how to make a good level

Everything about the level editing process.

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how to make a good level

Postby pspluke » Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:51 pm

1.Make it hard to stay in the portal
2.Put anchor points wide apart
3.Voids/Half-Voids
Please add more
Have a look at these:
http://armadillo.metaclassofnil.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=490
Last edited by pspluke on Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby DJC » Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:30 pm

I wish I knew.

The best levels to play are those that allow many different solutions, but how you plan this when designing a level I just don't know.
I have an inferiority complex, it's just not a very good one.
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Postby dudiobugtron » Fri Oct 13, 2006 5:28 am

DJC wrote:I wish I knew.

The best levels to play are those that allow many different solutions, but how you plan this when designing a level I just don't know.


When your level includes gaining height, try to make sure the height is enough to make pulleys and rubber cost about the same - it's basically impossible for rockets to be the cheapest way! Also you can set it up so a see-saw is workable, which adds some experimental value!

Another way to 'spice up' the competition is to have some falling weights in the level, so the competitors have to decide whether to:

a) avoid/ignore them
b) use them as a counterweight for a pulley system or balance
c) Use them in a GPE launcher or see-saw
d) Incorporate them into the catcher
e) Make a new idea!

Basically, try to think of a few different ways you can beat your level, and test them out to see if one is obviously cheaper than the others - if it is, then adjust the level to make that way cheaper or the others costlier!
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Postby DJC » Fri Oct 13, 2006 5:13 pm

Thanks - I've added that to my ever increasing hints & tips Word doc.

So have I got this right? You should (or can - I realise it's not proscriptive) make as many different solutions as you can cost about the same? Yes I can see the point of that but it's paradoxical. I made two levels in my Down the Pan set where there was an obvious cheaper solution. In the first level it took quite some time before someone spotted it and used it even though I thought it was obvious. In Bits Within no one spotted it so I posted my own solution (Irelaise that no one might have spotted it because they got fed up with the level, but hypothetically...).

BTW I'm assuming that in your last paragraph you got 'cheaper' and 'costlier' the wrong way round. If you spot a cheapest solution and make it even cheaper then surely it's going to be obvious and no one will try the costlier solutions.
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Postby ?rjan Flatseth » Fri Oct 13, 2006 5:31 pm

There can be a ceheeper solution, but it should not be anywere near obvious. It must be so hard to find that the levelcreator dont see it him self.
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Postby DJC » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:08 pm

Yes I agree. A really cheap solution shouldn't be seen by the author. I had this on the Zoom level of my Zed set. Unfortunately Sangnoir always spots them really quickly so it takes the fun out of creating.

I like the way the Orjan levels have gone recently with the hilly type journeys. Can't wait to see the Kafka winner. I'm not submitting my solution because it's too expensive. It's in budget on the cash but over once you add time - and I do totally support the time element although I think it should go to hundredths of a second and not be rounded up to whole seconds.

I think the official solutions page should also be amended to take account of time - it would breathe new life into the game and newcomers would have a shot at beating all those Hudak solutions.
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Postby ?rjan Flatseth » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:23 pm

If there is two or more identical scores - the hundredths will count. The rounding up is just for simplicity.
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Postby dudiobugtron » Sat Oct 14, 2006 12:57 am

Yeah, I got them the wrong way around, sry DJC!
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