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Sackventure

Archive: 20 posts

hi all,

this level is actually the result of a creative block i've had when making stakker westworld 3, some info...

psn: mother-misty
lvlname: sackventure

if you have some time, i would love to get some feedback, will try to do as many F4F's in return.

cheers,
misty


some pics		2009-06-09 17:06:00

Author:
Mother-Misty
Posts: 574

The pictures look great and I really enjoyed your last level so I'll be checking this one out for sure.2009-06-09 17:11:00

Author:
wexfordian
Posts: 1904

The pictures don't do justice to the lush environments here Mother-misty! Very nice, shame it's currently got a 3 star rating because it's better than that.

Pros:
+ Oh, maybe those great enviroments! Beautiful to look at
+ Use of all three planes is good, you must teach me that some time
+ Lots of nice platforming
+ A lot of the puzzles all work on proper physics
+ The boulders rolling down the hill, an epic chase section better than most I've seen.
+ Still some challenge

Cons:
- The level starts off very slowly which could stop people playing on. I suggest putting some points around there on different planes so people have to switch quickly between them to get combo's.

Overall a 5 star level - very close to a heart if you could just speed up the first section with my above suggestion.		2009-06-09 18:14:00

Author:
Coxy224
Posts: 2645

My immediate reaction... what a good looking level, and yes, the 3 plane use is spot on as Coxy said. It's colorful and well lit, all the terrain is bumpy and uneven, but sculpted in a natural and sensible way. The mapping of the terrain is really a plus for me because when it's not done right, with a bunch of triangular points sticking out everywhere that make everything look like the results of a lie detector test, it's my big pet peeve.

That rope bridge over the river... man, the river is spectacular. What a simple idea to do it this way, and it came out so much better than any attempt at horizontal water I've seen. That's the most inventive use of the rolling piston synch out there, and that's normally something so cliche. Nice.

I like the enemy design, the spiders alot for some reason lol they're friendly looking and non threatening, which is perfect for LBP. The change in theme from green and lush to dark and dank feels seamless... you don't notice the transition, which fits well with the pace of the level.

There's plenty of variety in the platforming... the rotating platforms are timed just right to where the jumps take just enough timing without feeling stressful. Simple things like the weighting of the swinging fire-lamps is well done with the creak sound placed just right, and makes them feel original and unique from most swinging sections. I think those spinning wheels that change from fire to safe, being embedded in the ground is pretty original too.

The use of stickers is awesome... your leaf placement is impeccable , which makes those vines act as an added detail that you would normally have to make alot of thin layer cut outs to achieve.

Another thing I like was the pile of rubble on the latch-door out of the cave... just a cool layer of polish and detail you didn't have to add in, but did.

Overall a nice looking and fun level, with lots of great ideas.		2009-06-10 00:21:00

Author:
Unknown User

Yeah, It's one of those platformers that just flows. I really liked it from beginning to end. Does kind of start off slow but really keeps you entertained all the way through. It felt really big by the time I finished it and I think it's only real flaw...and don't kill me for saying this...is the name. I did a text search of sackventure to find it and there were a lot of levels with that same name or that word used. Other than that I thought it was great. Tons of attention to little details and perfectly placed and weighted obstacles. Nice job. 2009-06-10 00:37:00

Author:
Jaeyden
Posts: 564

^I thought the same thing, actually, because I searched by level name instead of author name. lol, I was just searching for it to play it right when your score on it popped up.2009-06-10 00:39:00

Author:
Unknown User

Thoughts as they happen.

- Yup, looks great. The grass flows brilliantly into the rock beneath it.

- The river is fantastic. The lights shimmering below it look awesome.

- I had the same problem getting onto the bridge that I did in your Stacker World levels. The camera angle. It looks away to the right to show off the bridge, but obscures Sackboy behind a pillar, and makes judging the distance between the river bank and plank hard. To add to that, there`s a leaf there that obscures the edge of the platform. That death from falling in felt avoidable. Not a huge issue, but rather irritating none the less.

- The bats are brilliant.

- The level has really picked up now. Some gorgeous looking obstacles here.

- Having a bit of trouble with layers at the part just after the rotating circles in the ground. Trying to get onto the middle layer to proceed is pretty hard with the camera set so low that I can`t see my feet.

Overall, it`s excellent. It gets 5 stars and a heart from me. My only issue with this level (please don`t take this to heart!), and it bothered me from start to finish, was the camera. Throughout almost the entire level, the camera is pulled away to one side. There were times where I was thinking that you must be putting it there to purposely make things hard for the player. I get the impression that if you could, you`d have the camera directly behind Sackboy, Tomb Raider style. It just makes it so much harder to judge distance and height when the view is skewed like that.

At the roller ball part for example, pulling the camera back and upwards would achieve the same goal of showing off your wonderful scenery as well as letting players see what`s ahead without screwing up their perspective. And the part I mentioned earlier would benefit from a slightly higher camera angle too. With the ground often at different on all 3 layers, it only needs you to be at the one bit where the layer closer to the screen is higher than the one you`re on before you find you can`t change layers. Being able to see your feet is needed in these cases.

By all means have the camera pan round to show what`s ahead, but just not while I`m jumping please. Side on camera angles work so much better.

Anyhoo my final piece of advice is: Since you only have 3 stars and 15 hearts, delete the level and republish from scratch. Just make sure you let folks here know you`re going to do it. Hopefully you`ll get enough volunteers to give you a fair rating and a heart if they choose to so that you get off to a good start. I think if you can get to 100plays with 4 stars it'll stay that way and you'll get a decent run on cool levels.		2009-06-10 01:09:00

Author:
Matt 82
Posts: 1096

Just played this one, and I really enjoyed it. Your scenery is beautiful, and the layout is very good. Your bats are the best I've seen yet. I also liked all your platforming elements. My only complaint was that I felt like I was fighting the camera at some points. Overall a very fun level. Great work!!

I wouldn't mind if you checked out my mountain marathon. Thanks.		2009-06-10 01:24:00

Author:
smasher
Posts: 641

The bats... the bats.... THE BATS O..O

Ahem.

Really awesome job here. The bats were a pain in the neck

+Really great use of three layers to create depth.
+Cute, LBP-style enemies, even if they are creepy-crawlies.
+Solid platforming fun all the way through except...

-I found the area by the lone bat hard to get down into, for some reason. I couldn't get to the back (mid?) layer to drop down on the ramp.		2009-06-10 03:13:00

Author:
Loius
Posts: 342

- The level starts off very slowly which could stop people playing on. I suggest putting some points around there on different planes so people have to switch quickly between them to get combo's.
It starts off slowly indeed, I will see if i can add some more stuff before you enter the cave to make it more interesting. (thermo is over 95% though )


...and don't kill me for saying this...is the name. I did a text search of sackventure to find it and there were a lot of levels with that same name or that word used.
Kill you... nah (me want Tye Dye 2! )
I agree man, the name really sucks :blush: should have spend some more time on that one,
I will see if i can come up with something a little bit more attractive.


I had the same problem getting onto the bridge that I did in your Stacker World levels. The camera angle. It looks away to the right to show off the bridge,
Will look if i can make that camera angle any better...


Anyhoo my final piece of advice is: Since you only have 3 stars and 15 hearts, delete the level and republish from scratch. Just make sure you let folks here know you`re going to do it. Hopefully you`ll get enough volunteers to give you a fair rating and a heart if they choose to so that you get off to a good start. I think if you can get to 100plays with 4 stars it'll stay that way and you'll get a decent run on cool levels.
I did publish it a few times (and deleted it back again) but everytime it would get a really low rating and "rubbish" / "annoying" tags. (seems like waiting for new levels and rating them rubbish is pretty popular among the kids these days )


-I found the area by the lone bat hard to get down into, for some reason. I couldn't get to the back (mid?) layer to drop down on the ramp.
had that problem a couple of times myself, will do some more work on that area.

thanks for the feedback guys, will try do to a 4F4 asap

misty.		2009-06-11 09:35:00

Author:
Mother-Misty
Posts: 574

I played it a few days ago but forgot to leave feedback... PLEASE DON'T HURT ME

Pros:
- nice design
- awesome grass
- hidden areas. One of those things that makes a level awesome...
- it had a little bit of a challenge
- love the bats
- rolling rocks of terror!!! It was pretty fun escaping those

Suggestions:
- at the part where you active the half circle to rotate (secret!) there's a bat. Most of the time the auto-select-layer-function put me on the bat when I tried to jump. It was pretty annoying since it happened over and over again. Just make the bat fly a little bit more up

Rated 4 stars but still gave a heart because of those little charming bats. 		2009-06-11 18:51:00

Author:
blizzard_cool
Posts: 752

This is a fun, relaxing level to play that is a breath of fresh air to a small horde zombie/horror levels, the waning glitch levels, a swarm of H4H entries and a glut of survival challenge levels featuring the ubiquitous bomb.

I was struck by the peaceful, cheery presentation of the level and enjoyed the pace of the level which is a bit laid back and leisurely. Even the timed sequences such as the rotating platforms and rock slide do little to pull away from the smooth, calm pace of the level.

This level is also a beautiful level to look at and has some very good leaf and flower pieces throughout the level. The transition both into and out of the cave system is also a clean, good looking setup. The done very good implementations with the lighting. There are some phenomenal uses of both the Global Lighting tool, I believe you use it but if you don't then you deserve higher praise, and the use of spotlights.

The lighting in the river, throughout the cave and in the transitions between the outside and cave system is very impressive, subtle yet having a strong impact.

The whole level from the obstacles to the monsters has a very organic quality to them as well as a rounded, friendly impression. I like your creature design in this level. You?ve done a good job creating easily recognizable enemies that aren?t grotesque, that not monster-brain laden hulks yet still offer a challenge in gameplay.

The river, of course, deserves praise of its own. You?ve created a beautiful set up there and in addition to the piston and lighting action I also enjoyed the rope bridge with its with its nice looking and architecturally sound rope suspension system. Alas the space between the planks is wide enough to allow the sack person to fall through but this is not an easy task and is mitigated by the larger width of the planks themselves so that I?d say this isn?t a big issue. (Falling through rope bridges is a small peeve of mine.)

The use of the three layers is also implemented well and I generally had no issues with inadvertent plane shifted as I have on some poorer levels. Others have brought this on up but the section in the caves where I had to activate a switch, jump into the back layer, over the rotating semi-circle and a second switch was a spot where I did have problems with the three planes. In addition to having difficulty getting into the middle layer to get downstairs I didn?t have a clear understanding as to how or where I needed to go to move to the next section of the level.

After I collected the bubbles below I tried for a while to get to the left section from below and after that failed I tried, on a lark, to run left from the middle layer from up above and found that whatever had blocked the way before was gone now. Just a point of confusion on my part and I don't know if it was due to a camera angle or me not paying attention closely.

The rock slide at the end was a lot of fun and very nicely implemented. You manage to take something often done so badly by other creators, a mass of objects rolling down into the sack person, and do in a way that isn?t frustrating, buggy or flat out messy. Good work.

The level overall has a feeling of classic platforming games that I've seen on popular consoles that had been given the HD treatment as it captures both the run/jump platform feel as well as the character and style of earlier, friendly classic games.

Since this level represents what you?ve done when you have creativity block I?m looking forward to playing through your other levels to see how things play out when you are actively creative.

I was very surprised by the three star rating and lack of plays on this level as it really is a good, quality level. It may have the mass market appeal of running over rocket propelled boards for an entire level but it really should be getting a lot more attention than it has now.		2009-06-13 00:15:00

Author:
Trindall
Posts: 297

Thanks a lot for the kind words blizzard cool and certainly you trindall!
You've made my day

Didn't have time to adjust the level because i'm working hard on a new one, but i will certainly look into those issue's! Have been experimenting more with those layers and i think i know what to do to solve those problem area's.

(i'm a little bit behind my mails but feedback is coming up guys

cheers,
misty.		2009-06-15 20:01:00

Author:
Mother-Misty
Posts: 574

Played this level days and days ago, but I never left feedback because I'm a terrible terrible person, so I am making up for it now

The first thing I have to get out of the way is that I agree with the people who said that the name is letting the level down...it isn't very appealing and doesn't tell me anything about what the level is like! Even the logo for the level doesn't hint at the amazingness of this level...

Anyway, now that I've got that out of the way, I have to tell you that I really love the details you've put into this level, from simple things like the creaking of the swinging lamps and the spider threads to the beautiful, complex things like your amazing river (the best I've seen in LBP so far!). In fact the visuals were pretty much perfect, there's nothing I could say to improve them.

My only suggestions are for the gameplay, which can be a bit frustrating at times. Some of the checkpoints are spaced out too far and don't have enough lives, which I think might be the reason why this level has a low heart rating...not because of the quality of the level at all, but because people are giving up and leaving the level too early due to losing all their lives.

Mostly I think all the single life checkpoints could be made double life checkpoints, especially the one at the first obstacle (the spinning platforms with spikes underneath them...the first time I played I lost all my lives in one go here, and almost didn't restart). And in some places I think you need more checkpoints, especially the part where you knock over the ramp, which you have to climb while avoiding the flaming logs - when you die here, you respawn all the way at the bottom of the cave again.

The rest of the level from that point is perfect though, particularly the epic rock slide which is really fun!

Overall this is a beautiful level with so much to offer...it could (and should!) be a five star level on the Cool Pages, at the moment I think it is just being let down by the lack of checkpoints which is causing some players to leave in frustration. This level is so nice to play through and look at, it's a shame that people would give up before the end. It deserves much much better ratings, I definitely agree with the others who said that you should delete and republish so that it can get the fame it deserves!		2009-06-19 13:40:00

Author:
CheesyMcFly
Posts: 211

I did publish it a few times (and deleted it back again) but everytime it would get a really low rating and "rubbish" / "annoying" tags. (seems like waiting for new levels and rating them rubbish is pretty popular among the kids these days )



I suspect that it might be better to publish when the American kids are asleep or at school--little suckers down-rate anything. lol

Any way, here are :

sack-venture notes

I noticed a little slow-down over the bridge, but I kind-of liked the dream-like quality it made..plus gappy bridges like that usually cause me worry (I'm not a great gamer) so the extra time was welcome.


Oh no! I broke the cute little hedge hog! ripped the poor dear right out from under it's spines while trying to play with it!

Past the first spiders and bats there's a rotating thingy that lifts you up to a little tunnel that leads to a switch that drops a plank down to the compartment below. The decending spikes have gotten jammd up and have fallen out of sync. maybe make the pistons driving them loose, (and/or) give them a little more play side-to-side.


just after that, I got to the next section by jumping off the handle of the switch next to the colmn to get to the little cave, and wondered if that's how I was meant to solve the puzzle. Every solution leading up to that was put forward in bold strokes, so I wonder. maybe a sound to indicate a legit solve?

land-slide! woo-hoo! that was fun! much more interesting than the standard indiana-jones being chased by a round rock senario.

This is such a beeeaaatiful level! then again every level I've played by you so far has been.

:star::star::star::star: + heart		2009-07-30 13:31:00

Author:
swanbrown
Posts: 898

As everyone said, it's a great level!

Very nice design : environment, ennemies (loved the bats too), obstacles!
Well balanced : not too hard, not too easy / not too short, not too long
Nice ideas : loved the falling rocks at the end...

So I just a spend a nice time playing it!

The only (subjective) thing I can say, is that the forest/cave theme doesn't suprise that much, as they are many levels based on this....
But don't worry, yours is one of the best I played!

:star::star::star::star: Good work!		2009-07-30 22:21:00

Author:
dajdaj03
Posts: 1486

I can't believe I didn't post how much I loved this level in here. :eek:

5 stars & hearted!		2009-07-31 18:19:00

Author:
Morgana25
Posts: 5983

This is a very fun light-hearted level, and Misty should promote it a bit more...2009-08-02 20:39:00

Author:
OmegaSlayer
Posts: 5112

Past the first spiders and bats there's a rotating thingy that lifts you up to a little tunnel that leads to a switch that drops a plank down to the compartment below. The decending spikes have gotten jammd up and have fallen out of sync. maybe make the pistons driving them loose, (and/or) give them a little more play side-to-side.

just after that, I got to the next section by jumping off the handle of the switch next to the colmn to get to the little cave, and wondered if that's how I was meant to solve the puzzle. Every solution leading up to that was put forward in bold strokes, so I wonder. maybe a sound to indicate a legit solve?

hmm... no, that's not how you have to solve it... i'm wondering what happened there.
Will have a look at that part. Adding a sound is a good idea, will do that.



This is a very fun light-hearted level, and Misty should promote it a bit more...
Thanks omega. Actually i thought about removing that level, for some reason i don't really like it myself that much, but it makes me happy that other people like it a lot better then me

misty.		2009-08-03 09:02:00

Author:
Mother-Misty
Posts: 574

Please don't remove it!! This was fun and horribly cute! ..to be honest I haven't had the pleasure of playing your other levels YET, but really really fun and cute. Loved the spooky bats and quite a nice variety of platforming that is well blended with the scenery. Loved the bit ol tree.. though I kinda wished I could play on it a bit more or took up a 2nd layer to a secret off in another tree or cloud.

Loved the landslide!!! Actually wished that theme went on a bit longer or took you through some more stuff as I was sad to see the scoreboard appear.

Really great stuff and will be sure and check out your other levels that you are happier with as they have to be great!

I gave it :star::star::star::star: and a heart!

If you have a chance.. check out my new level Space Escape if you are still doing F4F.		2009-08-03 15:46:00

Author:
jwwphotos
Posts: 11383


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