My first level

Almost complete, just one or two things to add and fix, and I need to find a Compressor as well. It's a fair sized level, nowhere near as big as Ninja's Temple Of The Pen, and it won't be as fancy as Firefalcon's Temple Of Death, but it's still a pretty ok level. I'll try to put up some screenshots, but keep in mind I've never done this before, so it may get messy... oh, and it seems I only have enough space for one attachment, so it'll be one screenshot. lol

By the way, can anybody recommend a site where I can download a free compressor for Mac? It would be most helpful.

Volcano.jpg (71.9K)
Number of downloads: 34

For all your software needs (or at least a first search), I hearthily recommand VersionTracker. For the particular case of zip compression, then you should be happy with Zippist.

Ok, the level's complete, and I got a compressor. I should be able to upload it now, unless I've done something wrong with the compressing. (I might well have done) Anyway, let's see how it turns out.

Thanks for the help Zacha, I found the compressor, but unfortunately none of the links to the download would work, so I'm using a computer with Stuffit.

This post has been edited by Silverwind : 02 February 2007 - 04:25 PM

Well if you're on Mac OS 10.3+ then you create archives directly from the context menu but I guess you're on 10.2?

If you're going to use StuffIt try to use .zip instead of .sit/.sitx.

This post has been edited by Guy : 02 February 2007 - 04:29 PM

Yes... I see... (nods head as if he understands) No, I'm just kidding you. I'm using 10.4 (10.4.8 to be precise) Does it have to be .zip? If it does it's no problem but I've already told it to upload with a .sitx, but I can just do it again now that I'm familiar with the expander. Kinda.

Oh yes, I didn't try to actually download it (as I already had it, and found it useful), hmm... Ah, it looks like the author's site has changed, and neither VersionTracker nor MacUpdate are aware of it, zippist can be downloaded from there now. I'll leave you a chance to reupload the level when compressed in zip, I'll then delete the other one, or I can approve the ..sitx.hqx one (eww...); your choice.

lol, no prob, I'll do it in zip. I think Stuffit can do that, so I just found out. Thanks once again for the help.

@silverwind, on Feb 2 2007, 05:24 PM, said in The Epic Of Sketch:

lol, no prob, I'll do it in zip. I think Stuffit can do that, so I just found out. Thanks once again for the help.

No, just right click (control-left click) and select "Create Archive of (FILE)". That's all there's to it.

Approved the last archive (hqx is facultative, btw), and it looks good, I've not compteted it but I like it so far (I've reached that part from the screenshot in the first post, very interesting battle).

Fun level. Very creative. I like it.

Just tested it. I thought you did a great job. Keep up the good work!

This post has been edited by Dogbert : 02 February 2007 - 10:32 PM

@firefalcon, on Feb 3 2007, 01:06 PM, said in The Epic Of Sketch:

No, just right click (control-left click) and select "Create Archive of (FILE)". That's all there's to it.

Indeed. None of this StuffIt nonsense

I'd like to echo the comments that this is a very nice level with a lot of creative mini-bosses and detailed sprite work. I liked the factory machinery, complex blow-upables (yes, that's a word. I think), size and design. Very nice.

If I find anything to suggest I'll let you know.

Yes, this is a very nice level. Quite a few level designers could learn from your excellent use of back-linking from each goal to a previous section, and the boss constructs are wonderful.

A few bugs:

1. I can push straight through past the fighter that uses the Crab Boss's AI, ignoring the force field.
2. You may wish to set up the minibosses to use true miniboss doors.
3. The Guardian in the Final Fortress blasted open one of its own boss doors, allowing me to escape and recharge. As I said to Dogbert: "Set its Extra2 to 7, to make it immune to the shots from the boss it is holding in".
4. Game performance went to hell in a handbasket when I left the Guardian's room, with the framerate dropping to about 4fps. This may not be a fault of your map, though- it seems that when a boss is active out of culling distance, it isn't culled (the thing chased me down even after I reached the framerate where I entered "no clipping mode", and it was supposedly on the other end of the level). It may even be that the game sets up a second sprite-culling zone, which wreaks havoc on the its performance. This is all speculation, though, based simply on how system performance goes down the toilet in the two levels I've encountered with off-screen bosses.

Edwards

This post has been edited by Edwards : 03 February 2007 - 12:51 AM

Ah yes, the first bug I can actually recall but forgot to fix. (oops...) The second, wasn't actually a glitch, but should have been like you said. What happened was, in the early stage of the game I couldn't decide on what the miniboss was going to be, and more importantly where to put him. For awhile he was positioned at the end of the Ice Caves, but later I took out that boss entirely, because you fight another one soon after near the entrance to the Forest. So I looked at my other minibosses and tried to decide which one of them to make official. In the end I decided that the first miniboss was the only one that actually needed miniboss doors as he's the only one that can move freely. But I got lazy or forgot or something, because he's not a miniboss.

And that brings me to the third and fourth problem combined. I completely rushed the whole of the Final Fortress. Which of course gives cause to all the glitches there. I'll fix all the glitches however and repost the level when it's complete. I'll probably remake the Final Fortress completely, it needs something more. In fact, I'm going to change the minibosses a bit as well, the first one takes longer to kill then the rest if you don't get it up close with a missile. And the other two aren't that hard at all.

Thanks for all the help and comments, glad you's liked the level.

Nice level - I was going to post about the issue with the final boss too - but Edwards has already described exactly what I saw happen too.

Guess it is another bug for 1.0.x to fix.

Certainly the longest custom level I have played - and liked it a lot for that - especially with a load of the scenery detail. You inadvertently stole one of my ideas though - having save points with force fields to make sure you only get the one re-charge

I hate to think how many hours were put into making it though, given my own experience of just how looooong it takes to do anything with the editor!

Great work

As you said, not fancy, not that big, but fun! Good job, my friend Silverwind.

@Crono: Not if you are good at making them...nor if you are as impassiant as I am! I seem to complete levels half the size of this in half an hour, and then my creativity is gone...

This post has been edited by FireFalcon : 03 February 2007 - 08:47 AM

Some bugs:

• You are able to destroy the boxes around the blinking lights with a wave gun

• The rings around the mine boss are save and no shield rings

• You sometimes use small doors which are opened by switches instead of super ones. This is especially confusing when the door has a colour you're shooting with

• I think the colour of the ice objects (and maybe some other things, too) isn't entirely correct

The rest is really great. I love the main-game like kind of walls you used for your level, must have been a long time to create them.

Quote

I think the colour of the ice objects (and maybe some other things, too) isn't entirely correct.

Err, so? Where is it written that you must use exactly the shade of blue for ice that Lars used in the main game? I thought his choice looked nice.

Ah yes, the blinking light boxes. I actually discovered this earlier but didn't bother to fix them because I thought that nobody would bother to shoot them in the first place. (which shows you how lazy I am) However the ones near the Forest entrance do not explode because I thought that if any of them were to be shot it would be them, seeing as how they're the only ones between the Forest entrance and the Final Fortress. Later on however I added some more near the Forest Entrance Miniboss. (I'm guessing they're the ones you destroyed) No matter though, I'll fix them all in the updated version.

The save rings is a new one, thanks for informing me.

The doors can't be considered bugs. You'll notice that the only two doors I did that with (the yellow door leading to the centre of the Volcano and the yellow door leading out of the Factory) have flashing power lines emitting from them, unlike any of the normal doors. So while it's note immediately obvious that they're connected to a switch, it is clear that they have an extra ordinary feature.

As for the colours, is that really a bug? Is it? Nobody said anything about the brilliantly coloured scenery in Obstacle Course? Or the altered colour of the bugs and exotic forests in Temple Of Death?. And what about the brown walls in The Abandoned Factory? But yes you're right, the Ice Missiles, the Forest Roots, the shootable blocks that give you health and a great many other things are altered in colour.

Thanks for helping me weed out all the glitches though, I'll try to fix as much as I can in the updated version.