OLDC 2021 Round 1 Voting - Gunla

[Gunla]

Spoiler: Vote

1 - Hollow Hill
2 - Falcon Emissary
3 - Abyss Caverns
4 - Ridge Rapids
5 - Mercury Mine
6 - Blizzard Bastion
7 - Drenched Dam
8 - Teal Tundra
9 - Lava Temple
10 - Ante-Station
11 - Koopa Kastle
12 - Bombastic Beach
13 - Fort Sunset
14 - Zaxel's Thunder Yard
15 - Emerald Glade Zone
16 - Music Mash

Spoiler: Individual Feedback

Hollow Hill:

• The level itself is no doubt gorgeous, but I'm aware it's been something that's existed for a while and was never released. Collab aside, I think the colormapping/lighting might be a bit too strong and instead tends to mask certain elements, especially with springs in general.
• I'll admit that I'm fairly weak to slope play and the like and I do greatly enjoy the normal paths available, but it did tend to feel like it was overstaying its welcome by the end. I do think the Tails path feels more like it was low priority since it's just mashing through air boosters for a solid minute or so.
• The rising goop water is an interesting mechanic, but passing through it with significant speed necessitated rigorous and arguably excessive levels of mashing - and the gargoyles later on add bright green shots on an already white background in the water, which can make it difficult to actually tell where the shots will land at times.
• The shaking in some areas, namely when the ground above you collapses, is a bit much. Doesn't really help that, mechanically, the sections like that play out the same (dodge things for a bit, then let it fall).

Falcon Emissary:

• An extremely well done map for the most part. I enjoyed the level's visuals and the variety of styles used, which made most of the rooms feel particularly unique. The weather shifts & gravity changes also made for standout setpieces.
• There's a handful of areas, namely towards the back half of the map, that felt like it was prone to enemy spam, and a few too many types of badniks were used that felt like it started to clash with the level's setup of being an airborne vessel.
• A handful of parts of the level, namely the blue switch or the optional outside area earlier on in the map, felt like their directioning were somewhat lacking.
• While the checkpoints are placed well in conjunction, the high gravity section with the vessel in freefall slaps down the solid pace of the level with a slow stair climb. It felt like a neat concept that probably could have warranted more iteration alongside some of the fan areas.

Abyss Caverns:

• Excellent visual design from the tools used. Of most of the levels this had a fantastic atmosphere and I loved all of the visual setpieces.
• There admitably wasn't a ton of depth to the level's geometry (the ending in particular was quite flat compared to the rest of it), but it felt like it was taking a backseat to the visual style - lots of general slope jumps to slope jumps, but not something I have much of a problem with.

Ridge Rapids:

• Clearly knows what it wants to accomplish with the visuals and aesthetics. I really liked the usage of the 2D mode to the camera shift setpiece, and how the rapids areas were designed.
• The level's difficulty feels like two different tones. The first half of the level is relatively straightforward, and then suddenly much more strict platforming is demanded of the player alongside a Hive Elemental. It did reduce my enjoyment of the level, but not by too much. This is still a very solid level overall.

Mercury Mine:

• This level is particularly solid, it's open enough that you can run around, but not too open in most of the rooms. Largely however, some of the setpieces felt a bit empty in regards to platforming challenges, but I greatly appreciated the slopes usage.
• Some of the indoor lighting honestly was impressive, but it clashed a bit with the outside textures being basically full brightness (namely the cyan ones).
• The jump timing area felt like it lingered on for a bit too long by the end, and probably could have been made shorter. The level itself has a fine length as is with regards to timing & content in the level.

Blizzard Bastion:

• There's a lot going on in this level, from the ice slide to the maze, etc. Not all of them are great but some of them definitely stand out (the ice slide in particular).
• Some of the platforming is fairly strict considering that it's also on ice platforms. The level of precision expected in some areas is a bit much.
• A neat touch I liked, and it's very visible early on, is that some of the specific platforming elements have strong shadows to make it clear from a distance. I don't know why the lighting feels fairly desaturated, perhaps it's meant to be a fog of some sorts but it just ends up feeling washed out on either renderer.

Drenched Dam:

• A fairly short Metal Sonic race, but I appreciated it nonetheless for the most part. Tactical jumps allow you to get a significant leg ahead of Metal Sonic however, which can greatly reduce the difficulty.
• The level as a whole is fairly small in width as well, meaning the enemy placements make it a bit more punishing than it probably needs to be if you don't take the shortcuts. The level of invisible walls is a bit much as well and probably could have been indicated by texture usage (glass walls or tall fences).

Teal Tundra:

• The level is relatively inoffensive, and fun enough to run through. However, I don't think there's a lot that's going on and it could definitely benefit from additional usage of slopes.
• The forced underwater section in particular detracts from the level as there's just not much to do other than run through at the end.
• Overall, I do like what's there, but it does feel like more could be added to many of the existing rooms since it feels like it's about at a healthy length.

Lava Temple:

• I have to no doubt respect the level of detail given to the second half of the map and including a large degree of alternate paths, as well as the committal to using the assets you did. That being said, I do think some of the paths felt a bit lackluster, namely being the ones that had a focus on using nearly the maximum possible jump height for some platforming (Metal's comes to mind).
• I think the first half of the map is particularly interesting (the multi-paths, to be clear), but the back half in my playthroughs soured the overall mood.

Ante-Station:

• The Axis2D and portal usage is admitably pretty interesting. However, I think it largely comes at the cost of level design:
  • The good first chunk of this level is particularly autopilot-heavy/hold right and it's not until you have polyobjects moving out from underneath you that you're actually having serious obstacles to contend with. It's a bit difficult to actually tell where I'm going to land as well with many of the jumps, and even with some course-correcting it's still tantamount to just having the player get killed because of a slight misjudgment.
• This was particularly noticeable with the angled section, which then added spikes which meant that getting hit was all the more time consuming.
• I certainly do think the mechanic has a lot of potential usage, but I think the level design suffered too much from heavy usage of polyobjects and visual flair and I think the 2D nature made it fall short.

Koopa Kastle:

• This level sets out to feel a bit old and I think it does it, but at the same time I do think it also suffers a bit because of that. Some of the level design is just old hallways with heavy enemy usage (the Koopas were nice though) that felt a bit contentious.
• I'll be honest, the Brak fight felt kind of unnecessary and out of place given the fact that this is otherwise a Mario level, it really brings a sour note to the ending part of the map.

Bombastic Beach:

• This level is extremely short, but fairly neat. Some of the sloping was noticeably too steep (especially underwater slopes) and the spinning bumpers significantly break the pace of the map, though it's an interesting setpiece at least since you can't completely brute force through it... though in some cases you can just pass through the fire bars on the side.
  • I would say that this level feels like it was meant to have more with the ending, and I'd encourage you to go further with it.
• The air pockets are pretty cool, but I don't think it was used well enough here.
• However, it is somewhat cramped overall with the tunnels being much smaller than the main rooms, and it does clash a bit.

Fort Sunset:

• The level itself it pretty simple and knowing the reference, it was pretty neat. It's an extremely simple level, but one that doesn't really feel like an engaging single player level. Also doesn't help that getting hit completely resets your progress, since it's tied to getting 500 rings/coins.
• Honestly? This sort of format feels more interesting for a multiplayer level, with the respawning rings and the fact that you have to repeat sections inevitably to get enough coins means there's lots of overlap.

Zaxel's Thunder Yard:

• This level unfortunately overstays its welcome. A lot of the visuals tend to blend in and mechanics start feeling like they're used in the same fashion.
• From the enemies being too small and the geometry feeling cramped aside, the entire thing feels almost like it was shrunken down. If Mobjscale existed in vanilla I'd say it'd fit well here.
• In some of the 2D areas, the visuals for dangerous electric fences compared to the risers tend to blend in a bit, and the inclusion of the crushers at the last section (and in general on the 2D sections) feels unnecessary. You're given the option for two paths and one ends up being significantly faster (the non-2D one).
• Some of the easter eggs and etcetera felt unnecessary at best... at worst, completely unnecessary and out-of-pocket. Frankly I don't think any of it belonged and it genuinely detracted from my enjoyment of the level.

Emerald Glade:

• This largely remarks of being someone's first more dedicated attempt to make a level. While it definitely is weaker than the other entries, I will admit it was a bit charming to me as we all do start somewhere with mapping and experimentation is one of the many steps to getting better at it!
• While some other maps have softlocks that are harder to catch, this map in particular has a very immediate one if the Spring Shells are busted and an emerald shard is present in specific spawn locations.
• Though others will probably have some harsher feedback, I think the best thing to say is, once you've figured out a good hand at mapping and some basic tools, utilize those to create a cohesive level design with a theme, be it a pseudo-linear map or something like Emerald Shard Hunting.

Music Mash:

• I'll be blunt, the flashing textures are excessive and anyone with photosensitivity issues should not play this level at all. Therefore, this level is basically unplayable to me, and that's a shame, because I wanted to give all of the maps a fair shake.