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Cave Story: First Cave

Archive: 15 posts

The level description follows verbatim:


Cave Story: First Cave
This level is a tribute to Cave Story, arguably one of the greatest indie games ever made. This is a reproduction of the intro level, "First Cave". Version 1.0

The level features some deceptively simple platforming segments that, although copied as directly as possible from the level layout in the first level of Cave Story, can actually be pretty tricky in LBP's controls.

I used the Paintinator in place of the Polar Star, of course.

I found that easiest way to find my level was to search for 'cave story phort'. (My PSN is also phort.) It is located in the Pacific, south of Alaska.

Go semi-wild with the feedback, I want lots of it.

[EDIT] Oh I almost forgot, please mention if you've played Cave Story before, because I'm sure that will influence your judgment! I would like feedback from fans and non-fans!		2009-01-08 08:04:00

Author:
phort
Posts: 74

You can play it if you haven't got the MGS add-on, atleast i can. 2009-01-08 08:06:00

Author:
Yarbone
Posts: 3036

I'll add this to my 'to play' list and edit later with my feedback.

(Wait a minute, I thought users could play levels created with MGS4DLC even if they don't have the MGS4DLC...?)

Answered above!		2009-01-08 08:07:00

Author:
Boo!
Posts: 33

Hm, was I misled by this line from the Playstation blog?

# Non-MGS Level Pack owners can PLAY the MGS Story Levels by joining a ?host? who owns the pack and play the levels online together. Now you won?t be able to keep any objects, but you can have tons of fun just PLAYing.

[edit] I guess the "everyone" in this next bullet point explains it. I didn't know you didn't need the pack to play Paintinator levels!

# MGS Level Pack owners will be able to CREATE levels with any of these items (including the Paintinator) and SHARE them online for everyone to play.		2009-01-08 08:09:00

Author:
phort
Posts: 74

I'm gunna give it a whirl now

[EDIT] Just finished it now, ive never played the original so you can put this down to "Oh he just doesnt understand"

Pros:
++ I like the look of it all, the pixel effect is very nice
+ errr

Cons:
--Its very short, I'm sure you didnt even fill 1/2 of your thermo - couldnt you fit cave 2 in there as well?
- Needs a checkpoint somewhere in between the start and the gun, I wiped at least 4 times before I got the gun
- Its very hard to make accurate jumps onto slopes in lbp - you slide, I mainly had this problem with the spikes, after you jump the first set i found myself sliding towards the next, and with spikes above, in front and behind me theres no room to correct it

--------------------------------------
I know this makes it seem like a really bad level to people reading this - but it isnt, but its quite short so doesnt showcase what looks like a good set of levels

overall 3 stars, 6/10, Tagged "short"

if you want to f4f you can check my level HEIST:

https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=t=7143

but you dont have to		2009-01-08 12:14:00

Author:
Mrgenji
Posts: 803

Hey, good job! I never played Cave Story, but I like the old style games. You recreated the pixeled look with great success and the level has a very polished look. I love the sleeping guy, he looks awesome! I wouldn't say the jumping is too hard; I died a few times, but nothing horrendous. I agree with the above poster that it is waaay too short. I was having a good time and then, BAM, it's over. You should really add the next one on to it if you can. That's really my only criticism. Oh yeah, I also liked the parts where you go behind the walls! Anyway, good job. I'll be watching for the next one. 4 stars/hearted2009-01-08 18:36:00

Author:
Unknown User

Thanks, I knew it was too short when I made it, but if I had included the next scene, Mimiga Village, in this level, it would have been really complex. Mimiga village dishes out a lot of the story so I'd have to do a lot of stuff with switches and emitters and AI and all that to make it work.

Anyway, if you haven't played cave story and like games like Metroid or Megaman, you really should try it (http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/index.php) (it's free!)		2009-01-08 21:38:00

Author:
phort
Posts: 74

I've played Cave Story and personally I still can't believe it's free. It's THAT good.

I'll be sure to check it out and provide feedback on it. Do not dissapoint me!		2009-01-09 05:42:00

Author:
Astrosimi
Posts: 2046

Huzzah!

Playing in a minute.

Edit: Holy crap. I've played Cave Story before, one of my favorite games! And I can't believe how spot on this is.

Everything definitely reminded me of the game, but I think the doors/opening should be a little bigger. Just a little.

5/5, hearted, brilliant.		2009-01-09 06:20:00

Author:
whatisnarwhal
Posts: 164

Yay, finally, some very positive feedback! I guess it just takes a fan of the original? Yeah, I was going for accuracy as much as possible. I scaled everything as it is on purpose because in CS the hero can jump 3 tiles high, but sackboy isn't quite as able, but at 1 medium grid unit per CS tile he jumps almost as high. Other than that, the layout of the cave is based directly on my in-game pseudo-measurements. I just walked around the level a lot to get an exact copy of the original layout. As for the enemies, sadly LBP doesn't let you scale shapes small enough to get as much detail as the sprites in cave story have at a size that's to scale, which is why all the objects that are based off of sprites are about 2x as big as they are in the game.

I REALLY wanted to incorporate the cutscenes with kazuma using the cutscene camera feature of magic mouths so you could actually see Kazuma but after spriting a teleporter I found out that it wouldn't let me make the object anywhere near small enough to match scale and I wound up with a teleporter that was 4 tiles wide instead of 1. I may still add the cutscene with Kazuma in an update, because in the cutscene that happens when you get the gun, the speech bubbles seem like they're coming from the Hermit Gunsmith, even though he's sleeping, and I want to clarify that all three sections of dialog are coming from Kaz.

Here's something for the rabid fans among you: a tutorial on how to make your own Cave Story Hero Sackboy costume!

http://www.flyingbreakfast.com/sackhero.jpg

For reference, for those of you who haven't played Cave Story (do so now by the way) this is the hero. The one on the left is from the original, and the one on the right is from the upcoming Wii remake:
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2008/11/cave.jpg

It's pretty simple actually. Set your player color to red, then put on the "Crash Helmet," "Leather Gloves" (optional, he only wears gloves in the credits), Tracksuit Bottoms, and Dungarees Top (closest thing there is to a black tank top). Then, to complete the look, in stickers & decorations, go to the decorations under the "Characters" section and there should be a "Skeleton Leg." stick two of those on the sides of your head for antennae, and go to the "Scenic" decorations. Now just stick a "Decayed metal plate" on the middle of your forehead and the look is complete!		2009-01-09 08:14:00

Author:
phort
Posts: 74

I personally prefer the old graphics to the new ones. Sue has a coin slot on her forhead.

Anyway, I tried this out now, and though it was amazing! You did well making it feel like cavestory, even with the restriction on block size.

What would make the level feel more complete was if you had a chest in the gunsmiths room. You grab it, it disappears and the paintinator is inside, and then it plays the 'Item get' jingle from the actual game. It's still awesome without, though. There was nothing actually wrong with the level designwise or gameplaywise. You did a great job.

By the way, do you plan on remaking as much of the game as possible? If so, it will be great seeing what you do with the egg corridor. Making the booster miight be a bit tricky, though...		2009-01-09 16:01:00

Author:
LFF
Posts: 434

Depending on demand and popularity I will remake as much of it as I can stand! I've been working on Mimiga village (I finished about half of the level layout last night) but it's gonna be difficult because sackboy can't jump quite as high as the hero in cave story and mimiga village has lots of 3-tile-high jumps! I was thinking about trying to scale the whole level down once I have all the layout complete, but everything is petite right now as it is...

----

Edit: Updated to version 1.1!

I took a few suggestions and widened the doors, put the polar star in a chest, and changed it to trigger the "cinema" in the hermit gunsmith's room when you grab the chest. I also made a simple object that plays one of the item-getting ditties when you grab the chest. I might give that away in the next level, Mimiga Village. When I finish Mimiga Village I'll update this level to have a key to it so they can be played in order.		2009-01-09 22:09:00

Author:
phort
Posts: 74

Well, I gave this level a go as part of the F4F system.

I must say it's got quite an interesting visual appeal. I have never played the original game but you certainly have the sprite platformer meets LBP down pat.

Just a few points...

It really is a long way to the checkpoint after the start. Others have suggested it, but it might be wise to put another check point in.

It's not very clear where to go or what to do. Spotting the door to go out is really, really hard. Also it's not clear when you go out which way to go. Given that we can't see that far ahead, it just made me feel lost. I'd consider trying to make it clearer which way to go, with either different arrows or colours.

The point bubbles that you get after shooting monsters disappear relatively quickly. I am sure for a level that small the thermometer should not be too taxed, so if you have the emitter at infinite lifespan it should be fine.

As others have said, it all felt very short. I am sure a sequel will be a much better length.

I am sure it's tough trying to mimic aspects of an original game. But your attention to detail looks very promising, and I look forward to your future works. 		2009-01-10 23:50:00

Author:
Elbee23
Posts: 1280

I really hope even if you didn't like this level you'll still try the future ones! So far Mimiga Village is turning out very nicely!

As for your comment on the score bubbles disappearing too quickly, that was intentional. In Cave Story when you kill an enemy they drop a bit of weapon energy which falls down on the ground and bounces around a bit, but it disappears after about 10 seconds. I figured the best equivalent in LBP was score bubbles, so those only stick around for 10 seconds. On later levels it will be more interesting scrambling to collect as many bubbles as you can before they disappear to try and get a high score.

Next time I update this level I'll add a checkpoint near the first couple of bats.

The next area, Mimiga Village will be a lot longer. It has very little action; it's all story driven, but it is very nice looking so far and will incorporate some cool elements. For instance, in cave story if you stay underwater for 20 seconds, you drown and die, and I've replicated that by using a spotlight to detect when the player is underwater, and a special gauge that shows the player how much air they have, then kills them with gas when they run out of air. Granted, it's easy to get out of the water here before drowning, but the option is there! After all there aren't many places in this level to lose lives. Plus I can reuse the setup on later levels with water. It will be an interesting dynamic in the battle with the Core, if I ever get that far in this series of levels! IIRC (and I probably do, I've played through cave story like 15 times, it's that good) the order is: first cave, mimiga village, egg corridor, mimiga, grasstown, mimiga, sand zone, labyrinth, "monster x" boss battle, more labyrinth, then the core so that's at least 6 levels ahead, and at most... quite a few.

I'd like to see if it's possible to recreate the whole game in LBP in installments but that will take a lot of dedication! "So long as you retain your spirit of exploration, surely you shall find your way out. This I believe."		2009-01-11 09:55:00

Author:
phort
Posts: 74

I really hope even if you didn't like this level you'll still try the future ones! So far Mimiga Village is turning out very nicely!

As for your comment on the score bubbles disappearing too quickly, that was intentional. In Cave Story when you kill an enemy they drop a bit of weapon energy which falls down on the ground and bounces around a bit, but it disappears after about 10 seconds. I figured the best equivalent in LBP was score bubbles, so those only stick around for 10 seconds. On later levels it will be more interesting scrambling to collect as many bubbles as you can before they disappear to try and get a high score.

Next time I update this level I'll add a checkpoint near the first couple of bats.

The next area, Mimiga Village will be a lot longer. It has very little action; it's all story driven, but it is very nice looking so far and will incorporate some cool elements. For instance, in cave story if you stay underwater for 20 seconds, you drown and die, and I've replicated that by using a spotlight to detect when the player is underwater, and a special gauge that shows the player how much air they have, then kills them with gas when they run out of air. Granted, it's easy to get out of the water here before drowning, but the option is there! After all there aren't many places in this level to lose lives. Plus I can reuse the setup on later levels with water. It will be an interesting dynamic in the battle with the Core, if I ever get that far in this series of levels! IIRC (and I probably do, I've played through cave story like 15 times, it's that good) the order is: first cave, mimiga village, egg corridor, mimiga, grasstown, mimiga, sand zone, labyrinth, "monster x" boss battle, more labyrinth, then the core so that's at least 6 levels ahead, and at most... quite a few.

I'd like to see if it's possible to recreate the whole game in LBP in installments but that will take a lot of dedication! "So long as you retain your spirit of exploration, surely you shall find your way out. This I believe."

i played both of your levels and found them unusually short and fairly non-challenging for the most part probably the hardest part in both of your levels was: Cave story-the first cave: the spikes in the first part
Cave Story-mimiga village: the wierd TV looking boss type thing- it was fairly easy to any partialy-experienced paintinator player

suggestions:
to up the difficulty for the boss type thing you could do like with your water and put a spotlight in the back plain where the door is and make the switch directional and inverted then put a small (or long) glass barricade on pistons that would descend from the ceiling whenever you go out of the back plain
to prevent people using that space as a shelter from the slowly moving not-very-frequent plasma balls

best parts (in my opinion)
i always thought that having the little passageways to other areas was cool so that's a plus
it was very well detailed and fun to explore although it's a little confusing about where to go next like maybe a guy standing here or there to give you a clue might be nice

they were very good levels overall and i encourage you to continue with your series		2009-03-03 05:25:00

Author:
The Comedian
Posts: 113


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