Archive: 7 posts

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Earlier this year I gave myself a deadline: publish a level by the end of February! Fortunately, February ran a little longer than usual and the result was this minimalist attract-o platformer. 39072 The colourful smiles have only one message for us, "Sometimes the closest side is not the best from which to jump." Profound! Also, the double-tap-to-detach business is completely disabled. I'm not a big fan of that mechanic and it would be slightly suicidal. http://lbp.me/v/egszsg

2012-03-04 02:43:00 Author: Uncuddly Posts: 237

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I love the way this looks! got it queued dude.

2012-03-04 03:01:00 Author: biorogue Posts: 8424

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I had a go at this last night. It looks great! I really loved the minimalist style and bold colours and those smiley cubes with wings are very cute. The concept's very cool too BUT it is incredibly hard. I could see what I was meant to do but it just wasn't at all easy to pull it off. I did get quite a way through but it was a battle every inch of the way and as a result, the fun factor sort of went out of things. I finally had to quit at the large slowly rotating circle of alternating red and blue cubes. To be honest, I think that for me at least the attracto mechanic just crossed that line between being difficult and frustrating (but that may be just a reflection of my lack of skill). If it's possible without making the level unplayable, I would tweak the gravitational pull slightly just to make it a tad easier to get from one cube to the next. This could be such a good level!

2012-03-09 08:37:00 Author: shropshirelass Posts: 1455

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I have to agree with lass... I really liked the style, the concept, the design everything about this level. Except for the difficulty. It is really tricky to understand the motion of the jumps and it gets very imprecise trying to use the momentum to get between some of the platforms. I had a lot of difficulty with the first section, as everything just felt a little too far apart. Sections with platforms closer together were really fun to jump around and the red boxes added something to pay attention to. I also liked the yellow grab points. The boxes can move about but try to keep them like moving platforms at first before you ramp to having to use momentum as well. I think that if you were to introduce the red boxes earlier with a more traditional static platforming part that slowly introduces the blue and yellow elements it would help the player understand the required motions and jump times before you throw the green and moving jumps in there.

2012-03-09 23:06:00 Author: Mr_Fusion Posts: 1799

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I'm sorry that the big red and blue loop was a sticking point. I have gone back to that so many times thinking that it's too hard, slowing down the rotation, thinking that it's too easy, speeding it up... I have a tendency to make things too hard by default so it is not obvious where the middle ground lies! At this point I've probably had too much practice on the obstacle to judge it fairly. I may try slowing them down again to reduce the pressure. If the player has more time to think about which sides of the blocks are best for jumping they won't have as many failed attempts and the frustration level should be much lower. As is the case with the level in general, it's usually better to get a running jump from a perpendicular surface than to attempt the direct block-to-block hop. If the player can't line up the jump before the angle changes, though, that's surely going to cause a problem. As for the start, a static platforming section may be the right idea. I had hoped that the point bubble trails would tacitly explain the most effective approach to the gravitation, but with the moving elements the suggestion becomes less apparent. It's interesting that you suggest introducing the red smiles sooner because I was worried that they would be too much. Maybe they're the only thing that turned out right. So far it sounds like I'm the only one that likes doing big orbits around the green smiles. Thank you very much for the input.

2012-03-09 23:18:00 Author: Uncuddly Posts: 237

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Loved the art style Couldn't finish it though, will try again later. It was hard to switch from cloud to cloud...at that's probably my biggest problem with the level Yayed and hearted

2012-03-10 00:07:00 Author: Valeview Posts: 1581

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Thanks again to everybody that has provided feedback about this level. I've been considering the issue carefully and made a few changes as a result. *The first few blocks are all completely static and arranged so that a direct face-to-face jump is possible but difficult. A point bubble trail suggests the easier path: running along the side and jumping to the destination. The next few blocks are the usual blue smiles packed close enough to each other that jumping between them is no issue. A few extra point bubbles below them provide incentive for players to test the gravity a bit: it takes a well-timed running jump to collect these points. *The swinging smiles are introduced much earlier and now serve as the exit to the first green smile: expecting players to orbit onto a moving target with the first greenie was crazy, I don't know why I ever thought that people would want to do that right away if at all! The subsequent green smiles have been largely replaced with blues since it is now the first part of the level to have any real moving parts. It should be much less stressful unless you are trying to grab the second pink bonus smile. But that's why it's a bonus. *The various loops have had their speeds adjusted. That's the simplest fix but it seems to be the one that was most desired. I am worried that the final loop is too slow and that people will get bored riding it, but I'm obviously a terrible judge of these factors. If anybody has strong feelings about it, I am eager to hear them! Hopefully these changes will better communicate the best approach to the jumps and help players enjoy the level. It may be the case that many players have not spent much time using attract-o-gel without the detach feature and that the whole mechanism of achieving escape velocity or performing gravitational slingshots is too weird to be fun. Conveying ideas without text, stickers, or sackbot demonstrations is key to the level's minimalism but not something everyone can appreciate. I'm sorry if anyone is frustrated as a result. Thanks for your time.

2012-03-18 05:33:00 Author: Uncuddly Posts: 237

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