[ti]Normal[/ti]Innergy by me (46446219)

Level: Innergy
Creator: Dunk0 (dunk0)
ID: 46446219
Song: ALESDA! - Alive www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/804470
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQGluDMLhpY


Gameplay:
The gameplay for this level needs a lot of work. First of all, the entire first section is auto. This isn't good in a level, especially at the beginning, since every single time someone crashes they're going to have to sit through it again. It's just uninteresting, and especially not favorable for a first impression. Many people just leave the level early on when there's an intro as long as this, because no one wants to sit there for 15 seconds. You don't even have to move at all until 20%, which is a large portion of the level. Granted, it is a rather easy level, so it's unlikely it would cause any serious annoyance, but it's an important habit to get into, plus it could be an annoyance for less experienced players. From 18%-33%, it could use a lot more movement. You can really just rest at the bottom and tap a couple times when you need to to get through each section. It doesn't really create interest, and many players will just feel a bit bored. It's important to have the player move a lot, this makes people focus and actually have fun while playing. Of course, this can be difficult to do if you intend it to be such an easy level, but it's important not to neglect gameplay for difficulty. Simply just adding a few more spikes on platforms and elevating a couple of them could do the trick. The transition into the wave section isn't all that great. You have a large invisible platform preventing the player from crashing, and while it may help people through the transition, the best transition is one where you don't have to add any invisible objects. While this doesn't really mess anyone up as it is at such a low speed, it doesn't really help either. When you start creating faster, more difficult levels, however, it will mess people up as they are being affected by objects they can't see and do not have enough time to react to, which can mess people up greatly, and it might take some people many attempts to get into a good habit. For this section, I see it really unnecessary. People are able to react quick enough to not crash, and all it's really doing is preventing you from getting practice with creating smooth, bug-free transitions, which will become very important later on. The wave section itself is a lot better than the last sections. You have a bit of movement, which is a step up. The problem is that towards the end, it starts becoming very repetitive. It's just the player going up to the top, and down to the bottom over and over again. While small adjustments are necessary, major adjustments make it more involved. There's easy ways to make it a lot more interesting without sacrificing difficulty. You can have the player turn during the center, or have a horizontal pathway somewhere. These are just as easy for the player, but including them along with the standard gameplay creates variation, and variety is a very important part of gameplay. Let's move on to the cube section. Right off the bat, I can say there is a lot more variety in this section. This has a lot more movement, and is a lot more interesting as a result. A big thing I want to point out is that this section goes on for way to long in my opinion. It accounts for 30% of the level, and I thought you could have at least added a mini portal or a robot section if you wanted to keep the style of this gameplay. Because it goes on for so long, it starts to get repetitive. Starting off at the section, it's pretty good, there's quite a bit of movement. You have a couple of orbs, but I thought you could've definitely had a larger mix of just obstacles and orbs/pads. The key to cube sections is to add variety, and orbs and changes in gameplay really help. One thing I should point out is that you really never flip gravity in this part, except for green orbs, but you are only upside down for a brief instance. Flipping gravity is an easy way to make a part a bit more interesting, so don't neglect it. At 54%, you have your first dash orb for this section. I think a major problem with this is it is slanted up, however your custom orb texture doesn't display that, which could catch the player off-guard. It's not much of a problem, but you also have an invisible speed change at and only at that moment, so some people might trip up when trying to see what's happening the first time. I see similar things happening at different parts as well. A prime example of this is at 59%, where you use yellow jump pads to help give that boost. While it doesn't cause many problems generally, you should never have gameplay objects be invisible, as the player has no idea what is coming up for the first time, which should never be the case. The player should be able to anticipate the gameplay. Let's get back to the standard gameplay. From 50%-63%, the gameplay becomes very boring. There's less movement, and really all the jumps are at a common interval, except when you bring in the occasional orb. After that part though, it becomes a lot better, but there still remains a small section where you can see the problem, but it is less extensive, however it still needs to be addressed. That's where the gameplay ends. You still have 20% of the level to go, however. While this is not that bad because the player has already finished this level at that point, this means that 40% of the level is completely auto, which is not too favorable, especially for a short level. I would try to lessen the auto sections, because the more gameplay it has, the higher the quality, as the player is always doing something, rather than waiting around. Try to keep this in mind when creating. Put yourself in the shoes of the player, as oftentimes when creating a level, you notice less things than a player who has never seen the level before would.

Overall: A nice attempt. The beginning half of the level wasn't too great, especially since 20% of it was just auto. Try to add variety, this is the biggest weakness in the first half in my opinion. The second half was a lot better at variety, but the invisible objects need to go. Be direct with the player, and the level will already be somewhat fun. Variety is how you take it further. 7/20.


Design:
The design in this level isn't bad, for the most part. There are some major issues, however. Starting at the first section, there really isn't much design at all. The block design is minimal. While you did have a bit, you still need a lot more detail to it, and especially fill it up a bit more. Currently, there's a lot of empty space in your blocks, which is never good to see. Always try to add some sort of design to everything, although don't overdo it. If you do too much it'll just look messy. Try to have a good balance. The background in this first section isn't too great either. It's just those default electric strips rotated apart from each other. It doesn't really look good. It seems like it's just there for the sake of having a custom background, which should never be the case. Try to create something that fits into the rest of the level. You need to have a theme in mind, something to match all your design and gameplay to, because that's what is going to make it look and play good. The problem with the background is that it doesn't match anything. A big problem with it is that it follows player colors, but the rest of the part doesn't, meaning certain player colors will make it look bad. It's also really out of place. The design of it doesn't match the design of anything else, hence, no common theme. This seems like the biggest weakness of this part. The next section does a lot better in all aspects. The block design is the same as the stuff in the first section, although it fits better for this part. Detail is still an issue, of course. Even just some minor color changes in different areas of the blocks could go a long way. The background does a lot better. It just seems like that first section was just a part where you had no ideas. The background matches the block design in this section, and I like how you have movement as well. Movement makes it interesting, and sometimes people just neglect that. This section does a great job with pretty much all of the last section's weak areas. There is one issue I have, though. The colors, while better, are still a bit weird. The grey in the back doesn't necessarily match with the blocks, but this isn't really an issue. The problem is you keep using player colors. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of player colors, but the flashing, along with the grey, makes it seem like it never really fits with the blocks, at least for certain colors. It's not a huge issue, but maybe tweak the colors so that when you test it for even the craziest combinations, it still looks rather good. Now, ugly color combinations are highly unlikely to actually get picked of course, but if you can make it work with even the ugliest ones, you sure did a great job at making the colors work. I may be just being picky, though, but make sure to do that testing. You did a good job for this section generally, just maybe add a bit more to the block design, and a tiny bit to the background. The background doesn't need much, but just a little to fill in the empty space a bit. The wave section has similar designs. The background is the same, so I don't need to address that again. The block design is cool. It's simple, but it looks nice. Of course, I gotta say it needs a bit more detail, but not too much, it looks nice without much. It's just all about filling in empty space. Let's move onto the final section. The block design is exactly the same as the block design at the first couple of sections. I guess I didn't mention it earlier, but I will now. This level is highly heavy on copy-paste. All of the structures are basically tiny modified versions of each other, and it gets really noticeable towards the end. And since the block design has a lot of issues, these are present throughout the entire level, so it really just makes things worse. Try to not copy-paste, have variation. That doesn't mean have completely different designs, they should be similar, but not basically the same. The background is alright. It's simple, but you have a ton of movement so that's nice. It's nothing amazing or notable, though, which is a huge downside. You still have player color flashes, which I think they still clash a bit, but not too bad. I think making the flashes less intense could help a bit. One final thing I want to note is the lack of air decoration. For levels like these, it can look a lot empty without anything in the air or just on the same level as the player. Decorated sawblades and pulsing objects are pretty common ways of filling in space, so try experimenting, as you are definitely lacking this in all sections.

Overall: The design is far from bad, it's very clean, for sure. It actually looks nice which is a huge plus for this level. You have movement too, which is a great touch, pretty much essential. The major issues however, are the colors, and, while it looks clean, the detail. The lack of much detail makes it look very similar to many levels, it doesn't stand out, for sure. You also have a lot of copy-paste, which gets very boring after a while. You certainly are good, but it definitely needs to be taken further. 9/20.


Sync:
The sync is alright in this level. Starting at the beginning, the sync isn't too great. The first three pads sort of sync, but after those none of the gameplay really syncs that well. The design didn't really sync in this section, either. You had one major flash right at the beginning but that's really it. I think adding a lot more detail to this section could really benefit you not just because it looks better, but it could give you more opportunities to sync. The next section does a lot better. The design sync in this part is very noticeable and really helps out the section a lot. You have flashing and movement, which both really work well together, and it doesn't feel like it really is missing anything. The gameplay sync does a lot worse, however. You do sync all of the portals, as with the rest of the level, but that's an expectation. Really I think the main issue here is that the gameplay is so simple that it becomes very hard with finding ways to sync it to the music besides adding portals. You really want to make the player feel involved in the level, and having everything sync really helps that along, so try not to neglect that. The following wave section has the same design, so therefore the same design sync. The gameplay sync does better in this section, mainly because you made the player do more. It syncs to some major beats, but that's about it though. When the rhythm changes, the gameplay doesn't, and it becomes very disappointing. Have more movement where the beats come in, and not just at even intervals because it really shows that it's connected to the gameplay. Right now, it just feels like you started and sort of got lucky with the rest; you can't neglect the change in rhythm. The final section is by far the best with gameplay sync. I'm not really surprised, either, because the cube is generally the easiest gamemode to sync. What this shows is that you definitely have been trying to sync, however it fell a bit short with the other sections. There are a few instances where it just doesn't sync quite totally scattered around this part. There's nothing too specific needing to be mentioned, I would just recommend that when building, just try going through the gameplay over and over until you sure everything is synced to something, or if not, at least feels like it would go along with the rhythm. The design sync is also good in this section, pretty much the highlight of the background. Variation of this part can make it a lot more interesting, though. Oftentimes issues with the design or gameplay reverberate to the sync. More designs or decorations give you more opportunities to sync, so the player is less likely to get bored. As I already mentioned, I think you should add a bit of air decoration to this level especially, not too much, just to the extent where it looks good and you can sort of have it pulse to the music (through color or through the pulsing objects).

Overall: Not bad, I think design sync is definitely far better than gameplay sync. It's good to see a lot of work put into that, sometimes it's neglected too often. However, gameplay sync is a more noticable aspect, and shouln't be neglected as much as it was here. Try varying your gameplay, and you will find plenty of new mays to sync these sections, as it seems like that's the major issue here, based on the contrast between the ship and cube. 5/10


Originality:
This won't affect your score, I just thought that it should be noted. Modern levels like these tend to be very plentiful nowadays, so it'll often get overlooked if it doesn't bring anything new or interesting to the table. I encourage you to sort of experiment with each level you make, trying to create something new and interesting each time to try to boost the quality of your levels. You may not be successful with it for a while, but it takes practice.


Conclusion: 42% Decent
Not a bad level overall. For the most part, it's a very clean level. However, a lot of detail is neglected. Just add more variation; air deco and different structures can add variety to individual sections. Try experimenting. Advance your designs, see what looks good. Right now, there really isn't anything notable, it seems like every other modernistic level. Try to stray away from that. Add more movement to your gameplay, right now it feels a bit stagnant for half the level. Make sure to get rid of auto sections as well. Focusing on these aspects will overall improve the quality, and even help you sync the level better. Good work, and good luck with your future levels!