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[Stevolutionary]

I'm toying with getting the PC version and using the level editor to create a 20 level chapter and just wanted some feedback first to see if what i'm planning would be a good idea.

My concept is more of a 'joke' chapter, not as in funny, but as in a deconstruction of the game and an arty demonstration of existentialist themes - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism. All levels would be visually extremely depressing, and primarilly shades of grey or black and white, using either 4 color meat boy throughout if he's usable separate from his tileset, or Tofu Boy.

Here's 13 examples, so more than half a chapter so far...

1) Boredom - A level where you must climb on a horizontal platform and do nothing but wait 5 minutes for it to slowly reach BG (Bandage Girl)
2) Angst - A level where BG is immediately next to you on the left, but there is a huge abyss next to you on the right. There is no need to go down there, and it will kill you if you do, but the urge to jump will be powerful.
3) Dread - A level where BG is easy to get to, but there are keys in the way, and it will take you longer to jump over the keys than to collect them. Each time you collect a key, an otherwise harmless Zombie Meat will drop onto spikes that will kill it. Killing them or leaving them will not effect the level one bit. Your choice, your conscience.
4) Alienation - You are on the outside of an amzingly fun and interesting looking level full of hazards and traps and bright colours and bandages, and you have no way of entering or experiencing it, ever. You must simply go around the outer wall. If it's possible, i'd also put a multitude of other playable characters inside having fun.
5) Inevitability - A lift takes you up to BG, and it and the space in the column in as wide as you, meaning there is no possible way to not collect BG.
6) Fulfilment - There are 100 switches or keys that need to be hit or collected to reach BG. This will be extremely tedious.
7) Freedom - There are 2 BGs, both equal distances, both will finish the level. You have a choice, but of course both lead to the exact same outcome.
8) Authenticity - Another remix of The Kid 1, an exact copy of Puberty from the Expert remix chapter, but with an alternate path that will allow you to completely bypass everything if you choose. There will be a timed door so if you take the easy path, your time will be virtually the same as someone who takes the hard path. Only you will know the truth.
9) Abandonment - A really fun and complicated level, but BG is right next to you. You can save her until later and run through the level if you wish, but there is no purpose or reward.
10) Lonliness - The opposite of Speck from the expert remix. The level would have an extremely zoomed in camera. So much so that you could not see much more than Meat Boy, giving you a sense of claustrophobia and panic, and an urge to find BG quickly and end the level. It would be a very easy level and not possible to die on, but one made hard to navigate due to the camera.
11) Individuality - You spawn in mid air and fall down a shaft and land on BG. There are no walls, just lasers, so you cannot slow your fall, only hit BG or die. As a result, everybody on the leaderboard will have the exact same time as it will be impossible to do the level any faster or slower.
12 Anxiety - The level is absolutely filled with hazards, except... none of them have any collision detection. The moral being that anxiety can paralyze you, but most worries are imaginary.

And the last level would be called Futility. Now this might be controversial, but i'm toying with either making this level impossible to complete or impossible to A+. I know it won't let you upload the level if it is impossible, so i'd have some form of cheat where BG is hidden/invisible and moves to an impossible location soon after, so i'd have a method to finish it, but it would be virtually impossible for anyone else to unless they knew the trick.

By making the levels boring, easy or impossible, the chapter would be going against the whole point of the game, and would be more an art project than a 'real' chapter to make people think about certain things. It would however also appeal to the hardcore crowd as it'll take some serious masochism to make it through.

Any feedback? I'd also appreciate nobody ripping these ideas off too unless I decide I don't want to make it. I trust you guys. Don't upset the dibs God!  

[Stokes]

You have to beat the levels yourself before anyone ever sees it on the portal.

[Stevolutionary]

You have to beat the levels yourself before anyone ever sees it on the portal.

I know, and I explained this - I will create a ridiculously obscure and virtually impossible way to finish the level that unless you knew the secret to it, you would never be able to work it out. That way I could upload it, but it would remain forever incomplete to everyone else, unless they cheated and went into the level's code.

It would seriously piss people off after doing the previous 19, but that's the point. To show you life isn't fair and some things never have a satisfying resolution. If you did cheat to finish it, you'd have missed the point of the previous 19. It is meant to stay incomplete or un-A+ able. That is the chapter's final message.

[Stokes]

I know, and I explained this - I will create a ridiculously obscure and virtually impossible way to finish the level that unless you knew the secret to it, you would never be able to work it out. That way I could upload it, but it would remain forever incomplete to everyone else, unless they cheated and went into the level's code.

It would seriously piss people off after doing the previous 19, but that's the point. To show you life isn't fair and some things never have a satisfying resolution. If you did cheat to finish it, you'd have missed the point of the previous 19. It is meant to stay incomplete or un-A+ able. That is the chapter's final message.

Sounds like a blast.

[Patashu]

It's not based around making it as hard as possible, so it -must- be fun!

[Stevolutionary]

I know, and I explained this - I will create a ridiculously obscure and virtually impossible way to finish the level that unless you knew the secret to it, you would never be able to work it out. That way I could upload it, but it would remain forever incomplete to everyone else, unless they cheated and went into the level's code.

It would seriously piss people off after doing the previous 19, but that's the point. To show you life isn't fair and some things never have a satisfying resolution. If you did cheat to finish it, you'd have missed the point of the previous 19. It is meant to stay incomplete or un-A+ able. That is the chapter's final message.

Sounds like a blast.

I don't want to come over all emo, that's why I say it's a 'joke' chapter.

Some people will get enraged, some people will find it hilarious and others will maybe sit back and think a little. Most people wont 'get' it, but still, it'd provide a different experience than the millions of identical level types the portal will inevitably get swamped with.

[Stevolutionary]

It's not based around making it as hard as possible, so it -must- be fun!

Hahaha! I honestly can't tell if people are replying sarcastically or not! 

The fun is meant to come from the fact it isn't fun - a kind of ironic enjoyment, if that isn't too asshole hipsterish! 

In fact, some levels will be incredibly easy, as in the level where it is impossible not to complete or A+ it unless you quit out. The rest will be stupidly easy skill-wise, but incredibly hardcore patience wise to do. There will also probably be no way to die on any of the levels apart from some completely optional suicides.

[carnivore-x]

Hmm. Sounds interesting. Let me see if I could come up with something you could use, if you felt like it.

Infinity: Start on a long path. You must run to the other side, where you will collect a key. This will unlock a key on the start. Run back, collect it, then go to the other side. You must do this at least seven times before you could reach BG. There is one random saw, that you can only reach one before you unlock BG, at which point you can finally commit suicide, or finish the level.

Reunited: You and Bandage Girl are both trapped between gravity orbs, slowly moving towards each other. This would take about five minutes.

Plummet: You are falling for about a minute, with no walls, and Bandage Girl floating on the only floor. The space is huge, and you have to be very precise to land on her.

Can't think of anything else at the moment. This sounds very cool.

[Maruhai]

Do it, it sounds awesome.

[Patashu]

I have an idea for Futility: A laser that comes on between you and bandage girl and never turns off. It won't come on immediately, to give you the impression that you could get through before it turns on, but it always beats you to the punch and cuts you off.

[Stevolutionary]

I have an idea for Futility: A laser that comes on between you and bandage girl and never turns off. It won't come on immediately, to give you the impression that you could get through before it turns on, but it always beats you to the punch and cuts you off.

Great idea! I'd want you to be able to see her, but never be able to reach her, but also maintain hope the laser would at some point turn off, and have some people leave their PC on overnight just in case.

[Stevolutionary]

Hmm. Sounds interesting. Let me see if I could come up with something you could use, if you felt like it.

Infinity: Start on a long path. You must run to the other side, where you will collect a key. This will unlock a key on the start. Run back, collect it, then go to the other side. You must do this at least seven times before you could reach BG. There is one random saw, that you can only reach one before you unlock BG, at which point you can finally commit suicide, or finish the level.

Reunited: You and Bandage Girl are both trapped between gravity orbs, slowly moving towards each other. This would take about five minutes.

Plummet: You are falling for about a minute, with no walls, and Bandage Girl floating on the only floor. The space is huge, and you have to be very precise to land on her.

Can't think of anything else at the moment. This sounds very cool.

1) A good idea, and one i'd consider.
2) Nice too, but a bit similar to the first example a gave with the moving plaform.
3) The issue is this requires skill, and possible death. The whole point of the chapter i'd want is a sense of inevitability, lack of free will, and no way to really express yourself outside the narro confines the game dictates.

Good ideas though!

[Blatch]

Sounds like a neat idea for a chapter! I'm all for it. I even have an idea for a level myself:

Wither: Based upon the concept that Nothing Is Scarier, the level is completely black, the only things lit up are Meat Boy and Bandage Girl. The actual level is just a dull, pointless maze, where there is no way to die.

Some players may get scared, feeling that there is something hidden in the maze, when there is nothing hazardous, and it was all for nothing. For added effect, the lights may come on when the player hits a switch near the end of the maze, revealing that, yes, there was nothing there all along. The maze was indeed monocrome, making the premise as a whole even scarier than the maze itself.

Hope you like my idea!  
By the way, did I just ruin your life with the link to TV Tropes? Thank you very much. :)

[Stevolutionary]

Sounds like a neat idea for a chapter! I'm all for it. I even have an idea for a level myself:

Wither: Based upon the concept that Nothing Is Scarier, the level is completely black, the only things lit up are Meat Boy and Bandage Girl. The actual level is just a dull, pointless maze, where there is no way to die.

Some players may get scared, feeling that there is something hidden in the maze, when there is nothing hazardous, and it was all for nothing. For added effect, the lights may come on when the player hits a switch near the end of the maze, revealing that, yes, there was nothing there all along. The maze was indeed monocrome, making the premise as a whole even scarier than the maze itself.

Hope you like my idea!  

Very nice! One idea I was considering was something like this, where you have to navigate purely by trial and error in the pitch darkness or through invisible blocks. I just didn't post it yet as I can't think of an Existential term to link to it yet, and all the level names so far are actual Existential topics, not just dark sounding names.

I just really want all the levels to have Existential themes, which all basically revolve around life being ultimately meaningless and futile, with meaning only coming from what you create. The only thing stopping you finishing the level (apart from the last one) should be your own free will.

By the level being hard, and beatable ultimately, I worry that there will be a feeling of satsifaction at winning, and skill, not patience, will be needed to win, which would go against the point of the chapter - that in essence the chapter is pointless and you are wasting your time playing it, among other things in life that are equally pointless such as your sucky job, etc, which is what is supposed to make people think.

It's an idea i'm very keen to use, but i'd just need to work it into the theme a bit better.

[MegaMew]

Hey, if people can make art chapters in Knytt Stories then why not Super Meat Boy?  Sounds entertaining.  I only read the first 2 or 3 so the rest will be a surprise