Archive: 30 posts

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I'm curious what other users find fun or at least enjoyable about LBP levels. I'm really into the art style and themes in levels. It brings them to life and gives it more meaning. Obviously there has to be some other elements though. What do you like a level to contain? Jumping? Hazards/death? Swinging? Puzzles? Text? Vehicles? Complex machines? Traps? ect... or just as much as possible in 1 lvl?

2009-05-09 01:29:00 Author: Nattura Posts: 86

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Firstly, I place very high importance on Visuals, as good visuals show the creator has gone to an effort, polished the level. I believe that visuals aren't actually difficult at all, all it takes is looking at other peoples levels from a creators point of view, to see different techniques. It is like an English Essay, you look at Writers craft and HOW it is done. You don't write your IGCSE essay rambling on about What is in the level, but how it is done. Bring this to LBP, and it is easy. Then, I'd say fluid gameplay. Puzzles are all good, but I prefer easy puzzles that don't disrupt the flow of the level, and keep you moving, rather than spending 10 minutes getting to the next room. Bosses are cool too. Finally, FRESH, NEW platforming. Something I haven't seen before, that's different.

2009-05-09 01:34:00 Author: dkjestrup Posts: 672

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A good mix of platforming, puzzling (Not too confusing), visuals and a "Wow" factor.

2009-05-09 02:45:00 Author: Trevor Posts: 78

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A good difficult challenge, but it a good design, i don't want a bunch of random hazards in dark matter floor and wall, i like a theme for the level, and "organized" challenges, in other words, traps/challenges that were well thought and had some effort put into, and not just putting spikes and gas everywhere. Also story-based levels are good for the most part, shows that the one who created it visioned a story and wanted to bring it to life, which most of the times means he/she tries to make it the best as possible.

2009-05-09 03:32:00 Author: Silverleon Posts: 6707

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I enjoy nice visuals and fluid gameplay. I find visuals to be the "first impression" for a level. If the creator has put time into creating their own visual style and theme, then it immediately has a positive effect on my perception of the level. Gameplay is ultimately the most important though and I personally like LBP the best when my Sackboy is constantly moving and I don't have to think too much about puzzle solving. Don't get me wrong, I love a good puzzle, but like dkjestrup, I think that sometimes too many (or too difficult) puzzles disrupt the flow of the level. I prefer one or two simple puzzles that kept the player moving. Oh, and I like to swing!

2009-05-09 04:34:00 Author: mrsupercomputer Posts: 1335

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Above all i value uniqueness. If a person can make ANY type of level that is wholly unique, it always impresses me. Even some of the odder things lol. As to whats fun... i'm kinda a nerdy guy, i like puzzles alot But like i said, i pretty much like any type of gameplay, as long as its new and hasn't been copypasta'd into eternity. (ie: oh noes, its another ball swing platform D

2009-05-09 07:49:00 Author: Burnvictim42 Posts: 3322

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Moved to Everything Else LittleBigPlanet.

2009-05-09 10:27:00 Author: Killian Posts: 2575

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first I like good visuals, but the game play has to match. I love a challenging level, but not when it's cheep. Also like a level that's been polished enough that it doesn't break.

2009-05-09 11:09:00 Author: smasher Posts: 641

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i like getting bounced in the air in the way homer simpson likes bright flashing lights.

2009-05-09 12:13:00 Author: Matt 82 Posts: 1096

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Constantly moving and doing things, and clean visuals. What IS it that you're doing? That all depends on the level, but I really like innovative gameplay. For instance: With Splat Invaders Saga and Splat II, I was trying to push gameplay that wasn't quite like anything else anyone had seen before. With "Sack's in the City", RangerZero built a really unique "RPG open world do whatever you want in any order" gameplay. With "Tye Dye", Jaeyden designed an incredibly unique and addictive point bubble grabbing level that puts you in an almost zen-like state for hours at a time. With 218, OCK creates an incredibly unique cerebrial story that takes you on a fantastic journey. With "Little Big Apocalypse", JonMartin does a huge set of levels that are based more around ambience and story-telling than production value (much like an indie film) I love it when creators focus on these unique gameplay scenarios that make me forget I'm playing LBP for a bit.

2009-05-09 12:29:00 Author: CCubbage Posts: 4430

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/takes notes The gameplay in one of the levels I'm working on was unique when I started it, but now everyone as seen it in various different levels. Anyway, I agree. Fresh gameplay, fluid design and consistent environments is what I like to see in a level. (You may swap the adjectives around. The sentence above will still make sense.^.^)

2009-05-09 12:59:00 Author: Syroc Posts: 3193

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two words. Rocket Cheetahs. (j/k) I'll be quite honest. I like vehicles. If a level has awesome vehicles, or vehicles that make me laugh, I tend to love it. I even like bad levels with vehicles because they crack me up. I especially like mine cart rides, and my levels definitely reflect it. I definitely appreciate an artistic level, as I am an artist myself. A beautiful level is nothing though, if the mechanics suck and are too hard and annoying. Nattura, your levels have good mechanics, and look beautiful, too. What I hate: electricity placed in stupid places. Emitted electricity. Lack of direction. Jumping on little tiny platforms for an hour with no sign of a checkpoint, and then falling down and activating a different checkpoint. Oh, and text heavy levels. those things ruin a level for me.

2009-05-09 13:54:00 Author: xkappax Posts: 2569

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two words. Rocket Cheetahs. (j/k) I'll be quite honest. I like vehicles. If a level has awesome vehicles, or vehicles that make me laugh, I tend to love it. I even like bad levels with vehicles because they crack me up. I especially like mine cart rides, and my levels definitely reflect it. I definitely appreciate an artistic level, as I am an artist myself. A beautiful level is nothing though, if the mechanics suck and are too hard and annoying. Nattura, your levels have good mechanics, and look beautiful, too. What I hate: electricity placed in stupid places. Emitted electricity. Lack of direction. Jumping on little tiny platforms for an hour with no sign of a checkpoint, and then falling down and activating a different checkpoint. Oh, and text heavy levels. those things ruin a level for me. Ok.... I think I've got a great formula for making a level Sara likes. Let me program that in really quick in true geeky form (if FeloneousCat sees this, he's gonna pee!): BOOL GoodLevelForKappa() { If(Level==RocketCheetah) { GoodLevel=True; } ElseIf(Level==Bad && Graphics==Bad && AnyVehicle==True) { GoodLevel=True; } ElseIf(Level==Good && Graphics==Good) { GoodLevel=True; } Else { GoodLevel=False; } Return(GoodLevel); } Let me know if I missed anything.

2009-05-09 18:17:00 Author: CCubbage Posts: 4430

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Yesss this is the input I wanted, keep it up! Hopefully this will help other designers too if they are in a rut like me lol. Sorry if I put this in the wrong section...I really couldn't figure out where it goes, so thanks for moving it. What about point bubbles? I like them in levels even though I don't try to collect them all. I think it helps people move along and it's good for competing if there's multiple players. They can show where to go next too instead of placing arrow signs or whatever. It just feels empty without any...

2009-05-09 18:20:00 Author: Nattura Posts: 86

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I like levels that have good and imginative platforming elements and gameplay. As overall, in my opinion gameplay is the main aspect of a level. I find visuals very important too. As like mrsupercomputer said it gives me a first impression of a level, and it also tells you if the creator truly put a lot of time and thought into the level. I also like imaginative puzzles but nothing too hard, as I like to be constantly moving and knowing I'm getting somewhere in a level too. EDIT: I like having lots of point bubbles in a level too, as these can add replay value.

2009-05-09 18:31:00 Author: lk9988 Posts: 1077

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I use point bubbles to guide, create competition in 2 player, and as little secret areas as well. Can`t say a long corridor with a string of point bubbles is particularly interesting mind you. I tend to think of them as a bonus rather than the main attraction. In my levels anyway, I know there are loads where getting points is the, um, point.

2009-05-09 19:13:00 Author: Matt 82 Posts: 1096

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Design--lvl has to have a ' identifiable look'. Consistent Defined gameplay, (variety may be the spice of life but some lvls try to do too much and as a player, your just confused). Jumping, swinging, puzzles are all good. I like MM story objects used in unique ways (say the first verticle starting gate I saw... or, a complete re-sized obstacle...) I like multi-path or better yet no path... encourages replay. I love secrets and rewards for finding them. I like limited ammo, and shooting while on the move, (I think as creators the paintinator hasn't been utilized to its fullest!) Accuracy over quantity... manipulating enviornment. Not big on; vehicles (unless extremely unusual [I created and scraped a rocking chair race], under-tested levels, and Bosses with 53 brains. More than anything, this is lbp, it has to be fun. Whatever that means to the individual.

2009-05-09 19:38:00 Author: Gravel Posts: 1308

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Hah hah. Ccubbage, you're silly I have to agree with the thing about secrets in levels, cause I like that sort of thing too. I tried to put as many in the crystal cave as I could fit. You know what I forgot to mention, too, and this doesn't apply to every level, but it applies to some. I like levels that make me laugh. If a level has a great sense of humor about itself, i.e. The Crazy World of Chutes by Pirate_Hat, EddieMitter by Mattification, etc... I tend to really gravitate towards it. The crazier the better, too. That doesn't necessarily apply here, but I just thought I'd mention it. Oh, and I like getting points, too. I'm just notoriously bad at it. I get yelled at by my friends because I don't know h ow to ""chain points properly" ... what do they think this is, Ikaruga?!

2009-05-09 20:15:00 Author: xkappax Posts: 2569

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YouTube - I Love To Laugh - Mary Poppins

2009-05-09 21:37:00 Author: Matt 82 Posts: 1096

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YouTube - I Love To Laugh - Mary Poppins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOMqqI-kzHY) Man, Matt... Can't you get through ANY adult discussion without a Mary Poppins reference???? This is getting a bit irritating. Mary Poppins this, Mary Poppins that.... But seriously... I think one thing that just about ANY decent LBP creator has to agree with - what WE think is fun, and what the general LBP audience think is fun are many times 2 completely different things, so who are you trying to create levels for? Are you trying to create something to satisfy yourself, other creators, the general LBP audience, or everyone? Unfortunately, what I consider fun personally is not necessarily what the general LBP audience of mostly 10 year olds considers fun. But I've been spotlighting, beta testing, and building levels long enough to understand, pretty much, which levels will be incredibly popular and which ones will not. Also, there's a double standard where difficulty and length are concerned between off-the-shelf games and LBP levels. The most popular levels in LBP (and by popular I mean 4 star AND a lot of hearts) are incredibly pretty BUT easy, or have a specific popular subject matter, or are fast and addictive, or toss you around like a rag doll. These will generally jump to the top of cool pages faster than a monkey on a cupcake. Levels that DON'T fare so well are ones that make you stop and solve a puzzle that takes longer than, say..... 1 minute, or RPG-type levels, or slower-paced story levels, or levels that require quite a bit of arcade skill. These are still great levels (and many of them are my personal favorites), but don't fare as well on cool pages. Fortunately, MM picks, IGN, and the spotlight here also take these types of levels into account. But, once again (MM if you're listening) eventually it would be great to have difficulty and genre settings searchable and controllable by the author - so we don't have to succumb to the masses, but can still have the right people find the right levels.

2009-05-09 22:22:00 Author: CCubbage Posts: 4430

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for the Genre thing, we need Search filters like so: * Search for: 3+ stars, 3/5+ difficulty, "platformer genre", without H4H or Trophy in title. * Then we get a COMPLETELY RANDOM list of all levels that fit those criteria. And by pressing the refresh button, we get more RANDOM levels that fit the criteria. - LBP2, if done right. On topic: Points. I made a big mistake on my first level. SPREAD your points out. Don't place them all in secret areas, but string them out through the level, and some secrets. Think of making Chains. Like in Jaeydens TYE DYE.

2009-05-09 22:58:00 Author: dkjestrup Posts: 672

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Personally - I'm an eye candy junkie. It's got to look good or at least appropriate for what the level is trying to do. While I can appreciate a hard core platforming and puzzle extravaganza it's not complete unless it looks good in my world. Point bubbles - I use them to leave a trail for players to follow in most of my levels. I like to put caches of them in places sometimes too. Also I will use them as a reward system for finishing a puzzle or making it through a more difficult part of my levels. When I play - it depends on the direction of the level how I relate to point bubbles. If it's a story driven level - I'm not likely to hunt out every bubble I can find. If it's a survivial challenge or something like Tye Dye - I'm all over the bubbles. I haven't used this but I do really like the "secrets" techniques that GrantosUK and Mindphaser use in their levels. Adds another layer to the gameplay.

2009-05-09 23:03:00 Author: Morgana25 Posts: 5983

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Not that anybody's playing it... or ever gonna finish it (own **** fault) [and I'm not begging] but in 'waterFALLS' I used point bubbles almost as set dressings, like hanging vines. The idea was, challenge the player to get through the level, after that's accomplished, it'd still be a worthwhile play focusing on how to score. My other level focuses exclusively on the pt. bubble. There's a ridiculose hidden multiplier, (which is kind of cheap and I normally dont like... but it fit in a level all about hi-score. Everything on the ground has a purpose in giving pts. I went so far to create a room with a giant spinning yo-yoing turbine tossing the bubbles around. The floor is comprised of spikes... and I drop you in there armed with a jet pack. Thinking I had conditioned the player to try to get that just one more bubble... that leads to their undoing. Normally, not my thing but it seemed fun... is fun, for what it is. The Pt bubble is our most versatile tool. Score. Art. Lure. Bait. Reward. Companion. Reassuring. Point bubble I love you!

2009-05-10 03:12:00 Author: Gravel Posts: 1308

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Point bubbles.... wonderful little pills of delight. I about wet myself when playing ApellesJr's last level when I realized he had hidden virtually every single point bubble in his entire level right off of the first room. Absolutely brilliant! I think it got around 16000 plays, but everyones scores completely stunk other than a few of us.... Also, the thought of getting tons of points kept me popping pimples in Wex's Mind of a H4H'r for about an hour (last time I looked I still had the high score on that one....and that was after about 60,000 plays) And Matt 82..... PLEASE don't make me laugh that hard again..... I just found a bunch of Mary Poppins comments in a bunch of my levels. I laughed for about 5 minutes.

2009-05-10 03:34:00 Author: CCubbage Posts: 4430

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I like good, challenging puzzles. It's a good brain exercise.

2009-05-10 05:29:00 Author: StrayFelisCatus Posts: 178

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It's all about original gameplay and good clean visuals for me. The level has to flow and stay interesting throughout. A good technique I have found is to slowly increase the intensity/difficulty of the level as you go through. Introduce a little element early on and then build on it until it becomes a seamless part of your level. Basically, if you play my Flaming Timberland 1 and 2 it is clear what kind of levels I go for

2009-05-12 03:48:00 Author: jackofcourse Posts: 1494

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It's a mixture of platforming, puzzles and graphics for me. I like a challenge, but it has to feel fair. I don't tend to care about plot, as most levels that try too hard with plot just go heavy handed on the text. But then levels where you are jumping around with no real justification for it feel a little empty to me, so there needs to be something. Oh and climbing on ceilings. I love climbing on ceilings. To the point that it's wrong. Especially with some big gaps thrown in so I really have to stretch for it! Too much ceiling climbing in my WIP. On the subject of points: levels where all the points are just sitting there in a row so everyone gets a x5 combo as the walk from one area to another just strikes of a lack of imagination. I've been working with the concept of placing points around difficult hazards. If you take your time, the hazards are hard, and you get like 500 points. If you sprint through the section, the hazards become very very difficult, but you can get 4k-5k points. They also exist as caches of 1k-2k points in secrets as rewards for exploring, being observant, or having sick platforming (and ceiling climbing) skills. Oh and a little line of points can be used if the next step is unclear. like, points on the ceiling means you're supposed to climb on the ceiling.

2009-05-12 09:01:00 Author: rtm223 Posts: 6497

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I can't really think of anything specifically that I find fun (then again I haven't been able to play in a few days), I'm pretty easily entertained when it comes to LBP. However, when levels that are actually challenging and well thought out, it's pretty disappointing to not include score bubbles, because it loses a bit of it's competitive edge, it's always cool when you pass someone's score, especially at their own level. (like when I passed both my brother's scores at my brother's level, surprising because it was too hard for me to even finish for the first while)

2009-05-12 09:21:00 Author: DeathJohnson Posts: 57

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levels that show the user tried his best to connect/create a story line with awesome gameplay and detail! summed in 1 sentence.

2009-05-12 17:27:00 Author: johnrulz77 Posts: 835

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The main thing I like is time and effort. You can tell if alot of time has gone into a level. It makes it a pleasure to walk, jump through, even if the platforming aspects are pretty standard. As you want to see what the next great thing they have designed is. The next level up is the same time and effort put in but with unique platforming aspects and all tied up with a good not to text heavy story.

2009-05-12 18:29:00 Author: bindibaji Posts: 119

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