody else's stages yet.)
It is 5x10.
I would love to hear your feedback. Thank you for your time.
(http://i.imgur.com/VKNRl.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/Bd672.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/ulxDL.png)
CHANGELOG:
Version 2.0 (Released October 8, 2011)
-Modified to use the new v2.1 features. Rooms with single tiles and other oddities now look MUCH better.
Version 1.7 (Released September 20, 2011)
-The joke at the end has been made more family friendly.
-The description and a few other scripts were modified to fit the new punchline a bit better.
Version 1.6 (Released September 12, 2011)
-The author field now contains my birth name instead of my internet name.
Version 1.5 (Released August 30, 2011)
-Fixed a minor alignment issue in "Emergency Exit."
-Revised many rooms to reduce the number of ugly malformed walls.
-Added another checkpoint in Tenderized Veal.
Version 1.4 (Released August 22, 2011)
-Fixed a minor clipping bug in "Midgardsormr."
Version 1.3 (Released August 19, 2011)
-Made "Demon Wall" easier.
-Made "Tenderized Veal" easier.
-Added room names to all remaining rooms in the first cave area. Structural changes to most formerly anonymous rooms.
-Changed the trinket in Virulent/Vitriolic slightly.
-Late-game checkpoints now marked by roomtext instead of backing.
-Cleaned up graphical glitches in Virulent and The Difference Between Brave and Stupid.
-Added checkpoint to Sierpinski V.
-Moved checkpoint accessible from Masochism.
Version 1.2 (Released August 9, 2011)
-Reduced difficulty of Emergency Exit.
-Minor (invisible?) changes to Tenderized Venison, Vena Cava, Ventus, and Emergency Exit.
Version 1.1 (Released August 8, 2011)
-Fixed scripting bug that allowed player to bypass the entire level.
-Minor script changes, including a new line of dialogue in "Looking into the Mirror" and a new terminal in "This Will Probably Shock You."
-Minor layout changes to "Ready?", "Unskippable Cutscene", and "No Flip Zone."
-Two additional checkpoints in the late game.
Version 1.0 (Released August 7, 2011)
-Initial release.
The shock/delay idea was very clever. Well done, sir.
It's possible to bypass pretty much the whole level by killing yourself in The Letter L One Time before you hit the next checkpoint. You'll end up back in the first cave with flag 3 set. That wasn't intentional, was it?
If you want to fix that, my suggestion would be setting it somewhere along the bottom of No Flip Zone on or after the checkpoint. (You'd probably have to add a new flag if you do that, since I noticed you're also using that flag to display the message in The Letter L One Time just once.)
Quote from: CHz on August 08, 2011, 08:26:28 AM
The shock/delay idea was very clever. Well done, sir.
Amen ;)
I also really liked the dual-room idea. These new concepts really made for some interesting gameplay. Do you mind if I use the shock/delay thing in a possible future level?
Anyway, really enjoyed it, very well designed, but I had the some problem as Chz.
The Demon Wall level was also very clever.
Quote from: CHz on August 08, 2011, 08:26:28 AM
It's possible to bypass pretty much the whole level by killing yourself in The Letter L One Time before you hit the next checkpoint. You'll end up back in the first cave with flag 3 set. That wasn't intentional, was it?
Oops!
Yes, that needs to be fixed. I'm not at my home computer now, but I'll do that as soon as I can.
EDIT TO AVOID DOUBLE POSTING:
Quote from: bigkahuna on August 08, 2011, 03:50:20 PM
I also really liked the dual-room idea. These new concepts really made for some interesting gameplay. Do you mind if I use the shock/delay thing in a possible future level?
Not at all, please do.
This is a good level. Looks pretty well designed. I just have one problem.
Tenderized Veal is not possible. I see absolutely NO way to get past the blocks. At. All.
Hey this is a really good level. It's got a whole bunch of things I've never seen before in a VVVVVV level. Which is definitely a good thing. I really like how the level completely wraps around itself. Some of the rooms were great though. I liked the use of duplicated rooms, and VeeTube was great. The only thing I really feel let it down was the checkpoint placement. And even this is only minor. I can only think of three places I'd like to see an additional checkpoint.
Firstly, as mentioned above you can completely bypass the entire level by dying in "The Letter L One Time". A checkpoint at the bottom of this room or even at the top of "Ready?" would probably fix that.
"This will Probably shock you". While I definitely commend you on your original game mechanic, this room was REALLY annoying to play though. If it had a checkpoint in the bottom left corner of the room it'd be great, but as it is, getting shocked constantly gets really tedious.
Finally, "Emergency Exit" is a hard room when you're learning how to get around all the stuff flying at you. "Masochism" isn't easy either. I'd really have liked to see a checkpoint separating the two challenges!
Anyway, great work. The map as a whole is a lot of fun.
Quote from: PJBottomz on August 08, 2011, 06:25:09 PM
This is a good level. Looks pretty well designed. I just have one problem.
Tenderized Veal is not possible. I see absolutely NO way to get past the blocks. At. All.
I have playtested this level many times, and I assure you that it is possible. Which column out of the three are you stuck on?
The idea for the first two is the same. You go to the far right, and then flip with good timing (around when the block nearest you touches the right edge.). After the first two columns, the third should be cake.
If people seem to be having trouble with this screen in general, I may need to make it easier. Let me know.
Thank you for trying my level! I'm glad for your input.
EDIT:
Quote from: Stampy on August 08, 2011, 07:11:11 PM
Hey this is a really good level. It's got a whole bunch of things I've never seen before in a VVVVVV level. Which is definitely a good thing. I really like how the level completely wraps around itself. Some of the rooms were great though. I liked the use of duplicated rooms, and VeeTube was great. The only thing I really feel let it down was the checkpoint placement. And even this is only minor. I can only think of three places I'd like to see an additional checkpoint.
Firstly, as mentioned above you can completely bypass the entire level by dying in "The Letter L One Time". A checkpoint at the bottom of this room or even at the top of "Ready?" would probably fix that.
"This will Probably shock you". While I definitely commend you on your original game mechanic, this room was REALLY annoying to play though. If it had a checkpoint in the bottom left corner of the room it'd be great, but as it is, getting shocked constantly gets really tedious.
Finally, "Emergency Exit" is a hard room when you're learning how to get around all the stuff flying at you. "Masochism" isn't easy either. I'd really have liked to see a checkpoint separating the two challenges!
Anyway, great work. The map as a whole is a lot of fun.
It seems everyone except me is finding this bug relating to "The Letter L." That's embarassing, but even if that were fixed, I shouldn't have all of my players dying before reaching the checkpoint in "No Flip Zone" and getting sent back to the first area. I have more to fix than just the scripting bug.
I agree; the late game definitely needs more checkpoints. I struggled there myself in playtesting, even after clearing each of these screens many times. I should not have released version 1.0 the way I did. Here's why it happened, though: if you get shocked, die, and respawn on the same screen, the shock does not come back. That's why the checkpoints in "This Will Probably Shock You" and "Vena Cava" are in such weird places, and why the screen "Ventus" exists in the first place. However, I can think of a few creative ways to work more checkpoints in, and I'll definitely have that done for version 1.1.
Thanks so much for your feedback!
I tried both sides of the blocks, and either side, I die. :'( It's pretty hard.
Hah, this level is awesome. The last line freaked me out a bit :D
Waiting for 1.1 :viridian: :viridian:
Here's a quick video showing how to reproduce that bug.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMQq5s5pv_o
I'll delete it when you're done watching it.
I found Tenderized Veal and the similar screens I've encountered so far very possible and very fun to play.
Quote from: Martze on August 08, 2011, 07:16:21 PMIt seems everyone except me is finding this bug relating to "The Letter L." That's embarassing, but even if that were fixed, I shouldn't have all of my players dying before reaching the checkpoint in "No Flip Zone" and getting sent back to the first area. I have more to fix than just the scripting bug.
I'm not sure why everyone
else is dying in The Letter L One Time, but my death was intentional. Killed myself on purpose because I wasn't finished checking out the first cave. (For some reason, I thought that warp token was just a blockade and would spit you back out in the same room.)
I have released Version 1.1. I want to thank everyone who played my level and gave me feedback.
Terry, your praise fills my heart with joy.
I didn't come up with the joke myself. I don't remember exactly where I heard it, but TV Tropes claims that it is "a common joke." (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScrewYourself) It was the first thing I thought of when I noticed that it was possible to place a rescuable Viridian. In fact, the joke at the end was the inspiration for the title.
@Stampy: Though others were able to explain the bug clearly, I am grateful that you went the extra mile to record yourself triggering the bug. It would be nice if all of my bug reports had videos attached.
@CHz: Your feedback is appreciated. I added a line of dialogue to "Looking into the Mirror" to indicate more clearly that the warp token would take the player far away.
This level is AWESOME but I'm stuck... how in the holy motherload of ASS are you supposed to get through Emergency Exit? My god that room is a friggin' nightmare. I might have to come back to this later...
Quote from: TheoX on August 09, 2011, 02:26:38 AM
This level is AWESOME but I'm stuck... how in the holy motherload of ASS are you supposed to get through Emergency Exit? My god that room is a friggin' nightmare. I might have to come back to this later...
Here's how I beat it. Highlight text to read.
1. Enter the room and immediately move to the far-left edge of the 2nd background box to receive both shocks.
2. As soon as the wave of enemies reaches the bottom, angle yourself up and over all the way to the other side.
Remember, begin as soon as you enter the room to get the jump timing right. It's a bit hard ;)
Quote from: TheoX on August 09, 2011, 02:26:38 AM
This level is AWESOME but I'm stuck... how in the holy motherload of ASS are you supposed to get through Emergency Exit? My god that room is a friggin' nightmare. I might have to come back to this later...
This is one of the rooms I was worried about the difficulty of. I may make this easier, if I receive more complaints about it. It is the second-to-last room, though, so I don't want to make it too easy.
It's a bit tricky to describe how I do it. I tried to record a video, but fraps didn't pick up the game for whatever reason. If someone knows how to record this game properly, please let me know. But I'll try to describe it in text, for now.
Start at the checkpoint in "Ventus" and hold right until you reach "Emergency Exit." If you do that, I can guarantee the exact pixel Viridian will enter the screen at, and your timing will be the same as my timing.
After that, you bounce three times at the left edge of the screen, avoiding the shocks. You bounce off the top, the bottom, and then the top. It is after you make this last bounce and begin falling downwards that you make your attack. Not so fast that you hit the front of the wave of enemies, but fast enough that you go clear the upper-left-most shock and the end of the wave. It's tricky even like this, though, and usually takes me a couple of tries!
I certainly wouldn't change anything to the enemy paths or the freezing things at all in Emergency Exit. Just a checkpoint at the far end would be enough to make it that little bit easier.
v1.1 added a checkpoint after Emergency Exit that shouldn't be that hard to reach.
Dear god that was BRUTAL.
Emergency Exit was by far the most difficult room I've ever seen so far.
You sure did put those shocks in places that we all will fall for.
Well thought, I also love the Shock squares, very original.
Even with your instructions, I still find it extremely difficult to pull through that one room.
I found a couple of minor (as in unlikely to be triggered by accident) bugs.
One is from goofing around on the floor in Tenderized Venison (which is easy to get to if you're persistent), might be hard to duplicate but I managed to get stuck: http://i.imgur.com/Fy4Cc.png
The second one (which I didn't manage to capture a good screenshot of) is from getting underneath the checkpoint platform in the room before Emergency Exit and jumping repeatedly to fall past the gravity inverter. From here the player is stuck in THE TWILIGHT REALM BETWEEN SCREENS and can move left and right, it's possible trigger a ceiling checkpoint in the beginning area, and then get killed by the ceiling above the no flip zone. Respawning near the beginning and skipping Emergency Exit (but it was worth it! Dang Emergency Exit...)
All right. I've come to a decision.
I have released Version 1.2.
"Emergency Exit" has been reduced in difficulty. The wave is now two enemies shorter, and the shocks have been moved.
It isn't because anybody asked me to. Actually, nobody asked me. The thing is, I had no idea how hard the room was. I designed it, playtested it, and after moving a few shocks around, got it to the point where I could beat it maybe one of every three attempts, which seemed fair to me. I had no idea that it was nearly impossible unless it was approached in exactly the same way.
Dinoquark, you are a crazy good bugtester. I'm really glad for your help. I couldn't reproduce either of these, but I made some "invisible" changes that might help with them anyway.
Tenderized Veal was definitely the toughest room. The timing was very strict. One suggestion might to be switch the right column with the left one. It might be a little less intimidating to make 2 single flips to get the hang of it before moving on.
The rest of the rooms were more than fair.
The shocks were very interesting. I loved the notion and it was easy to work with. Overall a fine way to combine existing resources into something fresh.
Good job!
There's a bug that is easily reproducible in Emergency Exit. Line yourself up with the two rightmost "shocks" that are vertically adjacent. The following events should go in this order: shock, death, respawn, shock again.
This is obviously not intended and is not present in the main VVVVVV storyline. However, this could prove to be a nuisance for level designers if they place a checkpoint prior to that in a location that requires immediate movement upon respawning (it also slows the pace of the game, which I found to be annoying).
That bug aside, it's a marvelously designed stage, I had some good fun playing through it. I was going to do a stage myself where all you had to do was save Captain Viridian but with a more surreal "You're inside your own brain and that is your subconscious" sort of thing. Seems that I was beaten to the punch, but oh well. The final line of yours did make me laugh a good amount; but does it qualify as masturbation or incest?
Awesome! Both those bugs I pointed out are fixed as far as I can tell. I died after getting under the elevator this time (how?! I don't see any spikes there in the level editor...) (the first one was probably just a fluke.. but I like the idea of killing cheeky players who break the elevator anyway :vermillion:)
One minor stylistic thing I noticed playing through the new version.
These two blocks look out of place: http://i.imgur.com/8NXxc.png
Not sure if that was intentional or not :vitellary:
I still need to play this, but congrats on the feature!
http://distractionware.com/blog/2011/08/featured-vvvvvv-level-soul-searching-by-martze/
Quote from: dinoquark on August 09, 2011, 10:22:30 PM
One minor stylistic thing I noticed playing through the new version.
These two blocks look out of place: http://i.imgur.com/8NXxc.png
Not sure if that was intentional or not :vitellary:
There are a few places that I've noticed that also have that. There's a few in Stupidity/Bravery (I forget the actual name).
Perhaps a little aesthetic polishing before 1.3 gets released could be in order.
@wally2069: "Tenderized Veal" isn't making everyone furious like the old "Emergency Exit" did, but I suppose everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and anyone whose weak point is timing will struggle with that one. I don't want anyone to get hung up on a single screen and find themselves unable to clear it, though, so I'll think about it for the next release.
@Psychopath: Not really something I could avoid, apart from spacing the shocks in a way that it is impossible to hit two at once. I call this a bug in VVVVVV itself, though not a major one. Thank you for your input, though.
@dinoquark: I suggest you try deleting the room name. The spikes and walls are hidden under there, just like in "You Can't Explain That."
I did not notice the oddity with those blocks. I can look into it in the next release.
Thanks to everyone else for their comments.
EDIT:
v1.1 and v1.2 were emergency fixes. I'll keep listening to your feedback, and as long as there are no major issues, I'm going to take it slow and make sure my next version is as good as I can make it before I release it.
Rating #028
Enjoyment: 9/10
Aesthetics: 9/10
Novelty: 10/10
Difficulty: 7.5/10
Room Names: 9.5/10 (some were not named, which seemed incongruous)
OK, now that I beat this, I can give it a real rating, and let me tell you, this is about as close to a perfect score as I've given in my ratings. I REALLY enjoyed this one, no wonder it got featured. Pardon my language about the Emergency Exit, I was mimicking AVGN. Glad you changed the room anyway, it still took me a bit of time to get past.
Rooms I liked:
"Vegetable Valley" - I liked how you kept the enemies in one spot. Very nice look and feel to this room.
"VeeTube" - No words can express my amusement for this one...
"Vroom Vroom" - >>>THIS IS AWESOME<<<
"Doing Things the Easy Way" - I actually went up first... stupid me. Clever.
"The Difference Between Brave and Stupid" - I liked how this had two meanings. The one mentioned above, and the enemies up top, which I tried to go between... >_>
"You're Not Thinking V-Dimensionally" - again, clever. And again, I tried the stupid way first...
I liked all the "twin" rooms too. Very nice design; slick.
Rooms I think need improvement:
"Tenderized Veal" - I got through this fine, but I have a feeling that people worse at the game might get stuck here... a checkpoint wouldn't hurt.
"Sierpinski V" - the first time I played the level, I jumped up to the right and died... maybe put a checkpoint in this room?
"Demon Wall" - it is so damn hard to get into that warp point. I counted how many times it took me to get on THIS playthrough: 32 tries. I know it was harder the first time too. Please give the player, like, one more block worth of space!
Very very very good. I will definitely play this again.
Status: 100%'ed!
The ending threw me a little.
This was a wonderful level.
I have released version 1.3, which is hopefully the last version. I didn't playtest it as extensively as any of the previous versions, though, so it probably shipped with a new batch of careless bugs. Bah.
I wasn't planning to do it at all until I started on my new level and realized that roomtext would have been the PERFECT way to indicate those checkpoints instead of the ugly Cs I made out of backing. I wasn't thinking straight when I came up with that one. So while I was going to the trouble of making a new version, I decided to round it out with the other requested features.
Tenderized Veal and Demon Wall have been made far easier.
Played version 1.3
Thanks for fixing Tenderized Veal! But, I hate an issue with a room...
SPOILER:
In Virtue and Vice, I'm lost. I can't find how to get out of it. I know that the backing is a hint whether or not you'll warp back into the room or go to the next one, but when I get to the end, I just warp back into Security Sweep. Help! :victoria:
Quote from: PJBottomz on August 19, 2011, 03:19:14 PM
Played version 1.3
Thanks for fixing Tenderized Veal! But, I hate an issue with a room...
If you go all the way to the left side of Vice and Virtue, and end up back at the beginning of Vice, you are going too far.
There are two rooms. There are four edges in each room. Anything marked with backing is a warp. Going down from Vice takes you to Virtue, going up from Virtue takes you to Vice. Going right from Vice takes you back to Security Sweep. So...
I had a stupid bug in Midgardsormr because I didn't test it. At all. It's gone now.
Also my changelog for 1.3 was incomplete, so I went back and fixed it.
Just curious--what is the totally awesome custom song you used for this level? I'd like to download it separately.
It's not a custom song. Paced Energy is one of the two new songs in VVVVVV 2.0, which were originally written for SoulEye's "A New Dimension." It's on the song selection screen, with the others. I, myself, would very much like to download it.
PJBottomz, did you figure out how to get past Vice and Virtue? I can hint more strongly if I need to.
I haven't attempted yet, but, your hint was, uh... ???
Look for an edge doesn't have backing and therefore isn't a warp line. There's the one you came in, which is in Vice. Can you find any others?
Okay, finally beat it. I didn't know you were supposed to exit on the right side.
If I wasn't playing with invincibility, I never would have won. Those shocks paused me in places where I easilly could've died.
WHAT, PjBottomz? You played this with invincibility on? What was that for? Its not that difficult if you're smart about it. :verdigris:
Seriously, this is an awesome level with some very neat concepts. Keep up the good work Martze!
You can just call me PJ. Saying my whole username can be a mouthful. :o
Anyway, yes I did. I'm good at making levels, not playing them. Honestly, multiple times I would have died from the shocks. (XD That sounded different than intended)
Despite that, it is still VERY creative and completely deserves to be featured.
At last I finish this, really a nice work :viridian: I think that there is a little problem with "Emergency Exit": The row's enemy of the right border has been located in the screen for to use only one point? pixel? of space, but starting to play they get automatically moved a bit to the left, so moving from the save point in "Ready" to the left can to kill you automatically...
bah. easy enough to fix, but I hate the number of revisions I've already made to this level.
Quote from: Martze on August 30, 2011, 05:11:23 AM
bah. easy enough to fix, but I hate the number of revisions I've already made to this level.
I once had to put something through 20 beta releases before I had a stable build. It just depends on how badly you want to have your creation to be perfected.
Granted mine was a videogame and the subsequent releases were mainly comprised of bugfixes for things that I broke when I was adding features and yours is a level, my point still stands. How badly do you want perfection?
I don't mind putting in the effort. I just think putting up a sixth revision to a 50-screen VVVVVV level makes it look like I am sloppy, or like I am George Lucas.
Quote from: Martze on August 30, 2011, 06:28:09 PM
I don't mind putting in the effort. I just think putting up a sixth revision to a 50-screen VVVVVV level makes it look like I am sloppy, or like I am George Lucas.
Trust me, for large projects, it's expected to go through several iterations to get just right. It's not reasonable to expect a single person to be able to catch everything by himself, it's a lot to cover. Having additional eyes will allow further improvements to be made.
Okay, you've convinced me.
Now uploading: SUPER SOUL SEARCHING II: TURBO HD REMIX
EDIT: Another update! Who would have thought.
Nice level, I have to say, 9.2/10 :viridian: , really confusing to me though. :victoria:
I had to change the joke at the end. Sorry, everyone. If you're reading this for the first time, and you want to know what the old joke was:
Viridian (NPC): My own clone!
Viridian (Player): Now neither of us will be virgins!
You know, it's not even about my audience any more. I know most of the versions I released were only played by a handful of people.
I am a perfectionist, and as long as there are relatively easy ways to improve my level without fundamentally changing it in a way that'll make people angry, I'm going to keep doing it. It's a compulsion.
This level had a lot of single tiles and other ugly rooms. I had cool ideas that just weren't possible to execute well in the 2.0 level editor, but I did them anyway. The 2.1 level editor let me fix a lot of that, bringing them closer to my original vision.
I'm leaving the old version up for the time being for anyone who hasn't upgraded. Also, while I tested all of the new rooms, I'm not sure I completely understand direct mode, so there may be bugs.
Quote from: Martze on October 08, 2011, 09:25:57 PM
You know, it's not even about my audience any more. I know most of the versions I released were only played by a handful of people.
I am a perfectionist, and as long as there are relatively easy ways to improve my level without fundamentally changing it in a way that'll make people angry, I'm going to keep doing it. It's a compulsion.
This level had a lot of single tiles and other ugly rooms. I had cool ideas that just weren't possible to execute well in the 2.0 level editor, but I did them anyway. The 2.1 level editor let me fix a lot of that, bringing them closer to my original vision.
I'm leaving the old version up for the time being for anyone who hasn't upgraded. Also, while I tested all of the new rooms, I'm not sure I completely understand direct mode, so there may be bugs.
I played through your 2.0 version (which, in the spirit of things, should have been 2.1 for humour), and it's looking pretty good. the Antechamber was definetely my favorite improvement. Nice revision.
I'm sure I'll get to v2.1 soon enough.
Time to rejuevenate the "Levels" portion of this thread. :viridian:
This is indeed some great work! Sorry if my compliments sound like things you've already heard of, but the 2.0 really improved on a lot of things from the previous version. Overall, there are some nice ideas in here, but I'm really surprised I haven't seen that many people talk about the "shock pads" near the end of the level. Those created some of my favorite challenges, and added a new mechanic to this game that I could see a lot of people improve on.
I don't normally rate levels, as I can see other people doing that for me, but you do get my words of approval!
Fun level! I liked the originality of the zap thing, but it did get a bit frustrating - especially at the start, because I didn't realise that the 'background' boxes were the bits that shocked you. Maybe you could add something in to tell you that?
Oh, and on 'You're not thinking V dimensionally', if you go down the lower-right exit at the far right, the game does that glitchy flash-between-two-screens thing that is annoying.
Also, I got 7/7 trinkets :viridian: