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Shadow Flare

Archive: 31 posts

Shadow FlareShadowFlareX
Hi, i'm ShadowFlareX. Some may remember me for creating the illumina garden levels. I wanted people to check out my newest level Shadow Flare. I'm really proud of it and i hope you enjoy it
I hope to put a video up of it in the coming days, but as for now, i'd really appreciate it if people tried my level, as its getting very few plays and i worked incredibly hard on it. I think they're may be a number of techniques i've used in my level which may interest you guys since you're all pros. I don't think you've seen a level like this yet. This is the first level i've made where i've tried to incorperate a story into it, and aside other things, i think you guys will like it. Let me know what you think

Thanks

http://i27.tinypic.com/2564s5f.jpg
http://i28.tinypic.com/zk0tu9.jpg
http://i29.tinypic.com/2ll2f14.jpg
http://i32.tinypic.com/25p63kg.jpg
http://i28.tinypic.com/2wquxyw.jpg
http://i32.tinypic.com/2ypama8.jpg
http://i27.tinypic.com/30mpcsi.jpg

2010-07-24 21:57:00

Author:
Unknown User

Sounds intriguing, i'll let you know what i think of it m8!

2010-07-24 22:02:00

Author:
brucethejam

Posts: 105

Sounds fun!

2010-07-24 22:06:00

Author:
austimerr

Posts: 385

2010-07-24 23:36:00

Author:
brucethejam

Posts: 105

played your level m8 and it shows a lot of promise from what i've seen but theres a couple of major flaws. The first one happened at the start where you jump down onto the battlefield, i fell through the ground. The second was when i docked the ship, i couldn't get out of it. Fix these and it'll be a good level m8, as it is i gave it 3 stars. Bugs fixed 4 stars

ok, i'll get those bugs fixed. Thanks for playing and letting me know of the problems. The docking of the ship though, i've never had an issue with it and i've played the level like a 1000 times, but i'll see what i can do to improve it.

May i ask what i could improve for you to give it 5 stars?

2010-07-24 23:42:00

Author:
Unknown User

I'd have to play the full level m8 and i will go back and play it because im determined to complete it!

2010-07-25 00:09:00

Author:
brucethejam

Posts: 105

I'd have to play the full level m8 and i will go back and play it because im determined to complete it!

lol, nice one. It's really worth completeing. I think its got one of the best bosses, and you'll like the rain effect i made too. BTW, i fixed the bit at the start where you can drop down, and i made the docking part a bit easier. I'll fix everything whenever i come across it

Thanks again mate. Its really nice to get some feedback. Barely anyone plays this level since i published it

2010-07-25 00:20:00

Author:
Unknown User

2010-07-25 08:08:00

Author:
brucethejam

Posts: 105

I've played it quite a few times and i finished it, woohoo. I worked out what went wrong with the docking of the ship. At the first door sensor you have to shoot i'd manoeuvred the ship to the opening but as i destroyed the sensor the explosion ripped the front of the ship off, im guessing you had a switch there. I would either enlarge the distance you have to shoot the sensor or add/move switch to middle of ship! The turrets for some reason always fire up, maybe adjust angle of trajectory, fire less frequent and slow them down so you can dodge them. Nice boss but was getting frustrated due to the gun placement. I'd move it closer to the door, also the door closes to fast. It stops you from jumping the plasma, i died multiple times lol. You asked about how to get 5 stars, difficult one. The only advice i can give is add more decorations and ambient lighting to give it a more visual flare as it can get dark sometimes, maybe add more incidental sound effects like the drawbridge creaking, destruction of objects, stuff like that. Hope this helps

ok well i think if i stick a bit of material on the front of the ship, that should stop the nose from getting too close to the power generators when they explode. The only problem is, my level is properly maxed out right now. I can barely add 1 more square of material in the level. Thats why i can't add anymore ambient light or any other visual effects. When i was making the level, i went in with the mind of gameplay over graphics. I still think the level has a good enough visual aspect to it, but if i were to do more with it, i wouldn't have been able to add things like the boss at the end. Had i more thermo, i would have loved to have done more with the part with the ship, I'll try and reconfigure those gun turrets though so they give more challenge. I wasn't particularly happy with them myself.

I think i've fixed all the issues with falling through the level now. I'll move the paint gun at the boss and sort out the ship part and then hopefully it will be better for all. Thanks a bunch for the feedback. I would never have picked up on most of those problems because being the creator, i played the level in a certain way and never picked up on the faults

cheers

2010-07-25 09:38:00

Author:
Unknown User

No problem m8, i've the same problem with the thermo. I had to split my new level into parts, give it a try if u want, they're called Marvel wars:hunt for green octavius pt 1 and 2

2010-07-25 09:45:00

Author:
brucethejam

Posts: 105

i just finished playing your levels bruce. Very well made. Nice job. I prefered the second to the first. Loved the boss at the end. I hearted that one. Really good level

2010-07-25 16:26:00

Author:
Unknown User

Thanks for the feedback and of course the heart it really needs the boost in stars lol

2010-07-25 18:20:00

Author:
brucethejam

Posts: 105

Hey man I just played your level and let me tell you it was incredible the cut-scene were fantastic they reminded me of the movie 300 lol. The Visualization was really good and the Gameplay/Puzzle was creative. The boss battle was soooooo Hard but it was very enjoyable and really cool. Also in the level description you said the level was for 1 player only I was playing with my friend and still we completed the level but with a little difficulty in the small space ship because were were heavy.

Overall score.

Visualization: :star::star::star::star::star:
Gameplay/Puzzle: :star::star::star::star::star:
Originality: :star::star::star::star::star:
Music/Sound Affects: :star::star::star::star::star:
Boss: :star::star::star::star::star:

I gave this level a :star::star::star::star::star: it was really good I really enjoy it

Also can you F4F my level please here is the link to the level thread:https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=29356-Sackboy-And-The-Demantoid-Crystal-%28part1-2%29

Thanks.

2010-07-26 18:16:00

Author:
Arnald23

Posts: 1843

Hey man! Just played your level!

I loved the great "cutscene" sort of thing that you had in the beginning, that was great! The visuals and gameplay were top notch and I loved pretty much every second of the level! The only part that I found was a bit tough was the boss fight. But that was mostly because I was playing with a friend. It was a great level!

Keep up the good work!

:star::star::star::star::star: and a <3!

2010-07-26 20:54:00

Author:
eagerneph

Posts: 1536

thanks guys. I really really appreciate those nice comments. I'm getting a bit p'd off at the moment cos the level has a 3 star rating on LBP. And i know why. Its because the majority of people playing lbp are kids (just look at the cool levels page) and they're finding my level too hard. I had the same thing with another level of mine which people [read: kids] found too hard and its at 3 stars. I've been procrastinating over this level for 6 months, forcing myself to complete it. And after 6 months and all that work, and all i get is some stupid kids giving it 1 star cos they find it too hard. It almost makes me wanna forget lbp all together. I tried really hard on my level only for it to get 10 plays and 3 stars. Cos of some stupid kids who have no idea how difficult that was to create

Anyway, rant over. Thats why i really appreciate your comments. You guys are the people i made this level for. The pros on LBPCentral. I didn't make this level to spoon feed some diff kid

------------

oh yeah and Arnaldo17, when i get time i'll give your level a good run through and give you some feedback on it in that thread you pasted. Cheers

2010-07-26 23:45:00

Author:
Unknown User

Wow, I saw the pictures and this level looks like no other. Sorry about all the kids rating 1 star. I love a challenge so I think this'll be a lot of fun. I'll try giving some feedback tonight or tomorrow. Plus, just because it's 3 star level doesn't mean it's bad since it's sometimes just because of a person who can't handle a challenge. But unfortunately, most LBPer's judge a book by it's cover, or in this case, a level by it's rating.

Edit: I just played it and here's what I thought.

I've played a lot of levels with lots of talking and cutscenes. i loved how you didn't put too much and when you did in the beginning. Instead of it being too slow or quick with texts, it lets you press x to move on, not to wait for it. Also, it was quite a challenge but it was still a lot of fun. when you went into the castle, I loved the challenge and how you wrote it into a great poem.

If you pay attention to the poem, it's actually not too hard. Piloting the ship was a bit tricky, but iI don't think the controls don't get much better then that without the direct control seat. When shooting the enemy ships, I felt like it should probably be a less amount of shots, but it wasn't too much of a problem. Also, i thought the story was AWESOME. Great job developing it. When I exploded the second wall with the ship and I was going to the enhancement remover, it was like there was an invisible wall and when pushing into it, part of my ship fell off, the front part. This is the part that shoots so if I had to shoot to get past it, I couldn't.

Overall though, this was an awesome level with awesome scenery and an awesome story. Great job and I also think you did a great job with the character design. I really can't wait to see what's next so I'll give it another try tomorrow and tell you what I think of the rest if I can get past that one part. :star::star::star::star: and a <3

2010-07-27 00:15:00

Author:
Dragonvarsity

Posts: 5208

ShadowFlare, I remember your Illumina Gardens and other levels. I will definetely play this one here. Oh and by the way, didn't you know that 3 stars is the new 5 stars?

2010-07-27 04:54:00

Author:
RangerZero

Posts: 3901

lol thanks ranger, i've sort of resigned to the fact that this level isn't budging off 3 stars now.

And thanks Dragon for the really nice feedback. Im especially happy you liked the story. I was hoping someone would like that. I wrote out a story one day while i was at work and i've got stories for about 3 more Shadow Flare games. IF i do make another one though, it'll be in LBP2. I think what im aiming to do in Shadow Flare II may strain the game abit too much and kill the thermo too fast. So i'll have to wait till LBP2 and see what those microchips can do to help

Glad you enjoyed it

2010-07-27 20:55:00

Author:
Unknown User

Finally played it and I must say I really enjoyed myself. The level was good but I had some little stuff I wasn't convinced about:

- Airship part is great. I would have like a little more space to shoot the switches though. Sometimes you think you hit them but in fact it's only 1 out of 3 bullet touching them (there's a little random offset when we shoot a plasma ball - sadly).
- Cool elevators but I felt they were a bit long.
- Visuals could be pushed further/made better (in the case you would have thermo).

Anyhow, great level nonetheless. I liked it better than your Illumina Gardens (outside visuals). And I am curious about something... You only play this game from time to time? There was a long period of time you didn't seem to be there or creating.

:star::star::star::star:

2010-07-28 09:17:00

Author:
RangerZero

Posts: 3901

thanks ranger for the feedback

Yeah, i don't publish new levels too frequently. The last level i published was illumina garden 3 which was around the new year 2010. I seem to post new levels every 6 months or so. I think its mostly because im a massive procrastinator. If i had worked on Shadow Flare solidly, i could probably have finshed it in a month, but it took me six. I guess you could say i don't have a very good work ethic. I dunno if anyone else gets the same problem. It took me a month to build the boss when it should have took a week. But its not all procrastinating. I gotta fit my lbp time around other things. And besides, i like playing other games too. But that would be why im not too frequent with uploading levels

As for the parts you feel could be improved, i would if i could, but my thermo is a tick's turd away from exploding. I can fix the ships bullet thing you mentioned. But shortening the lift is just gonna be massive work (which im not prepared to do lol sorry) cos i'd have to shift the whole level about, and i've used every inch of physical space i could. The part where you time travel actually pushes sackboy from the far right of the screen to the far left. I've actually used the length of the level twice over. And as for the visuals, i would if i could, but aside from no thermo space, i am useless at detail. Its my worst aspect of lbp creating. I simply cannot make a level look graphically good with detail. I dunno why, im just no good at it. You've probably noticed that all my levels have very little detail. So i use lights to create atmosphere instead. In fact my illumina garden levels have absolutely ZERO detail but have heavy light usage. I may be awful with detail but im ok with lights thankfully, so thats why Shadow Flare looks the way it does. Besides, i was trying to put gameplay over graphics. If i had used more detail from the beginning, id have no thermo for the boss for instance.

Anyway, im glad you liked it. I was hoping some would

2010-07-28 23:30:00

Author:
Unknown User

Just FYI,

I'm starting on a new level now. its gonna be a mini-game, hopefully due out before LBP2 comes out. But im gonna try and add some serious logic into it, and try and make it totally randomized so its a different experience everytime you play it. I hope i can make it. Im trying to create a bit of a music for the intro right now. (Making music in lbp is harder then i thought, geez)

Thanks everyone for supporting my previous levels

2010-08-01 00:00:00

Author:
Unknown User

No problem and good luck on your minigame. I can already see by playing this level you are a very talented creator and I'll try playing your other levels also.

Edit: I made a post about this level on my blog so hopefully it'll get more popular plus I showed one of my friends this level.

2010-08-01 04:14:00

Author:
Dragonvarsity

Posts: 5208

Really fun and pretty level up to this point.

However, at the moment I am sitting at the boss with his right health bar still fairly full. Also, it is not paused.
What's happening is nothing. About 7 minutes into the boss fight, everything stopped and now I'm just standing around. I think it is broken.

2010-08-09 06:35:00

Author:
Valgee

Posts: 105

Played it, but got stuck on the "if ya wanna fight shadowflare, go to the light" or what ever.
I feel pretty dumb. Please tell me what to do as I wanted to continue.

Some opinions:
- I feel the opening title went on for too long and I feel it should fade out the same way it faded in, without changing colour.
- I would limit the weight to at most 4 shots. I didn't know if I was doing it right, as there was no visual or audio feedback.

Everything else was really cool. I loved the cape (but missed the dude jumping) and all the text fades and such.
I am usually and advocate of gameplay, but I would have prefered a purely cinematic experience.
Don't pay attention to the kiddies, I have only played this first section of this level, (and completed one of your other levels), and I can tell you do great work.

2010-08-09 11:18:00

Author:
midnight_heist

Posts: 2513

Ok, so I guess I have kinda a lot to say about this level and I haven't completed it yet, but I'll get to that later.

So first off, I love your cinematics. They look AMAZING. I have a lot of trouble making things look aesthetically pleasing so I have great appreciation for all the LBP artists out there. You have a great use of materials, shadows and profiles. Even though you maxed out the thermo with gameplay, the level still looks amazing.

One of the things I really love about your level so far is the mechanics of it. Your elevators took me a second to figure out, but as soon as I did, I fell back down simply because I had to stop and think about what had just happened. Your use of invisible walls, friction, and interactive movements really bring the mechanics/gameplay of your level up a notch. I thoroughly enjoy try to figure out how creators craft the mechanics of their levels and how they work, so I am having a great time so far.

I have run into a problem so far though. I'm in the ship trying to shoot the power supply. However, my ship is stuck. Just below the opening for the power supply is a small spot of slanted material. My ship is stuck on that and I can't move. I was also having some trouble hitting the power supply.

Time to restart the level. So far though, I like it a lot.

I have gotten farther, but alas, I have run into another problem. I just got past the first gate and was approaching the first turret, when I got shot. I was killed a second after it hit my ship, and then I spawned and died again. Now, I am no longer spawning in the ship. I am unable to access my popit or any scores (I can still press pause though.) I'm not sure if this is the level's fault or if my game is just screwing up. You may want to look into these issues. I'll give this level one more go. It seems to have such promise.

Ok, playing through this third time, I gotta know, how do you get the air lift to work? I can't figure out how a spinning piece of material can be used to raise itself...

Ok, got past the ship part, i just avoided all the turrets. and I love the Tiny Bronco... "... humans...". It made me laugh.

Ok, so I got to the boss. It took me a couple of deaths before I figured out how to start killing him. Not that that is bad. You are a lot like me. I love getting my butt kicked and then having to just try harder. It makes a win or level completion so much more satisfying. So yes, I have the same issue with little kids as you do. I hate handing easy levels to them. Anyway, back to the boss. He is very well designed, and has a fair amount of difficulty to him. He was a touch opponent but I finally got the best of him. The only issue I could possibly see is that somebody goes and presses "O" and they drop their gun, now they have no choice but to die. (Not that I would make that mistake.)

Overall, I it was a pleasant experience playing. I'm not sure why I got stuck those two times, but that will not deter me. I give you :star::star::star::star::star: and a TAG of Beautiful. Both of which are well deserved.

2010-08-09 23:28:00

Author:
Luck_Mod

Posts: 11

My eyes opened wide when I saw an opening of this level. It's well illustrated and and the gameplay is outstanding. The ship ride is really cool and the boss battle is insane. The level however lacks stickers and decorations, but the lighting at the beginning is a visual masterpiece. This is a level that has surprised us at the beginning and the end. :star::star::star::star::star: and I'm also one of the few lucky players who completed the level.

2010-08-11 03:50:00

Author:
JustinArt

Posts: 1314

Thanks guys, i really am thankful for the kind feedback you're leaving. I realise there are still some problems with the level. I must have fixed 100 problems already but I'll strive to fix it all. The one that baffles me is the boss breaking. I know it's a problem a lot have had, but I've never had it once. I just don't know what I'm doing differently. And I'm sorry to say, I honestly cannot think what the problem could be. I thought the level might be overheating at the boss so that it stopped emitting but I nought I fixed that. I just don't know. Ive never had the problem. I'll have to get my brother to play it and watch what he does differently.

Anyway, luck mod, you wanted to know how the sky lift works. Ok, it's not too hard. Basically, there's the wheel you run on. And there's a similar circle on thin layer behind it bolted to the wheel. This thin circle is on a piston. The wheel itself is surrounded with very small invisible material which keeps you central on the lift. Then, as you run on it, a magnetic switch on the wheel turns on and off, on, off, on, off. And on doing so it emits another magnetic switch somewhere else. That switch is set to directional. The idea is, as you run, you emit those directional switches which makes the piston / lift go up.

Hope that explained it well. It's a similar method for the first lift. Let me know if you want any more help. You can add me if you want.

I'm gonna play all your levels guys, your comments were so nice. And I'll try and fix the problems as best can

Ps. Luck mod, if you like trying to figure out mechanics, try and build the ship part of my level. It looks simple but you'll notice a big problem when you create it, and I'd love to know if you know how to overcome it. When I was building the ship part, I took inspiration from RRR30000's Libidius levels. However I wanted to do something he hadn't done and use the real lbp backgrounds while flying. And to do that it's harder then you think to think of a method to overcome it. If you try and build it, you'll see the problem you'll have to overcome. And when you done that, try and make a rain machine that's silent ;p

2010-08-12 01:01:00

Author:
Unknown User

Congrats on the spotlight by the way. You definitely deserved it.

2010-08-12 03:13:00

Author:
Dragonvarsity

Posts: 5208

I got spotlighted?? Gonna check out now lol

Flippen heck, I got spotlighted! Geez, I'm actually shaking a bit with excitement. Awesome! Geez. I really feel good now. I'm glad I posted it on lbpcentral. You guys are obviously the audience I was aiming at. Thanks a lot everyone!

Btw, I've finished the intro to my new level. You'll like it, it's similarish to the Shadow Flare intro. I'll try and get it finished faster then my usual 6 month time frames

2010-08-12 11:50:00

Author:
Unknown User

Awesome, I can't wait for it after playing shadow flare.

2010-08-12 14:11:00

Author:
Dragonvarsity

Posts: 5208

i really loved your level and when i got to the boss fight which is really hard by the way, i got one of his life bars down and then the fight just stopped and nothing was happening for 5 mins so i had to quit

i hope you fix this because this level was fun and frustrating but kept you wanting more

2010-08-19 01:51:00

Author:
artise

Posts: 353

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