Seaside Valley Zone Act 1

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I don't understand what you're trying to say, but I'm guessing that your talking about the tree tops being intangible (not touchable) from below. However it would kind of break the rule of tree tops being solid but then again this is based on Sonic 2...

Well what I tought was, making the leafs solid from above but not bellow, like some kind FoF, so you could raise from bellow it (via the spring) and when you get to the top, you could just walk on it other then plataform to the center.
 
Kind of what I just said earlier but I can be clearer:
e.g. linedef 140 (FOF Intangible from bottom), this means that you can go through the bottom of the FOF but you can't go through the top instead you can move about on the top of the FOF.
 
Played the level through again.

Is this your first level? If so, good job! The basics are all here and they're done well enough. Nothing is glitching out, and you've managed to insert a fair amount of custom content. That's more than I can say about my first level. About the level design... I'll get to that. It's always tough critiquing beginning level designers. More often than not, if you critique their levels objectively, then they've done a bad job and deserve a less-than-average score. But if you're overly generous handing out praise, then they probably won't try very hard to improve their mapping then next time around.

All that being said, let's look at the level design:

Pro's:
-Good amount of secrets. Nice to know you're thinking about exploration.
-Texturing is competently done. It's surely an improvement from the previous versions of the level.
-Nice amount of open space. It's a common trap to make your levels too cramped when you first start designing, and you've avoided doing that so far. Good job.

Er, I'll post the cons later. I didn't notice the time when I started writing this post D:
 
I will admit that of the three original games, I still find a lot of challenge in Sonic 2. Maybe that's why I like it so much, though I find I play it less and less. I've never even gotten all the emeralds on it without cheats.
 
I will admit that of the three original games, I still find a lot of challenge in Sonic 2. Maybe that's why I like it so much, though I find I play it less and less. I've never even gotten all the emeralds on it without cheats.
Sonic 2 was pretty easy for me (except the final part), all you have to do is know all the checkpoint areas and have 50 rings to go to special, I managed to do three special stages in one level.
 
Alright, huge improvement! I really do like this level, it's nice, it's easy but not stupid...a great first level. All I can say are a few things:
  1. There are some spaces that just strike me as "vacant," such as the beach and ocean areas. Try filling them up not with enemies or flowers or whatnot but with sector-based objects, such as rocks in the ocean or on the beach that don't get in the way yet make it look a little fuller. With the beach especially, as well, you can make flowy lines and gradient the sectors that come out of it so it looks a little more...not flat. Adds a lot, trust me.
  2. Give all your water control linedefs the Effect 5 flag. Again, trust me.
...And that's basically all the suggestions I have. Keep up the good work, I see a prominent mapper on the horizon...
 
Alright, huge improvement! I really do like this level, it's nice, it's easy but not stupid...a great first level. All I can say are a few things:
  1. There are some spaces that just strike me as "vacant," such as the beach and ocean areas. Try filling them up not with enemies or flowers or whatnot but with sector-based objects, such as rocks in the ocean or on the beach that don't get in the way yet make it look a little fuller. With the beach especially, as well, you can make flowy lines and gradient the sectors that come out of it so it looks a little more...not flat. Adds a lot, trust me.
  2. Give all your water control linedefs the Effect 5 flag. Again, trust me.
...And that's basically all the suggestions I have. Keep up the good work, I see a prominent mapper on the horizon...
I was wondering when you were going to give this another look. I'm glad you did. I am now aware that some of the scenery changes I had planned aren't quite going to be enough. It's gonna be a pain in the ass to mess with those beaches that way, however. I looked into the Effect 5 thing and have already implemented it. Thanks for your input.

Sonic 2 was pretty easy for me (except the final part), all you have to do is know all the checkpoint areas and have 50 rings to go to special, I managed to do three special stages in one level.
That last special stage is a bitch, though. Frickin' rings placed randomly everywhere in one of the sections. I feel like they ran out of ideas. I'll really have to go see if I can beat it for real, though.
 
Mmkay, continuing my post.

Cons:
-Level is linear. There's generally only 1 pathway through the level, unless you count the symmetrical splits through that rocky temple thing in the water-cave-room, and that hardly even counts. Multiple path are pretty much a must-have, especially in levels like this where the gameplay is basically running and jumping and your players have no gimmicks mess around with. After I was done playing the level, why would I ever come back? I had seen everything. This leads into the next flaw.

-Level is too short. Length is a hard thing to judge, especially in this game where the characters move so damn fast. Do you just speedrun through the whole level and check how long it took you? Is that how long a level is? I like to judge length in terms of satisfaction. After completing the stage, am I satisfied? Were there enough cool things within the level to make me want to visit again? Do I feel like I actually visited a valley by the seaside? In this level, I didn't. I felt like I ran through a series of beach-themed rooms. Which also leads into my next problem with the level.

-Most of the rooms feel like you drew a giant box and then struggled to fill them in with relevant detail. Granted, that's how most of us make maps, but the player shouldn't be able to detect this while playing the level. Heck, some of these rooms resemble actual squares, which feel strange and unnatural given the theme. Nowhere is this more relevant than the water-cave-room with the rocky temple smack in the center. Why does that place exist? It doesn't feel integrated into the level, it feels like it was plopped down out of lack of other things to put there. When it comes to temples and stairs and stuff like that (stuff that suggest that someone or something lived here once upon a time), you have to add hints of it everywhere to make it feel like a part of your level, rather than just another obstacle. Also that texture you used for that part was really, really weird.

Additionally, I suggest that on your next level attempt, you round out some of the walls and cut level geometry out of them to make the place feel more organic and less... boxy. It really makes a difference!

-Foooood! Glorious fooooooood!

Dont' get discouraged if my review of your level sounds too negative. As I mentioned before, you did a whole lot of things right (just look at that sky, sweet jesus!) and I just want to make sure that you don't make the same mistakes the next time around.
 
That last special stage is a bitch, though. Frickin' rings placed randomly everywhere in one of the sections. I feel like they ran out of ideas. I'll really have to go see if I can beat it for real, though.
It took me 3 tries to do the seventh special stage when I played the whole game without restarting for the final time (but in reality it out of everything it took me 26 3/4, the three quarters was because the game shut off just as I was about to complete the special stage).
Anyway back on topic...

Ice said:
Why does that place exist? It doesn't feel integrated into the level, it feels like it was plopped down out of lack of other things to put there. When it comes to temples and stairs and stuff like that (stuff that suggest that someone or something lived here once upon a time), you have to add hints of it everywhere to make it feel like a part of your level, rather than just another obstacle. Also that texture you used for that part was really, really weird.
Maybe he could use textures on that ruins that suit the Green Flower-esque zone. I'm not sure which ones from srb2 would fit the temple but I'll go check...
 
I was going to address everything Ice just said, but my reply got deleted, so I'll say this instead: everything Ice just mentioned will be addressed in some way, even if it's indirect.
...Except the whole "food, glorious food" bit. I don't want to write new music yet.
 
Wait a minute what do you mean by this?
Metal96 said:
...make flowy lines and gradient the sectors that come out of it so it looks a little more...not flat.
By "not flat" I assume that means very small hills, which I find to be a pain.

Semirelated: Potential future zone music. Thrown together in about 30 minutes, and this SoundCloud account was made about 5 minutes ago. (Made this only because of the whole "Food, Glorious Food" thing.)
 
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I must not have worded that very well. I meant that it might replace the current zone music -- the one that sounds like "Food, glorious food." Sorry for the confusion.

The following spoiler contains some experimental graphical work I've done.
b89uet.png

Though I don't think I'll keep the colormap or sky in this screenshot, I am going to keep the new (old?) non-Minecraft leaves. I felt they looked out of place. Also, note the different sizes of the checkerboard rock texture. The large texture has cracks in it while the small size does not.
If I do decide to nix the sky and colormap, the level will look like this:
el67aa.png

30bcruo.png
1y5vlt.png
ouqd55.png

New fancy shmancy grass textures. Done with GIMP. Recognize those flowers? They're from Sonic Adventure. Yay, Textures Resource!
 
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Whoops I picked the wrong picture, let me edit that post.

EDIT: the previous post is now fixed
 
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The colormap in that picture would look bad if it were much heavier. It would turn the characters ugly colors.
 
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