Pics of my unfinished WIP level

[Sendy]

Hello, I wasn't sure if creating threads of unfinished levels was frowned upon, but I'm making a fairly ambitious level, I'm about halfway through, and I find that posting screenshots is helpful to me in the design process (or I just like to share). Either way, here are some of the highlights so far:

















At the moment the world is 12x6 and halfway populated, I may have to make it larger to cater for all the ideas I get. I'm going for colour coded 'levels' which can be completed in any order, which are accessed from a sort of 'overworld' which is nameless and intertwines with the challenge screens quite pleasingly.

I'm going for 100% pleasing aesthetics, working with the current limitations of the graphics engine, rather than around them (i.e. there are no tiles that look 'out of place') and I've worked quite a lot, you could say agonized, over making each screen look 'just right'.

Each coloured area is supposed to concentrate on a different object, for example blue concentrates on conveyors, but that breaks down a bit in places. I've no idea whether I should remedy this at the moment, but with no copy/paste functionality, I'm just going to go with the flow mostly.

Difficulty is quite hard... Hovering around the mid to end game level difficulty of the original map. I'm trying to make a fun sort of difficulty, rather than the type that just makes you want to stop playing and overwhelms you.

Anyway, if it's ok, I'll use this thread to update my progress and possibly gauge opinion on certain matters, if at all possible. Sorry if I've posted this in the wrong forum!

[Terry]

Hey, that's looking really good! Looking forward to playing it

[Sendy]

Thanks! Incidentally, I've really come to appreciate that feint pattern of squares you've got going on in the background of the editor. If you're making screens that need to incorporate symmetry, they're invaluable!

[Arkatox]

Hey, when is this going to be finished? I've been waiting for a while, and it looks really cool.

[Sendy]

Not sure really, I keep making the map bigger... It's 20x6 now and 2/3 of the rooms are done. I doubt it'll get much bigger than that. Then I just have to add a bit of scripting and it should be done. I'm guessing one to two weeks.

[Sendy]

Ok, now I just have to make the final level (20 screens or so) and finish the scripting, which I've made a start on already!

Final size will be 120 screens! 

More pics! 

Some of the scripting I've already done:









A neat feature I've found, where the middle blocks of a moving platform can pass through solid objects. I like to think of this as a feature rather than a bug, as it allows levels such as this! : (The long platform moves up and down thru the whole screen)



A couple more...

[Arkatox]

Wow, this looks huge and awesome. I WANTS TO PLAY IT!

[TheoX]

I like the look of this level.  It looks POLISHED.  Looking forward to playing it.  Polish is one of the reasons my level is taking so long, I'm obsessed with tweaking things.  Maybe I should make a screenshot thread... nah.

[Sendy]

Polish is something that I can find very distracting if it isn't there. For me, if a level is polished, it adds to the immersion, it's like I'm in a real place. A lo-fi, blocky 2D place, but a place nonetheless. So my approach to level design is that I try to make something that isn't just functional from a gameplay perspective, but has visual and structual landmarks that make it interesting to explore and look at. That's the plan, anyway

I will spend 3 hours tweaking a linker room that the player could pass through in 2 seconds, or I'd destroy and rebuild a whole room just to make something line up with something else, to make a more unified visual result. I find the most attractive rooms are either symmetrical, or, more commonly, have some semblance of symmetry (not just reflection in the middle of the level, but local symmetries to a room), which is broken here and there. There's something about the near miss which the mind finds appealing (hence the obsession with detuned synth leads!).

Anyway, I hope this level will be enjoyed. I'm a bit worried that some may find it obnoxiously hard. If they do, I hope they at least find it fair! I'll be releasing an easy-mode version shortly afterwards, with all the feedback from people who find it too hard implemented, so that everybody gets a crack at enjoying the whole level.

Thanks again for the interest

[Sendy]

OH MY GOD! 

After almost an entire day of intensive script work, I'm ready for my final playtest/playthrough of the game.

It's called: Dimension 333333 (for reasons obvious to anyone who has used the editor )

I have:

* 20 x 6 = 120 Screens

* Six levels and one overworld, with flexible playing order

* Normal ending for collecting  and 

* Good ending for collecting all trinkets, and unlocking the secret of Dimension 333333

* A liberal sprinkling of humerous, tongue-in-cheek dialogue.

* A fair but difficult challenge with some interesting new ideas (easy mode will be released after feedback from public playtesting)

* Error messages from old computers

I'm expecting to release the first version tomorrow!

[PJBottomz]

Congrats, Sendy! I will personally record my playtest and put it on Youtube so you can see what I think of it.

(And you seem to be pretty adept at level editing, so hopefully it'll be good)

[Ice]

This looks really, REALLY good! Thank you for not using single tile thick walls, I really hate those for some reason.

[Sendy]

Thanks I hate cutoff tiles as well, though I don't blame people who use them, because it's a real challenge to plan around them.

Ok, my test run went perfectly. Playing time 1:15, death count 331. A typical run in vanilla vvvvvv results in 50 minutes and just over 100 deaths.

It's designed to be challenging but fun, to me... I'd say I was very good at platformers, though, so some may dislike some of my design choices. Some layouts require you to think about how to get past, and there isn't always a checkpoint after each challenge (this seems to result in no tension and the ability to 'brute force' each obstacle). So some people may hate it 

A good ballpark comparison is the difficulty of Jumper 2, but a bit easier. That's how I percieve it, anyway.