Archive: 14 posts

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PSN: deboerdave Level: sidescroll classic demo hi everybody. i have bult a sidescrolling level. Where the camera moves by itsself in different directions and you have to stay with in camera zone or you will die. as of now i have finished with all the game play aspects and have dont anything in regards to appearance (everything just built in basic material set for now and no background). But go check it out and you can see how it was implemented, as the main mechanics driving the sidescrolling are visible (there are more switches working behind the sceens that you can't see but it should be pretty straight forward to grasp the concept after you play through). the basics for implementing such a level are as follows: 1: Attach a camera to floaty material that doesnt track the player. 2: Decide your camera path and place floaty material at each turning point. 3: Connect all the floaty pieces with directional pistons to create the camera path( the floaty pieces that will touch each other should use magnetic keys to activate the next piston). 4: I found it important to secrure the floaty pieces with some disolve material until that piston is activated (when a new piston is activated it might shakethe the unused floaty pieces at the next camera turns cuasing the track to shift off target a little bit if they arent secured) 5: Create a Gas Zone that fits around your playing zone and attach this to the floaty piece with the camera on it. (i found it good to attach it with a stiff piston with a minimum length of 0, then place a switch on the piston in the off position this will keep the connection invisible) the purpose here is if you leave the camera you will die. becuase if you leave the cameras field of view the camera becomes inactive no matter how large you make the camera zone. 6: destroy the entry gate with a high speed piston smashing into somthing after the game has started. You dont want someone to die and spawn outside the playing field. This makes it so you have to make it to the end or if you die you get sent to the scoreboard. This makes it similar to these old games in that you have to make it through the level or you have to start over. Comments and feedback are greatlly appreciated. Give it a try. It really raises the intensity level when the camera moves by itself and you have limited time to complete your task. hope you guys like this concept becuase i would like to see more levels like this. PSN: deboerdave Level: sidescroll classic demo

2009-03-02 17:08:00 Author: deboerdave Posts: 384

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I checked your level out. It definitely behaves as one would like it to for a forced camera side scroller. I think you should make the gas frame a little bit bigger so players don't see it. You should also see if there's a way to hide the pink floatie material (set the camera view to be much lower than the camera itself, then have it hidden above). It was really hard to get far just because it was tricky and I'm not used to this approach yet I still came in 2nd place. To make a playable level you'll need to simplify things a bit. Maybe you could also make a level with some ground so that you don't constantly have to start over. I look forward to seeing this approach taken in a complete level!

2009-03-03 04:30:00 Author: larryjoe701 Posts: 68

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^^^he only has the floaties showing because it's an object demo. Originally he had them hidden behind a thing background plane, and you'd never know how it was done. It's definitely one of the coolest advancements I've seen... Energy Zone and Hanger could have definitely used something like this, and it's something we've been missing for awhile in LBP to move towards new level designs and being able to recapture alot of what 8 and 16 bit classics had in their favor. I can definitely see myself using this for all sorts of stuff... even if it was just for quick sequences, or just "parts of a level" that could use some dramatic movement like this. You could probably set up a moving checkpoint to work with it and follow the same path on a separate piston trail... but the player would spawn out into gas alot, so as is it's a great race level, and could use a timer to reward speed on top of point performance. Usually in a race level, or a scoring competition, when you're trying to score high you end up restarting at the first death or mistake anyway, so I don't see the one-shot thing as a bad thing. It's a tricky level, but it's short, and I like how your levels are always brutal but addictive and fun. When you finally beat the, it's like "YES!!! I am the mother ******** man!! IN YOUR FACE, LEVEL!"

2009-03-03 05:14:00 Author: Unknown User

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I checked your level out. It definitely behaves as one would like it to for a forced camera side scroller. I think you should make the gas frame a little bit bigger so players don't see it. You should also see if there's a way to hide the pink floatie material (set the camera view to be much lower than the camera itself, then have it hidden above). It was really hard to get far just because it was tricky and I'm not used to this approach yet I still came in 2nd place. To make a playable level you'll need to simplify things a bit. Maybe you could also make a level with some ground so that you don't constantly have to start over. I look forward to seeing this approach taken in a complete level! thanks for the feedback. i actually tried making the gas frame all the way out of the camera, but what would happen is even though you specify a larger camera zone the camera would still pull that direction when you got near the edge. I figured i would place the gas at the point where it would kill you before the camera pulls at all. Either way you have a restricted play area and felt the gas showing a bit should tell the player right away they need to stay in the zone on there very first play. the pink floaty material is what drives the camera it only takes the very back thin later so i am going to hide it later when i get time to do the background and art for the level. but you could tweak the system a bit if you wanted to see the original background. hoped you passed it. i didnt want to make it to easy becuase i like challenging levels. and the one life thing brings it back to an old school game of this style where there where no checkpoints. plus as ninja pointed out i also went for high score type level as you can see with all the bonus sections you can activate by grabing the red stuff. I just hit 10,000 today UPDATE: CUSTOM MUSIC added now. It works good on one player. I had a bit of lag with the sound when i had brought someone in there, but we where having bad connection to each other in other levels as well, so i dont know if that reall issue or not so would appreciate feedback on that as well..

2009-03-03 21:25:00 Author: deboerdave Posts: 384

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so as is it's a great race level, and could use a timer to reward speed on top of point performance. Usually in a race level, or a scoring competition, when you're trying to score high you end up restarting at the first death or mistake anyway, so I don't see the one-shot thing as a bad thing." yeah i think you got it right as its a scoring competition but not a race really becuase if you set a race gate in this type of level. it will just artificially boost the score for people that make it to the end, in the sense that the camera predetermines the pace, so anyone who gets to the end should have pretty much the same time. so i kinda like the idea of having hard to reach bonus points to spread out peoples score and linking up the bubble to keep your the bonus multiplier going

2009-03-03 21:35:00 Author: deboerdave Posts: 384

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Yeah, that wouldn't work right. You know what I just realized? That a combination of a music track level, or a wheel mechanism that plays a song could be used in conjunction with something like this to allow a custom soundtrack to follow the player for the entire level. The problem with that before, was always keep the player in range of the vehicle that plays the notes... but with a force camera follow, that forces the player to keep up - the music note system could simply be built around the camera mounted piston paths. This is definitely a much bigger innovation and step in game design for LBP than people realize.

2009-03-06 22:17:00 Author: Unknown User

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I've seen this mechanism in action in a level I played about a month ago. It's called "Keep up!", made by Walter-Kovacs. I recommend it to everyone, it's a very well done level which is actually eerily reminiscent of a Super Mario World stage (I'm lazy to load up the SNES emulator to find out which, though... ). It's cool to see the internals of it in action, though.

2009-03-07 17:47:00 Author: sny Posts: 144

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Hey just saw this on cool levels page 2, congrats - good stuff btw.

2009-03-09 21:20:00 Author: LuckyShot Posts: 713

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wow, this is tripping me out... Hey NinjaMicWz, I am currently in the process of making a level which is a super mario brothers level, which has custom music (mario theme) that loops, and the screen moves, forcing you along. i've got boxes that bounce when you hit them, emitting a point bubble, and bricks that smash as well. i've even got a working flagpole. its crazy how great minds think alike. anyway, i'll send you a key to the level if you want to take a look at it.

2009-03-10 12:00:00 Author: TJapan Posts: 225

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wow, this is tripping me out... Hey NinjaMicWz, I am currently in the process of making a level which is a super mario brothers level, which has custom music (mario theme) that loops, and the screen moves, forcing you along. i've got boxes that bounce when you hit them, emitting a point bubble, and bricks that smash as well. i've even got a working flagpole. its crazy how great minds think alike. anyway, i'll send you a key to the level if you want to take a look at it. Hey TJapan, glad you liked my level. I would like to check out your level. Is your psn the same as your id here. you could add me on the ps3 friends i also have some new music that i have been working on and attached it to a following device that i built so i can put my custom music in to a standard level with out the sidescroll. if you want to check it out send me a message FINISHED VERSION OUT NOW: "Jumper: The Red Zone" PSN: "deboerdave"

2009-03-10 20:01:00 Author: deboerdave Posts: 384

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I've seen this mechanism in action in a level I played about a month ago. It's called "Keep up!", made by Walter-Kovacs. I recommend it to everyone, it's a very well done level which is actually eerily reminiscent of a Super Mario World stage (I'm lazy to load up the SNES emulator to find out which, though... ). It's cool to see the internals of it in action, though. Yeah I recommend "Keep Up!" to everyone too For my level I had the camera zone and gas attached to a cart with wheels on it to move it across the level. There are also pistons attaching the gas to the cart to so I could move the camera zone vertically. Honestly your method sounds like it might be less limiting than mine, I had a fair amount of trouble with the vertical movement. Although my method does allow for respawns, which is nice for making a longer, less difficult level. Anyways feel free to check out my level and steal any ideas you want from it.(Thread in my sig)

2009-03-11 05:25:00 Author: Walter-Kovacs Posts: 542

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I played a level about a week ago called something like Monochromatic movie(film?). the level took place within an old T.V. adn it used this method of game play. it was was pretty cool.

2009-03-12 04:47:00 Author: chazbell Posts: 40

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Sounds awesome. I'll look at it later.

2009-03-12 12:16:00 Author: Sackdragon Posts: 427

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Played this, it was pretty cool! The red lightning made me a bit quesy though xD and it was far to precise and unforgiving to be "fun", but the level was really interesting

2009-03-15 00:40:00 Author: Pinchanzee Posts: 805

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