Archive: 8 posts

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Kid's Easy Fun - BeginnerNickLaslett http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=640&pictureid=5615I created this level for my two children. It should be fun to play, but also easy to complete. The level is a simple linear journey with some vehicles, a balloon ride and a cave to explore. There are Prizes and a few hidden score bubbles. To beat the highest score requires some lateral thinking and a little exploration. all I would have liked to have had a few dialogue boxes for a little story, but I ran out of thermo space because I used the Mm elevators from the Construction Site level. http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=640&pictureid=5614 http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=640&pictureid=5616 http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=640&pictureid=5615 I found that my children and many beginners struggle with the layers in LBP. I designed my level so that it would avoid this issue for beginners. My children also have trouble moving and pressing R1 at same time, so I tried to minimise the need for this. I would like to think that my level is the prefect follow up to Mm's Introduction level for newcomers to LBP. I'm interested in specific feedback for things that are not working as they should. Also if you fail to complete the level, get frustrated and stuck.

2009-08-11 07:21:00 Author: NickLaslett Posts: 9

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Ok I'll give this a go. I'll be extremely ashamed if I can't complete a level called Kid's easy fun!

2009-08-11 10:09:00 Author: resistance1 Posts: 812

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Right, I'm playing this right now. First off, I don't like the icon. Custom made icons draw much bigger crowds! In the actual level, I dont like the floor or the walls. Again, if you make stuff yourself, it looks much better. I liked the mounds of damask and grass that you have to jump on to get the point bubbles, but you can see the dark matter that's holding them up. I felt that you made the section where you ran across the floor, jumping and getting point bubbles a bit too long. When I finished that section, however I liked the stone ramp that you have to run up to get on to the wheel thing. Even though the wheel is Mm-made, you've managed to incorporate it very well. I didn't like the design of the car. At all. I t was a line of sponge attached to some cardboard wheels. I did like the way you "launched" it though, with the glass. The lift with the wobble bolt was good, usually on wobble bolt lifts, it's difficult to land on the platform that they are taking you up to, but you compensated for this by making it go a little bit further up. The glass slide was good, and I enjoyed the sound effects. I liked the hot air balloon ride, but it took me a while to figure out that I had to jump out to the left. The sponge cave looked very nice, and I liked the sticker placement and the lighting. The transition to the wedding music was also good. I liked the jetpack bit, it was very confusing, like a maze. I don't think, however that you incorporated the rollerskate lift very well, unlike the wheel at the beginning. After the rusty iron stairs, I liked the sticker placement. The part where you run up a ramp, dodging bombs was incredibly easy, becaus the bombs only took up one layer. I like the skateboard part, the ramps worked very well, and I enjoyed it. I loved the battering ram knocking down the building. It was very well done. The end was also good. Overall, I thought it was an Ok level. There were some good bits, some bad bits and a load of average bits. :star::star::star: Please note that I'm being very critical here. If you do F4F, try my Islands level, in my sig.

2009-08-11 11:17:00 Author: resistance1 Posts: 812

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Right, I'm playing this right now. First off, I don't like the icon. Custom made icons draw much bigger crowds! In the actual level, I dont like the floor or the walls. Again, if you make stuff yourself, it looks much better. I liked the mounds of damask and grass that you have to jump on to get the point bubbles, but you can see the dark matter that's holding them up. I felt that you made the section where you ran across the floor, jumping and getting point bubbles a bit too long. When I finished that section, however I liked the stone ramp that you have to run up to get on to the wheel thing. Even though the wheel is Mm-made, you've managed to incorporate it very well. I didn't like the design of the car. At all. I t was a line of sponge attached to some cardboard wheels. I did like the way you "launched" it though, with the glass. The lift with the wobble bolt was good, usually on wobble bolt lifts, it's difficult to land on the platform that they are taking you up to, but you compensated for this by making it go a little bit further up. The glass slide was good, and I enjoyed the sound effects. I liked the hot air balloon ride, but it took me a while to figure out that I had to jump out to the left. The sponge cave looked very nice, and I liked the sticker placement and the lighting. The transition to the wedding music was also good. I liked the jetpack bit, it was very confusing, like a maze. I don't think, however that you incorporated the rollerskate lift very well, unlike the wheel at the beginning. After the rusty iron stairs, I liked the sticker placement. The part where you run up a ramp, dodging bombs was incredibly easy, becaus the bombs only took up one layer. I like the skateboard part, the ramps worked very well, and I enjoyed it. I loved the battering ram knocking down the building. It was very well done. The end was also good. Overall, I thought it was an Ok level. There were some good bits, some bad bits and a load of average bits. :star::star::star: Please note that I'm being very critical here. If you do F4F, try my Islands level, in my sig. Resistance1, thank you so much for your honest feedback. I feel that you have captured exactly how I feel about my own level. I agree with so many of your points. I will give making a custom logo a try as this is not something I've done yet. You comments about the car really made me smile as it is so long ago that I knocked it up under pressure from my two kids. It is the first thing I made, so I'm rather attached to it! To make the dark matter invisible, I just have to shrink it's size? I agree about the rollerskate lifts, they not only don't work but also killed my thermo. I need to make my own lifts, which will take some trail and error on my part. Then I can add a few speech bubbles to create an intro. I will give your level a try tonight and let you know how I get on.

2009-08-11 12:51:00 Author: NickLaslett Posts: 9

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Resistance1, thank you so much for your honest feedback. I feel that you have captured exactly how I feel about my own level. I agree with so many of your points. I will give making a custom logo a try as this is not something I've done yet. You comments about the car really made me smile as it is so long ago that I knocked it up under pressure from my two kids. It is the first thing I made, so I'm rather attached to it! To make the dark matter invisible, I just have to shrink it's size? I agree about the rollerskate lifts, they not only don't work but also killed my thermo. I need to make my own lifts, which will take some trail and error on my part. Then I can add a few speech bubbles to create an intro. I will give your level a try tonight and let you know how I get on. Custom logos can be frustrating to make, but they are well worth it. Remember to take the picture in front mode! Alternative to using dark matter, you could just glue the bubbles to the stone behind! And, yes, you just need to make Dark Matter as small as possible to make it go invisible. All you need to do to make a lift is attach a piston to a platform and set it to stiff. Tweak the lemgth, decorate it a bit, and you have a fully functional lift! A few speech bubbles would be good, and a storyline wouldn't be a waste of time. Thanks for the F4F!

2009-08-11 13:49:00 Author: resistance1 Posts: 812

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Unlike resistance, I didn't mind the car. It worked well. you might spruce it up with some color. the same with some of the bare cardboard objects you have around, Like the star that the wobble bolt-lift is attached to . looks a little under-construction. I liked the little xylophone sound effect on the glass slides. you might want to adjust two of them to be a little higher or lower pitched so it doesn't sound quite like the same sound over and over. There's a spot in the caves where a greedy gadder has to make a choice between having all their lives, or jumping down for the score bubbles. nice touch. I agree with Resistance about the roller skate elevators. Plus they go against the No-prolonged grab format of the rest of the level up to this point. The bridge that draws up, and explosives roll down: your kid's level suddenly got a little vicious with only a single checkpoint (and it sits in the path {if not the plane} of the bombs). This is the only life-threatening thing in the level, so, it seems a little out-of-place. It feels a little like some one cut-and pasted a totally different level here. One thing I like to do when I publish a level, is to Save some thermo in my level for adding score bubbles later. That way, the leader board doesn't get so stuck (WTG Helen_Laslett btw). It's also hand for tracking your level. as the highest possible score only goes up as you re-publish, you can get a feel for who the latest players are, and how many of them liked the level enough to really pick the bones. All-in-all not a bad level at all! I wouldn't worry about returning feed-back on "my happy place" , but you may want to check out "gradient studio utility". It might come in useful to you.

2009-08-11 13:49:00 Author: swanbrown Posts: 898

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Thanks to Resistance1 and Swanbrown for their feedback. I have incorporated many of their suggestions and published an update of my level last night. I took a stab at a custom sticker, using the hot air balloon, castle and Mr sunshine. I am very pleased with the result. I got rid of all the visible anti-matter holding up some of the score bubbles. I spruced up the sponge car with stickers and added a star sticker to the star shape that was always meant to be there. I adjusted the ice slide sounds and added a few more sound effects. I will eventually tackle the whole lift issue, but that will have to wait. I have a few ideas, but I will want to craft my own interesting approach to the lift journey. All though it may not be that obvious when you play the level, it was very deliberate on my part to have the various means of travel from car to balloon to lift, skateboard and jetpack. I still need to add clouds and Mr Sunshine to the walkway/skateboard section.

2009-08-12 12:58:00 Author: NickLaslett Posts: 9

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I just replayed KEFB. looks pretty good. I'm not sure if some of the things I noticed were new, or things I missed of the first go-round. Nice to see the car having some new life with the tricked out flames and spinners on the wheels. you may want to put a second global lighting controal at the entrance to the caves and possibly a music module incase a player decides to turn back around and explore the happy side of things a little more. I find that is one of the more challenging aspect of designing a level. trying to forcast what a player is likely to do. It's alot like trying to heard cats. lol quick fix: one thing that is hard on thermo is using a great variety of materials, especially when you only use them once (like the taxi-metal in the elivator) if you change it to somthing allready naitive to your level you should see a drop in thermo. same for other "one-shot" materials. I'm not sure if this is a new feature, but I like how you've tightened the bolts on the skate boart so it's not just a mad rush down the hill, like so many other scateboard ramps. nice work! P.S. If you are still of a mind to review "my happy place", you should know that it has been re-vamped, and now goes by the name "Transcendental Sackitude"

2009-08-12 15:55:00 Author: swanbrown Posts: 898

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