Official Level Design Contest 2021: Round 2

Official Level Design Contest 2021: Round 2 1.4

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NOTICE: My entry: Command Facility Zone is a bit buggy atm and will be patched sometime in the future. Any bug you may find may be known already, but if you aren't sure, you can't send me a DM on the MB or on Discord.

That is all. :threat:
 
Twins'R'Okay said:
NOTICE: My entry: Command Facility Zone is a bit buggy atm and will be patched sometime in the future. Any bug you may find may be known already, but if you aren't sure, you can't send me a DM on the MB or on Discord.

That is all. :threat:
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Ok but what is the song name you used for Command Facility Zone, that music is an absolute banger!
 
Quick question, really want to play some of these levels using Chrispy's Pointy and Fluffy, but the Jump and Spin confirmation doesn't work with those. Anyone know a work around?
 
tommygee37 said:
Quick question, really want to play some of these levels using Chrispy's Pointy and Fluffy, but the Jump and Spin confirmation doesn't work with those. Anyone know a work around?
Click to expand...
It works for me. Are you using version 2.2.9?
 
Honestly, this OLDC might just be the best one yet, I loved pretty much every level in this contest, even if I had to vote some ones over others I still enjoyed all of them. So without further ado, here are my reviews:
  • Blue Glacier Zone by BronsoKip
    • Okay, first off, holy shit, this level looks GOOD! It’s a huge step up from Alabaster, which wasn’t bad, but it was kinda basic, so it’s really cool to see you got your visual design on point, with all the colors and textures and stuff. It’s a bit of a shame how short the level was because I loved what I saw and would’ve liked more, not really much to say except that was just plain solid, everything looked nice, the level design was smooth, pretty enjoyable!
  • Botanic Space Zone 2 by DeltaSanic
    • Okay that was pretty good! I really like how you craft these big open areas and then lay out the level path so that the player has to run all around the room back and forth to progress. It’s a really good usage of space and makes the area more like a real place to explore.
    • But at the same time, I think that a few parts of the level seemed a bit, empty? Particularly the more grassy parts, like there could’ve been more decor or enemies or other stuff to fill in the gaps in this wide open space, because at the moment, at times it almost feels like parts of the level were unfinished.
    • Plus, in some of these areas it was a little confusing where to go, the direction was kinda wack, it was easy to run in circles not knowing what you’re supposed to do, and I think that was a bit compounded by the monitor gimmick. There was pretty much no clue at that first monitor that that thing was bustable and you had to use it to open the door, I only ended up doing it by accident. And then later on it starts just not opening doors but elevator pods too? And it isn’t really clear what doors/pods are intended to be openable and what monitor things open what? It just gets a little confusing overall.
    • I really liked the atmosphere though, you did a really great job of putting detail into the whole “factory overtaken nature” aesthetic, and overall I really did enjoy the experience of running through this area since you do a really good job of setting the mood. (I also really liked the steam jet room, that was a fun challenge.) All in all, a pretty good level with a few weird problems but don’t really ruin the experience as a whole!
  • Bricked Busted Zone by Mikhael Blur
    • Holy. Shit. I can’t believe I just went to fucking Lego Land, and it’s just as great as when I was a child, if not better. In all seriousness though, I am actually BLOWN AWAY, that was fucking magnificent. First off, the aesthetic is super unique, I don’t think anyone has ever done a Toy Kingdom esque SP level in SRB2, and it rarely happens in Sonic in general, but you did and you made it really good. You have these big open-ended areas with all this room to explore, and all the different layering pathways, often if you fall it doesn’t really feel like a punishment, more less you’ve stumbled upon a new place to explore.
    • And on top of that, you’re constantly throwing these really fun and unique platforming challenges at the player, like the water skipping segment, or where you climb up those pillars with the diagonal springs, that vertical room where you’re constantly hitting springs to go up, the usage of the spike balls as well placed obstacles everywhere, it’s just a blast to see how much variety you put into the gameplay and it’s just so fun.
    • And it just kept going on, and on! Every time I thought the level would end because “there’s no way something this good can last this long” the level just kept going and it was great. Nothing really else to say other than, by god, I’m impressed how you pulled this off!
  • Caustic Crater Zone by Seaballer
    • Okay, that level was super good. Again, the aesthetic was super cool, (starting to notice that as a theme in this contest) I loved the amount of detail there was in every room to set up the theme and environment. I also really liked how you laid out the level with tight and concise platforming, you’re constantly keeping the player on their toes with stuff to do and jump around to avoid falling into the void below, which makes the level pretty engaging. I honestly wish I had more to say but I don’t, I just enjoyed it, I think it was pretty great.
  • Follow Your Rainbow by Rogerregorroger
    • That level was definitely An Experience. And I say that in a good way. I really enjoyed the scenario you set up, with all the set pieces and enemies and other things littered throughout the level, it really felt like I was on my toes escaping from GUN a la SA2. (also, i love how there are GUN trucks in a fucking mall, that was great)
    • The only real complaint I have is just the same thing I’ve had with the rest of your levels. Not the fact that there’s not much gameplay, I don’t think that’s something that should be held against a level if that’s not what it’s trying to focus on, but what little gameplay there is, is still kinda awkward.
    • It’s like you’re focusing too much on the detail, that you don’t really lend too much attention to how the level plays, which leads to it sometimes being awkward and cramped with narrow pathways that don’t really feel right, and it really kills the flow of the scene you’re setting up too because you have to stop and start to figure out how to get across this awkward level design, preventing you from just experiencing the spectacle of the level smoothly. I think it’s something you could stand to work on, but it’s definitely not something that kills the level, which I still enjoyed a lot.
  • Command Facility Zone by Twins'R'Okay
    • Okay, I quite liked this level! I thought the gameplay was really fun, I liked the way you used slopes to make the player move up and around, it was like a fun roller coaster, especially with those loops and half-pipes. (god i can’t wait for the engine to actually be able to handle that because having those work with non-artificial physics would be the bomb) The acid was pretty fun too, you used it in ways that made for good obstacles, like the acid falls, the acid waves, and when you were climbing up to that teleporter with those Hive Elementals, those were fun challenges.
    • My one complaint is that the level felt a bit empty? Like the detail to actually sell the “facility” as a facility wasn’t quite there, it just felt like you were plastering on textures and not really setting up the specific things that would be in an industrial environment. Which is fair, industrial levels are hard to build in SRB2, just look at the amount of detail THZ2 has to put in to feel realistic, with all those pipes and pillars and windows and more stuff. It’s not a deal breaker, but it is something to note. I really liked it in the end though, it was a fun level and I had a good time with it.
  • Digital DeLuche Zone by RoyKirbs
    • Okay that was COOL. I definitely love the whole digital aesthetic you’ve got going on here, it’s super simple but it works surprisingly well when you combine in all the different colors and texture variations, really make the level stand out. (also i can’t help but feel like we’re in gay cyberspace and i love it)
    • The level really, at its core is actually rather simple, in a good way. I like how you use the moving floor effects to move around the geometry for platforming challenges, it helps to sell the digital environment and also makes for fun gameplay too.
    • If I have one complaint, it’s that sometimes the challenges are a bit too much? Like that one part near the beginning where there’s a 128 purple ledge and you have to use the slope in the middle, but the slope just looks like decoration so it’s a bit confusing? And that other part where the floor is retracting downwards in a sort of inverted pyramid and you have to abuse slope physics to get up to the spring balls and get out but it’s kinda annoying to do so? It doesn’t really make for intuitive gameplay and I imagine people might get stuck on it and for good reason. The level is still pretty great though, definitely one of my favorites.
  • Frozen Fissure Zone by Garrean
    • it me lol
  • Grass Planet Zone by Voidy2246
    • Okay, that was a pretty cute level. I like how simple and quaint it is, but it works really well, jumping from small island to small island. It’s a nice sense of progression that feels really good in combination with the little platforming you’ve got here, with the balloons and the pulleys to keep things moving fresh.
    • Some notes, the pterodactyls kinda suck when it comes to bottomless pits because they grab you and then you’re just basically screwed if they decide to drop you somewhere bad. Also the level felt a bit small at times? Like it was a bit too easy to go careening off a cliff just because SRB2 characters inherently move fast, so I had to restrain myself from moving too much. Maybe the level would work better if it were scaled up a bit.
    • All that aside though, I definitely enjoyed this level, it was simple and fun, and often that’s just something that works!
  • Invasion Zone by JABSphere94
    • Okay, that level sure was, something. First off I like the aesthetic you’re going for here, this cool, unique purple place, running through it, avoiding enemies, then climbing up into the sky, fighting your way up the airship, it’s a pretty cool concept.
    • But the level design is just so awkward and cramped and confusing on what to do or where to go, that it kinda makes everything fall apart. Multiple parts in the air ship I just gave up on figuring out where I was supposed to go because I kept running in circles because, while I could “see” where I needed to go, I couldn’t figure out what the path in the room I was supposed to take to get to my destination, and I just ended up using Tails to get out of there.
    • The boss was actually pretty cool, I’ll give you serious props for that because it was a very unique fight that I haven’t quite seen anything like it before, and it was fun! Overall, it’s an okay level, there’s a lot of jank that could use cleaning up but the underlying concepts are pretty cool and it’d be nice to see them properly realized.
  • Iron Dominion Zone by LazyMK
    • I can’t believe you leaked Techno Hill Act 4 smh
    • Anyways, I liked it! It’s a lot like some of the other levels in this contest, just nice basic gameplay that has a good aesthetic and a smooth flow. I honestly don’t have much to say about this because it’s pretty baseline for you MK. Honestly, my only “complaint” is just that, it’s a bit unambitious since I’ve seen you do more than this, but it’s not a huge takeaway, plus I’ve also heard that this was an old level from 2.1 finally finished, so that’s understandable. All in all, pretty great map.
  • Junkyard Jeopardy Zone by PhilJFou /// ChaRG
    • Honestly, I don’t know what to say with this map, it has some cool and interesting challenges, like with the moving crushers, the lasers, the polyobjects, and other things like that, but everything is just so confusing and messy that it takes away pretty much any goodwill that stuff could bring to the table.
    • The entire level has a really grating colormap that makes it hard to see things, coupled with bad directioning, it makes it a chore to just navigate the level because you have no idea what you’re doing or where you’re going.
    • That one polyobject room is super cramped and unforgiving that I basically just gave up and used Tails to skip it. It might’ve been better if there was another path down there because just going in that goop was not fun, it was just annoying.
    • The buttons in the map were weird too. It was kind of unclear sometimes that you even needed to find a button, especially that last button where you have to jump DOWNWARDS in the room to access it, which is the most unintuitive concept out there.
    • Honestly, it’s a shame because with all of these ideas, there’s a lot of potential to be realized here if you could just polish it out. My recommendation would be to just think about how the player is going to play your level. What do you think they’re going to experience as a blind playthrough, what troubles might they run into, what frustrations, things like that, because you as the author are biased and know your own map like the back of your hand, but that means you’ll easily skirt past unfair obstacles and other things because you’re just too acclimated to it.
    • If you kept stuff like that in mind, I think this stage, and any other stages you could make, could have a smoother flow and be more fair and fun to play.
  • Lofty Woods by Vixuzen
    • Alright, this was a pretty solid level. I like the “realistic” aesthetic, it works surprisingly well. The gameplay is pretty alright, climbing up this “wooded mountain” area with all those slopes was a pretty fun challenge. Some people complained that some of the slopes were too steep; I was playing as Sonic so honestly it wasn’t a problem for me cause I had thok, but I can see how that might be an issue for other characters, so you might want to try accounting for that.
    • One complaint I have is that the level felt kind of samey? Like you’re just doing the same basic kind of platforming over and over and the rooms don’t look very distinctive, so it kind of starts feeling a little bland the deeper you go into the level. It’s not to a huge extent, and it definitely doesn’t kill the level, but still. Anyways, just another good level that I enjoyed.
    • (also, shadow music is pog)
  • Lucid Landscape Zone by Othius
    • Okay, to be completely honest, when I first came into this level, I was actually kinda pessimistic, expecting Just Another Othius Stage (which isn’t an INHERENTLY bad thing but it does get kind of repetitive) but I was actually pleasantly surprised!
    • My main problem with all your other stages is, that while they’re technically impressive, they’re just all the same “keep running and jumping and moving smoothly through this slopey rollercoaster”, but this stage actually changed it up a bit. There are some sections of slower, more thoughtful platforming to break up the pace, like with the rotating platforms, vertically and horizontally moving platforms, the retracting spikes, it breaks up the gameplay, which keeps things fresh.
    • I think you should try focusing more on stuff like that, obstacles and gimmicks that fundamentally change the way you as the player traverse the level. I’ve spoken a lot about that to you before so I won’t go too much into it, but for one counterexample, the gravity waterfalls actually DON’T do that because all it does is flip the gravity, but you still just keep moving forwards, it doesn’t really change how you play the level. (also side note, it’s a bit disorienting how it flips the gravity because it gets a little bit confusing on where you’re going to land but it’s not that bad
    • But anyways, I think if you could do more of that, then that in combination with the level design skills you have already would seriously shoot your levels up even more than they already are.
  • Sunset Summit Zone 1 by Entropy
    • I thought this level was pretty nice, it’s a nice and simple stage, a big open space with lots of pathways to explore, and the gameplay is generally pretty solid. There are a few portions where it’s a bit weird with direction, not super clear where you’re supposed to go, but it’s still pretty alright.
    • I also have to say that there’s not really much spice to the level, like, as a baseline, everything is, as I said, pretty solid, but the level never really does anything to change things up, it just stays pretty simple, which isn’t bad, but I think it could do better in that regard, would make the level a lot more memorable. I still very much enjoyed it as is though, it was pretty fun!
  • Rhyolite Ruin Zone by Radicalicious
    • Honestly, this was a pretty great NiGHTS stage. The difficulty is alright, it plays pretty well without much jank, and I like the aesthetic. (Though the third mare is pretty empty, but you already acknowledged that.) Not too much else to comment on besides that.
    • One thing I actually can say though, is that I actually think you kind of overuse the circle chip layout, which makes the gameplay feel a bit repetitive as you’re just flying in circles over and over again trying to collect the chips. Anyways, overall, I think the level was pretty great, I enjoyed it.
  • Pineapple Prairie Zone by SupaCustardBro
    • Alright, that was a pretty cute level. It has a bunch of small quaint platforming, and I would say it’s pretty solid, except, I think the level is actually a bit too small in places for it to be effective, because you can just jump over the whole thing because SRB2 characters just move that fast. You could stand to scale some parts of the level up a bit.
    • But honestly, besides that, I don’t have much to say, it was a pretty solid level that I enjoyed, it had some fun challenges like with the spikeballs, the climbing around the final mountain set piece, the dash panels, (though again, those were a little too cramped to be effective) which all made for fun and varied challenges to make up the level. Hope you keep it up, because if you could fix those few things, this already good level could be even better.
  • Something Zone by Marcos
    • Okay, that level sure was An Experience. I like how it was an overture of the entire SRB2 campaign, that was definitely a really unique and interesting theme. Though, when it comes to the actual level design itself, while it was solid enough, I just wish there was more of what there was in GFZ, with the multiple twisting paths that interact with each other, as opposed to the singular basic path there was in pretty much every other level, especially in RVZ and ERZ which are super empty, and definitely could’ve used more meat to them. Overall though, while I think there could’ve been more to the level, it was definitely a pretty nice experience, and I enjoyed it.
  • The Twins Palace by Prince Zaxel
    • Okay, this was a pretty alright level, I like the gimmick with the light and dark areas, it was definitely an interesting theme. Though overall, I have to say, I think the level falls kinda flat, at least, relatively, for you. The gameplay isn’t as interesting as Thunder Yard or Plutonium Plant, both of which by comparison were much more open levels with grand and sprawling challenges, as opposed to this level which was a kind of narrow stage limiting itself to the two paths for the light and dark, and even those individual pathways kind of being cramped and not as enjoyable as they could be. The level overall is still very solid though, it’s kind of basic, but not in an inherently bad way; it’s just good.
  • Nimbus Lake Zone by Yyeellooww7
    • Okay, I really liked that level, it has a GREAT aesthetic, nice and open with a lot of detail to fill up the place, and it’s just a generally smooth and enjoyable ride throughout. One thing I will say, is that, while you do have some fun gameplay moments, like the sloped cave areas, the geyser platforming, and other things like that, there were a notable amount of sections that really were just pretty hallways, like the water slide section, or the big room after the first cave, where you’re doing nothing but just running through this, admittedly, very pretty area but not really playing the game. The level is great as is, but if you could put more gameplay into those sections I think you could make it even greater.
  • Powder Park Zone by DakotaSpine
    • That level was AWESOME. I really like the cool blocky geometry, it makes the level pretty unique, and the simplicity of it allows for you to make easy open areas with a bunch of different pathways and areas to go onto and explore, and it’s all a really big blast just going through it just because of how solid it is.
    • One thing I will say is, that the gameplay is kinda basic. You’re just running around and steering and going on some springs, but there’s not much in the way of actual challenge or really anything to spice things up in general. Maybe there could’ve been some sort of gimmick to add more flavor to the level. It’s not a huge detriment, the level is definitely great as it is, just a little thing that could push it up more than it already is.
  • Bricked Busted Zone by Mikhael Blur
  • Caustic Crater Zone by Seaballer
  • Powder Park Zone by DakotaSpine
  • Iron Dominion Zone by LazyMK
  • Frozen Fissure Zone by Garrean
  • Grass Planet Zone by Voidy2246
  • Digital DeLuche Zone by RoyKirbs
  • Lucid Landscape Zone by Othius
  • Command Facility Zone by Twins'R'Okay
  • Nimbus Lake Zone by Yyeellooww7
  • Follow Your Rainbow by Rogerregorroger
  • Lofty Woods by Vixuzen
  • Something Zone by Marcos
  • Rhyolite Ruin Zone by Radicalicious
  • Sunset Summit Zone 1 by Entropy
  • Pineapple Prairie Zone by SupaCustardBro
  • The Twins Palace by Prince Zaxel
  • Botanic Space Zone 2 by DeltaSanic
  • Blue Glacier Zone by BronsoKip
  • Invasion Zone by JABSphere94
  • Junkyard Jeopardy Zone by PhilJFou /// ChaRG
I know I'm supposed to vote my level first, but this is just my personal opinion post, not my actual voting post; I'll do that there.
Good work to everyone all around!
 
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Always the best! No matter the season, no matter the pressure, these mapmakers still manage to pull it off!
 
Reporting a bug, some MUSICDEF entries have broken definitions, so it won't appear in sound test at all due to it.
WARNING: MUSICDEF: Invalid field 'Alttitle='. (file D:\Games\SRB2 2.2\addons\OLDC_2021Round2_SP-v1.1.pk3, line 41)
WARNING: MUSICDEF: Invalid field 'Alttitle='. (file D:\Games\SRB2 2.2\addons\OLDC_2021Round2_SP-v1.1.pk3, line 87)
WARNING: MUSICDEF: Invalid field 'Authors='. (file D:\Games\SRB2 2.2\addons\OLDC_2021Round2_SP-v1.1.pk3, line 104)
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Already fixed for next patch. Not actually sure how the fixes didn't make it to this patch.
 
I got two SIGSEVS in quick succession in the Hub, but I can't seem to reproduce them at all. They happened after staying in the starting room for a bit to look at the funky way Software renders the character barrel, but I don't know if it's related as I can't reproduce it. the SIGSEV I didn't manage to screenshot happened while moving behind the Rhyolite Ruin Zone teleporter, and I notice now the barrel bugs out more at that distance.
Should this go in the crash report thread?

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The character selector issue is a bug with SRB2 itself which is fixed in the next version.
 
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