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<devin> radiant you got a cook 10 20 30 40 is a cook <devin> radiant its a cook and how did you get 30? the lowest number should be 54. |
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<devin> its A COOK <devin> its a COOK <devin> in This case Buml LOL <devin> Bump! |
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<radiant> This is why the game could use an extensive literature base outside of level comments. Personally I'm surprised that whole thing was allowed to fit in a single comment. It's certainly worth an article for general consumption in any case. <John Lewis> Devin, I don't want to discourage you from creating levels in general, but if you release levels, please at least try to put some effort into designing something unique and interesting. If you look at the "Minor Leagues" subcategory of levels, many of the ideas used there are all quite trivial and have all annoyed players to no end over the years. Most of these can be condensed down to a few categories (and this is for anyone who seeks to post quality work): (a) Guessing levels. These include "panel mazes" where lasers are hidden underneath panels or something to that effect, "button guesses" where the player must choose which panel/button is correct while evading death that would occur if any of the others were chosen, and "teleport forks" where the player must choose which teleport does not lead to doom - many of these decision points occur in a series, as can be seen in your (plagiarized) level "Clostrafobicy." (b) Heart framer collecting levels. In these levels, the player is mindlessly collecting heart framers. Sometimes, there's a bot or two that may cause trouble, but otherwise, there isn't much of a challenge or anything interesting here. (c) Bot brawl levels. There are way too many levels that contain a bunch of bots (or sleeping bots) that the player must fight through in order to escape to the exit. Some of the more interesting levels of this nature are those that are computer generated (the "Botkoban" levels), which are challenging because they are rigid - not a random mishmesh of bots. (d) Tedious levels. Whether block-pushing or gangnails-style remote levels (for instance, The Sign Says "Stop!"), these levels typically involve no thinking or skill at all. (e) Ripoffs. I haven't been the best example of originality on here, I must admit - which is something I've been seeking to fix over the past year or two. (I was quite blind to it when I first started posting here, which caused some tension with a few people...) There are levels out there involving concepts that are obviously lifted from other, more well-thought out levels. In many of these cases, the style rating will most likely be low. People have played through a certain type of level before - they don't want the same thing over and over again unless there's something unique also involved. So what does make a good level? This is something I've posted about before on the Chip's Challenge community - and I think it's worth mentioning here as well. Honestly, it all depends on what the level is trying to accomplish. These are the terms in which great designers think when creating levels. Most great levels have artistic/aesthetic value and/or contain a great puzzle or two - factors that contribute to higher difficulty and style ratings. They work because the designers use what they have effectively based on the objectives they set out to fulfill. Some levels are simple but boast amazing artistic quality. Others contain variety or fun puzzles. I believe the best levels combine any or all of these elements in some form and contain a fair amount of replay value at the same time. Also, as alluded to earlier, many good levels do not require arbitrary guesswork. Pretty much every designer out there usually follows one of these three procedures when using the editor: (a) Just start drawing in the editor, making up objective(s) along the way. (b) Think up a good idea or theme first and then start designing it. (c) Mimic or create a variation of an idea from an existing level. (b) is probably the best option, as it involves more planning and organization on the part of the designer. There have been far too many levels out there created with (a) only, and usually, they end up being far too disorganized and uninspired. (c) can actually work as long as the designer tries to aim for creativity at the same time, but if this is not the case, sometimes the level can look like a ripoff of an earlier composition. In Escape, some of the greatest levels have a tight solution (Grand Prix), a "twist" in the gameplay in which the player follows a red herring only to discover that the solution is totally different (Bigger Waste of Time), or interactions between different rooms (Dialectic). Hope this helps. :) Once again, I don't want to discourage you from creating levels, but please try to keep in mind that many of the folks here have seen far too many levels like this in the past. <radiant> There's also N which conveniently comes in handy on this level. |
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<devin> the reason it says fixed is because i thought it would be +uploaded but it didnt and i modified the level +so.... yeah....+omg +th++++++e +c+++++++o+m++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++pu+ter +i+++++++++++s ++m++++essi+n+g+ +u++p+ +f+o+r +r+ea+l++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
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<mm> ??? Boring! |
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<gary> devin's levels are very irritating; he likes to use other level ideas from others and use guessing levels. Tom, will you move all of his levels to the minorleague directory? And also, his levels will be automatically moved to this directory when he uploads. |
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<John Lewis> This is why it's generally a good idea to spend more than 15 minutes or so on a level if you'd like to create a genuinely difficult challenge. :) |
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<radiant> We even get a D button! Isn't that nice? |
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<gary> Tom 7 comments: Guessing <b>isn't</b> cool... <devin> CRUD!!! all i wanted was a level to reach difficulty 4.... <radiant> The nice thing about the Y button is we can use it while playing levels too. |
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<John Lewis> Been there, done that... |
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<radiant> You can press Y in the level editor in order to edit the flip side of the level. <devin> because i dont know how to make a panel change into something besides a blank spot... |
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<John Lewis> Lovely! |
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<gary> The Control-0 always works, majority wins. devin, why do you want to have the right to take other's work? <radiant> Complete with anti-"use Ctrl+0 on the solution to Bob 7" mechanism! |
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<gary> Uhh... |
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<gary> Uhh... |
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