PokemonLives
Member
Well, I think I'm ready to cast my votes.
First off, this level is gorgeous. There's no getting around that. Second, the level contains an entirely unique gimmick that I've never seen before: The weird "slippery" quicksand/water stuff that's all over the level. When I first encountered this at the very start of the level, I was confused as to why the quicksand/water fofs were slippery, but it quickly became clear that the slippery water/quicksand was the central gimmick. In both the STK and Amy paths, this gimmick is explored heavily. There's no weird enemy placements like in Falcon Emissary Zone or jank like in Ante-Station Zone.
This is one of those levels that blew my mind in how stunning Othius, Inazuma, and Spectorious managed to make this level. In SRB2. I must thank y'all for creating a level that deserves to win this contest.
This is one of those levels that blew my mind in how stunning Othius, Inazuma, and Spectorious managed to make this level. In SRB2. I must thank y'all for creating a level that deserves to win this contest.
This was also a very good map. While fans and wind, as gimmicks, have been done to death before, they've been massively expanded upon and utilized in creative ways in this map. I can point to the sideways fans at the beginning as a brilliant example of this, and the same is true of the Knuckles' path, where Knuckles has to glide over the fans because the upwards fans give extra velocity to Knuckles when he's gliding. This is, alongside Hollow Hill Zone, a level that demonstrates how to take a simple gimmick and twist it into all sorts of variations. Oh, and this level is also beautiful.
My biggest gripe with the level was the poor enemy placement. The high-gravity section is the most blatant example of this; there's Snappers, an enemy that can't be killed via spindash, in a section where jumping doesn't work. The high-gravity section doesn't really fit in with the rest of the level, and the level would be better without it. There are other examples of bad enemy placement in the level; there is a bit of Spincushion spam near a fan that requires precise timing to avoid colliding with spikes, and there's also Robo-Hoods that don't need to be there.
All in all, this is a great level, but it loses to Hollow Hill Zone because the enemy placement is not very fun to put up with, and Hollow Hill's gimmick is more original.
My biggest gripe with the level was the poor enemy placement. The high-gravity section is the most blatant example of this; there's Snappers, an enemy that can't be killed via spindash, in a section where jumping doesn't work. The high-gravity section doesn't really fit in with the rest of the level, and the level would be better without it. There are other examples of bad enemy placement in the level; there is a bit of Spincushion spam near a fan that requires precise timing to avoid colliding with spikes, and there's also Robo-Hoods that don't need to be there.
All in all, this is a great level, but it loses to Hollow Hill Zone because the enemy placement is not very fun to put up with, and Hollow Hill's gimmick is more original.
Hey! The first Axis2D level since the clock tower level from 2.1's OLDCs. The gimmick is that the level doesn't obey the laws of geometry, and this is primarily seen in the decor. It's not a hard level by any means (though the hazards are unintuitively textured and awkward camera angles abound), but it's definitely harder than nothing. It's kind of hard to give advice on a level that is more "tech demo" than "proper Sonic level", but I believe that using more intuitive decoration would make the level much more interesting and possibly capable of beating out Falcon Emissary and Hollow Hill Zone. It's still a really impressive map.
This level had gorgeous visuals, but it's basically a 2.0 special stage without the time limit. While the level was fun enough, it still suffered from having no gimmicks other than "collect rings custom coin objects to proceed". I do believe this level had potential to be a decent level, if DylanDude had put in some nice gimmicks and challenges alongside the custom objective.
Hey, a Mario level. Too bad this is a very generic Mario castle, with the exception of the Koopa enemies, which are basically walking koopa shells... a generic Mario mode item. Next time, please, for the love of God, add an interesting gimmick to Mario levels, such as bouncy mushrooms or RVZ boulders, which would both fit well.
The best of the worst. As expected, the multihit Final Fantasy spirits are back with a vengeance, having brought with them multihit jellyfish that do nothing until attacked, and then ruin your day upon getting hit. Thankfully, the platforming was interesting, and at least there was an attempt at a good gimmick. This level was also at least nice looking.
What wasn't funny was the cringy "this is fjjsiofjsofjdkfj's domain and the enemies are my security guards" text plastered around the start and the two troll pits, complete with custom music and trollfaces on the walls.
My advice is to not put flying multihit enemies that look like they came straight outta JRPG town in SRB2 levels. Multi-hit enemies are annoying because they knock the player backwards and force them to approach the enemy again to kill them. This is why Lance-a-Bots and Crawla Commanders are infuriating to deal with: they require you to attack them (and thus put yourself in danger of getting hit by the enemy) twice in order to get rid of them, and hitting them the first time will knock you back a significant amount of distance. To have 3 hit enemies smaller than a Crawla running around on the floor and even more tanky enemies flying around means that there's more enemies that can interfere with platforming.
What wasn't funny was the cringy "this is fjjsiofjsofjdkfj's domain and the enemies are my security guards" text plastered around the start and the two troll pits, complete with custom music and trollfaces on the walls.
My advice is to not put flying multihit enemies that look like they came straight outta JRPG town in SRB2 levels. Multi-hit enemies are annoying because they knock the player backwards and force them to approach the enemy again to kill them. This is why Lance-a-Bots and Crawla Commanders are infuriating to deal with: they require you to attack them (and thus put yourself in danger of getting hit by the enemy) twice in order to get rid of them, and hitting them the first time will knock you back a significant amount of distance. To have 3 hit enemies smaller than a Crawla running around on the floor and even more tanky enemies flying around means that there's more enemies that can interfere with platforming.
The level looked nice, had good platforming, enemy placement, the whole nine yards. So why does it get number 7, below Zaxel's Thunder Yard? Well, Abyss Caverns Zone lacks a gimmick. If your level has not a single gimmick, then it gets boring really fast. Compare Greenflower Zone to say, Azure Temple Zone. Sure, Greenflower Zone is a walk in the park while getting through Azure Temple Zone alive is harder than carrying the flag on Nimbus Ruins Zone as Knuckles against competent rail ring spammers, but Azure Temple Zone is generally considered to be more fun than Greenflower Zone. Why is that? Well, Greenflower Zone lacks a gimmick, while Azure Temple Zone has water and trapgoyles and trapgoyle puzzles and fans and stuff like that. Therefore, Azure Temple Zone is less monotonous than Greenflower Zone, and thus it is more fun. Not having a gimmick really ruined Abyss Caverns Zone, and that's why it is lower on this list.
This level revolves around mercury, which in this level is a ring-draining fluid. While I admire the willingness to try an underutilized gimmick, namely ring draining, it's utilized so poorly that it is practically irrelevant as a gimmick. This level doesn't look all that great either, and the falling mercury isn't very fun. Just utilize the ring drain better, such as by having the faster paths go through the mercury, or having areas where you ride a boulder across the mercury, or requiring the player to manipulate the level of the mercury using switches. There, that's how you come up with a good usage of a gimmick.
I believe that this level is better than Ridge Rapids because it has a gimmick. However, it's still a level with a poor layout and poor visual design. The gimmick is ice, which has only slightly less friction than normal ground in this level. Messing with the friction value is how you get fine control over how severe the ice physics are. However, this level is something I don't really have much to say about, and my advice for this is the same as for Ridge Rapids Zone.
This level looks okay... if it weren't for the fact that the start of the level has a giant HOM effect in plain view. Whoops. In addition, this level has all of the stereotypical hallmarks of "new to mapping" syndrome: The aforementioned visual glitches, unironic usage of score monitors, nonsensical usage of the 2d effect, visuals that aren't easily readable, poor use of enemies, etc. And in addition, the platforming kinda sucks near the end where the cloud pits are. All in all, these are errors you will likely grow out of. Oh, and you have no gimmicks in this level. Whoops.
My advice is to read this guide. It is an amazing guide on level design, and all new mappers should read it in its entirety.
My advice is to read this guide. It is an amazing guide on level design, and all new mappers should read it in its entirety.
I'm genuinely sorry, Neon, but there are several glaring problems. First off, the level is short and has a bad layout, and fixing that takes practice. The next problem is the level's air pockets. Due to you deciding to forgo LUA for the air pockets, entering and exiting air pockets creates water noises and visual errors start to pop up in software in regards to the water sector above the air pockets. Don't get me wrong, I like the gimmick in theory, but you have to realize that LUA is a godsend. You can modify extra flags with some very simple LUA. Just code that when the player is within the air pocket, the MFE_UNDERWATER flag is removed. For those unaware, MFE_UNDERWATER is the flag that determines whether or not you get water physics and limited air. A script that overrides underwater functionality and gets rid of the tag on objects within the Thing-based air pockets would make it possible to get this working in a manner that doesn't produce visual bugs in software.
Next, the textures need to be worked on. The textures in your map aren't great, and the map appears to be at a light level of 255 at all times. This will hurt people's eyes, regardless of how good your textures are, because fullbright lighting means that your fully saturated textures are as saturated as they were in your painting program, which is so saturated it hurt my eyes. Please tone down the saturation on those textures, because people are already going to get eyestrain.
Finally, this is supposed to be a beach level. Tell me why there is rotating bumper maces and stationary firebars in the same level as palm trees and an air pocket gimmick meant for underwater sections. You can't just throw in firebars and bumpers because they're cool, because they're not really gimmicks that go with a beach theme. They'd go very well with a circus theme, but this is a beach, not a circus.
Next, the textures need to be worked on. The textures in your map aren't great, and the map appears to be at a light level of 255 at all times. This will hurt people's eyes, regardless of how good your textures are, because fullbright lighting means that your fully saturated textures are as saturated as they were in your painting program, which is so saturated it hurt my eyes. Please tone down the saturation on those textures, because people are already going to get eyestrain.
Finally, this is supposed to be a beach level. Tell me why there is rotating bumper maces and stationary firebars in the same level as palm trees and an air pocket gimmick meant for underwater sections. You can't just throw in firebars and bumpers because they're cool, because they're not really gimmicks that go with a beach theme. They'd go very well with a circus theme, but this is a beach, not a circus.
The textures and custom sprites for this level are ugly. I mean really ugly. The textures don't fit in SRB2, and would be considered poorly used in any Doom port, but especially so in SRB2 because the custom graphics you chose clash hard with the cartoony style of SRB2.
Second, there's invincible enemies. Seriously.
Third, the visuals don't accommodate for gameplay, as the door that has to be opened by putting an RVZ boulder into a generic pit in front of it has the same texture as a door that opens on its own when approached, and there's sections where it's hard to see because it's too dark.
Second, there's invincible enemies. Seriously.
Third, the visuals don't accommodate for gameplay, as the door that has to be opened by putting an RVZ boulder into a generic pit in front of it has the same texture as a door that opens on its own when approached, and there's sections where it's hard to see because it's too dark.
Poor visibility, cheap deaths, yada yada yada. White on white is NOT good visibility, and made the level not fun.
PLEASE DO NOT USE FLASHING TEXTURES AND FLATS FOR THE ENTIRE LEVEL. It does not look good, and it can give those with photosensitive epilepsy seizures. If you need to put a seizure warning in front of your level, then it's probably time to reconsider your level's decoration.
Even without taking epilepsy into account, even people without a seizure disorder of any kind will end up with eyestrain when looking at your level, and this is because the level is full of tiling and flashing lights. To put it simply, if the average Joe would get eyestrain from your level, you messed up.
Please, for the love of God, learn to use an actual theme and actually decent gimmicks.
Even without taking epilepsy into account, even people without a seizure disorder of any kind will end up with eyestrain when looking at your level, and this is because the level is full of tiling and flashing lights. To put it simply, if the average Joe would get eyestrain from your level, you messed up.
Please, for the love of God, learn to use an actual theme and actually decent gimmicks.
Obvious joke wad.
I knew this wad sucked as soon as I collided with an invisible wall. In a Metal race. Woooooooooooooo
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