Masseyf

As always, returning to LBP after a nice create break and I found myself rejuvenated and excited to build once more.

Suddenly got the urge to make a sequel to something and before I knew it I was getting busy making CPI2

I think I was kind of amazed at how well the first was received. It looked awful, high difficulty, length and not far off a mere 1% of people who played actually finished it! Yet somehow, it holds a reasonable 1/3 yay rating :s

About the only thing I wanted to do differently with 2 is get some more names on the SB. And sure enough, days after publishing, thats already happened! All the better, its from people actually finishing, no one has used the end early option.

The entire create process has changed for me, I pick items and textures at the start and try hold a theme - something I typically struggle with. I burn a couple of bars of thermo (because I always run out and I found its nice to have that buffer ready to be freed up). And my logic use has definitely improved. Artistically, I think Ive moved up from 1, to 1.5 out of 10 lol. Well, we arent all so gifted ><

Despite feeling more experienced, making CPI2 threw up some horrible challenges. Again, the more I play/create, the more I learn and something I definitely got from this project was - start as you mean to go on ^_^ It was only at about 80% that I realised I wouldnt have the thermo needed to do what I wanted and so began emit/destroy - kinda bad move! The problem with doing that so late is, the emitted chunks tend to be more than the bit of thermo you have available during create (even tho by the time they are due for emitting in game you will have blown up enough so it works fine). I was getting some amount of issues trying to finish it, tags were renaming themselves! Camera zones were moving on their own. Simple and solid logic was simply not working in game (worked fine in create). Early obs had to be tinkered with as they just stopped working for no reason. There is an ob about half way in which you get into a controllinator and move platforms around in order to make a path - worked perfectly until the last few days before publishing. I knew it was because I was going the emit/destroy route and I seemed to have found a limit to the amount of named tags you can have. I made a copy of this before I cut the puzzle down and indeed I went back the other night to see if I could do anything to get the ob back to how I originally had it, but no luck :/ If I deleted 20% thermo and put the entrance near that ob, I would go into play mode and the ob worked exactly as intended. So I can only conclude that even if you manage to cheat the thermo, things are less reliable the more you do it.

One of the more interesting things about this level is its scaling difficulty. I made the very first ob a little cheeky, not a great move on my part as Im quite sure 20+% of people going in will leave without getting past it, even with subtle clues. I was left with a choice, make it much more obvious, or hope people will figure it out. It was then I decided to leave it as it was initially, but after a little time went by it would become very clear. I liked this idea, and thought why not apply this to the whole level. I can make it as I want, but have a kind of scaling difficulty that would help people progress if initially an ob was too difficult. I tied this in with the scoring of the level (timed obs, points for faster completion). I really like what this does, people who want the challenge or repeat playability to chase a better score have it, while at the same time people who arent bothered by score and may find some obs a little too challenging, it gets easier.

The boss! As I went back over the level to put in the scaling difficulty logic, thermo was slipping away rapidly. I was on ob10 - this one -
And it just didnt feel the right time to end the level. I made the choice that I was going to end on something interesting and if I had to start emit/destroy, so be it. And as I mentioned earlier it brought a headache of problems, but Im really happy I did as those who have seen the level through have really liked it and its ending. I must be mad, but I decided to give away the boss room (with enough points, but not a particularly high amount, a perfect score is 85,100 - points needed to get the boss room prize is 30,000).

Just uploaded a clip.
I may make a showcase thread, not sure yet, the first one got little reaction on here and the site seems much quieter since that time last year :/

If you wish to take a look LBP.me linky

Until next time ^^/