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It's also a good idea to have trinkets as vital objects and to place them in the most masochistic of challenges for fake difficulty tactics.

Oh, and make Viridian obsessed with Trinkets. 

Yeah, the sad thing is that most otaku level designers want you to endure each and every obstacle they've commited to RAM, regardless of how difficult or mind-numbingly boring some of these challenges are... Using trinkets as compulsory 'move the plot on thingies' can do some clever stuff, but usually it's just a case of enforced linearity which harms the gameplay.

A similar thing happens in Super Mario World ROM hacking, when noobish level designers make it so that you have to beat each switch palace the moment you discover it, or the next level you go to play has you falling into a pit where a !-block bridge should be. Of course, the kicker is that each switch palace is usually some kind of kaizo-style p-switch run or some other kind of challenge which should be optional.

Sometimes, it's just good to give the player choices.

My death record for beating the game (no trinkets) is 84 deaths. I think the <50 death award is within my grasp, but master of the universe? Forget it 

EDIT: Isn't it weird how when you're going for a low-death run, you find the most stupid places hard, places you'd breeze over if you were just casually playing through?

[SYMMETRY]

I'm hoping others will use this thread to talk about level design in the context of VVVVVV in general... Whether it be aesthetics, routing/overall map planning, scripting, psychology, difficulty curve, etc...

Here are some general strategies I tend to employ when trying to make levels look nice. Take them with a pinch of salt because they're just a look at how my design process works. I'm not a professional, haven't studied game design, and am running entirely on absorbed wisdom and instinct.

SYMMETRY

Most people think of symmetry as building the room such that one half is a mirror image, or perhaps something fancy like rotational symmetry. This does produce very striking screens but isn't a good overall gambit to use in every room, unless you're using it as a design gimmick. But I tend to think in terms of smaller, more local symmetries.

For example, suppose you have a region of screens which use little tunnels to give access to larger chambers where the action takes place. Keeping these tunnels in a 'house style', by giving them all the same proportions (for example, 3x3 or 2x3 are good choices to accommodate  ). Keeping this pattern going as much as you can, and deviating only when GAMEPLAY would benefit from it, gives the space a much more 'designed' and unified feeling. Now the tunnel is not just something for the player to pass through (functional), but it has a visual identity which creates in the imagination all sorts of subtle connotations which add richness to the player's experience.

Suppose I had decorated all my tunnels with backing, and wanted to add a little window for detail. I'd consider the following: Placing the windows at every intersection. Placing the windows exactly halfway between every intersection (and yes, I'd COUNT tiles, not do it by eye!). Placing the windows every x tiles. Etc... What this boils down to is that human brains like patterns, and if it sees them, it feels it's in a space created by other human brains. If you break a pattern in a certain place, it should be for a reason - i.e. to aid gameplay, to punctuate the space, to draw attention to an area, because of a limitation of the graphics engine (i.e. avoiding tile errors), etc... Creating the same embelishments and visual themes over a series of screens groups them together into a 'graphical style' and gives them unity. This is vital for creating the sense of different areas on a larger map, especially when graphics changes are limited (perfect example here, look at the map for Hero Core... it's composed out of black and white blocks, yet has areas with distinct visual identities).

Another way to look at symmetry is in terms of small areas of a larger screen. Instead of making the symmetry apply to the whole room, you might balance things, so for example, the spike in each platform is in the middle, or that there are the same number of columns of space between each platform or formation... Instead of using the middle as a basis for visual accent, using an approximation of the 'golden section' also works beautifully.

Something else related to symmetry is alignment. I saw one user VVVVVV screen which consisted of two horizontal hallways. One had vertical enemies in it, the other had bunches of 2 spikes evenly spaced out... But because the guardians in one hall and the spikes over them in the other hall were ALMOST BUT NOT QUITE aligned, it looked sloppy to me. Here was a perfect opportunity to create a pleasing visual pattern, and it was neglected, chipping the presentation. Had the enemies and spikes coincided in the same columns of the screen, more of a subtle narrative would be created for the player, because we're noticing the correspondence between the spikes and the enemies... Roughly speaking it's saying something like "first it was spikes... this time it's enemies". It's very subtle, but it's there!

DISORDER

I'm not suggesting every level needs to be a regimented, perfectly measured affair, with everything all lined up and in the middle of it's context, because that would look just contrived if overdone. Generally, if you want an area to look man-made, you err more to the side of symmetry, and if you want to create a cave or other natural phenomenon (such as a caved-in building), then creating jagged walls and throwing caution to the wind will be a good tactic. It's only really by playing with these two visual forces that you can really create a story or journey in a level, because when you get a good balance between both sides of the equation, they feed off of and compliment each-other, playing with the expectations of the player.

Another form of creative disorder is deliberately and cunningly disobeying symmetry to good effect. For example, you might have a room which is mostly full of wall, but with a tiny room in the top right-hand corner. Provided it's displayed in a way that makes it's intent clear, this sort of symmetry breaking is pleasing because it breaks monotony, and creates a unique experience. With the right room name it may even be vaguely amusing... And of course, the composition of the tiny off-center room would have to be considered in it's own right.

Another example is rooms that are perfectly symmetrical apart from controlled changes made to one side. A good example being that the spikes are in different places on one side. This kind of device creates visual interest (the brain enjoys looking for patterns and breaks in them), and provides a way to structure the gameplay (the spikes being in a different place may force the player to take a longer route, make things harder/easier, or change some other variable of gameplay).

CONCLUSION, WITH HACKNEYED MAXIM

As they say, rules are there to be broken, but, as the old cliche continues - you need to know them fairly well in order to break them effectively!

Good, easy and generally well presented level. I LOVED the cracked hull screen. Pointless but creative aesthetic stuff like that really makes a level for me. You could have thrown a few more linkers like that in and I'd be all over it. The whole level feels like it should be expanded on, though, but that's just my preference to mid to large levels. I just didn't feel there was time for the sense of conflict/challenge in the plot to develop.

Also, re: self-insertion, breaking the fourth wall, etc... I would NEVER do that. You'd NEVER see me put that in ANY of my levels. ESPECIALLY not my last (and, um, only) level Dimension 333333. NEVER. Especially in terms of making myself the 'evil mastermind behind the devious dimensional deathtrap dilemma'! It's unthinkable and should never happen. Ever. In fact, it didn't. This is totally not hyperbole either.

Wow... that's a pretty cool illusion.

I wonder if Victoria wants to run some tests on it?  Nope, she's still sulking, as usual 

There's some interesting ideas, but this needs a LOT of work, even on existing screens, most of which PJ has pointed out. Incidentally, I headed right, the first nontrivial room was very very difficult, and eventually I found my way in a 4-way wrapping room without a warp token. The interesting thing about such a situation is that there's NO WAY OUT 

I'm going to be really predictable and say Piercing the Sky and Potential for Anything (but only vote for the latter, for obvious reasons).

It has haunting, flutey melodies, bouncy arps, and a bassline that drops down a tritone (classic move that gets me every time!). The rhythm track creates a pounding, sci-fi impact while actually being quite minimal and lo-tec sounding when you actually listen to it (lovely crunch). The gated sliding down melody part really brings to mind the bouncing and flailing that happens in the lab level.

Piercing again has that 'bigger than it is' sound which for me is part of the essence of chip-style music. Also, PWM guitar duet, right? It's impossible not to respond to that 

That said, I like all the other tunes almost as much and sometimes more Love the end level theme, it's like 3 jingles stuck together but that just makes it more rewarding

It's a bit tricky and lag certainly won't help the situation. In fact I don't see how lag (which surely is just bad framerate in single player games) could ever help in a 2D singleplayer game... all it does is make it harder to judge stuff!

My computer's FPS drops a tiny bit on the zigzag background screens, but if you're getting lag on this room, which doesn't have much moving stuff in it, it must be making the game quite hard to play for you 

I just wanted to point out hang tough in hard mode is totally impossible. Fun level otherwise, though.

That's simply not true. I'm afraid I'm going to have to mock you with a screenshot.

I'm pretty sure the VVVVVV editor just has a logic routine that alters each tile so that on average the edge tiles get the edge graphics. Ideally we'd be able to insert any tile from any tileset, as the main game levels can. That would mean we could make arbitrary 'tesselating' shapes and generally be more creative graphically.

Wat?

You know like the scenery in the polar dimension? It's made up of big rectangular blocks that are touching each other? If you tried to make that in the editor, the large rectangles would fuse together, and you can't stop that... Whereas in the main game, clearly such a tiling can happen, which leads me to believe this is a property of the level editor wall-adding code, rather than a limitation in the level format.

EDIT: Sorry to the OP for kinda hijacking the thread a bit... >_>

I'm pretty sure the VVVVVV editor just has a logic routine that alters each tile so that on average the edge tiles get the edge graphics. Ideally we'd be able to insert any tile from any tileset, as the main game levels can. That would mean we could make arbitrary 'tesselating' shapes and generally be more creative graphically.

Screenshots 2 and 4 are driving my OCD crazy! You know that if I test this, I'm going to edit it...  Anyway, I will be happy to test it.

You mean you missed the one on screenshot 3? 

Actually, in screens like 2, I don't mind it so much, since it looks like it's supposed to be a run down, ramshackle piece of scenery.

PJ, you and I should get together and start a campaign to rid the VVVVVV editing scene of tiling errors, lol

I thought I was the only one who was driven mad by it until I came to this forum.

Anyway, the level sounds really promising, cutoff tiles or no...

Whahaha... Best post ever! 

I have a fairly simple GUI request that I hope Terry sees so I'm making the font bigger. I'm finding it hard to draw straight lines in fullscreen mode without a mouse cursor onscreen. Currently I'm getting a block movement cursor which is quite unpredictable and leads to a lot of rubbing out and correcting when trying to make straight lines!

And now some overall, non-spoilery wordy things...

Overall I found this very fun. I'm fed up with the current rash of small, rushed minilevels being dashed out for the hell of it, so this is one of my favourite levels so far. I also happen to like levels which are difficult, but not stupid insane. With a bit of work improving the already good aesthetics, and a round or two of bugfixing, this will be another feature-worthy game-sized level! 

EDIT: Endgame Statistics:

628 deaths, 1:18:48. Some of this was time spent actively bugseeking, though most was probably deaths in "I mean it" which I think killed me equally in both directions.