Enby Echoes Zone (v1)

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RoyKirbs

RoyKirbs

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Enby Echoes is a crazy purple void thing, originally intended to be a ULDC submission but now exists at it's own standalone thing.

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The level is full of weird gimmicks involving negative-gravity water and springey-type enemies. Do enjoy it!


All music is from Ecco: Tides of Time.


oh also happy autism acceptance month.
 

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Welcome to releases! I enjoyed it, but I gotta say, this sure got tougher than I was expecting... Especially this one guy in particular that I shoulda taken a screencap of. Aside from that, great stuff!
 
Congrats on not letting the cancellation of the ULDC get you down, as this is an amazing map with some neat gimmicks.

I got to the swinging chains as Sonic, maybe it is a good thing some of these are being released separately, as some of the mechanics are delightfully difficult in various spots.

I've been trying to get myself to not play Tails so much, though I still see his 'easy mode' use could still be useful in scouting out what I am up against.
 
Dang, I really enjoyed this level! At first, I felt like it was kind of empty, but it more than made up for it with the fun and unique applications of the main gimmick. It was really fun to puzzle out how you were supposed to get through the new challenges that were constantly being thrown at the player, especially under the pressure of being jolted around by springs and boosters and being one wrong move away from falling to your doom.

Also, the end was super cute <3
 
I thoroughly enjoyed this level, especially hearing that beloved Crystal Springs theme, followed by that remix of Tube of Medusa. I thought the water gimmick was rather cool and created some interesting challenges, and the palette was very pleasing to the eyes. But lol I was fooled by that fakeout, and boy was there a difficulty spike after that. Eventually I did get to the true end, I guess I should feel super valid XD Anyway, great work on this! ~
 
Well in my take, id say that the level is pretty cool! the anti gravity water mechanic is something not only very unique but very playful and i have got to mention the general aesthetic of the level as a whole i fantastic. However...

I got caught up in some troubles during my playthrough and i will resume them in small topics:

- The level can be a bit harsh in some parts, even frustrating, it's nice to play around with the water, although when you are in the hit animation you are pretty much defenseless.

- SIGABRT is a problem that i sometimes experience... i don't know where the issue comes from but what ever...

- The distancing in between starpost gives a huge backtracking that causes annoyance, not very good.

Regardles, the level is worth the try even with these tiny problems it can give a bit of ironing out in the future. Great work as always roy!
 
This is one of the more mechanically interesting maps I've seen lately. The large amount of springs make playing Amy very satisfying here. That said, the map has a lot of rough edges and visibility issues. I'll go over them quickly.

Firstly, on my initial playthrough I boredom hammered in this elevator and got sent flying upwards into the void. I had to type retry to get out of this and was sent a long way back as the latest starpost was rather far. The music didn't reset either.

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These blind spring landings are basically guesswork. The player shouldn't be launched nearly as high here.

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This hazard needs to be heavily reworked or scrapped entirely. Sitting around in pain state for 5 years after getting hit is obnoxious. It was at this point I gave up on this path and went the other way.

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The other path is immediately more fun and also very forgiving because this section uses a teleport pit rather than a death pit. Teleport pits should definitely be used more often in this level. As far as I know this is the only one that exists.

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The rotating springs here are just low enough that you can't see them until you've already jumped out. I misread this as a downwards fall because there's nothing immediately visible besides walls.

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It's not really clear what's going on with this water block and it's entirely possible to miss the springs if you're too close to the edge of it.

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This is my favorite room in the map. I kinda wish the chains were utilized more often.

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I'm not sure why this section is here. It serves little purpose except to be annoying while you wait around for the cycles to not deny your progress.

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This would be a nice gimmick if not for the giant thorn obscuring your view of the moving spring platforms. The player should already know they need to use the booster by the time they see this setup so the thorn isn't really doing anything besides making it needlessly difficult to time when you advance.

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The cracks in the ice here are too hard to see. Since they dissolve on contact anyways they should really just be normal holes.

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Another instance of not being able to see where to land

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Lastly, this final obstacle is a bit weird. I see no reason to ever aim for the left booster, and the crabs are instakill obstacles in a low control situation.

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The first few minutes of the level were really fun, but then it started to become really terrible at pointing one in the right direction. I like the concept of how water is done, but I think it could've done a better job utilizing it, and getting stuck at the top is an absolute slog. One thing I can appreciate is the subtle naming and theme, but I feel like that's the one big thing this level was trying to go for. I liked it, but it definitely needs improvement.
 
I got to the part with the water lake where there's some sort of wooden gate that I assume needs to be opened somehow. I couldn't figure out how before I ran out of lives. The last starpost being on the other side of the country did it no favors either.

My criticisms of the map are the same as Katmint's, but I want to give extra emphasis to two of them: 1) don't give me black holes that just teleport you back if you're going to invisibly replace them with death pits later and B) you see that thing in the sixth picture she posted? That thing sucks ass, needs immediate deletion.
 
Katmint said:
These blind spring landings are basically guesswork. The player shouldn't be launched nearly as high here.

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Click to expand...


Can't you just... Look downwards? lol
 

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Goldenhog said:
I got to the part with the water lake where there's some sort of wooden gate that I assume needs to be opened somehow. I couldn't figure out how before I ran out of lives. The last starpost being on the other side of the country did it no favors either.
Click to expand...

You're supposed to trigger the Big Floating Mines around the door. Just don't get hit because inside that water block it's pretty obnoxious to recover if you do.
 
Kwiin said:
Can't you just... Look downwards? lol
Click to expand...

The default renderer doesn't handle looking up and down very well, and the default control scheme disables the ability to look up and down in third person, so you shouldn't design levels assuming the player is going to do that.
 
I LOVED this level. Its gimmicks were so creative, and interact with each other in such unique ways. It was always clear what I was meant to do, but they still provided adequate challenge and kept me on my toes. The final real-time stretch run felt so sick to run through, and the message in the final upwards tube made me giggle. I'm so glad I chose to play this today, it made my day infinitely better!
 
Katmint said:
This is one of the more mechanically interesting maps I've seen lately. The large amount of springs make playing Amy very satisfying here. That said, the map has a lot of rough edges and visibility issues. I'll go over them quickly.

Firstly, on my initial playthrough I boredom hammered in this elevator and got sent flying upwards into the void. I had to type retry to get out of this and was sent a long way back as the latest starpost was rather far. The music didn't reset either.

attachment.php


These blind spring landings are basically guesswork. The player shouldn't be launched nearly as high here.

attachment.php


This hazard needs to be heavily reworked or scrapped entirely. Sitting around in pain state for 5 years after getting hit is obnoxious. It was at this point I gave up on this path and went the other way.

attachment.php


The other path is immediately more fun and also very forgiving because this section uses a teleport pit rather than a death pit. Teleport pits should definitely be used more often in this level. As far as I know this is the only one that exists.

attachment.php


The rotating springs here are just low enough that you can't see them until you've already jumped out. I misread this as a downwards fall because there's nothing immediately visible besides walls.

attachment.php


It's not really clear what's going on with this water block and it's entirely possible to miss the springs if you're too close to the edge of it.

attachment.php


This is my favorite room in the map. I kinda wish the chains were utilized more often.

attachment.php


I'm not sure why this section is here. It serves little purpose except to be annoying while you wait around for the cycles to not deny your progress.

attachment.php


This would be a nice gimmick if not for the giant thorn obscuring your view of the moving spring platforms. The player should already know they need to use the booster by the time they see this setup so the thorn isn't really doing anything besides making it needlessly difficult to time when you advance.

attachment.php


The cracks in the ice here are too hard to see. Since they dissolve on contact anyways they should really just be normal holes.

attachment.php


Another instance of not being able to see where to land

attachment.php


Lastly, this final obstacle is a bit weird. I see no reason to ever aim for the left booster, and the crabs are instakill obstacles in a low control situation.

attachment.php
Click to expand...
Half of these issues seem like they'd be solved by just playing with mouselook, but I understand some don't wanna break the supposed authenticity, much like refusing to use mouselook in DOOM. Personally, I think I won't mind these as much, given I almost exclusively play on OpenGL with models and freelook.
 
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