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[Jarr3tt88]

01 - Digging Out Video
Digging Out Progress/Development Pics

My 2nd level is nearly complete. I completely forgot to take screen shots along the way haha So I went back and just deleted stuff to show the general thought process. This is in the hospital tile set, called Chained Affair.

[Jarr3tt88]

I know the forums are super quiet, but if anyone has any feedback at all for Digging Out, please let me know :) Hope others enjoy this map! Sure was awesome fun creating it :D Excited to make more in the near future!

[GameRoom]

Well, since you say so.

It looks really sexy. Omnomnom that's some good levelage you got there. You have potential to be really good.

[Vex69]

A good level, but a bit over-done.

[Jarr3tt88]

Well, since you say so.

It looks really sexy. Omnomnom that's some good levelage you got there. You have potential to be really good.

Thanks man! Appreciated :) The level is now on SMW if you wanna play it! Looking forward to making more maps. I enjoy making custom tracks on Trials HD, and I think I will on SMB just as much.

A good level, but a bit over-done.

I don't know what you mean by 'over done' please elaborate?

[StealthAngel667]

I agree, looks very overdone. The map's already HUGE, and has too many possibilities to mess up.
Not sure how this would play out, but you can probably cut at least 30% of the size.

The part around Bandage Babe in the last screen looks quite messy. Just placing brown rocks all over the damn place.

[GameRoom]

Yeah, cut down on half of the rocks and put the sawblade launchers in the walls and it would be perfect.

[Jarr3tt88]

I agree, looks very overdone. The map's already HUGE, and has too many possibilities to mess up.
Not sure how this would play out, but you can probably cut at least 30% of the size.

The part around Bandage Babe in the last screen looks quite messy. Just placing brown rocks all over the damn place.

Considering I just jumped straight into the editor without really taking a look at what was already out there in the custom world, I wasn't really sure what an 'acceptable' map length is. Par time is 18secs or something, which I don't think is that long at all...Play the map through if you haven't. I mean its not hard by any means, sure there are places that have many possibilities to mess up, but any level does thats what makes it challenging? This map is cake compared to anything from Hell levels or even the custom Let it Rain, which I haven't personally played but looks like an insanely long and difficult map. Could you please recommend a good time length for a map?

As for placing the rocks all around, that was me trying to be creative with the editor; which I'm used to doing in Trials HD. I wanted it to look like a rocky cave, sorry if it looks messy, random or out of place. IMO I like to stand out as a creator of maps and levels :) Not a fan of doing things that have been done or following everyone else lead.

Here is a video of the map: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAMz75_FGdg (reuploading a better faster run)

[Jarr3tt88]

Ok, I got around to giving your level a shot this morning.

You said this is your first level? Your taste in aesthetics is very good! I've said to more than one person how difficult the forest tile set is to make look good and you definitely succeded in that. I can tell you've spent some time really working on this one.

The jumps along the bottom of the level all seem reasonable enough... maybe tweak the timing of the first saw launcher to wait a little longer... I hate respawning and having to wait before I can jump back in, tends to break the flow for me.

My first issue comes in that you chose to obfuscate the bottom right corner tiles with some rocks, I mean, it's not a game ender by any means, but it makes it extra difficult to judge exactly when you need to jump to not fly straight into the saw on the wall. My personal feeling about that idea, is that if it's something you walk on or jump off of, leave it for the player to see... if it's decorative (like out of your path, or on the ceiling) then it's not going to be any hindrance. I did generally find that the ascension jumps right here were difficult to do consistently... if there was a bottleneck to this level (a place that would make me lean toward stopping due to frustration) it would be these jumps. I CAN do them, but it seems like only about 1 in 4 times that I can make it up without the arc going too wide on the second jump.

My second minor issue is the long jump from the "outside" area (from left to right over the bandage). I have no problem executing corner jumps for extra height (and I'd like to believe that it's common knowledge by now) but not everyone seems to be able to them and I suppose they don't really realize that you DO get extra height from jumping off a wall. Also the overhang after that jump makes it a little tough to get in to the next "underground" passage. After that, it's a little rough to have to not jump on the saw shooter and just tap that tiny section of wall between the shooter and the saw... I would bury the shooter in the wall so it's not an issue.

Last piece of crit for you is to be very judicious about your use of slanted floors and walls. They can trigger some very odd physics bugs and make navigating your level unnecessarily difficult (you know, for the wrong reasons). I try to use them more for decoration, or places where you don't need to be terribly careful of your movements.

I found on the whole that this was a very good level and after you fine-tune your design style a little more, I'm certain that you'll be churning out near perfect levels. I hope this crit didn't come across overly negative... I just wanted to really break down the specifics for you.

I look forward to seeing your next work!

Nick

[Vex69]

By over-done I mean that you went crazy with the props

[Jarr3tt88]

By over-done I mean that you went crazy with the props

We are allowed 400 objects....So I was just using that limit to the max to make my level more complete. I like to use decorations to make the level more aesthetically pleasing, rather than just leaving it empty and calling it a day. I don't know why that would be over done or crazy. If the level was much smaller, than I probably wouldn't have had so much detail. The level was larger, so it needed more detail. Is too detailed really a problem? lol Interesting.

Well thanks for the feedback guys I appreciate it alot! Thanks to those that checked out the level in the SMW portal :) I'm going to make a few minor tweaks and re-upload the level called -J88- Digging Out. I have been working on my second level in the hospital tile set and that is almost done. Just needs a little more testing, might be out by this weekend.

[Vex69]

Sure will

[Jarr3tt88]

Digging Out Day 1 & 2:

I have just begun creating my first custom map for SMB! I have played since the beginning on XBL, and love the game. I was so happy to hear the PC version was getting an editor. I finally bought a controller and now I'm able to play!

Here is some pics of my work in progress, my first map Digging out. I figured it would be best to make a map in each level set and see how it goes from there. I watched the tutorial video and it seems very complex the editor at first. After working with it for a little bit I was able to figure some thing out from the video and some threads around here. Let me know what you guys think of my first map how it is shaping up, feedback is def welcome as I don't want to create maps that don't have a re-playability to them. Thanks!





I'm not sure if I'm a fan of all the grey rock I added, I think there's too much going on, so I might remove some later when I work on the map again.

I've made several tracks in the editor for Trials HD, if any of you are familiar with it, and I hope some of that experience I can bring over and make some awesome maps here for SMB!

Day 3:

Well I'm almost done with my line! I'm not sure what I want to do in the middle yet, and needs a few more obstacles near the end. This turned out way different than what I had originally planned. Mostly because I couldn't use the lock and key in forest :/ and I wanted to have some deco on top of the player in the beginning.



For the middle, I might wind up mirroring the moving saw up. Would prob work well :) I hope to have this level finished by the weekend. I fixed the issue I was having with the grey rock, and I cleaned up that area a little bit.

Edit- I was able to add some more decoration this evening. The level is really shaping up nicely, really proud of this first level :)



Day 4 & 5:

OK! I think I finally finished this bad boy up.



After all that, the editor isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm looking forward to putting some little final touches and uploading this tomorrow! Not bad for a first crack at the editor I think.

Next level is going to be in the Hospital tile set.

Edit- I made some final tweaks this morning and I have officially uploaded the finished version. Hope you guys enjoy it!

[Vex69]

I like your new Hospital level, I need to use more chains in my levels 

[Kaede]

Played Digging Out, nice map (I'll upload a video one of these days).
However, I would advise against using slopes. I do not really know how to explain it, but I find the way the game handles them very random and unsatisfying. The same goes for moving platforms, which are glitchy as hell -V- (disable jumping sound and have very VERY approximative collisions)

Looking forward to playing your other maps.