Forest Fortress Zone (Act 2)

[Kyasarin]

It's the second Act to Forest Fortress Zone, which I released a while ago. Unlike the first Act, this Act takes place at night.
As the name implies, it features a giant castle in a forest. It's a single-player level.
The main intent of this second Act is so that I can practice better design skills and break the habits that have plagued previous levels of mine (flatness, blandness, linearity, being too horizontal).

Betas won't be released publicly on the forum until the level's done (or, at least until I have a very good amount of substance); betas will either be given through Private Messages or on the IRC channel.
Comments, criticism, and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[123 Runite]

It's the second Act to Forest Fortress Zone, which I released a while ago.

You should be more clear in this; what you released was the first act. The sentence confused me the first time I've read it.

The screenshots look good, especially the first one. I'm curious as to how gameplay would be. Screenshots can't say everything about a level. But it seems this is a 1.09 port, although I know it isn't. Use some of the newer textures, especially in the area of your third screenshot. Also, perhaps you can play with the shape of the FOF sectors in the same area (and probably the geometry of the walls of the entire level). The edges seem to be too flat. Nature (forests, mountains, oceans, etc) isn't filled with absolutely long, if not short, straight lines or perfectly right angles, you know. This will clear any feeling of some areas being too "horizontal," if I may say. Be more free with your level design! You don't have to always follow the grid.

 

[Violo]

Okay, to my suggestions. Firstly, like I said on IRC, this level would be awesome if it had an Autumn Theme to it. Secondly, try to make more obvious multiple paths like in SRB2. FFZ1 had really obscure paths to get to, WWZ1 had paths that either seemed like "Why is there another path here when nothing seems to lead to it?" and WWZ also didn't have many paths at all.

So, don't go too overboard on the vertical thing, because things overly vertical just don't work. Arid Canyon Zone help by putting in different pits and small but slightly to very dangerous jumps depending on the area.

Now to criticisms. The trees in picture two and three seem very wierd in that there's a small in area block of vines that go really high. The blocks should be waaay closer to the ceiling on the vines. Picture One seems to be perfect although kinda straight; a chicane or something would be good there, just in the carpet. Also, your textures needed aligning and you shhould do it while you have the chance since the DSZROCK2 and GFZROCK (when not done properly) looks very ugly. You may forget if you leave it too long.

That's all I have to say, fight on Kyasarin.

 

[MascaraSnake]

Like always, your visuals are pretty much top notch. You chose a pretty generic theme, but you seem to have made the best out of it. I obviously can't comment on the gameplay without having seen a beta, but I can at least say that the first screenshot seems too flat.

Other than that, I think you can't make a really original level with a theme like that. Unless you have some incredibly awesome idea that I don't know about, this will become another "run and jump up some platforms" level. And since you yourself have pretty high standards for levels, that's probably not what you want.

 

[Kyasarin]

I kept the first screenshot a little bland because that's the very first hallway. It's cleared in about two seconds, so I figured that being flat wouldn't be a problem.
It's not visibile in the last screenshot, but the upper cliff takes the player to, uh, a cliff, and the bridge takes you into a little cave, which is forested, like the beginning.

Violo, I'll get to your suggestions once I get to the PC. I think I can try making it autumn themed in the third Act, if I ever get to that. It can slowly transitrion into that towards the end.
Also, I'll try entering this into the next Contest if it makes it.

 

[Ice]

The torches in the first screenshot are bugging me. They seem a bit too high, IMO. Usually 2 DSZ blocks instead of 3 work fine.

 

[MascaraSnake]

I kept the first screenshot a little bland because that's the very first hallway. It's cleared in about two seconds, so I figured that being flat wouldn't be a problem.

Well, in this case, it's obviously not a problem.

 

[Violo]

The torches in the first screenshot are bugging me. They seem a bit too high, IMO. Usually 2 DSZ blocks instead of 3 work fine.

That problem could be fixed by using those DMA textures a bit.

 

[Kyasarin]

The torches have been lowered, the edges are rounded off and more natural-like, some textures are aligned, and there's more scenery and bonus areas.

Progress isn't exactly going as fast as I like, as I've mostly been doing lots of improvements on my current work.

 

[Violo]

May I suggest looking at GRSWALL1 and seeing if that looks good in your eyes? Since that's now the official Pegging for GRASS3/2.

 

[Kyasarin]

I don't really like that texture. That's why I used GFZGRASS in the first place.
I'll change the pegging texture if there's enough people that want it.

 

[Violo]

Eh, I wasn't sure myself; so I asked you if you liked it. It's your decision.

 

[Ice]

Hm. You should only round off FOFs if they still look good afterward. The one in that screenshot -its alignment is bugging me. Otherwise just keep them square.