Home    LBP Showcase / Reviews / Recommendations    Level Showcase
#1

Never Free

Archive: 9 posts

Today, I present my latest creation in LittleBigPlanet 2: Never Free. [Gameplay] This level is a platformer and a puzzler. Most of the time, you will be finding your way across the level, but there will be times where you'll have to solve puzzles to continue with the level. Hidden throughout the level are 15 orbs. If you collect them all, you'll be rewarded. [Story] In a lab secret from most of the world, rats are doing scientific experiments on Sackpeople. It is your job to stop the rats from doing this. Explore both an evil laboratory and a beautiful forest. [Difficulty] The difficulty of this level is between medium and hard. I highly recommend you have some experience with LBP before playing because of this.

Please tell me any bugs you've found or suggestions you may have. It should take approximately 15-20 minutes to get from start to end. Everything has its own way for defeating it.. even the bosses. If you are confused, look around the level carefully. Thank you for playing!

Pictures (more on lbp.me):
http://ia.lbp.me/img/ft/86a736e3132e6495fd40d4dcab9d5b5a16d52ab3.jpg
http://id.lbp.me/img/ft/11dacd3d8121509fbf25bdf1a756faa9f8b14abe.jpg
http://id.lbp.me/img/ft/13d7e1d4d271ba0f60bea08dae97da587d75609b.jpg
http://lbp.me/v/cfc2s9
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac2hI66XThA
LBP Link:
http://lbp.me/v/cfc2s9		2012-06-30 04:15:00

Author:
aar2697
Posts: 143

adding to the queue.
PS. I like this line here:


I highly recommend you have some experience with LBP before playing because of this.		2012-06-30 23:14:00

Author:
biorogue
Posts: 8424

Have you tested the level well? I played it and usually it wasn't clear to me what i had to do or where i had to go next. The controllinator part for example wasn't clear to me. Also had no way to exit it. It looks like you're the only one so far to score any points. Make it clear for us what we have to do!2012-07-01 15:38:00

Author:
Deurklink1
Posts: 346

Have you tested the level well? I played it and usually it wasn't clear to me what i had to do or where i had to go next. The controllinator part for example wasn't clear to me. Also had no way to exit it. It looks like you're the only one so far to score any points. Make it clear for us what we have to do!

If you read the controls at the bottom of the screen, it'll eventually say you use L3 to exit. The controllinator part is the control system. In the second room, there is a code on the wall that you have to type in when you're in the control system. (X O O Triangle X) I made it much more easier to exit the first room now. I made the switch smaller, moved the bounce pad to the left, and I made the camera focus on the exit once you've pulled down the switch (I used an and gate with switch + player sensor hooked to camera so it will not focus on the room the whole level). I do not see any other confusion-causing problems. If you see any, please tell me about them.		2012-07-01 16:25:00

Author:
aar2697
Posts: 143

Queued. Will leave feedback after I play it.2012-07-01 18:03:00

Author:
Sackpapoi
Posts: 1195

Haha yeah I also like the line where you ask that players have experience before playing and I kind off know what you mean!!!
As with my other reviews, I am writing it live, so that I can remember to mention everything in as much detail possible.
Also I would be thrilled if you played my level (F2F): which is here: http://lbp.me/v/cffp5-
Anyways, here is your review from me!

Review:
I really love cats! And I know that there is a cat costume pack on the LBPstore and I would suggest you dress your cats up in that because they look kinda strange at the moment! Also the camera being 'sprung up' towards the NPC's each time they say something gets kind off annoying. Maybe just have the camera stable? or something different.
The rats, I think they're rats, look a little off, I would think to fix them up haha.
I have to say, it is quite confusing. When leaving the room that I spawned it at the start of the level, the rat kept camping the corner and every time I tried to jump off the top of the wall I was electorcuted! I then pressed the red button below the first rat and wasn't sure if it did anything. Although I get a feeling that that button is just a trap? Oh, I see, that button activated the jump pad! The jump pad is SO small and when you are standing on the button you cannot see the jump pad and so you can't tell what the button is doing. I suggest to make the jump pad more visible (bigger) and increase the area of the view for the camera. Maybe put the ARROW stickers around the place.
I had no idea what I was doing in that controllinator!
I think I had similar design faults in my first few levels: as in every thing was kinda too small and compacted! And those rats really camp you! They should have a designated patrol pattern.
Major glitch I think: In the room with the three spinny foamy things you have to grapple on to in order to get on to the jump pads located on the dark matter; one of the foamy things exploaded probably due to some collision with the behind layers? This made it impossible to progress the level as far as I could see.

What I suggest?
-Redesign the rats
-Change the opening camera angles
-Make the level bigger in dimension, or make it clearer where to progress
-Stop the rats from camping where I want to be!

These are all friendly suggestions and I have Liked your level for the clear effort and really hope that you keep progressing it's development! Also liked it because I didn't get to finish and the forest areas look terrific and I wish I could have gotten there.		2012-07-02 13:54:00

Author:
Unknown User

Haha yeah I also like the line where you ask that players have experience before playing and I kind off know what you mean!!!
As with my other reviews, I am writing it live, so that I can remember to mention everything in as much detail possible.
Also I would be thrilled if you played my level (F2F): which is here: http://lbp.me/v/cffp5-
Anyways, here is your review from me!

Review:
I really love cats! And I know that there is a cat costume pack on the LBPstore and I would suggest you dress your cats up in that because they look kinda strange at the moment! Also the camera being 'sprung up' towards the NPC's each time they say something gets kind off annoying. Maybe just have the camera stable? or something different.
The rats, I think they're rats, look a little off, I would think to fix them up haha.
I have to say, it is quite confusing. When leaving the room that I spawned it at the start of the level, the rat kept camping the corner and every time I tried to jump off the top of the wall I was electorcuted! I then pressed the red button below the first rat and wasn't sure if it did anything. Although I get a feeling that that button is just a trap? Oh, I see, that button activated the jump pad! The jump pad is SO small and when you are standing on the button you cannot see the jump pad and so you can't tell what the button is doing. I suggest to make the jump pad more visible (bigger) and increase the area of the view for the camera. Maybe put the ARROW stickers around the place.
I had no idea what I was doing in that controllinator!
I think I had similar design faults in my first few levels: as in every thing was kinda too small and compacted! And those rats really camp you! They should have a designated patrol pattern.
Major glitch I think: In the room with the three spinny foamy things you have to grapple on to in order to get on to the jump pads located on the dark matter; one of the foamy things exploaded probably due to some collision with the behind layers? This made it impossible to progress the level as far as I could see.

What I suggest?
-Redesign the rats
-Change the opening camera angles
-Make the level bigger in dimension, or make it clearer where to progress
-Stop the rats from camping where I want to be!

These are all friendly suggestions and I have Liked your level for the clear effort and really hope that you keep progressing it's development! Also liked it because I didn't get to finish and the forest areas look terrific and I wish I could have gotten there.
I just fixed everything you told me to fix. I'll play and review your level now. I hope you get to playing my level again, too.		2012-07-02 16:32:00

Author:
aar2697
Posts: 143

Hey i'm back for round 2 of reviewing =]
The camera no longer springs up, which is good.
When pressing the button I can now see the jump pad with the arrow, wheras before I had no idea. So that's good too. In the controllinator, pressing square for hint just opens my pop-it. I still can't really tell what's going on here. I just pressed all the buttons.
The starting two rats still camp you (they just wait for you to come and hence don't allow safe entry or safe-looking entry. They should really have patrol paths and ignore the player.
On the second blue anti-gravity thingy, jumping down to pull the switch is quite difficult, I think it is out of reach. I just jumped alot until I ender up falling down and then grabbed it. Which I don't think is what it is meant to be like. I never quite understood how to get off the blue-glowy anti gravity material. I just usually jump until I do. Maybe make the rats kill-able because they get frustrating, also redesign them if possible. I know that might take quite some effort, but usually whenever I do something effort-requiring in me levels they get WAY better.

First time I got to the boss. I really liked it and the electrical platforms it spawned. But I had no idea where to hit it with the fire. I was aiming for the purple bits (because they stand out from the other colors) and that did not seem to be the proper tactic. And so I randomly began shooting him wherever possible.After the boss exploded, one of his components did no die and continued to fight lol.

I got to the forest and liked this part immediately. Jumping on the first jump pad at the right time seemed hard. Also I thought I had to go up initially because of the other jump bad higher up in the background. I then realized I was wrong, the right side kills you. I dont know if this is what you intended, but I grabbed the material by jumping up from the pad and then swung my way to the proper place. If this is what you intended maybe put the Hand Grabbing sticker on the material so people know to grab. YOu have put alot of gas around the floor of the level to stop him/her from escaping. Otherwise I would have gotten out by grabbing the bottom of the forest floor after getting the secret orb placed on top of the rocks at the bottom of the river =P But maybe implement a more proffesional system of anti-gliching through level design such as walls, instead of gas over the floor lol - because as soon as the player leaves the level, they exit the theme and the story and it just all feels different. I got to the next bit with the burning blocks of fire and am now currently clueless as to what to do. I figured it out, but still it was kinda not natural to think that way - people would rather try to progress along the linear path they have a view of than a small area that looked unreachable.
I liked the obstacle where you had to jump under the flamed blocks and over the jump pads simulateously. Using that NPC to jump up is kind off annoying and difficult due to its electricity randomly. I highly suggest a checkpoint after the three blocks coming down on to the jump pads.
I then realized you do not have to jump on that NPC to go up. But all he did was confuse me.
The text "you can jump off the ball on to the platform" didn't make sense to me and I was lost. I died in the fire here and was returned back a fair bit. That implementation of the checkpoint I described earlier would help. Those NPC's are very annoying because they follow you and hence he completely blocks your path of progressing to the mini-game-ish area of pushing the green ball up. I would suggest to remove him completely, sometimes less is better. I had no idea where that flower was shooting and it was killing me at no fault of my own because it was nearly impossible to predict and prevent being hit by it whilst simultaneously moving the rat away from blocking my path.
I finally figured out what to do in the fire area. Perhaps make it clearer?
Cosmetic Glitch: After the fire area, on the way down gripping on to the ball, there are two holographic materials on fire. One of them has the PISTON VISIBLE whilst the other does not.
The final boss, was the paintator always there or did it come out later?? If it came later, then it should come earlier because I had no idea how I was meant to be proceeding with the boss until that came up. Overall though I liked the final boss and fighting him in that circle, althoguh it was for some reason hard to move around the circle sometimes. The boss also had frustratingly alot of health.
Either than me and you, one other person has fully completed this level - so I think it is quite confusing and unclear at certain times described above.		2012-07-03 02:40:00

Author:
Unknown User

I'll get to cleaning things up sometime soon. Thank you so much for your detailed review. I've also uploaded a gameplay video, which is in the first post now.2012-07-03 20:39:00

Author:
aar2697
Posts: 143


LBPCentral Archive Statistics
Posts: 1077139    Threads: 69970    Members: 9661    Archive-Date: 2019-01-19

Datenschutz
Aus dem Archiv wurden alle persönlichen Daten wie Name, Anschrift, Email etc. - aber auch sämtliche Inhalte wie z.B. persönliche Nachrichten - entfernt.
Die Nutzung dieser Webseite erfolgt ohne Speicherung personenbezogener Daten. Es werden keinerlei Cookies, Logs, 3rd-Party-Plugins etc. verwendet.