Official Level Design Contest Voting: May/June 2009

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glaber said:
Zanyhead said:
You could at least have SOCed the Minus to work like in Arid Canyon
Um yea, no idea how to do that yet.
If you guys are referring to popping out of the ground, you can have a state that sets the flags to remove MF_SHOOTABLE and MF_ENEMY, and uses a blank sprite.
 
All level start with a 5/10 with points added or subtracted as shown, because I don't want to write out long paragraphs. All levels are played in no particular order.

Cyber Galaxy Act 1
+1 nice theme
+1 music
-2 Gravity area
-1 Lasers
Final score: 4/10

Flooded Forest
+1 Replay value
+1 Boss w/ Container
-1 Enemies seem thrown in to add difficulty.
-1 Uninteresting
Final Score: 5/10

Green Canyon
+1 Water Skip Gimmick
+1 Liked the way the end sign was done.
-1 Boring
Final Score: 6/10

Mill Citadel Act 2
+3 Many fun gimmicks
+1 Very good scenery
+1 Decently executed slide
-1 Grain can sometimes hide enemies
-1 Grain sometimes moves too quickly
Final Score: 8/10

Hidden Sanctuary Act 2
+2 Very Scenic
+1 Not too challenging
+1 Liked the current gimmick
-1 Nothing too memorable
Final Score: 8/10

Aquatic Labyrinth Act 2
Glaber Base 5
Factory Farce
Greenery Pass Act 2
 
I've thought of releasing a levelpack of my maps next month, after ME. Then, I'll take this opportunity to fix and improve my maps considering reviews and feedbacks.

Regarding to Mill Citadel Zone 2:

KO.T.E said:
Mill Citadel Zone, Act 2 by Ezer'Arch 9/10:
(...) but there was one part where I went in a circle.

What part? Can you tell me where? I'm afraid I misplaced some enemies; instead of facing you, they are showing you their backs.

Probably you're taking about of this corridor. It's near the path that "seems useless for Sonic but it's not" that I had spoken some posts ago.

Chrome said:
Mill Citidel-9/10
(...)
I'd like to see what kind of boss you could come up with for this level. :P

It's on my plans to make a MCZ3 - Boss.

Let me think: A boss that shoots toxic breads would be interesting.

Simsmagic said:
Mill Citadel Act 2
(...)
-1 Grain can sometimes hide enemies
-1 Grain sometimes moves too quickly
Final Score: 8/10

Could you kindly tell me where grain hides enemies?

There's a room where grain moves up and down hiding and "showing" enemies every 3 seconds. I don't know if it is this room you're talking about.

If it was somewhere else, I could reduce grain height from 32 or 24FU to 16FU. But this will be for next version.

Thanks,

EDIT: Typo fixed.
 
Don't remember the specific place, I just remember going through the grain and randomly getting damaged, though I may have been hit by a bullet and didn't see it or something.
 
Thompson said:
Mill Citadel
(...) There was one flaw I found though. That one area with the churning churner(I think that's what it's called) with moniters on top of it. Couldn't get out. I had no other choice but to die in the pit.

Thompson, monitor bouncing. 4 monitors are there for it:

MCZ2-MonitorBouncing (video)

Also, I call it "reward x risk". You collect 40 rings what may give you 1-up, or, a death pit.
 
Ezer.Arch said:
Thompson said:
Mill Citadel
(...) There was one flaw I found though. That one area with the churning churner(I think that's what it's called) with moniters on top of it. Couldn't get out. I had no other choice but to die in the pit.

Thompson, monitor bouncing. 4 monitors are there for it:

MCZ2-MonitorBouncing (video)

Also, I call it "reward x risk". You collect 40 rings what may give you 1-up, or, a death pit.

The issue with this is that the player could easily not know that this risk exists; in my case at least, I thought I would be able to get out, but this turned out not to be the case. It's a nice concept, but because of how close the height is, it just amounts to a first timer's trap.
 
I'm a poor reviewer so I won't explain my ratings.

Green Canyon Zone - 4/10
Aquatic Labyrinth Zone, Act 2 - N/A
Hidden Sanctuary Zone, Act 2 - 4/10
Glaber Base 5 - 2/10
Cosmic Galaxy - 1/10
Flooded Forest Zone - 2/10
Factory Farce Zone - 5/10
Mill Citadel Zone, Act 2 - 2/10
Greenery Pass Zone, Act 2 - 3/10

I dislike SRB2, but, every now and then, there's a contest with great level design. Sadly, this wasn't one of them.
 
Luminous said:
I'm a poor reviewer so I won't explain my ratings.

Green Canyon Zone - 4/10
Aquatic Labyrinth Zone, Act 2 - N/A
Hidden Sanctuary Zone, Act 2 - 4/10
Glaber Base 5 - 2/10
Cosmic Galaxy - 1/10
Flooded Forest Zone - 2/10
Factory Farce Zone - 5/10
Mill Citadel Zone, Act 2 - 2/10
Greenery Pass Zone, Act 2 - 3/10

I dislike SRB2, but, every now and then, there's a contest with great level design. Sadly, this wasn't one of them.
That would explane how you rated Mill Citadel. The 2 for Glaber Base 5 was expected due to a reputation I'm trying to change.
 
Well, *sniff* this will be the last time I judge a 1.09.4 OLDC, so let's make it last! Match now, the rest later... Please note that I may take 2.0 compatibility into Match and CTF, although it will not affect the score.

Match:

Daimondus Battle Zone by Glaber: 6/10 (+ no Glaber Syndrome)
Obviously a Daimondus version of Sapphire Falls, but at least it's better than the waterfall that is strangely devoid of pretty blue gems. It's possible to put the 2.0 system into this level. (it would probably require some minor tweaks, but yeah) Auto-bomb is better than auto-infinity (as in WAY better). The random monitor could have been just a little harder to get to. Other than that, it's pretty good.

Aerial Match Zone 2 by Cheese: 7/10
WOW. I was expecting this level to be pretty lame, but I actually liked this level! I don't know if it was the layout, the good random monitor placement, or the music, but something told me that this level should win the division (or something to that effect). The only problem I have with the level is that you can reach the auto ring just a few seconds after grabbing the infinity ring and vice versa, but other than that, it was great. Why? I remember now! It's an AGZ-type level that doesn't involve too much platforming!!!

Overall:
I was disappointed with the turnout on Match, but at least the two in here have some quality to them. (unlike past contests) It'll probably be Circuit next, so stay tuned!
 
Chrome said:
Green Peaks Act 2-6/10
The custom textures were nice, and I really liked the theme this level uses, but pretty average.

Green Peaks Act 2? do you mean Greenery Pass Act 2 or what?
 
I'll be voting on the multiplayer maps now.

Match:
MAPA1 - Diamondus Battle by Glaber 7/10
It wasn't too bad. The level was a bit too small to fully enjoy though.
I don't have much criticism beyond that. =/

MAPA2 - Aerial Match Zone 2 by Cheese 7/10
Being a sonic player 99.9% of the time, it's nice to see an air themed level that doesn't kill me 99.9% of the time. I didn't really like the upper level, but the lower level was fun to run around in and fight. It wasn't an aesthetically bad map either.

CTF:
MAPA3 - Geometric Void Zone by SonicMaster 9/10
I found this level to be extremely fun to play in. I usually tend to dislike open air ctf/match levels, but this one was great. The design made for a balanced map for all players. Most of the opposite team was playing as tails, making it easy for me use sonic's speed to wipe out the slow flag carriers. Knuckles could easily glide around and shoot people. Oh and since the platforms were intangible from below, it was easy and fun to spring up and attack someone from underneath them. This was really fun. Nice work.

MAPA4 - Diamondus CTF2 by Glaber 8/10
This one was really fun to play in. The level flowed really well, making the battle nice and spread out rather than concentrated in a few certain areas. You need to make the small cave parts a little less cramped though. Overall, it was pretty fun to play around in.

MAPA5 - Illuminated City Zone by Cheese 5/10
It was really too small to enjoy anything. Sure there were multiple paths around here and there, but there wasn't really any reason to use them when the flag is a straight shot ahead of you. I didn't really enjoy playing this level.

Circuit:
MAPA6 - Submerged Cavern Zone by Cheese 6/10
Like your last submission, this one was also pretty small. There were some cheap death pits here and there, and it was nearly impossible to recover from a simple mistake. However, the level was pretty fun once you got the hang of timing your jumps and thoks.

MAPA7 - Star Reactor by Kuja 8/10
Though it's somewhat of a thokfest, it's a good thokfest. There's some good flow, and plenty of shortcuts are available for anyone with fast reflexes. The moving lasers were pretty annoying however. =/

Anyway, I felt that the multiplayer pack was really great this time around. As small as each division was, I had a blast playing the maps available. Keep up the good work community.
 
A rare moment of seriousface from me, but I digress. Seeing as it's the last OLDC for this version of SRB2, I may as well contribute with some comments 'an votes.

Single Player Levels

Green Canyon Zone: An interesting level, quite enjoyable to. The water skipping gimmick was quite well executed, especially at the end (Although, on one occasion I missed the end sign post entirely, whoops.)
However, there's also a point where I feel there was a lack of direction and I went the wrong way.

6/10

Aquatic Labyrinth Zone, Act 2: I have to say, this was a good, fun and challenging map. Although, I felt that the air bubbles were difficult to see in the green colourmap and as a result I drowned a few times through what I felt was no fault of me own. Also, I got the impression that this stage was perhaps a little to long, what with it taking me 10 minutes to clear on my first play through. However, that's just my own blundering, so it's a tad unfair to remove points for that. (Besides, it's GOOD level design, even if it is long.)

Aside from that though, this was a well designed stage with several sprawling pathways, a very challenging design and with some nice visuals to boot, not to mention a fair few clever gimmicks.

9/10

Hidden Sanctuary Zone, Act 2: My first thought was "Meh.", although, as I played through it a second time I found myself enjoying it much more due to the alternate paths. For example, in my first play through I had passed underneath the bridges and had just mistaken them for scenery, but on my second play through I had found them to be alternate paths. I like.

Although, on the negative side of things. The stage was pretty and all, but aside from a few pretty scenery moments (E.G., the gargoyles and the light up torches) I didn't notice many stage gimmicks that keep things innovative gameplay wise. By all means, it's a good map, but it never caught my attention.

7/10

Glaber Base 5: I have to ask, why oh why is there a section specifically for Sally?

Anyway, after playing through the level with Sally and with the normal trio, there are a some significant problems that bring the enjoyment factor of this level down, such as, daft level design. To be more specific, the awful crushers at the start. They are simply to difficult, cheap even.
On top of that, there are a few questionable enemy choices. I can understand the Minus', seeing as they are your own creation, same applies for the Drilla Killers. But the old Crawlas and Eggmobile was just... What. A downgrade really isn't idea. (Speaking of the Eggmobile, shouldn't that have been at the end of the level, instead of the mid-point?)

Anyway, I have to give you credit for being original, but often these original ideas brought the map down due to poor execution or just plain being a bad idea.

6/10

Cosmic Galaxy: Forceskin, alright, I can see why that is there. The map is a little easy with Knuckles or Tails. What with flying/Climbing and all. But I digress, the theme was quite an interesting one and the visuals caught my eye (then threatened to give me a seizure, but that's another point entirely).

But, pretty looks aside, there is not much going for this stage, the laser walls are absurd to get past without jumping around them, which I think is unintended and the Zero Gravity gimmick was interesting, but because I mistook the first one for a pit, jumped and flew across the ceiling, I did the same on the second Zero Gravity section and fell to my death. A rather cheap kill that could only have been avoided if I knew what was coming up already.

4/10

Flooded Forest Zone: I was originally a little reserved, due to 2D stages often not working very well in SRB2. But I quite enjoyed it to be honest. Although, I do think you over used the spikes + blue springs, also, Water Section was quite uninteresting. The boss fight at the end was a nice and unexpected touch though.

5/10

Factory Farce Zone, Act 1: I see someone's been playing Sonic CD. Wacky Workbench olol

Anyway, the bouncing floor was both unexpected and very good fun, not only that but it was applied to the level quite well with some good use of FOFs and the harmful ceiling, also the music was quite nice to, very fitting to the theme.
On the topic of visuals, I would have looked at it poorly because of it was, for the most part, a grey+black factory stage. Thankfully, the orange ceilings and the multi-colored flashing floors covered for that.

On a more negative side, the level was over to quickly and I felt it was a tad rushed. The hidden room near the exit making me think this, due to it being totally unfinished and empty. Also, you made the emerald token a little easy to reach in my opinion.

7/10

Mill Citadel Zone, Act 2: YES, on so many levels.

It's fun, challenging without being frustrating and original, mind you, original in comparison to the majority of SRB2 wads. The Flour Mill idea is running old in my opinion. That aside, I was impressed by the way you created fake rotations (which you proceeded you use, a lot, perhaps a little to much) and crammed as many different gimmicks into the stage as possible, including a take on the Deep Sea Zone slide, which is always a plus.

Also, I found both emerald tokens, hooray for secret hunting. Better get used to it, there's gonna be a lot of emblems to find in SRB2 2.0 :P

9/10

Greenery Pass Zone, Act 2: Very nifty, original music and a sunset theme, I wonder if act 3 will be at night. Also, original scenery is used in this stage (namely, the new rocks)
However, despite this, I felt this stage was pretty and pleasant to the eye, but rather boring to play due to it being seriously easy.

6/10

Match Levels

Diamondus Battle: A bit reminiscent of Sapphire Falls, isn't it? It's nearly identical in parts (Such as the center design, with the river feeding into a lake) But that aside, it felt like a 2.0 stage (or at least, what I assume they are like) because of the non-symmetrical layout and I think that the weapon rings chosen for this map are better than the ones in the current Sapphire Falls, Auto Bomb > Auto Infinity.

6/10

Aerial Match Zone 2: I heard a few complaints from some Sonic players regarding this stage and how the lower half was much better than the upper floor. But I have to disagree as a Knuckles player, the vantage point is fantastic for ninja-Knux gliding strikes from above :p

Although I rather enjoyed this stage, it was an original design

That aside, I think there were a few to many ring monitors around for a stage that size, it was quite easy for me to stock up on more rings than I will need.

7/10

CTF Levels

Geometric Void Zone: This stage was... Interesting, much like Nimbus Ruins in the current level pack, it was interesting and good fun. Mutli-layered and designed so that all 3 characters had a use.

Although, on the server I played this map in, there were some lag problems and as a result we died, a lot. A LOT. It was tolerable though despite this, which I think says it all, the level was still enjoyable despite near constant deaths.

Although, I think this map would have worked much much better over LAN, to create a lag free environment where the deaths are only your fault and not the distance from the hosts.

8/10

Diamondus CTF2: Far FAR to similar to Sapphire Falls to be a coincidence, it nearly copies this stage sector for sector at parts. That aside, it's, eh. Really, really, similar to Sapphire Falls =/

By all means, Sapphire Falls is a nice CTF stage, but so, very, very, similar.

3/10

Illuminated City Zone: Getting the flag is easy, without a doubt to easy, what with the current version of SRB2 having very little ways to defend your base, however, the stage is small enough to make up for that as the flag carriers are never far away (and yes, the flag WILL be taken)

Although, because of all the different routes in this small hectic map and how the attacks generally make a bee-line down the central path, it's quite easy to return to your base.
Also, for defending, there's an exploit that the flag carriers can abuse, by standing on the elevator floor, it is only possible to shoot them from one route and the flag carrier is able to easily escape back down the elevator shaft.

Despite this, I did enjoy the map but it was quite flawed.

6/10

Circuit Levels

Submerged Cavern Zone: Overall, quite small and with a curious gimmick, why is a player able to lower the water with a button? as far as I could tell, no water only made that section harder for all players involved (easier in fact for anyone who happens to be ahead of you, because they have to do the dry version one less time) so no one ever pressed the button, not to mention that you lost valuable seconds jumping on it.

6/10

Star Reactor: Quite epic. Quite epic indeed, it did turn into a thok fest but to be honest that;s what all race maps are. Anyway, this was an enjoyable, long, race track. With several routes that are all roughly equal (I assume though, if I had more time, there would likely be an ideal route which in time would be the only one that people take.)

Although, the point with the death pit was unexpected on my first run through and because of the hoop floating in mid-air, I careened right into it as Sonic mistaking it for a jump.

8/10
 
I don't feel like going into detail right now.

SINGLE PLAYER

Greenery Pass Zone, Act 2 - 8/10
Flooded Forest Zone - 5/10
Hidden Sanctuary Zone, Act 2 - 9/10
Gabler Base 5 Zone - 5/10
Cosmic Galaxy Zone - 4/10
Aquatic Labyrinth Zone, Act 2 - Forty tries later Uhhh...seems like i'll rate this later.
Mill Citadel Zone, Act 2 - 6/10

I'll work on Aquatic Labyrinth Act 2 and Multiplayer now.
 
Single Player

Cosmic Galaxy Zone by verifiaman - 2/10
A very interesting theme, not one I've seen done before. I guess it may just be a proof of concept or something, because everything just seems to be in sequence, there is nothing that actually suggests it's a proper level in it, like multiple paths, secrets and what not. Apart from the interesting theme it was quite boring. And PLEASE, for the love of god, get rid of those laser things. They're not worth the trouble. At all.

Aquatic Labyrinth Zone, Act 2 by Kuja - 6/10
I got completely lost. There is no hint about where your supposed to go at all, not even devmode, god and noclip helped me. The level DOES look good though, and some of the gimmicks in here are really nice. It's a shame. Although, me getting so lost is probably my fault, so I gave you another point for fairness.

Factory Farce Zone, Act 1 by MattW_CFI - 8/10
I really liked this level, the floor was an interesting twist I've never seen in any other SRB2 level, the music was brilliant for this level, no problems with the design itself, it was just good fun.

Greenery Pass Zone, Act 2 by Knockout the Echidna - 7/10
Pretty similar in Factory Farce in philosophy, nothing dramatically different about this level, but it looked great, the custom stuff was nice and it played wonderfully as well.

Green Canyon Zone by SonicMaster - 6/10
I love how you always seem to come up with something new in your levels. This one is no exception. I thought the geyser skip gimmick was an interesting thing that I haven't seen before, but apart from that, it wasn't spectacular, and the music isn't my cup of tea, but pretty good.

Hidden Sanctuary Zone, Act 2 by Ice - 10/10
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I couldn't stop coming back for more. The level was beautiful, unconfined by the straints of the SRB2 engine, especially in OpenGL. Multiple paths, neat tricks with gargoyles, the list goes on and on. THIS is what level designers should be aiming for. This is one of the more overused level themes, but this is one of the best I've come across. Absolutely nothing compromises the quality of this level. There is nothing stopping me from saying, perfect. I also noticed you put in a timeofday header, of course I couldn't notice in the game due to the fact that I don't have ShufflaRB2. The level doesn't have so much gimmicks, but it's so correct design wise, that this just doesn't matter.

Mill Citadel Zone, Act 2 by Ezer.Arch - 9/10
Well done. Now THIS I've never seen before (mind you I've never played the Act 1 of any of these levels). Almost perfect: A couple of glitches you'll want to look at.
http://gcfreak.sepwich.com/srb20000.png - AFALL1
http://gcfreak.sepwich.com/srb20001.png - From the platform in the middle, you can't get out, not even as Sonic.
http://gcfreak.sepwich.com/srb20002.png AFALL1
http://gcfreak.sepwich.com/srb20003.png AFALL1
Apart from that, the level was really good.

Flooded Forest Zone by Cheese - 4/10
The general rule of thumb is that 2D mode doesn't work properly in SRB2, and this is a classic case in point. It was extremely hard to play. But, I'll give you one thing, this is one of the prettiest 2D levels I've seen so far.

Glaber Base Zone, Act 5 by Glaber - 3/10
The biggest problem I had with this level was the impossible crushers, you either got killed, or you thokked past then and then got killed by the pit of death right after it. It's nothing special, but the stuff that Glaber is pumping out is getting better.

Overall: EXCELLENT

What a wonderful farewell to 1.09.4. This contest's single player division is brilliant, and showcases some of SRB2 1.09.4's brilliant capabilities. I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT to see what the first SRB2 2.0 level design contest is going to be like.
 
Are Glaber's crushers really that hard? I've died once, maybe twice, but I thought they were quite easy.

Perhaps it's the fact that I use first person mode.
 
Ok, i'll go through GablerBase5 again and edit the decimals out my post.
EDIT:Done.

SINGLE PLAYER

Greenery Pass Zone, Act 2 - 8/10
Flooded Forest Zone - 5/10
Hidden Sanctuary Zone, Act 2 - 9/10
Gabler Base 5 Zone - 5/10
Cosmic Galaxy Zone - 4/10
Aquatic Labyrinth Zone, Act 2 - Forty tries later Uhhh...seems like i'll rate this later.
Mill Citadel Zone, Act 2 - 6/10

MULTIPLAYER

Match/Tag:
Diamondus Battle - 3/10
Aerial Match Zone - 7/10
CTF:
Geometric Void Zone - 5/10
Diamondus CTF2 - 3/10
Illumated City Zone - 6/10
Race:
Star Recreator - 8/10
Submerged Cavern Zone - 6/10

God, Aquatic Labyrinth Act 2 is EXTREAMLY hard, I had to turn off my computer so I have to start ALL over again. (after about 70 tries)
 
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