next »

[MegaMew]

Shit, Skull Man is Mega Man 4?  I'm ashamed that I made that mistakes seeing as 4 is one of my favorite Mega Man games 

Heh, don't be. There are too many Megaman games to remember every enemy.

I continued the Megaman IV level and like Stevolutionary wrote, it really was in an Alpha stage before... It's much better gameplaywise and visually now but I admit it can be a hard level before you get to know the route well enough. I'll create Bubble Bobble, Bionic Commando and Cheetah Men stages next and upload a download link after that.

But I play 4 so frequently, and seldom play 3...

Bubble Bobble should be interesting since its a single screen free roaming level design.
Bionic Commando I never played so I don't really know what to expect.
I'm looking forward to seeing Cheetah Men.  I expect it to be glitched out as fuck 

[Murdoc Loch]

I'm really looking forward to playing this 

-ML

[sh00takai]

A tiny report about the situation (because I'm too excited to keep my mouth shut).

I finished the Bubble Bobble stage's route and traps yesterday and I think it's easily the best speedrun level I've done so far. Once it's visual side is finished I'll upload some videos about the latest versions of all stages because nearly all of them have been slightly modified to meet your suggestions / expectations.

Next target is Cheetah Men. I expect it to become glitched and random as fuck.

[MegaMew]

That's what I like to hear (Insert emoticon of Meat Boy wearing sunglasses here)

[sh00takai]

Tiny update.

Added videos about the finalized versions to the topic post. Some tiny changes were made to all levels excluding Haxanadu and Kaczynski. Also, there's a video about the new stage, Bubble Wrap.

[Stevolutionary]

Loved them! Think they're almost all perfect now. Only have two comments.

I think on Egotist, the launchers could probably look better than they currently do, and the blades being a different colour, while a good idea, makes them hard to see as the way they are currently they look almost like a part of the background.

Bubble Wrap is a great level, but I honestly couldn't see much of a Bubble Bobble feel to it unfortunately. I don't know if maybe a different colour scheme could maybe do it? A great level, but i'm just not sure if it's identifiable as a NES themed level.

Apart from that, all the rest are amazing and as better than the majority of the custom chapters i've seen so far.

[MegaMew]

I'm no bubble bobble expert, but I'm not seeing bubble bobble in this.  Maybe a key chase level in one of the classic square shaped arena's would be more appropriate?  The color scheme may also help it a ton.

[sh00takai]

I think on Egotist, the launchers could probably look better than they currently do, and the blades being a different colour, while a good idea, makes them hard to see as the way they are currently they look almost like a part of the background.

Bubble Wrap is a great level, but I honestly couldn't see much of a Bubble Bobble feel to it unfortunately. I don't know if maybe a different colour scheme could maybe do it? A great level, but i'm just not sure if it's identifiable as a NES themed level.

I'm no bubble bobble expert, but I'm not seeing bubble bobble in this.  Maybe a key chase level in one of the classic square shaped arena's would be more appropriate?  The color scheme may also help it a ton.

I agree. The saws and launchers in Egotist should be modified. It seems I completely ignored them because I put most effort in the route.

About Bubble Wrap, it was a very hard stage to finish both visually and gameplaywise. For some odd reason, I wanted to make stage 99 despite I kept browsing through various levels to find a better alternative until I started the work.

Stage 99's layout didn't encourage me to create the classic traps so I ended up using fans and accurately timed falling spikes. I didn't want to repeat Faxanadu's idea, so I ignored key runs. After finishing the route, I tried numerous color combinations to make it look good but none of them worked well. The camera is zoomed so far that Meat Boy is really hard to separate from the background if it's not adjusted just right. The only way was to make it dark enough, but I didn't want to make it completely black because then it would've looked too similar to Kid Icarus stage. I'm sorry if it doesn't look familiar... Maybe I should try to add those bonus letters to the lower right corner to make it look like an ongoing session of Bubble Bobble?

[MegaMew]

When I say key run I mean keys scattered through out the level, perhaps in each corner, and you can pick them up in any order, not the one with the disappearing bridge.

The bonus letters would be a nice touch.  Even more so if you could make some seem like you have them and some still unpicked up 

I also wouldn't worry too much about similarities visually between levels.  Black backgrounds were part of the NES history so there isn't much you can do about it.  Space the levels apart in the chapter and it should be fine 

[Stevolutionary]

The issue with making levels that are recognisable to the source has the same issue as the names - the more obscure, the closer to the source you need to stay in order for people to get the source. By choosing level 99, you're possibly choosing the most obscure level in the game, as apart from level 100, it is logically the one least people will have reached, but a lot of people will have seen the last level purely by Googling or YouTubing the ending.

In that sense then i'd argue it needs to stay as close as possible to the source then to allow people to get it, but by changing the colours and making the scale larger, only die-hard Bubble Bobble fans will recognise it. Using the EXTEND letters may help, but I almost feel that's a bit of a cheat and makes it too obvious - you could add elements of the HUD from the original game on any level and make it recognisable that way, but I feel the real satisfaction comes in making one that is recognisable by its own merits.

The level itself is excellent artistically and in gameplay terms - I wouldn't change any element of it normally, but thematically, IMO it doesn't fit in with the rest of the chapter as it stands. Bubble Bobble is a cotton candy kind of game in terms of art direction, and I think making the "cave" more dayglo and gaudy would maybe fix this issue. Even something as simple as making the walls pink may do it. Giving it a gritty and ruined look doesn't really suit it.

As I said before though, apart from polishing the look of the hazards in Egotist, I think the rest of the chapter is perfect.

[sh00takai]

That level is hard to recognize, I agree. IMO, the same problem plagues also the Wizards and Warriors level.

I already tried making Bubble Wrap look more "childish" without success. Making the level visually simple and true to original made it look very empty and unfinished in the same way Kid Icarus was in the beginning. I guess it's mainly because of the far zoomed view in this case because adding decorations etc. didn't work well this time.

The current visual solution was an attempt to give it a completely unique, more mature look while keeping the layout exactly same to the original. It uses the original level's colors, but I darkened them a bit to create a feeling of night time. I already spent two nights tweaking the level's look and I certainly don't feel like making a completely new level because it is a blast to play this one. I'll tweak it a bit tonight and see if I can make it better, but I'll put more focus on the Cheetah Men / Castlevania to get the first download out hopefully by the end of this week.

[Stevolutionary]

I'm not suggesting ditching it, as it does look good to play, but just giving a bit of independent perspective. At the end of the day it's your chapter, and what's most important is how happy you are with it. 

I personally still do think though that an OTT kiddy look to it would give it that something to make it seem more Bubble Bobble-ish.

[sh00takai]

Stevolutionary, you're a genius. I colored the map pink and it instantly transformed into a candy land. It's much better now. I'll try to make it as cool as possible (I'm thinking about coloring the spikes and adding some "glitter" in the fore tiles by placing stars) and post a picture about it at some point. Thanks for the suggestion again!

EDIT: It looks like this now. Coloring the spikes was a fiasko, but I like the sparkling tiles a lot more than the original ones.

[sh00takai]

Yay! I added a download link for the first ten levels to the opening post. Any kind of feedback about the levels would be highly appreciated.

[Stevolutionary]

Yay! I added a download link for the first ten levels to the opening post. Any kind of feedback about the levels would be highly appreciated.

Good stuff! I can only offer video feedback, but i'm sure the new ones are great too.