Soul Searching (v2.0)

[Martze]

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.







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.

[CHz]

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.)

[bigkahuna]

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.

[Martze]

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:

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.

[PJBottomz]

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.

[Stampy]

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.

[Martze]

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:

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!

[PJBottomz]

I tried both sides of the blocks, and either side, I die. It's pretty hard.

[Terry]

Hah, this level is awesome. The last line freaked me out a bit

Waiting for 1.1

[Stampy]

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.

[Sendy]

I found Tenderized Veal and the similar screens I've encountered so far very possible and very fun to play.

[CHz]

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'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.)

[Martze]

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." 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.

[TheoX]

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...

[bigkahuna]

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