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Just a Day at Sackboy Beach

Archive: 17 posts

PSN: Spider-Jew
Level Name: Just a Day at Sackboy Beach
Description: Sackboy needs a vacation after defeating The Collector. What better place to do that than at Sackboy Beach?!? But could there be an adventure waiting here as well???
Video Link: YouTube - Just a Day at Sackboy Beach
http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/gothicfairytale/th_day2.jpg (http://s601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/gothicfairytale/?action=view¤t=day2.jpg) http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/gothicfairytale/th_day5.jpg (http://s601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/gothicfairytale/?action=view¤t=day5.jpg)
This level takes you on a journey from Sackboy Beach to the pirate ship Rumatsea to the Sackboy Jungle and finally to Olmec's Temple. This level practically fills the thermometer and is on the verge of over-heating.

This is part one of a series. There is a sequel to it and I was going to make more, but the lack of many people playing the levels has at this point discouraged me...Hopefully posting here will help people actually see a good level and not all those H4H levels 		2009-06-10 04:08:00

Author:
Spider-Jew
Posts: 1090

I dunno why you`re complaining about having so few plays, you have 1,609 plays and 128 hearts!

Just played it through just now. The Pirates are cute and the dialogue funny at times ("you should see the other guy") but the level has a very plain look to it. The opening beach, the ship and the temple all could do with some major sprucing up.

There`s also not too much of a challenge. I died once at the part with the moving platforms over the fire pit. Other than that, it`s mainly just collecting score bubbles and jumping on the odd enemy.

Everything worked though so no technical issues to talk of. I`d drop the photo booth timer down a few seconds though. Standing there for a full ten seconds when you want to get into the level is a bit of a nuisance.		2009-06-10 11:48:00

Author:
Matt 82
Posts: 1096

Hi SpiderJew, As Matt says you're plays are very good. I've had levels published for 6 months or more that still only have around 50 plays !! so I'd be chuffed to bits to have 1600.

Even the level I won a crown for has only got just over 100 plays.

I'll check out your level asap anyway. It looks and sounds interesting with plenty of variety.		2009-06-10 12:08:00

Author:
mistervista
Posts: 2210

Oh...lol...I didn't realize that 1600 was a lot...I see ones with at least 20000 so I figured I was getting no love. Plus, i got 1600 over about 8 months lol, so that seems lame to me. My bad...thanks for playing the level . Ya, I need to make it look better I suppose...just not to sure what I can do with it to spruce it up. I tried to add some visual stuff to make it look better, but the thermometer is pretty much full and it keeps yelling at me about overheating.

Oh, and I set the picture thing for that long, cuz when four people are playing, it takes a bit to get into position.		2009-06-10 17:03:00

Author:
Spider-Jew
Posts: 1090

I have made various updates to improve this level from what is shown in the video thanks to some ideas from some people...feel free to give me feedback so I can continue to improve the level.2009-06-10 23:47:00

Author:
Spider-Jew
Posts: 1090

Played this one and it's a pretty lively adventure, worth a play at the least.

Pros:
+ Nice storyline
+ The waves
+ Small things, like movement on chracters makes the level stand out a bit
+ Surfing!

Cons:
- The sea doesn't look very real. Try joining the seperate parts, or at least moving them together a bit. Blue glass would probabley look better as well

Overall though, 4 stars and a "fun" tag		2009-06-11 19:26:00

Author:
Coxy224
Posts: 2645

Played this one and it's a pretty lively adventure, worth a play at the least.

Pros:
+ Nice storyline
+ The waves
+ Small things, like movement on chracters makes the level stand out a bit
+ Surfing!

Cons:
- The sea doesn't look very real. Try joining the seperate parts, or at least moving them together a bit. Blue glass would probabley look better as well

Overall though, 4 stars and a "fun" tag

Thanks for the input and thanks for playing it. Ya, i had trouble getting the ocean to look perfect...but I think it works for now...I am working on a new major level now, but maybe after that I can look into fixing up this one a bit more. 		2009-06-12 00:35:00

Author:
Spider-Jew
Posts: 1090

I played through most of this level a few times today but had problems towards the end but I wanted to post my impressions up to that point.

I like the upbeat, goofy atmosphere of the first half of the level. The beach is not over detailed but still fun to look at as you make your way to the beach. The photo booth with its cutouts is a nice touch though I agree with others that 10 seconds may be a bit long. In the long run I?d say that you?d be fine leaving it as it is or shortening it up.

You are so close to the start that four players could restart the level multiple times if they don't get ready in time if the timer is short and if the timer is as long as it is now then regular players only loose 4 ? 5 seconds of their playtime to the booth.

The surfboard is a neat idea and the ocean part is also a fun take on the trip out to see. While you can work to make the wave and the ocean and the beach look more realistic and detailed I liked it the way that it currently is. It lends a campy feeling to the level that makes it easier to enjoy since you aren?t taking everything too seriously.

The boat is fun to play through with lots of funny pirate dialogue and clich?s. The island with the temple was also interesting and managed to snare me in two of its traps.

The spot that I got stuck on was where you need to align the three statues in order to open the door to progress. I set the order of the statues to be the same as the order of masks on the rock behind the dying pirate. When I move each statue to the correct spot I get the sub-task complete sound effect but when I have all three in place the door never moves. I played through the level multiple times to see if it was a one-off issue but it was the same each time.

Since there are only three statues and three stop positions I even went through all of the possible combinations but with no luck. I?m wondering if the door didn?t get accidently glued to something or something got broken in a recent update to the level?

The first time I played through the level I saw that there was a large wave following me on the sea just after the giant monster. The second time I played through I didn?t see any wave so I?m not sure if it is a random thing or if I was moving faster the second time around.

Also the second time around I went straight to the captains room on the ship but the door was closed. So I backtracked to the pirate to the left of the lift, talked to him and then I was able to get into the captains office. There was no captain in the room but the last part of his dialogue still popped up. (Maybe the captain is spawned by talking to the pirate in the lower decks but I didn?t do that the second time.)

It would be good to have all of the captain?s text with the captain so that players don't get errant text.

The aspect of this level I liked the best were the score bubble layouts. You have score bubbles everyone and strung out just enough that it was a lot of fun trying to for the highest chain I could get.

I?m looking forward to playing through the last part of the level later.		2009-06-13 00:34:00

Author:
Trindall
Posts: 297

Trindall...thanks for playing the level and giving me this feedback.

I changed the timer on the photo booth by popular demand lol

The statues have been fixed....no idea what was wrong, but it works now...so odd...things start acting crazy when the level is about to overheat lol		2009-06-13 04:05:00

Author:
Spider-Jew
Posts: 1090

Hi, I just played your level and thought it was really good. I loved the surfing part which although didn't look super realistic, it just felt fun!

The Pirate boat was a lot of fun too, I really like the pirate characters. My favorite part of this was when you drink the rum! that's a lot of rum!

The puzzle with the statues was good if quite simple, but then you seemed to run out of ideas in the temple section, it just seemed a bit bland to me. Maybe a bit of variation in the materials would help here or some more puzzles? Maybe a boss fight? It just seemed to end without any real climax....

It was a very long level though which I liked, I'm surprised you had enough thermometer.... all in all i gave it 4 stars and a "great" tag.		2009-06-15 11:01:00

Author:
chillum007
Posts: 228

Thanks for playing the level and I am happy you enjoyed playing it. Ya, the rum was my favorite part too. I was afraid someone would try to good grief me, but it seems to be fine.

I don't know if it was so much that I ran out of ideas....I ran out of space lol. I am probably going to redo much of this level to make it bigger and better, just need to figure out how.		2009-06-15 17:28:00

Author:
Spider-Jew
Posts: 1090

Hey, I forgot to ask in my feedback post, but where did you get that wood material from that you used to build the pirate ship? Is it from a level pack or from the main game?

I'm still at only 80% of collecting all the stuff in the MM levels..... is there a way to get all the building materials without using a 100% saved game?		2009-06-16 08:23:00

Author:
chillum007
Posts: 228

It is in the Meerkat Kingdom Level...I think you need to collect the items to use them.2009-06-16 16:43:00

Author:
Spider-Jew
Posts: 1090

Hi Spider-Jew. Like the new avatar.

For your knowledge, I reviewed this level from the perspective of the casual player, which is most of the players on LBP. Personally, I enjoy visually stunning levels that challenge my mind, but I also try to be fair and open minded when I play and review F4F levels.

Soooo...here's my take on this level.

Pros:
I thought the beginning had a cute playful theme. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but it appeared to me that you were going for a Mm style in this level. If that is the case, then I think you achieved, for the most part, that playful, happy, gadding style that is the Mm signature in the beginning Story levels. From there, the level progressed to a "totally intoxicating" (pun intended) rum bubble fest...I'm still burping...and lightheaded. The pirate ship was fun to explore, with a few hidden areas for a better score. The island had some fairly easy challenges, and flowed pretty well. I saw no mechanical flaws, which is also a plus in the polish department.

Cons:
1. Something to consider with challenges--if they are hidden, and the player does not have the ability to use their mind or skill to overcome them, they are really not challenges. I'm referring to the "spike nest" hidden behind the foliage in the beginning section of the cave. I lost a life there and felt somewhat slighted. It's in my nature to explore, so I check out every nook and cranny, and I do it in a stealthy way. But even walking slow behind the leaves, there is no way to see or avoid the spikes.

Because the rock material used to make the cave is the same on every layer, they tend to blend in dim light. For this reason, the mound on the 2nd layer did not stand out visually. I would suggest using some subtle lighting techniques for areas like that. The light would highlight surfaces, creating a visual seperation of the materials on these different layers. Just a thought.

I thought this level was definitely worth playing, so keep creating, as I do see promise in your creating skills.

Rick		2009-06-17 07:15:00

Author:
RickRock_777
Posts: 1567

RickRock_777...thanks for the great review. Ya, I enjoy MM's style, so I usually try to create levels like that...plus I am no good at the visually stunning levels...but I am practicing...I have something up my sleeve that I hope many people will enjoy.

Ya, I suppose the spikes are not very friendly. I might lower a leaf or something to make them show a tiny bit.

Lighting is a good idea...I will have to see what I can do on that. I don't even know why I made the mound the same material...I think I was just rushing when I put it in because someone mentioned it was too hard to get over the spike log after it fell, so I just wanted to fix it real quick.

Thanks for the review and I hope everyone checks out the sequel after I finish the updates...surprisingly I feel the sequel was worse than the original...but all that should be changing soon....MUAHAHAHAHA		2009-06-17 17:02:00

Author:
Spider-Jew
Posts: 1090

Ran through the level today. I enjoyed the bit on the beach as well as the surfboard sequence.

For some reason I had to run back and forth to the captains door twice and up to the pirate who told me I couldn't come in unless I was drunk.

I liked the idea of taking opening the rum bottles. On the pirate ship there was just a lot of running around, not a lot of puzzle's to solve. I did feel a little bored, but the the dialogue from the pirates helped liven it up.

The spike pit also caught me unaware, since I like to explore all the area's I can I was expected some hidden score bubbles, not a spike trap. Maybe a small barrier that you have to jump up onto (not once but twice to get over) would help people avoid from rushing into the leaves, since they would have to jump on the barrier twice they would then be in a position to see that they were about to do. That or a camera angle showing that you need to go higher up.

I liked the head puzzle that was a nice touch.

In the temple I saw the coin and grabbed it, but didn't think much of it, until after I had already talked to the face. That made me a little frustrated that I had to jump back to the top of the level to bring it back down with me.

There was one portion of difficulty in the level, which was the fire pit. I had my son play with me and at this part we had to replay the level again because he ended up dying too many times. Maybe more respawns at this point. I always hate it when I get to the end of a level and die.

I gave the level 5 stars though because it does have a very happy feel to it 		2009-07-12 07:36:00

Author:
nartules
Posts: 38

Thank you for the feedback nartules. Sorry about the spikes It is kind of a trap, so i don't really want to make it easier for people to miss it. I think it's about 50/50 if you hit, because a lot of people are more interested in the hanging vine and go up for that first and then miss the spikes completely.

Ya, I suppose the coin thing is a little bit of a pain to go back to get...not really sure how to solve that though...I don't want to make it right next to him, that would just be no fun.

And I meant to update the checkpoint at the firepit...guess it slipped my mind, but now that you have reminded me, I will be sure to fix that one...no sense running out of lives at the very end.		2009-07-12 08:17:00

Author:
Spider-Jew
Posts: 1090


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