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[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.

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

Yeah. I wish you bought the PC version. It would be great to have the possibility to do some collaborations and I would definitely like to see Existential Boy in the portal.

I'll add videos when I have enough free time.

EDIT: Videos added.

[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.

Yeah. I wish you bought the PC version. It would be great to have the possibility to do some collaborations and I would definitely like to see Existential Boy in the portal.

I'll add videos when I have enough free time.

EDIT: Videos added.

Let me be the first to say this...

CHEATER MEN IS FUCKING BRILLIANT!

Hilarious and original. Love it.

Master-D is great too. Nice challenge, very faithful, instantly recognisable if you've played the game. Great job. I can't suggest any changes. Maybe the missiles at the end could be a little faster as they don't pose much of a threat at the moment, but that's about it. Other than that you've knocked both of them out the park first time!

Make Moar!  

[sh00takai]

Master-D is great too. Nice challenge, very faithful, instantly recognisable if you've played the game. Great job. I can't suggest any changes. Maybe the missiles at the end could be a little faster as they don't pose much of a threat at the moment, but that's about it. Other than that you've knocked both of them out the park first time!

Make Moar!  

Ouch! That font size just hurts my eyes!

I'm glad about your comment. I was a bit unsure about Cheater Men as it's kinda random / confusing at first. Especially the last jump through the flying platforms can cause some unexpected things. The main route is simple though, so running through it shouldn't be a problem to anyone.

I agree, the missiles in Bionic Commando need to be tweaked a bit. They were too hard in the beginning and I obviously made them too easy now. I'll modify them before continuing with the boss fight in Castlevania. I hope it'll become an awesome action level, but it will take some extra time to adjust the waypoints.

[sh00takai]

Isn't anyone willing to test these?

I'd really like to get some feedback regarding at least these things:

* General difficulty should be around chapter 5-6 light and 1-4 dark world and is probably a little unbalanced at the moment. Notes about too easy / hard parts and suggestions about how to modify them are more than welcome, but I won't completely rescale the overall difficulty at this point anymore. These current levels will be included in the light version of Nesoteria.

* Speedruns. Can you speedrun these levels? Are they too long? Would you like me to add some extremely challenging shortcuts for those who want to speedrun and grind skill?

* Visual look. Can you recognize the original game and if not, does the level work gameplaywise well enough? If the level is ok to play but not that recognizable, we can probably let the visual details stay as they are, but if the level sucks and looks very unfamiliar, something needs to be done.

[Stevolutionary]

I'd recommend sending a few PMs out to the more active members inviting them to test them. As this topic is usually filled with development process, I imagine a lot of people may have stopped checking it so as not to incurr spoilers for when it's finished.

For the same reason when you have the full 20 ready, i'd suggest starting a new topic from scratch to promote them so people know they're done.

[nipple]

MegaMan Building LVL: The 1st set of platforms to walljump just can't be done for me. I've beaten the Kid 2 times also. 

Laser on left= needs to be brought down a ton

other than that, it probaly be fun to play the rest of the level

Make change or you get tossed into the  or  .

 

[sh00takai]

MegaMan Building LVL: The 1st set of platforms to walljump just can't be done for me. I've beaten the Kid 2 times also.  

Laser on left= needs to be brought down a ton

other than that, it probaly be fun to play the rest of the level

Make change or you get tossed into the   or  .

 

Yeah. It's hard, but manageable even for average players. In my opinion, that level is MUCH easier than, say, Hellevator (3-12x I think) in the main game. It's good to have one or two hard obstacles in a level. That's why I made the rest in that level much easier than it initially was. If you've beaten the Kid's warp two times, you'll be able to make those jumps in the first couple of tries. Just jump when you're near the platform's edge, not from the middle like I did in the youtube video.

Thanks anyway. I'll think about making that part a bit easier, but I probably won't if I end up placing the level among the last ones in the final chapter. We'll see about that once all 20 are complete.

Btw, I hope to finish Castlevania's boss fight tonight.

[sh00takai]

Tiny update. I've been pretty busy for the past few days, so I haven't created any new levels. Castlevania's level is now finished though and you can find a video from the OP. There are also videos about the tweaked Bionic Commando and Bubble Bobble stages.

[Stevolutionary]

Loving Castlevania! Also think the changes to Bubble Bobble and Bionic Commando make them fine to lock now.

For Castlevania, my only suggestions would be maybe put a lot of moving clouds in front of the moon and in the background to make it a bit moore moody if they're in the tileset, and (if not too complex) once the hazards have ended have a token switch appear you need to hit to escape and have the room behind you 'collapse' in some way after you defeat the 'boss' in true NES style.

At the moment it looks more like you just wait it out and sneak away rather than do anything in particular to 'kill' the boss, and is a bit anti-climatic to what is otherwise a brilliant set-piece.

Other than that, absolutely brilliant concept. Really, really, really like it.

Also, if you ever included a bandage on this level, I think there's two great hidden places you could put one, paying homage to Castlevania 4 (1:15) or Symphony of the Night (1:20).

[sh00takai]

Thanks for the reply.

There's only one problem in adding clouds. If I add them in the background, they will be visible inside the castle too. I messed with the layers pretty much in this level in order to "draw" the shadows and still have the possibility to add blue tiles in the background. I can add them in the front layers, and I most definitely will!

Also, good suggestion on how to "kill the boss", but there are sadly no buttons in the retro tileset. Otherwise I would make something with them. I think I could add some lock tiles to the corridor in the left and keys that become visible in the boss room at some point. It could make a good final challenge to jump between floating/moving platform to collect all the keys before it's too late and the trap routine starts all over again.

That Castlevania 4 secret is hilarious! I already added the level's final room from SotN, so maybe I should use Super Castlevania if I add a bandage.

[Stevolutionary]

Another idea would be to maybe make a Bat or something in the background tiles of the boss room if that's not too cheesy to make it look like you're actually fighting something? May look crap though doing that though... I understand the issue with the clouds as it'd be bad design to have the intrude into the boss room and obscure your view. Is there no way to make them static?

I think the final boss challenge is good as it is, and wouldn't complicate it too much with a key chase. Maybe something as simple as replace the left laser with a locked door and have a key drop after the last hazard. I think you could simulate a room collapse by doing something like you did with Cheetah Men and have random blocks repeatedly fall past the room a second after the key has been collected?

Again, the level is completely fine as is, so these may in fact wreck what is actually quite brilliant as is, so i'd definitely proceed with caution when changing it and just keep the level the same as now if any of these suggestions end up cluttering or overcomplicating it.

I actually love the shadows too as they mimic perfectly how they were done on the NES! Another very minor thing is your crescent moon is actually the opposite way around how they are conventionally represented.  

[sh00takai]

Yeah, good thoughts. I will be cautious since the current solution took pretty much time to create. I actually recreated the whole trap routine three times from scratch.

I haven't tried to make static clouds yet! I'll try that and I think it's possible, but it will demand some testing with their properties since they move by default.

I can add falling rocks to the boss room but then I need to force the player to finish the level somehow so that there's an illusion that the room really collapses... Otherwise the player can wait in the left corridor until the part with falling rocks ends and see how to whole routine starts all over again = boss is resurrected.

[Stevolutionary]

Yeah, good thoughts. I will be cautious since the current solution took pretty much time to create. I actually recreated the whole trap routine three times from scratch.

I haven't tried to make static clouds yet! I'll try that and I think it's possible, but it will demand some testing with their properties since they move by default.

I can add falling rocks to the boss room but then I need to force the player to finish the level somehow so that there's an illusion that the room really collapses... Otherwise the player can wait in the left corridor until the part with falling rocks ends and see how to whole routine starts all over again = boss is resurrected.

Maybe have the floor past the room made of breakable blocks and have spikes on the walls above BG? That way you have to keep moving or fall off the level and can't endlessly wall jump when you get there?

Again, this may mess with the purity of the level, so proceeding with caution is good, as it isn't broke as is, so doesn't really need fixing. The boss battle is superb at the moment, so all these are purely thematic suggestions, and if they end up compromising the gameplay, then they shouldn't be implimented.

[DD Commander]

Duck Hunt.

[carnivore-x]

From the videos, this looks awesome, especially the boss. I wish there were more videos of custom bosses.
Anyhoo, I was wondering, wouldn't it make more sense to call the Cheetah Man level Cheater Boy, as opposed to Cheater Man? Since it's Meat Boy, you know?