Archive: 13 posts

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Catastrophe Amid The Cloudsoats-beef The clouds are turning black from the soot belching forth from giant smokestacks, lake country is encased in ice, and it's up to you to get to the bottom of it. You will hop on clouds, ride a steam train, swing on a trebuchet, balance on cable-cars, blast your way into the caves, drive a tunnel boring machine, hopefully destroy the heart of Factory Cave, and fly to safety in a rocket. Thus bringing peace to the land above. all Here are some pictures http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/thesteamcaboose.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/stormycrossing.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/high-wireact.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/getreadytofly.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/brimijoin/rockettosafety.jpg I have never published a level before, but I spent ages and ages on this one - working on it in dribs and drabs over several months. Getting all the mechanics of the cable cars and the trebuchet that you can fire more than once took longer than I am willing to admit here. It showed up in 'Cool Levels', but I fear it will soon be lost the the rubbish heap next to countless uninspired rip-offs of movies and other video games. I would love it if someone could try it out and let me know what they think. It's been a bit of a solo project and very few people I know have a ps3. Constructive criticism is most definitely welcome! I have found a few really ingenious levels on this site, so thanks everyone! all the best, ~ oats-beef

2009-09-07 00:49:00 Author: Unknown User

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ive tried everything, cant find it.

2009-09-07 02:03:00 Author: Littlebigdude805 Posts: 1924

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Argh, foiled by Mm's poor quality search functions . I just tried searching myself, and I can't find it either! Thank you for trying so hard, I went through every possible text combination I could think of and came up with nothing. How on earth can this feature call itself 'Search' when I can't even find things I know are there? [stewing in frustration] I suppose you could add me (oats-beef) as a friend, even if only temporarily. I don't bite, I promise. ?

2009-09-07 08:21:00 Author: Unknown User

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Leave a comment on one of my levels in game, I'll be able to find you by selecting your name and following the link..

2009-09-07 18:51:00 Author: Matt 82 Posts: 1096

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Hey Matt, I liked Life on Mars - and left a comment to that effect. It really did make me laugh. And it's cool-looking too. Give mine a shot, I made a v1.1 that's sitting right next to the older one. Reworked the beginning a great deal and fixed some other things. Anyway! I am off to go try some more of your levels. ~ oats-beef

2009-09-08 01:12:00 Author: Unknown User

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Right, I got your comment, thanks for that and found your levels. The one I played was 1.1. First impressions are that it's good looking. Nice sunburst there. I like the chimneys pushing through and the way the clouds get dirtier as you move along. I did have a few issues. In fact I couldn't finish, or get anywhere near finishing. I'll list out the problems I had. - It's not obvious that you have to jump onto the clouds higher up to advance. In fact it's hidden pretty well. The clouds are thin so players have no reason to try get on them. Then the cloud itself blocks the platform so judging exactly where you are on it is difficult. - The bouncing is fairly awkward too. The springs seem awfully loose so often you jump and then discover in mid air that you aren't getting enough push to make it across. At one point I got nice and high only to find myself jumping out of the reach of the camera zone, so the next cloud was disappearing when I was mid-jump. This of course meant I was jumping blind and led to a cheap death or two. - The next part at the chimneys was as far as I got. Is it possible to maybe have the player land on a platform on the layer behind the chimney? That way, players won't have to try landing on a small ledge. I also had issues with the smoke not appearing because I was standing too close to the chimney so it would't spawn. This would also be solved by having a platform run behind the chimney. - Camera angles would often swing round while I was between platforms. This meant I had to re-adjust and it often led to deaths. Landing on platforms barely wider than Sackboy, while hanging on to a floating cloud while the camera is changing is a recipe for frustrated players (I noticed you had a 'frustrating' tag on your other level). - This level is crying out for infinite lives checkpoints. I know they have this stigma attached to them about making levels too easy, but the nature of this level means that starting again will have you pulling your hair out. I had 3 attempts at this and couldn't get past the second stage. 1st attempt I ran out of lives at the bouncing clouds and the second and third attempts got me no further than the chimneys. If I had got further in and found myself having to start again, I'd be raging! As it was I gave up after 3 attempts as I was getting no-where. From what I saw, it looked good. The material choices were good, lighting and sticker work were also excellent. It's just frustrating. It seems like there's maybe a knack to getting through the obstacles, but the 4 lives you provide isn't enough to find out what it is. If you adjust it so that it's a little more user friendly (not necessarily easier mind) then I'll make sure to get through it because it certainly has a promising start!

2009-09-08 11:42:00 Author: Matt 82 Posts: 1096

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Wow - thanks for all the detail! I will start working in your suggestions this evening. In regards to the chimneys, you can remain in the air, grabbing the emitted smoke puffs indefinitely, if you let go and regrab as you are falling each time, you'll make it to the platform in no time! I will think about changing the respawning... maybe to double? I will also try some of your newest levels this evening and give you a thorough rundown of what I think! Thanks again... I will make it a touch easier this evening and republish. ~ oats-beef

2009-09-08 12:58:00 Author: Unknown User

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Alright! Well that took a long time. I discovered Global Lighting Effects. Catastrophe Amid the Clouds! v1.1 I have tweaked the spring constant on the bouncy clouds, given more instruction to the player at several points, added double life or [grimace] infinite lives at two places in the level, and changed a bunch of stuff further in. So if you are willing, I'd love for you to have another go! Now... to the task at hand. Playing other people's levels. Oh how awful it is to HAVE to play video games. ~ oats-beef ps - anyone else want to try, I will play and comment on your levels too... seems to be the only way for anyone to find my level.

2009-09-08 21:23:00 Author: Unknown User

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Sounds like an interesting level with a lot of effort and thought put into it . I will check it out when I have time. If I can find it...

2009-09-08 21:28:00 Author: FlyingHaggis Posts: 55

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Hey FlyingHaggis - I tried to find some of your levels to play (and leave a traceable comment) but I couldn't! If you go to Mattification's "Life on Mars", there's a comment from me in there that you can use to find my level. Any tips on finding yours? ~ oats-beef this very moment my level is on new levels page 2 and cool levels page 10 (in New Zealand)

2009-09-08 21:35:00 Author: Unknown User

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Try searching "@FlyingHaggis". The @ symbol finds creators only. Although if you search "airship" you'll find one of my levels at least through that.

2009-09-08 21:39:00 Author: FlyingHaggis Posts: 55

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I loved the Airship. Whodathunk you could do steampunk well in LBP. Anyway, it's really nicely put together bit of design. Or it was when I started with it anyway. I did break a piece off by coming down too hard (oops). Then I started in on The Lost Mountains. The whole never-ending ascent was really nicely done, you managed to create a bit of vertigo in me in the process. I did find the camera in a bit too tight just as you reach that bubble with the house object in it. There was no good way to see where to go next. The camera would then swing back and forth constantly as I tried to get back on the climb itself. Then I did two things that you may want to try and prevent other idiots like myself from doing - I swung all the way over the starting race barrier, then I couldn't get past the end barrier. And later on, the house-cart-thing rolled down in such a way as to prevent me from getting up to where I needed to go. And on the next try it killed me and there when I respawned: no house cart thing! But you have definitely got me on climb and the visuals of the whole thing.

2009-09-08 22:09:00 Author: Unknown User

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Alright, in response to complaints about the difficulty level (and one 'lousy' tag... gee, thanks), I have reworked the intro again. There are now little bouncy cloud platforms next to the smokestacks. Lots of places to land! Camera control has been smoothed out so there are no aspect changes while jumping - I really want people to get past this stage because the best is yet to come! I was forced to remove one of my favorite bits - a sticker switch where you have to scan your train ticket at the turnstile in order for the train to leave the station... it was reported that the ticket sticker wasn't showing up as a switch trigger (any suggestions as to why that was happening for everyone but me?). Anyway, Catastrophe Amid The Clouds! v1.2 is ready! Thanks for all the feedback, I am learning a great deal about what it is to make a level that people enjoy, not merely go, 'huh, that's cool-looking... but... [return to pod]' ~ oats-beef

2009-09-09 08:33:00 Author: Unknown User

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