Or maybe we can simultaneously get the entirety of the community to migrate to a new platform, and make awesome things with that. Haha, wouldn't that be something. I was just having a discussion last night with someone, and we were discussing how level designing with SRB2 has evolved to a point where it's like trying to make something with gamemaker, because we have to find ways around all the restrictions. Whether it's covering up visual bugs with clever scenery items or simply tons and tons and tons and tons of tags, it just gets to a point where it is ridiculous.
So what the hell people are expecting from SRB2?
To be honest, I don't think SRB2 needs to go that far. I've always been an admirer of simple maps that come up with clever gimmicks, well spaced rooms with freedom of movement. Maps with 300 or 400 sectors that accomplish their goal: dish out fun and hold the player for about 5 or 10 minutes playing. I rather prefer games that push my skills on platforming than the ones that are visually appealing or aimed to involve me in a story. It's pretty rewarding seeing you got skillful enough to do something great in the game, and you go back to playing just to try harder. That's why I like
Dustforce, but I would prefer
SRB2 instead. However, it's matter of taste.
What I'm trying to mean -- perhaps I'm wrong -- is that, instead of trying to make things more and more complicated, more detailed and more tiresome so that you hit the restrictions and then start requesting a new engine or even get you into a burnout, why not trying to make more out of the simple concepts: new ideas from simple things rather than complicated gimmicks that require new features.
My list of things that I would expect from SRB2 is small:
- an easier level editor: I don't mean easy to learn, because it is already. I mean easy to edit the map itself. I feel I'm knitting a Persian carpet, hours and hours spent to detail a single room since people just don't want a "clean" map.
- bug fixes: wall collision (a must), camera, visual glitches, mechanic bugs.
- some features that could help and/or speed up the setup of gimmicks in the map, because setting "tons and tons and tons and tons of tags" to make only one map element is in fact "ridiculous".
Although being small, I'm aware that implementing this list is time-consuming.
About this contest: postpone it for two months.
Off-topic: I don't expect new official maps to play SRB2... I play them for 1 or 2 months and I get bored. My stay here was due to the production of custom content and level making. Back in the time I joined, the official maps were just an excuse to download and play a quite-unfinished game and then to get deep into custom content and level making. Once the custom content runs out, you get bored of playing the same maps no matter how awesome they are or were.
