Single Player:
Gothic Gardens Zone Act 1, by VX501 -- 2 out of 10
Hi. You seem like a nice enough guy, and you probably wanna learn how to make good maps for SRB2. Well, you're on the right path, because your map is pretty lousy, and history dictates you need to make your share of bad maps before you really get to shine. Now, let's break your map down to tiny little pieces and start picking away at everything.
At the start of your stage, you're placed in a really cramped hole. You're instructed to bounce on some springs onto a higher cliff with some enemies crawling around, essentially the first room of your map, which has a death pit in it. Got all that? Okay: these are all things you should not do.
Number 1: Every room in your level should be big enough to fit both the player and the camera, without having one mushed up against the other.
Number 2: Don't place ground enemies on a ledge you need to spring up to, especially when you don't have any rings to fend yourself with yet.
Number 3: Don't place death pits right in the first room of your stage, unless it's the final level/you're Mystic.
The speed shoes also seem odd to have at such an early point, but let's go with it. Except apparently they use the "speed up the music" feature, which is currently broken and will stay in effect until something else resets the music. :\ Needlessly annoying, and could be avoided by simple testing.
Then we come to a narrow snaky pathway, which seems really dangerous if you fall off. There's a catch, though -- all the characters can easily just jump over it and land on the other side. So the challenge is overthrown by its bad scaling. In fact, this whole first room is too small, and so is the tunnel right after.
Next, you have a lake, this time too large to just jump across, so you need to hop from platform to platform. This is a perfectly fine obstacle, if not for one catch. When you fall in the water, there's a set of springs to get you back out. But instead of having the springs at the start of the room, they're at the end, so there's no reason to be careful not to fall in the water, in fact it might be faster to just go for the springs in the first place.
Now, in the next room, there's something nobody's mentioned that really bugs me. You have these cannonballs being launched from the floor and through a perfectly solid plank. This is a weird setup, but let's play along. There are these helpful marks which tell you where the cannonballs will come out of. But now let's jump down. The floor itself, where the cannonballs actually come from, has no indication what so ever.
Not that it matters much at all, since falling down is actually a benefit -- the lower path leads exactly where the top one goes. Now, here's a life lesson: When you have an obstacle that the player needs to overcome, but in case he fails to do so falls into a secondary route, for the love of god, make the secondary path HARDER than the primary one. If the path that's harder to get to is more complicated than the one that's easier, everybody will pick the easy way because there's no reward for clearing the hard one.
The next room is fine, if not a bit odd looking. Though the artist in me asks himself why you picked green acid and a green switch, which look a lot uglier than the standard purple/red. Oh, it's instant death. I also start noticing a trend in your level. Wacky, random teleports. What, stitching together two sectors isn't enough for you? Not to mention that it blocks the player from backtracking through the stage.
Let me ask you something: do you see how the indents in the walls in this room stand out much more from the floor than the rest of the walls do? When you have a large, closed area, with floor, walls and ceiling, please make the walls a different color from the floor and ceiling, because otherwise you can't see a thing.
The next part really pissed me off. If you have what appears to be a contiguous floating block, if you make it crumble,
make it crumble like a contiguous block. Having random, unpredictable pieces fall off is needlessly annoying and uncalled for.
Then we arrive at an outside area, where it seems like every other enemy in the game is out to get you. Pro-tip: the SDURFs' jump height is set by its angle, which is likely why yours are rocketing into the sky.
You offer two ways of reaching the top of the room, which is nice. But I can't help but notice that so far, you don't have any grassy borders around your sectors. Set main texture, check Lower Unpegged, change vertical offset if it's an FOF. Is it really that troublesome?
The next room is big, and strangely there's a lot of opaque water around. The rest of the water in the level wasn't opaque, was it? Oh, it's a death pit. Then why is the water there? Don't put harmless pools of water, especially OPAQUE water, covering what's basically a death trap. Except if you're FuriousFox. Evil wizards, both of them.
One of your FOFs seems to have a personality disorder, since its surfaces are metal while its sides are wood. But a hop on and over it and we're inside a building of sorts. This segment is okay, if not a bit boring and uninspired. And we find another switch, this time hot pink. What have you got against red?
Now comes the dreaded 2D part. Superfluous, yes, but here's a true story: When I first reached this part and had no idea the game was going to suddenly remove a dimension's worth of control from my hands, I jumped onto the platform with too much speed and proceeded to watch a side-scrolling Sonic walk towards the camera and fall in the pit. People, PLEASE (and this goes to D00D64 as well),
changing from 3D to 2D must be entirely scripted and control should be taken away from the player. If the player can move around during the time he's supposed to be aligning himself with the 2D axis, he can screw up the entire sequence. And if the player can screw it up, he WILL screw it up. The best way to do the switch is via Zoom Tube as seen in Egg Rock, but springs can also do it provided the player is forced to trigger a Disable Player Control linedef executor.
Anyway, let's jump on these boring, barren platforms and start making leaps of faith from spring to out-of-screen spring. I hope I don't need to point out what's wrong in this sequence. And then in this last stretch I think you managed to place all the enemies that had so far been absent from the stage.
Before the stage is over, you manage to pull off the "spring into cliff riddled with enemies" trick once again, though this time you can just aim in the other direction and make it to the end of the stage. And there, it's over.
Now, don't let this scare you. Learn what you did wrong in this stage and make a new stage, without making the same mistakes as before. You're bound to make some goofs, but the number will be much smaller. And the cycle continues and you're making great levels in no time.
Either that or give up, I dunno.
Graceful Coast Zone, by D00D64 -- 4 out of 10
Why is the file size so large? Oh, it has two or three gigantic MP3s of Richard Jacques music.
This is a very pretty 2D level, so it's a shame it doesn't really play out that well. There are a lot of enemies and a lot of them in irritating places (mainly the Buzz, the Snappers and the turrets), and a few irritating gimmicks, like the off-screen geyser jumping. I don't need to tell you that the plane shift via springs was a disaster, and the boss fetch-quest was nothing short of ridiculous. The level is a bit short, but if you can overcome the occasional cheap hit and paper-mâché gimmick, it's a solid and actually somewhat fun level. Now, just cut back on the irritating hazards, make it twice as big, and you're golden. As far as 2D levels can ever hope to go on the current engine, anyway.
Refurbished Gadgetry Zone, by SonicMaster -- 8 out of 10
I really liked this stage. Most of the gimmicks were actually fresh despite the name of the stage, and the reused ideas were modified enough to be called innovative. I quite like when a stage makes me laugh with each gimmick it throws at me. Strong points were the lava rooms, the 2D slide, the huge spinning laser, the spikes-invincibility gimmick and the Starlight Palace meets lasers conveyor belt hopping.
Some rooms are quite barren and boring to look at, though, and I can't help but feel the secret (?) paths were too easily noticeable. I wish you could have used the super high speed water slide at the end as an actual gimmick rather than just a home stretch, since it was quite awesome. And maybe the pulsating light room could have worked better if the lights were flickering erratically instead.
Definitely deserves an Act 2.
Magma Core Zone Act 2, by Blade -- 9 out of 10
Wow, this was a really fun map. There's really not much to say about it since it played really, really well, so here's a few nagging faults that are between this and perfection:
The flame jets suffer from the same agnosticism as the ones in Inferno Cavern. Combined with the fact that you also have jets that never stop spraying makes them somewhat annoying, so they could definitely use some giveaway for their point of origin. Maybe you could even color code them depending on if they're constant or not.
Much like Egg Rock Zone, you basically feature two distinct paths that the player can take, one longer than the other. Conversely, though, in this level the shorter path is actually the easier one, offering the player no reason to pick the longer, harder path over the other once he's familiar with both.
The fire turret worked pretty well, but when you attach the same mechanic to an enemy as irritating as the Jetty-syn or the Crawla Commander, the results can only be disastrous. Seriously, get rid of that monstrosity of an enemy. It has absolutely no redeeming value.
Like other people have said, the mini-cutscene, while wonderfully accomplished, can be screwed up if the player thoks past the safe area and underneath/behind the falling rocks. I'd suggest an invisible FOF blocking the player from going too far in.
Like I said, other than that, it was a genuinely fun and engaging map. Just one question, where's the Act 1? Now you've got me curious.
Match:
Battle Forest Zone, by Aaron -- 5 out of 10
Clearly an early work, but it actually plays somewhat well. The open room is a bit too big vertically, making the faux-slope awkward and the only other method of navigation, springs, leaving you not unlike a sitting duck. There's no reason for the water to be opaque, and the cave section is really dark and cramped, making maneuverability limited. Ring ammo is placed in overly generous doses, and all directly near the corresponding weapon panel, causing problems with balance. And the gratuitous grenades totally clean house, as Mystic vouched to point out.
Misty Mesa Zone, by fawfulfan -- 1 out of 10
Completely awful map, with no redeeming qualities. As someone in a netgame said, "at least he got the rope pulleys right". Please play SRB2 Match before attempting to make a level for the gametype. Most offending flaws: not enough rings to satisfy a single player, never mind 10 or 20; power-ups all clumped into piles at the corners of the map; map is symmetrical, making it impossible to discern in which corner you're on; gratuitous telefrag; cave section is useless as it's an unnavigable, claustrophobic mess.
Acid Comet Zone, by D00D64 -- 4 out of 10
Pretty bad map with random structures emerging from a pool of acid, not unlike such oldies as Orange Crater Zone. Was there any reason to make the acid suck out all your rings? Indoor section somewhat redeems itself but is still a disjointed mess with no apparent sense of direction. For all those blatant defects, it still manages to be somewhat fun. Also makes the mistake of clumping all the ammo next to the corresponding weapon panel. Why do we have the two separate items, then?
Icicle Warehouse Zone, by glaber -- 3 out of 10
DO NOT MAKE CLUSTERS OF RING AMMO AND PASTE THEM ALL OVER THE MAP. Besides that, the somewhat excentric level design is actually decent, if not a tad underscaled. Rework the thing placement, and it might work in smaller netgames.
Volcanic Desolation Zone, by Scizor300 -- 6 out of 10
For a map that has the word "volcanic" in the name, the volcano sure is downplayed. Is there actually any reason to go anywhere near its vicinity? In all the games I played, all the action took place in the area between the towers and the gigantic cliff. This map is very vertically oriented, which is bad because you resort to springs, which make players sitting ducks for rail sniping. ALSO makes the same mistake of putting all the ammo right by the weapon panels. All in all, though, it ended up playing moderately well, if you ignore a third of the map or so.
Azure Lake Zone, by KO.T.E -- 4 out of 10
What could have been a great Single Player or Circuit map instead ended up a poor Match map. That's what I initially thought, until I realized there's really no way to save this map for any gametype, save maybe Hide and Seek. There's too much everything everywhere, severely limiting both movement and line of sight. The map is actually terribly small, and the fact that it has a "fake" area all around it doesn't help and actually distracts and confuses the players. Such sort of decoration is okay for maps which follow a linear track, such as Single Player and Circuit, but please leave it out for multiplayer arenas, which need to be more functional than pretty. Did it also make the mistake of etc etc? It probably did.
30 Minute Zone, by RedEchidna -- 2 out of 10
srs rewiev: :p
serious review: Okay, this just goes to show that 30 minutes just does not cut it for a Match entry, at least not anymore. This map is so fundamentally flawed in ways you obviously don't need me to tell you, but it still manages to be more fun than Misty Mesa. At least I didn't have the other player in a 1v1 netgame asking "were r da rings?"
CTF:
Canyon CTF Zone, by Eggmanfan -- 0 out of 10
Mystic, how come you haven't entered Arena Zone into any contest yet? Contest rules are probably lenient enough to let it slide.
Ancient Arboretum Zone, by Com Rante -- 7 out of 10
This level was actually pretty fun, as were a lot of the CTF entries, to be perfectly honest, but it's still far away from being perfect. The main issue in this map is the same thing that plagued Azure Lake Zone. There's too many obstacles cluttered along your path, blocking your view and your movements. This is especially true in the center part, making it downright useless as you're bound to run into something. The bases are up in hills, which are harder to defend, and there's a lot of unnecessary level elements, like the top paths through the center room, the crushers concealing weapon panels, etc. One thing that really ticked me off is that there seems to be no other way to reach the base as Sonic except for taking the slow-ass elevator or doing some tricky platforming and coming in through the side window.
Red River Zone, by darkbob1713 -- 7 out of 10
Regardless of what other people said, I had a lot of fun in this map, but that might have been mostly due to rail sniping people as they tried to climb up stuff, which is essentially everything you do in this map. The bases have not one, but two weapon panels, and, being on hills, are literally almost undefendable because one blow by your opponent and you're down at the bottom and have to climb back up again. It also striked me as incredibly irritating how you HAVE to climb up the hill no matter where you want to go, as there's no other way out of the hole as Sonic. Here's a pertinent question, though: why do the player starts seem so bloody random? Once I was in the red team and spawned on the blue team base, grabbing the flag almost immediately. ALSO HAS THE AMMO RIGHT NEXT TO THE PANELS.
Sunshower Canyon Zone, by D00D64 -- 7 out of 10
You might have noticed I gave these three maps all the same score. Honestly, I liked them all and couldn't really decide that any of them were arbitrarily "better" than the others, so. This map was pretty alright, but there are three key aspects that broke it a bit. First, the bases (IE: the topmost plateau) are too big, making defending them literally impossible as you cannot knock opposing players out. Second, the water canals above the bases have regular rings, which means attacking players can replenish their supply without leaving the base. And third, the only methods to reach the bases are by jumping on a spring, or jumping on a spring inside a waterfall, making you rise even slower and making you even more of a sitting duck to rail fire. This map DOES place ammo away from the weapon panels, but I'm not sure if this is a good thing seeing as the overabundant and easily accessible supply of rail doesn't help the sniping problem.
Techno Laser Zone, by KO.T.E -- 4 out of 10
I can tell you worked pretty hard to get an idea like this working, but the truth is that that final result falls short of enjoyable. Tiny players are as easy to hit as big players are, anyone who says otherwise is just legally blind. That isn't the trouble. First off, this is the first map I've ever played that needs a manual. It took me ages before I realized what the different panels did. And even then, it took me a good long time before I realized what I could do with them. And honestly, the final answer is, well, not much. Big players have a detour they can take all for themselves and tiny players apparently have these hard to squeeze into, almost hidden in plain sight silent teleport tubes. Which are perfectly useless, making shrinking itself useless. And by the time you've hit the enlarger ray and gone off to the detour and avoided all the lasers and gotten to the other end, you've already gotten the flag stolen and are maybe one or two points behind. Take a look at Noxious Factory Zone. Look at where it used lasers. Now look at where yours are and the problem should be evident. The door shutting mechanic seems interesting at first, but just like the Power Glove it's literally useless, and overly complicates a game which should be simple in nature. This isn't an RTS, it's a first person shooter with supersonic technicolor hedgehogs. Besides, the buttons make noise even when you jump over them and even when they're already down, and the laser fences leading to the ones in the center don't even hurt.
Iron Turret Returns Zone, by myself
<Cordelia> neo
<Cordelia> i didn't make a map for srb2 contest
<Cordelia> what do i do
<Neo> uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
<Neo> q?
<Cordelia> rush job?
<Neo> rush job was horrible
<Neo> it was just pretty
<Neo> sort of
<Cordelia> it wasn't that horrible
<Neo> it was pretty horrible
<Cordelia> i've seen worse maps easily
<Cordelia> next time I'll make a rush job
<Neo> no, this time
<Cordelia> this time already ended you poop
<Neo> no
<Cordelia> oh
<Cordelia> it's a placeholder
<Cordelia> hrm
<Cordelia> i could rush a ctf map out
<Neo> The only map I ever put in any real effort was Isolated Canyon, and now it's gone :(
<Cordelia> :(
<Neo> why was iron turret removed and meadow match kept
<Neo> iron turret was basically meadow match ctf
<Cordelia> meadow match was older
<Neo> cordelia, make return of iron turret zone
<Cordelia> aluminum machine gun?
<Neo> uhhh
<Neo> dammit, now I want to make return of iron turret
<Neo> :(
<Cordelia> i could do it
<Cordelia> but it'll suck
<Neo> nah
<Neo> where to i get srb2db and ****s
Eventually I changed the name to Iron Turret Returns because the former didn't fit on-screen. I honestly found it very funny when some people accused me of having edited Iron Turret and that therefore I should be disqualified. The level design is so simple that I could replicate it near perfectly. Even then, my map has flaws that the original didn't, so that should put an end to all suspects. I was still working on the map when Penopat pointed out that the submission period was almost over, when I thought I still had an hour. So the map is naturally a bit unpolished, notably missing any sort of banner to point out which base it is. There also seems to be a problem with the thok barrier in the red base, I apologize, but it wasn't my fault so much as it was these primitive editing tools we work with. Redrawing the nearby linedefs fixed it. Essentially, this was another last-minute entry by yours truly, only this time I actually had 5-6 hours to make it, allowing a greater deal of polish to come into play. But it was also my very first Doom Builder adventure, so yaaaaay ^o^
La Villa Strangiato Zone, by Penopat -- 5 out of 10
How you managed to do this in the same timeframe it took me to make Iron Turret is beyond me. Seriously, this map seems so much more vast and intricate than mine, but then it also seems to play rather lousily. There's no point to the outer edges since people will only stay on the two center courses to the flag. Also, qqqqqqqqqqqqq
Circuit:
Frostbite Peak Zone, by RedEchidna -- 3 out of 10
I decided to give this another shot. And another and another. And I'm sorry, but my opinion just doesn't change. This is a pretty bad map, and for a lot of reasons. I was mostly kidding when I gave the "broken monitor" remark, because the maps mostly looks fine except for the the occasional translucent barrier that catches the attention of the player but shouldn't. Now, your level is small and tight, involves tricky platforming and forces the player to interact with unexpected behavior, such as sludgy snow and unslippery ice. There is an overabundance of death pits and since the platforms are so small, it's easy to fall off into one. All these aspects combined make the stage irritating and not very fun to play. Circuit maps should be wide and shouldn't abuse hazardous obstacles.
Egg Flower Zone, by Mach -- 6 out of 10
This is pretty much what it says in the box, Egg Rock in circuit form. But where's the flower part? Did I miss it? Your map is structurally very sound and very fun to play, but there are some quirks that prevent it from being as good as it could be. Right at the start, you have a big, translucent and intangible block which comprises your finish line. This is needlessly confusing because at first I didn't know if I had to wait for it to open up, etc. Just stick a regular solid opaque FOF and be happy. Afterward, your crushers aren't synchronized, which might lead to a situation where they all go up and down at the same time. Some also burrow into the floor, which looks odd, to say the least. The yellow lasers scrolling along the sides are also busted: they hurt you everywhere in the sector, regardless where the yellow strip is at the moment. Then, one thing that really flabbergasted me, is how you recreated the outer space segments in Egg Rock perfectly, even including the little blue blocks of air, but didn't make the gravity lower. This was really disconcerting, and lead to a few deaths before I realized what was wrong. I suggest fixing up these faults, getting rid of the whole "flower" aspect (seriously, it looks dumb) and re-releasing it.