Calm Caves Zone

[HardyHarHarMan]

You fall into a hole in a mysterious land, and you're trying to escape it. There, you will see many castles and other robots you've seen.

This is my first full complete level. Took me about about a month, but finally made it. I tried to make it as fun as it can be. Sure, it's a water level, but there can still be some fun parts (especially with the slopes). I tried putting some exploration, platforming and speed in this level (as it should be). This level is heavily based off SMG2, heck, it even uses the same music! Well, have fun!

Spoiler

Made some changes

Changed level select image to actual level

Changed ring height

Changed titlesky back to original

 

[Prime 2.0]

Welcome to Releases!

 

[MellowJacket]

This was good! Had a pretty relaxed play-through of this level just now. I think using a colormap in the water would go a long way to help the visual appearance of the level though, helps sell the idea of being underwater more than just the ripple effect being underwater places on the screen.

I had a nice surprise when I first reached the outside area and saw the skybox and the lighthouse in the distance. It's a fairly simple effect, but you framed it really well with the position of the lighthouse and the direction the player faces when they leave the cave. Good work!

 

[Ice]

This was pretty good!

I liked the music, it added a nice mysterious vibe to the level.
Everything was spaced apart pretty well, the level comes close to cramped in some parts but generally avoids it. I managed to go pretty fast on my second playthrough.
As mentioned before, the skybox was cool. The lighthouse and the mountains were well done, although it sorta looks like the ocean cuts off not too far away. It's not a straight horizon line, but whatevs, that's a nitpick, it looks cool nonetheless.
You also did a pretty good job at directing the player. Each time I started going down the wrong path, I came to a checkpoint that was already activated or an impassable area (as sonic) that told me I should turn around. Good job! Path merges can sometimes be disastrous in linear levels.
The enemies did their job, although they were a little odd considering the theme. If you could place more castle elements near the enemies, it would make a bit more sense. But they were placed in interesting ways and kept the player moving, which is about the best you can do without custom enemies.

Some minor gripes:
-The water is missing a colormap, as mentioned before. They really are pretty necessary for communicating when the player is underwater or not.
-Some pits are directly underneath the brightly-colored water texture. It's really hard to tell if it's a pit or not, and as a result, falling into the water and instantly dying feels cheap.
-I think the level would greatly benefit from some more visual variety. There are only like 3 or 4 main textures and it makes the level feel a little one-note. Same goes with the brightness level, it's a bit too dark the entire way through. There's something my art teacher in college always used to say: "make your brights bright and your darks dark!". Your brights are dark and your darks are dark lol. As it is, all the cave bits sorta blend together.

Aside from my gripes, I liked the level! For a first level it's pretty awesome. Lots of people's first completed levels don't really get the spacing and flow aspect of SRB2 and yours totally did. I hope you make an act 2 with some more of the castle elements. The castle bits kept intriguing me and it would be dope to see more of it.