Funky Forest Zone

[McZee123]

A friend of mine, his name is Trilinium here, and I have joined today to present our first release for SRB2. We've been tinkering with the game for a few years now but this is our first time finishing something we consider worth releasing.

We call it Funky Forest Zone for now, and it's a simple three act zone. As it's our first release we decided to play it safe, and thus it's a bit easy and doesn't exactly break any ground. In spite of that, though, we threw in a few secrets to give the levels some merit.

Our plan for now is to make this into a full game with this as the starting act, hence its simplicity. We don't have a name for the full project, but the second zone is already underway and we look forward to its completion. In the meantime, enjoy Funky Forest.... if this even gets through. :X

Also I just want to point out; Trilinium does most of the complex map work and coding. My specialty is aesthetic, balance and object placement.

 

[Zipper]

Good stuff for a first-time level, right here. I like what I'm playing; the platforming's solid, the difficulty is fitting for a beginning level, and it's got a set theme that it doesn't stray away from.

I DO have a few nitpicks with this though,if you don't mind. I'm going to ignore the fact that the level doesn't try any gimmicks, since you said yourself that you didn't go too hard on it, as it was your first true level.

Spoiler: N I T P I C K B O Y S

The only one that's actually significant is this:

This cave before the checkpoint in Act 2 is actually another split path from before, but it meshes together with the other path so well, that it's incredibly easy to just backtrack by accident instead of going the right way. You might want to make the checkpoint more obvious/the path merge clearer.

The rest are just visual preferences, you can ignore me if you disagree, it's fine.

I'm not a fan of rocks with blocky heights like this. It's okay if it's a stalagmite or something but, it looks really ugly otherwise. Trust me, nobody will complain if you use one height for all of the rock.

GHZ textures look pretty bad in a forest setting. it messes with my aesthetics

Try to do less of "mass springs to guide you", and more of "some springs and some steps" to guide you, it looks nicer and is more interesting to interact with.

 

[Prime 2.0]

Sorry about the hiccup there - and welcome to releases! Again!

 

[McZee123]

Thank you very much for the welcome.

 

[XEFAGame]

Good job McZee123.
I like the "Hill Top" music.
These levels are very good.
I like them.

 

[Trilinium]

Thanks everyone for your kind words. It actually took a couple weeks with a couple periods of off time. So it's nice to know that they came out well. I also just want to mention that we did fix the things that Zipper mentioned. (For the most part I think)

 

[Revan]

Good level for starters. Now im looking forward for your levels guys! :D

 

[Lat']

Time for my pointless review!
To begin with, it's very good for a first level, bravo Mesieurs~
I liked the level theme that changes a lot from the usual Neo Green Hill Flower Zone Act 153, and I didn't have any problem with directions and all.

I do have some nitpicks however;
The grass ledges seem too bright compared to the actual grass, I'd set the texture to "GRSEDG2" if I was you, it fits much more this grass.

The spikes in the boss act are not always hitting you, hear by that, I fell between them, you should add some more next to them so they always hit.

 

[McZee123]

We went with the alternate grass because we noticed it wasn't used very much in relation to vanilla SRB2 and we thought it would help the level seem less like a "Neo Green Hill Flower Zone Act 153". Perhaps it didn't work as well as we thought, though....

As for the spikes, when we next release a version, likely with at least part of Zone 2, I'll try and remember to fix that. Thank you for the input.

Speaking, of I should probably show off screens of Zone 2 sometime. The theme is a bit.... gimmicky and it might be a good idea to see if it's any good.

 

[McZee123]

Apologies for the double post, but I've a few screenshots of Map04. The theme is a bit unorthodox. We're going for a sort of "techbase" level, the catch is that it's disguised as a sort of giant sand castle built on a desert beach.

We figured we should show off some pictures to get a feel for it, because we've been praised for the forest having a "consistent theme" and so we wanted to see what people thought.

 

[Revan]

Well. This is a neat looking for a desert map. Some textures doesn't fit for this level.

 

[McZee123]

Could you or somebody else elaborate? What exactly doesn't fit?

 

[Revan]

The mechanized textures at second screenshot. Just, release a normal desert level. Really. is better than mechanized desert.

 

[Prime 2.0]

While the lights look awkward, the glass windows in the halls look really cool, and I think neat stuff could be done with the theme concept, provided that you took care to make it fit in.

 

[McZee123]

Right. We'll have to be extra careful here. The lights can go easily, but we'll keep the glass.

In the meantime I have screenshots of a few other areas. We have this conveyor belt in Act 1, and a laser beam in Act 2. Keep in mind that the Act 2 room is far from finished, but I wanted to see what everyone thought.

Figured we should show these things now, nip them in the bud while the levels are still in alpha.

 

[PIRY_DAKILLA!!!]

@McZee123, this map looks breath taking. The trees and visuals are outstanding as well as the level design. Keep up the good work :)

 

[Trilinium]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Like McZee mentioned the lights are going to go. The reason why I added the lights was to sort of add detail to the ceiling. I don't have much experience with buildings like this in general so I'm still sort of learning. Natural areas have always kind of been my thing. I'll probably create some sort of structure on the ceiling of that room.

 

[McZee123]

Nobody gave any input but we've made headway on Act 2 of the second zone. It's looking a lot better, and we're considering testing the waters with submerged sections, like Deep Sea Zone. I haven't done anything like that before so I'm a bit nervous. Does anyone have any tips on how to balance a segment like that?

 

[Lat']

Doing underwater sections is not that hard; just keep in mind that you have to make the air bubbles obvious and easy to see, right on the player's path (I'd suggest to make small holes in the ground for that).
Unless you change it, a player can breath 30 (?) seconds before drowning, just place them at a regular interval so the player doesn't panic. Also go easy on enemy placement since knockback is stronger underwater.

 

[McZee123]

Thanks. We'll keep that in mind. I tend to get a bit overzealous with enemy placement so I'll have to reel it in for this level.