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Broken Stone Canyon / El paso de Piedra Rota (1/2)

Archive: 5 posts

A new level for LBP 2. An adventure with simples puzzles and a few jumps... Yes: I'm a classic gamer

. I hope you enjoy it, friends. Please, comment bugs.

"Explore the mysterious ruins of Broken Stone Canyon and collect all kinds of exotic treasures. A "remastered" level from LBP ("Zurullaco's Ruins") "

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PSN: Greemaa

Level:
Broken Stone Canyon / El paso de Piedra Rota (1/2)
Broken Stone Canyon / El paso de Piedra Rota (2/2)

Links:
http://lbp.me/v/cf3m2t
http://lbp.me/v/cf31ms

2012-06-29 21:15:00

Author:
Unknown User

Hi, got it queued but you really made it difficult to find the level. one, your profile is set to private. So the LBP.me info is not readily available You need to set it to be viewed by either everyone on web or those logged in to PSN. doing that will let it show the LBP.me info under your user name like mine does. Two, you didn't provide a level link. Here is the link to your level. http://lbp.me/v/cf3m2t
Hope that helps out.

2012-06-30 04:36:00

Author:
biorogue

Posts: 8424

Ooh, those pictures sure do look pretty. Welp, by the time this is all written, I will have played your level, and the full review should be below. (See, I write these little messages before I begin reviewing, and for my level reviews, I play the level while I review it, so I can absorb as much details as I might need to.)

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

*Disclaimer: I have not played "Zurullaco's Ruins", so I can't exactly compare this remastered version to the original, LBP1 level you created.*

WARNING: THIS IS ONE OF, IF NOT MY LONGEST REVIEW YET.

PART 1

The beginning of the level takes you to an interesting temple-looking structure, with a great use of doodle-ey lines used on some chic circular windows, and pillars keeping the ceiling from collapsing. The grass growing out of the temple floors are also pretty sweet looking, and I have to say, the lighting is really nice looking, with a red and pink glow on the inside, and a gorgeous yellow and orange silhouette style outside, as the different stalactites of the canyon can be seen through the cool holes in the wall. Like I said earlier, the pillars look quite nice, not just containing doodles, but several cracks, just like those all over the edifice's walls. My only beef with them, and this might be more of a 'minor' nitpick, but there are some circular lights visible on it. Obviously, they serve a purpose, creating a balance to the red and pink with a bit of white light shining around where they're positioned, but the way they're made visible is a bit distracting, and the lights look out of place. I'm fine with the lighting they broadcast, I just think it would look better if you hid them like the other forms of lighting used to show off this great color palette you've designed for the level. Here's a picture to show you what I'm referring to.

http://ie.lbp.me/img/ft/9dea6e646b9cfb903514b477d298eaccf5e9f6cc.jpg

Then, come the enemies. I don't mean to be rude, but I was pretty disappointed when running into these guys. The architecture and lighting for this level are just great so far, while the enemies, not so much. Their design felt like it could be done in a minute, unlike the design of the level itself, and there wasn't anything dangerous about them whatsoever. Literally, no spikes or anything. They could topple over without you even touching them, and I'm not kidding. Obviously, different creators go about things differently, and I respect that. Sometimes, creatures could serve as decorations, enemies that could directly kill you, or those who can fool you into falling if you don't deal with them first (please refer to the the ladybugs from the level "D.N.A." by FabFio71 to see what I mean about the third example). But these seem to be the normal, 'direct threat' kind of enemies, yet they lack any threat at all.

Thankfully, they're small and don't really ruin the level's design, like a much larger, sloppier enemy would, but you could do so much more with these little guys. If I were you, I'd try re-designing them, making sure they're not as wobbly, and give some trait about them that could result in your untimely doom, or whatever, I think you get the point. If creatures aren't your thing though, getting others to help is also fine, but those are just my two cents about the enemy's design. I do however think the effect is nice when they're killed, but perhaps throw some sort of sound in to go along with their eye shining before it, and the rest of the body, disappears. In the back layer, another creature is visible, but not an enemy, it looks to be a rat or something. Now this one looks better designed than the unibrow-wearing cyclops enemies, the problem is the material used makes it look jagged though, which makes it seem like it was rushed, which I don't think is the case, but even if it wasn't, it still might look sloppy to some players. I'd change the rat's material if I were you, cardboard or blue wood can usually be good for a more clean-cut look, and then you can sticker whatever over the material of course.

Now I suppose is the time to talk about the blue-ish crates, what are their purpose? I mean, one appeared at the very beginning of the level, over to the right. I grabbed it, and it disappeared, nothing out of the ordinary, as people have used grabbable objects giving you points plenty of times before. But, this gave no points to the player and it didn't act as any form of a switch. Also, no sound really came out of it, and if I were you, I'd add a sound when it's grabbed and disappears. After passing by the different enemies at the start, I fall down into a watery passageway, as more of these blue squares begin dropping down on me, making it even more puzzling.

At the beginning, there was still a possibility, despite it not giving points, that these blue squares could be something you're supposed to collect, and there's some form of score given, if you get all, or a certain amount. This theory I conjured up is kicked out the door though when seeing various blue squares emitted and de-emitted, which obviously shows that attempting to collect them is a waste of time. But despite that, I liked the design in the back of the beginning to this underwater part of the level, with a nice, cube-like design of stone and a bathhouse kind of wall. Here's a picture to show you what I mean.

http://i3.lbp.me/img/ft/9030836191cfa69c338bd863a3b5c9c4c03be128.jpg

Over on the left in this underwater area you arrive in is a little bar you can grab onto, to view the area below. This little feature isn't exactly necessary, but there's nothing wrong with it either. If I were you though, I wouldn't just let it just stay on screen for several seconds after a player grabs it. I think it would be more interesting if it switched towards this angle when the player grabs onto the bar, and then reverts back to following the player right when he or she lets go of it. Because there's no diver suit, there's limited breath, and this angle makes Sackboy no longer visible, which can make it a tad tedious, waiting for the angle to change back so you can find where you are, even if it kind of easy to get up for air. This is the bar I'm referring to.

http://i5.lbp.me/img/ft/055e958703cbe8541243562fdf0cb8af194d3631.jpg

Moving on, more bathhouse wall is shown, which looks quite nice, and the 'Monsters!' background is a good fit with the level's overall design. I go down to where the bar I grabbed onto showed me, and like with the enemies, I think there could be polishing involved. Now, the blue squares seem to have more to them. While they are disposable, they can get in your way sometimes, and even get yourself killed by red squares, unlike before, where there weren't any dangers around it, or like at the beginning, it seemed to be a sort of "collect-able", but now I understand. The concept of multi-colored blocks is a good one, but can be executed better no offence. The placement of some red blocks takes over, and can feel messy at times. If I were you, I'd add a little more architecture in the background, and perhaps switch out some of the red blocks for normal, egyptian blocks of neither of the three colors.

Reaching the switch, a message pops up telling me there aren't any cubes left, which is pretty confusing, since I don't any cubes disappear whatsoever, so if you could please clarify on that, it would be most appreciated. Like I said before, there are three cubes, the blue cubes, which seem to be there to make things more difficult, and the red cubes, to send you to a plasma-y, underwater grave. Then, there are cubes with a beige like glow to them. These interested me at first, as when you grabbed onto them, they actually lit up. It looked as if it would act as a sort of key, and it did. Only, this idea was clouded by confusing elements in the scenery.

The thing is, there are multiple beige-colored cubes, spread around this area that you can grab. I felt it unnecessary having one surrounded by red blocks, as it was basically impossible to reach it without getting plasma'd, and even afterwards you wouldn't grab it. See, having multiple, key-like objects suggests there are multiple pathways to open, or various key holes, if you were to literally associate them with keys. Only one beige crate is necessary, therefore, there should only be one, to avoid confusion. If you may, I'd like to bring up one other point as to why multiple can ruin it. See, I was killing myself left and right trying to drag this one beige square downward and around, avoiding red squares on the left, and bounce pads on the right that would shove me into the same red squares, as well as having to deal with the constant blue squares getting in my way.

After some frustration, and multiple deaths, I found out that there was in fact another beige square RIGHT next to where it needed to be inserted on. By adding that beige square in the beginning of the challenge, only to have one right at the end, creates further confusion, which can result in angering the player further, after they find out that all they had to do was go to the beige crate near the button, and put it on top, and that all their hard effort was wasted. So either you could remove the crate near the button, or the ones at the beginning of the challenge. In the end, only one is truly necessary. Another complaint of mine is the button itself, or, actually, not really a button, but a platform the beige crate goes on. I don't know why it was plasma-fied to be quite honest, as that only made it more frustrating. See, this platform's purpose was to activate a new path to open, once the beige crate is put on top, not to appear as an obstacle, so making it plasmified just results in the player's death, which forces them to redo the entire challenge, causing more madness, and this can be described by me as a "cheap death". so yeah, if I were you, I would make it non-lethal, since that doesn't appear to be it's true purpose.

What about the underwater challenges themselves though? Well, I don't like to really complain about a level for it's difficulty, as I usually just rant about unfair deaths like the one with the plasmified platform, or the extra beige squares. Levels don't deserve to be nit-picked if it's hard, no, not at all. Challenging levels can be some of the best. I will admit the underwater segments aren't as enjoyable as some challenges I've seen before though, no offence. It's just that tight corners like that, mixed in with three different kinds of cubes, can be ab it amddening to some. When you were reaching for that red, non-plasma-fied button (thankyou) there were more red crates floating upward. I see that that there are differnet placements certain times, revealing a sort of pattern. Perhaps you could expand upon this with a little timer in between sessions, so you can keep better track when one of the parts of the pattern is going to begin again. I mean, it wasn't that hard to go that in-depth, but you could of course expand upon the idea if you wanted to, but that's up to you, just a little idea.

Jumping on the different package crates, trying to avoid the electrified water was fun, especially since the crates were balanced, yet moved a bit when you jumped. I also thought the sea monsters popping up were cool too, but I think the sounds they emit shouldn't just go off when you're right behind them, but even when you're a little far off, and they're still visible, so, in short, it might be cool to extend their sound radius a little, although it's definitely cool when they first pop up, as it's a good surprise. After getting past the sea monsters, you activate a switch, turning on a bounce pad. This isn't necessary, but if you want to emphasize this point, you could zoom in a little and really show the bounce pad turn from off to on, but that's not exactly necessary, I'm sure most players could catch up, another random suggestion.

Now, If you take my previous point into consideration, I'd only use it for that one time, not for this other moment later on as well, where you drop a beige crate down on a two-way switch. No, I think the way you handled the angle there was fine, so feel free to keep it as it is, and the same goes for the first one, I'm just saying that there shouldn't be any changes to the second one. I liked the way you did the ladders by the way, squeezing in a sort of invisible ramp inside them, making you climb these slanted ladders with real ease. Getting past those ladders and using the beige square to good use, I entered another building, with wooden boards holding things up instead of stone pillars. The breaking parts are a good addition, as are the audio mixed in for it falling, along with the bubbly sounds when you fall into the red colored gas below. When exiting this torn down building, and bouncing around to get on the roof of it, I think the way the checkpoint is placed could be done a tad bit better, but that's a very minor complaint of mine.

Anyway though, then there's the challenge of carrying over the crate from checkpoint to wall, avoiding the dropping drills. These drills are nice objects to kill you, although I think some sound should be added when they crash into the rooftop floor, because for the time being, all you hear is the typical impact sound, which sounds empty by itself, and could do great with a little more thrown in. The shaking camera effect was a nice little detail to throw in during this challenge though. After the challenge, when you reach the wooden gate, it might be smart to have this white crate de-emit after using it, instead of letting it break when the spikes of the ceiling drop down and crush it. (Just a very minor nitpick of mine, not necessary for you to do that, but sometimes I just feel like I might as well bring tiny things up like that, I hope that's okay.)The next room though, after the drill challenge is completed,is without a doubt, the best looking part of this entire level, to be quite honest, with great, dimmed lanterns, beautiful purple and red lighting, and the torn up shelves, with cobwebs hanging around, and vases on each side? Magnificent, really, well done on that.

The only grief I have with it isn't anything really big, but the way the angle is shown, and how points are put on the platform moving up and down, with nothing but darkness over on the left, made, at least me, think that this platform would lead you up. Perhaps it really was just me, but others might share in this instinct as well. I see no point in changing the angle, as it works nicely there, and having the points can provide a good side challenge, trying to nab some points without ramming into the spike-ey ceiling above, but maybe include some sort of sign pointing left. It's not that I was lost, but just thought that this platform would lead me up. Once again, real minor nitpick, it's just my job to bring up any of these little thoughts that come to my mind.

Right after that, the lighting changes once again, to a real red. Just like with the stone pillars at the start of the level, I'm not a big fan of how the lights are just placed inside the wall, not only appearing visible, but also making that hole in the wall, and is a little distracting like the white lights at the start. Before facing the creepy, sliding-platform-that's-gonna-shoot-some-arrows-into-your-fluff challenge, there's a door you gotta grab to open. a.k.a. blue squares that disappear when grabbing. But you can actually grab other ones in that layer, and the back layer too. This results in a red, plasma-fied cube that doesn't look red due to the major red lighting disguising it, to fall down and kill you. Another cheap death. the solution would be to not have part of the wall plasma-fied.

But enough about that, onto the death-defying challenge! I liked these walls that went up and down, and the design of these arrows are cool. The sounds that went with them as they extended forward, and then retracted back were cool, although when they touch you, I think a spike-ey death would suit ramming into the arrows more instead of a plasma-fied death, if you know what I'm saying. Past that, I arrived here.

http://i8.lbp.me/img/ft/dd86b0559e5f6e674e8e6fd539ea53aff1ce55d3.jpg

This part was pretty puzzling at first. I was attempting to try getting over on the wall of six egyptian squares, not knowing about the hidden passage over on the left, in the back layer. I guess the fire in the back could've acted as a hint, but it was an obscure one at most, and I think some sort of sign could be added to help clarify, but maybe that's just me again. But yeah, I actually thought these fiery circles being shot at was a cool thing to add in as a challenge as you worked your way, layer to layer, over and around the different blocks that got in your way. And so, the level ends. Nice choice for a scoreboard material by the way.

TL;DR...

Pros
---------
1. Great architectural design, I gotta say. From the temple look, to the worn down buildings, to the gorgeous little catacomb room with the two vases, you really did a nice job on some of the level design.
2. The later parts of the gameplay were real cool, like with the walls with shooting arrows, the pattern with the falling drills, and the flaming circles being shot in multiple directions yet in single file lines, acting as a great sort of trap in this ancient temple.
3. Nice use of lighting, despite some parts being visible, like the white lights near the beginning, and the red lights near the end.
4. The block concepts are cool, and while confusing at first, they end up as great additions to the setting.

Cons
-------
1. Enemies and creature designs could use more work. What I mean by this is to work with with balancing the enemies, improving their design, and making them true threats, as well as using a different material for the rat at the very start.
2. The blue blocks were pretty confusing at first. I like the idea of having a block that acts as side objects to collect along with the others, with points thrown in as well, like what the first blue square you ran into looked like it was going to be. Hope that makes sense.
3. Underwater section could use some fine tuning. A little more architecture maybe, just one beige-colored square, you get the idea.

Overall, real nice level, and I hope you don't take any of my points the wrong way. It's simply my job to mention what, in my honest opinion, can be either fixed, removed or replaced. I'll review Part 2.......... eventually.

2012-07-01 22:09:00

Author:
Dragonvarsity

Posts: 5208

2012-07-04 12:21:00

Author:
Unknown User

Thank you for your extensive comments and suggestions. I will try to justify some negative points:

-Enemies of the first part of the level. They really aren't dangerous enemies. They are mere decoration. In the first version were lethal, but I hate the change of plane (it's the correct word in English?) that occurred when jumping on them. I hate involuntary changes of plane, but sometimes it unavoidable. If you've played the second part of the level, you'll find new enemies with slightly more complex routines.

'Changing planes' or 'changing layers' are both right. I understand what you mean about the involuntary switching, that can be a bit of a pain. I just want to make sure I know what their purpose is, but I also think that they could use a bit of polishing, even if they don't kill you directly or anything.

-Hide lights. Sometimes is very difficult to hide the light source without sacrificing lighting effect it produces. We must choose: desired lighting but visible light source, or no visible light source, but without the desired lighting effects. I don't know if I explain well.

Once again, I understand. I probably should've thought about this more when criticizing you for it. All I can recommend for now about it though is to experiment. I know lights are basically thin like thin objects are, so you can't place it right in front of a thin object if it's in the front thin layer, so it makes sense you put the light inside it. Have you tried using the glow-y lights that don't have black outlines like LED's? I'm just wondering if there's something that could look better on the pillars, yet retain the same lighting produced, but I understand you've given it some thinking already.

-Cubes. I prefer that players discover for themselves the possibilities of the level and the effect of certain objects, so I don't give many clues. Trial and error: what happens if I catch the red cube? Oh, oh... Next time I will not take it... I think this is more fun.
One thing about the three gray cubes. You say you only need one of it. Yes? Using the gray cubes correctly the puzzles are much simpler.

That is a justifiable response, trying to figure the different square's purposes. There's nothing wrong with how the red square is handled, and even the blue square is fine. I guess my real beef is with the beige/grey square. I understand it's about figuring out their purposes, I just know that having to drag one along, not being able to even see another near the end until you reach it, can make things a little frustrating for some players, that's all. I was fine with that square later though, but in the end, what you decide to work with is entirely up to you.

-Confused messages. My English is very poor (like you see now). It's likely that sometimes I'm wrong with the translation. Sorry.

I see players complet the first part of the level, but they forget to play the second part. Forget the second part is like leaving halfway level!

Thank you, Dragonvarsity. Excelent review.

I would like speak about other questions, but unfortunately my English limits me for it.

Any time Canelita, it was a very interesting journey to go through, playing your level. No worries about your english, you did really well, and went over a lot of my main points. I'm not sure if Part 2 is just as long as Part 1 was, but it might be a while until I review it. Nonetheless, I will try to make the time to give some feedback on the second half of these two levels.

Answers to the points you make are in red.

2012-07-04 13:44:00

Author:
Dragonvarsity

Posts: 5208

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