Archive: 13 posts

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I published this level about a month or so ago and it hasn't gained alot of steam, but I've continuously updated it as I've learned more about LBP's mechanics. The thermometer is maxed out with detail and precision and is bordering on burst.... It's a temple level with a philosophical theme of life and death, good and evil. To destroy the planet, or not to destroy the planet. The choice is yours, hence, "free will. " Depending on your morals your quest will take you into the depths of inferno or ascend you into the hands of heaven... treasure, secrets for the keen explorer, and platforming that feels like the original Tomb Raider. For those that complete both paths, the truth shall be discovered. No pics or vids to entice you, but check it out if you're up for a challenge...

2008-12-11 00:58:00 Author: Unknown User

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Question: What the heck was wrong with your checkpoints? They were glitching out or something? or on an emitter? Didnt finish the level, will finish later tonight and report back Atmosphere is great btw...and really trippy EDIT: Make it more clear that the switch is going to destroy the planet...I totally blew the dang thing up without even thinking...I see switch and I pull it lol

2008-12-11 01:41:00 Author: Neverynnal Posts: 374

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Awesome, thanks for playing. I used snowflakes infinite checkpoint for most of the checkpoints in the level that's why they constantly flash in and out. I could run through it easy, and some players could... but the level used to crush people into quitting, so I had to make it more accessible. heh, everyone does that with switches (I was losing my mind trying to tell people to stop pulling switches on the H.A.T.E. puzzle when I was trying to show them the level). I didn't want any blatant "awareness" of the switch and mechanics to disrupt the immersion and mood, or too much dialogue, but yeah... it probably could be clearer though. I think alot of players have no idea that there's even a 2nd path for not hitting the switch. Try the other route sometime... very different challenge and it's the only way to get the all items gift.

2008-12-11 02:07:00 Author: Unknown User

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Definitely a very challenging platformer Ninja. But here's an idea, add a timer to the level. There isn't enough score bubbles to entice anyone to keep going (as stupid as that sounds), and a timer might push people towards a goal rather than repeatedly failing jumps just to reach the end. I understand why you had the infinite checkpoints btw Also, I still have no idea how to take the "good" path, rather than blow up the world. I tried going up and kept getting killed by spikes I couldn't see. Something I'm missing?

2008-12-11 03:53:00 Author: Neverynnal Posts: 374

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heh, you should have seen it before the infinite checkpoint... it made for some awesome victorious moments though like OMG I can't believe we did that with one life left! There's a hidden point gourd for each path... I guess I wanted more of a secret, exploration ordeal than a points fest, but you're right that a lack of points is a lack of motivation. I tried to go more with prizes for repeat plays. I tried it with a race but the goal is just out of place with the level. The spikes WERE there to prevent ascending the path if you choose to destroy the world. You have to just run straight up the middle. I always play with people and they always jump unless they see me run... sometimes even when they see me do it they still go for the jumps and keep auto-jumping into the foreground onto the spikes. I would try to find a way to fix it and rebuild the secondary path way but... that level has caused me more migraines than you can imagine. Any little change destroys something and has to be rebuilt. I once saved over the level with an incomplete older file and published it too... it took me at least a week to get the hand of God working again. I just had to give up on the "no strings" technique I had used before and slowly reattach every object without causing moving objects to become glued. Ugh, bad memories. EDIT: I deleted the spikes, no problem. On my old build, trying to delete them would disassemble the whole staircase mechanics. Must be the dark matter I started using that helps it along.

2008-12-11 04:22:00 Author: Unknown User

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Yeah that Hand of God part is seriously awesome. Crazy hard though and I wasn't able to beat it. I'll be playing it again tomorrow to give it a try. It was out of my own stupidity that I couldn't find the path btw, so my bad. As for ungluing things and your whole level falling apart....oh god I know. In my Sin City level I accidently glued a cop in a very very awkward spot on the apartment complex in my level and saved it without realizing it...went back and tried to unglue him but the entire freaking level fell apart with no way around it. I had to reglue over 50 lights and everything else had to be reset...oh the pain of it all!

2008-12-11 05:59:00 Author: Neverynnal Posts: 374

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Well, I gave this level a try. Let me first say that's some fantastic lighting, music, art design and overall atmosphere. Although it's surreal in it's own way, and does kind of feel empty in terms of description, the quality of the art feels like it makes up for it. But to be honest though, I could not finish it. The inifinite check point thing does not seem to work properly. When I generate one shot vehicles, they don't flicker or reset constantly like these check points seem to do. I had a look at snowflakecat's object demonsration and it seemed to run smoother. Perhaps a setting is out of alignment? Continuing the checkpoint idea, if I died after the first one, the screen would move to the second point that I had not reached, and then I would not respawn. Also while trying the blow up the world path, the check point after it... well, it just did not work as a checkpoint. I thought I had past it, but then when I died, well, I stayed dead. The lighting of the broken world before you go up to the switch that chooses the world living or dying, if that makes sense, is amazing. It seems to fluctuate on and off and really gives the feel of life or death. The only thing is that it's too slow a transition. If you could get it to pulse faster and more evenly I think it would really help. On the finger of god part, the first swing thing at the start, there is a prize bubble stuck on the tip. Is that suppose to be there? It seems strange... On the split section, I also had issues with going up the good path. If I had not read hear about just running up, I probably would not have worked it out, and just would have left in frustration. You could attach a magic mouth system thing which says to run up, and make another one saying to go down if you blow up the world. I think it would help. It's one thing to try and avoid breaking atmosphere, it's another where things don't make sense and you need to read a detailed comment from the author for it to work. Finally, on the good path, I made it half way through to the second checkpoint, but could not get any further. There was a bit of broken ground that felt like I needed to be standing on if I wanted to have any chance of getting past the hand. The problem was it caused an infinite jump clip, which made it hard to move off at a precise time. The second might be easier (but by no means a piece of cake) if you remove that one small part of rubble. --- Well, that's about as far as I got. If you could get it all working well, it promises to be a truly amazing level. At the moment though it does not quite feel there yet.

2008-12-11 06:16:00 Author: Elbee23 Posts: 1280

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Well, glad you appreciated the direction and look, and the feeling I was going for. I'll try and retool it... like I said, I kind of miss the tension of finite lives. It just sucks when playing with run happy people who like to spawn and die immediately and leaving the last surviving player with one life to actually try. EDIT: Ok... temporarily, I've changed all the checkpoints back to regular double lifers until I can master the infinite checkpoint. Back to the good ol' days of challenge... got that pesky rubble out and made a couple slight alterations added another hidden gourd and point bubbles. Version 1.2 million. I feel... finished.

2008-12-11 07:13:00 Author: Unknown User

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I played this earlier and complete BOTH paths, here are my thoughts: Pros: - The lighting and color filter used on this one is simply superb and I actually prefered it to the sands of time, well done. - I love the way you made all those crumbling ruins, it really made the level feel alive. - Custom content. I don't need to elaborate here - Great music selection that works. - The two paths provide great replay value - Great use of decoration, I particularly liked the scoreboard - The hand of god was just amazing Cons/Suggestion - The difficulty can be really punishing at times. For the "good path" the hand of god is just brutal. I had to restart once and although I love the design and concept it was really starting to **** me off lol. - The jumps on the "bad" path REALLY need to be retested. Their is a difference between precise and precise. In order to land those jumps, I had to be PRECISE. Once again I had to restart here so it just goes to show how much time I took to really give the level a chance and finish both paths. - It's really short although for some people maybe this is a pro. I personally felt like the story could have been fleshed out a little more for both paths (check out Voltiare's Temple of Sun and Moon to see what I mean). I really wanted to heart this but all those deaths prevented me from doing so. The fact is that I'm pretty good at this videogame thing so when I keep dying for really no fault of my own, I tend to get a bit irritated. Having said all that I think with some tweaking you could make this great. And keep in mind, I hearted both your Sands and Face levels so you should not feel so bad

2008-12-21 14:16:00 Author: OCK Posts: 1536

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I wish I could film a run through the level - I can skip through both paths without batting an eye sometimes. The only way to get a high score is to actually do the top path to the end then backtrack, hit the switch, and then do the lower path all in one go. If you find all the hidden point gourds, ace it, and hit all the multipliers just right you should be in the top 3 on single player. I was waiting for a chance to explain the underlying plot for False Idols. The story actually is slightly deeper than appears, but is dense because it's told through cryptic allusion and symbolic inference as I can't fill the game with an essay... Upon conquering gatekeeper Janus, the Roman God of alpha and omega, in [Sands of Time] in your limbo - the false idol of worship who's abuse of power through control and the finite nature of time is revealed in the somber poetic verse of the narrative - you fill the void of omnipresent and omnipotent deity as one with time itself. As an underling of the powers that be, the door is opened, and your responsibilities begin as you decide what you shall do with this newfound position of authority. ...enter [Free Will Hunting] where your duties begin and you are faced with a monumental decision. To forgive or to lust for power with free will in hands, which is an ultimate and unwavering burden for all, especially for a God who can destroy planets and distort the fabric of space and time. Should you opt not to intervene with mortal free will, you ascend to a higher path, but must still prove yourself worthy, as a God, to stand beside the man himself and wield true power. Choose to condemn the souls of man, and you foresake yourself for the more base impulses and desires. Your results are that you have fallen into the hands of God and shall always be carried with strength so long as your actions are virtuous - or that you have fallen from grace and succumbed to temptation. "I offer you the world" is a famous excerpt from scripture that fits the subject matter. To know both paths, and conquer heaven and hell with both forgiveness and suffering is to know the true way - that narrow is the road. This is also why the "all gifts" prize is the true grail. The cup of Christ, with the blood of jesus. This ultimately states an idea that with all your power you are humbled before the burdening weight of omnipotence... that you too have been given free will as a God, your position of authority is an illusion of the gift of free will, and are exposed introspectively as a "False Idol..." This is going to be a sweeping epic series if I can manage to keep it going. The 3rd entry and a prequel is on My Moon and coming together slowly. The 3rd is going to deal with what is called an Ouroboros - a symbol of Leviathan eating it's own tail to symbolize infinity or the cycle of creation and destruction. You can glimpse one of these symbols in [The Sands of Time] before and below the giant hourglass section where it's used as foreshadow and narrator - the one actually coercing you with poetic reason and silky, serpentine logic. The questions raised from both paths of [Free Will Hunting] converging at the same spot will be explored in this 3rd entry as a duality of moral illusion. I might be in over my head with pulling this off in an LBP level though. ...sorry for the wall'o'text heh.

2008-12-21 15:01:00 Author: Unknown User

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Everything you wrote sounds good although I hope you took the feedback as constructive. I have to say all the talk of God is a bit too much being an atheist myslef but it will NOT prevent me from enjoying the story/series you are putting together. I look forward to the next one man

2008-12-21 15:06:00 Author: OCK Posts: 1536

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Don't get me wrong, I'm not preaching or anything, it's just used as a literary device and I like the iconography as a way to create a traditional "moral to the story"... it might as well be a theologist's Disney Land. A setting and characters. My bad if I came off like that. I'm not Mel Gibson or anything lol

2008-12-21 15:28:00 Author: Unknown User

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This is an absolutely amazing series. I am in awe Icey

2009-06-14 21:16:00 Author: IceMaiden Posts: 1057

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