Updoer (SP)

[hanatarashed]

Updoer is a series of levels that I made a couple months ago. I created six stages and intended to make more but after some failed attempts at a seventh stage I left the pack alone. I think I'll make more stages later but in the meantime I decided to release the six that I did finish.

Updoer is strictly singleplayer and can only be played as Sonic. The maps are short, lacking in visual design, entirely linear, and often cramped. I do know the ground rules of good level design but decided to ignore a few of them this time around, partially out of laziness and partially because of how I wanted the levels to turn out. The level design was inspired by the great ROM hack "VIP Mario & Wall Mix" for Super Mario World which I was enjoying at the time I started making Updoer.

The six stages, in order, are:

Here We Go: A brief intro stage which honestly was mostly to get me into the groove of mapping again. There's a 35 second time limit, some tight timed jumps and the track "We Gotta Get Outta Here" by Bear Bones (from the Ideas Man soundtrack) plays.

Tight Way 1-4: The Tight Way stages are based around Crawla hopping and monitor hopping. Each one has a different variation on the gimmick and if you play your cards right you can score a 1-up from ring monitors on each stage. The track "Witness Dub" by Roots Manuva (from the album Dub Come Save Me) plays.

The Magical Inside: This stage plays mostly "on rails" in the sense that you ride spinning platforms past various obstacles in a desperate attempt to see what's going on in the midst of PolyObjects not rendering properly. In testing this stage I found that riding a spinning PolyObject slowly slides you towards the center of it as if it were a conveyor belt. I put this to good use at one point. The track "x06" by anonymous (also from the Ideas Man soundtrack) plays.

A couple more unused audio tracks are inside the file too.

If you're upset with the difficulty of the current stages then please complain about it, you'll probably motivate me to make more, much more difficult stages. I hope you enjoy this release in the meantime.

 

[TehRealSalt]

Even though the visuals could use some work and it looks kind of small and cramped, I see some interesting challenges (like the monitor bounce in shot 2). I'll post a review once I have time to play it.

 

[HitCoder]

This looks interesting, might try it sometime. I do however, think it's a shame it's not multiplayer.

 

[Boinciel]

This pack is undervalued and deserves more attention. It was truly rewarding to beat these levels and I really hope you make more.

 

[HitCoder]

The first act is pretty difficult, I got the hang of it in the end. Done in 21 seconds ^^
The level design, other than being slightly difficult to me, is pretty good. It feels very rewarding to beat this level, just like Boinciel said.

EDIT: I managed to beat the first act in 16 seconds in the end, but these levels are so difficult, I quit because I'm not good enough at crawla bouncing. It's a very nice level pack and it's a lot of fun, I'll definitely go back to it to have another go.

 

[TheXIIIthGuy]

This pack is undervalued and deserves more attention. It was truly rewarding to beat these levels and I really hope you make more.

Word. I have restarted so many times that I managed to finish the first level in less than 10 seconds. The last level was hell and beating the whole thing is just satisfying.
This pack is an interesting concept, really looking forward to what you make in the future.
Did I enjoy this pack? Yes.
Did I find the levels fun? Although they can get really frustrating at times (jump not being exactly on top of the monitor/Crawla), yes they were.
Will I replay it again? SCREW THAT!

Edit: BTW, there's a section on the last level that can give you infinite lives if you manage to successfuly cross all the obstacles before the monitor. Is that intended?

 

[hanatarashed]

Word. I have restarted so many times that I managed to finish the first level in less than 10 seconds. The last level was hell and beating the whole thing is just satisfying.
This pack is an interesting concept, really looking forward to what you make in the future.
Did I enjoy this pack? Yes.
Did I find the levels fun? Although they can get really frustrating at times (jump not being exactly on top of the monitor/Crawla), yes they were.
Will I replay it again? SCREW THAT!

Edit: BTW, there's a section on the last level that can give you infinite lives if you manage to successfuly cross all the obstacles before the monitor. Is that intended?

Sort of. For balance purposes I have extra life monitors at the end of a few stages (including all the ones in the works) and there's not really anything I can do about there being more life monitors than there are respawn points, besides having obstacles such as that end section in the way. If people want to go to the trouble of getting extra lives through that sort of tedious method then I don't really mind.

 

[sphere]

Finally played through this pack recently, cleared it today. The visuals are bare-bones at best, but the unique gameplay makes it worth playing. Creative platforming challenges, extremely difficult yet rewarding once you do finally get to clear them, making use of SRB2's unique & more obscure mechanics in ways I'd never seen before.

The first level, Here We Go, didn't feel quite as interesting as the later levels. It does introduce the player to the high difficulty of the pack, while not being too much of an obstacle due to its short length, but is not without problems.

Spoiler: in-depth

First of all, the level is WAY too dark at the default brightness level. Under normal circumstances it's unplayable for me, players should never have to increase their in-game brightness or be required to block out sunlight in real life to be able to progress.
The lasers did provide some brightness, but the second laser block felt too cheap, with it not being visible until the first one is cleared.
However, intentional or not, I did like how the strict time limit coupled with the time bonus rewards the player with a varying amount of extra lives.

The four acts of Tight Way are where this level pack becomes interesting. I've never seen crawla/monitor bouncing explored to this degree, and it makes for some fun gameplay, although not without its fair share of issues.

Spoiler: in-depth

Act 1 starts out pretty well, slowly easing the player into progressively more difficult Crawla bounce segments, but it immediately starts to adhere too much to its name: the level's cramped enough to often cause undesired camera behavior. After the teleporter & checkpoint, the level takes a dip in quality. Immediately, the camera starts shaking rapidly, thanks to the teleporter destination being too close to a wall. The flashing black panel seemed like a weirdly placed hazard at first, not an explicit hint trying to make sense of the badly designed U-turn. The flashing yellow panel is the biggest culprit, at first appearing like something the player should bounce on (an idea fueled by the hint saying you need to "reach" it), which is possible... but only sometimes? The "crumbling" (???) happens at an undecipherable moment every time, turning the platform lethal at random, and it's not even clear that it's not required to make the platform "crumble". One of the unfortunate situations of lacking visuals impeding the interesting gameplay.

Act 2 is where the level pack starts getting good. The hints in this level are actually useful, and the added height of monitor bouncing out of water makes for much more vertical and interesting platforming segments. It starts out more difficult than act 1, but in all the right ways. Sadly, just like the first act, it dips in quality right after the checkpoint. The outer walls all using the same texture, combined with the same brightness everywhere makes it harder to see where to go than it should be. After one water bounce, the player is treated to a cramped hallway, leading to a small pool of rings and an even narrower path forward, which makes it impossible to see that the end sign is far away enough to require a thok, only becoming visible once the player can't make it anymore.

Act 3 is a slight letdown, and mostly makes me wish you knew about making FOFs intangible to the camera. (It's a sector special.) The first two bounces are balanced well, but once again, after the checkpoint it gets worse. There's no way to tell the glass FOF becomes a very low ceiling, and it's honestly easier to try and cheese the segment by thokking rather than doing it properly.

Act 4 picks up where act 2 left off, involving highly vertical monitor bouncing out of water, and scaling MUCH larger heights. It's incredibly satisfying to just soar through the level, and it really makes me wish the levels were slightly less tight. The Green Snappers on top of the platform with the hint felt unnecessary, though, and only risk the level becoming unfair if they decide to hang around the edges. After the checkpoint, the level presents the longest and most difficult crawla bouncing chain I've ever seen, and it's literally impossible to cheese through it. Incredibly demanding, but also incredibly rewarding once it's cleared. And finally, a level that doesn't get substantially worse after the checkpoint!

The Magical Inside is where I truly regretted not playing this sooner. By far the best and most interesting usage of polyobjects to date, despite the rendering issues ruining the final segment.

Spoiler: in-depth

The first part of this level is great. From the very start, this level looks better than all the previous levels, despite the weird polyobjects. The platforming is built up very well, properly introducing the player to the rotating polyobjects as they get more and more difficult.
By far the biggest issue I have with the level is what comes right after: the tiny space where the player needs to wait for a horizontally moving polyobject. The turret is cheap, the ceiling is too low, and the apology isn't needed, while a second checkpoint REALLY is. I've lost way too many lives just trying to get on the polyobject from there, thanks to the low ceiling.
Lastly, between the randomly disappearing polyobject, the excessively difficult yet repetitive spikeball patterns which sometimes become invisible, and the aforementioned issues with the waiting room, the final segment was a huge letdown. The ideas presented are great, the execution just falls apart.

Overall, a unique experience that I will most likely never want to play again. I'd love to see more challenges like these, but with the other map aspects (visuals/guidance, pathing, conveyance) being far closer to the standard set by the platforming.