Title Theft!

My level, "Factory Glitch," was added to the add-ons page a couple of days ago. So far ten people have downloaded it, and i want to hear from them! That is, if they're members... So yeah, what do you think? Glitches? Suggestions? Any and all feedback is appreciated.

Pi

This post has been edited by PiSketch : 08 January 2007 - 12:21 PM

Lucky you - I've just come back from playing your level (in fact, I only approved it yesterday evening; I've not had much Internet access this weekend).

I don't have much to say about it, other than it looks unfinished in places. Also, I've noticed a few places where background tiles are not perfectly aligned (left of the two triple turrets, in particular), same for one black square in the black part. My biggest complain would be that it's uneven, we have long parts without any enemy, then suddenly a bunch of flickers then a boss fight! Put a few enemies here and there.

Interesting technique to give a hint, but my eagle eye spotted it instantly ;). Good use of my suggestions, by the way. And of course, I like how you put a nice ReadMe along with your level. Though perhaps you shouldn't assume it will be read by TextEdit with the default widow size.

So, it is interesting, though a bit short. You all should definitely give it a try.

This post has been edited by Zacha Pedro : 08 January 2007 - 12:47 PM

Misplaced tiles, you say! I hate those things. 'M glad 1.0.1 will have the background specifying feature... I'm glad you liked my way of marking secrets, did you manage to get the Super Waves? And I was a little leery of the non-enemyed space in there... Remmnants from earlier design where it was more of a maze then a straightforward level... I could put some of those spinner things that lurk in the factory in there, that might work.
Thanks Zach!

Pi

This post has been edited by PiSketch : 08 January 2007 - 01:42 PM

Apart from the lack of enemies, that's a very nice level. I haven't found the Super Wave gun yet (and I have very good reason to suspect that it doesn't exist in the map you uploaded), but the rest of your secret passages are well-marked. However, I think my favorite part of the level is the exit- the way you've managed to make it act just like one of the passages between levels really works well.

For the enemies, I would recommend throwing in a mix of bouncing drones, small mines, electrodes, and a couple tanks. Possibly add one or two pushers as well, if you can find a good place for them.

Note that there's one bug I've spotted apart from the basic misaligned background tiles: One of the boxes near (but not in) the black area has an Extra2 link to the second secret passage, and I don't see any reason why it should.

Edwards

Nice quick demo level I liked it, and then wanted it to be longer

I checked after I completed it whether I had missed anything in the map editor, but there weren't any hidden extras I hadn't found. I was also curious as to whether I accomplished anything by nuking the rotating cube 'boss' in the corner of the boss room - and found another mis-feature of the editor in the process - there isn't a way to 'select under sprite'. I had to move the 'select box' sprite out of the way first to see what the extras were. (I suppose in hindsight de-selecting layer 7 from the display would have been a good idea).

Further editor gripes now : is there a practical limit to how large a map can be? I tried scrolling away from the middle of that one for a while (at 25% zoom) and then found I had to scroll all the way back again. A "Go to 0,0" would be good, and indeed a "Go To x,y" too. I guess these should be in the 1.0.1 suggestions thread, but it was huge and I didn't want to read it all.

My only real gripe with the map was that I didn't like the 'mapping error' bit - I think it could have been black and had the same but (in my opinion) less annoying effect. Just my 2p though.

@Eds: Doh! Yeah, that's the verson without the S. Waves. I deleted the version that i uploaded from my computer for some stupid, non-existant reason, so i remade it from the older version, and that's the one with S. Waves. Oh well. And the box with the Extra 2 link was from a discarded idea: open the passage by exploding the box. I gave up on it. It didn't work the first time and I didn't care about it enough to get it to work.

@Crono: I plan on making a longer level sometime later... And no, you accomplished nothing by blowing up the cube "boss". I considered making it so that you couldn't win if you blew him up, but realized the that would send people after my blood. I should link it to the force field though. The "Mapping Error" was actually non entirely intended, i ran off the map... I meant to have it, but not there. And if you think that was annoying, be glad you don't have the verson with the S. Waves. Those were at the end of an invisible wall passage that went off the map and had lots of spins in it. I found it annoying sometimes.

Thanks all!

I thought it was pretty good, if a little short.

I also thought the intentional use of the background glitch was a brilliant idea, even if the execution was a bit underwhelming. I got inklings of a system that is failing all around, like the Matrix glitching out, or Leela under attack from the compilers. But, there are no signs of failure anywhere else. Where are all the mismatched edges? The haphazard jumbles of sprites? Small little backgroundless regions here and there? You could really take this somewhere and make it a compelling concept, but as it stands it's just a level with a mapmaking mistake and some text to cover it up by saying, in effect, "Oops, I, er, I meant to do that! Yeah, that's it!"

You might not think the criticism is fair because it's just a quick experimentation, and I'm making it out to be more than it was intended to be. But, you asked for feedback, and I meant it to be constructive. I'm hoping you take the idea and run with it.

I also am personally not a fan of hiding things that are necessary to complete the level. That's a penchant of puzzle games, but not, typically, of adventure games (and certainly not of schmups). That's just one man's opinion, though, and there's room for others to disagree.

You know, you do have a point. I didn't put much emphasis on the whole "Glitch" aspect. Something to fix in the next verson. I am going to keep the hidden items though, because i just like having them there. And the nonsolid walls are kind of "Glitchy", don'tcha think?

Pi

@crono, on Jan 8 2007, 11:32 PM, said in Feedback at me!:

Further editor gripes now : is there a practical limit to how large a map can be? I tried scrolling away from the middle of that one for a while (at 25% zoom) and then found I had to scroll all the way back again. A "Go to 0,0" would be good, and indeed a "Go To x,y" too. I guess these should be in the 1.0.1 suggestions thread, but it was huge and I didn't want to read it all.

There is no limit besides the amount of gigabytes of your hard drive. Additionally, because SketchFighter isn't drawing sprites not being on the screen it won't slow down a lot, too.

@freq245, on Jan 9 2007, 03:24 PM, said in Feedback at me!:

There is no limit besides the amount of gigabytes of your hard drive. Additionally, because SketchFighter isn't drawing sprites not being on the screen it won't slow down a lot, too.

ah, cute. It should really have a mini-map window too then, so that you can click and drag that to instantly get around a huge main map. Features, features, features! Perhaps our distinguished author might like to make the editor open-source so others can help out instead of just requesting features (Or just open up the binary storage format).

One of the great things about e.g. Marathon was how good the map editors got (by about the time the game went out of fashion.. sigh... )

Regardless, I look forward to whatever improvements make themselves into the 1.0.1 release

@pisketch, on Jan 9 2007, 03:32 AM, said in Feedback at me!:

You know, you do have a point. I didn't put much emphasis on the whole "Glitch" aspect. Something to fix in the next verson. I am going to keep the hidden items though, because i just like having them there. And the nonsolid walls are kind of "Glitchy", don'tcha think?

Pi

MMM, keep the hidden items. There again, I'm a Zelda fanatic and remember many happy hours on the game-boy poking every wall in a dungeon to try and find the ones that were bomb-able. 'Secret' passages are good. IMHO they should also be a little harder to find - but many other would probably disagree with me there.

@crono, on Jan 9 2007, 05:39 PM, said in Feedback at me!:

IMHO they should also be a little harder to find - but many other would probably disagree with me there.

Like me..also, good job Pi, nice map :).