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9. Time and Time Again

Archive: 12 posts

Time and Time AgainmrRadical
Time and time again we fall into the depths of who we are... You can't keep running away from what you're trying to find.
all
This is one of my easier levels, and the idea for it came from a few sources. Frustration with cheaply made h4h levels, players speeding past or lagging behind the group online, and a desire to see some wild color combos.

I started off wanting to do a dual path level - a regular path for those who don't explore and might just want to take a jet skateboard into 1000 useful prizes, and hidden one for those up for a little more of a challenge. I tried to do as many things wrong with the regular path as I could while still leaving it playable. No coherent decoration, meaningless switches, clumsy swings...

The hidden path is about either speed or cooperation. After you get to each new checkpoint, the previous section disappears. Anyone left on it is DONE... which can make for a fun dynamic if you want to beat your partners to the next section...

Willing to do as much feedback as I can. If things get heavy, I'll edit this post to let everyone know. PM me to let me know if posted here and want feedback... just to make sure I don't miss it.

http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=934&pictureid=8326http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=934&pictureid=8331
http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=934&pictureid=8329http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=934&pictureid=8328		2009-11-07 23:53:00

Author:
mr Radical 5601
Posts: 515

OOOO, looks fancy! I'll check this out!2009-11-08 00:14:00

Author:
Incinerator22
Posts: 3251

Time for one of my As-I-Play-Reviews!

-On the sponge left of the starting point, you can see some sponge. Make the sticker bigger please.

-You outta make the music invisible.

-The floor shouldn't be dark matter, much too boring.

-Wait, what!? Replays///

-Aw, sweet!!!!!!!

-Took me a while to figure out I was supposed to crush all the sponge balls.

-Not much else to say. The more I played it, the more fun I had . Very beautiful colors and materials, although I would suggest more variety and you overdid the gas at times. Good choices of music and great, great platforming! 		2009-11-08 00:42:00

Author:
Incinerator22
Posts: 3251

Loved reading your reaction to the reveal. Awesome!

The sponge left of the starting point - I've intentionally left a little sponge showing to have it fit in with the upper course. If something up there looked perfect, it might give things away too fast...

The balls that need to be crushed (ha) ... Not sure what exactly to do to make that section a little less vague without giving the whole thing away (to everyone who isn't reading this)

I agree it's a little overkill with the gas. I just figured it was the easiest falling death trap that wouldn't interfere with the segments falling.

Thanks for taking the time to play and for the kind words. Let me know what level you want me to give some feedback on.		2009-11-08 00:50:00

Author:
mr Radical 5601
Posts: 515

This sounds like a fun concept. I'll be putting this on my multiplayer list. *evil grin*

I'll try it solo sometime tonight or tomorrow. ^_^		2009-11-08 02:20:00

Author:
Unknown User

Thanks for acknowledging my kind words! lol. No need for you to give me feedback. I'm just that awesome 2009-11-08 02:20:00

Author:
Incinerator22
Posts: 3251

oooh i played this lvl yesterday with Morgana25, Stove123 and AlvaroShiokawa... hmm i love the lvl color.. and the lvl well its cool yeah but at the race part.. we got stuck teehee anyways yeah i love the lvl and i had fun playing it so :star::star::star::star: and a heart 2009-11-09 00:15:00

Author:
Joey
Posts: 758

joey - very,very thank you. question about you getting stuck though... did it seem like something in the level broke, or was it something else?2009-11-09 06:11:00

Author:
mr Radical 5601
Posts: 515

Some things while I'm playing:
-I didn't understand the beginning of the level with the dark matter and the invisible platforms, if I wasn't giving F4F I probably would've left right there.
-The part where you have to crush the little circles to get past, I thought there were way too much of them. Maybe delete like half.
-Couldn't figure out how to get on the scoreboard, I swung across the bottom and saw dissolve material so it seemed like something broke.

There were some pretty nice ideas in the level. I liked that all of the parts you passed the level fell behind you and the checkpoint sometimes moved with you. I loved the part with all the platforms attached with string, that was pretty cool (although pretty difficult). I gave it 4 stars because of all the nice ideas but it wasn't really "my style" so I couldn't give a heart.

Edit: Wait, race part? I didn't play a race part...

Edit 2: Ohhh just replayed the level and went right instead of left, didn't see that since I usually go back instead of forward to see if there are any secret parts. Anyways, I thought that was hilarious but I didn't like that you had a scoreboard back there because I think if people play the level and see that they won't know you're joking and rate low. I suggest putting a fake scoreboard and when you jump on it a block kills you and says "go left, dummy" or something to that effect .		2009-12-21 22:08:00

Author:
brnxblze
Posts: 1318

Hi mrRadical. Gonna give you some F4F (posting as I play)

First of all - The dark matter hurts my eyes. Especially if its floating in mid-air... You're kinda forgiven though, cause it all got better once I got to the party downstairs.

Beautiful (and interesting) color combination/design in general. There's a lot of basic platforming (which I like), but you manage to make it interesting by makin' the player solve small puzzles which aren't hard, but still makes you think for a second. They felt rewading.

Always great to see a level where the creator gives it his own touch. It works.

Same with the "glass-ramp" - cut a bit off the top at the other end. Became frustrating in the end.

It all felt very psychadelic. The background is simple, but awesome, and I kinda felt it was hitting the beats of the music at times (but that might just be me, dno).

I can't help but think that it's a shame that some people are gonna miss out on this whole level due to them running to the right, cause it's really something special. Wouldn't have hurt to release it by itself in it's "true form" in my opinion - though I also like what you're trying to point out. Dunno.

Anyways, great level. 4* at this point

F4F in Sig'		2009-12-22 00:01:00

Author:
Its-me-mnB
Posts: 12

Great level, it's really good to finally see a difficult level, it's been a while since I've been challenged and I'm not a very good player. Going right was hilariously bad, as intended.

Anyway, onto the real level, it was also quite long which I think is a good thing, with nicely separated but transitioning traps. For the most part I loved all the traps, however a few were a bit buggy or needlessly frustrating. Glass slides are bad used like that, it takes so long to get the half pipe jump done correctly and it just seems like it really didn't need to be there. The hanging platform idea was quite nice, however the platforms themselves were too difficult to navigate and I often found myself unable to reach the 3rd level of them. The last criticism here isn't so much a design flaw as a bug, those up and down platforms with electricity inside them sometimes randomly kill you as you step on them. Once isn't a big deal, but it happened to me 4 times throughout the level so it got a little frustrating.

With that out of the way I can tell you what I loved. The colour scheme was strangely appealing and in some places a bit psychadelic. You also made me use my brain a little, I almost lost all my lives at the "dummy" finish and laughed at myself when I realised what I was doing wrong and the grab-disappearing block section was fun and interesting. I liked the idea of the race section, however the checkpoint should have been at the entrance, about half the time you spawn to instant death which got quite annoying, I didn't actually finish the race in time. Also the stairs at the end seemed a little out of place and unpolished looking, I don't like those random square vertical "stairs" things.

Overall definitely a very fun level with a lot of original ideas. I gave you 4:star: and a heart.

If you wouldn't mind F4F: https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=t=19909&highlight=anti-virus		2009-12-22 03:38:00

Author:
Tomo009
Posts: 274

wow... thought this thread had died...

thanks to everyone who played this lately.

@ brnxblze - I'm really stubborn when it comes to me wanting people to be able to figure something out. I probably could have done more to tell people what was up w/ the invisible platforms at the beginning... but I hoped that the points would spell it out enough. I've got a weird way of thinking, and those platforms are sort of a test to see if someone would be able to get inside my head for the rest of the level.
-About the scoreboard that you couldn't get to - that's not the end of the level... or even the real way you need to go. Instead of jumping right to the scoreboard, you need to fall in the slot to the left. Grab swing your way to the right and you'll find a maze.
-I've been on the fence about the putting in a fake scoreboard in the fake part of the level. I know I'm probably missing out on a bunch of good players running through the real level... Will probably change that as soon as I have time.
-Been meaning to get rid of some of those balls you need to crush as well. Totally agree that there are too many...

@ Its a me - Sorry for hurting your eyes... HA!
-Might take a bit off that pink glass half-pipe. Some people seem to have a big problem with it while others seem to get past it no problem... Weird...
-Know what you mean about releasing it straight out. I figured I'd leave it as is because even my favorite levels I've made seem to stay with a pretty low play count anyway. I can't imagine I'd have gotten too many more plays if it was straight into the level. This was sort of one for me and anyone who either is used to my levels, or really big on crazy thinking or exploration.

@tomo - up and down platforms... something's really weird about those... I think I just need to shrink the size of the electric part. Maybe that'll fix them.
-glad you got the quasi-psychadelic vibe I was going for. Since my rainbow level, I've tried to have all of my levels have a very distinct look that most people wouldn't really ever come across. I think I hit the mark here...
-the race part with the pain in the *** checkpoint - that came from me trying to do something there that I couldn't exactly get to work. I figured the checkpoint would only need a few seconds to spawn you into a situation where you'd survive. I decided to keep it that crazy because someone could theoretically stay all the way left or right and hit the same button over and over and over and knock it out super fast.
-the random vertical stairs happened because I ran out of horizontal space. I needed to go up and I just sort of improvised the checkpoint at the top at the last minute... I was wiped when this came out and I was just getting ready to start up Survivor, so that last bit probably didn't get the attention it deserved.

Thanks everyone for the kind words and the good ideas. Will get to the feedback asap.		2010-01-02 05:49:00

Author:
mr Radical 5601
Posts: 515


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