Archive: 5 posts

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I've been off building my newest level for a while. I was inspired by a thread over in the Objects forum: having a level that could fast-forward or rewind. I sent my goals a little lower... I wanted a level where you could "fast-forward" or "slow-mo". As I went though the level creation I ended up expanding upon this idea and included lightening and darkening, growing and withering. The approach to controlling the components of the level is to apply a sticker received in the level to special locations. This either directly controls a component or controls a slider which adjusts the speed of something. To keep things interesting there's some platforming and even a two-player mini-game. So give "Cavern of Time" a try and let me know your thoughts. I'll be happy to return the favor.

2009-03-27 02:50:00 Author: larryjoe701 Posts: 68

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Well I really like the idea and it sounds really cool. However, I was not able to play for more than a minute or so. When I fell in, I was killed by the rocks which seemed unfair. Maybe use a lighter material and sticker it with the rock texture? If you go left when you fall in you can see the Background color ... I think you should extend the wall there. - Anyway, after I used the sticker by the huge rotating circle. I went up to the top of the circle and there were score bubbles up there, but there was no ground to walk on to get them. Not sure what I was supposed to do. I couldn't see any way to get up there and ended up losing all of my lives just trying to jump across the pit but to no avail. Let me know what's up there because I really do want to see the rest of the level. F4F not needed. EDIT: .... Okay I was able to figure it out by accident. But honestly there needs to be a bit of an explanation about that. Because you can get through the first section just by putting a single sticker on each stone so I just assumed that's how it was going to be the rest of the way. Or maybe you could make it so you are forced to use multiple stickers on the very first puzzle ... because if it doesn't move people may get frustrated and try again and notice that it still makes it move again, I dunno. Because once the circle started spinning on that section I just assumed I had 'activated' whatever it was that I was supposed to. - On another play through I jumped on the section of ground that falls ... and this made it get wedged in the hole and it didn't break through so I had to restart the level. - After falling into the darkness area I immediately walked left and then the last save point was far away, and was kind of annoying to have to re-do that much just because I walked over to the left to see what was there. - In the section with the falling rocks it was really frustrating if they would fall on top of you. Maybe you could have something that lets you know when they are about to fall? - I thought it was still pretty hard to know what to do even after you moved that thing out of the fountain. But it's up to you on how difficult you want it to be there. = Anyway, still really like the idea a lot and thought that it seemed even more fun, or at least the possibilities seemed to be higher once I was able to use the two stickers at the same time to either lighten or darken areas back and forth. At the beginning of the level I found myself wishing I was able to make it go back if I wanted to so it was nice to have that ability given to me later in the level. The only thing is that it seems like it could have been utilized in puzzles more because even though I had the ability to go back and forth I never had to actually use the sun sticker on the second half of the level. (unless you count the very last spinning puzzle) I don't have any suggestions on how you could make use of them both in a puzzle but I just think it would have been even more satisfying if I did have to use both of them to solve some areas. = Great idea, pretty good implementation and impressive mechanics behind the whole thing. I gave it a 5 star rating the couple times I played trying to bump it up from the 2 star that it was at when I started, which it doesn't deserve, although I can see how people would become frustrated and not know what to do like I did. F4F still not needed ... I am still working on my new level and am not looking for feedback on my old level at the moment. And I am pretty sure you already played it from when I played your Monochrome level way back when.

2009-03-27 03:13:00 Author: Coreymill Posts: 85

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Ok, I played it and here are my thoughts: I've played 3 of your levels at this point, and many of your ideas are SO close to brilliant it's scary. In this particular level, I thought the "sticker" mechanic is one of those ideas that if tweaked would be amazing. I've never seen a sticker be used twice in the same area. That has a plus and a minus. The plus is, when you see it in action you think "why didn't I think of that????" and at the same time you wonder.... will most players completely miss the fact that they can stick the same sticker in the same place twice? Probably something to REALLY emphasise because I guarrantee you most players wouldn't even realize it COULD be done. Second item - usually the sticker idea seems to be used in a completely linear fashion. Completely slow something down, or completely speed something up to move to the next section. The puzzle for this type of mechanic should be tricky, yet obvious if the player sits and thinks about it. The only puzzzle I felt really pulled this off well was the falling rocks. I wathed and thought "ok, there is a way of slowing down or speeding up each section of the rocks.. soooo..... At the end of the entire level I put a single sticker on and lost not having figured out exactly what to do, so I'm not going to give a full review on the ending. All in all I loved it and think if the different puzzles were perfected it would be brilliant. Right now I gave it 4 stars and a heart.

2009-03-29 04:04:00 Author: CCubbage Posts: 4430

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Thanks to coreymill, CCubbage, and Snowflakecat for providing some useful feedback. I haven't been on in a few days and I hope to make a few changes in the near future. At the very start, I'll see it decreasing the size of a grass segment would help them fall. I really like the falling into the cavern so I don't want to make too many changes. I was hoping that the slider bars would be enough of a hint to players that you can place a second sticker (the four sliders at the start only move a little in response to the first sticker), but I seem to make mistakes in terms of expecting other players to know exactly what I want them to do. Because of the never-ending supply of levels in LBP I think players (and I find myself doing it too sometimes) don't often want to invest a lot in a particular level to understand it. The poor quality of some levels could help contribute to that... is it tricky and puzzling or just broken? I'm not sure what to do in that first section that would be non-lethal but let the players see that multiple stickers can be applied. Maybe I could put a speech bubble near the spinning disk since it is the first section to require multiple stickers. I really had higher hopes for the over-bright section but the lag it introduces frustrates me. I'll move the checkpoint closer to where you fall down to avoid having to repeat too much. It took so many lights to really make it blinding it really slows down a bit. I really had trouble with finishing this level. I had some great ideas about puzzles and using this mechanic, but two things happened: I started losing interest in the level, and I overheated the level. I put in the fountain because I wanted some interesting way to get down but still allow players to go on to the 2-player section. The 2-player section took up too much thermometer and I doubt many people will ever see it. I even had a clever riddle thought up, but I forgot about it and ended up with some lame text. I really am sorry it was rather linear and obvious what need to be done in each section. As I was adding section I just couldn't come up with any good puzzles. Snowflakecat also expressed concern about the falling rocks and made some alternate suggestions which I might try, but it sounds like CCubbage thought that was the best puzzle. Please let me know if you have any neat speed-related puzzles that I could add in. I might just remove the 2-player section and publish it separately. In that mini-game the two players must place their correct sticker on one of four sticker pads. One of the four pads randomly lights up. Whichever player places the sticker on the correct pad first gets a prize bubble. It took quite a bit of logic to implement. Thanks again for the reviews!

2009-03-31 04:05:00 Author: larryjoe701 Posts: 68

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One suggestion for the falling ground near the beginning - you may be able to prevent crushing by having the lower part of the ground collapse and a split second later the part you are immediately above collapse (more of a controlled collapse). The ideas in this level are really intriguing - just like all of your levels. Unfortunately, I kind of stink at thinking up puzzles myself. I'll think about it though - I really enjoyed this level.

2009-03-31 04:14:00 Author: CCubbage Posts: 4430

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