What makes it good?!?!?

Greetings,

As my title shows, what makes a good SketchFighter map/level? What do people look for? It it supposed to to be hard, but not too hard or easy, but not too easy? Lots of enemies or a few enemies in critical locations?

Korithus

Very good questions. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject:

Difficulty: Depends entirely on the player. I like fairly difficult levels, where there's a risk of dying at points other than boss fights, but if it's too hard I generally won't re-play it. The simplest method I know of the adjust the difficulty of a map is to modify the availability of shield recharges and upgrades. If there are lots of shields, the map will be easy; if there are few shields, the map will be hard.

Enemies: A fairly even spread of enemies- don't let there be any places with no enemies for long stretches, but do have areas with clusters of harder enemies to spice things up a bit.
Also, having some unique parent/child combination enemies can greatly improve the level- don't use nothing but the basic enemies.

Layout: If at all possible, have sections of the map that the player will end up looping back through, but without forcing them to backtrack more than a screen or two. A purely linear map, where you never return to any area, gets fairly boring.

Eye-candy: Never underestimate the positive effects of paying a bit of attention to detail in the scenery. Players may not fly around the map carefully looking at all the flowers in the walls, but they'll certainly notice that a level with varied walls and bits of pointless fluff outside of the walls is nicer than a very square map made entirely of Wasteland Walls, even if the content is exactly the same.

The best advice I can give you is to carefully play good levels, and (if possible) dissect them in the editor. For examples of good levels, right now I'd suggest looking at the original game, anything by Silverwind, and Obstacle Course. Also, read through all of the threads that announce released/beta levels- they usually have a fair amount of feedback and general advice on map-making.

Edwards

About the layout, I'd say that the path should be a bit complex, i.e. not only the player has to backtrack a bit (for instance, after getting an upgrade), but in fact he has to find out where to go and explore before finding the next thing to do. Avoid making a map with horribly long corridors, but only a few intersections. I think you should strive to give the player a feeling of freedom, while at the same time constraining him with the upgrades availability (like in the stock scenario).

For enemies, I think you can make your level stand out by having complex and interesting minibosses (even if they are not necessarily all technically minibosses), the possibilities are infinite.

For levels to inspire yourself from, I advise:
HSStarQuest - a reference, if only because this was the first released custom level (well, of coure andcarne had a head start ), layout is interesting, one or two things are weird but there are a few interesting inventions.
Obstacle Course - I daresay it is a work of art. A very difference ambience and level design decisions from the main game, but which is very pleasing. Shocked full of interesting challenges.
Abandoned Factory by Pi - a little bit too linear, but otherwise brilliant. Notice the feeling of storyline depth given by the introduction strings.
The Epic of Sketch - simply brilliant. Notice the doors you can open once you've beaten a part, which allow you to exit more quickly to go to the following parts.

I would suggest (assuming you have beaten the main game) taking your final save and simply flying around the areas (you shouldn't have any difficulty travelling very quickly with all your shields and upgrades). Have a look at the way the main levels were put together, what sprites were used and how the walls were done. e.g. how straight the factory walls are, how the wasteland is very rugged and how the forest very smooth. Also see how they interplay with each other.

This isn't to say you should copy it exactly (Think Different ;)), but it should give you a good idea about what kept you interested enough to keep playing the game.

As Edwards said regarding difficulty - this is such a mix from person to person that I would suggest simply being up-front about the difficulty level you are aiming for of each map you make before-hand, and then players won't complain.

For example, I'm from the era of 'ye olde' Spectrum/Amstrad 464 games and ancient arcades. These would effectively be like playing sketch-fighter in hard-mode with a maximum of 5% shields and only 3 lives. Oh, and no saving. Hence I like the action fast'n'furious and as difficult as possible. If it takes me 20 goes and 5 days to beat the level, I'll be happy! One caveat to that though is that I hate things which are effectively luck-based.

But other people vary, and I'm probably at the most extreme in that sense. Again, assuming you have beaten the game - think how hard it was for you. Most people here (probably) found it a bit easy. I beat it the first time in a few hours for example.

A final point though is that the main game had a major extra going for it - the multiple zones made enemies come back when you re-entered an old one. You don't have this in custom levels, so looping back over the same map area a lot can be boring - if only because once you've cleared the enemies out, there's nothing left to shoot!

I think ZP and Edwards have already said anything else I can think of right now.

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For examples of good levels, right now I'd suggest looking at the original game, anything by Silverwind, and Obstacle Course.

Ah, that makes me swell with pride.

In answer to your question Korithus Zithus, different people look for different things in a level. There are those who prefer a good challenge rather than a pleasant walk through of a level, like Crono. And there are those who prefer a complex assortment of sprites rather than a series of nicely decorated, but not very essential passageways, like Cheleball. Finding a balanced mix to these things is the key to creating a good level.

There's one thing that everyone likes though, at least almost everyone, and that's detail. I could go hours on end (if I had hours on end) creating a level and not adding any enemies to it, simply focusing on detail, and I'd love every minute of it! Detail is something you can never have enough of. You can always add one more cluster of rocks in the Volcano, or a few more bushes and shrubs in the Forest. What I really like about detail is that everybody has their own unique style. Cheleball gave us a beautiful and exotic world to explore when he made "Obstacle Course", using a fantastic array of colours that make the level seem strange and alien. Dogbert created an awesome mix of the Forest and the Factory zones in "The Abandoned Factory". Which has you brave your way through a wonderfully creative map while you're surrounded by the elements of both the two combined areas at once.

Then there are those like me, who prefer Lar's way of decorating a level. I stick to the basics for the most part, but make sure to cram as much eye candy into every level I make as possible. And of course, you develop your own style as you begin to create more levels, so you'll get better and new ideas as you progress in skill. In fact, looking back on "The Epic Of Sketch" and comparing it to one of the new levels I've got in the wings, I think "blah!" (and incase anyone's wondering, no, it's not TCOC. Sadly that level won't have as much detail in it, since most of it takes place in a man made structure I have a huge limit on which walls I can use. )

Well, I hope that helped.

Oh, and I nearly forgot. Your level was cool! It had difficulty, detail and depth, the three D's of level design! I hope we'll be seeing more levels from you in the future.

@silverwind, on Mar 6 2007, 01:06 PM, said in SketchMaps:

Cheleball gave us a beautiful and exotic world to explore when he made "Obstacle Course", using a fantastic array of colours that make the level seem strange and alien.

Aww, shucks, thanks (and everyone else, too). But...

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...there are those who prefer a complex assortment of sprites rather than a series of nicely decorated, but not very essential passageways, like Cheleball...

I honestly have no idea what you mean by this. Not that it's offensive or I'm offended, I'm just curious what the heck you're talking about.

Greetings,

Thank you fo all your suggestions! I love them! I'm thinking about combining all 5 "zones" into one fairly large map, like Epic Of Sketch, although I'm going to add quite a few enemies. I am going to work on this more when I have time.

Also, how do you make minibosses?

Thanks,

Korithus

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I honestly have no idea what you mean by this. Not that it's offensive or I'm offended, I'm just curious what the heck you're talking about.

The Gauntlet, Foggity Fog Fog Foggy, Shooting Gallery, The Rapids, The Dire Straits. They all point to one thing: It's much more interesting to have a complex set of challenges rather than the normal passageways and rooms filled with ordinary bad guys, eh Mr. Several-Hundred-Sprites-Onscreen-At-Once?

@korithus-zythus, on Mar 7 2007, 06:45 AM, said in SketchMaps:

Also, how do you make minibosses?

Try viewing the "SketchFighter Editor Manual.pdf" file in your SF folder. You have to name an enemy "Mini Boss", add two or three doors called "Mini Boss Door 1(/2/3)", put them to Layer 10 and not solid, Extra1 of the door(s) should be 1, Extra2 7. And you have to add a trigger sprite (name: Mini Boss Start, layer: 10, sprite type: 4) to the beginning of the boss room.