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[RockLeeSmile]

Was wondering what your opinions are out there... if someone is making a chapter, would it bother you if the palette was different from level to level, or had some glitch palette levels thrown in the middle? Is it OK to have the difficulty change from one level to the next?

It's a unique problem since the game featured one palette per chapter. It also had a constantly ramping difficulty. Our custom chapters can have every type of hazard on any individual level... is that bad? Is it a case of having to recognize the responsibility to maintain an overall level of ascending difficulty regardless? I mean, it is a "chapter" for a reason, the same way musicians have albums, which are designed to be experienced as a whole, not just the sum of their parts.

What do you guys think?

I'd love to hear what Tommy and Edmund think too.

[Nachogrande96]

In my opinion, I wouldn't really care if the palette/difficulty changed throughout the chapter. It sort of keeps things fresh, and you'll never know what to expect from level to level.

[Zarkith]

It's a unique problem since the game featured one palette per chapter.

Cotten Alley didn't. 

[NovaSilisko]

Yeah, Cramps contains an assload of themes and it's being made official, so there's no problems with multiple tilesets.

[taviow]

I'm sure it's especially important to Edmund and Tommy. I'm sure we can all comprehend the importance of a proper difficulty curve in games. Although, the idea behind the dark worlds is very neat and allows Super Meat Boy to be just as hard as they wanted it to be without really breaking said curve.

With custom chapters we have a lot more freedom. I think it's pretty neat to mind the difficulty curve in your custom chapters, but generally, as long as the levels are fun, I don't think it's particularly necessary. And it feels good to have that kind of freedom.

Just look at the Cotton Alley, in which they didn't really care about a difficulty curve. Most of the chapter is very hard, and some of the early levels are harder than the later levels. And as I said, as long as you're making quality levels, the chapter will turn out alright, just as the Cotton Alley did.

[roboticaust]

I am going to have to side with everyone else here.  Difficulty curve is most important.  The way the tilesets are lined up is to promote that difficulty curve over a lengthier period of time.  During normal gameplay, the tilesets offer unique new challenges to give the players.  When entering a new chapter, you are greeted with new, slightly more difficult obstacles contained in said tileset.  This doesn't necessarily mean one tileset can't be made as hard as another or that one idea that works in one can't be more difficult than an idea created in a previous tileset.  Just means that rockets, fans and conveyor belts are ranked higher than slow moving meat wads, predictable moving dust bunnies, and of course saws on sticks (as I fondly refer to them).  Although, taking a cue from Cotton Alley by hiding the fact that they are different tilesets might alleviate your continuity woes.

[Maruhai]

Variety is great.

/thread

[Stevolutionary]

Variety is great.

/thread

Consistency is better. Re-open thread.

Seriously, if you're making a chapter and want it to stand out, it has to have something that binds it, and theme and difficulty curve are tools to that end, otherwise you're not making a chapter, but a collection of disparate levels, and then collecting them in a set of 20 is purely arbitrary.

Do you want your chapter to be a concept album or a greatest hits? What do people revere the most? Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, or The Beatles Collection? Ziggy Stardust or Best of Bowie?

You can use different tilesets and still keep a theme. Your chapter could be themed by design, using primarilly missile based challenges for example, but it does need a binder or it fails on an artistic level.

[RockLeeSmile]

Variety is great.

/thread

Consistency is better. Re-open thread.

Seriously, if you're making a chapter and want it to stand out, it has to have something that binds it, and theme and difficulty curve are tools to that end, otherwise you're not making a chapter, but a collection of disparate levels, and then collecting them in a set of 20 is purely arbitrary.

Do you want your chapter to be a concept album or a greatest hits? What do people revere the most? Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, or The Beatles Collection? Ziggy Stardust or Best of Bowie?

You can use different tilesets and still keep a theme. Your chapter could be themed by design, using primarilly missile based challenges for example, but it does need a binder or it fails on an artistic level.

Yes, this is kind of what I was getting at when I started this topic. I pretty much agree with this quote, but am very happy that it's really opened up this discussion for us to all have.

[roboticaust]

well it's not out of the question to attempt to shade and color things so similarly that they don't look like different tilesets much in the same way Cotton Alley did.  But yes, I would have to agree that a theme should exist.  It doesn't necessarily have to be "rockets" persay, but making it feel linear is pretty darn important.