Yeah, I have been busy lately, so I don't really post much in this board. Please give us some time, and don't bump threads. We are not going to be magically free after you move the thread to the top.
Splitting into gameplay and decoration...
GameplayIt’s okay, but it’s not impressive either. The gameplay feels mediocre. While I feel a bit of calmness in the early parts of the level, I cannot feel to dynamics that should appear at the drop. A level being easy does not mean that you need to compromise on dynamic actions. A level where the player moves around can still be easy. Here are more specific suggestions.
- 1%: The jump shows up a bit too late. Consider making the layout at the front a bit easier for the player to re-enter the level more smoothly after they restart. Players usually do not remember what happens at the first part of the level, so you need time for them to recall their memory.
- 3%: Coin is too easy and intuitive. Watch out for Viprin - he may kill you for that.
- 10%: The dash orb is hard to see and thus hard to hit. This is probably due to the large vertical movement at around 8%. It is not recommended to place blue pads that cause the player to move this drastically, as it easily confuses the player and they need to refocus.
- 11%: Players can still activate the dash orb even if they are about 1 block away from it, so please leave some room for input discrepancies, especially when you are trying to make an easier level, which should be more tolerant to inaccurate inputs.
- 18%: The UFO part feels weird. Jumps feels super tight despite it having quite a lot of space. UFO sections can often be like that, so you may keep that. However, be aware that sometimes this can cause crashes occasionally. Just be open to possibilities.
- 22%: Again, the coin route is too obvious. Moreover, there is an invisible teleportation portal, which can really catch people off guard. I know this is a coin route, so it can be more evil or such, but I think most people will expect moving up manually, looking at the layout, so you may want to just do that instead.
- 23% to 35%: This part is quite nice. Although I would describe it as no-frills, I would also say that this part suits well with the calm, soothing music. One thing to note though: yellow orbs don’t look well in a equally yellow background, so you may need to change the background colour a bit.
- 51% to 62%: I suspect the difficulty of this part is a bit too high? In triple speed, obstacles reach the player faster so the player have less time to read, so the jumps should be easier, but instead it looks like a similar difficulty as other sections, if not harder.
- 70%: Too little reaction time for the player to react. Leave 1 second after transitions for the player to read the layout.
- 71% to 78%: The pad-orb-orb-pad-orb-orb combination causes a discrepancy too large that it is possible for the spider to land directly on the spikes at the platform afterwards. Long orb combos are inaccurate so please avoid them unless you think your orb combos is super great that no other layout can replace it, or you found out a way to allow for the error possible, including lengthening the platform after the combo.
- 81% to 85%: Slow UFO jumping through a tunnel is boring and does not fit the drop of the music at all. Double speed would still be okay, but half speed is really a no for me.
- 86% to 98%: The ship part does not sync well with the music. I know, ships parts are hard to sync, but you can sync to ups and downs to the music. Do not just sketch the ship layout and call it a day. The whole level should sync. 100 percent of the level.
DecorationIn a nutshell: the level fails to do what modern deco usually do. Modern deco usually has a few characteristics:
- They usually use triggers for effects to make up for the objects they saved. Your objective for decoration is still filling up the level, but modern levels usually don’t just stuff glow and little stars into their work.
- They have simpler block design, but the block design is still filled with detail and layering. In fact, it is more difficult to come up with a block design in modern because you cannot use too many different objects (otherwise it may look like tech) while it cannot be too dull.
- They redesign orbs, portals, pads, coins and every gameplay mechanics because the default texture usually won’t fit into modern.
I can tell that this level tries to make modern, but it does not really feel like modern, to be honest. Here are more specific tips.
- 0% to 70%: The background does not move at all from the player’s perspective, which is a huge missed opportunity. Especially when the player does not interact with the background, and it is at the bottommost layer of the level, you are free to move the background however you want. Look at different modern background design and try to think how people did them. If the background magic still confuses you, copy them and dig the mechanism of how it works. I am not trying to tell you to steal other’s work, but you can learn a lot from looking into other modern background deco. People making modern have super bonkers background ideas, so it is a thing you need to learn and put time into perfecting it.
- 3%: Please do not use coloured outline to signify it is fake. It does not look nice.
- 14%: Extend the structure to a few blocks above. The player can see the empty top before they enter ship mode, which breaks the illusion of the block being like a pillar or something.
- 14% to 22%: Shadows seem to be too dark. You can fix it by making it less opaque.
- 23% to 35%: I would consider not using these spikes, or at least using it in a more appealing way. Although the animation of those spikes do look nice, they don’t feel really modern and do not fit into the level that well.
- 23% to 35%: And also bricks do not look well in modern deco because it’s too detail-y or blocky.
- 36% to 50%: Consider adding deco on the slopes? They look bland.
- 51%: Please do not just add hollow outlines. They don’t look nice, even in the context of tech deco.
- 64% to 68%: If notes are not enough to sync with each letter to your level name, perhaps ditch the idea instead of pairing letters for the word Snap. Also, default fonts usually do not fit well with modern deco, so it’s best to just create your custom font.
- 70% to 98%: The spinning wheel is super weird, with a even weirder orb centre. Make sure you make things that fit well with the level, but not something that looks kind of nice on its own. (although it actually does not look nice even on its own)
- 100%: Stuffing different items is not a way to decorate your ending. Again, look at other’s works to see how they end the level. You do not need to make it too eye-catching, but it still should not be chaotic.
- Thin outlines does not fit modern deco, because 1) thin deco is hard to see and it looks more detail-y rather than outline-y, and 2) thin corners and sides does not seem to work well together for some reason.
- I have not tried this yet, but using rotate triggers can probably slow down the spinning speed of saws, which can fit slow music better.
- Be careful of layering. Sometimes if you are not careful, objects that are supposed to be in different layers may cross, which is super ugly.
- Use Don’t Fade and Don’t Enter on all objects because some objects will fade in and out even if you do not specify a entry/exit animation. You don’t want that in modern because 1) it does not look nice, and 2) it breaks backgrounds which usually spans across the whole screen.
VerdictNeeds Improvement. This level does not really have a specific part that is really outstanding, and there are different problems presents, either on gameplay or deco. Try learning what is detail and what is a filled level. Modern focuses on effects, so you want to be good at triggers in order to make your modern deco better.
>>> Moving to NI.