LBP Showcase / Reviews / Recommendations #1
[Roughly 15 Fresh S2] Return of the Community Level Looks-At Omnibus of Love!
Archive: 134 posts
| [Edit to Add]Fixed the Sound Issue, link updated, sorry about that[/EtA] Ossu! Round Two is starting up over here! [R15F-S2 12/01/17] 000 - Re-Introduction (https://youtu.be/AYi3jWJlowg) This one is just a re-introduction episode, so if you've been following along all this time, and want to pass over, that's cool. If you're new to the series, welcome! i hope we help you find some cool levels, as we bop our way across the Imagisphere. Thanks, as always, for all the support! Hope y'all have and great day, and we'll see y' around! Behind the Curtains Stuff We're up to the Outro as far as next week's episode. It's weird, the level recordings went smooth as, but i was having trouble getting things to click when it came to getting back to the hub. i should be able to get that done this morning, and once that's handled, the PiPs should come along no problem. There may be an LBsP coming up in the next few days, but i don't want to promise it until i've got the R15F engine running nice and hot. i was actually playing around with simple ways to reset sponge blocks on winches when they get hung up on platforms, which is so weirdly specific, but is such an annoyance whenever i run into the problem in levels. Side weirdness: so i wanted to have some subtitles on the screen during the re-intro episode, where one would stay on the screen while the others were added. So, i clipped the video (in ShareFactory), added the subtitle, exported to gallery, started it up as a new project (because once it's been exported, it's all considered one file, so the clips are gone, but the subtitle or PiP or whatever remain). Did that three times (i wanted to list the level selection rules), and it looked good; but when i actually played the video, i found each time it was lowering the volume. The last version was almost muted, it was so soft. So...that's a thing. Glad i found out now, because i was thinking of using that technique to cheat in more than 10 PiPs. Would've been real bad to have it come up in a real episode. | 2017-11-30 23:10:00 Author: waffleking23  Posts: 535 |
Yeah! This has been a really quick return!  I'm looking forward to round 2! Many greetings, Jürgen^^ | 2017-12-01 13:49:00 Author: CuriousSack  Posts: 3981 |
| Thanks so much, Jurgen! It's great to be back! Speaking of... Alright! Got the real deal Holyfield first episode coming up at ya! Episode 001 - Again (https://youtu.be/zeufikGXgSw) This week we're taking a look at: Shapes - Azalon (https://lbp.me/v/qzckpe5) Tower of Power - CalDav98 (https://lbp.me/v/qxfz3sc) Cavern Catastrophe - ManPetKid (https://lbp.me/v/q2et7sb) ADVENTURE IN THE FOREST - shadowbrine2009 (https://lbp.me/v/q2c31c6) Professional Bunny - hunter10009 (https://lbp.me/v/qvsmeyp) It's a...well, a mixed bag to start the season off, but i still had a fun time with them, and a fun time putting the episode together. Hope you find something in here to your taste. As always, any and all feedback is welcome. Thanks for all the support folks, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs There's a copyright ding on the episode this time (apparently Song 2's owners are being assertive, which is weird, because i'm sure that song's come up in a ton of other episodes). So if there're ads in the show, i apologize, but at least they're not mine. i don't think i executed it as well as i could have, but i really ended up liking how the Title Card turned out. If you recognize where it's from, you get a cupcake. Like we said in the LBsP thread, episode 002 is uploaded and scheduled, and 003's levels are handled, so we're pretty well ahead of the curve here as far as production schedule. i had an idea pop up when i was putting together 002, and i thought i'd bounce it off y'all. So, data begets data, and i've taken to keeping track of 1st publish dates, plays (at time of recording), and time to beat. Is that information you'd like to see on the screen while i'm covering things in the outro? it'd be pretty easy to do. On one hand, trivia, and trivia can be fun. On the other hand, i can see how it might be useless visual clutter. Let me know how you feel, yeah? i could start to implement it in 003, if it's something you think would be cool. | 2017-12-07 23:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Oh ho ho ho...stupid browser...stupid Windows update...had this all written up, shut the laptop, which apparently now shuts down all programs. Which means the post got eaten. Feh... Alright, Tuesday Takeaway take 2! Shapes - Azalon Pretty fun, but also pretty simple here. Having the alternate paths was kind of nice, though once you've found the optimal one to get all the score bubbles, you'll probably not have a lot of reason to go back. Still, it's chill and nice, and there's a bit of a nostalgic, LBP1 feel to it, which is cool. i'd say it's worth a good play or two. Tower of Power - CalDav98 Got hung up on the winch issue in the outro, which means i didn't really get into why it really deserved the Red Triangle. Really, it could use a full work-over from the bottom up. There's little flow to the race, a point compounded by the way they've got the winches set up. You grab them, they run through the up-to-down cycle, and then stop. So if you miss the jump, you've got to drop off the winch and grab it again to start the cycle again. You've got bits of the level where you can get thrown out of it, like we saw in the video. Also, you get three power-ups tossed at you that you'll only use once a pop right at the end of the level, which is a pet peeve of mine. Simply, it'd be easier to start from scratch to make a more solid level. Cavern Catastrophe - manpetkid We're assuming the pet in their name is being used in the noun form, and not the verb form, yes. There's some decent enough presentation in here, but it does get pretty frustrating if you've forgotten how the old-school power-ups work. i'm not sure how much of that to put on manpetkid, it can be hard to anticipate what is (or will be) common knowledge among the player base. Still, it does effect the feel of the level. i can see the jetback area being a deal breaker for some (and to be honest, if i weren't doing the level for the show, i probably would've bounced), it is just as fiddly as they tend to be. Still, it's not a level without its merits, and once i noodled things out, i had a good enough time with it. The Space Race if definitely the better level, though. ADVENTURE IN THE FOREST - shadowbrine2009 Eh, it's a run left-to-right through a copy-paste forest level. i kind of wonder if shadowbrine2009 is a younger creator, there's that kind of feel. It's got a nice Glitter Gun, at least. The attached level Guirassic Adventure was kind of fun, at least. Still heavily flawed, though. Professional Bunny - hunter100019 First off, mea culpa, i screwed up hunter's name. Should've had an extra '1' in there. Sorry about that hunter100019! Whether you find this level fun or not will depend entirely on how much you enjoy the type. Personally, i enjoy a nice timing diagnostic every now and then, but i realize it's not a genre in everyone's wheelhouse. The same with the presentation; i found the stripped down style to be elegant, but it could be a little too flat for you. Paczek321 was nice enough to get in touch to remind me that you can turn down gameplay SFX in the Global Settings (which i really should have remembered), and the music at the end is actually from the game (of which i'd had no idea). Thanks Paczek! So, that's the that (for the second time today). Hope you found something fun to play, i had a good enough time with everything (even the red triangles, in their own way). Hope you have a great day, and we'll see you this Friday! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i actually woke up at my usual time (5a)! Huzzah! And then promptly fell back asleep for another two hours. Stupid Tuesday. Stupid Curse. We've got the dialogue and Frank's animations finished up for episode 003. Still got Mei's animations, the cameras, and music left to do. i lost Saturday for set up on account of my nephew spending the night with us (lots of Splattoon2! It was a lot of fun!). Sunday got eaten by a canceled party, which became basic drinking (go whiskey!). Still, i knew that was how things were going to turn out, so i'm not too chuffed about being a bit behind schedule. Even still, we should be able to get the episode wrapped by Friday, though i kind of doubt we'll get a LBsP in this go around. | 2017-12-12 01:23:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Alright folks, back again for another round! Episode 002 - Boiling (https://youtu.be/NGpTp3KPdiQ) This go about we're taking a look at: -100 Celcius (ducklings and ice) - ALGORITM067 (https://lbp.me/v/q2d3ryf) My first lbp3 platform lvl - Hank1902 (https://lbp.me/v/qz9j5ms) Hoverboard Neon! - xtacaine666 (https://lbp.me/v/qytpxzg) Acorn Bounce - Lara_1988_ (https://lbp.me/v/qzq5tg-) Hello... - hanakama (https://lbp.me/v/q15s7w8) It's another...interesting...set of levels, but hopefully you'll find something that floats your boat. As always, thanks for all the support, and i hope y'all have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuff Whoo boy, Thursday was pretty much awful, full stop. So, the new Windows update seems to have borked my mic, or at least my mic has developed some kind of issue concurrent to the update. Anyway, there's some kind of buzzing when i record Isaac (though no issues when recording on the PS4, so we're living in the mirror, i suppose). Tried to get the thing unkinked, thought i had, and ended up with two episodes recorded where you can barely hear my voice. Then, found that there was something gone sideways with our washing machine, seemed like something with the hose, so i hiked over to the Home Depot equivalent, got a new one, came home to hook it up, and...it was still spitting water out at me. So, hike all the laundry over to the coin-op which is not exactly super close...so basically the morning and afternoon of my busiest recording day were wiped. Still, had gotten episode 003 wrapped and there were still a few hours, so i figured i'd try to put together a quick episode of LBsP, did the recording only to discover there's (maybe) some break in the level (it was an LBP2 one, so that's a possibility), but i wouldn't have time to fire up the PS3 and check there if i also wanted to do level recordings for 004, which i did want to do. Also, somewhere in that process i turned my mic off and forgot (probably when i tried to replay the LBsP level on the PS4), so lost the first level from the 004 set and had to quick change that up. By that time my mood was so sour that i probably shouldn't have gone through recording the rest, so i'm going have to give those a hard listen to see if they're actually worth keeping, or if i want to just scrap the lot and start fresh (which would suck, because there're some decent levels in that set). Basically what i'm saying is...really Thursday? Really? What'd i ever do to you? | 2017-12-14 23:02:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Whoop whoop, Tuesday Takeaway! -100 Celsius (ducklings and ice) - ALGORITM067 How can you not like saving ducklings? Are you some kind of monster? Surely not, you're good people, one and all (even the monsters). *ahem* What to say? It's a solidly presented, mostly fun level. The power-up is fairly solid on, though i think i figured out the inconsistency in its use. Basically, you can turn water into ice with it, but you're only using the flame side of it to interact with the thermometers (which, indirectly, melts ice). Logically the fire should directly effect things, but...a level has its own mechanics, and ALGORITM067 does tell us how it's supposed to work. The only fly in the ointment i think was the difficulty spike early on with the ice block conveyor. The jump off the block when it hits the water is really tough to pull off. My first lbp3 platform lvl - Hank1902 Yeeeahh...this one, it just wasn't fun when i was recording; it wasn't fun when i was going for PiPs (which, i suppose, is also recording), and it wasn't much fun playing it this morning. The real nail in the coffin for me was there's just no pace to the level, It feels like i should be shuffling along, but if you do, you're likely going to keep getting killed. What you need to do is move forward, stop, wait, move forward. i have the hardest time getting into that style of platformer. Hoverboard Neon! - xtacaine666 i do kind of wonder if xta will look back at their screen name some day and wonder why they told the whole world of their support of Satan? i mean, let your freak flag fly, but... i mean, if you're going to go into it, at least pick a more interesting daemonic entity. Anyhow...not really much to say. This one's a pretty solid on, but not particularly stand out hoverboard level. i really liked the contrasting black and neon piping, even through it does make it difficult to see the sticker work (which i'm pretty sure is exactly what i said in the episode). Acorn Bounce - Lara_1988_ The play is a little bit awkward, considering the level is based on one originally designed for the Grappling Hook, still, i had enough fun going through it. The music, though...it's very elevator-muzak-y. i can appreciate the work that went into putting it together, but...it's just not for me? Hello... - hanakama Yeah...this is a jank gallery. i suppose i should have figured that, but i thought the Level Badge looked so nice. To be fair, we did see that in the level, but the juice isn't really worth the squeeze. Also the depresso-spider-mech...at least it moves pretty cool. mdkd99 mentioned that maybe hanakama had gaffled the last bits in the level there, which i suppose is always a possibility. The skill on display stands out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of what we see. i can't really say one way or the other. i took a look at one of their other levels, which was a Hatsune Miku running platformer in a box. The animation on that was actually pretty good, so i can't knock hanakma too much. On the other hand, it was an LBP2-level, and i think playing in LBP3 caused some load-bearing bit of logic to glitch out. i think there were probably supposed to be dropping platforms during the water bits, as the jumps are way too far to hit normally. So that's the that. Hope there was something fun in there for y'all. Have a great day, and thanks for all the support! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Hrrm...lazybones me? i dunno, just needed a little production break from the debacle that was Thursday. Though, that's why we keep a week's buffer in there. Plus, i've got...something like 2weeks off work with nothing planned, so...it's not like i won't have time to get caught up. | 2017-12-18 22:08:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Righty-o, then. We're at it again. Episode 003 - Clawhammer (https://youtu.be/XlLsVfoymxI) This week we'll be having a look at: Tiki-Island - momi-arsen (https://lbp.me/v/q1h3bkt) Peace & Tranquillity - justnummy (https://lbp.me/v/qv4gfhn) Sackboy's Running Trails - cristobol1996cri (https://lbp.me/v/qzhbfbx) Sackboy Can Do it - DannyFerreira98 (https://lbp.me/v/qz8men0) Tiki in the Clouds - bielplayer34 (https://lbp.me/v/q00yhp-) It's a bit more of an even set than the last couple, i'd say. Had an honestly good time with all of them (as opposed to a trainwreck good time). Hopefully something here will stand out for you, as well. As always, thanks for all the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i think, between my wife and i, we may have eaten a whole cow last night. i tell you, all-you-can-eat-yakiniku (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakiniku) coupled with an all-you-can-drink is a dangerous thing. But, luckily, something we only do on special occasions...i'm pretty sure neither of us has the frame to carry a huge amount of extra weight. i'm thinking maybe we won't need to eat much at all for the next few days. i've been kind of on myself here for being lazy recently, but looking back at what i've actually been doing the past week or so, i'm not sure that's entirely correct. i mean, looking at activity, actual things done, i haven't had a huge amount of extra time floating about, it just hasn't been focused where it needs to be. i've certainly recorded enough Isaac, which is a thing that does need to get done (though perhaps not to the degree i've done it). It's a comfortable form of work, though, and something i can use when i've got too much stress to deal with elsewhere. This upcoming week will be time to get back on schedule with R15F/LBsP, though. i do feel bad that i've got the meat of an episode for both all ready, but haven't been able to bring myself to put together the frame. | 2017-12-21 23:01:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Hi waffle_king23, always as busy as a bee! https://beehalten.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/image.png Thank you so much and have a Merry Christmas! Many greetings, Jürgen^^ | 2017-12-22 09:16:00 Author: CuriousSack Posts: 3981 |
| Now that is a Festive Bee, Jurgen. The finest of holidays to you as well, and to everyone here! | 2017-12-23 23:10:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Right then, time for the Tuesday Takeaway! Tiki-Island - momi-arsen It's...ok...i guess is the best i can say? momi at least makes the effort to actually make a level, with discrete phases, and an actual environment, i do have to give props there. There's just, there's not all that going on beyond that. The decorating is a bit slipshod in placement, but at least is coherent. There is some gameplay to be had, and they did toss in a secret, so those are good points. i just wish this one had a bit more meat on its bones. Peace & Tranquillity - justnummy i feel a bit ashamed that it's been so long since i've last heard this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KIg6tQOwwg) that i couldn't remember any of the lyrics. That would've made for a good bit of bonus material. The level is fine enough, there's definitely a nice mix of gameplay. The presentation is very much in that "well, it's coherent, but still very much an unnatural platform environment" mold that we saw a lot of in LBP2 (especially with this material set...i think it's come up at least 3times over the course of the series). Still, while i walked away feeling the level was a bit overlong, i still found it overall pretty enjoyable. There are a lot of charming little touches. i forgot to mention, but, i found my clone in the level too. Sackboy's Running Trails - cristobol1996cri i wonder, do you think the 1996 in cristobol's name means "born in 1996"? That'd make them 21, so it's certainly possible; but i graduated HS in 1996, so...yeah...feelin' kinda old. i really found myself enjoying this one more and more the more i played it. It's not particularly challenging, but it's such a well crafted race. The point bubbles are well placed, and having to choose between timer and extra points is always nice. The pace is really steady, so even though the level's a bit long, it never really feels that way. Also, it's a very good example of background choice (which has nothing to do with the race aspect, but is still pretty nice). Sackboy Can Do It! - DannyFerreira98 This one's...not particularly pretty; though i did find it to have its own charm. i did like the depth of the level, and the fact you can see the later bits of the level; i don't know why, but i tend to like when creators do that. Gameplay is....not bad...there's at least a bit of a mix. i still find myself not really liking attract-o-gel all that much, i'm not really a big fan of the snapback on it. The first spinny obstacle definitely needs a bit of work, it kept on grinding me when it was supposed to launch me. At least i figured out that it's completely skippable if you just jump off the top of it. Tiki In The Clouds - bielplayer34 i think we can assume that the 34 here is not referring to a birthyear of 1934, yes? i mean, i suppose it's possible, but...probably not? Anyway, i came away this morning feeling much the same as i felt in the episode. i liked the environment, i liked the gameplay, i just wish there were a bit more to it. i do think the velociraptors could have been a little better placed, unless some of them were meant to kill the player, it's not always easy to tell. So, that's the that for this week. Had a good enough amount of fun with the levels, so that's cool. Hope you found at least one to your liking as well. Thanks, as always, for all the support; and i hope whatever holidays you're rocking are great. Behind the Curtains Stuffs Episode 004 is done but for the PiPs, which i should be able to get to today, so that's nice. i'd wanted to get a Christmas episode of LBsP in, but that didn't turn out to be in the cards, but i should be able to get one up tomorrow, i think. i do have to meet a friend and his tattooist that evening...but still, there ought to be enough time. i think that's...yeah, that's about it, really. | 2017-12-25 23:30:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Right then, coming back around again! Episode 004 - Dendrite (https://youtu.be/RCjAeMTQZnM) This time we're having a look at: Eagle's Egg - ZHAiMR-0101 (https://lbp.me/v/q1xmn9p) Sky jump - Nightfall - SaltyCalf12345 (https://lbp.me/v/qz-y8g6) Meet the Boulders - mirjanneke (https://lbp.me/v/q2f2cgp) "Antonio's Magic Dimension - goldsackboy (https://lbp.me/v/qwmph85) In And Out - DocSilence (https://lbp.me/v/q2fzcgk) Looks like we finally got a mirjanneke level on the show, which is something i'd wanted to do for awhile now, so that's cool. All of the levels were pretty fun this time, which i always appreciate. Hopefully there'll be at least one in there that catches your eye. As always, thanks for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Got a fair whack of work done the last few days. i might have mentioned in the last LBsP post that we're half wrapped up on episode 005, i should be a bit further along on it, but seeing as we got 2 or 3episodes of LBsP done, i'm fairly ok with that. i've been reading through the old run of Hellraiser comics, and that's been nostalgic as heck. Ahh...aside from all that, yeah, pretty quiet closing out the year it looks. | 2017-12-28 23:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Just a quick heads up to folks, this week's Tuesday Takeaway will actually be a Wednesday Takeaway. We're going to be heading up to Amanohashidate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanohashidate) tomorrow, which should be neat, but is also like three and a half hours from Osaka, so we've got to leave pretty early in the morning. Hope you all have a good New Year's Day, or at least one with the smallest hangover you'll have this year (which, i suppose could be taken as a blessing or a curse). | 2017-12-31 23:53:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Hi waffleking23, also a good New Year's Day to you and your family! Amanohashidate is looking like a realy lovely place, so I wish you a fine trip and a lot of fun there! Many greetings, Jürgen^^ | 2018-01-01 09:02:00 Author: CuriousSack Posts: 3981 |
| We had a great time, thanks! Even with the day often getting overcast, it was still quite beautiful. Woop woop, Wednesday Takeaway! Eagle's egg - ZHAiMR-0101 It's solid enough i suppose, but sometimes it feels like a lot of the Swoop levels are hitting the same notes. i suppose there's not an awful lot to do with Swoop, but then i think about DiamondDiancie's Swoop's Dreamland, or Thinga-ma-jig's Swooper. It's not impossible to make a Swoop level that stands out. There's not too much to say about this one, though i still found the environment nice enough (though let's keep our grabbable floor materials non-grabbable, yes?), and the sponge keys still break. Sky jump - Nightfall - SaltyCalf12345 Every now and then i find one of these blocky environment levels that really work for me like this one. The material choices are well-done, and i like that the focus is kept on gameplay throughout. There's nothing excessively stressful to it, but the pace is nice and smooth, and i never really felt like i'd been stopped in my progress. The music is really nice too. Even through things are simple, i found myself having a really good time even on my...ehh...5th playthrough? Meet the Boulders - mirjanneke i'm really glad i finally got to show off one of mir's levels, but i have to be honest and say that this is not my favourite of hers. The pacing is just a touch too sluggish, and the lack of musical change really starts to wear after awhile. Still, it is nice that the characters are differentiated in ability, and the level doesn't lack for charm. It's just too long for me to really feel like going back to again. "Antonio's Magic Dimension" - goldsackboy i found myself liking this one a lot more this go around. i'm still a little salty about the constantly changing climbable materials, but generally they're not switching up during potentially lethal set pieces. The environment is a good example of weird, but not truly random, there is a cohesion to how things are put together and presented that i appreciate. The adventure board killed me at the end again, which...i'm not sure what's going on with that. It's not the first time it's come up. Though, this time i did notice that the death actually happens after the results are logged, so the level is completable in a sense. In and Out - DocSilence Hmm...this one got picked for Level of the Day today. How...interesting. But pleasing, because i really did like this one. These types of levels really do benefit from a number of replays, and i ended up getting myself to third on the leaderboards, though i was still making some pretty stupid mistakes. The one issue that seemed to come up was the pipes, they really do seem to steal your momentum at times, which can make nailing the following jumps impossible. Don't know if i remembered to mention in the episode, but the music is really good as well. So, that's the that for episode 004, i guess. Some solid quality this go about. Hope there was a level that stood out for you. Thanks as always for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtain Stuffs Amanohashidate was really cool. i kind of wish my camera wasn't borked, there were a few times where i could see a really nice picture just waiting to be taken. The going-to and coming-back weren't nearly as tiresome as they could have been, because i recently picked up Isaac on the Switch. Oh Entropy...i picked up Isaac on the Switch. i should probably get my head examined, but it is just too good, and really benefits from being handheld. Umm...what else? Finally got to watch season one of American Gods (was a really quick localization, as these things usually go). i think i liked it. It's hard to judge fairly, because the book is so close to my heart. For the most part i thought the changes were fairly well handled, but for the switch to Wednesday's plan as revealed in the finale (in the book it seems more, let's whack the New Gods before they whack us). Czernobog was excellent, though very different from how he read in my mind. Anansi was cool too, and i really wish the two of them had gotten more focus. i appreciated the expansion on Laura and Mad Sweeny, and was surprisingly taken with Salim. Will be interested to see how things go in Season two. Ahh....we will be really busy with finishing up episodes 005 and 006 today and tomorrow. Like, so busy. | 2018-01-03 01:43:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Right then folks, back again for a fresh installment here! Elucidate (https://youtu.be/4mJhksIgFpE) This week we're having a look at: Go Go Boost Boots Panic! - pinkygurl (https://lbp.me/v/q2dkq44) Back In The Land of Frost - pcgt06 (https://lbp.me/v/q046yj0) Mt.Chocolate - Al-Void400 (https://lbp.me/v/qyqt784) spliced - pepitoelcojo (https://lbp.me/v/q28429z) Te Waonui o Tane - Aratiatia (https://lbp.me/v/q2gm3cw) A pretty fair amount of fun, and even the clunky levels weren't terrible. Hopefully there'll be something in the set to catch your eye. As always, thanks for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtain Stuffs Not too much to say, really. i should have gotten the PiPs done sooner for this week's episode, but it didn't really come back and bite me in the bum, so i guess that's ok. i'm going to take care of 006's PiPs right now, since i have the time. Today's the last day of my vacation and...it's funny, i suppose. Usually, when i have a long break, by the end i feel like i've had enough, and am ready to get back to work. Not this time, this time i've just got a low-grade antipathy at the prospect. Probably means i've overstayed at this job (14years now). | 2018-01-04 23:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Is it really? Is it Tuesday Takeaway? Yes! Yes it is. Go Go Boost Boots Panic!!! - pinkygurl Yar...the monkeybars. They just kill the heck out of the momentum. The rest of it is fun enough, and some of it is quite tricky, but i had a good enough time here. i'm not entirely sure the Floaty Fluid and Hoverboard were really all that necessary, though. The level's not the prettiest, but i think you're supposed to be moving quickly enough to not really notice it. Back In The Land of Frost - pcgt06 Ahh...i don't want to rag on this level, it's clear the creator had a fair amount of enthusiasm putting it together, but it's really not all that great in the end. It's a bit over crammed with the power-ups, and aside from the Meltinator, they don't see much use. The level feels pretty empty, and it's not really helped by the decorative style. Still, having said all that, i'm not sure that i could do much better. Mt.Chocolate - Al-Void400 i do appreciate a fairly straight-forward platformer from time to time, and that's what we get here. It's not really pushing the envelope in the design or logic, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do pretty well. Like i mentioned in the video, i wasn't entirely enamoured with how they handled the climbing, but like "Antonio's Magic Dimension," it's generally contained enough that it's not going to be confusing, but it is pretty annoying. spliced - pepitoelcojo i like how this level starts off so much, the end really stings all the more. The design and materials are great. i liked those expanding blocks, as tricky as they are, and the music is really keen. But then, it just ends in this blocky chunk of meh. Also, weird thing, and probably my brain misfiring, but i don't remember having a grappling hook when i played for the episode...i'm going to have to rewatch it. i did have one this go around, but it didn't really help with the expando-blocks, and once i died, it was gone for good. Te Waonui o Tane - Aratiatia Man...this is such a neat little level, and you can feel the love the creator had for it while creating. It's such a shame that Sumo never got dThermo to work like it was supposed to, because this one just gets slammed with load/lag on account of it. Saa...i suppose even angels have flaws. There's still one secret that i have left to find, and i think i may actually sit through the loading one more time to try and do it. It's a shameful thing, but basically everything i know about NZ comes from BrainDead and Heavenly Creatures, which, to be honest, are much better movies than the LotR series. Yeah, i said it, but frankly, they've stayed in my mind much longer than LotR has. So, that's the that. Nothing showing up this week was particularly bad, and i had a pretty good time playing through everything. Hopefully you had some fun with these as well. As always, thanks for all the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtain Stuffs So...i had an early shift yesterday, and at a school that's way farther out than the one i usually teach at, and no one told me. So, that was cool. Luckily my paranoia is enough that i'd checked my schedule early, just to be safe, but it did mean that my Monday was basically scrapped for any production, and that kind of sucks. It shouldn't put me off my schedule too much, i don't think the hub for episode 007 will require anything too complex, but it does mean there probably won't be an LBsP until Thursday, maybe. Had fun introducing Honoka and Manny this week. i don't know how long they'll be sticking around, probably at least a month or so. i wanted to try out some new characters, but i didn't want to introduce someone completely new, if that makes sense? We'll have to find out what happened to their friend, beyond the fact that i didn't really want to juggle 3characters (4 if you include myself as a character) in the hub at the same time. | 2018-01-08 22:30:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! We're back for another go around! Episode 006 - Fungible (https://youtu.be/vLujIQmBsnk) This time we'll be having a look at: Little Girl - abood-12 (https://lbp.me/v/q2gq-82) A Walk Amongst The Fire - The_Snooth (https://lbp.me/v/qtzys7x) 9 - GUBSGUBS (https://lbp.me/v/q09wtqw) 4-Way Platformer - Archetypervb (https://lbp.me/v/q2fyqv7) Milkshake Refinery - Twinz401 (https://lbp.me/v/qwcf5gk) Had a pretty good time with these levels. Of course, Little Girl got picked up for Level of the Week, so...meh, that's a thing that happens. Still, it's a good set, and hopefully you'll find something that floats your boat in there. As always, thanks for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs So...LittleBigNetwork is down? Maybe? When i try to go there, i get a "Driver Error" message, something something wrong with their database? Anyway, i think it's an issue on their end, and not mine, for once. Still, if you can access the site, let me know. And give them a heads up that i didn't forget the week's update? i'd appreciate it. i...didn't get as much done with episode 007 yesterday as i'd wanted. i could blame it on debugging, but that would only be partially true. i got wrapped up with reading through Worm (https://parahumans.wordpress.com/) again, now that Wildbow's started up the sequel. It's a...flawed work, i really think he could use a professional editor, and i don't buy some of the arguments presented (though i'm not sure that they're Wildbow's arguments, per se, and not things that would organically develop in the world he's created, but that's neither here nor there); but i still find it to be fairly engrossing reading. But, it is long as heck. i should be able to get 007 wrapped by this evening, which keeps me on schedule, but i don't know if that will leave me time to do an LBsP; though i should have my Monday morning open for that, since i don't have a morning shift this time. | 2018-01-11 23:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| My highlight of the week! | 2018-01-13 16:30:00 Author: mdkd99  Posts: 1172 |
| Hokee dokee, very groggy Tuesday Takeaway! Little Girl - abood-12 Weird thing, but this morning, i had no trouble with nailing the hitboxes on the mice...and to compensate for that improvement in skill, i simply could not keep myself from running or falling on to the spikes. Maybe i can only be decent at one thing at any given time. At any rate...it's a fun level for what it is, but i'm not entirely sure it deserves to be Level of the Week. It does everything it's trying to do well, but in the end, it is a fairly slight old school platformer. A Walk Amongst the Flames - The_Snooth i think i had more fun with this one this time around. It's not big or super complex, but that's ok considering it keeps a nice, smooth pace throughout the level. The attract-o-gel bit is the real problem, it's just so easy to run right off the edge of the platform, even when you know what's supposed to happen there. i think i've used attract-o-gel all of once in creating, so i can't remember, but, can you set it to have a stronger attraction, i wonder? 9 - GUBSGUBS Apparently all of my skill went right out the window at this point, but i could not keep myself from getting fire-bounced to death this go around. The cameras on the second set of fire hazards really didn't help. 4-way Platformer - Archetypervb Conceptually, making a level built around all of the characters is pretty neat, especially since archetyperb has given them all a fair amount to do. In practice, though, it's all a little too much for me. It's hard to justify spending a half-hour in a level, unless it is just out-of-this-world good. This one's not bad, i'd even go so far as to say it is, in fact, good; just not good enough for that kind of time investment. Milkshake Refinery - Twinz401 Correct me if i'm wrong, but the Tan Shoelaces song used to play through the entire level...didn't it? Like i have this really strong memory of wanting to mute the game well before the end. Playing this morning, it only came on at the very end of the level, and it really weirded me out. i suppose my brain could be going sideways on me...that is always a possibility. At the very least the level itself was just as well-done this time as it was the first, so that's nice. So...yeah...that's the that. Thanks as always for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Did i say i wasn't working early yesterday? Because what i really meant was i was completely working early yesterday. Good thing i checked my shift the night before. So, Monday, no production got done. There was a little shindig last night that...may have gotten a little out of hand, so the evening was a wash for getting things done. Woke up this morning paying for the drinking last night, so...yeah... Well, that's the whole reason for keeping a week ahead i suppose. Gah...feels like my brain is trying to crawl out my eyesocket. Oh...and we forgot to buy soap, so i can't even get a wake-up shower until the store opens. Blarg... | 2018-01-15 23:39:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Yusss...is Friday! Time for another R15F Rodeo! Episode 008 - Geist (https://youtu.be/6bDE4CB3i3g) This week we're having a look at: Anpanman: Baikin Castle - iwi-iwi (https://lbp.me/v/q2hrg01) Moth Garden - VilletteVillain (https://lbp.me/v/q2jxv1k) Hootler's Revenge - EmperorGeno (https://lbp.me/v/q2j5-r2) Return of Mr Sandman - EnochRoot (https://lbp.me/v/q29c053) Cape Carnival - Robots_Shadows (https://lbp.me/v/q2g74y1) Pretty fun set this time around. Of course Cape Carnival got nabbed for Level of the Day, but at least the recording got done before. Hope you find something you enjoy. Thanks for the support and feedback, as always, and have a great day! Behind the Scenes Stuffs Not too much that didn't get mentioned in the LBsP post. Honeybunny's going to be super busy today, so i should be able to get episode 008 wrapped up (the recordings at the very least, if not the PiPs). Might get an LBsP in as well, but that could be pushing it a bit. | 2018-01-18 23:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Good episode, thanks for having another level I made in your series and one I helped create as well. Moth Garden was a remake of an older level that I wanted to work better in multiplayer, made in about one day. I can definitely see people finding the text in the level being overly quirky or bizarre. Regarding Robots_Shadows I met him through the dive-in feature and he showed me a level he was working on that looked good so I decided to help him with it. Hopefully he'll learn a few things from me and show them to someone else. | 2018-01-19 14:04:00 Author: MofoSuperVillain  Posts: 88 |
| Good episode, thanks for having another level I made in your series and one I helped create as well. Moth Garden was a remake of an older level that I wanted to work better in multiplayer, made in about one day. I can definitely see people finding the text in the level being overly quirky or bizarre. Regarding Robots_Shadows I met him through the dive-in feature and he showed me a level he was working on that looked good so I decided to help him with it. Hopefully he'll learn a few things from me and show them to someone else. Oh ho, you're VilletteVillain? i'd no idea. Sneaky, sneaky. Still it was a well put-together level, and i enjoyed the play (though, if i'd have known, i'd probably done it on LBsP). It's been fairly rare for me to find a really good grappling hook level. i knew about the collaboration with Robots_Shadows, they're pretty up front about it on the level select page. | 2018-01-19 22:28:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| I'm not trying to be sneaky, I just make too many levels for one account. | 2018-01-19 23:26:00 Author: MofoSuperVillain Posts: 88 |
| I'm not trying to be sneaky, I just make too many levels for one account. No; no, worries there. You're prolific creating (which is great!), i can see how your moon would get filled up. Sorry if i came off accusing, it's really no issue. | 2018-01-20 00:21:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Good Morning! Tuesday Takeaway time here! Anpanman: Baikin Castle - iwi-iwi Meeeeeh... sometimes it's hard reviewing levels like these. Just from my own (limited) experience level building, i know how much work and effort can go into something, at first blush, looks really simple. i can respect the effort folks put into these things. But then...the end result. This one's blocky and cludgy. It's got some pace to it, but really not all that much. The enemies are only barely just, and the boss fight. Well, yeah. i can't pretend it's a good one, here; but i don't want to rag on it too hard, if you can dig it? Moth Garden - VilletteVillain/MofoSuperVillain i honestly had no idea VV was actually MSV, though in retrospect, i should have noticed some of MSV's hallmarks. It's still an excellent level, and i think a very solid example of good design for the Grappling Hook. A lot of Hook levels, even when the level is mostly designed around its use, it just feels like it's there. There've only been a few i can think of off-hand where the Hook actually felt necessary, and that it added to the level (really, Superk96's Dr Monday's Nemisis (https://lbp.me/v/qz88pmz) from S1 - Episode 004 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JhZjjT6epo&index=5&list=PL79L9Atac1xeogSxX_9dKdEbDBUF_mM1o) and EVERGREEN GRAPPLE by CB7thSun (https://lbp.me/v/q05rqxq) in S1 - Episode 019 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxIxqT588ug&index=20&t=1s&list=PL79L9Atac1xeogSxX_9dKdEbDBUF_mM1o) are the only ones in mind at the moment). This one does a really good job of integrating the Hook Hat gameplay into the level and i appreciate that. i know i ragged a little on our little goth poet, but really, that just might be me. Hootler's Revenge - EmperorGeno Not too much different this morning than i felt the last two or three times i played it. The costumes are nice, and i'm sure the logic was a real pain to put together; but the fight is just. so. sloggy. Return of Mr Sandman - EnochRoot Finally got to look at something from our very own Enoch! Woot! i really liked the presentation, and i could dig on the camera work a little better this go about. The chattery teeth ate one of the kiddos i was trying to save, and that was too bad. i still think the gameplay, being a lot of flat running, made the level drag on a bit, but i'm still happy to have played it. Also, it pushed me to play the original Mr Sandman, and that was pretty cool (and varied). Cape Carnival - Robots_Shadows Really glad to have gotten something from Robots_Shadows on the show, since we had to scrap a look at...i think it was Polluted Boots way back when. That time the recording wasn't clicking, and when i listened to it afterward, it just sounded like i was really tired and unhappy. This one's a really good, really solid Hero Cape level, which like the Grappling Hook, is a bit of a hen's teeth kind of thing. Not surprising that MSV served in an advisory position on this level's creation. Not too many more things to say here, but in the good way, it's just a lot of good fun. So, that's the that for this week. Hope y'all found something fun or interesting (or hopefully fun and interesting). Thanks as always for all the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Episode 008's all done but for the PiPs, so that's cool. Levels are recorded for Episode 009, but i got it in my head to try something new for the hub (just as a one-shot), so that's added a little production time that i couldn't use for LBsP, unfortunately. Doing a pretty good job with it, though (at least as in pace of production). i'm thinking i should be able to get an LBsP up on Thursday, though. Life stuff...i have 8classes a day, and usually 1class time worth of break (so...9 "classes" a day, usually). Yesterday, the school i was sent to for my kind-of-boss's whimsy...4 of my classes we're empty, and i had an extra break. So basically 5hours of nothing to do. Which gave me time to work out how much setting sent to 2non-home schools a week for a month is going to cut my paycheck by somewhere around 300bucks. How we're paid is kind of complicated to explain...but basically, next month's paycheck is going to suck. | 2018-01-22 23:31:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Good Morning! Tuesday Takeaway time here! Anpanman: Baikin Castle - iwi-iwi Meeeeeh... sometimes it's hard reviewing levels like these. Just from my own (limited) experience level building, i know how much work and effort can go into something, at first blush, looks really simple. i can respect the effort folks put into these things. But then...the end result. This one's blocky and cludgy. It's got some pace to it, but really not all that much. The enemies are only barely just, and the boss fight. Well, yeah. i can't pretend it's a good one, here; but i don't want to rag on it too hard, if you can dig it? Iwi-Iwi is actually I6v6I's cousin who was like 8 or 9 years old when he made that level so we were laughing that you actually recorded and reviewed that level. It wasn't supposed to be serious or anything XD | 2018-01-23 01:21:00 Author: ILoveI6v6I  Posts: 44 |
| Iwi-Iwi is actually I6v6I's cousin who was like 8 or 9 years old when he made that level so we were laughing that you actually recorded and reviewed that level. It wasn't supposed to be serious or anything XD That's really cool, and considering the age, the faults are much easier to overlook. i'm always a bit leery of assuming how old a creator might be, i made my first level when i was 29 or 30, and it was a pretty cludgy mess (not up anymore, though my second wasn't much better). Also, you can help clear up a mystery for me: how did iwi-iwi get to use Japanese in the title and level description? i've found with mine, since i'm on the US version now, even if i set my system language to Japanese, it won't give me access to the characters when i input text. Was i right about iwi-iwi using a keyboard? At any rate, glad you enjoyed seeing their level on the show, let them know i had fun with it, yeah? | 2018-01-23 23:13:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Friday's come again, and that means time for another Roughly 15 Fresh! Episode 008 - Hoarfrost (https://youtu.be/vWMU5yU8OjE) This week we're having a look at: Foggy Platformer - Jmat919 (https://lbp.me/v/qy5ywy1) "In the Sky" - MarsWalls (https://lbp.me/v/q1tygfy) Death Escape - Arey100 (https://lbp.me/v/q29tr36) Breath of Fresh Color - larrylewis91 (https://lbp.me/v/qt28j84) Popit - KleineJokeeh (https://lbp.me/v/q0313-r) It's an...interesting set of levels this go around, and i had a fair amount of fun with them. Hopefully one of them will catch your fancy as well...tickle your eye? Wait, i've got those reversed, don't i? Anyhow, thanks as always for all the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i think of all the tertiary characters on the show, Officer Sommerset and Ophidia Bombastus are my favourites. Something about an Avatar of Order dating an Erisian Paladan just tickles me. Also, yes, her given name is Officer; it's a family tradition for the eldest child to get stuck with it. Speaking of names, i realize i've misspelled Lucretia. We'll just say her family uses an alternate spelling. Yeah, let's go with that. Episode 009 is half-wrapped, i would have liked to have gotten more of it done (really for the schedule it should be done but for the PiPs by now). i got wrapped up with the set-up...i think i'll never try the thing i'm doing with it again. i think it worked out about as well as it could have, but i'm not sure i'm super happy with the end result. Eh...we'll see. | 2018-01-25 23:01:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Woot, it's time again for a (kind of late) Tuesday Takeaway! Foggy Platformer - Jmat919 The level is a lot more enjoyable once you know the "trick" of that "trampoline," that's for sure. The focus is very much on gameplay, and that's something generally up my alley (i mean, if i have to choose gameplay over environment, i'll usually swing gameplay. Though having both is best if possible). i liked the enemies with their LBP1 feel, it seems like we don't really see a lot of those any more. There's nothing here that's excessively challenging, except maybe one bit when you're going up a ladder with one of those little gator-beasties firing plasma at you. Fun enough for a diversion. Death Escape - arey100 Maybe this one's a metaphor for life, or something. You'll find the key you need to move on to bigger and better places, but just as you use it, you're eaten by a gribbler. That is how life works, right? i still think it's a bit odd that they went through the trouble of setting up a top-down environment, and then slapped you in a controllinator. i have a little more experience with top-down now, and it is kind of annoying to set up, but thanks to Danx87's nice tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxObxR_x4zg) it's not nearly impossible. "In the Sky" - MarsWalls This level seems to be no longer available. No idea why, really. Breath of Fresh Color - larrylewis91 Not too much to say about this one that i didn't say in the episode. i really liked the environment; the gameplay, while simple, keeps you going at a good pace; the wall-jump bit could be a little better signposted, but it's figure-out-able. i just wish there had been just a bit more to it. Poppit - KleineJokeeh This one really ended up growing on me the more i played it. The visual presentation is passable, but the focus is more on the gameplay, like in Foggy Platformer, so i can forgive it. i think the boost-boot/wall jump area could be a little better labeled, but once you've got the trick of it, it's not quite so bad. i'm not 100% sure the Grappling Hook bit was necessary, maybe it could have been re-fitted to use the Hook Hat, just so you're not working so many power-ups at the same time. Still, all in all, i ended up liking it a fair bit. So...that's the that. Not too much changed since i made the episode, and that's fine with me. Hope you found something you had fun playing. Thanks as always for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Episode 009 is done but for the PiPs. i scrapped and re-recorded the outro again, like with episode 008, but i think it ended up better for it. Levels are recorded for episode 010, but we haven't worked up the hub for it though. That shouldn't be so much of an issue though, since we'Re going for a more regular style hub this go about. We're done with Isaac dailies finally! Yay! So i can build up a backlog, and use my early mornings for something else, which is nice. i might even start walking again, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. | 2018-01-30 02:44:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Sounds fair! I think I'll play Death escape and Popit. They looked very interesting to me. | 2018-01-31 15:39:00 Author: mdkd99 Posts: 1172 |
| Sounds fair! I think I'll play Death escape and Popit. They looked very interesting to me. Yeah, Popit really ended up growing on me. It's not the best by any means, but i had my fun with it. Death Escape...well, i'm glad i got a chance to look at it, it's not a style i get to play all that often (interestingly, i think your Battle With Zombies is the only other top-down i've played in about at year). Still, it could definitely use a deal of work to really make it sing, i think. Thanks for all the support, mdkd! - - - - - - - - - - Ossu! Friday's come around again, and we've got another episode coming up hot and fresh! Episode 009 - Isometric (https://youtu.be/s_5N8Tf45VQ) This week, we're having a look at: DaVinci's Flash Platformer - Dany88games (currently down) Caverna - Thiag0_Neves3000 (https://lbp.me/v/q1pr2th) *Star Travel* - Hana-Momo-Nao (https://lbp.me/v/qtv1zb7) Rainy Tower - justjar95 (https://lbp.me/v/q2ggs23) sand splash! - Daemalous (https://lbp.me/v/q1m8br7) It's an interesting set of levels, though for some reason DaVinci's Flash Platformer isn't up anymore, with luck it'll be back sometime soon. i hope you find something here you might find fun. Thanks as always for the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs So...i made that off-hand remark last week about how it wouldn't be all that hard to kit up a top down sackthing for a level. Of course, i'd never actually done that myself, so i thought, "hey, why not try that out for the hub?" i'm...not going to do that again. The scakthings themselves weren't so hard on the basic level, i just modified Danx87's recipe a little. But getting the animators to work consistently on them was not easy at all. Sometimes their facing would be what i needed, other times they'd suddenly just flop down on their sides (or at least, it looked like that from the perspective of the camera). In the end i just settled for look-at rotators and called it a day. The real issue i had, though, was for some reason building from the top down, and moving the camera to see place things was starting to make me feel a bit sick. Big props to folks who use the style frequently, because i just don't think i could do it. When i was a kid, i used to watch a lot of wrestling. This was back in the heyday of the 80's when most every heel was some kind of really bad ethnic stereotype. i think i started to tap out around the time of the first Iraq War, Sgt. Slaughter turning evil and teaming up with some faux-Iraqi soldiers while we were firing rockets at Baghdad. Even at 12yrs old, that felt pretty wrong. i suppose "heel-in-the-ring, nice-guy-outside" is probably a cliche, but i have to imagine Wolfram and Tommy Tungsten are pretty decent people. i bet they visit hospitals to cheer up sick kids. i've been feeling, i don't know, down-ish recently. Given which, getting the Neir Automata soundtrack was probably not my best decision, timing-wise. It's like pure, concentrated melancholy. Still, it's so good. | 2018-02-01 23:02:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway Time! DaVinci's Flash Platformer - Dany88games Another one that's been abruptly pulled. Still not up as of yet. Caverna - Thiag0_Neves3000 Not much changed this go about, though the grabble ground seemed to stand out a little be more this time. It didn't really cause any trouble, but it was a touch annoying. Still found myself charmed by the simple, old-school feel to the level. Never quite figured out what the thing with the wall jump section was, but i'm certain it was some kind of given ability. Was pretty awkward, though. *Star Travel* - Hanna-momo-nao Eeeeh... as a short, cool-down level it's fine, but it's pretty thin; and the presentation is on the cludgy side. It's not bad, it certainly has its charm. That being said, it's not the best to come out of the Jside. Then again, it's not the worst. That would be hello.... Rainy Tower - justjar95 This one just hit all of my "like me, like me!" buttons so hard. Simple, straightforward cardboard presentation that makes clear expected gameplay? Check. Interactive mechanical elements? Check. Challenging, but also fair? Check. If a level's going for gameplay over environment, this is an almost textbook example in my book. For some reason the bounce pad section i pointed out in the episode as being really hard, this time i cleared it in one go. Now, the cannon bit before that? Probably a billion lives spent there. sand splash! - Daemalous We've all made a level like this one, whether it got published or not. i should have just put an overlay over this section of the episode saying "This will be your first level. Get it out of the way, and learn what doesn't really work." So, that's the that. Hope you found something you wanted to play in this set. If you've only got the time for one, i'd give it to Rainy Tower myself. Behind the Curtains Stuffs Yes, yes, i slept in this morning. Again. Freaking Tuedays. It doesn't much help that i don't get home until 11ish on Mondays nowadays. So...one of the levels i'll be looking at...umm...in this Friday's episode (having two on the dock can make it difficult to remember which levels are in which, especially when you're looking at last week's episode's levels at the same time) got picked up for LotD. It's kind of teeth-gnashing. Especially because, *Spoilers* it's not like, particularly great? At some point shortly after LBP1's release, i completely forgot that reviews/comments on my levels might be an actual thing. So, i just stopped looking at them. Oops. There are like 9yrs worth of comments that i really would have been better up following up on at the time. Kind of bummed that i missed that opportunity. | 2018-02-06 02:31:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Hahaha, thanks again waffleking23, I've thrown away my calendars, I don't need them anymore! I just wait for your newest edition to know that its Tuesday again! Many greetings, Jürgen^^ | 2018-02-06 13:10:00 Author: CuriousSack Posts: 3981 |
| Thanks Jurgen! We do our best, despite waking up late sometimes. And we're live again with another Roughly 15 Fresh! Episode 010 - Jukebox (https://youtu.be/i_Sh3oLEPRM) This week we're looking at: Just another platformer - masseyf (https://lbp.me/v/qy5q78f) SASUKE Ninja Platformer - simora2873 (https://lbp.me/v/q2mbshj) Forgotten - DrJones20 (https://lbp.me/v/qy2yf7t) LBP PLATFORMERS II: RETRO - taytoez (https://lbp.me/v/q0e7x6t) Twisted Cave Of Water - TurboToilet (https://lbp.me/v/q0cq1q2) There's an interesting mix of levels here, and hopefully you'll find something that looks fun to you. Thanks as always for the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuff The story in the intro is only slightly different from what actually happened in reality. i'm not nearly so bitter about it, especially not 20 years later. Still, it is amusing how these things work out. i'm a little bit salty about SASUKE getting picked up as LotD, mainly because i didn't see it coming i guess (i'm expecting one of the levels for next week's show getting picked, to be honest). i do wonder about picking something so inaccessible to present to the community as the best of the day, but, well, i'm not the person making these decisions. i've got the apartment to myself for the next week, i could use the time to get a lot of stuff done, or to finish up some games that've been languishing, or travel or something. Probably i'll just make an improbably and unnecessarily large Isaac backlog. i've just been in that kind of mood. | 2018-02-08 23:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Here we are again for a Tuesday Takeaway! Just another platformer - masseyf Well, it's not what it says on the tin. i mean, it is a platformer, and some of the platforming is a bit tricky; but it's really more of a puzzler. Puzzler? Maybe. There's a lot of "how do i get this bit to move there so i can progress," so i think we can go with puzzler. My feelings didn't really change much from the video, the backtracking gets old quick, and the end, i was wondering if the juice was really worth the squeeze. i would say no, personally. SASUKE Ninja Platformer Again, this one was in the same spot as i felt when i was recording. Visually, it's really quite keen; and it's certainly a hard level, which can be nice. But the gap between death and getting to take another stab at the run really starts to add up after awhile. Apparently there's an American Ninja Challenge show or something? Someone in the reviews mentioned that. i guess they just took the old American Gladiator sets and reused them, which i suppose goes to show that networks are pretty lazy. Forgotten - DrJones20 Meh...there's just not much going on with this one. It starts off promisingly enough, but then we hit the invisible floor section, and then it's done. As a vehicle for listening to a nice music track, it's fine. LBP PLATFORMER II: RETRO - taytoez Nice little platformer, short, but visually packed enough to make it fun to go through. i appreciate that they had an option to change music, though i wonder why they didn't have a default song playing. You can do the whole level without any if you skip that bit at the beginning. i've been thinking a little bit more about music in levels, 'cause i play around with it for the show. i like the interactive music boxes more, i think, because you can squeeze a lot more out of a single song. Twisted Cave of Water - TurboToilet It's...well...it's a pretty straight-forward cave environment. Doesn't do much wrong, but...once you've seen a dozen, you've seen them all. i don't know what TT was meaning when they said they were trying more unorthodox gameplay, it was all pretty orthodox to me. Maybe i've been playing too many levels. Interesting point, but i got a comment on YouTube directing me to another of TT's levels; but also mentioned they'd needed to signpost the level because people couldn't figure out how to finish the level without it. i...i...i've probably definitely been playing too many levels. So...that's the that. It was a little on the meh side of things this go around, unfortunately. Nothing not worth giving at least a go at, but nothing that just screamed "play me" i suppose. Thanks as always for all the support, and i hope y'all have a fine day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Got a weird glitch last night, putting together the hub, where all the timers and counters just appeared as the frame, so you couldn't see if they were really triggering or not. Seems to have disappeared this morning, though, so that's a good thing. i am listening to Bill Hicks, and that is also a good thing. | 2018-02-12 22:43:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Got another one coming up for all ya katz and katzenjammers! Episode 011 - Kilowatt (https://youtu.be/IIX_MsqOox8) This week we'll be having a look at: Snow Dream - papabobo777 (https://lbp.me/v/qwh2tq6) Sweet winter dream - Iced_Chai2010 (https://lbp.me/v/q2p1xnh) The Tower of Silence - alexsiro (https://lbp.me/v/qy6h7pr) Electro Shock - kissmyself (https://lbp.me/v/qvken0k) colo colo ball - Lorococo (https://lbp.me/v/q2ncvkr) It's an odd, fun set; no real clunkers in the lot. There ought to be something there that catches your eye. At least i hope there is. Thanks for all the feedback and support. Have a great day now, yeah? Behind the Curtains Stuffs Come on! Really, now. See...i'd figured Sweet winter dream was going to get the LotD nod, and i'd made my peace with that. Wasn't going to be salty about it, 'cause the downside of starting to put together an episode one to two weeks before it'll be published is that sometimes they'll just take off in the interim; and Sweet winter dream went bang just about when i recorded it. So...okay. Then i wake up this morning and Tower of Silence has got the LotD pick...you know, as it does, after setting there for about 2years at a couple hundred plays. *slow clap* Well played, Sumo ComMan, well played. Look...i know it's just ego, but...fine, whatever. *Quietly seethes* We got Pam back this episode, and finally had Stella on, and that was fun. Back in December, i'd had the idea of doing an LBsP story episode, with Pam, Stella, and Mei shopping for a wedding dress on one side, and Frank, Me, and Naoki picking out suits on the other. The joke was going to be us guys talking about marriage stuff, and the gals talking about what brand of monofilament wire would be best if you need to garrote your way through an enemy base. Yes, yes, i know it would've been as cliche as heck, but it would have also fit the characters. Also, it would have amused me, which is the important thing. Never did get around to doing that though. Lack of time plus a bit of laziness. We might have an LBsP tutorial episode today, but i'm not sure (a) if it's actually necessary, and (b) how i want to set it up. Also (c), if i'll actually have time for it today. Thinking of publishing a gallery level for some of the stuff that we've looked at so far in the show. It would require me to go and clearly label all the logic bits i've used, and set up a guide, and all that...so...i dunno...maybe? | 2018-02-15 23:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu, Tuesday Takeaway time, whee! Snow Dream - papabobo777 This one stayed basically what it was, a straightforward, competently put-together Oddsock platformer. i realize that sounds like a backhanded complement but, i don't really have a large sample size to work from. Also, sometimes that's all you really need. Do wish the updraft in that moving platform area was a bit more obvious, not knowing it's there makes that bit really awkward. Sweet Winter Dream - Iced_Chai2010 i think this may be one of the few times a creator has taken some of my advice and made changes in their level, which felt nice. Things were a little more clearly presented, and they took out the sharks in that one bit which was probably for the best, those hit boxes were really weird. One thing i noticed, but forgot to mention in the video was, for all their shout-outs to LBP 1 and 2, there isn't anything for LBP3, which i found amusing and fitting. As much as i love LBP3 as a creation tool, and for the community levels it's brought us, it's frankly almost soulless in its lack of character. The Tower of Silence - alexsiro i don't think i could gush much more about this one than i did in the episode. It just hits so many of my good buttons. i am actually pleased it got the LotD (It's one of the few crossover picks that i actually agree with, not to put on airs). Electro Shock - kissmyself You've got to have a fair level of stones to pick a screen name like that and rock it like, whatevs. Good on you kissmyself. This is another one that hits a lot of my "play me" buttons. Nice and clear what you're supposed to do, so all the challenge is in the "can you do it?" i...was not able to do it this morning. The brain was not communicating with the fingers very well. colo colo ball - Lorococo i'm glad i played this one, but at the same time, i can'T really say it's in my wheelhouse. Probably would have been better to have on LBsP, but the mini-game aspect didn't click until i was actually set to record, and by then i was committed to the set list. Still wonder how this one works with more than one player. i can imagine each player getting control of one platform, but that still leaves an odd player out if you've got a part of four. So, that's the that. All in all not a bad set. Even the "worst" of the lot had a lot of charm, and is worth a good look at. Hopefully something here stood out for you and gave you a good time. Thanks as always for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Harumph...ok, so...episode 012 is wrapped but for the PiPs, so we're good there. Got the hub half set-up for episode 013, and half-built for episode 014 (doing another little field trip, so i figured i'd do some of the set-up early). So all that's mostly good. The levels for 013 are recorded, but...there was a lot of lag/load during, and that leaves me with a little bit of a quandry. On the one hand, is it fair to keep them? All the loading doesn't really show them at their best. On the other it may not be the fault of the levels, so it's not exactly fair to cut them either. Speaking of system issues. My profile's corrupted about 6or 7 times since Friday. This after not having it come up but maybe once or twice in the year prior. i'm not sure what to make of that, except to be nervous. i've got the profile backed up, but...if there's something already wrong with the profile...well... Ooh...i know maybe i can delete my profile and try again. Sorry...that advice always rubs me kind of wrong. | 2018-02-19 22:28:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Coming back around again! Episode 012 - Lunacy (https://youtu.be/T0qmT_KK3Rk) This week we're having a look at: Tower of Ice - SKUBSTER23 (https://lbp.me/v/q2ksvve) Shock Therapy - rainbowhillbilly (https://lbp.me/v/qx3q5dg) 2018 Platform - Miwa0612 (https://lbp.me/v/q2p9018) Super cardboard adventures - selivura (https://lbp.me/v/q2nm2f2) Future City speedrun - badpigie (https://lbp.me/v/q2dz3zq) A pretty solid set of levels this go about. Future City speedrun got picked up for LotD, because of course it did. But still, there's a fair amount of fun here; hopefully there's a couple you'll want to give a go at. As always, thanks for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i fell asleep yesterday at 4in the afternoon. It was just like, my brain was, "ok, we're going to sleep now," and my body said "ok, sure." Neither of them asked me about it. Really, i find that personally loathsome. And, of course, it meant i woke up at 2.30am. i did get episode 013 wrapped (but for the PiPs). Should put a few more hours into the 014 hub, since that needs to get done this week. Oh! There's a mistake in the title card for today's episode, but i won't tell you what it is. | 2018-02-23 02:31:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway Time! Tower of Ice - SKUBSTER23 Still not up, and looking pretty shady. At least they've not changed their profile/planet like 6times since i played it, like that last guy did. Shock Therapy - rainbowhillbilly Had a fair amount of fun this time around, though some of that was knowing where some of the break points are. i didn't got through the follow-up level this go, not enough time for it really, though i do remember that one being more involved and a little more fun than part one. One little bit of oddity here, the actual title has "~"s and upside-down question marks in it. i don't know how to input those in-game. 2018 Platform - Miwa0612 This one didn't change too much for me this time, which is fine, because it means i still quite like it. i think i downplayed the gameplay a bit in the video, but really that's an issue of comparison. What's on display is certainly solid enough, none of it is particularly broken or annoying, and it keeps you moving quick enough things don't get boring, but slow enough that you can notice how nice things look. Super cardboard adventures - selivura This one...it's not bad, really, but it suffers for being in this particular set-list. Which i realize is a bit unfair, but i am only human. It's solid for what it is, and focusing purely on the gameplay, it keeps you moving along decently enough. Like i mentioned in the video, the music choices are a little bit wonky, especially the first one (why? why these 50's songs?). Also, why Oddsock? Future City speedrun - badpigie This is another one that didn't shift all that much. The bits i loved in the video i still loved, the annoying bits were still annoying (i do think just changing the Bendy Rail material to something that gives off light would do wonders). Taking a look at those Cherry trees and...i've seen them before in other community levels, but i can't remember where they come from. They look like they should be from the move pack, they match the natural aesthetic of the other decorations, but i don't seem to have them in my poppit. Unless they're shrunk-down and slapped-together cherry blossom twigs from The Islands? Anyhow, that's the that. It was a fairly solid on set of levels this go about, even the just alright levels ended up being pretty fun. Hope you give them a play and find something that clicks for you. Have a great day and thanks for all the support! Behind the Scenes Stuffs Like i mentioned on DreamsVerse, i've been trying to make up for really weird sleeping hours recently, which means i've been focused on building up the Isaac backlog (i like to be about 4episodes ahead with a week's worth being best if possible). i have been putting some time into the Hub for next week, which is going in fits and starts. The character-side of things is pretty well sewn up, the actual hub itself...there were probably a dozen ways i could have gotten the effect i was going for, one of which i've actually used in a past episode to pretty solid effect...so why i decided this particular way this time, i have no idea. Now i'm invested, though...so let's slam our head against this wall. | 2018-02-26 22:11:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Guten Morgen! The time comes around again! Episode 013 - Mandrake (https://youtu.be/MQS9kZ-BM4w) This week we're having a look at: Construction at Needlepoint - bcandfina (https://lbp.me/v/qvm7vxm) Frantic Fire Station - Crystal_Craft_HD (https://lbp.me/v/q2-yj58) The Gardens - kenbran (https://lbp.me/v/q2q62y5) Cardboard World - Erick-The-Human (https://lbp.me/v/qw0s8ps) Bob's Anti-Gravity Castle 6 - the_pavs (https://lbp.me/v/q2q1m4r) This was a really frustrating set to record, actually. The levels themselves were pretty decent, but i ran into so much lag/load it wasn't even funny. It was a bit more forgiving the second/third times around, so that may have been on my end; except for one level that has its own particular issue. Anyhow, i hope there's something here that catches your eye, and you have fun playing. Thanks as always for all the feedback and support, and i hope y'all have a fine day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Someone on YouTube had asked me to mute the sound in the PiPs because having two layered music tracks was particularly aggravating. My own hearing has never been all that great, so i hadn't noticed; but it seemed a fair enough request, and i said, "sure, no biggie." Aaannnd...completely forgot about doing so until waking up this morning (this, of course, after getting everything all uploaded and scheduled and whatwhat). This is why i get up around 5a every morning. Blitzed on production yesterday, got myself set as fair as Isaac, and finished the set-up for the hub for the outro of Ep. 014; have most of the day to myself today, so getting the whole of it wrapped is do-able. i'd like to get an episode of LBsP in as well, but i'm not making any promises. | 2018-03-01 23:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| My left ear isn't that good too. Though every time when you show the level in the hub I can hear the soundtrack of the level and the soundtrack of the hub. Maybe it's because I'm a headphones user, but yeah, I notice it, but it's not too annoying. Huh, many cardboard levels are coming up, huh?  | 2018-03-03 03:34:00 Author: mdkd99 Posts: 1172 |
| Does seem that we're in another Cardboard stretch, doesn't it? They seem to come and go. i don't think we have any coming up next (or next-next?) week...but it's all a little fuzzy right at the moment. Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway time! Construction at Needlepoint - bcandfina To be honest, i didn't go through this level this morning. Not risking a game crash (and the attendant possibility of profile corruption). This is a bit of a shame, because i really liked what i saw of the level. It's got a nice enough aesthetic, even though i wasn't thrilled with the teleportation aspect of it. Frantic Fire Station! - Crystal_Craft_HD Meh...this one was basically meh. It's not bad, exactly, but it doesn't really do all that much, either. Figured out (accidentally) that you can get yourself killed with the Power-up, if you're standing too close to whatever you're shooting at. i completely forgot the camera shake halfway through the level when i did the outro, even though i called it out during the level recording itself. The Gardens - kenbran i liked the visual presentation of this one, but it's pretty clear at this point that i'm a sucker for things that look like they're cobbled together and set in the real world, like a kid's play-set. Falls apart when you get to the gameplay, though. The elastic bridge bits were pretty wonky, particularly the one directly following the red slide. Don't know what was up with the race gate, but we've seen that one before (amusingly in Shake, Shake, Shake, which got picked up as a LotD recently). It's that angled bounce pad bit that really grinds the level to a halt. Maybe it's just me, but i could not get the right angle just to get past that without 15 or 16 deaths. Cardboard World - Erick_The_Human Yeeeeaaah....this was, eh...what do you say about it? It's a level, maybe an early level. Certainly has a lot of those hallmarks. Big, floating platforms. Unconnected play elements. Play elements that are under-utilized, or unnecessary. Bob's Anti-Gravity Castle 6 - the_pavs the_pavs actually got inn touch with me about this one, apparently there's a trick where you pull in the line as soon as you grapple something to get more momentum. This was apparently well-known at some point (and to be honest may well still be). i had no idea, and even after getting the head's up, wasn't really able to consistently pull it off, but at least the level feels well more fair this go about. They did put in an extra grappling hook, though i'm not sure why they put it up near the switch, as opposed to in front of the Checkpoint. They also put a hint up at the beginning of the level, which was a nice touch. i look forward to seeing what the_pavs comes out with next. So, that's the that. Some good, some meh, and one weird question-mark disappointment. Hopefully there's something that caught your eye, and that you found fun. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Ahh...i don't even know where to start. i spent all Friday trying to record an outro to episode 014 that i actually liked. This should have been a sign that i really needed to be doing about anything else with my time at that moment. i finally got something that, if push comes to shove, i can use; but it feels more like the least bad, rather that best of the lot. On the positive side, the hub/intro for 015 is mostly done. We're half-way through the dialogue, at least. i did notice that sackbot movement has been way easier for me lately. It's normal, i know, for motivation to wax and wane. That being said, i've been feeling increasingly burnt-out and flaky recently. Not really about the series(es), this is more outside stuff bleeding in. Maybe my mind is grinding out the last of the Winter-hibernation feeling, since Spring is pretty clearly on the way here. Not that we ever really got a Winter, mind you. Maybe that's it, the constant feeling that things are almost-changing, but they never really do; so i fall into this increasingly stressful holding pattern. i don't know. Something, something, whatever. People we're chattering about Annihilation over on RPG.net, so i picked up The Southern Reach trilogy for my Kindle. i think it's the first completely new thing i've read in a long time (as opposed to new things from authors i already follow). Just finished reading it last night, and it was really good. House of Leaves meets The Colour Out of Space? The King in Yellow via True Detective? Backwoods Majestic-12? Something like that. i quite liked it, at least. It's weird and...intimate. Worth a look, yeah. | 2018-03-05 22:22:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! It's Friday (already?!) so that means we're back again! Episode 014 - Nematode (https://youtu.be/vQSl0ZcqYjU) This week we're having a look at: Hookshot Towers - RabidJellyfish (https://lbp.me/v/qt6986x) ~Nature~ - dodaddo304 (https://lbp.me/v/q2rqepq) Unnamed Level - ikamo79 (https://lbp.me/v/qz9b4fc) Sweet Skills - CH7MY (https://lbp.me/v/q2rwrb0) The Lost Ruins - MrSackboy32 (https://lbp.me/v/q2k68ht) It's an...interesting mix of levels this time. There was only one i couldn't really get behind, which was what was giving me the stress when i was putting the outro together (there's also one where i completely screw up during the recording, but that one's all on me). Still i had a good time with them, and i hope you give them a try and have a good time with them as well. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs The hub for this week's level was such a pain in the rump. It is actually moving in the Intro section, and setting that up so that the characters and elements were moving with it was interesting to pull off (of course, i could have used any number of other, easier, methods to get the same effect, but lets not talk about that, yes?). Stayed up maybe later than i ought to have last night, but i got episode 015 wrapped and completely in the bag (PiPs and all), so my slate is completely clear. It did mean, also, that i didn't get a LBsP out, but hopefully not having PiPs and the like hanging over my head on a Thursday, will make that a bit easier in the future. Also, i'll have the apartment to myself this evening, so i may be able to get one out tonight. It's weird to read (or see, or play) something that has some element that you've come up with yourself. Parallel evolution at work, i suppose, but it's a bit disconcerting. i'm kind of, slowly, getting out of last week's funk, which is really nice. i think the cherry blossoms will be blooming the end of next week or so...which coincides nicely with payday, so that's cool. | 2018-03-08 23:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Hahaha, thanks again! I always wanted to ask you how you choose the names of your episodes? Nematode! Hahaha, I never would have come to such a name! http://parazitoved.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/kruglye-chervi-03.jpg Have a fine weekend and many greetings, Jürgen^^ | 2018-03-09 07:25:00 Author: CuriousSack Posts: 3981 |
| Danke Jurgen! i don't know where the titles come from, but i needed an "N," so...Nematode. So...is it Tuesday Takeaway time? i think it may be. Hookshot Towers - RabidJellyfish i got fairly solid with the movement in this level this go around. Still not good enough to top the scoreboard, but i did end up getting a touch over 8,000pts with just one death. It can be fairly tricky to figure how far the hookshot will fire, so that's an issue; but that's something you can spend a bit of time before the race to figure out. Actually that's a nice point i'd like to point out. Not dumping the player directly in the race, but giving them a bit of space before-hand to work out the mechanics of the level. That was nice. ~Nature~ - dodaddo304 There's not really much to say about this one. To be honest, you could probably play the level front-to-back before i could finish writing out the review for it. It's cute, has a nice enough look, and there's just a soupcon of gameplay in there to keep it from being a gallery level. It's not not worth a play, and i think if you're feeling wound up by some real frustrating levels it might be a nice antidote. Unnamed Level - ikamo79 My hand still hurts, and makes typing a little rough. Really, semi-auto fire would have been so appreciated, either that or making the enemies slightly less beefy. Sweet Skills - CH7MY Yeaaah...this was the one that was making my outro so difficult to record. To be honest i was pretty salty with this level, and it was hard to tell how much of that was bleeding into my take on the level. i think it's the loss of progress that really ramps up the frustration in this one. Having a fairly long segment, with multiple points of failure in it...i don't know, it is marketed as HARD, CH7MY's up-front about that; but i think even really solid platform players are going to find the juice not worth the squeeze. None of this is helped by the fact that the level is just kind of ugly in presentation. The music was good, at least. The Lost Ruins - MrSackbow32 We've done a fair number of ruins/temples levels over the course of the series; like the cardboard ones, they seem to come and go in waves. This is one of the nicer ones i've gone through, i think. The presentation is solid on, it's just long enough to feel weighty, without wearing out its welcome, and just difficult enough to be a challenge if you're not paying attention. i can see the pace being a little slow for folks, seeing as how the obstacles are very deliberately timed; but aside from that, and the rather uninspired musical choice. there's really not much to complain about with this one. So...yeah, not a bad set of levels this go about. Hopefully there was something in there that clicked with you. Thanks, as always, for the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs In My Dream's got picked up for LotD today, and that was nice (especially since, for once, it was after i had a feature on it). It really is a fun little level, and i hope rud-54 keeps creating, and gets the love they deserve. Oddly, there was another Dream-esque level that got picked yesterday...Dreamscape, or something like that. We looked at it way back in...hold on, i've got my notes right here. Here it is, Dreamscape by Madstones97. We looked at it back in Season One Episode 008. Geeze, that's well in the back and back, isn't it? Anyway, i was a little "huh?" about that one. i don't remember it being particularly stand out in any way. It was just one of those levels that was kind of there. In fact, the only thing i remember strongly about it was that the environment was pretty blah. i wonder why it got the nod (and why now, since it was published two years ago). Maybe StevenI mis-clicked? Level recordings and most of the hub set-up for episode 016 are done, which is always nice. We saw a bit of the cutting room floor in the last LBsP. i generally avoid doing that; i figure, if i've picked a couple of not great levels for the set-list, then i'm just stuck with them. i never really wanted to make a "curated" show, because, well, if you're doing that, why not just cut the "first impressions" aspect of it and make a "best of the week" -type show. That being said, i figured folks might not want another "watch waffleking23 die a million times and make no progress" level so soon after Sweet Skills. i've been spending my "saved" production time on Tearaway and Splatoon2 recently. Well, i'll play Splatoon2 just about any time i've got a decent wi-fi connection (and even when not, as i'm wrapping up the hero-level weapon unlocks at the moment). They've got some DLC coming up this summer that looks nice. Tearaway, though...it'd been languishing half-finished on my shelf for...for a long time now really. So, something pushed me to wrap it up finally. i suppose it's not saying much to say it's a great game. MM nailed the visual presentation and charm, and i really enjoyed interacting with the character, my environment, and i guess myself. That being said, i think story-wise, they went to the "oh, here's the ending, no, wait, there's still more story to tell"-well a few times too often. If you're going to build to a climax, commit to it, because otherwise, i just feel a little drained by the actual end. Though maybe that's just me. | 2018-03-13 00:24:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Tick tock, tick tock. It's R15F o'Clock! Episode 015 - Ossify (https://youtu.be/MCwa-WY_fLE) This week we're having a look at: science city - kcon1111 (https://lbp.me/v/q19-js6) Sackbox in the cardboard - Shaka_Warriah (https://lbp.me/v/q2snbhk) THE SHIPYARD - PS-DB (https://lbp.me/v/qvr7prd) Escape from abandond mine - KukalkaPolska44 (https://lbp.me/v/q0mxqzc) Return to DaVinci's Hideout - firedragon5633 (https://lbp.me/v/q1tdy-r) It's an interesting mix this go about, and nothing that really burnt my toast, which is always kind of nice. Sackbox in the Cardboard picked up a lot of heat after we did the recording, but there's not too much to be done for that. Hopefully you'll find something that strikes your fancy and you can have a good time playing. As always, thanks for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i finally got to see Black Panther yesterday (though, to be slightly fair, it did only come out here two weeks ago). Once again, Marvel's managed their neat trick of taking a character i could give less than two figs about, and making them compelling; and wrapping said character in a rocking story. Writing that i was thinking of Ant Man and Guardians of the Galaxy, but thinking a little more on it, aside from Spiderman, there isn't a single major MCU character that i cared at all about when i was reading comics on the regular. And yet i've enjoyed just about every movie that i've seen so far. ****, Marvel, how'd you work that one? Episode 016 is finished but for the PiPs, and i'm going to be working on wrapping those as soon as i get this post done. It was one of those rare soap bubble episodes where everything came together light and easy and without a bit of stress. That's...pretty unusual, truth be told. Not that putting together the episodes is some interminable slog, but usually at least one thing goes sideways. | 2018-03-16 00:05:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ohayo de gozaru! Tuesday Takeaway desuuuu! science city - kcon1111 i think the visual presentation is what really brought this one up for me. The gameplay is solid enough, barring the occasional layer issue; it doesn't do anything radically different with the boost boots, but it gets the job done. The thing with the spotlights is an issue, and that one bit we see in the video can be really difficult to figure out where you need to be going. That's one reason why i don't use narrow beam spotlights in my hubs anymore. At the end of the day, though, i just really dug the frenetic-ness of the animated colour bits we see throughout. Sackbox in the cardboard - Shaka_Warriah This one is just straight up solid. The environment's great, and i love all the little interactions going on. Managed to pick up all the secrets this go about, and that was pretty cool. It's kind of surprising how much got packed in considering how little lag/load we ran into, though i suppose that's an effect of limited number of materials on hand. i also appreciated the little bits of animation they applied to the sackthing, that's not something we see come up all that often. i do wish they'd make the glue hazard bit a touch more clear, though. You can't really see what zones are safe, and you just have to kind of trust the level to land you where you need to be. THE SHIPYARD - ps-db i think i mentioned this in the episode, but THE SHIPYARD really ended up growing on me the more times i went through it, at least in the visual aspect. The gameplay still feels a little slight, though the sackthing section is pretty close to to a solid length. The inside of the wrecked ship is cool, and the underwater bit can actually be a touch tricky. The Oddsock section, though, could definitely stand to be beefed up just a tad. Escape from abandond mine - KukalkaPolska44 Not really all too much to say about this one that i didn't say in the episode. The environment is pretty journeyman, but it does a decently good job hitting the right notes to give you a sense of place. i don't really get what the point of having the boost boots and the floaty fluid together, seeing as they're really just serving the same purpose. Though, in most cases, i don't really see the point of floaty fluid at all. Return to DaVinci's Hideout - firedragon5633 i could probably used up the entire outro nitpicking this level, there are just so many little things that could be polished or changed to make for a better experience. i don't think it would have much purpose, though; as i don't think that was necessarily the point of making the level. One of the reviews for the level mentioned that it was made (as a team effort) in about 3-5hours, and i imagine the fun of team creation was what they were shooting for, and that's cool. Still...i kind of wish they hadn't used triggered tags for their creator credits, they just look kind of tacky (and this is coming from someone who uses them every week for the show). So...that's the that. Really, nothing here i would tell folks to not play, and a couple i would actively encourage y'all to look at. Glad you're finding these episodes fun. Thanks as always for the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtain Stuffs Woke up at 4.30a. Went to bed at 12.30a. This is kind of suck, but at least it gave me time to get the takeaway done. So...work...a day's schedule is 8 40minute 4person classes anyone can reserve a seat in. Or a student can use 3tickets and get a one-on-one lesson. When i'm at my home school, those group classes will pretty reliably fill with a mix of students, and i'll have a handful of one-on-one lessons to balance it out. Part of the takeaway here is, i generally won't see the same student more than 2twice in a given day, and 3times in a given week is a rare max. That's at my home school, which has a pretty large population of students, and is in the middle of an office/commercial area. Since January, i've spent Sunday and Monday working at two...not so busy schools. Empty lessons are common, as are group lessons with only one student in them (which is an issue itself, because we get a per lesson bonus based on how full the lesson is. It's small, but it adds up at the end of the month). What i'm getting at is...i taught the same student, often by himself, eight. freaking. times in the last two days. Five times in one day. i....don't have a lot of patience for extended contact with people who are not my wife, to be honest. i'm just not that social. By the end of last night's shift, my blood pressure was kind of through the roof. About the show, i got levels recorded for episode 017 yesterday. i had a low-/mid-level migraine going on at the time, though; so i'm kind of dreading actually watching the recorded footage. i have almost no memory of doing it is all. i'm hoping that it's good enough to keep, because i'd be pretty salty if i had to scrap a full set-list because my brainmeats were too out of whack. | 2018-03-19 22:40:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Yaargg! Back again for another Roughly 15 Minutes! Episode 016 - Pugnacious (https://youtu.be/2f9JgWxqP9c) This week we're having a look at: Oak Grove 2 - evik123 (https://lbp.me/v/q0z9pch) Retro-O-Rama - Fr-silver-Fr (https://lbp.me/v/q2sr9qs) Future Heaven Cloud - ScooterMix (https://lbp.me/v/qzyd3td) Dark Temple - RicKYyeA (https://lbp.me/v/q2t-9qc) ~Trippy Dreams~ - genie400 (https://lbp.me/v/qvbe4d9) It's a fun set of levels, and i hope you find something that tickles your fancy in there. Retro-O-Rama and Dark Temple both picked up a bunch of heat after recording, so it was nice to be able to get to them before (though i do, selfishly, wish the heat had come after the episode went up). Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, glad you're enjoying this, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i hate the LBP text-censor, even if i understand why it's necessary. Still, malumphage is a cool word that i wanted in the episode, but nope, no dice there. i think this week's episode may be my favourite i've done in a while. i mean, i can't think of an episode i've walked away from disappointed with, but everything just kind of clicked with this one. The set list was really fun, putting things together was nice and smooth. It was really fun to have Frank and Mei back, it's been too long. Though Honoka and Manny have grown on me more than i expected, i'm going to have to think about how to juggle my secondary characters once we wrap up this little Jupiter storyline. Also, the hub really is just a modified version of the Monster Island one from last year (we hung a lampshade on that last week, i think), so it was a lot easier than my usual alternate hubs...though i kind of wish i'd made it one layer deeper, or at least had thought to extend it before recording last week's episode. Can't do it now, 'cause that'd make for a continuity error. Anyway, what i'm getting at is, life loves useless contrast, and no good fortune goes unpaid. Episode 017 has been straight up pulling teeth. Le sigh. This is still pretty early on, but it's never too early to get advice and thoughts. So, for the mid-season special episode, i was kind of thinking about doing a live stream? Maybe for about an hour? It'd only be worthwhile if folks would be able to join in, though, so is there a day and/or hour that's good for you? i've never done any streaming, so i'm going to have to look into exactly how it works from the PS4, but i've got two and a half months to figure it out. | 2018-03-23 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Woop woop, Tuesday Takeaway yo. Oak Grove 2 - evik123 Walked away from this one feeling a little less of it than when i'd done the plays for recording. i still don't think it's a bad level, but i can't say it's really got a lot of reason to replay, and there's not a lot to it that leaves an impression on you. It's kind of representative of the vast mass of levels that are competent, but not particularly great. Retro-O-Rama - Fr-silver-Fr Hadn't realized it when i was doing the show, but apparently this one's Fr-silver-Fr's first platformer, which makes it even more impressive. Managing to hit all the right notes as far as gameplay and pace, while being able to give it the right level of quirky charm is not an easy row to hoe. There are still, probably, a few more bounce pads than really necessary, but that's hardly the worst sin in level design. Future Heaven Cloud - Scootermix Eh...i didn't push through to the scoreboard this time around. Kept on getting hung up on hidden hazards, and that was really killing my enjoyment and motivation. Don't know why some creators insist on doing that, i guess it's over-familiarity with their own level's layout. i'd rather not think it's because they're jerks. So i'm not going to. Think they're jerks, that is. Ran into some new issues where i was jumping into the wrong layer, and then locked out of where i needed to be to progress, so there's that too. Really, the level could use a fair amount of polish. Dark Temple - RicKYyeA This is is still so good. i think it might be my favourite of the jungle temple-archetype levels i've played yet. Not too much to add, really. Oh, it was cool that RicKYeA didn't lean on that one song we always hear in these levels. i think they may use it for one sequence, but there's a mix of appropriate music throughout. Trippy Dreams - genie400 This one's another little bit meh level. They use the dreams conceit to throw together a bunch of random materials/elements into the environment and...like i said in the level, that's never been how i dream. Maybe it is for other folks, i don't know. If you swapped out everything for cardboard, and just went on gameplay alone, there really wouldn't be any hook here at all. That's fine, i suppose; but the environment just isn't compelling enough to support the level on its own. Still, like Oak Grove 2, it's not a bad level; and i don't regret playing it. So that's the that this go around. Hope you gave a few of these a try and found something you liked. Thanks as always for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs So, yesterday someone left a bunch of comments on my profile that were just "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" except much longer. i didn't recognize the creator name off hand, so i went over to their profile. Found i had commented there back in the beginning of February, and i could not remember the context at all, or the comment, since they'd erased it. i thought, "mate, why'd you want to go and do that? Now i've got no idea what's going on here." i know i'm not in the habit of leaving rude or high snark comments on people, though i suppose it can depend on the reading, since they can't know my intent. Then i went back to my profile and deleted their comments (except for one that was "idk"), because 5 blocks of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" are just plain ugly. Does that make me a hypocrite? Got episode 017 wrapped on Saturday, which is good. My niece and nephew were over, so i walked neph through the PiP process, which he was only mildly interested in, because he's getting into that "too-cool-for-school" age. Also, there was a Splatfest going on, so there was no tearing him away from that. Haven't had the chance to do an LBsP in a bit, which kind of sucks. It seems i'm busy with enough little, time-consuming things that i can't bundle up a block of 3hours to just put one together. Also sleep patterns are jank-city still. i worked yawning into the Intro of 017, because i literally could not stop. Like, it was supposed to be just one, and i was worried it'd sound fakey. But after tossing a bunch of takes for yawns in the wrong places, i figured, "The hell with it, just own it and move on." At least that wasn't an issue with the actual level recordings, but they'd been done about four days previous. | 2018-03-26 23:46:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Good Morning, all! We're back again for another round! Episode S2-017 - Quill (https://youtu.be/cwn4UrB5g_8) This week we're taking a look at: Blueprints. - LiGeT_Epic123 (https://lbp.me/v/qt1pkem) Blue Metal - thefire1023 (https://lbp.me/v/qy7e3e2) Dream World - kyzatom (https://lbp.me/v/q2tmrn3) Ship of the Gods - theelliyworkshop (https://lbp.me/v/qyfr9td) >>Cosmoland.<< - Alos94 (https://lbp.me/v/qvt6fet) It's a pretty nice set of levels here, no real clunkers in the set. Hopefully there'll be at least one that you'll have a fun time playing. Thanks as always for all the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i think the real reason most "[earth monster]...IN SPACE!" movies are terrible is because they're later installments in faltering series that generally weren't all that great to begin with (i mean, i love Hellraiser, and Hellraiser 2 deserves more love than it generally gets; but we can all agree 3 was hot garbage). You could, i think, make the argument though, that most of the lead monsters are defined by their explicit interest in the main characters. Which is a stark contrast to the vast indifference of space, making them come off as rather small change in the scheme of things. Trying to get a production schedule where i don't have to spend my entire Thursday in the house; which isn't a bad thing when the weather's crap, but is fairly disappointing now that the weather's getting nice. Haven't gotten all the kinks worked out yet. i did spend a few hours in the park having a mini-cherry blossom viewing (they are seriously nice looking this year). i did, however, not completely finish Episode 018. Too much of the week previous spent getting little things done, so i had to do all the intro set up and recording yesterday. Eh, we're getting there. On that subject, we'll be wrapping up the Jupiter storyline next week, which is nice. It's been fun, but i think i'm ready to get back to the main hub (i don't know why i decided to make the Io hub as dark as i did). Also, if you haven't read Kill Six Billion Demons (https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/kill-six-billion-demons-chapter-1/) yet, you really should. i mean, because it is honestly great; but also because next week's intro will make slightly more sense that way. Spring is here. It'll be here for roughly a week, and then it'll be summer, which is fine by me. | 2018-03-30 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday (but no, really, actually Wednesday) Takeaway time! Blueprints. - LiGeT_epic123 i found the layer issues to be even more grating this time about; i just could not keep any kind of momentum going. The level itself has some neat ideas, and i really enjoyed the visual design. Still, getting thrown out of level by funky layer launchers was...not so fun. Blue Metal - thefire1023 Yeah, this one was still pretty cool a third time around. On the other hand, i did find two or three more spots where you could get yourself tossed out of level, so that's not so good. i somehow managed to miss the quest again this time. It's like i skip a new secret bubble everytime i play. Dream World - kyzatom Yeah, this one's really really short, but i still had a great time with it. It caught that LBP1 feel really well, and i appreciate that. It's got way too many different materials than it needs, but that's fine enough. i just noticed this time around that there were some bonus score bubbles in there, so that was cool. Ship of the Gods - theelliyworkshop i still have no idea how to pronounce this creator's name; that comes up every now and then, and i always feel bad 'cause i prolly mangle the heck out of them when i do my recordings. The mechanical elements here are so well put together, you don't really notice how much of the level is horizontal running. It reminded me of that Water Works level by JazzyLouis that we looked at way back when, but this one was a bit less of a slog to get through. Still, i wish i knew what was going on with that yellow Vellociraptor. >>Cosmoland<<>>The Chaotic Adventure<< - alos94 This one grew on me a bit from when i played last week, but the basic positives and complaints remain. Thinking about it now, it's a bit of a surprise how much alos94 got in here. Maybe this is one of those rare successful dThermo levels. i liked the hand-made music, too. Those score bubbles, though...that little *pin* noise they make when you pop them was getting right on my last nerve. So, that's the that. Not all that much changed from when we put the video together. Hopefully there's something you found to have fun with. Thanks for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i have no idea what happened here. Woke up super-early yesterday, i knew it was Tuesday, and...i just completely forgot to do the Takeaway. i got a bunch of other stuff done, so that was fine, but it wasn't until about 9o'clock last night. So...apparently i've gone and lost brainbits or something. Levels for episode 019 are recorded, and the hub is mostly ready for the intro; just have to put in some animations and get the cameras set and we'll be good to go. i should be able to have that part of the recording wrapped before work, and if things go really smoothly (read here: not at all likely, but still), we might be able to get PiP recordings and the outro done too. At the very least, we're on track to have things in the can tomorrow. The cherry blossoms are almost all off the trees by now, but there's one tree right across from our apartment that's still got a bunch on it. It's a nice thing to have greet you for your morning smoke and coffee. | 2018-04-03 22:45:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Great reviews, I am already looking forward to the next episode. | 2018-04-05 22:05:00 Author: mdkd99 Posts: 1172 |
| Good morning, all! Back again for another shot! Episode 018 - Regicide (https://youtu.be/CJlRvmrNfbE) This week we're having a look at: Dentburg Castle - wafflebert (https://lbp.me/v/q2v8k97) Rural Racer - Yell0wDrag0n749 (https://lbp.me/v/q2rqnz-) Sticker World - rexinator5 (https://lbp.me/v/qw0r5fd) The Ruins of Earth - ImDaH4tman (https://lbp.me/v/q14k0wt) Dracula's Castle - Charlie7101991 (https://lbp.me/v/qvfj9s4) We've got a nice mix of levels this go about; no regrets, and a couple of pretty fun ones. Hopefully one of them will catch your eye. Thanks as always for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i've had the intro for this week's episode in mind since about the beginning of the season; if not exactly how it worked out, then at least the general shape of it. Was nice to finally get it into the show. Every now and then i'll get a scene or a gag that floats up in the back of my brainmeats that takes a good long while to actually use. We actually got episode 019 finished up and posted yesterday, that's a little bit of a shock (especially because i spent all Wednesday morning doing Isaac videos, instead of working on R15F). It did help that there were fairly clear and well-blocked points for PiPs. This, as always, was completely unintentional; just kind of worked out that way. Every now and then, briefly, i kick around the idea of doing scripted outros. Then i think about the number of times i'll forget simple points i want to talk about, let alone trying to remember a 12-13minute block of language, and i figure i'll just stick with the off-the-cuff i've got going now. For some reason, i got it in my mind to use my old LBP2 level for next week's title card. i guess i wanted to use something hanami-y, and i didn't really want to spend a bunch of time putting together something completely new. After an hour or so of bouncing back and forth with the US-store sub-account, trying to pick up whatever DLC i needed (also having to jump into the level on my main account, just to get a list-up of DLC used, since the "find DLC used" button was only showing me the stuff i already owned) i finally got a chance to play around with it. The logic i used in it (particularly the 20second intro) is basically a huge, kludgy mess, but you can see the seeds of what i use in R15F now, so that was kind of neat to see. i remember how long it took me to get working when i made it, i could probably put together the same scene in about 20 minutes now. As a side-effect of being on the US-side PSstore, i ended up picking up the Afterbirth+ DLC for Isaac. i'd ended up holding off on it for some reason i can't remember at the moment...i think it took a pretty long while to come out on the PS4, and i'd only already got it on two systems...well, i guess it's three systems now (at some point i'd put a bunch of money in the wallet for the sub-account yonks back and promptly forgotten). Was nice to clear out one of the more difficult unlocks on my first try, especially since that one's been giving me a ton of trouble on the Switch. i...will play other games again...eventually...someday. | 2018-04-06 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed the episode! | 2018-04-06 08:25:00 Author: mdkd99 Posts: 1172 |
| What fresh hell is this? A Tuesday Takeaway on a Tuesday?! Dentburg Castle - wafflebert Once you strip off the bells and whistles of the visual design, there's not really a lot of meat on the bones of this one. Still and all it was fun enough to revisit. i found myself a little more annoyed by that one checkpoint this go about, and for some reason the swing with the bounce pad got hung up on the bottom of the flaming pillar for a bit, but really, those are minor quibbles. i did figure out what was going on with that box at the end. There's actually a wall blocking that exit that the block in the box raises. Because of the camera angle, and how quickly i grabbed on to that block, i hadn't noticed the wall at all. Rural Racer - Yell0wDrag0n749 Hope y'all jumped on this one when you had the chance, because it's no longer up now. i really wish folks wouldn't do that, but, on the other hand i can see if you need to free up space on your Earth, and you're not particularly pleased with the level. Or even if you're just not particularly pleased with the level. i guess it just gets my goat, is all. Sticker World - rexinator5 i just like these kinds of levels, as far as visual presentation; this one does a better job in some ways than most, as the stickers aren't completely random, and there's some nice composite work and placement. On the other hand, there's a lot of invisible material blocking things off, and that started to get on my nerves a bit this go around. There's got to be a better way to keep players out of areas you don't want them. The cameras are kind of wonky as well, but that stood out on the episode, so nothing new there. The Ruins of Earth - imdah4tman Really liked this one, and while it was my number two in the episode, i think it's my number one now. i think it's because of it being a level in the vein of something we'd see in story mode. That is to say, it's nice and beefy, without being overlong; and it feels like you're kept active throughout. i think we run into a lot of levels that are, while good, a little light on the game side of things, like we see with Dentburg Castle up top. The bounce pads are still a bit of an issue, though; don't know what it is about bounce pads that makes them so touchy, but it does seem to show up every so often, doesn't it. Dracula's Castle - Charlie07101991 For something as blocky and kludgy as this one is, i really kind of like it. i found a couple of new secrets this go about, and that was neat. The option as far as how to end the level was cool too. That's something i wish i would run into more often. The boss fight, though is still...i really don't know what's going on with that. Drac just sits there doing nothing. Could have at least had him moving back and forth, maybe firing a couple of shots at you every now and then? So, that's the that. Would've been nice if Rural Racer had stayed up, but otherwise a good set of levels all around. Hope you found something in there you had a good time with, yeah? Thanks, all of you, for the support and the feed back, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Hey! Still really busy! | 2018-04-09 22:56:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Coming back at you for another shot! Episode 020 - Silkworm (https://youtu.be/g0ldlKGu5lE) This time around we're having a look at: Block world - GlitchMaster7 (https://lbp.me/v/q2jhvry) The wooden place of creativity - trickyomicky (https://lbp.me/v/qzq-pjf) Tena Sedre's City - AyrtonJensen1 (https://lbp.me/v/q2wgbyy) Simple Cardboard Platformer - FRIZZY233 (https://lbp.me/v/qz45r06) strange temple V2 - popntwinbee (https://lbp.me/v/qvrj-tg) It's a pretty fun set of levels, and again, nothing i regretted giving time to. Unfortunately, trickyomicky seems to have pulled their level down, so that's kind of odd, but the others are definitely worth a play or two. Thanks for all the support folks, and, as always, have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Yesterday was a bit of a dead day; just in a bad mood so i spent all day walking. Also sat down to watch Dave Made a Maze. So, not exactly a constructive use of my day off, but at least it was enjoyable. Tried to wake up this morning to watch lsrs's live stream, which for me starts at 2.30am. Well, there was also the option of staying awake until then, but i didn't think that was entirely likely. So, went to bed early, set the alarm for 1am, so's i'd have time to make some coffee and get my brain functional. Aaaand...of course i slept through it. Well played body, well played. [edit to add]The stream got cancelled due to sickness, it seems, so that worked out kind of OK? i guess?[/eta] Have the house to m'self for the next couple of days, so aside from work, i should have more than enough time to get myself back on production schedule for episode 020. A couple of decisions i have to make for it anyway, there's one level i'm a little iffy on including. | 2018-04-13 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| I watched the episode. great work, mate! | 2018-04-13 11:15:00 Author: mdkd99 Posts: 1172 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway is coming back around again! Block World - G1tchmas1er7 Questions of authorship aside, this was a nice little level. Paczek321 mentioned the assets were from one of Danx87's levels, and i thought about that; in the interest of not being overly negative, i'd like to think they followed Danx's tutorial on deco-animations and built the level from that inspiration (i've mentioned before i prefer CompherMC's tutorials, but you can't fault Danx's for not being easy to follow). Still, it could be straight theft, and that would make sad waffleking23 sad. Anyway, the level's short and sweet, and the only quibble i have is that it can be a little tough to judge safe landing points when dealing with the "bounce pads." That and there's no real indication where checkpoints are. The Wooden Place of Creativity - trickyomicky This one's still down, which is a shame, because as kludgy as it was, i kind of liked it. Actually, there's nothing like a storage level on tricky's moon anymore. If i didn't have actual video footage, i'd start to doubt i'd actually ever played it. On the one hand, it's a bit of a shame to present something y'all can't actually play; on the other, it's kind of neat to lock it down in some form as "this was a thing that actually was," kind of like a historical record. Still, in the end, i do wish people would leave their levels up (this being said by someone who's taken down levels from their Earth as well...i do regret it, though). Tena Sedre's City - AyrtonJensen1 Not really a lot more to say about this one that we didn't say in the video. i liked the music well enough, it's got a nice pace to it. It's not really chiptune-style, that was just the first term to leap to mind when i was doing the outro. It does sound like something from NES or SNES era game, though. The race in the second half was just as dull the second time around as the first. Simple Cardboard Platformer - FRIZZY233 Meh...meh! i mean, at least it is a level, but it isn't even near the top ten of cardboard heavy levels we've looked at on the show. Again, there really isn't too much to say about this one that we didn't cover in the episode. i will point out that bragging about the level's shortness at the end was a bit grating to me, though; it's like "Aren't i clever? Har har." strange temple v2 - popntwinbee Didn't actually play all the way through this one this time, just not enough time this morning. i wouldn't say it's overlong, but the limited material palette really allows for a big, chunky level, and popntwinbee runs with that. i liked the implementation of the secrets, though i'm still not sure why they didn't show up as found at the end when we played for the video. i think this one is a really nice example of LBP1 community level design (as opposed to LBP1 story mode level design, which i will maintain was often pants). Someone in the level reviews mentioned a different music track would have been better, but i don't know; i thought it worked out well enough. So, that's the that. For the most part, the levels were decent enough to play, and there wasn't anything aggressively bad. On the other hand, playing through today, there really wasn't anything that knocked my socks off, either. i guess it's just a solid set of middle of the road community levels, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Hope you found something here that worked for you. Thanks as always for the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Got episode 020 wrapped but for the PiPs; should've had those done on Friday, but i lost 3epsiodes of Isaac to a mic screw-up (there was this horrible static going overtop the lot of them), so i had a bit of scramble going on there. i did, at least, get the levels for episode 021 recorded yesterday, so we're not entirely off-schedule. For some reason, i had no idea Atomic Robo (http://www.atomic-robo.com/atomicrobo/v1ch1-cover) existed as a web-comic; my brain had always insisted it was a dead-tree format thing only. So...i'm reading that now, and it's pretty good. | 2018-04-16 23:03:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Guten Morgen! Here we are, back again to do that thing that we do! Episode 020 - Temerity (https://youtu.be/Jd6WUsnxmVI) This week we're puttin' our peepers on: Toy Towers - kLuMB-Z (https://lbp.me/v/qw2h44x) "Temple of Mr. Mad Elephant - Samait_ (https://lbp.me/v/qt56xej) The wedding's underground - SweManTwizt (https://lbp.me/v/q2esk53) Swingin' Treetops - Chunky104 (https://lbp.me/v/q1fv50p) Red Woods - Bug_Boys_2 (https://lbp.me/v/qxde2sp) Pretty solid set of levels this go about, hopefully something in there you'll have a good time with. As always, thanks for all the support, and i hope you're having a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Just the usual two steps forward one step back type of thing, i guess. Working on episode 021, and that should be done without too much difficulty today. Still kicking around this livestream thing for 026+, i guess we could do it late on a Wednesday night (on my end). Late Thursday would put mine up against lsrs, which i'd rather not do (and which i missed again this morning, but then, they had a bad throat again and cancelled, so that's ok). The thinking is doing the recording sometime between May 25th and May 30th which means my window for taking a day off work (if necessary) is getting smaller. If any of you folks have a day or time to suggest, let me know today or tomorrow-ish? i really appreciate it. Finished reading the Atomic Robo series, or at least what they had up on the website. It's really good, so we repeat our recommendation from the other day. A few weeks ago i noticed that the majority of music i own is hard, crunchy, or dark. i've got very little bouncy, chipper music. So i picked up the Splatoon2 soundtrack. i swear it's basically pure sugar for the ears. i like it well enough though, not something i need to listen to all the time, but nice to have it there when needed. | 2018-04-20 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| I'm sure that there will be something in there, which I will enjoy! Thank you so much and have a fine weekend, many greetings, Jürgen^^ | 2018-04-20 07:06:00 Author: CuriousSack Posts: 3981 |
| Thanks right back at you Jurgen, hope you had a fine weekend yourself. Righty-o floks, back again with the Tuesday Takeaway! Toy Towers - kLuMB-Z Even knowing the layout of the level, this one still took close to half an hour to finish, so it wasn't just my stumbling around during the secondary recordings; definitely budget time for this one. i came away again enjoying the level. It's got a good mix-up of gameplay elements, but each bit is chunky enough it feels warranted. This was one of the few levels with a Toggle section that was actually a bit of a challenge, and that almost never happens. Something came up this time that did kind of irk me though. i screwed up the race at the end again, i guess i'm just not good at that type of set-piece. The issue was, this time, i screwed up enough times on the lower end of the tower, that on my fifth death, i didn't respawn at the scoreboard. Not a big problem, but that section is limited lives, so when i died again, i just died out of level. It's not a sin to have a level where the player can actually completely fail, but...after all that work, to pull the rug out right in sight of the scoreboard, while having had infinite life Checkpoints earlier in the level...that's a thing that'll make a player a wee bit salty, i think. "Temple of Mr. Mad Elephant" - Samait_ Not much of a change with this one. i really liked looking at the level, though i do think the materials should have been more visually distinct. The pace isn't terribad for an Oddsock level, but it does manage to keep you going in the main. Got to work on those cameras a bit, though, there's enough shake and twist in them to make me a bit sick. All in all, it's nice and short and worth a play or two. The wedding's underground - SweManTwizt Playing through this go around, and i kind of wonder if this was natively made in LBP1 and then imported/published through LBP3. If not, SweManTwizt really went out of their way for the verisimilitude. There's even a section with obvious visible dissolve material. There're even really badly placed checkpoints that sometimes don't trigger when they ought. There're even bits where you should just do a jump, but because there's an open space with a candle in it in the layer back, you'll be forced onto the candle and get burnt. i'm actually not all that salty about it, but this one is very much a your mileage may vary kind of level, and, like i said in the video, i was never a huge fan of LBP1's level design in the story mode. Swingin' Treetops [beta] - chunky104 Nothing much changed for me this time around from when we made the episode. The lack of death when you fall in the mud was amusing the first time, but really that should've been handled by something lethal. That one checkpoint, as well, could've been better placed. Despite that, it managed to be a fairly solid grappling hook level that i didn't much mind spending a bit of time with. Having finally played Evergreen Park: Revenge of the Bubbles (https://lbp.me/v/q1dkp86), can i ask why folks feel the need to cram 3d movement into levels like these? It just makes jumps awkward as all get out. i mean the levels in the adventure would've worked perfectly fine without that (in fact, some of them are rather well done), but with it, they were mostly a pain. Red Woods - Bug_Boys_2 Don't know why i didn't notice how deep some of the platforms were in this one...maybe i did, i know i noticed that they were grab-able. Physically the design is pretty kludgy, and the gameplay is fairly slight, but i still walked away happy with this one on account of the attention to colour and lighting. It was just nice and relaxing playing through. So that's the that this week. Fairly well pleased with the levels this go about, nothing particularly bad, and a couple that stood out (for me at least). Hopefully there were a few in there that worked for you the same. Thanks as always for the support, and i hope you're having a great day. Behind the Curtains Stuffs i have been unforgivably lazy recently. Well, lazy in my own weird way, which is being busy with things that do need to be done, but probably don't need to be prioritized right at the moment. Which is not the best of signs, and is something i need to get on top of. But they say the first step in solving a problem is knowing you have a problem. Though...i'd like to know who this "they" is before i commit. i did a livestream (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhk_LuKuu2Y&index=1&list=PL79L9Atac1xfzLN48-frv88Ks9bIdc2yC) of Risk of Rain the other day, just to see how that works from the PS4 (or, i suppose, from anywhere, as i'd never done one before). It went fine enough, though the connection got lost about halfway through and i had to restart. No one showed up for it, but that was fine and expected, to be honest; doing it was pretty spur of the moment. One issue did come up, though. i was recording the footage through Share while doing the stream, and when i looked at it in Share Factory, i noticed it was just raw game footage and didn't include the comment scroll/UI. i tried poking around in the Broadcast Settings, but didn't see anything that looked related. i know when lsrs uploads their weekly streams, the UI is present in the video. Is it because i was streaming to Twitch and not to YouTube directly? i'm not sure, but it's something i need to find out before the end of next month. Apparently my nephew subbed to my YouTube channel/Twitter account, and...i'm not entirely sure how i feel about it. i mean, my language when i play Isaac can get pretty salty (though, i think within acceptable parameters socially), and he is only 9yrs old. Also, w/r/t Twitter, it's nice being the cool uncle, but i am also the cool uncle whose interests and hobbies intersect with folks who post art and photography that is...well...i wouldn't choose to directly show to him, personally, Now, the account isn't very active on my end; i don't like or retweet all that much, but he can always just look at my feed. His mom said it was ok (they did this all without asking me, while i was at work), but to be honest, she should darn well know better. Saaa...stupid social media. | 2018-04-23 23:23:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Good morning, good morning! Back again for another go...and some coffee...must 'ave coffee. Episode 021 - Uzai (https://youtu.be/lUU-dQqD_K4) This time around we're having a look at: Card Platformer - cooper_trooper19 (https://lbp.me/v/qvdeg2-) Sack in Savannah - DeadDolls2015 (https://lbp.me/v/q2wj9jh) Two Worlds Collide - critterme (https://lbp.me/v/q2yv9p0) Asylum Run - PiggyPog380 (https://lbp.me/v/q2x3n74) Run of Ruins - gatods10 (https://lbp.me/v/q2ytxmh) It's certainly a set of levels this week, you can definitely say that. None of them are exactly bad but a little bit more polish could have gone into a few of them. Still, hopefully one or two will catch your eye as something you can have a bit of fun with, yeah? Thanks as always for the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i kind of hate ShareFactory. i mean, i love ShareFactory too, because i couldn't do what i do without it. At the same time it is filled with mysteries, and it's functions and limits are oft occluded. i got it in my head to do a LBsP, and i wanted to use some footage off the laptop, going into where we pull the levels up from. Just getting the right set up on my iPod, 'cause you need to have like a "SHAREfactory" folder with a "video" folder in it, but it can't be the "SHAREFactory(tm)" folder with "Video Clips" folder in it that the app sets up for you the first time you save on to it from the PS4. That was kind of confusing but we got there eventually. So, i thought to try out some of my Isaac stuff processed through SF, just to see how it went. And hey, what do you know, doing it that way somehow got rid of my framerate drop problem. Gosh, would've been nice to have figured that out, i don't know, 500episodes ago? Except...like you can only load one file on at a time, even if it looks like the files you're importing are under SF's arbitrary, and displayed, limit. So, like import and render one file, put it back on the laptop, erase the raw footage, and then you can import and render another file...look, i don't know how any of that works...just typing it out and looking at it now and it looks like a bunch of gibberish. Anyway the takeaway is it took basically all day to finally get four episodes finished, which is kind of absurd (ok, i also got a stream of Isaac done, and wrapped episode 021...way later than i should have, but still). Levels are recorded for episode 022, some of the hub set-up is done as well (but not nearly as much as i would like). We're kind of getting back on our normal production schedule, even if it's taking a little while. i think maybe we're going to see Infinity War today, if it's not sold out, at least. That's kind of cool. | 2018-04-27 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Hey, I think I actually beat you to these this time! I had been doing quite a bit of LBP because I was queuing and queuing levels and wasn't getting to them. So, I figured I needed to clear out some of my queue. I logged in and it said something like over a hundred new levels queued, go to queue now? So I pushed up my sleeves and got to it. Still not done but cleared out over 3/4 of them. Anyway, thanks for that bit about ShareFactory. I don't do much with it, I occasionally will use it to upload what I think is an interesting clip to my YouTube. But, I've been thinking about uploading more content, especially when Dreams comes out. I may come calling on you for help and advice! As always, keep doing what you're doing, and Thank you! | 2018-04-27 16:04:00 Author: biorogue  Posts: 8424 |
You've just remembered me, that I have a queue, too!  | 2018-04-27 16:56:00 Author: CuriousSack Posts: 3981 |
| Hey, I think I actually beat you to these this time! I had been doing quite a bit of LBP because I was queuing and queuing levels and wasn't getting to them. So, I figured I needed to clear out some of my queue. I logged in and it said something like over a hundred new levels queued, go to queue now? So I pushed up my sleeves and got to it. Still not done but cleared out over 3/4 of them. Anyway, thanks for that bit about ShareFactory. I don't do much with it, I occasionally will use it to upload what I think is an interesting clip to my YouTube. But, I've been thinking about uploading more content, especially when Dreams comes out. I may come calling on you for help and advice! As always, keep doing what you're doing, and Thank you! Thank you as well! Sorry for taking so long to get back to you, but if there's anything i can help with, just drop a line. We could always use more folks making videos in the community. The ShareFactory/imported files thing is a bit weird, but i think i've got it worked out for them moment (course, it's only really necessary if you want clips from your PC in the video, or are using Share for rendering of stuff recorded on PC, which it's actually pretty decent at). Ossu! Happy May Day fellow labourers! Also, i guess there's a Tuesday Takeaway? Card Platformer - cooper_trooper19 This one's a bit of a shame in timing, i think. Had i played it early on in the series i probably would have been a lot more impressed with it that i was. It's certainly not a bad level, mind, and it's definitely better than the rest of the levels this week; at the end of the day, though, it's not really stretching itself all that much. i think this does cement my odd allergy to angled bounce pads. It's come up before, and i've always thought it was on them, but, no, the problem is me. Though, as a counterpoint, Paczek321 got in touch to say the same thing happens to them, so...maybe? Sack in Savannah - DeadDolls2015 This one's down at the moment, which is a bit of a shame. Unusually, DeadDoll2015 did leave a comment on my profile that they'd seen the episode, and they wished me luck, so maybe this is a case of "down for repairs," and we'll see it back up again in the future. i do hope so. Two Worlds Collide - pt1 - critterme Not really a heck of a lot to say about this one, it's just so extremely short. i mean, as a simple prologue, i guess it works. Though, if it were me, i'd have probably made sure i had part 2 on tap if part one was going to be this short. Then again, if it were me, It'd probably sit on my moon for years with work only being done on it intermittently until it was, eventually, tearfully, abandoned. So critterme's already got a leg up on me. Asylum Run - piggypog380 This one was going to have an uphill fight with me anyways, seeing as it claims to be based on one of my favourite level sets/themes, but doesn't actually do anything with that. i do have to say in its favour that the boost boots jumps are pretty perfectly spaced, it's actually a tense little bit. i kind of have to assume jumping forward out of level was the intended method to progress the level, as there are some score bubbles in that layer...but it does seem an odd way to go about things, and the cameras don't really make it obvious. Hrmm....i wonder if you could set up a secondary camera set once the player's unlocked that velociraptor you need to get to the final area of the level. i mean, i'm sure you could do that thing, just wondering if it would be worthwhile. Run of Ruins - gatods10 Another really short one here, seemed to be a bit of a week for that. Again, i think we covered this one fairly well in the episode. It's a nice enough level to look at, but not quite so nice to play. Too easy to get lost in the detail and pulled out cameras. i'd love to know what was going on with those little glitch bits that we saw. It was pretty weird, and i don't think we've seen it come up before (unless it wasn't a glitch, but was actually invisible material or something, but that'd be a pretty odd design choice). Would've been nice if there'd been a bit of build up to the end, as opposed to just having that button sitting there. So, that's the that. Nothing really bad, but still, nothing that was really head and shoulders great. i wouldn't say not to play any of them, but if there's something more compelling in your queue, you might want to go with that first. Thanks as always for all the support, folks, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i did end up seeing Infinity War on Friday, it wasn'T looking like it was going to work out, but there was a sudden schedule change so, that was nice. i liked the movie a lot, and that's all i'll say about it, 'cause i'm sure there're folks who've not been to it yet. Kind-of-sort-of stumbling back to my regular production schedule. Got episode 022 wrapped yesterday, which is a bit late, but we're getting closer. Isaac's all sorted through Thursday, which frees up a bit of time to get on episode 023, and i think i should be able to have that done by Saturday. i've got a week off coming up, so that'll help a lot. i'm a bit salty i haven't really been able to get LBsP episodes out consistently recently. There're a couple i have in mind that i want to do...next week should let me get to that. Hopefully if we get the machine running smoothly again, we'll be able to have regular weekly episodes again. There was something else i was going to say here, but i can't for the life of me remember what it was. Something about rendering PC Isaac episodes in Share makes for a better finished product, but is kind of annoying? Maa...whatever, i'm sure it'll come back to me by Friday. | 2018-04-30 22:57:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! It's that time again! We're coming back at you for another round! Episode 022 - Vig (https://youtu.be/HcpNBktQhoM) This go about we're having a look at: Springinator Platformer - neoraptor (https://lbp.me/v/qyjnm43) The Neon Side - Gentleman1S3YT (https://lbp.me/v/q2yt6ks) The Missing Miners - CraftyVers3 (https://lbp.me/v/q123g1x) Space Run - jordana2310 (https://lbp.me/v/q2yprvf) Grappling Performance - TheNavigator77 (https://lbp.me/v/q2q347c) It's a pretty fun set of levels this go about, a bit of a step up from the set last week. Hopefully you'll find something that catches your eye, and that you'll have a fun time with. Thanks as always for all the support and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Still don't know what's up with the import issue, so whatever. i seem to be good with really tiny files, which is all i might need for series mainly put together on the PS4. Eventually they'll port all the Afterbirth+ booster pack stuff to the PS4. so i won't even need to record off my laptop anymore, and that will be 100% fine. So, i mentioned i had that problem(?) with Twitch in one of the LBsP updates yesterday. So, on a lark, i figured i'd do a quickish stream to YouTube as a test. Good news: it keeps the UI in a video file that is automatically saved on YouTube. Bad news: Video quality seems to be noticeably worse (though not terribad). Now i was broadcasting at "Standard," and there are two higher levels of quality that i can try. i worry a little about my connection there, though; one weird thing that came up was a warning notice that my connection wasn't solid enough to broadcast, even though i was clearly still broadcasting (had my laptop open next to me). That was on standard, if i try one of the higher quality ones, would the broadcast just straight cut out? Well, i still have about four weeks to figure it out. Oh, side note about the stream to YT yesterday...of course i had my mic off the whole time. Geh... We're about half-way through next week's R15F as of now. It's not the schedule i want to be on, but it's the best it's been in the last...almost month? With the vacation time i've got now, we should have things back on track without too much difficulty. Heck, we would have had it all sorted if i hadn't been fiddling around with the import issue, and the stream thing, and the two LBsP episodes, and the three episodes of Isaac we were up to yesterday. Crap...written out like that, i was pretty busy, wasn't i? Play Assault Android Cactus, it's straight-up fun. | 2018-05-04 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Here we are for another Tuesday Takeaway! Woot! ...woot? Springinator Platformer - neoraptor This one is a...i don't want to say a hot mess, that's a bit strong. neoraptor does put in the effort of making an actual level with actual set-pieces, and i appreciate that. It does go for some decent usage of the Sprininator, and i do like that showing up. It's just, like everything seems to be a bit off? In the bottle section the bottles are just big enough to make it really awkward to get through, as opposed to just challenging, and why not have a visible hazard there? And why have it three layers deep? And what was up with the "you have to hit L1 (for the only time in the level)" right at the end (presumably before hitting the invisible hazard, because i got killed there this morning). Also, weird glitch maybe, but right before i hit the scoreboard i got teleported back to the beginning of the level...i did not go through the effort to beat the level again. The Neon Side - Gentleman1S3TY i like this one, it's got a few of those early level flaws, but it's earnest and relatively well developed. There's also not really a lot to say about it that we didn't in the episode itself. The structure of the level, having the challenges (though, to be perfectly honest, nothing was all that challenging) in their own discrete area with their own colour scheme was a nice touch. i also thought it was nice giving the player the option to put on a light up costume, though the level is certainly beatable without one. i'm looking forward to seeing how Gentleman1S3YT develops as a creator in the future. The Missing Miners - Craftyvers3 There's really not enough level here to say all that much more about to be honest. i liked the attempt at building a semi-realistic environment, at least, even if it was kind of LBP1-era-esque kludgy. At the end of the day, though, it really needs a bit more expansion on the concept, either go all in on the story, and make it a cinematic heavy level, or really build up the platforming/exploration. As it stands it's hardly even appetizer-sized. Space Run - jordan2310 i wonder if this one might have been better off without the race aspect? It's not really badly done, but there's an awful lot of it where you just don't have any control of the player, and when you do the majority of that is running across a flat space. The only bits that differ, gameplay wise, are the monkeybars/rope bit, where at least there's some player-skill necessary to keep a good time, and the two swimming in space areas, where the player is artificially slowed down. At least it has a nice environment, though if you're focusing on score, you'll probably blow through too fast to really appreciate it. Grappling Performance - TheNavigator77 Even with the awkwardness of some of the grappling sections, i just loved the goofy charm of the level presentation. It just hits my buttons right, and looks very much of itself, as opposed to some more generally shared concept. i was left wondering, though, why so many of the logic bits were left visible. It had to have been on purpose, right? They'd be obvious enough in create mode. It's just kind of an odd choice. So that's the that for episode 022. i had a good enough time with the levels, there were certainly none that i would regret playing through even without the excuse of putting the show together. Hopefully there's something in the set that you can have a good time with too. Thanks as always for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs So...not having work, and being so far ahead of schedule, means that time basically has no real meaning at the moment. i mean, yes, morning vs. night means something still, but i woke up this morning and i could not say for certain just what day it was. It was a weird feeling, but not an uncomfortable one. It is nice having episode 024 wrapped already, though. *looks at the Level of the Day pick* ... well played, Sumo, well played. i know we've been blitzing the LBsP levels, but frankly we don't really have the opportunity all that often, and the weather has been mostly jank. It rained like hell here yesterday. There might be another coming out today, but honeybunny has the day off as well, so i might not have the chance to record one. Ought to be one Wednesday and Thursday, though. i should (and likely will) use some of the extra time to do some advance set work, so i don't need to be scrambling when that comes up. | 2018-05-07 22:34:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! It's Friday, and that means...well...many things, really. Specifically, though, it means another shot of R15F! Episode 023 - Welter (https://youtu.be/v-sMF9If114) This week we're having a look at: Captain Sack-Cardboard Mountains - d23legal (https://lbp.me/v/q202dsh) Jumps in history - maverickmarcari (https://lbp.me/v/gxd178) TREASURE HUNT 2 - ONLINE-EIJI (https://lbp.me/v/j409vz) Block Shift 2 - MonkeyBoy_Ben (https://lbp.me/v/qzw2p4x) Ninja leader's race - martinezmatthew8 (https://lbp.me/v/q2rjvn2) i had a fun time with this set and hopefully y'all will as well, there aren't any super clunkers in there. Well, one's kinda ok-ish, but not terrible. Thanks as always for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Sometimes the title cards turn out well, sometimes they're just alright (i wasn't super-pleased with the one for Vig, f'rex). This week's and next week's, though, i really like these. Plus, it's always nice to see Officer and Ophidia. Though we did get Officer in an actual episode...err...was that last week? The week before...geh...i can't really remember any more. Yet another level from next week's episode got picked up for Level of the Day...i don't even care anymore, not even a little, not even a lot. mdkd99 mentioned that he'd asked StevenI about that, and apparently the LotDs are picked by algorithm. Which, i suppose makes sense; there are just too many levels for anyone to trawl through. Still, it was, on another level, a deeply disappointing thing to learn. Speaking of mdkd99, he's going to be starting up his own look-at series, so toss a little love his way too. Particularly this late in the day for LBP, the more community support and activity the better. Best of luck, mdkd! We're looking forward to seeing how things turn out. My vacation's almost over, well, this is the last day of it, but i've always got Thursdays and Fridays off. Was nice pretending to be independently wealthy, and just be able to do whatever i want with my time. Which turned out to be make a lot of videos and drink, so...not exactly the rock and roll lifestyle, but it was nice. It's going to be a bit of a bear going back to the language factory. | 2018-05-11 00:08:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Thanks for the shoutout and support, Waffleking! I hope you're going to enjoy the first episode of 'mdkds ratings' on Monday. It's been a while since I put this much effort into a video, but it was really fun to edit it and to see how things came together. I'm going to watch the new episode soon and I think I played one level. | 2018-05-11 03:13:00 Author: mdkd99 Posts: 1172 |
| Best of luck with the show, mdkd. We're going to give episode one a look once i've got this wrapped up. Hey hey! Tuesday Takeaway! Captain Sack-Cardboard Mountain - d23legal i think i would have been better disposed to this one if they'd been upfront about using little hops, instead of no jumps at all. Through that lens, it is a really solid on level. i love the way they've incorporated the fire hazard to get sackthing up larger elevations, and over gaps. Also, the way they space things so you don't hit the fire a second time too quickly (and so dying) is really quite clever. i still think the level ends a bit too abruptly, but it's a full level in its own right, not just a glorified proof of concept, so that's cool. It's interesting, d23legal dropped a line on the video, which was really nice, but they brought up something that we address in the gradings bit. i wonder if creators that watch the show just watch the bit on their own level, or watch all the way to the end. i mean, i'm happy either way, but not watching the gradings kind of cuts out a big part of what the show is doing. Jumps in History - maverickmarcari i really like "levels in a bottle" like this one, as long as they're done right, and this one was, so that's cool. i found it interesting that it wasn't a randomized set-up, like the DaVinci survival challenge the concept comes from. i wonder how they had that set up. Was everything lined up off camera? Or was each set-piece emitted? Either way, they've done a great job with it. The one (relatively mild) fly in the ointment is requiring the player to use a prize sticker to get things started. Not everyone has community objects turned on, is all. TREASURE HUNT 2 - ONLINE-EIJI Didn't get to finish this one off this morning. With levels i know are going to be really long, i keep the "five lives and out" we had at the beginning of R15F (but never really stuck to in the end). Tuesdays are just to busy to spend too much time on a level if i can't beat it smoothly. But, something did pop into my mind playing this go. i'm wondering if this one was natively made in LBP2, and then published in LBP3. i didn't notice any logic, materials, or effects that were definitely LBP3 era. They use a forced-death teleport, which was a common style before we got wormhole/teleport logic/broadcast chips. The play mechanics, emphasis on cut scenes, and the boss style are all very LBP2-esque. The more i think about it, the more i think my theory is right. That might explain why some of the materials in the temple area are invisible for no reason. Block Shift 2 - MonkeyBoy_Ben i think of the slate of mostly quite good levels this episode, this one is my favourite. We've got a solidly developed environment, with enough background movement to give a sense of life and place to things. The central gimmick is well-utilized throughout, and feels consistently challenging and never frustrating. Those little animation touches we looked at in the episode are so well done. Best of all, it doesn't wear out its welcome, feeling perfectly paced and not at all overlong. This one is just really, really good. Ninja leader's race - martinezmatthew8 This one was going to have a rough go of it even if it had been a better level. i do try to keep things separate in my mind when i play, but i do play these levels as a block. Luckily, it's just not a very good level, so i don't have to feel guilty for being a bit hard on it. There's just not much at all going on here. You've got lots of horizontal running, maybe two bits of "challenge" gameplay, and a busted race gate. i don't know what goes on with those gates, it happens relatively often so i'm guessing there's some glitch going on on the game-side of things. It's just always disappointing to finish a race and see all the points suddenly disappear. So, that's the that, really. This was a pretty strong setlist, and the Yellow Squares could have been Green Circles with just a bit of buffing, i think. Thanks as always for all the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Not really all that much to say this time, yeah. | 2018-05-14 22:52:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Another week's rolled around and that means another shot of R15F! Episode 024 - Xyloid (https://youtu.be/6SGx18RI8Wg) This week we're having a look at: Super Mario 3D Land: World 4-3 - noseben (https://lbp.me/v/q2xsq5t) LittleBigPlanet GDC (Platformer) - nesterr180 (https://lbp.me/v/q20pqb1) haunted house cape - fidelide (https://lbp.me/v/q20wy02) An PLATFORM HubbardTile81 (https://lbp.me/v/q201h0t) Midnight Mountain - Blushing_Kiss (https://lbp.me/v/q2s-c3w) A fairly solid set of levels, though it is a back-up playlist to be honest. Still, hopefully you'll find something you like in there. Thanks as always for all the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i really like the title card for this one. Next week's is kind of fun too, but i think this one might be my (second?) favourite. Right now i kicking around the evening of June 2nd for the livestreaming. i'd have liked to do it sooner, but it looks like the last week of May and June first are going to be really quite busy. i'll probably put up a quick announcement LBsP a week before we're set to go, and a thread on the boards as per usual. Hopefully some of y'all will be able to drop in. Yesterday was a pretty dead day, as far as production goes. Well, we got a bunch of Isaac done, and the hub for episode 026 is...i'd say about half to three-quarters finished (still have to do the animations and cameras...i might give another pass over the dialogue to tighten it up a bit). i guess it's not a huge issue, episode 025 is in the can, so we're a week ahead and all. i just kind of hate lazy days, even if my brain insists i need them sometimes. i keep on having this idea of putting together a little bit of writing to expand on the world and characters of the show. Like maybe make a picture in-game, and use it to illustrate a magazine article, or book excerpt, that kind of thing. The problem is i always think about this when i'm riding to work, or taking a walk, and by the time i get back home all desire to put in the effort has evaporated. Grah... There was something else i was going to put here, but it's floated off from my brainmeats like a soap bubble. Maybe it'll come back to me later. | 2018-05-18 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Guten morgen, guten morgen! Time for another Tuesday Takeaway! Super Mario 3D Land World: 4-3 - noseben This one does a decent enough job recreating the layout of the original level, at least, though i do think a better job could have been done with the material choices. The problem is the supported play-style is so different from LBP that the juice isn't really worth the squeeze. Checkpoints are sparse, and death will cost a fair amount of progress. i think recreations aren't the worst things to do, but i think they work best when they work with level flows and control schemes already present. Still, for a relatively new creator, kitting together even a passable 3d level is no small feat. LittleBigPlanet GDC (platformer) - nesterr180 This one's an interesting contrast to the previous. It nails (almost perfectly from what i can tell watching videos on YouTube) the recreation, with the only obvious point of difference being in the "original" score bubbles (though their mechanic is the same). This one does exactly what a demo is supposed to do, present the style and feeling of the full game in a way that maximizes fun. Playing through this was really quite nostalgic, even the third or fourth time through. It's perhaps not the meatiest of levels, but its an all around good time. Haunted house cape - fidelide There was an Oddsock level from fidelide we were going to look at that got snapped up by the LotD gods. When we were scrambling about to put together a new set-list after the mic kerfluffle, we landed on this one, and completely didn't notice it was a survival challenge until actually playing it. But then again, recently i've played a bunch of levels tagged as survival challenges that actually weren't anything of the sort, so who can really tell? Anyways, this one does well enough for what it is. It's very similar to Stomach Virus (if i'm remembering right), though a very stripped down version thereof. Grabbing the score bubbles is annoying as heck, to be honest, but the pace is slow enough you'll probably still pick up a couple thousand points before you get bored of it. Umm...the music is kind of cool, though. An PLATFORM - HubbardTile81 Eh...this one's a level, at the very least, and there is a(n extremely) little bit of gameplay. Otherwise, it's just not enough to really justify loading up. Actually, if your internet connection isn't all that hot, it may take longer to load than actually play. Midnight Mountain - Blushing_Kiss Not much new to say about this one (but when has that ever stopped me?). The environment's well presented, clear, poppy, and fun. i liked those animated roaches. The gameplay can be a little bit janky, but it does a good enough job getting the player from point A to point B. Those hanging bits we saw in the video had a really weird movement to them, i kind of wonder where the fulcrum was. i also wonder why i always think you have to hang and swing from those types of obstacles, when quite often you can just run along the tops for an easier time of it. So...that's the that this go about. Some pretty fun ones here, for me at least. Hopefully there was something there that caught your eye too. Thanks as always for all the support and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs So, it appears i have a fan for the Isaac series. It's actually kind of weird, but that's the locked-in-a-box-redheaded-stepchild of my channel. But, anyway, they dropped a comment on one of the recent videos, and it was really touching. They were worried about my persistent cough (heavy smoking, plus recording 4 or 5hours in a go will do that to you, kids, so...maybe choose just one of those bad habits?). On Isaac, i tend to be fairly focused on the game when i'm recording, so my commentary tends to revolve around that fairly heavily. To be honest, i don't really like that style, but i fall into it so easily. Every now and then, though, a run will get so easy thanks to a great set of items, that my brain can get a bit more drifty. i spent a decent chunk of time in the run yesterday talking about pronoun usage and identity...which i was a little happy that i could actually do in Japanese. Felt like i'd leveled up. Not a lot to talk about w/r/t LBP, i'm juggling a bunch of plates. | 2018-05-21 22:56:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Good morning y'all, that time's rolled around again! Episode 025 - Yami (https://youtu.be/SDhIMdxgfKk) This week we're having a peep at: Cardboard Cutout LBP3 - temple1997 (https://lbp.me/v/qv-q0rv) Little Big Adventure - DeadDollOfficiaI(?) (https://lbp.me/v/q21xzef) LBP1 The Islands w.s.b.p - Trackmania12 (https://lbp.me/v/q2xhg5-) Toxic Bubble Swamp - wander416 (https://lbp.me/v/q2ztwhd) Heck of a Holiday - XxCHLOEBELLExX (https://lbp.me/v/q2wgyp8) It's a pretty fine set of levels this go about, though there is a little weirdness going on with Little Big Adventure. Oh, and also, Toxic Bubble Swamp just got the the LotD nod...well, at least that was roughly concurrent to the episode going up. Anyhoot, hopefully something in there will catch your eye and turn out to be something you have some fun with. Thanks for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Right, so the live episode 026+ is going to be June 2nd 8p JTime, barring disaster. That should mean i can get home from work, have a bit of dinner and decompress before we start. i'd wanted it to be on Thursday or Friday, but stuffs are in the doing so, yeah Saturday was the closest i could get. Hopefully you'll be able to drop in and say hi. Also hopefully, the streaming will go smoothly. Toes crossed. We've got regular episode 026 halfway done. Ran into some snags getting the hub put together, and i haven't had as much time available to do recordings. i might be able to get the secondary recordings and grading bit done this morning, but we'll see (and my throat is kinda swole up and feeling like garbage, so i might not want to push it too much). Actually got this wrapped up just now, though i went and sat too long and let the screen saver pop-up...i think i'm going to keep it because everything else is a pretty good take, but i do feel kind of silly. i remember what i was going to ask last week. So...i was bopping around people's moons, i think it was in LBP2, but it might have been LBP3. Got on to one persons moon, and some music started playing, like real world music, not the usual in-Pod bgm. The quality was like recording old mix-tapes by putting the tape player right next to the stereo speaker...an experience i imagine a fair number of you may have been born too late for. Anyways, it was creepy, unsettling, and completely unexpected. Have any of you run into that? Do you know how it was done? Sorry i've been a little vague about why things have been so kittiwumpus w/r/t production recently. i want to loop people in when the schedule starts getting wonky; on the other hand this is life stuff that hovers in between the TMI and not-want-to-talk-about zones. Thanks for your patience, yeah. | 2018-05-25 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway Time folks! Cardboard Cutout LBP3 - temple1997 i really liked this level, it swings the simple presentation quite well, especially with the bits of extra depth that we see. The only thing i might have changed was either switching up the order of the set-pieces, or having a softer build up to the extended climbing/velociraptor bit we start with. It's such a long gap between the starting Check Point and the next, to get hit with it right of the bat along with considering that's the most difficult part of the level. i'm also left wondering why they didn't run with the pseudo-story they had going with the LBP2 level. That kind of felt like there was a world that we're existing in, this one just feels like a level. A very good level, mind you, but something that exists in isolation. Where is Toggle, Mom? Little Big Adventure - who knows? As a level, it's ok enough, i suppose. It's kludgy, and klunky, and the actual gameplay bits could really have stood to have been expanded upon. As a mini-controversy...sometimes i think the most active, coherent elements of the community are people who are fairly unhappy with each other, who chunk up each other's profiles with a lot of angry sniping. i would love to know who really made this level, so i could give them proper credit, ([Edit to Add]got contacted by zero-pilote, looks like the original creator was God_Of_Spam, so give them the plays and hearts[/EtA]) but DeadDollOffical, who DeadDollOfficiai credits, doesn't seem to be the one. Interesting, but said DeadDollOfficial went and changed their profile so they're no longer using StevenI's avatar, or claim to be him. Man...i have the feeling there's a lot of weird just waiting under the surface here. LBP1 The Islands w.s.b.p - trackmania12 You know, TrackMania was the free PS+ game this month on the JSide. It's ok, i guess. It'll never be my favourite racer, it's a little too full of itself and its coolness, but i suppose it's solid enough. That has nothing to do with anything here. This one's just a really neat concept that's executed really well. My feelings didn't really shift over much, my quibbles are the same (man, picking up the hoverboard...that was such a pain in the rump). i didn't really push myself, but i managed to take my score from around 40k when i played for PiPs, to about 120k putting me at 3rd place. Probably could've grabbed 1st if it weren't for a couple of dumb deaths towards the end. Toxic Bubble Swamp - wander416 This one got snagged for the LotD, but of the ones where we've seen cross-over, i think this one i can definitely get behind. Paczek321 got in touch on YouTube and pointed out something that i also really liked about the level, it does a really good job of introducing new gameplay elements, and then building their difficulty throughout. That doesn't seem to be something a lot of creators pull off well (see this week's Cardboard Cutout for a timely example). This is one of the handfuls of levels that feels hard and challenging without being frustrating, and that really adds to the satisfaction when you wrap things up. i also really like the disconnect between the relatively bright and poppy presentation, and the eventual difficulty. Really, this one's solid on all around. i...ahh...did chicken out on the race again, though. Heck of a Holiday - XxCHLOEBELLExX i came away from this one a lot more positively that i had when recording the episode (and even then, i was feeling pretty good about it). Sometimes i think i get a little up my own bum about what constitutes a good level, and i drift away from the prime factor of fun. i mean, it's easy to remember when a level is clearly not fun, but when you get a run of good levels (and this was a particularly good set for that), it's hard not to look at them together instead of individually, if that makes sense. At the end of the day, for all the kludginess and klunkiness of the presentation here, this is at the end of the day, a charming, fun level (and it certainly isn't quite fair to compare it to its spiritual twin Four Seasons). Could things be a little more polished? Sure. Still, will you have fun playing it? i think the answer is: yes. So that's the that for this week, a little bit of weirdness, but still a fun run. Hopefully you found a couple of levels that were fun, and you'll give a look at God_of_Spam's stuff and give them a little love. Thanks for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Production, production, production. Regular episode 026 is done but for the PiPs, but those should get done today or tomorrow. The levels for episode 027 are recorded, and the hub is put together, but we've not gotten any of the dialogue, animation, or camera work in. i think i should be able to get most of that done Wed/Thurs. An issue to ask about: if i want to be bigger in the hub (it's necessary to preserve a sense of scale), do i have to use a sackbot & broadcast chip for control? i tried to just make a bigger sackbot in the costume i wanted and then saved that through the Starting Checkpoint's created character function, but when i tried playing the level, i was still regular size. i don't know if i'm going to get to an LBsP this week. i was going to just toss together something small as...well...a kind of bookmark, i suppose, but zero-pilote letting me know about God_of_Spam makes me want to do something with their stuff and talk about copying, and that might be a bit beefier than i have time for. So...that kind of sucks. i'm only a couple of days ahead of schedule for Isaac, and that's not so great either. i'll have a lot more time to work on things from next week, but that'll be its own kind of suck, but at least we'll balance things out with making more stuff, so...six of one, half a dozen of the other? | 2018-05-28 22:43:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Good morning to y'all! It's Friday, and that means it's time for another go about. Episode 026 - Zoom (https://youtu.be/nGK1Bb8XaRM) This time around we're looking at: Cardboard Jump n Run - xBnj-AT (https://lbp.me/v/qt3y7ej) Trouble In Paradise - KolbyRyan (https://lbp.me/v/q210jqj) Sulfer caves - killakif (https://lbp.me/v/q21rtxr) The Sackbot Factory - randycats17 (https://lbp.me/v/qx62xr0) The Ruins of the Elves - HostileBunny16 (https://lbp.me/v/q2k7xrq) A bit on a nice mix of levels this week. Hopefully you'll find something in there that looks like a good time. Thanks, as always, for all the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Hard to believe we've worked our way through the alphabet already, here. The half-year's gone by stupid quick. Then again, last year was the same, so i shouldn't really be shocked. We're trying out that one big PiP idea we put out in the Livestream thread. It did make it easier to put in more material without having to thread video covering multiple points and hope it was enough to cover segue language and such. The good side was it made it a lot easier to have video for a minimum of three points per level. The weird thing was...even using the timestamps from ShareFactory when trimming the video footage and then the in-between logo on black field, when i actually put the PiPs in the video, they weren't syncing up the way they should have according to my notes. It's going to take a little more playing around to get things just where i want them, but i think it should work out better in the end. The hub for episode 027 is mostly complete. i've got to get the cameras and music in there, but that's no big deal i think. Got the title card put together too, and since the initial level recordings are done, i should be able to get the whole she-bang wrapped up today. That'll put us back on schedule, but i haven't gotten any work done on episode 028's hub, so that's a thing to worry about. | 2018-06-01 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Just linking to last night's livestream here. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JPWogOM3Vxg More people showed up than i expected, and there were a few unexpected guests, and it all went way better than i'd thought it would. My brain was getting a little fuzzy by the end, though; think i'll need a bit more practice before i can really handle a two-hour stream (especially after a full day of work). i want to thank everyone who dropped by, because it wouldn't have been nearly as interesting without you. If i missed, or didn't well answer a question, i'm sorry about that. i know i got distracted and muffed my explanation to mdkd about how long production takes.* Thanks again, everyone, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Still haven't gotten the PiP recordings and outro done for 027. i'm not really that worried, i've got more than enough time before Friday. Woke up a little brain-fried (didn't get to sleep until 1.30, 'cause i watched a movie after the Stream), so i decided to work on the set for episode 028. i really like how it's coming along; i was really lucky to have found a great picture to use as a guide, so it's not like nothing's getting done. Right, now for the bad news. So, the last few weeks i've been kind of vague in my posts about things not going super-well at the moment. Folks who've been following the series, particularly the LBN alumni will know things have been wonky in the background for about a year-and-a-half now (remember how i was choking up when we looked at Rain, way back when?). Well, my wife and i have separated. Saw her off to the airport last Friday. It's the kind of separation that's pretty much 99.9% ending in a divorce. It's, thankfully perhaps, not the kind where we hate each other and wish each other ill. We still love each other, and are in contact, she even showed up in the stream yesterday. It's just...life happening the way it sometimes does, and it sucks, but you can't really get out of it (life, that is). This isn't a fishing for sympathy thing, i just figured, if i didn't at least address the issue now, it'd be like lying to y'all. Y'all have been too decent for me to do that.* | 2018-06-03 06:01:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Time for the Tuesday Takeaway! Cardboard Jump n Run - xBnj-AT Simple, and straightforward in presentation and design. You could say it's a bit archetypal, i suppose, but as a representative of the style, it's solid on and worth playing. For some reason i was playing like junk this morning, so there were a lot more deaths this go about. Even so, i never found myself getting frustrated with it. The Toggle bit at the end, though, did feel even more extraneous this time around than the first two or three. i really don't see the point of including another character, or power-up, if you're not seriously going to incorporate them into the level. Trouble in Paradise - kolbyryan i suppose the level's not really long enough to be bad, though that is kind of bad in itself. Any one of the level elements could have been built up and reused in later parts of the level to give a more robust experience. Like i said in the video, i really liked the use of the Hook Hat for actual gameplay. 99% of the time, you're just riding it to the end, and while that can be a nice way to show off more of the environment, it is kind of a waste. Sulfer caves - killakif Straight up, i did not even come close to finishing this one, this go about. It's not common, but through the series so far, every now and again i run into a level i just dread re-playing for PiPs or the Takeaway. They're generally not bad levels, per se, they just tend to be over-long, or excessively frustrating. This one managed to check both those boxes. i really think slicing this one up into three discrete levels, all grouped around one or two of the play elements, would have made for a better, and more manageable, experience. Still, i have to say, i really really dug on the music, at least. The Sackbot Factory - RandyCats17 Meh.... i think we know the big issue here. i guess they may have felt, because the level is relatively short, that they didn't really need the checkpoints, but they seriously did. i ended up getting myself killed about half-way through because i was trying to use the Boost Boots to break the level (which is kind of possible, you can use them so you don't need to interact with some of the obstacles, but the cameras make that awkward enough that you're really better of just doing them as presented). i never tried playing with Collected Object obstacles and game elements, and that is i think a failing on my part. i mean, they're there to show you how different tools can be used to set something up; kind of a cookbook to learn from, and i never even bothered to try. And this is why it took me years to figure out how to get even simple things like pistons to work the way i wanted them even semi-consistently. The Ruins of the Elves - HostileBunny16 There's not really too much to say about this one. Although (or perhaps because) the scope is much more limited, i think i liked it more than any of the redwalker6 level's i've played. There's no slow-down, no loading, you can just enjoy the environment and actually have all the elements spawned in where they need to be. On the other hand, like most levels of this stripe, you're not really doing all that much. It might have been worth having a few simple puzzles to open up progress. Nothing too fancy, or thermo heavy, just enough to let the player feel like they're actually interacting with the environment. Still, this is a nice one i wouldn't have any trouble recommending to people. So, that's the that. Not the worst playlist we've had, but also, not one that really stands strong (as a unit; on their own, some of the levels are quite nice). Hopefully there's something in there that caught your eye, at least. Thanks for all the support, everyone, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs It was fun coming back to Dooooooinaka-mura Station. The idea popped into mind when i realized we had Season 1 episode 026 there too. Getting the trains to do what i needed them to, was...a thing, because i had to basically rebuild the logic from scratch. i liked Maya the Dollface (whose costume worked out really cool, i didn't realize the cat mask would interact with a SackThing like that) and Mr. 89, even if their story is a bit on the cliche side. We were going to have more (and who knows, they might come back some day), but i didn't want the intro to drag on much longer. On the other hand, using that set means having to progress Manny's shock-collar arc a bit sooner than i'd originally intended. And that means a string of...four new hubs (starting from the station), all with their own fiddly issues and things to build and decorate. Which means i'm only about 1/2 maybe 2/3rds the way through just the build for episode 028's hub. *sigh* Why do i do these things to myself? At least we've got all of episode 027 done but for the PiPs. During the stream, i made an offhand bit about Windows eating Gary... this was completely wrong. Windows got eaten by Palmer. Gary gets a face full of Blair. i deeply apologize for the confusion. | 2018-06-04 22:55:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Good Morning to y'all! Another week, another go on the roundabout! Episode 027 - Zip (https://youtu.be/k-EFdocIZeA) This week we're having a look at: Dimensional doorways - mike-cherry (https://lbp.me/v/q22e1tf) Forest of Spikes - SnakeND55 (https://lbp.me/v/qyf79ps) Race in to the island - SirNlC3 The Red Fortress - SuperStitches (https://lbp.me/v/q150hsp) Break in the Bank - lemurboy12 (https://lbp.me/v/qw7ye0h) Oh hey...another stolen level it looks like...i am quite salty about this, but i think the original is: The Islands Race - Sacred-Mi (https://lbp.me/v/t9jkq4) Sorry about this folks. Pretty solid set this go about, ought to be something in the batch that you'll find fun...i hope, i hope? Thanks as always for all the support, and have yourselves a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Alrighty righty...it's two in the mornin' (wha'cha gonna do? Ahh...i don't think i can legitimately quote Snoop Dogg). Anyhow, i've been wanting to catch an lsrs livestream, and i was tired enough to take a evening nap to wake up in time for it. My brainmeats are...basically crispy-fried. Also it's 2:06a and there's no stream started yet... [Edit to Add]So... there was no Livestream, and now i feel kind of whacked out. Well, i guess that's how it goes sometimes. It did allow me to catch that "Run in to the Islands" is a stolen level (thanks to the crack detective work of zero-pilote, again). i've updated the OP, and the link on YouTube, but it's well too late to change the episode itself, which leaves me feeling pretty salty, as you might imagine. Zero gave me some tips on finding out if the level has been klepped, so i'm hoping this doesn't come up again in the future, though i suppose it very well might. All i can promise is that i'll do my best.[/eta] This episode was a bit of a thing to set up. At sometime i deleted the original version from last year, so i had to kit up the whole thing from scratch. i'm happy with how it turned out this time though. i had to put together a SackBot for myself, because i wanted to be sized up to make the hub look correctly scaled. Why can't SackBots natively display emotions again? 'Cause that's kind of a pain? Particularly pleased with the Priority Seats stickers, i'm not sure if they're clear in any of the cameras, but they are there. i have no idea why, but the PiPs this go about took literally (and this is the literal literally, not the figurative literally) 4hours. i have no idea why, either. i'm still having a bit of trouble getting things to sync up, i've got a couple of ideas how to get that sorted. Episode 028 is wrapped but for the PiPs, it worked out better than i'd expected, but maybe not as great as i'd wanted. Kind of got down to, do i really want to detail the heck out of the hub, or do i want to record, 'cause it's going to have to be one or the other. Still, i'm not going to delete this one, and i can always go back to it. Maybe even put it up as an iCandy or something. Working on the hub for episode 029, because...what else am i going to do at one in the morning whilst i wait for the Stream to roll around. *checks YouTube* Which is...maybe looking increasingly unlikely...oh ho, ho ho ho. Anyway, the major ground work is done, so it's time to start laying in the main cameras and logic bits and whatnot. But we're pretty solidly back on schedule again, which means that we can finally start making real LBsP videos again. There're four levels on the list i've been wanting to get to, with luck i should be able to get two done this week. i do have to rebuild the Isaac backlog, but i can knock out a pretty big chunk of that today. | 2018-06-08 00:06:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu, It's Tuesday, this is Takeaway! Dimensional Doorways - mike-cherry i never played the alpha of LBP3 (obviously?), so i can't speak to the verisimilitude of the level, or even if the level was built up from scratch using a model, or if it was glitched in some how. i do think it serves as an excellent and challenging introduction to the boost boots; if you're not at least half-proficient with them by the end, it's on you. i do think that the pacing of the level makes the starkness of the presentation really stand out, though. A little bit of a background, or a mix of materials would have probably helped out a lot. mdkd's cardboard racer series is a good example of how you can keep a player ultra-focused on the action to the point they won't really notice the simplicity of the presentation. Forest of Spikes - SnakeND55 Man, i do not know what was going on with this one, and it was a real pain to find PiPs for. i mean, how can you show the awkwardness of the controls (something the player is going to feel internally), without it just looking like poor play (which is how it comes off externally)? The level design, itself, is actually pretty good, and it's certainly a challenge. i think if i hadn't been having to constantly having to fight the controls, i probably would have rated it a lot more positively. As it is, i can only say, if you want to give it a shot, i hope you have a high tolerance for frustration. The Islands Race - Sacred-Mi This one is the original. i guess the copy we looked at in the episode itself got picked up for Level of the Day? i wonder how StevenI feels about that? Or how he handles it? Does the LotD title get stripped? Anyway, this one's a simple, straightforward LBP1 racer. It's a lot of fun, and a nice little trip in the Wayback Machine, though it's not really something that will set your world on fire. Give it a run on the original creator's profile, and throw some shade and aspersions on SirNlC3 for their thieving ways. The Red Fortress - SuperStitches Aside from the weird material glitch here, looking at presentation and design, this is such a good level. i love running into levels that have their own particular look and feel, and i love running into levels that utilize a lot of physics in their mechanical design, so this one was pushing my 'like' buttons pretty hard. i still have to wonder about the cutscenes, though. i mean, they work in context of the story being presented, and they are really quite well done. On the other hand, i'm leery of things that take away player agency; it just leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth to have my victory stolen from me in the end. Especially when it's with the implication that they could have done that at any time. Like, why was i even there, then? Maybe that's just me? Break in the Bank - lemurboy12 i'm pretty sure "Los Home" is not, in fact, Spanish, but i could be wrong. Looking at this level purely objectively...yeah, it's not really all that great. It's short, it's kludgy, there're no checkpoints except for the starting one. It's just not very good. And yet, and yet, it's definitely got its own, goofy, charm, and when i finished it, i felt happy with the experience. lemurboy12 went through the trouble of animating the Mariachi players' eyes, which is something i hadn't noticed the first couple of times around. i don't know if i'll ever come back to this one, but i'm glad i stumbled across it. So that's the that. Hope you found something you enjoyed in that set, and that you're having a fine day. Thanks as always for all the support, folks! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i still have to get the PiPs done for 028, which is a bit lazy on me. On the other hand, the intro and levels for episode 029 are wrapped, and i should be able to get secondary recordings and the outro done today, so six of one, half a dozen of the other, i guess? i might get to an LBsP episode today, but if i don't, i'll definitely have one up tomorrow. Did a little bit of Isaac streaming Saturday and Sunday, and that was fun. Paczek321 showed up, and that was cool. Honeybunny dropped in a little bit too, so about half of Sunday's stream's commentary was in Japanese...which is probably going to be very confusing to anyone who just happens to come across the video at random. We are straight-up, no-joke broke. Like 30yen to our name broke. Payday's Friday, and there's food in the house, so i'm not in panic mode, not really. But it does mean two-and-a-half days without cigarettes, which is no doubt a healthy result, but i'm probably going to be pretty grouchy. Ahh...such is life, no? | 2018-06-11 23:12:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! That time's rolled around again, so let's jump back in it. Episode 028 - Yellow (https://youtu.be/rDrnfEoSe3A) This week we're having a peek at: Velociportal City - blitzenbucatti67 (https://lbp.me/v/q2yhres) Yellowhead LBP Level Remake - Claptrap9 (https://lbp.me/v/q20ryjg) KITCHEN RIDE - scalapp007 (https://lbp.me/v/q2dp0ep) Egress - v0rtex2002 (https://lbp.me/v/qqzqcbb) Patchwork Office - Mascottag (https://lbp.me/v/q235cpk) It's a pretty weird set this go around. Some really strong levels mixed in with some...weaker ones. With luck there'll be at least one that catches your eye and looks like a good time. As always, thanks for all the support and feedback, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i think this is probably my favourite hub yet. i don't know that we'll ever get the chance to get back to it, but at least we got one show here. i found a pretty solid picture to use as a guide, which was a huge help. Don't think we nailed it one to one, but still, for being a little bit of a rush job (this bit of the story wasn't supposed to be for another few weeks yet) i think it turned out pretty well. We've wrapped up, as in completely, PiPs and all, episode 029, so we're completely on schedule again. Yatta! i don't know what that means for us exactly. i'd like to use the time to get in a few more LBsPs, but on the other hand, maybe a couple of days break from producing wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. Oh! StevenI got in touch with me about that stolen level. Well, thanked me for pointing it out, it's not like we had a chat or anything. i should check to see if it's been taken down. Still, the point being that it's nice to know that he does keep an oar in on things like this. i doubt you're reading, but thanks Steven! Yesterday was a gorgeous day, blue skies and the whole lot. And, as per last week's Tuesday Takeaway, i didn't have the cash to do much of anything. i did get a few long-ish walks in, so i wasn't in the house all day, but i did spend a significant chunk in front of the telly, doing editing and such. Told myself, "Self, we're keeping out of the house as much as we can tomorrow." So, it's been pouring cats and dogs since i woke up, and doesn't show much sign of stopping. Well played, Weather Gods, well played indeed. Aside from production, the Octo Expansion for Splatoon2 came out yesterday. i'd pre-ordered it from way back when, so that was lucky. Anyhow, the music is great, and it presentation is just what you'd expect from the series, but holy hell...it is freaking TOUGH. i cleared out the A Line, and the boss battle(? maybe, it was a one on five Rainmaker match) just crushed me. Got through it eventually, only to find i couldn't make any progress at all on either the B or C Lines (if you're not familiar, they've set up the level select like a subway map, it's clever). Maybe no Octo-gal in matches for me. Ah, speaking of games that aren't LBP, i've been doing some on and off streaming recently, yeah? The most of it's been Isaac (and last night's Hard Mode run was garbage, and i played like garbage!), but it's mostly for me to play an hour and a half of whatever i feel like at the time. Anyway, i was kicking around the idea of doing Gravity Rush2 for it. Nothing solid or anything like that, just an idea in the early stages. | 2018-06-15 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Just a little tip I want to share: If you want the video to show up here on LBPC, use the link with 'watch' in it. Then it shows up as a video. Neat levels, thx for sharing! | 2018-06-16 06:31:00 Author: mdkd99 Posts: 1172 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway! Slightly late edition. Velociraptior City - blitzenbucatti67 Ahhh....i mean, what can you say about a level like this one? It's...i mean, the set up is kind of neat, but you'll probably spend more time loading than you will "playing." It's not a garbage level, i certainly wouldn't go that far, but...like, it's not particularly good, either? Yellowhead LBP Level Remake - Claptrap9 i'd wanted to get into a bit about Claptrap when we were doing this one, but we didn't have the time. On account of the level being really short. It's neat enough, i guess, but like Velociraptor City, there's very little meat on the bones here. Considering what they were working with, it might have been a better idea to continue the level past what the demo showed us. Also, like we mentioned in the video, a flat camera would have helped sell things a bit more. KITCHEN RIDE - scalapp007 There's no ride here. Nary a one. Kitchen Stroll, or perhaps Kitchen Light Jog would have been a better title, perhaps? But would you play a level called Kitchen Light Jog? Maybe not. It's a cool level here, definitely over-stuffed as far as prizes, but there's not too much to complain about here. i suppose it could be a little more gameplay heavy, you're not really doing an awful lot...but i'm not sure that's entirely the point of the level, so...enjoy the scenery, really. It's definitely worth a play though. Egress - v0rtex2002 i couldn't gush enough about this level during the outro. In fact, the outro we saw was actually the second recording, because i got so wrapped up that i let the screen saver come up again. i hate that screen saver, i really do. The music is solid on throughout the level. Presentation stays solid. There are a lot of mechanical elements that work out. The secrets are actually a bit tough to pick up, even with them being obviously marked out. There's a spot where you can see the creator's picture, which was kind of neat (and not so in your face as to be disconcerting). Knowing where everything was, and not going for points or secrets, i was able to get through this one in about 16minutes, so if time is an issue for you, you might want to hold of a bit. However, you should definitely give this one a look; it's just not right it's only got a couple hundred plays. Patchwork Office - mascottag Yeah, yeah, this one picked up the LotD; and honestly? Congrats. Actual and genuine. Patchwork Office is a perfect little encapsulation of what makes LBP work. It's got a nice look to it, the gameplay carries you along at a relatively decent clip. It doesn't overstay its welcome; and it introduces a few things which, while not novel exactly, set it apart a bit from other levels. If you wanted to point out to someone outside the community what LBP can be, i think you'd be hard pressed to find a better level. So, that's the that. Even the weaker levels are, at least short. Hopefully there was something in the mix that caught your fancy and you could have a good time with. As always, thank you all for the support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs So... This might be a little TMI-y, and if you want to nope out, by all means do so and i won't think any worse of you for it. Also, there's going to be most nothing about the series or LBsP or whatever, this is just stuff i've been kicking around talking about for awhile, and yesterday's (mostly overblown, but still pretty scary at the time) earthquake provided a really clear example of what i'm getting at, personally at least. So... right. i've got about zero self-worth. Like, i've had people tell me i can come off at first as this really full-of-themelves jag, and it kind of floors me, because i'm getting to it from the completely opposite direction. It's easy to come off as stand-offish when your base assumption is you've got nothing you could possibly contribute (and yes, i understand the irony there, considering the primary purpose of my LBP series. Accept that people are weird and complex). So, the earthquake happened yesterday. And it was scary, and things jumped around a lot for a short period of time, and then it was done. Since the main of it was further north, i ended up with nothing broken, and the people around me pretty quickly started to go on with their days. Hell there were Moms and kids in the park outside my window. It literally, and i do mean literally, not figuratively, never entered my mind that someone might be concerned about my safety. i mean, really? Why? This despite the fact that the quake was, on paper, not that much weaker than the one that screwed the holy hell out of Tohoku; and the fact that the news amplifies the heck out of everything. So, i never thought to check my phone until way after. At which point i noticed that my ex had tried to get in touch with me 14times just by phone, and had sent a set of increasingly worried and/or angry mails. 'cause she cared, and she was worried that i might not be ok. The briefest hint of the possibility of the inkling that that might be the case...my brainmeats hadn't considered considering. Look, what i'm getting at is...this is not a cry for help or a pity poor me type of thing. What i'm getting at is, low self-worth is an issue, it's a problem. It can be actively dangerous to yourself (because, why not do something you know is stupid and/or potentially harmful...it'S not like the results will matter all that much), but it can, more importantly in my mind, also be pretty toxic to the people around you, the people you may care about. Because, how could your actions or situation concern or hurt others, since you've got no particular weight or value? Basically, this is a crap way to live. It's not fun. It's a good way to miss a lot of opportunities that life will send your way just out of random chance. It's a really good way to make decisions that will really screw you up, maybe not today or tomorrow, but that will sit there like landmines for you years down the road. It's an excellent way to alienate and push away people that care about you and honestly want to help. So... Look, i'm fine, mostly, -ish, but i'm, slowly and way too late, working my way through this stuff. But i want you to know. Yes, you. You have worth and value, and you have people who care about you and want the best for you. i care, i want the best for you, whoever you are. Thank you all for everything. Honest to Entropy, thank you from the bottom of my heart. (Also, honestly, and also ironically perhaps, don't worry. i'm not going anywhere) | 2018-06-19 02:12:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Wait...what? It's Friday? When did that happen? Err...anyway, coming back for another round! Episode 029 - Xerotic (https://youtu.be/NAw7gdBuLSI) This week we're having a look at: Mushroom Forest - Eadic City platformer 1.0 - m_g_g_j fete - foujumper MatterC (Hard) - ColinMacQ Overcast in the Gardens - Mr_Brains999 It's a decent enough set this go. Mushroom Forest picked up a ton of heat after recording, but that's cool. Hopefully you'll find something in there you can have a good time with. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback! Have a great day, now! Behind the Curtains Stuffs So, is lbpcentral.com down or something? The address just brings up something completely different for me right at the moment. We've wrapped Manny's arc here (or at least this stage of his arc), and got to tie up a loose thread with Lucretia, so that was nice. Weird thing with the hub this go...for some reason the clock isn't keeping time correctly. This has come up before (and in fact will come up in episode 030 as well). i don't know what's going on with it, but something's slowing down the timer it looks like. This episode was supposed to be called Yig, because i forgot last week's was the 2nd "y" episode. It's a bit of a shame, this is one of the few times when the title and title card matched up. But you can get the story of it here (hopefully this cues to the right bit of the video, though the whole album deserves a listen): Yig Snake Daddy ("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GOHAfniSTQ&t=743s) [Edit to Add]That's weird...it loads the song after Yig Snake Daddy. It should start at 12:23[/EtA] We're done with episode 030 except for the PiPs, and i'm going to start working those up once i finish typing this up. i've done a lot of ancillary recording for this one, because i'm going to be working some of the extra footage into the LBsP. i'm not sure if that's going to go up today or not, it'll need more editing than most do, and i really want to keep myself out of the house most of today; the weather's looking nice, but it's rainy season, so that won't last. Except...i think i need to record a bunch of Jside Isaac, don't i? Bugger. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ossu! Yeah, it's that time for the Tuesday Takeaway! Mushroom Forest - Eadic Other than finding a place you can drop out the level, there's not too much different with the play experience here. It's a shockingly good first level, and that's no lie. Very Ninpean in some respects. The music is good, hand-made, and slightly too loud as these tracks tend to be. The arrows continue to be persistent longer than necessary, which makes that cloud section more difficult than it needs to be, but aside from that it's solid on, and short enough to slot into most any session. There was one thing added, unfortunately, though. There's now a forced level link to one of Squid2723's levels. Marsh something or other. It's a fine enough level, but i hate being forced into something unexpectedly, especially when i'm on the clock, so to speak. City Platformer 1.0 - m_g_g_j Again, nothing particularly different here. That checkpoint really needs to have a better trigger to it, because it's super easy to miss. Also, something i didn't notice in our episode play-throughs, but you can use the gun to shoot those plasma launchers, so that's cool. Also, you can skip a whole climbing section by jumping to the right, so there's that. It's a fine enough level, certainly you couldn't call it great, but worth at least the one play. fete - foujumper This exists. To the extent that anything purely on-line with no physical component can be said to exist. Just...it's really, really not for me. Matter C (Hard) - ColinMacQ i still think once you get the gimmick this one drops to a hard, but fun level. For Entropy's sake, though, that gimmick can take an awful long time to click. Dealing with the early force bubble, where you have to use them to progress, is a bit of a pain. It felt a little too tough to determine just what direction, and with what velocity, they were going to throw you. On the other hand, the boost boots bit, that was great. Your mileage may vary, of course. Overcast in the Gardens - Mr_Brains999 This one could be massively improved with just a little better communication with the player, i think. The feel of the level, that kind of overcast, drizzly day, is nailed down pretty well; and i liked the semi-unique spin on the Gardens' material palette (usually it's used more to build an environment, than as a straight NES-style platformer, and that was kind of cool). On the other hand, like we said in the video, it's just too easy to forget that some materials are gameplay elements; and not differentiating between static wall-jump materials and throw-you-up wall jump materials was a poor choice in my opinion. So that was the that. Hope you found something fun in the lot. As always, thanks for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs We got all the levels recorded for episode 031, which is great, but we've kind of stopped there for the moment. The last few days, all i've wanted to do has been to play Isaac. Since i needed to rebuild my backlog, that's not the worst thing in the world. On the other hand, i should probably get at least an episode of LBsP out the door. Tomorrow, perhaps. If you've been jumping in the streams (thanks SirMonacle! thanks Paczek321!), you'll know that we'e going to run one more episode (for now) of Isaac on Thursday, then Friday and Saturday will be Enter the Gungeon. i make exactly zero promise on how well those will go, and it may be just a series of frustrating deaths, that will hopefully make for fun commentary at least. From Sunday we'll be looking at Gravity Rush 2 (with maybe a side step every now and then to another "one-shot" style game). i don't know how that's going to turn out, i've never recorded or streamed a long-form game before. It may be really cool...or it may be god awful. But, if you'd like to jump in and say hi, we'd love to have you! | 2018-06-25 23:57:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Good morning all! We've swung 'round again for another round again. Episode 030 - Whicker (https://youtu.be/Ssxv76X7Mdg) This week we're having a look at: My Obiamb Party - baibarsabuobeid (https://lbp.me/v/q2291d2) . ayDreamer:. - killervampire7 (https://lbp.me/v/qwj6dkv)Welcome To Wood Town! - DaisyPsyche (https://lbp.me/v/q22s49g) City Stroll - megasladon3 (https://lbp.me/v/q2fdf3q) Candy Land - minkwe (https://lbp.me/v/q25100d) A fun enough set of levels this week, nothing that stands out as a real clunker...i think. Anyway, hopefully you'll find something in there you can have fun with. Thanks as always and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Not too much to talk about really. We should have an episode of LBsP coming out today. It may already be up by the time you read this, since it's 6in the morning now. That's about it, i guess. - - - - - - - - - - Ossu! Finally getting out a quick one for y'all to nibble on! Episode 067 - The Well (https://youtu.be/JtKTQw4VTE0) This go about we're taking a look at The Well by TheAliklumKnight (https://lbp.me/v/q22gp8r). i'd been wanting to take another look at their work since we looked at The Township of Malgamor (https://lbp.me/v/qxw9sbc) way back in episode 026 (https://youtu.be/q6dQSNcfFBs) of the first season of R15F. The too long didn't watch here is that this is a much more accessible level as far as gameplay...though you may find yourself a touch lost with regards to the story. Still it's pretty neat, and well-worth at least a once over. Thanks as always for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs This was supposed to be the how-to/R15F production time episode, and it was supposed to come out yesterday. Then i decided maybe it wouldn't be so good to have an episode full of spoilers for something i hadn't put up yet. So i decided to start putting this together...but before i could wrap it, i fell asleep early. So...yeah, i could've done the episode i'd had in mind anyway. | 2018-06-29 05:07:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Time for another Tuesday Takeaway! My Obiamb Party - baibarsabuobeid Those checkpoints...someday, some sea change will occur, and creators will realize you have to make your checkpoints easily triggerable. This was not that day, but it could be tomorrow, i suppose. Disabling air control on the layer launchers would probably have been a good idea as well, but everyone forgets that one. Really, the bones of a pretty decent level are here, but like we said in the video, it could use a fair amount of expansion, and an awful lot of polish. .: DayDreamer:. - killervampire7 i'd really wanted to go into a bit about vampires when i was playing this one, and then i got distracted. Did you know that they're printing Vampire: the Eternal Struggle again? Man...that was such a great card game. i usually ran malks/!malks, and i didn't win very often, but when i did, it was fabulous. Oh, wait, we're talking about the level, aren't we? Right. Umm...i mean, it's not bad. It certainly accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish, but it just feels...kind of samey? i feel like i've seen this material/deco set dozens of times before, most often in the LBP2 era...maybe that's just a false memory, it's kind of hard to tell. i found the break point really easily this go around, which amused the heck out of me, that you can skip a pretty big chunk of the level. i don't really feel like that was intentional. Welcome to Wood Town! - DaisyPsyche Did you know Psyche! was a Celerity-based VtES card that would give you a press at inferior, and an automatic new combat at superior? i'D forgotten myself...i generally didn't run combat-heavy decks, and i don't think i ever tried a Celerity-focused one...oh, right, got off topic again. Ahh...DaisyPsyche is 8yrs old. Or at least they were 8 whenever they put together their creator profile. That's pretty cool, actually. i mean, the level is short as all get out, but it's completely coherent, and actually has some fitting gameplay. i'd probably have given this one a bit of a higher score if i'd noticed before the gradings. i usually heart players whose levels stand out to me...but an (almost) 40yr old guy hearting an 8yr old...i mean, it's not really a good look, is it? City Stroll - megasladon The forced level links are still here, and i so wish they weren't. i'd love to give this one an unalloyed recommendation, because i really like the style of it. Also, since it's relatively short, it's not really going to eat up much of your day. Man, though, i really don't like being crammed into a new level, let alone four, once i finish something. Tossing a bunch of unavoidable prizes on the player at the end...i mean...that's just kind of rude. Candy Land - minkwe minkwe didn't seem all that enthusiastic about the level in the select page, and i really don't get that. i mean, if you're not at least a little happy with it, why publish? This is another, "well, it is a level, you can definitely say that"-type. i honestly think with some polish you could gin it up into something actually pretty good. Those cameras need to be hella-tweaked, though. Lot's of slabby environments, too...which is a bit of a turn off. So, that's the that for this week. Nothing downright terrible, but i wouldn't call it the best set we've ever looked at. Still, hopefully you found something in there that was fun enough. Thanks, as always for all the feedback and support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs We tried to record this week's LBsP yesterday, and completely botched it at around the 15minute point...we're going to have to think about how we want to present this one i think. Did the Gravity Rush 2 stream on Sunday, and that was actually a lot of fun. Thanks SirMonacle and Paczek321 for showing up and helping out, and generally putting up with my flailing about. We had a diehard GR2 player show up toward the end, and that was pretty cool too, though my brainmeats were getting a touch drifty by that point. Did you know Edmund McMillen is putting out a Binding of Isaac (non-collectable, i think) cardgame? Well, now you do. He's running it through KickStarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/isaacfoursouls/the-binding-of-isaac-four-souls), so give it a look. And if it looks like something up your alley, give it some love. | 2018-07-03 00:04:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Hi waffle_king23, I'm a total admirer of your review series and the quality of your reviews! Thanks you so much for this great work! Many greetings, Jürgen^^ | 2018-07-03 08:59:00 Author: CuriousSack Posts: 3981 |
| Thanks so much, Jurgen! i really appreciate the support. Ossu! Friday's shambled back our way and dropped off another episode, so...let's go? Episode 031 - Vulpine (https://youtu.be/ogW542NP61Q) This week we're having a look at: The hive - dom_bhoy_13 (https://lbp.me/v/q254my3) Tahk Jungle II - knowntokill (https://lbp.me/v/q26w6n5) Metal Mansion - light_bulb_lunch (https://lbp.me/v/q25e270) Platformin' through the jungle - PikaPlayer-25362 (https://lbp.me/v/q25b272) The Tircky Tower - Gordon6Fam (https://lbp.me/v/q2507n9) It's an odd mix...which i guess makes it statistically normal for the show, now that i think of it. i knew Tahk Jungle II was going to get snapped up, it was inevitable, but we got to it early enough i figured we could indulge a little. Hopefully you'll find something that catches your eye and looks fun (i would nudge you toward The Hive, it's a weird bit of kit). Thanks as always for the feedback and support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs It is raining like something that rains quite heavily. Has been since Wednesday night. Just all, full on, real-deal-Hollyfield-rainy-season rain. Except, except when i was streaming yesterday. It stopped raining for that hour and a half. i'm only slightly miffed, over here. Unexpectedly got to a friend's birthday after work Wednesday. Unexpectedly on account of i've not seen folks with regularity for...well, too long really. Thankfully a mutual mentioned it on Twitter, so...i guess Twitter's good for something, sometimes at least. i don't have a lot of evidence, but my current working theory is weirdos (myself included) either don't age at all, or they age terribly, there's no real middle ground. Had a great time, though. We're behind schedule on production, but the last LBsP was part of the bottleneck, so now that we got that out, things should smooth out some. | 2018-07-06 00:02:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Kinda sorta late Tuesday Takeaway, but it's on Tuesday at least! The Hive - dom_bhoy_13 Kludgy, klunky, semi-easily broken, but i still found myself having a really good time with this one. i think it's that they're clearly trying to make a functional level, and try some new things, and they don't exactly fail at it. i like the enthusiasm there. Looking at their lbp.me profile, dom_bhoy_13 is a pretty prolific creator with 16levels published within the last 10months. i'd kind of like to take a stroll through their other work and see if there's a progression in skill going on. Who knows, if they keep at it, and the game's lifespan gives them enough time, we could have another great creator on our hands here. Or not, i mean, statistically probably not; but if optimism and pessimism are equally valid responses, i see no reason not to be positive about it. Tahk Jungle II - knowntokill Can't really think of anything to say that we didn't already, to be honest. If i didn't know much about LBP, and you'd told me this was a Story Mode or DLC level, i wouldn't even bat an eye; it's just that well put together. Something i did notice today, though, is it seems to be a bit of a victim of its own success. The first time i played (pre-LotD pick) there was very little slow-down or stoppage, but today it was just getting hammered, and i ended up pausing it and taking a bit of a walk until everything got loaded in and i could play as normal. Then again, when i played for PiPs, that was post-LotD, and i don't remember too much loading then...maybe this is a bad internet day on my end? Metal Mansion - light_bulb_lunch At least i like the creator's name, so there's that. When i was in uni, i thought The Jim Rose Circus were the bee's knees; haven't followed them in years, so i don't know where they're at now (i'm a bit afraid to check, any number of folks i thought were cool, ended up getting a bit twisted as time went on, or maybe they always were, and i just didn't know at the time...looking at you Maynard). Anyway, i mean, what can i say about the level? Not a lot, unfortunately. Though...thinking about it, i wonder if i missed something. Some of the scores were pretty solidly over mine, and i don't think i missed any point bubbles. The reviews were pretty positive too...i wonder if there was some secret area that i ended up overlooking. That would actually be pretty funny, if you ask me. Platformin' through the jungle - PikaPlayer-25362 i thought this one was better than Pika did, i have the feeling. The level select page slags it off as "another bland platformer," and i don't think it was really that. The environmental design, though at times a bit blocky, showed a fair amount of creativity, particularly with the statuary. Also, going though the tiki(?) head in the middle was kind of cool. Also, also, a Mega Man-esque appearing-block puzzle that was actually reasonable in its timing (well, maybe a little too generous, but i'd rather that, than way too tight). Sure it could be polished a bit, there are a few areas where there's a little too much horizontal running, but still, this one's definitely worth at least a play. The Tricky Tower - Gordon6Fan This one's like the spiritual evil twin to The Hive. It's a haphazard level, with a lot of simple mistakes in design (more than a few places to drop out here), and a not-very-great visual presentation. But where The Hive makes up for it with weird charm and a few novel ideas, The Tricky Tower slathers on a thick coat of frustration and calls it a day. i'd have a hard time recommending this to folks except as an object lesson in how to not make a fun level. So, that's the that. Definitely a mixed bag this go, but i think there are some good ones for play there, and hopefully you found something as well. Thanks for all the support and feedback, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs We've got episode 032 wrapped but for the PiPs, so slowly crawling out of our production hole. Got some of episode 033 together, but Tuesday's always a busy morning, so we're going to have to put the hours in tomorrow and on the weekend; still, i think we'll be able to have it sorted by Friday night, which gets us mostly back to where we need to be. Also building the Isaac backlog back up, but that'S pretty close now. i love doing the Streams, and i have no plan of discontinuing them; but by the same token, they do take up about 6or so hours of available weekly production time (6 hours? Four streams, about an hour and a half each...yeah, the math works out). So our morning schedule has been coffee with NorthernLion for about the past two years now. i was watching an Isaac episode i'd missed last night, and maybe it was just because i was tired and in a bad mood; but something he was going on about really rubbed me the wrong way. So i decided to take a couple week break, 'cause i know he tends to get in stretches where he goes over the same bits, and i don't want to get to the point to where i can't listen to him at all anymore. Anyway...this morning was really, really weird feeling, not sitting down with NL. i've got a fairly long vacation coming up in August. i'm thinking of taking a set back from production for it, just to reset my brain a bit. Maybe get out of town. i haven't been to Tokyo in about 12years, maybe? Though going to Tokyo in mid-August...i'm not so sure about that. Still, i'm going to have to buckle down and get maybe a 2week backlog in everything maybe a little more. It's something i'll need to do a little thinking on. | 2018-07-10 03:28:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Firday's come around again, so here we are for another go! Episode 032 - Unmask (https://youtu.be/lG5FK6LNZKI) This time about we're having a look at: Switch - SlurmMacKenzie (https://lbp.me/v/q373c88) Deadly Dungeon - kavonte1226 (https://lbp.me/v/qwt9ecw) Monstrum Swamp - gigiomd (https://lbp.me/v/q26t96q) Space grappling - SkrewAttk318 (https://lbp.me/v/q26f4qr) Dungeon Day 2: Moonlight City - Benj21000 (https://lbp.me/v/qzjzg-h) Switch...Switch...Switch...wasn't expecting it to get picked up so quickly, so you probably all already know about that. Still, it's a good 'un. It's actually a pretty good set-list all around this week. Some of the levels could use a little work and polish, but there still should be something fun in there for you to play. Thanks as always for the feedback and support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Err...did you know you can scroll out on the map in Gravity Rush 2? i mean, i think i did know that, i just never thought there'd be sidequests or stuff hanging out in some of the other areas. Whoops. And we were doing so well keeping everything nice and tidy too. | 2018-07-13 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Alright, then, it's Tuesday, it's Takeaway! Switch - SlurmMacKenzie Just a great level all around. The gameplay is so nice and fluid, and keeps you moving pretty much the whole time. What really sold it for me was the simple conceit that, yes, all the elements to move when you hit switches. It's just a really nice, really neat effect. There're a couple of areas where you can get a pretty good look at what's going on in the back, and i just kept jumping through switches just to see things get triggered. Seriously, neat city. Slurm did a great job with this one, and i really want the time to look at Neons. Deadly Dungeon - kavonte1226 Yeah, this was pretty much what we thought of it when we played for the episode. i really like the environment, aside from the water aspect of it. i think i was a little more forgiving of the look of the enemies this go about. Checkpoint placement definitely needs some work, and dealing with the flaming bloke was, again, a bit a pain. Thanks to the way LBP handles object physics, when i dropped it this time, the flaming bits just kept on bouncing up and down forever. That angled bounce pad bit at the end, that was pretty weird. So, basically, you have to bounce at an angle into the far wall, which is bouncy itself, use the momentum from that to run back to the bounce pad, and this time it'll send you high enough to get to the next area of progress...it's a weird way of handling things. Monstrum Swamp - gigiomad This 'un's definitely fun enough, and aside from that weird bit we saw in the first video, it's all pretty smooth. It's just the washed-out look that brings it down; it's really hard to see some of the gameplay elements, especially toward the end of things. Speaking of the end of the level, there's an area where you have an option to trigger a checkpoint that's way out of the way from the direction you're heading. It's such a weird placement choice, and it probably could've been scooted up closer to where you were actually going. Space Grappling - SkrewAttk318 Yeeeaah...like, i still have no idea what was going on with this one. Was it a force-chip? Material tweaked to be bouncy, and then be destroyed when it's been touched once? i've got no idea. Oh, that bit on the top we went back to in the video, that looked like it might have some kind of secret? Yeah, that was just batteries. Dungeon Day 2: Moonlight City - Benj21000 i'm not a huge fan of the overall look of the level, it's a little too blocky and slabby for me. Aside from that, though, this one's really really cool. i don't remember the last time we've played a real explorer-type level. the power-ups are doled out at a good rate, and i like the way they're implemented, and how they change areas you've already been in. Still don't know how to get to the last two treasures, but that just gives me a reason to come back some day and figure it out. So, that's the that. i'm pretty happy with this set-list, really. Even Space Grappling has a kind of charm to it. Hopefully there was something in there that caught your eye, and you wanted to play. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and, as always, have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs The next time i make the claim that we're getting back on our production schedule, you have my permission to come to Japan and punch me right in the face. Now if we're actually on our production schedule, that offer's not valid, but otherwise. Life...man...life's kind of a jag. So, i've got a whole new and interesting problem to deal with at the moment. So, that's fun. i may not actually get my vacation. i'll get the time off, everyone's getting that 'cause the schools will be closed. Actually using that time, though, is kind of up in the air. Wheeeee. Still, life is mostly good. The streams are going well, which is kind of shocking, considering the schedule. Thanks to everyone who's been showing up, and i look forward to seeing y'all on Thursday! | 2018-07-16 23:54:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! It's Friday! So, right, here we go again. Episode 033 - Tripe (https://youtu.be/px_E-Re9DUE) So this week we're having a go at: Cardboard Platformer - NoodlesAndSauce_ (https://lbp.me/v/q23bxd2) Magma inferno - markybarlow (https://lbp.me/v/q212pvw) China Restaurant - wischmopp28 (https://lbp.me/v/q09ntkh) Return to The Cosmos - kittnintro (https://lbp.me/v/qwmqggc) Original name... - stevent2002 (https://lbp.me/v/q03nmcz) It's actually not a bad set-list this go about. Had some switches and changes, on account of some of the levels i'd originally picked had turned out to be galleries or movies. See, this is why we record the levels before we record the intro. Anyhow, hope there's something in there you find enjoyable, yeah? Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs .... | 2018-07-20 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! It's Tuesday Takeaway time! Cardboard Platformer - NoodlesAndSauce_ There's not really too much to say about this one that we didn't cover in the episode. It's a shockingly coherent level for a first go of things, and that's really cool. The difficulty is a bit all over the place, and that rotating plus section is a real pain in the keister. There were actually some bonus, super-high-point score bubbles that i hadn't noticed when i was playing for the episode. i found one and it popped me up over mdkd's score, and i actually felt a little bad about that, i had played really poorly prior to that point. Magma inferno - markybarlow There are a bunch of places where you can short-cut using the boost boots that i'm not sure the creator intended. They're not really big ones, but still they shave a bit of time off. i've been watching a lot of AGDQ, so maybe i'm just noticing these things more often recently. i still haven't figured out what was going on in that Hero Cape section, not sure why it kept pushing me back a layer in that one section we looked at in the PiPs. markybarlow left a note on YouTube, which was really cool. Mentioned that they'd gotten the LotD nod, which i thought was great, but when i played this morning, there was no pink ribbon on the level...so i'm not sure what's up with that. china restaurant platformer - wischmopp28 So...wischmopp28 dropped me a line on my profile, let me know they'd updated the level after watching the episode. This was really cool. It's rare, but i've had that come up a few times, and it always feels nice. So, i was expecting maybe a little tidying and polish, maybe closing off those areas where you could drop out of the level. What i got was...a completely new level in the original theme. i was...not expecting that. The new version is actually really cool, and there's a lot more gameplay to be had here. There was the addition of one thing i wasn't super happy with. In the last third of the level, you get a number of areas where the floor will drop out from under you. There's no indication as to what panels will be dropping out, though; so there's a good chance you'll blow through a bunch of points before finally staggering to the end. Return to The Cosmos - kittnitro i love how much of this level you can just skip if you make the minor effort of keeping the boost boots longer than you're supposed to. i don't think that was creator intent, but i suppose it's always possible. i'm also a super-big fan of the wrap-around aspect of the level. That's a construction style that i really don't see all that often. Original name made no sense...so i changed it to this - Stevent2002 Just a goofy little charmer here. i thought it was cool the way they actually returned to one of the obstacles in a more difficult (ok slightly more difficult) variant. Would've liked to have seen that done a little more, but at least we got it the once. There's not a lot to say, because we pretty much caught everything for the episode. So...actually, i felt way more positive about all the levels playing this morning, than when i'D played them for the episode (and i felt pretty positive about them then). Hopefully there's at least one in there that looks like something you'd like to give a whirl to. As always, thanks for all the support and feedback, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtain Stuffs Episode 034 is mostly completely wrapped; just the title/end cards and PiPs to do. Not particularly worried about the title card, as i'm looking to use assets from a previous that (should) make it a quicker go. We've got initial set up for episode 035 done; we're going back to one of my favourite (and yet most annoying to work with) sets. No, not Marinara, we're never going back to that one, as much as i'd love to...it's just a super pain to do any work in. i haven't had a chance to get out an episode of LBsP, and my backlog of levels to look at there just gets ever longer. i'm really hoping to get one kit up tomorrow, but it's hard to make a hard promise on that one. We lost two dedicated streaming days because of stuff...which was annoying and disappointing, but ultimately probably for the best for my health and social life. Shifting Friday/Sunday to bonus episodes means if things align right, i can still do an episode, but i don't have to feel so beholden that i'm not doing things that need to be done. Also, it'll let us do more one-off games in the middle of more long-form stuff. So...yeah. i do want to thank everyone who's been showing up, makes everything a lot more fun. Also, i realized the other day that it would've been great had EnochRoot been able to show up for the LBP3 one back at the beginning of June. We had a bunch of tree puns there. i'm almost certain we may have made a "getting to the root of the problem" joke at some point. Conceptually, Switch is the best for Enter the Gungeon, the ability to just pick up and play suits it so well. Practically, the controller set-up makes it really hard to actually hit all the buttons necessary to play it well. Grrr... | 2018-07-23 23:34:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Thanks again for all your fine reviews, I've enjoyed every single episode! Many greetings, Jürgen^^ | 2018-07-24 09:55:00 Author: CuriousSack Posts: 3981 |
| Thanks man, that means an awful lot to me. i'll be doing my best to keep the coming at the same level. Ossu! It's that time again! Episode 034 - Syncretic (https://youtu.be/ZlP53E_IIVY) This week we're having a look at: Humble Beginnings - icofriendly (https://lbp.me/v/q38z80r) Willow - philly13s (https://lbp.me/v/q387ypb) My first crappy platformer - Boomuded45 (https://lbp.me/v/q398s8v) City jump level - PranksterGangser (https://lbp.me/v/qzpbfd4) Tower of fabric - rusnacu (https://lbp.me/v/qwee01q) It's a more hit-or-miss set-list than last week, but i still had a pretty good time with what we got. Hopefully there'll be something in there that catches your eye and you can have a good time with. As always, thanks for all the support and feedback, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i actually woke up in time to catch lsrs's stream this morning. It was completely accidental, and my brain immediately started screaming, "woah, woah, woah, this is way too early, even for me," so i guess the answer to "will i ever be able to catch the stream?" is "only if i stay awake long enough to do it." We've got the title card, intro, and levels all recorded for next week's episode. Going to do the secondary recordings and outro (hopefully) right after i finish typing this up. Now, i'm not going to say anything inviting disaster, but i think it's safe to let you all draw your own conclusions there.[edit to add]Finished all that up, so we've just got the PiPs to insert for next week's episode to be in the bag.[/EtA] Now, the downside to that is i've had to almost completely focus on just getting that done. This is the second week to come and go without an episode of LBsP, and that sucks. We've also got just enough Isaac in the backlog to carry us to...i think Monday? i have to check. This is...non-optimal. Well, nothing doing but to get out the shovel, i guess. Drawing to a close with Gravity Rush 2. There're still a bunch of side-quests we're not getting to, and i haven't even touched the Raven's Choice DLC. Might do the side-quests as a non-live wrap-up episode, and maybe we'll come back to Raven's Choice. i think 14episodes straight (what it'll probably come to by the end credits) is long enough for one game in a stream. i've enjoyed it a lot, mind you, but i don't want it to wear out its welcome. Especially since the last one or two chapters we played were one, long, semi-interactive info-dump. i think even if i hadn't been playing to an audience, that would've started to wear just a little bit thin for me. It's the contrast between the high speed, flailing action of the meat of the game that gets me. Oh, for you Gungeoneers out there, there was another, quite beefy, free DLC for Enter the Gungeon that came out last week. It added a bunch of new enemies, a couple of new bosses, and synergies between items and weapons (that i still haven't quite figured out). it feels a little more forgiving with key/heart drops, maybe even with ammo. It still kicks me in the teeth, but it's a bit more fun of an experience. Oh, and the balloon gun gives you flight, which was neat to find out. | 2018-07-27 00:08:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Why yes, it is the Tuesday Takeaway. Humble Beginnings - icofriendly The contrast between this level, and the one following it (Electrical Entourage), is kind of weird. This one's look is pretty slabby, and beyond the movement of the mountains (which, itself, is a little too synced up) there isn't much to recommend it from a visual standpoint. The gameplay, as well, is exceedingly basic. The boss, at least, has its own goofy charm, so there's that. To be honest, if it weren't for the forced level link, i don't know that this one sells the adventure quite well enough, though i might have given it a little more before giving up on things. Like i said in the video, EE is really the one to play out of the two. Willow - philly13s Not tremendously much to say about this one, really. At least nothing that we didn't cover in the video. That bounce pad is still not set to static object, so we got to push it off the cliff again. The level is short enough, and well-presented enough to make it worth a quick play, but absent secrets or expansion, i can't see myself going back to it all that often. My first crappy platformer - boomuded455 To be honest, this one really isn't all that crappy for a first platformer. It's actually there, as a level, and is fairly coherent throughout as far as gameplay. There are a few breaks in it, like with that balloon, but nothing egregious, nothing to put it in even the bottom ten of crappy platformers that i've played. Still, it does need an awful lot of polish, and it would be nice to have some music in there. City jump level - PranksterGangser i think you can actually hear my brainmeats slipping a gear when we're reading the title card and i notice, at the last moment, that it's PranksterGangser, and not PranksterGangster. Funny how the brain will parse text when it's expecting to see something that's not actually there. As far as the level, what can i say? The city area really needed to be built out more, it actually comes across as a tacked on extra compared to the (slightly) beefier space section. Not that you've got a lot going on in the space section either. Also...what was up with those HVAC units? i guess that's what they were supposed to be, but...man they were ug. Tower of fabric - rusnacu i think it's possible i graded this one a bit higher, because it came on the heels of a bunch of levels that were either not very good, or at least not living up to their potential. When i play for PiPs, maybe i should randomize the order of the levels. Still, this one does exactly what it sets out to do; it has a simple concept, and delivers on that concept in a fun, satisfying way. That has to count for something, right? It'd definitely be a fine addition to a playlist of cool-down levels, i think. Also, continuing with the theme of brainmeats parsing visual information...i don't know why i thought the two climbing sections used different coloured materials. Re-watching for PiP footage, they're clearly the same. That's just odd. So, that's the that. Nothing jaw-dropping, perhaps, but in the main a solid lot of levels that, at least, are nice and short and easy to experience in their totality. Next week's set might not have quite the same going for it, but that's a tale for next week. As always, thanks for all the support and feedback, and have a fine day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Continuing a thought in the Sackinima version of the thread, looking back at the events of the past few weeks...this is not going into the "will make a funny story someday" category. We finally got an episode of LBsP out, and that's a success. i think we'll be able to keep to a once-a-week-at-least schedule, but...i have the feeling that saying that has just unleashed some slavering hellbeast out there, which is now quick on its way to screw with me somehow. We got the dialogue input for episode 036 done, and that's nice. It needed a lot of paring down to keep it manageable, timewise, but there's only so much you can say in 2ish minutes when each little piece takes (about) 2.5seconds. It really is amazing how fast people actually talk, and how well our minds actually keep up with it. Spoken, you can cram a fair amount in a really short period. Anyway, the practical takeaway is the bit i had in mind might need to be split over two episodes...which does funny things with timing (why would a conversation take two weeks in the real world? You have to be able to justify that a little bit for suspension of disbelief). Ah well. With luck we might get the animations and cameras in today, which would let us get intro filming done tomorrow. | 2018-07-30 23:12:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Guten Morgen! It's somehow Friday again, and you know what that means! Episode 035 - Runaround (https://youtu.be/FXbn-LY2hiA) This week we're having a look at: Tikishore Island - SmileyJnr (https://lbp.me/v/q38j46c) Toxic Facility - jojo4924 (https://lbp.me/v/q3764yr) Everflame Castle - CalvinTheJerk (https://lbp.me/v/q39n70d) What lurks within - MatFluffles_2017 (https://lbp.me/v/q397rh2) Skyland Platforms - lolman22559 (https://lbp.me/v/q0fjrb-) This was a...interesting set to record...some of the levels didn't really click until the 2nd or 3rd play (and one of them never clicked at all), so there's a bit of a disconnect between the video clips and the outro. This is why i'm so glad folks pointed out doing PiPs to me; i imagine similar situations before could have been quite confusing to viewers. Anyhow, hopefully there'll be something in there that catches your eyeballs and looks fun to play. Thanks as always for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Now, i'm just relating purely factual information here, not doing any prognosticating trying to call down the Wrath of Entropy(tm) or anything like that. The fact remains, though, this week, and particularly yesterday, were stupidly good for production. Got next week's episode wrapped (but for the PiPs, 'natch). Got a new set kit up and ready to go for the week after (and the early get the characters, clocks, and whatnot prep done as well). The LBsP was on...Monday? Tuesday? Anyway, we did that thing too. All told, pretty darn solid. Had a lot of fun with the stream yesterday, which was nice. The was a shocking twist at the end of our third run that would have left me pretty salty as a player, had it not been so fun as a presenter (is that what i am? i mean, i wanted two "p" words for the sentence so...whatever). Unfortunately, the connection dropped completely as we were wrapping things up. Which, thinking timing, i guess is the best time that could have happened, but is just a new thing for me to worry about. Worse, because i can't really do anything about it, as far as i know. So...fingers crossed for Saturday's Gungeon stream. Did get a message from one of my semi-regular viewers that they'd not gotten a notification from YouTube when i'd started streaming, which is kind of bunk. At the very least we've managed to keep pretty tight to our schedule, though i know converting the time zones can be a bit of a pain. If you want to jump in, the times listed on the playlist page [Playing to an Empty Room] are pretty solid, and if they do need to change for some reason, i'll put up a quick video to explain what's going on. Anyway, if you haven't you're always welcome to drop on by. Let's make the series title semi-ironic! | 2018-08-03 00:03:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Woop woop! It's Tuesday Takeaway time again! Tikishore Island - SmileyJnr This was really weird. So, i picked up a key sticker when i beat the level, i guess? So when i used it, it unlocked some kind of super power-up that shoots out a blast that will blow up the watermelon bits, and put out the hot coals and lava...so basically it nerfs all the difficulties presented by the mocktail sword...that's...kind of an unusual way to go about things, it's like acknowledging the base design of the sword is poorly done? Anyways, breezing through the sword bits allowed my brain to focus on how frustrating some of the Grabinator puzzles were, so...err...success? Toxic Facility - jojo4924 This is a surprisingly sold first platformer, to be sure. There's a fair amount of challenge, but none of it is overwhelming. Like i said in the episode, it probably would have been better to have the level start in "easy" mode, and give the player the option to switch it to hard, instead of the other way around, but that's a minor quibble. i'd still love to know what was going on with that sinking platform, though. That was the only one of the lot with that problem, but it basically makes that obstacle impossible. Weirdsville. Everflame Castle - CalvinTheJerk Yeah, so...what i said in the episode? 100times that. To be honest, if i could go back and re-record it, i'd probably give it a Red Triangle. Which is a shame, because the presentation is definitely there. What lurks within - MatFluffles_2017 i do like to get requests and recommendations from folks, even if i can't always accommodate them. Still, i'm always a little worried that that level will turn out to be suck, 'cause i'm going to have to be upfront about that if it's the case. Thankfully, it wasn't the case here. The level is on the short, simple side, but it's only meant to be an appetizer, so that's fine. Mat got in touch with me on YouTube and said they'd been worried the grappling was a little bit too tough...which is interesting how people gauge difficulty. i thought, personally, that the grappling could have been expanded a bit and made a bit tougher. Skyland Platforms - lolman22559 Perhaps not the best example of the type that we've ever looked at, but it's smooth, short, and sweet, and that has to count for something. i do wish the cameras hadn't been quite so herky-jerky, though. So...yeah...that's the that. Certainly a weird set-list this go about, but not without merit, i think. Hopefully there's something in there that was fun for you, yeah? Thanks as always for all the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs *Knowing and bitter laugh* | 2018-08-06 22:42:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Guten morgen! Guten tag! Guten nacht! Err...that's just about all the German i know right there. At least all the polite German. i really ought to learn how to do greetings in every language. Anyway, it's that time again! Episode 036 - Quimper (https://youtu.be/_d-9APZ-1rg) This week we're having a looksee at: Caribbean Caper - Emporuto (https://lbp.me/v/q2bssdm) Just Oiled! - SYSKNTT (https://lbp.me/v/qze8qhz) Don't Let Them In - katoregama (https://lbp.me/v/qxvrg9f) Mega Walrus TSL Carrot Cake Desert - VoyakiloidMai (https://lbp.me/v/qxmf-4n) Taku Taku Island! - LuJuster (https://lbp.me/v/q1xqey3) This is an uncommonly good set this go about. i'm pretty sure there'll be something in here that'll catch your fancy. As always, thanks for all the feedback and support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs We hit 100subscribers on the 'Tube! i...have no idea when that happened, actually, since i've got email notifications turned off. Still, it's pretty neat. i was planning on doing a bonus stream today anyway, but this is as good an excuse as any. Yesterday was...whooboy. Basically we knuckled down on production, i don't even remember how many Isaac episodes we wrapped and uploaded. Got everything but PiPs done for next week's R15F-S2, and i'm going to try to get that done in a minute. mdkd ought to like the title card for that one. i really need to get two LBsPs in today...i'm a might bit miffed i hadn't been able to get at least one done over the last week, but there're only so many hours in the day. So, why all this, then? Well, like i think i mentioned a couple of episode's posts ago, the company's closing the schools for Obon, so i'm on vacation until the 18th. So, i'm stepping away from electronics for about a week. i've basically been in super-production mode for...well, definitely since June, when i started adding the streams; but even when it was just R15F, the learning curve to put an episode together well, generally meant the same amount of time was being used. i don't know what i'm going to get up to. i'm wavering between a bunch of little daytrips in the area (there's an abandoned amusement park not so far from here, if i'm remembering right, and it hasn't been torn down yet), and taking a local train up to Tokyo or somewhere fairly far off, just getting off the train when i'm bored, and spend the night where ever i'm at. i suppose i could just find a mountain to hermit on, that's always a possibility. Practically, for us, what this means is there won't be a Tuesday Takeaway, at least, not on Tuesday. Also, if i do get a scheduled LBsP, there won't be an in-thread update post. Saturday's and next Thursday's streams are off, though like i said up-post there should be a bonus stream today. Also, being basically off-grid means if you need to get in touch from tomorrow, it'll have to wait. Sorry about that. Hopefully this won't be too much of an inconvenience; and my brainmeats will be a touch more functional come next Saturday. | 2018-08-10 00:06:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Hahaha, now I'm curious about the less polite German words that you know! | 2018-08-10 07:57:00 Author: CuriousSack Posts: 3981 |
| Hahaha, now I'm curious about the less polite German words that you know! Well...the (very) little i know tends to crop up in-stream, and in my Isaac videos from time to time. Ossu! It's Friday, my vacation's kind of over, and we've got another shot coming 'round again! Episode 037 - Parkbench (https://youtu.be/6fSAEOOHcEs) This go about we're having a look at: China temple plateplam - imamannn (https://lbp.me/v/q27z13j) The Grate Twosday Escape - shearenvy (https://lbp.me/v/q3ehntk) Block by Block - niall-mag (https://lbp.me/v/qy2wbk1) Creepy-Crawly Crypts - jatoquin2 (https://lbp.me/v/q39rbsf) "Epic Crash Train" - FivePin3s (https://lbp.me/v/q3efxqp) It's a pretty fun set this go about, though there is one of...those...levels that's gone and snuck into the mix. Ah...well, these things do happen, don't they? Hopefully you'll find something in there to your taste. Thanks, as always, for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs So...the vacation was...well, it was mostly relaxing, so that was nice. Went with the short trips/low-impact style, mostly because i had the feeling going up to Tokyo was going to end up costing a lot, regardless of how i got up there. We went up to the abandoned amusement park, which turned out to be far less abandoned than i'd been led to believe. i don't know if it'd gone through some kind of rebirth since my friends had gone to it, or if they'd just over-sold it. It did make for a fun trip, though, and the run down bits were appropriately creepy (it helped that i'd got there before opening, and could just wander around the mostly-empty park). One highlight was being the only person strolling around the haunted house, and it was maybe the only effective haunted house i've been to in Japan. Part of that was it being a walk-through style, and not a cart-on-tracks one. Also that the paint-job on a lot of the spooky-objects was just kind of...wrong? It felt less like walking through an old Japanese ghost story (which, i figure, was the intended effect), and more like that bit in an 80's slasher movie, where our intrepid Final Girl stumbles into the killer's house, and every thing is decorated Ed Gein. i loved it. A big chunk of my free-time (of which there was entirely too much, to be honest) i spent re-reading my Yotsuba& collection. It was cool to notice how much more of the dialogue i could understand compared to the last time i'd done a full re-read (though, to be fair, Yotsuba is probably the easiest manga series i have). i started reading through Tekkon Kinkreet, and while that's been an easier go this time about, it's definitely more of a struggle than Yotsuba. i walked myself mostly to exhaustion every day, which i should point out is something i actually like doing. Lots of time to think about this and that, and also i slept like the dead most every night, which i appreciated. Also that i actually tanned up a fair amount (though, i do tend to tan up relatively quickly). i look slightly less sickly than usually, not having my dead-fish-belly-white pallor. That's...good i suppose. There might be a bonus stream today, since i'm going to be doing some production work anyway. It's good to be back, folks! | 2018-08-17 00:06:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Double Tuesday Takeaway today! Caribbean Capers - Emporuto It's funny, but even the creator recognizes the raft is too slow and awkward, and regrets leaving it as is. It is, that's true, but it fits in with the level, and makes diegetic sense, so there's a darned-if-you-do-darned-if-you-don't thing going on here. Like i said in the episode, i loved the visual presentation and level design of the islands. They really hit a bit of a nostalgic sweet spot for me, so i'm glad i played the level, but, truth in advertising, i didn't play the full level this morning. Neither the time, nor the patience for it. Just Oiled! - syskntt i love the heavy visual design of the level here. There's lots of movement going on in the background of the level, and when you trigger things with the oil gun. The power-up itself is mostly well-utilized throughout the level, though it is a little limited in its application. Really, there's not much to complain about with this one. Definitely give it a look. Don't Let Them In - katoregama i really wish i had the free time to really indulge with levels like this one. It takes its sweet time letting the story unfold, and gradually building out what you can do and how you interact with the level. It does have its negative points, though. Mainly the lack of checkpoints. i understand not making the level an infinite life one, that would drain a fair amount of the tension out of it. On the other hand, considering the time investment here, i can see players noping right out of taking the second chance at the level if they screw up. Maybe if they'd implemented a save/memorizer function, so progress wasn't lost? i'm really not sure how that would work. Mega Walrus TSL - Carrot Cake Desert - VoyakiloidMai i really should play this series through from the start, so i know what was going on, i suppose. i appreciate all the effort it must have taken to get all the characters and their abilities working, though it didn't seem that all of them were all that necessary, to be honest. There's not a lot of direction in the level though, so it's easy to get to areas where you throw a lot of lives away, only to find that there's no real need for whatever reward you find (usually a secret golden nugget). Also, the attack range on that worm we showed in the PiP? That was straight bs. Taku Taku Island - Lujuster This one got screwed a little, being together with four quite impressive levels that were really pushing what they could do, so it comes off looking a little lackluster. i mean, yeah, it is a little lackluster, being just a simple little platformer, like any number of others we've run into throughout the series. On the other hand, it has the benefit of being short enough to actually complete, which, in this set, was very much appreciated. China temple plateplam - imamannn You can see first time level creating written all over this one. It's fun enough for what it is, but you've got the bad cameras and overuse of collected objects that are the hallmarks we've all come to know and love. Still, it manages to be mostly functional, and only has a couple of drop out of level areas. i'll be interested in seeing how imamannn grows as a creator in the future. The Grate Twosday Escape - shearenvy No, just...just no. Block by Block - niall-mag i liked this one the third time through about as much as i did the first two times. Which is to say, quite a lot, really. i liked how each block had an isolated gameplay element, and generally really pushed that. It does mean that there's not a lot of consistency to the difficulty level, though. There is a lot of challenge, enough so that i didn't manage completing it again. Well, some day, maybe. Creepy-Crawly Crypts - jatoquin2 jatoquin2 fixed the broken checkpoint! Huzzah! i don't know that that was because i pointed it out, i'm pretty sure it had come up in the level reviews previously. Still, it's nice to see problems actually get fixed for once in levels. This level is one of my favourites, i just love the little skull buddies, and the general presentation of things throughout. The difficulty and gameplay reminded me pretty strongly of early story mode levels from LBP1, and i'd like (but don't expect) to see that expanded on; more levels in the same theme but with growing difficulty each level would be pretty keen. "Epic Crash Train" REVAMPED - FivePin3s i had a good time with this one this morning, but something started to creep in on me as i was playing. Mainly, there's no real tension. On one hand, i know that having an auto-scroll at the very beginning of the level might be a lot to ask of players (especially if the difficulty is going to drop down after that), but on the other hand, even though you've got the shaking camera, you know that train's not going to drop until you get out of it. So, even through the presentation is telling you "hurry up! hurry up!" you know you can just dawdle your way through. Even though FivePin3s is going for a close match to the original, it might have been better to add an early platforming bit to get the player warmed up, and then have a more difficult cliff-/train-climbing bit after that. So...that's the that. Hopefully there's something in the lot that you can have a good time with. Thanks as always for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs So! Freaking! Busy! Spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday rebuilding the Isaac backlog, which didn't need being done to quite the extent i did, but i got kind of locked in. Monday, in particular, was awful...because i was trying to get the Ultra Hard challenge, spent all morning trying to set up a winnable run, and only ended up with two episodes that i actually felt comfortable publishing (both of which were failures, of course). Unfortunately this has meant not putting the time into R15F that i needed to. The levels for Friday's episode are recorded, so that's good, but i've hardly got the set-up done for the intro (just the early stage stuff, like changing the boards and calendar and such). Arrrg! It doesn't help that i spent a bunch of time setting up some characters, and then decided to scrap that bit of the story for now to wrap something else up instead (which will require a completely different character to be set up). Plus. i might be losing most all of Thursday (and probably all of Friday) for production so i can get some real life stuff done and.... This week's episode will be finished by Friday, but there's no way i'm going to be getting much work done on next week's. Aaaa...mouuuu... This also means, there may be a bit of a lag until we have the breathing room to put out any LBsP episodes. Aaaa....mouuuu! | 2018-08-20 23:54:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| *Yawn* Ohayo de gozaru! It's that time come about again! Episode 038 - Organ Grinder (https://youtu.be/-AXOuVD4F3M) This week we're having a go at: The Elephant Escapade - jaylev (https://lbp.me/v/qzxt8kq) The Ivy Castle - brandonlakey (https://lbp.me/v/q3-0hms) Pain - mangorio (https://lbp.me/v/q07md1g) ShortCardboard - matteovivai (https://lbp.me/v/q38ev1q) The dead of time - bradley031 (https://lbp.me/v/q3b5pn5) It's not a bad set-list, though we've probably had better. Doesn't help we stumbled into another one of those levels again. Two weeks in a row? Really? At any rate, hopefully you'll find something to your taste in the lot. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Holy crow, just...last week. All of it, especially yesterday (excepting the stream, which turned out really well; thanks all y'all who showed up!), can take a long walk off a short cliff. Yesterday, at least was...clarifying. Disappointing, but clarifying. i'm not not happy with the episode, but it was rushed. The outro turned out better than i initially felt about it, but still...i don't know. It could have been better? The title card is ambiguous, to be honest the idea came to me and i ran with it before i could really think if it was a good one or not. My preferred reading is Officer Thompson is successful in talking down our interesting coifed friend, but death of the author and all that. There was something else i was going to say, but it's completely slipped my mind. Whee! | 2018-08-24 00:02:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Hahaha, ok, the outro is a little bit short, but your "hide and seek" efforts have been funny! Thanks a gain for sharing! Many greetings, Jürgen^^ | 2018-08-27 07:48:00 Author: CuriousSack Posts: 3981 |
| Hahaha, ok, the outro is a little bit short, but your "hide and seek" efforts have been funny! Thanks a gain for sharing! Many greetings, Jürgen^^ Yeah, not really needing to say much about pain peeled a couple of minutes off the usual run-time. i...i think i'm ok with that. Alright, time for another Tuesday Takeaway! The Elephant Escapade - jaylev A bit of an odd one here, to be honest. Playing it now, i really like the visual presentation, particularly during the race (which helps to keep the player from noticing they're not doing all that much besides running to the right). The gameplay prior is just, well, it's really kind of awkward. The bits that look like wall jumps, you can run right up those, which means treating them similar to a wall jump just slows you down. The marsh bit is way trickier than it has any right being considering how early on you have to deal with it. There could have been a little more scaffolding before that part, i think. Still, in the end, i found it to be pretty enjoyable, and had a good time with the third time through. Also, they either fixed the bug at the end, or i was just unlucky getting it when i played for PiPs, because this time after the cutscene, i just got sent to the scoreboard. The Ivy Castle - brandonlakey This is a fun one, have no doubt, though i'm not sure it's necessarily level of the day material. The cameras have got a real nasty swing on them that can be a bit nauseating if you pass through their trigger radius too quickly. i did like the gameplay, though. It reminded me a lot of playing during the LBP2-era. Just a straight-up, semi-stylized platformer, and i always appreciate that style. Pain - mangorio Man, in its own way, this is even worse than the non-level we had last week. i have a particular hate-on for these whingy, "oh-woe, oh-woe the game isn't what i want it to be" levels. If you're not finding the levels you like, change the way you're looking. If you're not happy with the community, build up your own and make your corner of the larger community better. But no, some folks have just got to throw up their whinge-level, which, in perfect irony, just adds to the very problem they're complaining about! Side note: the outro took a lot of takes. The one we ended up keeping was far less harsh on Pain and mangorio than the ones we ended up scrapping. ShortCardboard - matteovivai This is actually far more coherent and nice in gameplay and presentation than a lot of first time levels we usually see. Yeah, it's got its issues, but it manages to be fun and have a mostly smooth flow throughout. i hope matteo keeps creating, and keeps growing as a creator. The dead of time - bradley031 Bradley plays the GB copy of LBP3, though i don't know that means they're English (that's what that means, right? GB is for Great Brittan?). So perhaps we chalk up the poor text to youth? i tend to notice these things, is all. It's not a deal-breaker, but it does undercut the story. i liked the little platforming that we got, using switches like that is fairly rare, so it stands out when i see it. Wish there had been more, but i don't think that's what the level was going for, so i can't really hold that against it. It was nice playing something of a type i rarely look at. Even nicer to actually enjoy the experience. So that's the that. Hopefully there's something in there that you'll find fun. Thanks as always for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i'm slowly clawing my way back to my usual production schedule. Further along than i was this time last week, though still pretty far off from where i need to be. Which means, unless i get some serious work done today (not an impossibility), there probably won't be an LBsP put together tomorrow, which is a shame, but i kind of knew that this was going to happen. Right now, i'm leaning toward not having a season 3 of R15F. As things are now, as much as i love doing the show, i always feel like i'm a bit on the knife's edge for getting things done when they need to be done, so they can have the quality i want. Also, Dreams will eventually come out, and i know i can't run two shows that require the amount of production R15F does at the same time. If i do decide to stop at the end of this season, what i want to do is make a dedicated schedule for LBsP, doing at least two a week, where one would keep the any-level-goes format we use now, and one using the more restrictive level selection style of R15F. Along the way, i'm thinking of using bonus episodes for things like tutorials, stories, and community/show updates. Nothing's decided yet, mind. We still have 13 episodes in R15F-S2 to get through, but i wanted folks to know the trend of my thinking right now. So...my wife and i are officially divorced. Or, well, we've put in the paperwork; we do seem cursed to have to go in at least once for a round of corrections anytime we have to deal with the government. We're ok with things, and with each other. There's been a lot of time talking things through; we've probably had more time the past few months actually talking about things that are important than in the last few years. Unfortunately (well, there are a lot of unfortunately things, but this is the most troubling and possibly pressing), one thing we've discovered is the sister-in-law is way more toxic than either of us had ever given her credit for. i'm not going to get into details (for a lot of reasons), but it's been a major cause of stress and exhaustion for both of us. If i am (or have been) a little more snippy and scattershot than usual recently, i just ask a little forbearance for a little while. Thanks folks. | 2018-08-27 23:40:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Back again for another round! Episode 039 - Nostrum (https://youtu.be/QaJgVw72FB4) This go about we're having a look at: The Lost Temple - Pug_maniac (https://lbp.me/v/qxk3-ed) Ninja - xXQueenDollyXx (https://lbp.me/v/j2v4pd) Fire Dream - Buffalows (https://lbp.me/v/qzwp1wm) Torn dimensions - dirtydragon14 (https://lbp.me/v/q0sne53) Overgrown Tank - ItsVolltz (https://lbp.me/v/q3bh8r6) It's a fine enough set of levels, with a couple that stand out quite nicely, and none that fall completely on their faces. Hopefully something in there will look worth playing to you. Thanks as always, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Can't believe how fast we've plowed through the year already. Time to start tying up the loose bits of plot that we've got lying about all over the place. Though there should be a fair amount we can get done yet in the three months we've got left in the season. At the very least we've got to get Manny back somehow. Tonight i'm finally seeing Ant-man and the Wasp (i haven't been holding off on it or anything, it's just finally come out, is all). This is probably only interesting to an extremely small sub-set of people, but it looks like they're finally integrating the Antibirth fan-made expansion into Binding of Isaac, which is pretty darned cool. Even if you're not an Isaac fan, Mudeth's soundtrack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5gejcfpr1w&list=PLkpGvIpK1f3r6yTChZtlzn-kj5uWHS77v) for it is a masterpiece. | 2018-08-31 00:03:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Guten morgen! It's Tuesday Takeaway time! Lost Temple - Pug_maniac Playing through this morning and...it's just a level that blends into dozens of other levels out in the community. It's not that it does anything particularly wrong; in fact, as levels go it's pretty competently put together. It's just that it doesn't really do anything that sets it apart in the end. Aside from, maybe, that pixel art pig-beast-thing that rises up out of the lava, and that's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of thing. As was pointed out to me by Countess_Roadkill (Ostler5000) there was a slide that i ran right past without even noticing in the first play (and the play for PiPs, for that matter). Even keeping an eye out for it this time, it was way easier to bypass it than engage. Ninja - xXQueenDollyXx So...i don't know what was going on this morning, but the spike-hitbox bug was in full effect this morning. Was it because i hit the lower path trigger before hitting the upper one this time (the first time i played, i'd done the reverse, since the upper path trigger's on the left)? i don't know, but i have neither the time, nor the inclination, to debug it. Fire Dream - Buffalows Playing through this time really brought home the disservice the zoomed-out cameras and undifferentiated materials do to the visual presentation and detail work of the level. Though, saying that, the lava-rock material does provide a nice warm feel to the lighting. The gameplay is solid enough, though not really much to write home about in the end. i kind of feel like i should've given this one an orange diamond, rather than a yellow square. Still it's fun enough for what it is. Torn dimensions - dirtydragon14 This one is such a good example of how to implement a power-up in a level. It's integral to progress throughout the level. While superficially limited in effect, dirtydragon14 manages to have a variety of uses for it. As a custom-made one, it's well-designed (though, as noted, it is prone to breaking if you spam it), and well-presented both visually (with the lighting change) and aurally (with that really satisfying, almost tactile, *CLUNK*). Unfortunately this one's also a textbook example of how not to set up a difficulty flow in a level. There's no scaffolding for the timing necessary during the piston sections, and there is nothing, before or after, that even approaches that level of difficulty. So you're left with this huge roadblock that gives a false impression of the level of skill required for the rest of the level. i can easily see a lot of players just giving up there, and the one's who make it past thinking, "well, what the hell?" Also, unfortunately this is a pretty good example of a level falling through the cracks in the community. In the year and 8months since the level was published, it's had 30plays, and 3of them were me. The level really deserves a lot more love, and if it had received some back-and-forth feedback when it was put up, it probably could have been much better. If you have the time, give this one the once-over, yeah? Overgrown Tank - ItsVolltz We play so few Toggle levels, and fewer still that i actually come away enjoying, so this one was a pleasant surprise. Great visual presentation, and a really nice backing track (though it was a touch on the loud side, as hand-made tracks tend to be). Both aspects of Toggle are actually necessary for once, instead of Big Toggle getting maybe one moment to shine. The gameplay is nice and smooth, and the pace is quite well-done as well. It's not all that long, but you're in the level long enough to get a really good feel for it. All around great level. So, that's the that. Some really good levels, a couple that need a bit more polish, nothing that's all that bad. Hopefully you can have a bit of fun with them. Thanks as always for all the feedback and support, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i'm resigned to the fact that i'm probably not going to be on my usual production schedule for at least a couple of weeks. The last few i've not really had consistent use of the telly, and the next few will be me digging my way out of the previously created hole. At the very least, i'm well sorted on Isaac. Ant-man and the Wasp was really cool, and just an all-around fun movie. i think it's a great example of using (relatively) low-stakes to drive an enjoyable superhero movie...not everything has to be "save the planet" or "defeat the evil god." The mid-credits stinger left me a bit salty, even though i know why it's there. It's just, it basically abnegates the entire movie preceding (and means that the film doesn't really function as well as a stand-alone experience). The really cool thing about the night, though, was noticing a signboard at the theatre advertising a reshowing of John Carpenter's The Thing this October. Now, The Thing is one of my favourite movies ever, and i never thought i'd get the chance to see it on the big screen, so this is a really big...well...a really big thing for me. i don't know how long they'll be playing it, but i'm going to try and see it a couple of time while i have the chance . | 2018-09-03 23:21:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Holy crap, it's 3.44 in the morning....errr...i mean, it's that time again! Episode 040 - Montebank (https://youtu.be/PfZ3XOZXJjA) This week we're having a look at: Galaxy Run - A-Purple-Box (https://lbp.me/v/qxjtbqj) Painty Tower - gameAMOUR (https://lbp.me/v/q3bmdpc) Agent Raptor - ZedCOcoZza (https://lbp.me/v/q3de56b) Tricky Tower - kuma9k (https://lbp.me/v/qt6719q) Flow - BROTHM GARDEN - ramon234567 (https://lbp.me/v/q3bkxy3) It's actually a pretty cool set this go around, though not all the levels hit the mark they're aiming for. Hopefully something in the lot catches your eye and looks like something you can have fun with. Thanks as always for the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i don't think i've ever been quite as frustrated doing an outro before. i mean, i've had times when things didn't flow the way i'd wanted, but this one was really kind of absurd. By the time i finally got a take i was generally happy with, it was close enough to 2am to just stay up a bit longer and catch lsrs's weekly stream. Of course, that means i didn't get things all wrapped up until *looks at clock* weeeelll...it's 3.48a now. The stream was really cool. A lot more fun being a participant, than just watching the video later. They'd had the same issue with chat messages not showing up in the PS4 UI as i had yesterday afternoon. This was actually kind of comforting, as it seems it isn't just some setting screw up on my end. Still i hope SONY gets things sorted out, trying to keep one eye on my laptop, and one eye on my TV is kind of annoying. There'll probably be an afternoon stream today. Like 95% probability. i need to sleep forever now, but i also need to be up before 8a....this is a problem. | 2018-09-07 00:23:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Heyos, Tuesday Takeaway time over here! Galaxy Run - A-Purple-Box This is just a really "meh" kind of level in the end, isn't it? i kind of liked the brighter look of the early space-mine bit, but that's over far too quickly and everything's pretty drab looking afterwards. In fact, that whole Swoop section could have probably stood to be bulked out just a touch. The real killer, though, is the lack of momentum we mentioned in the episode. At no time did i feel like i had a smooth flow through the level, but worse, i never thought such a thing would really be possible, regardless of my knowledge of the layout, or improvements in skill. If a player's got that feeling about your race, they're not going to come back and play it again and again to try and get a better result. Painty Tower - gameAmour Had a fun enough time with this one this time around, but i've got to wonder about the presentation choices. Like, why beige for a background colour? It manages to be both drab and ugly at the same time. Pulling in the cameras a touch would have probably helped the lack of decoration and differentiation in the materials. Two bits about the gameplay that did irk me a bit, though. One was inconsistency in mechanics. Having things that launch or bounce you will do that in one section, but not in another. The other was the introduction of the hazardous crayons at the end. They're right on top of you as soon as you get in range, and they're pretty darn tricky to dodge. Might have wanted to introduce those a bit earlier in the level. Agent Raptor - ZedCOcoZza This is such a cool level, and a style i don't really get a chance to often play (certainly not for the show). i really came around to liking the need to actually think about the timing of your attacks, though that feeling of "oh, well, i screwed the timing on that one, didn't i?" took a bit of getting used to. Sound and music are very well done. The look of the level is spot on, coherent, and well-suited to the story. The one real fly in the ointment is the camera shake when you jump. i can get why it's there, but it gets to be a bit much pretty quick. Thankfully it's not a part of the boss fight. Tricky Tower - kuma9k Liked this one a lot more after the fourth play, which is good and bad, really. i don't know if a lot of players are going to give a level that many chances to click (though the fact that you can definitely feel improvement might be a good hook). The look of the level does pretty well pound a lot of my "like" buttons. Wish the hazards were a bit easier to spot, though. There's something about the electrical hazards in low light that makes all the materials around them look hazardous as well. Something ought to be done about that ramp, as well. Maybe putting in a bit of logic so that it becomes immobile once you've pushed it into place. Flow - BROTHAM GARDEN - ramon234567 We ran into the creator of this one on lsrs's livestream on Friday, and that was cool. Was interesting to hear some of their thinking in making the level, and was nice that they could take criticism (about the checkpoints) in the spirit they were intended. Some folks aren't really able to do that. Anyhow, check out that stream if you want to get a little director's commentary. As for the level, i really love the way the level looks. Wasn't so happy with the lack of momentum in a level that was supposed to be a momentum based level. Really, really wasn't happy with how long it took to get to a checkpoint in that first section. You'll be re-covering a lot of ground until you've got a good handle on the level's mechanics. So, that's the that this week. There should definitely be something in there that will tickle your fancy. Thanks for all the support and feedback, folks, and i hope y'all have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i hate to say it, and i really don't know what the reason is, but i have basically no motivation to do anything but make Isaac episodes. i mean, that's great for the Isaac series (we're backlogged up into October at this point), but not so great for anything else. | 2018-09-10 23:37:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Good morning all! It's that time again! Episode 041 - Lunkhead (https://youtu.be/iM0WnWqVtGQ) This week we're having a look at: Moonshine's Castle of Dreams - CrazyCatQueen (https://lbp.me/v/q0yskq7) Lumberwood - AlpiPynnonen (https://lbp.me/v/q3e6-ed) Relaxing Concept - SweetGingerAle (https://lbp.me/v/qv9855w) Kamitorii No Hikyou - PAZUDORAb (https://lbp.me/v/qvttrct) Billy's Toybox - aveman101 (https://lbp.me/v/qt0msfw) It's an oddly chill set of levels this go about, not a lot of high-stress, high-danger, but that can be nice too sometimes. Hopefully there'll be something in the lot that looks right for you. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Got everything wrapped early enough that i couldn't really justify staying up for lsrs's stream, which is a shame, i had a good time with it last week. Still, the extra 4hours of sleep was well appreciated. My own stream is chugging along well enough, barring technical difficulties like the connection dropping out like yesterday. i'm...kind of enjoying Axiom Verge, though sometimes it really is too obtuse for it's own good. i've been doing well enough not going to FAQs, but we may need to soon so i don't have to spend another episode mostly stumbling around in the dark (though, at least we got a lot of the map explored, and picked up a bunch of optional, but helpful stuff). i'm going to see Meg today...i don't really know if that's a good thing or not, to be honest. | 2018-09-14 00:10:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Another early morning Tuesday's Takeaway! Moonshine's Castle of Dreams - CrazyCatQueen This is a fun little trip down memory lane, here. The gameplay is really reminiscent of LBP1, in mostly good ways. Though, like we said in the episode, the sparseness of decoration calls back fairly strongly as well. i forgot to mention in the episode, but there is one little wonky bit of gameplay in the level: there's this tree bit where the platforms disappear Mega Man-style. They're not hard to get through, but there doesn't seem to be a particular cue or tell to let you know when they'll start to go. Lumberwood - AlpiPynnonen Yeah, the monsters are big and goofy looking, but they've definitely got a simple charm to them. The environment is quite nicely-done, particularly for a creator who doesn't have many levels under their belt (though, of course, there could be a lot on there moon we're not seeing). The gameplay isn't all that flash, but it keeps you moving well enough. i managed to get up on top of the wheeled monster this go about to grab that extra score bubble. That was kind of neat. Relaxing Concept - SweetGingerAle Screwing up the puzzle in the episode was very, very dumb on me; not that these things don't happen from time to time. The camera in the upper area is pulled out by necessity, but it can make your Sackthing a bit tough to parse. i liked the weird randomness of the design here, it works strangely well with the Gardens background for some reason. i really wish the level had been fleshed out more, though. It's kind of more a Teaser, than a fully developed thing. Kamitorii no Hikyou - PAZUDORAb i forgot to mention that "pazudora" is what they call Puzzles & Dragons over here, maybe that's a thing everyone knows. It can be really hard to tell what's common knowledge. i don't know what was going on with this one today, but i was having a lot of trouble with layers and i kept jumping and expecting to be pushed back a layer, only to fall into some gap or another. Also...surely that one bit we saw in the episode was supposed to have lighting, right? Also, also, plank bridges with wide gaps can take a nice long walk off a very short pier. Billy's Toybox - aveman101 The big story here is that the version we looked at was stolen. Wish i'd known that before it was too late to edit the video, though at least i've changed the links. i think we covered everything i'd wanted to say in the video and my feelings on the level haven't changed. Which is not to say it's bad or anything like that; quite the opposite, it's great fun, with a very solid presentation throughout. Definitely worth a play or two. And that's the that this week. Hopefully there was something in there you had a good time with. Thanks for all the support, and have yourselves a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs The Meg was terrible. Not even terrible in a fun way. Terrible in a slogging, draggy way where you don't care who lives or dies, you just kind of want the credits to start rolling already. That might just be me, but i'd recommend saving your money, yeah. | 2018-09-17 21:35:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Mornin', mornin' seems that time has slouched about again, hasn't it? Episode 042 - Klatch (https://youtu.be/9ZlTKiweV9o) This week we're having a look at: Down in the Pumpkin Patch - drstixx12 (https://lbp.me/v/q28e-) On The Hill - dannymitch2008 (https://lbp.me/v/q3fje4r) swoop's "tree" house - Samho168 (https://lbp.me/v/qt4ssc3) Mr. YellowHead's 2D Adventure - tacoman2004 (https://lbp.me/v/q3fjssw) An American Diner and the Grand Neon Tree - SkullerFin (https://lbp.me/v/qzxtfq2) One of our standard, eclectic mixes this go about. Nothing terrible, one really good one, and the rest ranging from "ummm...ok" to "yeah, that's pretty well done." Hopefully at least one of them really catches your eye, tickles your fancy, looks appealing to you...that kind of thing. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, folks, it means a lot to me. Hope you all have a great day now! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i've woken up exactly just too late to catch lsrs today, which, to be honest, i've pretty much resigned myself to. Got today's episode wrapped at a reasonable hour (if a week later than i'd like), so...yeah... The stream actually didn't break yesterday, which was nice. Also, chat seems to be working again, so i don't have to keep glancing over at my laptop to keep up with what people are saying. We had a bit of a lively one, which i always appreciate. SirMonacle has returned from whichever climes they'd been haunting, and mdkd99 made an appearance as well. All in all quite a good time on my end. We've finally got Manny back from Infernus! Yay! i had a good time putting together the intro piece this go about, though as always, there really wasn't enough time to get in all the story i'd had in mind. Feel bad about Lucretia in particular, her dialogue got chopped down to two lines. But needs must when the devil drives, no? i'll have to have them in the intro next week to fill things out a bit. This week's title card is, i think, one of my favourites. It didn't turn out entirely how i wanted (they never do, do they?), but even still. i like the idea of there being a cafe/bar staffed by forgotten video game characters. i imagine i'd be run by Asagi. That reminds me, i really ought to finally have a long sit down with Disgaea5. We're down to the final 10episodes of the season folks. Hard to credit, isn't it? Bonus because i'm tired enough to be dumb. A picture of myself at...20? Around that age, at least. 50653 | 2018-09-21 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Woop. It's super early Tuesday Takeaway time! Down in the Pumpkin Patch - drstixxs12 The environment and atmosphere are the main selling points here. There's a good material selection, and i do like how the platforms make some kind of diegetic sense. the gameplay is...well, when you get down to it, it's pretty slight. You've only got those rotating bits, and that's about it for the platforming. There are the Blink Ball and Power Glove bits, but there's not really much to hang a hat on there. Still, it's a nice Autumn-flavoured walk, and i can appreciate that. On The Hill - dannymitch2008 It's a pretty good level for a second creation, i have to give it that. Pretty slight on directions, but it manages to build a pretty cohesive (if early 90s video game-esque) environment. Could use a bit of decoration, perhaps, but that's not a deal breaker. The cave bit was nice, and the access to it was well-handled. The elephant in the room is jumping off those sponge bits. Man do they get real frustrating real quick. The one we saw in the video, and a later set of three rotating ones, a spaced with barely any wiggle room. swoop's "tree" house - Samho168 i don't know what's up with those quotes. It's a tree. Unless we're getting needlessly pedantic and saying that since it's a representation of a tree in a video game it's not the real thing. Which is a viable read, but then house should be in quotes as well. i don't really think Samho168 was thinking that deeply about it, though. Our new assistant area manager (who is pretty much a muppet) has put up signs in the break rooms reminding us teachers to put on our "genki" face (yes, with the quotes in the original) before we enter the classroom. This probably says more about me than him, but it makes me incandescently angry every time i see it. Mr. YellowHead's 2D Adventure - tacoman2004 Not an awful lot to say about this one. i like seeing creators try something a little different, and this one fits that bill. At the same time, i think it could use a bit more time in the oven. There's just too much of a gap between hitting X and actually pulling off the jump. The level is pretty short, but it works as a test of concept, in the end. An American Diner and the Grand Neon Tree - SkullerFin Alright, just to get it out of the way, the song can just go to hell. We're clear on that by this point, right? Ok. This one is a perfect snapshot of one of my favourite types of environments in LBP. Using something real-world as a jumping off point to make something weird and lively, but still having a strong cohesion to it. The gameplay is mostly solid, though there are a few bits i'm a bit iffy on. i'm not really sure how much control you have over that purple velocaraptor bit. i'm willing to forgive that much. Also, something that often gets overlooked, but, the length is a really good match for the pace. So, that's the that for this week. We've got good, bad(ish), ugly, and weird, so...pretty much a full house. Or a royal flush? Or, i dunno, something like that. Hope there was something here you found fun. Thanks for all the support and feedback and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Remember Overgrown Tank from (ostensibly) ItsVoltz? Well, yeah, actually that's Overgrown Tank from VeryCoolMe (https://lbp.me/v/q1mrztb). i grind my teeth almost constantly. Oh...not over this, but it doesn't help. Went to VCM's lbp.me to let them know their level'd been klept, and...i don't really get up into LBP-drama, but there seems to be some kind of drama going on there. Ah well... i don't think i mentioned this, but we finally got the triple save file clear in Isaac (at least on the PC). The problem is, for a while there, i was recording 3episodes a day, so the actual episode that happens won't come up until Oct 11th, i think? Also, i've got so many episodes in the backlog, i pretty much can't record any more. We wrapped Axiom Verge on...i think it was Saturday? Yeah, must have been Saturday. Anyhow, i found myself having less and less fun as the game progressed. i mean, the streaming side was fun; no problems there. But the affectations and nods toward old-school Metroid? They get pretty old, pretty quick. Missing a jump and falling down two or three screens? Getting absolutely lost because there's a single block of lava you need to glitch out to actually progress (when you don't need to do that at any other point in the game)? Yeah...in the end, i was pretty happy to see the backside of this one. Will have to think of what game to do for our next long-form. Hopefully something i actually already have, since i'm pretty well broke (that forced 10day vacation we had in August? Yeah, that peeled about 300bucks of my paycheck...whee...). | 2018-09-24 20:51:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Guten morgen! It's that time come 'round 'gain! Episode 043 - Jackanapes (https://youtu.be/QHVsNfK3EUE) This time we're having a go at: My first (And probably worst) level - krishna55561 (https://lbp.me/v/q3g5sg7) Sky island - darthjojo2005 (https://lbp.me/v/q3c-v84) Music Box - iHeartArt (https://lbp.me/v/q3g1rew) Oddsock's fast fun fest - Suncaptured (https://lbp.me/v/q3fhd3t) The Wicked Land - theRacso05 (https://lbp.me/v/q3g5d7k) Got most the whole range this week, so that's...interesting. But, definitely some good stuff in there. Hopefully you'll find something that looks to your liking. Thanks as always for the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i've got the levels recorded and initial hub set-up done for next week's episode. Probably could've gotten more of it done yesterday, but my brain was just well-broken. At this rate, i'll be back to my hoped-for production schedule round about episode 49 or 50. Was noodling around with Enter the Gungeon before going to bed last night. Haven't played in weeks, and was thinking of maybe doing a bonus stream of it today, so i figured maybe a little practice would be a good idea. So, of course, i got The Bullet (the secret character, not the item) unlocked by accident. i really wanted to get that done in-stream, but...the conditions presented themselves, so... Still, i was disappointed. Happy, but disappointed. Is there a word combining those two emotions? Had the weirdest dream that i was doing an episode of LBsP on a level done by Jim Sterling. Not that, as far as i know, he plays LBP, or has made any levels for it. Though it's certainly possible he has. It was a lot of stress, because i was sure whatever i said, he would lambaste me on his show. i do like watching him, from time to time, though i find him grating in large doses. What it reminded me i'd like to do, though, is have a special episode on Return to Carnivalia. Not sure how i'd set it up yet. Maybe the usual 3minute per level for the normal ones, 1minute for the minigame levels? However i set it up, it'd be a well longer episode than normal, and take a lot longer to get put together and published. We'll mark that as a maybe, at the moment. Bugger...i've forgotten the other stuff i'd wanted to say...s'ppose that's fine, we've nannered on long enough. | 2018-09-28 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway time! My first (And probably worst) level - krishna55561 What to say about this one that we haven't said about the dozens of others we've seen before. At least krishna55561 was up-front about the quality, and hopefully their next one will be a step up from here. Sky island - darthjojo2005 i feel like there have been a few changes made here, but not really enough to make a difference in the final product. darthjojo2005 has been showing up in the stream-chat recently, and they seem like pretty decent people. mdkd99 has taken to giving them some advice, good advice mind, but i'm not sure darth has quite picked up on it (like setting the jump pads into the ground instead of on it, he did that for the triggered pad, but not for any of the others). Still, they seem to be an avid creator, and i expect they will be improving more as time goes on. Music Box - iHeartArt Did this one pick up Level of the Day a bit back? i feel like it did, but it's only got 1,902 plays. i would have expected more of a bounce, really. Came away from it this time feeling even more positive about the level than when we did the episode, and i regret a little not giving it a Green Circle. The integration of gameplay elements throughout the level is really solidly done. The environment is pretty delightful to look at, and quite cohesive in theme and design. It is a little difficult to track your SackThing at times, and judging what's in what layer can be a little tough, but those felt a little less negative this go around. Oddsock's fast fun fest - Suncaptured This one is so bog-standard that i managed to forget it was on the list twice this morning alone. It is interesting that it makes you choose between points and progress, so there's a little tension there, but...it's just pretty meh in the end. At least it's not exactly bad. The Wicked Land - theRacso05 This one picked up Level of the Day today, so good for theRacso05! This one's another really fun one. There's some of the feeling of a really fun LBP1 level here (even though none of the gameplay elements would have been doable in LBP1). It might be the presentation of it, i'm not sure. Still, it's all the way through fun to look at and fun to play, and i don't think a lot of levels quite nail that balance. So, that's the that this go about. Music Box and The Wicked Land are definitely strong levels for the week, the rest, well...yeah. Thanks as always for the support and feedback, and have yourselves a great day! | 2018-10-02 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Mornin' all! Time's come round again, no? Episode 044 - Iliac (https://youtu.be/_uuc-O_51VM) This week we're having a look at: The quicksand woods - AureliusMagnus (https://lbp.me/v/q20evr5) Caja De Sorpresas - krufo_6 (https://lbp.me/v/q0t5hg6) Platforms - GranthamAMP (https://lbp.me/v/q3g6e8h) Getting crafty! - Brina1813 (https://lbp.me/v/q3g4qj6) Beyond imagination 2 - muleRR (https://lbp.me/v/q3gn1ve) Errr....yeah, this is a bit of an interesting set list for us. There's definitely one level in there i think we can all agree is good. The rest? Well, ymmv, i suppose. Hopefully there's something for you in there, though. Thanks for all the support and feedback, and i hope y'all have a great day. Behind the Curtains Stuffs So, yesterday the chat was going really well. i think we had like four convos going on at once, and i was doing pretty well juggling game and chat. Had a couple of good Gungeon runs that didn't pan out, and one where we were able to actually clear the Convict's past (and getting the W against the Dragun was one-hit touch-and-go, very tense). And then, right at the end, some jaggamuffin rocks up to chat, and apropos of nothing starts talking about...well...nothing i'm much comfortable having in my chat. It's not as though my streams are language- or topic-wise 100% G-rated, but still...it really burnt my toast. i suppose i should be happy that in 2years of making videos, and...i think 4months of streaming, this has been the first time it's happened, but i'd rather it hadn't happened at all, right? At least i know how to bounce someone from chat now, which also removes their comments from the chat window (though not, unfortunately, from the UI in the video itself). i've started a second Isaac stream, because i have some kind of mental damage i guess. This one's in English. The funny thing is the first video in the series picked up more views than any of the 800some episodes i've done in Japanese. Weird, that. Umm...we're at least getting R15F episodes produced on time. We're going to try and get an LBsP episode out today or maybe tomorrow depending on how the editing goes. i should have gotten the recording done for it last night, but by the time i got some other things i needed to do done, i was just too tired to focus. | 2018-10-05 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway Time! The quicksand woods - AureliusMagnus There's really nothing to say about this one. The hazard could be worked into an actual level, i think, though it should probably be a bit faster in killing the player. Otherwise it's going to chunk the pace of gameplay. Still, the effect was decent enough, i suppose. Caja de Sorpresas - krufo_6 The pace of this one is just all over the place, and it ends up feeling overlong in the end (or by the time you die enough to end the level, which i did, again). The enemies were nice in their inclusion, though pretty frustrating in their execution. The spinning electrical hazard on the top hat ones is really tough to figure the timing on; and the triple-braincase things are really tough to pop in one go without getting hung up on their spikes. Also, they've got a really weird recorded noise they make that gets old pretty quick. It's not a bad level, per se, just frustrating and, ultimately, disappointing. Platforms - GranthamAMP Meh. Meh. Me~~h. There's just nothing really going on in this one. i have to admit i liked the intro with the stairs dropping into place, but after that? Well, y'all saw the video. The environment's sparseness could have been forgivable if we'd gotten more in the way of gameplay, but in the main it's a lot of simple horizontal movement across vast spaces. The jumping bit at the end could've worked if it'd been a touch shorter, and there was some other gameplay element between the bounce pad portion and the regular block bit. Again, it's not exactly a bad level, but i think your time could be better spent elsewhere. Getting crafty! - Brina1813 This one's probably the best of the "bad" levels. Some thought is given to a cohesive, if abstracted, environment. The gameplay bits were frustrating, yes, but at least not over-long. i do think the order could have been switched up to better effect, though. Maybe 1>3>2, or 2>3>1. Just to give the gameplay a bit more of a feeling of variety. i did like the companion's tableaux toward the end. Brina1813 dropped a line to say they were more of a movie-maker, than level-builder, so it might be their strength is in setting up scenes. That is something i can definitely understand, being basically a good description for where i'm at in LBPcreation. Beyond Imagination 2 - muleRR This one was the gem in the donut. Or is it jam? How's that idiom go, anyway? Whatever, bad choice, i hate donuts with fillings, whatever they may be. What i'm trying to say is, this one was the cream of the crop for this week's episode. It kind of makes sense it's a recreation (or perhaps republish) of an LBP2-era level. It might be just me, but while i love a lot of levels that could only have been done with the LBP3 toolset, i think LBP2 probably most consistently gives us great levels. i'm not sure why that is exactly. Maybe just having a more robust toolset (though still with limitations like layers) combined with a much more active community so you have a lot of people bouncing ideas off each other. i don't know, but the LBP2 community levels are special. i hope we get a similar situation once dreams gets its feet on the ground and starts running. So that's the that this go about. A pretty fair amount of dross, but that last one makes it worthwhile, in my opinion at least. Hope you found something in there to float your boat. Thanks as always for the feedback and support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i've been struggling to carve out the time to finally finish up my LBsP episode on Chronos453's Chapter Zero. i've got principle level recording done, but haven't been able to get around to PiP recording. Part of that is getting behind in my hub set-up for Friday's R15F and behind the streams (since they're scheduled) that has to take priority. Part of it is just being a little low recently, no particular reason. Or enough reasons that you can't really point to any one and say that's it. i dunno. Went out looking to rent Girls' Last Tour, since i've been reading the manga and really liking it. None of the video shops has it, unfortunately. i even (drunkenly) signed up for Netflix on the off chance i could watch it there. They ain't got it either. While i was looking around, i stopped in a i don't know what you'd call it...a sub-culture-adjacent shop? They stock manga, and a whole lot of other weird bric-a-brac. Didn't find Girls' Last Tour, unfortunately, but i did stumble across Joshikohei, which i'd read about ages ago, made a mental note to check out, and then promptly forgot about. Picked up a couple of volumes and...it's weird. So...humanity has migrated to another dimension (because we've screwed up Earth, i think? It's a few steps above my reading level, really). Anyway, we get into a war, and the only way to really fight is...to pilot giant bio-mecha which (for reasons that completely escape me) look like high-school girls. It sounds absurd, and it is...except...the art style doesn't really present it that way, like, visually it reads like it's playing the conceit perfectly straight. It is completely brutal, in almost every aspect, and there are very, very few of the softening aspects present in some manga (like abstracted, detail-light, character/facial design). Midway through the first volume they're fighting some giant beast that can mutate/absorb the Girl Fighters into itself until it's some hideously deformed flesh-crafted monstrosity. Oh, and did i mention that if the pilots are active too long they start to think they're actually high school girls (albeit armed with giant guns and fighting hideous monsters)? Because that's totally a thing in the story, and it's about as disturbing as you'd think. i'm still not sure how i feel about this manga yet. | 2018-10-08 23:25:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| And we're back! Episode 045 - Hexaphene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5TxpIQJebs) This go about we're having a look at: Twilight Gardens 2 - DrBacon3457 (https://lbp.me/v/qy27fpj) A hop through the Gardens - IrishRob74 (https://lbp.me/v/q2-5fw3) Autumn: Take Me Home - Edmark16 (https://lbp.me/v/q3gqx2f) Dimensions voisines - musnake (https://lbp.me/v/qtznxg1) CRYPTICA - Slufoot_48 (https://lbp.me/v/qy2qzwr) All in all i think we've got a much better balanced set of levels this week than last. There's only one iffy there, and even that might be a Your-Mileage-May-Vary type of thing. Hopefully there'll be a couple in there that catch your eye and you'll have fun playing. Thanks as always for the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs We're in perfect weather for a funk, that's for sure. The mornings have been pretty uniformly grey, and most (but not all) the afternoons have been that overcast null-time, where it could just as easily be noon as sunrise. Feh... i need to remind myself that anything involving doors is going to be a complete pain to put together. Really, i should kit up a couple of sets that could be slotted into any set, because something always goes sideways when i try making them from scratch. So...this hub took forever to get working the way i needed it to, and then forever to record because i kept flubbing my lines, or not being happy with delivery (or twice during the outro getting so involved with what i was saying that i forgot to move around and the stupid screen-saver got triggered. i was livid). i think next week's set is going to be something easy to just get into and record. Today's fun fact, Hexaphene is used in embalming. There are a number of different variants of it from fluid to jelly. We used the jelly style, mostly for times when we couldn't get extremities embalmed thoroughly enough due to artery damage/blockage. Also for faces on the few occasions when there would be a really long wait between the embalming and service. Stuff was strong as hell, smelled awful like you wouldn't believe, and was very toxic. Work has been, worrisome, to be perfectly honest. We'll see what it's looking like in the next few months, but i'm honestly starting to get a bit antsy. i still don't know what the heck is going on with that manga i was reading. i'm on the fence as to whether i'll pick up the next two volumes. It's only a 6volume set, which i think is a pretty good length provided the author actually has a good idea for wrapping things up, and they're not scrambling to end something they'd originally thought would go on longer (both Biomega and Deadman Wonderland feel like they were supposed to have another volume or two, and end up with slightly unsatisfying denouements). | 2018-10-12 00:01:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway time! Twilight Gardens 2 - DrBacon3457 This level hits a lot of my like buttons environmentally; it just looks cool all around. The slowdown issues from the glut of score bubbles is a bit jank, though. Also the way the cameras shift when you go forward and backward in layers can be pretty jarring. Still i was happy to get a chance to play this one. A hop through the Gardens - IrishRob74 Fun little level, though there's really not a lot going on here. i do wish it'd been a little better as far as presentation. It just feels a touch empty in the end, really. Still, a nice little cool-down level all around. Autumn: Take Me Home - Edmark16 This is such a good level. The way it's able to sell the story and emotional tone just through environmental cues is great. i loved the work that went into the character, and the implementation of her various abilities. Wish the bow and roll had gotten a little more use, but perhaps Edmark16 will bring us another work in the future that makes a bit more utilization of them. All in all this is a well-derserving Team Pick, and well worth giving a couple of plays to. Dimensions Voisines - musnake Not exactly a bad level, but not particularly stellar, either. The level sets up a story, but never really delivers on it, which is a bit of a shame. It's nice to have some environmental interactivity and puzzling, but some is exactly what we get, and not one iota more. The sudden switch to the space scene is pretty jarring, but, still, it is a cool enough environment. i still feel warm about the level, but it definitely could have been left in the oven a touch longer. CRYPTICA - SluFoot_48 An ultimately disappointing level here. Some of the ideas are decent enough, and the environment isn't bad, exactly. It's just hampered by the usual issues of implementing 3d movement in LBP3. Still, it's worth a play or two, at least as a way to see how these things should (or should not, perhaps) be handled. So, that's the that. All around pretty good set this go, and even CRYPTICA is interesting, even if it doesn't quite pull off what it's trying to achieve. i hope you found something in there worth your while. Thanks as always for the feedback and support and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Already a busy morning here. Got the levels for Friday's episode wrapped, which is always good. Not really worked on the hub yet, but that really shouldn't be an issue. i've already got an idea for the intro, and it's pretty low-stress, at least as far as kitting things together. Got an episode of English-Isaac and Jside-Isaac done, which keeps us a couple of days ahead of schedule. Also finally picked up the Unknown Armies 3rd ed set, and Death Road to Canada for the stream. Busy, busy, busy me. Last Saturday we went out to a...show? Event? i'm not really sure what the classification is here. It was a lot of fun, and i'm not really a lot of fun type of person. It was nice to be in a crowd where the weirdness level is so skewed that i come off as relatively normal. And everyone was really friendly, positive, and chill. Ran into a handful of old-friends i really need to renew contact with, and had an all-around great time. Got a bit of a long weekend upcoming. Ostensibly to see John Carpenter's The Thing, but really to carve a little time away from work. i am seeing The Thing, of course, wouldn't miss that for the world. | 2018-10-16 02:55:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Early morning and comin' up at you! Episode 046 - Gestalt (https://youtu.be/NDXbtx3Rrsg) This week we're having a look at: Canyon - Anakin1472 (https://lbp.me/v/qy2c670) Rainbow Factory - dbowens123 (https://lbp.me/v/qyrnb41) The Psychadeleum - CaptainCrunk-116 (https://lbp.me/v/q3hrg9-) Cave platformer - jekmasikje (https://lbp.me/v/qyk9dcv) cardboard land - URABadDog (https://lbp.me/v/q2mkemc) It's certainly a set of levels. Yup, definitely a set of levels. You can't take that away from it. Honestly, though, there're some fun ones here, but the lot could probably use a bit of polish. Still, hopefully there's at least one in there that looks like a good time to you. Thanks, as always for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Time is utterly borked. Darn you straight to heck, time! | 2018-10-19 00:47:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway time has come 'round again! Canyon - Anakin1472 Nothing spectacular here, but nothing really terrible either. The look could stand a bit more polish, and the grapple section could be made a bit more clear, but that's about it, really. i do find it a touch odd that the name of the level is canyon, but there's nothing in the actual level that gives the impression of a canyon. Maybe Anakin1472 just likes that word? Rainbow Factory - dbowens123 So, i missed the whole My Little Pony thing. It blew up well after i got to Japan, so... Anyway, apparently Rainbow Factory is a grimdark fanfic based on a fan-made song that was done for a contest? i think? i looked it up, but it didn't seem like life-critical information, so most of it is out of the memory bank already. From what i gather, the factory grinds up failed pegasi to make rainbows? i don't know. Anyway, that all makes this like a fourth-degree removed fanwork? Which is pretty meta. The gallery is garbage, though. i mean, beyond the fact they didn't tell us it would be a gallery. There was just zero effort put into the presentation. i guess one of the costumes was kind of ok? The Psychadeleum - CaptainCrunk-116 i really enjoyed the look of this one, it's not purely random, there's some method to the madness of the presentation. i really like when that works out, it reminds me a bit of Creature Feature, i think it was. We looked at it last season if i'm remembering right. The gameplay is where things fall down, for me at least. i never felt like i could keep a smooth pace going through the level, even this time when i basically had everything mapped out in my head. That start-stop is a little annoying even in a SackThing level, it really stands out in an Oddsock one. Still, i think i could recommend this one for a few plays. It's still pretty new, too, only published last week with 11 plays, and three are mine. Cave Platformer - jekmasikje Looking at this one with a perfectly critical eye, it could stand a lot of polish. The environment needs some more decorating, and the power-up removers really need to be made invisible. In fact, the level could probably be changed a little to allow the power-ups to be completely removed. There's also well too much flat running going on. Still, i'm a sucker for the fake-out ending, which shows up surprisingly infrequently in levels. jekmasikje manages to pull it off twice here, and i really enjoyed it. cardboard land - URABadDog Ummm....yeah...this was...it was a thing. The boss actually bashed itself apart this time, so...that's something i haven't seen before. i do feel bad about running over those cardboard chappos in the video. So, that's the that. Not the best set of levels we've seen, but not the worst for the most part. Hope there was something in there that you could have fun with, at least. Thanks as always for the support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i'm really loving the update to Unknown Armies, but i wish they'd given it another quick pass by an editor. There are tons of subject/verb agreement mistakes. Seeing as that's probably the number 2 or 3 most frequent mistake my students make, it stands out like a giant neon sign whenever i see it. i think what happened was they did a search-replace on pronouns, and then forgot to change the verbs. It's driving me up the wall, though. *sigh* This is the curse of being an English teacher, i suppose. | 2018-10-23 00:23:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Very early morning here, so let's go! Episode 047 - Fulgid (https://youtu.be/GqVwmJbcNn8) This week we're having a look at: Made By My 20yr Old Son - fourad (https://lbp.me/v/qzgvcce) ESCAPE - LemonCat324 (https://lbp.me/v/q3ee69b) Tomb raider and the Jade Temple - toe-fu-fighter (https://lbp.me/v/q104ghb) Adventures in Paperland 2 - Indomitus1973 (https://lbp.me/v/qy9g096) Year 10: LBP Anniversary (https://lbp.me/v/q3j6-hx) It's a pretty cool set of levels this go about, which is particularly nice considering this is the 10th Anniversary weekend for LittleBigPlanet. Hopefully there's at least one in there that catches your eye and you can have fun with. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs This week's title card is another one i ended up quite happy with, though i don't really know why. i do think i could have angled the camera a little better to show the box-bug is supposed to be part of the Trick-or-Treating party. Still, i just kind of like how the scene came together in the end. Actually got a win on yeasterday's stream of Death Road to Canada. We also recruited an anime sidekick who later exploded on everyone. Look, it doesn't make anymore sense to type than it does to read. i'm thinking i might drop the dime for RE6, since it's on sale. i know it's a terrible game, but it's terrible like Friday the 13th part VI, which could make for a fun stream. At least it would have better legs for a long-form stream; i've the feeling Death Road might get old pretty quickly. Speaking of streams, the Saturday will be an LBP stream for the anniversary. Might go a little longer than usual too. Hopefully you'll be able to drop on in. Quick logic question. If you wanted a following object, for example a cardboard cut-out of a SackThing to rotate as the SackThing rotates (for example if SackThing runs up an attract-o-gel wall, the cut-out's head would point in the right direction), how would you go about logic-ing that up? | 2018-10-26 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway time again! Made by my 20yr old son - fourad Err...yeah, this is certainly a level. It does have some interesting bits; there's a well-angled camera showing us some shutters opening and a creepy Humpty Dumpty looking out the window. It never really gels as a level, though, and some of the bits are just plain sloppy. Still, it was an experience. For some reason i particularly liked the bit where you're running down a hallway, and they've carved into the thin material of the wall "Now you're running behind this." ESCAPE - LemonCat324 This is a pretty good first effort, to be honest. It has a clear idea what it wants the player to do, and the level is set up to make that happen. The black-and-white filter helps hide the fact that the visual design/presentation is otherwise really quite simple and bland, although it can make the spikes a little hard to see. Like i said in the episode, the only real improvement i could think of would be to incorporate a race or time limit to drive the players a little harder. Tomb raider and the Jade Temple - toe-fu-fighter Such a great level here. Presentation is solid on throughout, though the water areas could be a little tough to parse. A good mix of platforming and simple puzzling that keeps you moving at a pretty decent clip. We don't usually run into good levels that are based on or inspired by other games, so it's nice to see it pulled off well. This one should definitely get more love. Adventures in Paperland 2 - Indomitus1973 There's not much more i think we can say about this one that we didn't cover in the episode. The actual level itself is quite clever in how it's presented, and there's a lot of inventive little gameplay elements going on. Don't know why we don't have a gun displayed when we pick up the power-up, but at least the shooty bits are fun. i just wish Indomitus1973 had done something with the character, maybe making a pixel-style or cardboard cut-out stand-in to better fit the theme. Having the actual sackthing there is bad enough, but to see their shadow floating along behind them is really distracting. Year 10 - LBP Anniversary - menke Yeah, this one's not exactly great, but menke's heart is in the right place at least. So that's the that for this week. Nothing exquisitely terrible, and a couple of really nice ones. Hopefully something here that tripped your trigger. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, folks, and i hope you have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i don't even know what to say anymore. | 2018-10-29 23:04:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Comin' back around again! Episode 048 - Ergot (https://youtu.be/jV_yAIrETe8) This week we're having a look at: Tower of Challenges - Rabesaris (https://lbp.me/v/qz2711g) Happy Autumn  - OctoberRose (https://lbp.me/v/fg78j5)SackBoy In the Beach - king-birds (https://lbp.me/v/qytqszc) Rainforest run - quid_55 (https://lbp.me/v/q3jpcjg) LBP Origins - The Gardens - GOGOSCOPE (https://lbp.me/v/q0cj-7q) All around a pretty solid set of levels this go about. At least i had a fun time with all of them.Hope a couple of them look like something up your alley as well. Thanks as always for the feedback and support, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs We're one month away from the end of the season, folks. i'm thinking of having a special LBP stream as a bonus the evening we put up episode 052 (though, seeing as we sometimes do LBP streams anyway, i guess it's less of a bonus anymore). So, if there's anything about the series you'd like to ask, and have me actually think about before answering (as opposed to me catching the question out of the corner of my eye and then getting distracted halfway through answering it), let me know in the next couple of weeks. | 2018-11-02 00:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Morning, morning, Tuesday Takeaway time! Tower of Challenges - Rabesaris A bit of a standard platformer here. Competently put-together, but not really pushing the envelope, as far as gameplay. The play environment would probably have been improved by making everything two or three layers instead of four or five, but that does seem to come up with frequency. i don't know if Rabesaris made the track, or found it as a prize, but it was a cool little bit of music. This one's worth a play or two, but you probably won't come back to it all that often. Happy Autumn - OctoberRose This one's fun enough, and i really like the presentation (though the music can get a bit old by the end, the level is pretty beefy). The gameplay, though, leaves a bit to be desired. There's not a particularly good pace throughout, which is compounded by the gameplay/material interactions. Getting caught by a non-standard hazard loses you progress, but then also has you side-eyeing that type of material the next time it comes up. Still i did walk away warm towards this one. SackBoy In The Beach! - king-birds A relatively simple one here, as far as gameplay. The attract-o-gel usage was pretty-well done for once, so that's nice. i really liked the presentation and material/deco choices. There is a complete lack of music, but king-birds dropped a message on the 'Tube and said they really didn't like music, so i can't really hold that against them. i don't know if they meant all music in the world, or just the music available in LBP. Rainforest run - Squid_55 This one's kludgy and kind of slow, but it's got an old LBP2 charm to it. i forgot to mention during the outro, but the fireflies were really neat. That wind effect during the race, at least, was cool. This isn't an outstanding level, but it's fun enough for 5minutes play or so. LBP Origins - The Gardens - GOGOSCOPE This one's the real keeper this episode. There's some real creativity going on in how they've re-imagined LBP1 through its concept art. The gameplay is pretty simple, but that's appropriate for the first level in a series. The intro and hub stages, as well, are quite nicely presented. i really wish GOGOSCOPE had kept with it and finished out the other levels in (what i assume was going to be) the adventure, but i can't really fault them; i've more than a few unfinished concepts and half-done levels scattered across my moon. Still, it is disappointing. So that's the that this go about. Hopefully you found something in there to have fun with. Thanks, as always, for the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs i am behind on everything! Panic! Panic! Panic! Actually it's not as bad as all that. i am behind on everything, but i probably don't need to panic yet. Probably. | 2018-11-05 22:44:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! We're back around with lucky number four in our countdown of doooooooom! Episode 049 - Deign (https://youtu.be/PahTMJB9GdE) This week we're having a butcher's at: Midnight Splash! - AcridMiles (https://lbp.me/v/qz2486s) The Bomb Diggity - lego1109 (https://lbp.me/v/q0vygk2) Frozen Atlantis - xAlaynax (https://lbp.me/v/qw9ek-k) VR - MISSION ULTIMATE EASY - MaddinAkaBBK (https://lbp.me/v/w2r2j) King of the Mountain Top - Salvation120 (https://lbp.me/v/qz9ncs9) It's not a bad set this go about, though a few of the levels didn't click for me until the second go around. i hope you'll give some of these an extra chance, and maybe find one you really like. As always, thanks for all the support and feedback and have a great day! [Editor's note: King of the Mountain Top is NOT Salvation120's first level. i made a mistake when i checked their lbp.me profile, clicked on the "videos" button instead of the "published levels" one when i checked before recording the outro. i don't think the mistake overly changes my feelings about the level, but it is referenced in my reasoning for the level's grading...so i feel kind of a dope] Behind the Curtains Stuffs i thought i might do a later than usual bonus stream today (basically weekend hours, instead of Thursday/Friday hours...though Thr/Fri is my weekend so...it gets confusing). Anyway, the fact of the matter is, i've spent the last month of free time (give or take) in the house. For my own mental health, i figured it'd be a good idea to get out, and not worry about getting videos done. So...i wake up and it's raining, because, of course it is. Well played, gods of weather, well played. Speaking of well-played and streams, though not, necessarily well-played streams, Biohazard 6 just does not give up once it gets started, does it? It might not have made much of an impression on me the first time, because i was just playing alone. Playing with folks has really highlighted the complete nutso absurdity of it all and i love it. i had to take a look at an episode from a few weeks back to check if i had a name spelled correctly, only to realize i'd had it spelled wrong (in a different way) in that one. Kind of embarrassing, that. Especially because i'm using my great-uncle's surname. To my, very small, defense, i don't think i'd ever seen the name written down...but still...sorry Uncle Steve... i'll have to tell his story in a stream or in an Isaac episode some day, it's pretty cool, and kind of nuts. Unless i've already told it..it gets kind of hard to remember sometimes. | 2018-11-08 23:00:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway time! Midnight Splash! - AcridMiles This one's a good bit longer than it seems, but for the most part it keeps itself fun and moving along. There are a few breaks and bugs in it (one area where you can jump out of level, some of the floaty fluid is de-physicalized, the spikes don't always explod after dropping), but nothing that would really keep you from finishing. It doesn't really stretch the bounds of what Oddsock can do, but the interesting visual presentation elevates it and makes it worth a go or two. The Bomb Diggity - lego1109 This one's got such a great level design and look on the front half. Some of the gameplay is pretty inventive, and it has the feel of some of the really good LBP2 community story-driven levels. The race bit, on the other hand, could stand another go over for fine tuning. The timing towards the end is really quite tight, and it can be tough to see just what you're supposed to be doing. Couple that with the timer counting down, and the frustration can really ramp up. The only other thing i could say against the level is i wish you could skip the story scenes. They're cute the first time you see them, but the first, in particular really goes on, and once you've seen it once, you don't really need to see it again. Still and all, i love the ambition in this one, and that deserves its own praise. Frozen Atlantis - xAlaynax The first areas, especially the bit we saw at the end of the video are probably the roughest and most frustrating, particularly in regards to checkpoint placement. Once you get past that, though, this is a really well-done, quite challenging old-school platformer. Like The Bomb Diggity hearkens back to a particular style of story-based LBP2 levels (though natively done in LBP3), this one is quite emblematic of the "it's a platformer, no bells, no whistles, no nods to a grander world, just challenge yourself and beat it" LBP2 style (fittingly, natch, since it's ported over from there). It's a good'un, and worth a few plays if you haven't seen it before. VR-MISSION ULTIMATE EASY - MaddinAkaBbk This one only has value as a showcase of poor-to-mediocre example of LBP1-era community levels; which is fitting because this is, again, a port of a poor-to-mediocre LBP1-era community level. Surely you have better things to do with your time? King of the Mountain Top - Salvation120 Honesty time, folks, i got bored with this one pretty early on this one early on in my third play. It's...fine, really. Like i said in the video, i appreciate the work put in making a story that actually informs the world and gameplay. i liked the houses and offices you could enter. The pick-axe "tool" (you have to carry it with the power-glove, it's not actually its own power-up) is nice-enough, and utilized through most of the level once you get it. Still...the level's aggressively ugly to look at, and pretty dull to boot. If it weren't for the ambition of it, i'd have probably given this one an orange diamond, really. So that's the that. A couple of gems, a nice Oddsock racer, and a few clunkers. Hopefully there was at least one in there that looked good to you, and you had a good time with. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Woke up this morning absolutely certain that it was Wednesday, and i'd not done the Tuesday Takeaway yet. It was actually a bit of a cold sweat kind of thing. Luckily(?), i'd only woken up an hour late. So now i'm rushing about all headless-chicken trying to get the usual Tuesday things done. See ya! | 2018-11-13 01:08:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Comin' back around again! Episode 050 - Cenotaph (https://youtu.be/kw9q3wDjZPA) This week we're having a look at: The mansion of bloody hill - flan2007 (https://lbp.me/v/q3krqcr) Toggle's Floating Platformer - mrsmartypants10 (https://lbp.me/v/qxb61e0) Cheese n crackers - hall8653 (https://lbp.me/v/q0t2wrp) "Antarctic Caverns" - xXTomUrbz (https://lbp.me/v/qz98ffm) De fabriek - Basdewinter1 (https://lbp.me/v/q3kjpkq) It's an...interesting set list this week. There are, in my opinion, at least a couple of pretty good ones in there. There're also a few that are...questionable, to be best. Hopefully there'll be at least a couple in there that'll catch your eye and be a good time for you. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Just two more episodes after this one...phew. i think this is the first episode we've actually directly addressed the fact, though it does put a bow on a plot thread that we brought up a couple of weeks back. i'd have to go back and look at some of the end of season episodes from last year to see if we followed the same pattern. At any rate, we've been tying off a lot of plot threads these last few months. Attendant to that, if you've got questions or particular comments on the series, send them my way in the next week or so. i think i'm going to have a non-live bonus episode along with the stream, and i can answer them in one or the other. Today is cleaning, the bi-monthly top-to-bottom type that's really kind of boring, but needs to be done. Actually, looking around, i guess the apartment never gets all that messy. Untidy, perhaps, but not really messy. Though, having said that, i guess the stove-top could use a good sandblasting. Today is almost a week without drinking. i think i talked about this a little in one of the recent Isaac episodes, but i can't remember if it was in an English one or a Japanese one. Basically, i woke up last Saturday not only hungover, but also deeply sick (and yes, they are distinctly recognizable states); it was pretty miserable. So i said to myself "self, why don't we not drink for awhile, see how that goes?" This was not a new thought to me, except this time, i actually carried through. Japan is an easy place to drink (and, if you worry you may have problems vis-a-vis drinking, i would say it's a terrible place to live), almost every social gathering revolves around alcohol in some way, there're no public drinking laws; and between thorough public transportation and the compact nature of most major cities, you don't have to worry about getting home if you get your liquor on after work. i'd say, over the past 15yrs, i could probably cobble together 3months (non-consecutive) where i hadn't had at least a few beers. So a week without is a pretty significant change. It's actually been surprisingly, and reassuringly, easy. When you drink every night, it's hard to have a metric to measure "is this a problem, or is this a just a bad habit?" i mean, if you never really have to go without, it's hard to check if you display, for example, withdrawal symptoms. i haven't really noticed any real changes, i still wake up logy (and my sleep schedule is still all over the map), my mood is still its usual blend of good cheer and deep depression, i'm not any more or less energetic than i was. i will say it's been really good for my wallet, so that's a win, at least. At any rate, it's a major (and i think positive) change that i've made in my life (as opposed to one imposed on me by circumstance); maybe the first real change i've made in years. That's worth spinning this experiment out further. Who knows, maybe i'll save enough money to finally get a new tattoo. | 2018-11-15 23:01:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| These levels look interesting I’ll definetly have to check em out this weekend. Drinking every night can be easy with access and public transportation. I hope you figure out that happy median or happy spot you want to be. Change is tough and scary and I wish you the strength to continue forward until your where you wanna be or at least see what’s on he other side. | 2018-11-16 03:14:00 Author: L-I-M-I  Posts: 611 |
| Thank you kindly L-I-M-I, things are going well, and i appreciate the supportive words. Guten Moregen! Tuesday Takeaway time! The mansion of bloody hill - flan2007 Ok....so The mansion of bloody hill both regular and easy modes are no longer up on flan2007's lbp.me page. i mean, alright, i was a bit...harsh on the level (though i do stand by my review). The interesting thing is, they now have 20 "remaster" levels of...i think they're all LBP2 levels. i'm going to have to take a look back at the title reading in the video, but i don't think these were existent previously. Maybe they were. It does, at least, mean i don't have to slog through the mansion again, though. Toggle's Floating Platformer - mrsmartypants10 Those spring-based pull-and-launch things defeated me once again. i just could not get around them. Don't know how i did it when i was playing for the PiPs (i do remember that it took me something like four or five goes at the level before i could). It's a shame, really, because there are some pretty neat (and some challenging) things going on after that point, they're just going to be accessible to a lot of players who find this level, i think. Cheese n crackers - hall8653 There's not really a lot going on in this one, but it's bright and cheery and i think makes for a fairly nice cool-down kind of run. It's not quite up to snuff for a green-circle, but still is worth a few plays, particularly if you've just run through a bunch of really frustrating levels. hall8653's gone through the effort to put in those SackLasses, but i do kind of wish they'd taken the extra step to put in some animations for them. The way they just stare out dead-eyed at the player, is kind of creepy. Except for the trampoline lass, she's got a goal in life. "Antarctic Caverns" - xXTomUrbz i really ended up liking this one. The gameplay elements do stand out a bit from the environment (which, itself, is a bit kludgy-looking) but that's easy to overlook once you get into things. i liked the weaving in of the story, it's unobtrusive enough that it doesn't chunk the flow of the level, but still gives you a good idea of the character of the previous explorer. i still think there should be some indicator of how long you've been in the water, so you can see how close you are to death, but that's really a minor quibble. This one's worth a good play or so. De fabriek - Basdewinter1 This one's more like the seed of a level, to be honest. You've got all the necessary elements for the level, and there is some flow here, but there really should be some expansion on things. The spike/jump-pad bit could be fleshed out into something more substantial, as could the grappling hook section. Still, i think the basics are present. Now, on the visual presentation here....yeah, there's a fair amount of work needs to be done. A more coherent material choice could be a start. Heck even just putting in background, and lifting the level off the base create-mode floor could go a long way. So, that's the that for our second-to-last episode, a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Hopefully there was something in the set that caught your eye and you had some fun with. If you got the chance to give The mansion on bloody hill a chance (and beat it) gold start to you. It's always weird to feature a level that later gets pulled. It's like trapping a bit of imagination in amber. Anyhow, thanks as always for all the support and feedback have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Once again, really busy. There's stuff to put here, but no time for it. Sorry! | 2018-11-19 23:48:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ohayo Degozaru! Back again with another shot! Episode 051 - Batrachian (https://youtu.be/lPe_igUQrac) This week we're having a look at: Dr. Higgenbotham's Notework - sunsun24 (https://lbp.me/v/qtvq6tj) 50's Industrial Dystopia - jph2016 (https://lbp.me/v/q3m8c5q) City of Metronome - the-dog-of-fire (https://lbp.me/v/q3j9zbf) Crafty Challenge - ItsWashington17 (https://lbp.me/v/q3m4prf) Happy Mountains - emteemte (https://lbp.me/v/q3m20qp) Quite the set this go about, a little bit of the whole lot. There should be something in there that catches your fancy and can be a good time for you. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Episode 051, folks, we're just about there. Like we said the other week, any questions or comments you want addressed in the post-mortem bonus episode, get 'em to me relatively quick. i'm thinking we're going to do bonus stream the Friday episode 052 goes up, and an actual separate episode-episode maybe a week after (i don't recall how we handled it exactly, last year, timing-wise). Speaking of streams, i'm not sure if there'll be one tonight, but we will be having a special-ish LBP3 Stream Sunday night 7.30p; going to be helping out EnochRoot from over on DreamsVerse pick a winner for the HalloweenDreams thing they had going on. Guess he's going to kit together a level for us to do that with, like he did for the Move Controller giveaway they did with LSRS. So, that's a bit of a neat thing. i had a run of about a month or so where i was waking up at around 6 or 6.30a, and it was...ok. It meant some lost production time (though only half as much as you'd think from the clock, since muzzy-headed waffleking is inefficient waffleking), but paid for it with not feeling all janky in the morning. The last two days i've been up at 3.30a again. No reason that i can tell, just my body telling my brainmeats to get up, i guess. Going to see if i can't crash out for a few more hours once i get this all written up. | 2018-11-22 23:01:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway Time! Dr. Higginbotham's Notebook - sunsun24 i really enjoyed the look of this one, just random enough to be interesting, but still having a style tying it together. Also, lots of movement in there. The early on gameplay can be a bit oddly timed, but it's certainly doable. The SackBot creatinator was an interesting twist on things, and made for a fun boss battle (what a rarity!). All in all right up my alley, this one. 50's Industrial Dystopia - jph2016 i actually got past the spawnloack in that early section of the race, but then got tripped up in that spot where the flaming enemy was. See, you've got to Blink Ball over a wall, but the electro-SackBots will cluster around the exit point as soon as they notice you, so it's just a spawnlock with an extra step. i think one way jph2016 could have avoided this could have been by having the 'Bots get bored and wander off when SackThing dies or gets out of effective range. Otherwise, if you don't nail things just right the first time, you may as well bounce out of the level and try it again. Or not. i imagine a lot of players are going to fall into the "or not" camp. City of Metronome - the-dog-of-fire i...i have no idea what i was supposed to be doing here. i couldn't even find the recorded lullaby this go about, even though i did go to the banana room (i'd deleted my save data for the level, so it wasn't in my sackpocket any more). Still, the environment does look really nice, and that's worth the price of admission and a couple minutes of wandering around confused. Crafty Challenge - ItsWashington17 i really enjoy levels like this. It's got a solid presentation with coherent material and decoration choices. There's some cool gameplay with solid use of layers throughout. i think the break in the level got repaired, or else something loaded in that hadn't when i played the first two times. There's a race mode available that adds a bit of tension, though it makes the sometimes poor checkpoint placement a lot more clear. There's one bit in particular that will cost you a lot of time and progress if you die, and that's not an unlikely outcome there. There's a little 3d movement in the level that i could have done without, but otherwise this is a real solid one. Happy Mountains - emteemte Fun and cheery and relatively stress-free as far as gameplay goes. Doesn't do anything particularly novel, but it does make pretty good use of the hook-hat, or at least consistent use thereof. Including a Oddsock-style run into the back bit was a little awkward, especially considering it's not marked in anyway. Otherwise, this makes for a fairly decent cool-down level (particularly nice if you're playing it after Crafty Challenge). So that's the that. Hopefully something in there you found fun. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Once again lots to say and no time to say it in, sorry! | 2018-11-27 01:38:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Here we are, back for one last shot! Episode 052 - Abdicate (https://youtu.be/r-jHH_IBOEQ) This week we're having a look at: Halloween (tm) Part One - zibox-59 (https://lbp.me/v/qx2y148) Once Upon A Time... - Darkforce_carl (https://lbp.me/v/qy8379z) NEON - ollie-360 (https://lbp.me/v/qzeq3cp) LittleBigSchool - DARKO92611 (https://lbp.me/v/q3d7042) cardboard world 3 - Smartv3 (https://lbp.me/v/qs4s20y) It's not a bad set-list for our last episode, certainly there's no Blood Pool in there this time, which is always nice. Hopefully there'll be something in there that catches your eye and looks like a fun time to you. Thank you all, sincerely, for all the support and feedback you've given me throughout the past two years, and for giving me the opportunity to do all of this; it's been a real thing-and-a-half. Behind the Curtains Stuffs Of course i'd wake up late this morning. i mean, why would we break a pattern? So, the year's up. 52 episodes of hopefully at-least-midrange quality wrapped and uploaded. It's a bit hard to wrap my head around really. Also, the fact that i'll not have to be scrambling around like a loon to get things done quite so much. That's really weird. The whole thing's kind of bittersweet. The plan as it stands: Tonight we'll have the stream. i'm going to put together a playlist of some of the levels we've looked at over the past two years. i think we'll be starting at 7.30 and let it run a bit later than we usually do. Hopefully that'll give more folks a chance to drop in. i'm going to be putting up the post-mortem episode next week, that'll be December 7th. i'd wanted to do it sooner, but...man, putting together the credits scroll is taking for-ev-er. That does give a little more time to get in any questions you'd like looked at, though. From the second week of December, LittleBite-sizedPlanet will be going to a bi-weekly update schedule. i'm thinking something like one episode that's following the level-selection rules from R15F, and one that'll look at anything at all. There might be bonus episodes in between, for things like tutorials or story bits, what have you. i've still got a couple of weeks to kink things out. | 2018-11-29 23:14:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Right then, wrapping things up with a Tuesday Takeaway. Halloween (tm) Part One - zibox-59 This one plays more like a tech demo or proof of concept than a fully realized level, to be honest. There's just not all that much going on when you look at it all together. On the other hand, thanks to the fiddliness of the hazards/gameplay, you'll be seeing that limited content over and over again. Still, it has its charm, and i think could work better with expansion (which would allow for checkpoints and keep players from repeating the same bits over and over, which ought to lower total frustration). Interestingly, zibox-59 seems to be a friend of mascottag. Maybe they can push him to get to the next part in the series? Once Upon A Time - Darkforce_carl Really liked this one. A solid, coherent look, and quick (if a little simple) gameplay. The level's short enough to get back into and replay, but not so short that you'd have no reason to do so. i still think some of the areas could use a little expansion or re-use, but it's not a major point against. Darkforce_carl popped up in the comments on the 'Tube to mention that the race is intended to be really tight, and there's a bonus to the player if they do manage to complete it. That's cool, but it may have been better to go with a timer, instead of the point-style, in that case. i found another of the hidden feathers this go around, which puts me at three or four? Really wondering where that last one is hiding. NEON - ollie-360 Still not particularly happy with the timing of that last bounce-pad section. You can just barely make a diagonal jump to try and hit all the pads in one go, but you'll just barely have the time to do it. It ended up taking just as long to do it that way thanks to missed jumps as it did in the episode when i was waiting and trying to go straight up on one side. Other than that i did like the level a lot. The look was pretty nice, and very clean, which i appreciate. The power-up to track your SackThing was a nice touch, and the little change to the point bubbles was keen as well. LittleBigSchool - DARKO92611 Ehhh...ehh... i mean, i appreciate where they're going with this one, but still...there's not nearly enough meat on the bones. The visual presentation as well, could use a fair amount of work. The lack of detailing in the environment makes the flatness stand out even more than if they'd gone with a kludged together base cardboard style. Still, the bones are there to build a fairly solid level out of, i think; and there's a TBC sign at the end, so maybe DARKO92611 will return and beef this one out some. cardboard world 3 - Smartv3 We had to wrap the series on a level like this, didn't we? It's...not the best example of the type by any means, but still, it was fun enough. The added quests were fun, but if there were any other secret bubbles here, i certainly couldn't find them. Also, the Highscorer 2 quest...i probably could have stung together one or two more bonus chains, but i couldn't see any way that i was going to be able to get up to 400k, let alone the 600k scores i could see at the top of the scoreboard. Weird. So, that's the that. A little good, a little...ok, nothing terrible, so that's nice. i really didn't want to end the series with a bunch of Red Triangles. Hopefully a couple of levels in there looked like a good time to you. Thanks as always for all the support and feedback, and have a great day! Behind the Curtains Stuffs Finally finished up all the sticker work for the postmortem episode. Ho-lee crow did that take forever. i mean, it took just ages. i'm not really sure what we'll get into in the episode, really. i mean, there are some boxes to check, but not a huge amount that needs to be said? Maybe i'll nanner on about backstory and world building. It's been on my mind a fair bit recently. | 2018-12-03 22:08:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
| Ossu! Got one last episode coming at you here! Post-mortem (https://youtu.be/ctSNuwjGnbE) Basically we're just going through the year and picking apart the various things that've gone into the show. Plus the credits list. Since a lot of technical stuff's been covered elsewhere, there's a pretty big chunk of time that's spent rabbiting on worldbuilding and character points/arcs we never had time to get around to. If it feels like a rambling fever dream, well...you know i never work from scripts, and it all took so many takes. Anyhow, thanks so much to all of you. We'll still be involved in the community, 'natch. There should be some LBsP coming up this week. Oh, and we'll have an LBP3 stream tonight at 7.30, though i don't think it'll be another 3hour monster. Thank you! Thank you! Arigasama ryota! Sayonara! See you and ciao! | 2018-12-06 23:02:00 Author: waffleking23 Posts: 535 |
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