- Digital DeLuche Zone by RoyKirbs
- Caustic Crater Zone by Seaballer
- Nimbus Lake Zone by Yyeellooww7
- Bricked Busted Zone by Mikhael Blur
- Follow Your Rainbow by Rogerregorroger
- The Twins Palace Zone by Chaolino
- Rhyolite Ruin Zone by Radicalicious
- Lofty Woods Zone by Vixuzen
- Something Zone by Marcos
- Frozen Fissure Zone by Garrean
- Grass Planet Zone by Voidy2246
- Sunset Summit Zone by Entropy
- Lucid Landscape Zone by Othius
- Powder Park Zone by DakotaSpine
- Iron Dominion Zone by MK.exe
- Botanic Space Zone Act 2 by DeltaSanic
- Command Facility Zone by Twins'R'Okay
- Blue Glacier Zone by BronsoKip
- Pineapple Prairie Zone by SupaCustardbro
- Invasion Zone by JABSphere94
- Junkyard Jeopardy Zone by PhilJFou/ChaRG
--Caustic Crater
Dude, I love some cool and dangerous platforming setups with great pacing and you really nailed it, nice job. Really love the aesthetic, too. Especially how the level opens up. My only weird gripe being that one path really, really looks like the absolute fastest and best possible path and it's always to your facing. But the alternate path has like the coolest seismic movement ever.
--Nimbus Lake
Maaan I love nature-based levels and this level nails such an inviting atmosphere. Those pop-up platform geysers fit perfectly for the whole thing. I do wonder how useful the sneaker is for a section mostly based on slower vertical platforming? But that's just a minor noticeable thing. Well done.
--Bricked Busted
Excellent level. Really fun to speedrun and find optimal routes, although a few points of cycle-based platforming can kill the pace a bit. There's also some sections that seem real big with nothing to show in it? Just a few strangely empty lakes, but it's not the biggest deal.
--Follow Your Rainbow
You have such a distinct style and sense of being for all your maps and I think this is your best one, especially with scripted events that help tell a truly goofy story. I wish the GUN Beetles weren't as insanely spammy as they are, since they make the second section effectively budget bullet hell, especially with the tiny design you tend to go for. This platforming was a minor issue trying to exit the christmas shop as well. Otherwise, hell yeah City Escape.
--The Twins Palace
Holy shit man I LOVE the music gimmick for this level, and what it adds to the main gimmick of both sides having different stuff in them. I still find it difficult to parse the laser floors like in the previous contest and the giant cubes of ring drain near the end aren't a big deal to deal with because A) You give the player a LOT of rings everywhere and B) You can just thok right through them with little to no ring drain. :P Still, absolute banger of a level.
--Rhyolite Ruin
It's a shame NiGHTS levels don't turn up more in contests, but this is a really bloody cool one. I love how in the first mare there's a path dedicated to avoiding the lava falls and in the second mare's Super Paraloop power being useful to get the emblem around there, although that emblem is entirely enveloped by lava. Honestly, this map might inspire some ideas for next contest...
--Lofty Woods
Really really tiny platforming but put to real good use with how slopes are used to continue a nice pace, albeit very dangerous. I'm not the biggest fan of this aesthetic but you do absolutely nail using it. Also, I love me a good use of maces and those floor maces, while puzzling to dodge, look freaking rad man.
--Something
I find it a shame that Axis2D still doesn't function well with Simple Controls, but what you did here is pretty interesting. Doesn't quite use the full range of how Axis2D can be used apart from the first "Zone" but hey I thought this level was really cute. c:
--Frozen Fissure
At first I had a real bad time with the level, it's quite a dangerous place and the intended path isn't always clear? It's also not always clear if a spring towards a slope needs a jump or not to clear a jump. You are smart for not killing the player for it, but that's still a bit of a climb to try again. On a replay I found it really fun to run though, but the cycle-based platforming near the end, especially the long ride up to the end sign, can feel very uneventful.
--Grass Planet
Once again a really cool nature level, this time with floating islands. Very tiny islands though, Pterobytes can be the absolute devil around here making deaths feel a little mean, along with Bumblebores who really like to end rope rides with an immediate death. A smooth run can be a lot of fun even with these meaner additions however and I really like how the level looks upside-down on many occasions.
--Sunset Summit
Not actually a lot to say about this one. As it states it's just a nice stroll up a mountain. Nothing exactly super wrong about it aside from issues of "I want to slide down slope because it's fun but it also kills me". Can't really complain otherwise.
--Lucid Landscape
Very pretty level but again, not much to say. Up until the last split path it's mostly just normal platforming whether it be upside-down or not. The triangle path is definitely not 100% clear on direction mainly because my eyes are more attracted to the cool pool of water the slope faces rather than the rest of the land you're intended to go to, and the last jump has the exact opposite issue happen but not only do the "facing slopes" not seem to work well, they go to a powerup and not progress.
Also, very galaxy brain to have an attraction shield in a level where you need to touch water. :v
--Powder Park
Oh man! Did you intend to have this map be a total callback to 3D Blast level design? Because that's my immediate thought in terms of scale and how springs kinda just exist to collect rings. It's a really cute level, very open, but not much else to say in terms of design. It's just solid platforming.
--Iron Dominion
I think the level is pretty neat but a lot of elements required for progress is blocked by breakable walls. Both of which I couldn't tell were even breakable because of either dark corridors combined with the colormap making cracks invisible or the "rusted wall" texture doesn't really read to me as breakable. It's the only reason why it's so low on my list because otherwise I really like it.
--Botanic Space, Act 2
I think this level also had a bit of readability issues mainly to have to do with doors. The first doors you see are activated by breaking sector monitors so I assumed every doors needed that. So I ended up searching the rooms for a monitor only to realize there's proximity-based doors. I also didn't notice the first elevator open up the first time either. After all, not all breakable sector monitors actually do anything, and the ones that activate that elevator aren't connected to it. It's a shame because that little thing irks me away from an otherwise really cool level, albeit very straight hallways on occasion.
--Command Facility
There's a lot of neat setpieces placed in an otherwise pretty straightforward, light on platforming, level. The main gimmick of super ring drain green slime doesn't tend to be very dangerous, especially in the toxic wave room. It's still rather easy to just tank through all of it. Can't deny the amount of cool effort done to make some neat looking stuff though. Especially the very very Sonic loops and half-pipes.
--Blue Glacier
It's a shame this one was submitted unfinished because this could have been a very swell level. As it stands it feels a bit empty on content, for obvious reasons. I would love to see this polished up and completed one day though.
--Pineapple Prairie
I appreciate the effort made to make a level using Lost World aesthetic but I feel like trying to emulate the level design doesn't fully work? Running into backwards springs hidden in bushes doesn't feel great. The big water columns didn't read as "solid" to me given they like...look like water. The spring clouds also don't feel great because of how they are made, it's rather easy to just miss the hidden springboards inside the clouds. Found the bobbing platform rather odd as well due to it being necessary to progress by hitting...hidden springs. (This can be skipped with a floating platform but you definitely did not intend that) That being said there's a lot of potential in your skills and I'm looking forward to your improvements. You certainly have a grasp on how ZB works.
--Invasion
The custom objects in this level, namely the laser guys, the driveby turrets and the boss, are really impressive and cool although all very aggressive. Mostly too aggressive to actually consider fighting properly. Most of the time I find myself wanting to just skip encounters entirely. Map don't look too great, either. There's a lot of basic architecture with two-textured lands, very wide hallways just to facilitate the drive-by's but otherwise don't look interesting. I found the alt path crusher incredibly bizarre as well. As a tip, if you think a section is so difficult you need to trivialize it with a 1up monitor nearby, maybe there's something wrong with the design of it. I died multiple times to this crusher unsure of how fast I'm actually supposed to clear the crusher if you're intended to run under it. That is until I learned how to completely cheese it by activating it and running backwards. When you get to the airship I feel like a lot of the textures don't go together all that well and when I fell off at one point I had to realize in horror that you fall back onto the land and are intended to climb allll the way back up. At which point I felt the need to ram my face into the nearest enemy to respawn at a checkpoint, cuz I ain't climbing back up.
I mentioned the boss before and while I'm not a fan of using the side slopes as the only way to consistently damage it, doubly annoying that he's shielded, it's absolutely the highlight of the whole level. It's just a shame that it's at the end of a 6-7 minute climb to it.
--Junkyard Jeopardy
I didn't have the greatest time in this level in any run. For the record, I did play this map in software as the level's subtitle didn't suggest to me. I don't feel as if a level absolutely requires me to change renderers just to have the best experience and wow like...
So problems come up very early on. There's not a lot of proper directioning given to the player when you first enter it. Springs seemingly don't go anywhere, but then the platform required slowly lowers into view. Probably would have been better with a rising platform controlled by the player instead. Then the room you enter next has electrified floors covered in too-dark darkness. Which is weird, because it's electricity. Light-emitting source.
The 2D mode route is very prone to breaking entirely because of how foreground-facing conveyors kinda just aren't great in 2D mode. Really easy to slightly graze over the conveyor without realizing it and having the momentum be kept to be off-path and then stuck in a softlock in weird spots. Which is worse than simply going the wrong way in this maze since the checkpoint is further back than the reset teleporter.
Then the reason why OGL is likely recommended comes up. The ungodly sea of spikes on pillars causing a mess of lag, making the small platforming part just before it really hard for no reason. You...really didn't need THIS many spikes to cover these pillars. Less spikes that are spaced out better, sector spikes, or just damaging floor would do the same effect without needing those objects since I think the intention is that you want it to be a Fang path? Either way if this is the only reason OGL is needed then it could have been very much avoided.
You absolutely have a handle as to how to make maps in SRB2 but I think you may have thought only of ambitious use of like all the features in the toolset rather than using them in the best of ways. I still look forward to how you take the knowledge found from developing this level and reading comments and reviews on it because I can absolutely see improvement happening.
Final overall thoughts: I think this is the most successful OLDC possible. It was really hard to actually make a list this round because so many of the levels really may as well be first place. Even the ones I didn't have the best time with still make me really excited for the futures of these creators and how their level-making prowess will evolve with time.
Dude, I love some cool and dangerous platforming setups with great pacing and you really nailed it, nice job. Really love the aesthetic, too. Especially how the level opens up. My only weird gripe being that one path really, really looks like the absolute fastest and best possible path and it's always to your facing. But the alternate path has like the coolest seismic movement ever.
--Nimbus Lake
Maaan I love nature-based levels and this level nails such an inviting atmosphere. Those pop-up platform geysers fit perfectly for the whole thing. I do wonder how useful the sneaker is for a section mostly based on slower vertical platforming? But that's just a minor noticeable thing. Well done.
--Bricked Busted
Excellent level. Really fun to speedrun and find optimal routes, although a few points of cycle-based platforming can kill the pace a bit. There's also some sections that seem real big with nothing to show in it? Just a few strangely empty lakes, but it's not the biggest deal.
--Follow Your Rainbow
You have such a distinct style and sense of being for all your maps and I think this is your best one, especially with scripted events that help tell a truly goofy story. I wish the GUN Beetles weren't as insanely spammy as they are, since they make the second section effectively budget bullet hell, especially with the tiny design you tend to go for. This platforming was a minor issue trying to exit the christmas shop as well. Otherwise, hell yeah City Escape.
--The Twins Palace
Holy shit man I LOVE the music gimmick for this level, and what it adds to the main gimmick of both sides having different stuff in them. I still find it difficult to parse the laser floors like in the previous contest and the giant cubes of ring drain near the end aren't a big deal to deal with because A) You give the player a LOT of rings everywhere and B) You can just thok right through them with little to no ring drain. :P Still, absolute banger of a level.
--Rhyolite Ruin
It's a shame NiGHTS levels don't turn up more in contests, but this is a really bloody cool one. I love how in the first mare there's a path dedicated to avoiding the lava falls and in the second mare's Super Paraloop power being useful to get the emblem around there, although that emblem is entirely enveloped by lava. Honestly, this map might inspire some ideas for next contest...
--Lofty Woods
Really really tiny platforming but put to real good use with how slopes are used to continue a nice pace, albeit very dangerous. I'm not the biggest fan of this aesthetic but you do absolutely nail using it. Also, I love me a good use of maces and those floor maces, while puzzling to dodge, look freaking rad man.
--Something
I find it a shame that Axis2D still doesn't function well with Simple Controls, but what you did here is pretty interesting. Doesn't quite use the full range of how Axis2D can be used apart from the first "Zone" but hey I thought this level was really cute. c:
--Frozen Fissure
At first I had a real bad time with the level, it's quite a dangerous place and the intended path isn't always clear? It's also not always clear if a spring towards a slope needs a jump or not to clear a jump. You are smart for not killing the player for it, but that's still a bit of a climb to try again. On a replay I found it really fun to run though, but the cycle-based platforming near the end, especially the long ride up to the end sign, can feel very uneventful.
--Grass Planet
Once again a really cool nature level, this time with floating islands. Very tiny islands though, Pterobytes can be the absolute devil around here making deaths feel a little mean, along with Bumblebores who really like to end rope rides with an immediate death. A smooth run can be a lot of fun even with these meaner additions however and I really like how the level looks upside-down on many occasions.
--Sunset Summit
Not actually a lot to say about this one. As it states it's just a nice stroll up a mountain. Nothing exactly super wrong about it aside from issues of "I want to slide down slope because it's fun but it also kills me". Can't really complain otherwise.
--Lucid Landscape
Very pretty level but again, not much to say. Up until the last split path it's mostly just normal platforming whether it be upside-down or not. The triangle path is definitely not 100% clear on direction mainly because my eyes are more attracted to the cool pool of water the slope faces rather than the rest of the land you're intended to go to, and the last jump has the exact opposite issue happen but not only do the "facing slopes" not seem to work well, they go to a powerup and not progress.
Also, very galaxy brain to have an attraction shield in a level where you need to touch water. :v
--Powder Park
Oh man! Did you intend to have this map be a total callback to 3D Blast level design? Because that's my immediate thought in terms of scale and how springs kinda just exist to collect rings. It's a really cute level, very open, but not much else to say in terms of design. It's just solid platforming.
--Iron Dominion
I think the level is pretty neat but a lot of elements required for progress is blocked by breakable walls. Both of which I couldn't tell were even breakable because of either dark corridors combined with the colormap making cracks invisible or the "rusted wall" texture doesn't really read to me as breakable. It's the only reason why it's so low on my list because otherwise I really like it.
--Botanic Space, Act 2
I think this level also had a bit of readability issues mainly to have to do with doors. The first doors you see are activated by breaking sector monitors so I assumed every doors needed that. So I ended up searching the rooms for a monitor only to realize there's proximity-based doors. I also didn't notice the first elevator open up the first time either. After all, not all breakable sector monitors actually do anything, and the ones that activate that elevator aren't connected to it. It's a shame because that little thing irks me away from an otherwise really cool level, albeit very straight hallways on occasion.
--Command Facility
There's a lot of neat setpieces placed in an otherwise pretty straightforward, light on platforming, level. The main gimmick of super ring drain green slime doesn't tend to be very dangerous, especially in the toxic wave room. It's still rather easy to just tank through all of it. Can't deny the amount of cool effort done to make some neat looking stuff though. Especially the very very Sonic loops and half-pipes.
--Blue Glacier
It's a shame this one was submitted unfinished because this could have been a very swell level. As it stands it feels a bit empty on content, for obvious reasons. I would love to see this polished up and completed one day though.
--Pineapple Prairie
I appreciate the effort made to make a level using Lost World aesthetic but I feel like trying to emulate the level design doesn't fully work? Running into backwards springs hidden in bushes doesn't feel great. The big water columns didn't read as "solid" to me given they like...look like water. The spring clouds also don't feel great because of how they are made, it's rather easy to just miss the hidden springboards inside the clouds. Found the bobbing platform rather odd as well due to it being necessary to progress by hitting...hidden springs. (This can be skipped with a floating platform but you definitely did not intend that) That being said there's a lot of potential in your skills and I'm looking forward to your improvements. You certainly have a grasp on how ZB works.
--Invasion
The custom objects in this level, namely the laser guys, the driveby turrets and the boss, are really impressive and cool although all very aggressive. Mostly too aggressive to actually consider fighting properly. Most of the time I find myself wanting to just skip encounters entirely. Map don't look too great, either. There's a lot of basic architecture with two-textured lands, very wide hallways just to facilitate the drive-by's but otherwise don't look interesting. I found the alt path crusher incredibly bizarre as well. As a tip, if you think a section is so difficult you need to trivialize it with a 1up monitor nearby, maybe there's something wrong with the design of it. I died multiple times to this crusher unsure of how fast I'm actually supposed to clear the crusher if you're intended to run under it. That is until I learned how to completely cheese it by activating it and running backwards. When you get to the airship I feel like a lot of the textures don't go together all that well and when I fell off at one point I had to realize in horror that you fall back onto the land and are intended to climb allll the way back up. At which point I felt the need to ram my face into the nearest enemy to respawn at a checkpoint, cuz I ain't climbing back up.
I mentioned the boss before and while I'm not a fan of using the side slopes as the only way to consistently damage it, doubly annoying that he's shielded, it's absolutely the highlight of the whole level. It's just a shame that it's at the end of a 6-7 minute climb to it.
--Junkyard Jeopardy
I didn't have the greatest time in this level in any run. For the record, I did play this map in software as the level's subtitle didn't suggest to me. I don't feel as if a level absolutely requires me to change renderers just to have the best experience and wow like...
So problems come up very early on. There's not a lot of proper directioning given to the player when you first enter it. Springs seemingly don't go anywhere, but then the platform required slowly lowers into view. Probably would have been better with a rising platform controlled by the player instead. Then the room you enter next has electrified floors covered in too-dark darkness. Which is weird, because it's electricity. Light-emitting source.
The 2D mode route is very prone to breaking entirely because of how foreground-facing conveyors kinda just aren't great in 2D mode. Really easy to slightly graze over the conveyor without realizing it and having the momentum be kept to be off-path and then stuck in a softlock in weird spots. Which is worse than simply going the wrong way in this maze since the checkpoint is further back than the reset teleporter.
Then the reason why OGL is likely recommended comes up. The ungodly sea of spikes on pillars causing a mess of lag, making the small platforming part just before it really hard for no reason. You...really didn't need THIS many spikes to cover these pillars. Less spikes that are spaced out better, sector spikes, or just damaging floor would do the same effect without needing those objects since I think the intention is that you want it to be a Fang path? Either way if this is the only reason OGL is needed then it could have been very much avoided.
You absolutely have a handle as to how to make maps in SRB2 but I think you may have thought only of ambitious use of like all the features in the toolset rather than using them in the best of ways. I still look forward to how you take the knowledge found from developing this level and reading comments and reviews on it because I can absolutely see improvement happening.
Final overall thoughts: I think this is the most successful OLDC possible. It was really hard to actually make a list this round because so many of the levels really may as well be first place. Even the ones I didn't have the best time with still make me really excited for the futures of these creators and how their level-making prowess will evolve with time.