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The Land of Fog

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The Land of FogIainMacQ
The Land of Fog is a shadow puppet like land that you (as the stranger) must explore. The first few parts of the level will have you hopping across the stars in a dense fog, wandering through a cave of horrible fog creatures, and riding a curly Q through the skies to a strange village. A great deal of effort was spent in making the art style unique and interesting to the eyes. This level is worth playing more than anything for the village at the end, which has a great atmosphere and a lot of well hidden goodies.
all

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/2126/aphoto146.jpg

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8426/aphoto145.jpg

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/2098/aphoto147.jpg

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3443/aphoto148.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1377/aphoto149.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6107/aphoto150.jpg

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/1561/aphoto151.jpg

This is my first level I published, and I plan to make it into a three to four part series. I already have the second part around halfway done, and I'm waiting to see how popular the levels are before I start a third.

I'd post pictures, but I'm not exactly sure how to get them off of my playstation. Please try the level. I spent many a long hour on making it look nice.		2009-08-16 19:43:00

Author:
Professor
Posts: 9

Bumping thread because I'm a MASSIVE sucker for misty art levels...

Unfortunately, I've loaned my PS3 to my friend for the week, so I can't check your level out at the moment

Here's how to get pictures out of LBP, and onto your computer (then to here)

1: Take picture in LBP
2: Press SQUARE over selected picture and select "Export to HDD"
3: Leave game to main XMB
4: find exported LBP photo in the Photos tab on the XMB
5: insert USB thumbdrive to PS3
6: select picture from Photos
7: COPY to external thumbdrive
8: remove, and move thumbdrive to PC
9: copy pictures from external thumbdrive to PC
10: make an account on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/)
11: upload photos from PC to Flickr
12: post Flickr photo link here

DONE 		2009-08-17 04:28:00

Author:
Aurongel
Posts: 221

Hey there,

I loved the look of this level and you did a great job artistically. The creatures were wonderful to look at and the village was a wonder to the eye. I loved everything about this look of the level. It would be cool if you made the creatures in the fog have eyes that blinked off and on (individually of course). I just think it would help them to look a little less static. They look great still, butif you could find a way to mak them blink I think that would look spectacular!

I liked the few bits of platforming that was in the level, but I think you need more. Also, those stars are hard to navigate. Despite these dew gripes I still really enjoyed the level.

I hope you still choose to go ahead with this series, I can't wait to see more spectacle!

As far as the F4F thing goes, I would really appreciate it if you gave my new level "The Adventures of the Prince: Chapter 1 The Attack" a try. The link to my thread is found by clicking my signature.		2009-08-17 06:30:00

Author:
Frazer951
Posts: 117

particular things noticed:
http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt210/swanbrown/utility/swanbullets.jpg your first check point is in the middle layer on the star, where its easy to land behind it. It'd be better to move it back one layer, and possibly make the stars single thick after the alien to avoid any layer confusion.

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt210/swanbrown/utility/swanbullets.jpg the crescent shaped grap-swings: while, they look okay, they tend to get tangled with each other and render your level un-finishable.

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt210/swanbrown/utility/swanbullets.jpg the spiral transport: there is absolutely no sense of motion, due to the total lack of lighting and reference in the back-ground.

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt210/swanbrown/utility/swanbullets.jpg The village Is beautiful, but the camera seems a little awkward for too long. I like the wide shot, but I think you could pull the zone in a little so you can better see what you are doing by the score bubbles on the table.

----conclusion:

This is the start of a good level, but keep in mind. The silhouette is no longer a novel thing in the little big universe. It is not a substitute for fleshing out your level. As it stands your level is sparse.

In many places, you use unnecessary thickness. That combined with almost no lighting, and straight-on camera makes it difficult to see what layer you occupy.

Lighting: the lighting in this level could be improved. At the light posts, expand the range to include the player on the taller posts. In the village, dim the lights slightly and add dim, wide range colored lights to keep this section from becoming just a mish of 2-d looking paper there are some sections where I feel the lack of lighting is appropriate, and looks alright (like the bridge at the end), but there are other sections where it just looks like you are copying another level, or worse using it as a substitute for detailing your objects.

I have two F4F levels in my sig. I'd enjoy having your feed-back on one.		2009-08-17 07:26:00

Author:
swanbrown
Posts: 898

I've updated my level a bit and added what I could at the time of Swan's suggestions. I think it's getting a lot better thanks to you guys. Thank you for the in depth feedback and continuing help with this level.

I would add the blinking eyes frazer, but a lot of my creatures are emitted and as such it's hard to make their eye's blink. For the ones that aren't emmitted I could try, but it sounds a bit complicated and my level is already waaay overheated.

I realise the level still needs a lot of work, but it's making progress. Thanks for the help once again.		2009-08-18 16:45:00

Author:
Professor
Posts: 9

pictures are coming 2009-08-19 15:52:00

Author:
Unknown User

here are the pictures
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8426/aphoto145.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/2126/aphoto146.jpg

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/2098/aphoto147.jpg

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3443/aphoto148.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1377/aphoto149.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6107/aphoto150.jpg

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/1561/aphoto151.jpg		2009-08-19 21:26:00

Author:
Unknown User

I've updated the lighting in the village area, added a large shadows spotlight and dimmed down the house lights, added a moon and added some prize bubbles.

Thanks for the pics Hybrid. It's too bad they can't have the cool fog and shadow effects I had in the level though.

Is there a way to update your levels without publishing the new version and deleting the one that got lots of hearts and plays? I feel like a total noob because I know there probably is one and I've been deleting all the comments and plays I worked so hard to get just so I could update the level. >.<		2009-08-20 02:55:00

Author:
Professor
Posts: 9

Is there a way to update your levels without publishing the new version and deleting the one that got lots of hearts and plays? I feel like a total noob because I know there probably is one and I've been deleting all the comments and plays I worked so hard to get just so I could update the level. >.<

This one is an easy question to answer. Yes. When you are ready to publish the newer version of your level do the following. From your moon go to the options of the level to be published and select 'Publish'.

When prompted for the location on the world to publish to you should move it so that is directly over the currently published level and press 'X'. It will prompt to make sure that you want to overwrite the current version and you will tell it that you do.

The new level will be published over the old and all of the play history, hearts and comments will remain. I hope that this helps.

-----

I have some feedback on your level as well.

I think that you have done a good job on different aspects of the level. I liked the odd, alien looking people that inhabit the level and I think that you've done a good job getting a pitted, pocked appearance to some of the intermediary cave looking sections.

The town at the end is a fun place to look at, it is off-kilter and seems to have a personality of its own.

The level has a strong 'hand drawn' appearance as there are lots of jagged edges, squiggles and lines at odd angles throughout the level. I'm not sure if this is an intentional visual element you are intending or simply the result of a fledgling creator learning the creation tools.

--There are the star stairway at the beginning of the level and the last star, the one with the checkpoint on top, is up a little such that it may cause problems for some players to get up without a bit of frustration.

--I noticed a typo in a line of text in the middle of the level. "I am surprized you made it this far. . ." Suprised instead of surpized.

--The swinging section has a good mix of challenge with the moving gas creatures. The first three swinging/grab objects are in a rising height configuration and with them being as close as they are it can be a little difficult to swing up to the higher one.

If these where a little farther apart or if the circular object was not so large this would be easier. It may be that two of these swinging objects would work out fine if they had enough distance between them to swing properly. Just a thought.

--For some reason I run into a lot of lag in the city section and I'm not too sure why. There aren't many effects going on but I suspect that the combination of all of those buildings may be what is causing it. I'm thinking that there are many, many, many vertices in those buildings as I've seen a lot of spots where there are jagged patches which are indicative of this.

The building's walls can be at any odd angle but it may be good to use the corner editing tool to clean up a lot of the unnecessary corners and this may help the lag a bit.

--The last set of ramps that head to the score board come together at a person's house where a person blocks you from moving farther to the right. The player can simply move to the ramp in the foremost layer and wall down and to the right. There is nothing down there but a drop off and a floor of gas and I'm not sure if you want to prevent players from going there.

--You have a lot of prize bubbles in the level with most of them up on top of the buildings in the town. I tried for quite some time and while I could almost get to the very top of the tallest buildings I couldn't figure out a good way.

I could, however, join the level with two players, have one player run past the scoreboard and move out of range, have the second player run past and then from beyond the scoreboard drop down onto the city roofs to collect the bubbles but I don't think that was your intention.

--I did notice that your prize bubbles are not named as well. This is often overlooked by creators but you can name your prize objects by highlighting the object in your popit, pressing square so that details window comes up. The name of the object is highlighted by default so now if you press 'X' it will open a text input screen where you can give the object a name.

--I was directed to speak to the city elder but the level ends before I get to do so. This was a bit of a let down as there were a few of the villagers who told me to do this but then I couldn't do just that.

There are unanswered story elements here. Where am I? What will the elder tell me? And so on.

------

I think you've done a pretty good first level here. There are patches of the level that are empty but still you've created a bit of a story and environment as well as some interesting creatures.		2009-08-20 17:13:00

Author:
Trindall
Posts: 297

Thanks Trindall for the info and the feedback. I'm glad I won't have to keep erasing my hard work now.

I can answer some of your feedback so I'll do that now.
Answers are in bold.


The level has a strong 'hand drawn' appearance as there are lots of jagged edges, squiggles and lines at odd angles throughout the level. I'm not sure if this is an intentional visual element you are intending or simply the result of a fledgling creator learning the creation tools.
It was indeed my intention when creating this level. I like hand drawn and off-kilter art as it has its own unique personality and style to it. I tried to get some of that going on in this level, but unfortunately that has made it very high on the thermo.

--There are the star stairway at the beginning of the level and the last star, the one with the checkpoint on top, is up a little such that it may cause problems for some players to get up without a bit of frustration. I've realised that and I think I'll make it a bit lower. I just wasn't sure if I should keep it to make it slightly difficult. Now I know.

--I noticed a typo in a line of text in the middle of the level. "I am surprized you made it this far. . ." Suprised instead of surpized. Yeah... I thought I might have spelled that wrong....Thanks for catching.

--The swinging section has a good mix of challenge with the moving gas creatures. The first three swinging/grab objects are in a rising height configuration and with them being as close as they are it can be a little difficult to swing up to the higher one.

If these where a little farther apart or if the circular object was not so large this would be easier. It may be that two of these swinging objects would work out fine if they had enough distance between them to swing properly. Just a thought. I think I'll go with just making two, as I've found that that first one is even too low to the ground to swing and causes you to stop halfway through the swing.

--For some reason I run into a lot of lag in the city section and I'm not too sure why. There aren't many effects going on but I suspect that the combination of all of those buildings may be what is causing it. I'm thinking that there are many, many, many vertices in those buildings as I've seen a lot of spots where there are jagged patches which are indicative of this.

The building's walls can be at any odd angle but it may be good to use the corner editing tool to clean up a lot of the unnecessary corners and this may help the lag a bit. Actually, The lag started after I added a giant shadow spotlight over the entire village. It was fine before that. I didn't want to make a lot of spotlights, as that might make the shadows messed up, but I suppose I should make something different if it's causing lag.

--The last set of ramps that head to the score board come together at a person's house where a person blocks you from moving farther to the right. The player can simply move to the ramp in the foremost layer and wall down and to the right. There is nothing down there but a drop off and a floor of gas and I'm not sure if you want to prevent players from going there.
I'm aware of this and I'm not sure if it matters. Is it bad to leave it like that? There's nothing down that way but some gas and the edge of the canvas, so I don't see why not... Unless you think I should put a secret there or something...

--You have a lot of prize bubbles in the level with most of them up on top of the buildings in the town. I tried for quite some time and while I could almost get to the very top of the tallest buildings I couldn't figure out a good way.

I could, however, join the level with two players, have one player run past the scoreboard and move out of range, have the second player run past and then from beyond the scoreboard drop down onto the city roofs to collect the bubbles but I don't think that was your intention.
The two player way is one way to get up to the top. Another way was meant as a secret, as I wanted it to be the hardest place to get to on the level. If you jump on the edge of the tallest building next to the tall ambrosian, you can jump to his arm, to a higher ledge on the building, and then to his head, and from there the top of the village. It's a bit hard, but I wanted it to be a good secret. I guess I could make it easier to jump to more of the buildings on the left side of the village though. I'll see if I can make it more accessible.
--I did notice that your prize bubbles are not named as well. This is often overlooked by creators but you can name your prize objects by highlighting the object in your popit, pressing square so that details window comes up. The name of the object is highlighted by default so now if you press 'X' it will open a text input screen where you can give the object a name.
I'll get on that. I was just lazy.
--I was directed to speak to the city elder but the level ends before I get to do so. This was a bit of a let down as there were a few of the villagers who told me to do this but then I couldn't do just that.

There are unanswered story elements here. Where am I? What will the elder tell me? And so on.

I was hoping that the lack of a complete end to this level would make people want to try the second part to the level series: The Elder's Mansion. It's not done yet, as I've been trying to get this one noticed and out there so that people will want the next part. I tried to put most of the small story into the level description as I feel it clutters up a level having to read a bunch of text bubbles right at the start. Maybe if these levels get popular enough I could make a history level explaining the backstory a little more, but the idea was to be thrown into the level without knowing much about where you are or why you're here. Kinda like myst in a way.
I'll update the lighting again, fix the height of the star, the swings, and the spelling mistake, and maybe add a couple of things if I can lower the thermo. Thanks for the feedback again. 		2009-08-22 00:48:00

Author:
Professor
Posts: 9

I think that it is fine to have leave the walkway that leads up to the scoreboard end at the mist the way you have it now. I really don't think many will walk down that way anyway but you could put a few score bubbles there as a reward though to give it some legitimacy.

In regards to jumping onto the roofs of the city, I figured there was a normal way up there and I played around a bit, even made a small bit of success but not in the spot you mentioned.

It is a bit of a challenge and leaving it as it is seems fine as it gives a definite reward to those able to figure a way up.

Lastly on the matter of the end of the initial storyline, if you come out with the sequel that picks up and keeps the world and plot moving then I think that this ending will work out.

If this ends up being a standalone piece then I'd say that there some be some small bit of closure to make it a more satisfying experience.

Keep up the good work. Cheers.		2009-08-22 06:23:00

Author:
Trindall
Posts: 297

I'm writing this feedback as I play through the level, so comments and suggestions should hopefully appear in the order in which I experienced them in the level

Fantastic atmosphere, I love the moon and the stars and the creature, and especially the way he speaks The only thing I have to say in this first bit is that the last few star jumps, the one where you go up a level, is a bit tricky.

The fog creature with pink eyes is very well done, intriguing and a little spooky. The trees soon after are fantastic, and the music change here is very well done and appropriate. Right after we meet the creature for the second time you are supposed to jump onto a moving platform, but if the player arrives there at the wrong time (like I did) it seems like a 'leap of faith' section, and I jumped to my doom Perhaps the platform could wait where it is and move when the player jumps onto it, or just wait until the player is near and then it starts going back and forth, so that atleast you see it and know it is there and where to go before you throw yourself off a cliff

More fog creatures with the pink eyes, great Again, the music change is well done. The structure of the cave is very nice and intricate, but the join between the section that has the stalactites and the walkway above is quite noticeable. Perhaps this could be covered with a thin layer in the frontmost layer, and this would allow for even more intricacy too - a whole nother layer of the great rock formations Some of the other joints are noticeable too, like the leftmost vertical wall. Also, when stood next to this wall you can see a lot of open space to the side. If this is supposed to be a cave then maybe you could fill this area in with the same material you use for the cave walls.

The swinging section took me a few tries, but was very enjoyable. Again, I still love the fog creatures. I think it's because they remind me of some enemies in Super Ghouls n Ghosts? Anyway. Another unsightly join right after the swinging section. The checkpoint here could be positioned a bit better, after the creature would be preferable. I died a few times trying to figure out how to progress and had a 10 second run to get back to the big swinging swirl. Not a huge deal, but the sort of thing that can make someone frustrated (Also, the word 'surprised' is spelt incorrectly in the text that the creature says the third time you meet him).

The filigree behind the giant swirl is nice, very attractive, as are the falling star things. This section is very unclear though, I lost almost all of my lives trying to work out where to go next. The first thing I did was go inside to get the point bubble, but then I climbed back out and kept trying to get on top (hence all the deaths). Something to guide the player a bit more here would be great, a light on the area you're supposed to grab or something, anything really.

The village is beautiful, absolutely fantastic. I did experience a pretty big drop in my FPS here, I'm not sure why. Maybe the complexity of the shapes in combination with the different materials? Something makes me suspect the material chosen for the floor is somewhat to blame.

The elder's key didn't drop for me until I was almost past the last house, I'm not sure if this is the intended behaviour, and the little step these should probably be smoothened out. A lot of people I play with seem incapable of grabbing and moving stuff about

The ending view is absolutely stunning, and I can't wait for you to finish the next one and carry on the story. For your first level, this is exceedingly good. Overall, I rated it a 5 and gave it the 'Beautiful' tag. I also hearted it for you

Please leave feedback on my 'Zombie Survival Game' level. Thanks 		2009-08-22 07:09:00

Author:
MrOrangeOh
Posts: 20


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