Indiana Jones & The Forbidden Idol - *Spotlighted*

http://lbp.me/v/pc1ch7
Indiana Jones & The Forbidden Idol - by Uncharted23

Join Indiana "Sackboy" Jones in this original adventure in search of the Temple of the Forbidden Idol. Inspired by the Indiana Jones franchise. Meant for one player.

This level is full of original Indiana Jones themed obstacles and events inspired by the most classic moments in the original movies. It begins in the jungle of South America and ends in a race out of a collapsing temple after retrieving the Forgotten Idol. It took me months to make this level and would appreciate any comments on how to make it better. Have fun!

I had my level review by gabe2247 at Gamefaqs.com LittleBigPlanet forums:

Indiana Jones and the forbidden idol - uncharted23 - This is hands down the BEST indiana jones level I have ever played. I found it so good that at times I almost forgot I was playing LBP. Seriously, I think the visuals and gameplay in this level rival MM. I did have some trouble w/ the spinning disks, well really just the third one...the jump was quite difficult. I also had a lot of trouble with getting the downstairs key. Getting back past the light part was kind of hard. Great Job on the level....Please keep up the good work. HEARTED!! 10/10

He's reviewed many levels and I appreciate the great score he gave me. I'm still awaiting other users on this site to review my level and hopefully they will be as good as this. Thanks again gabe2247.

If you're wondering why you haven't had any replies, you should probably post some pictures, and maybe even a video. Also, if you do F4F (go edit>advanced edit and add a prefix of "F4F") people are more likely to play your level.

Anyway, I'm almost as nice as Morgana25, and I quite like temple levels, so I'll give it a shot.

I really like the entrance, with the title. You should make your own trees, and decorations. People on this site are really picky with "custom content". You will get better scores if people can see that you've gone to the extra effort. The visuals are fairly nice. The floor of the level is 100% sponge, however. You should probably use about 1 big grid thick sponge on top of stone/wood. If you want to be really good, use the corner editor to make it shaped more realistic. The stone embeded isn't very realistic... So far almost everything is made from floral fabric, as I said before, vary it up a bit. I can see you've created without the grid, you may want to go over and smooth up some bumpy ground. The horse ride is bumpy and unrealistic. Thurthermore, the horse has no eyes. You can make pistons etc invisible, so no excuses. The pillar can be hard to push over. The visuals lack detail still. Cool waterfall, very nice! Why don't you make the gas at the bottom blue, and use blue sponge bobbing up and down for waves? You say it's some kind of old mine, yet there are no tracks/picks/displaced rubble to let me believe it is. There is the spotlight, but that isn't enough. Okay, now i believe it's a mine, the lift scene was pretty cool. MM mine carts!! Aaargh!! They aren't hard to make, and it is definately worth it. Look at Geosautus' mine carts, they even have a cool pump-action mechanism for movement. I liked the steps dropping. Still, too much rough stone bricks material. It is a temple. Lets see it! Electric? why not proper spikes? Okay, I think that is just copying Sickivioney with the spinning platforms/grab things. I liked the "chose wisely" section. The speech bubbles "try to avoid the spikes" were pretty hilarious. Hilariously bad. They stand out, really. The speech bubbles hold your hand far too much, it breaks the immersion. At least have it in 1st person. I mean, who else is there to talk to you? The 3-way controlling the stairs isn't glued down. The "temple collapsing" would be cool, IF a) you couldn't see the pistons, and b) it was hidden behind a thin layer. The pillars falling away was too unpredictable for my liking. The plane was slow, but looked good.

All in all, 3 stars, 5/10, needs work.

Ok, I played your level an I wa pretty astounded. That review doesn't lie - this level is great!

Pros:
+Nice Introduction
+Some inventive sound effects to overthrow those boring “grab and swing” moments
+The horse was pretty good
+Good lighting
+The mine cart section was well done
+A lot of really fun gameplay
+The door just looks amazing

Cons:
-Mm Trees near the beginning and end made the level seem worse than it is

But for some great gameplay and fun platfomring I had to give you 5 stars and heart your level

This level was very fun! As a big Indiana Jones fan, I loved the details that you included from the films (the idol, the rock, boat, etc). For the most part, I found the visuals to be very nice, but a little uneven. You have some areas where they are amazing, like the giant door, but then others where they are a bit bland, like the long rock hallways with nothing but rock. There are also a few areas where you can see outside of the level or you can see the unfinished edge of something (i.e. the water when the plane lands). I would suggest going through and sprucing it up a bit with some decorations on your plane and throughout the temple. You don't need much, just a bit to break up all the rock texture. Also, I'd maybe hide all the visible pistons as they seem a bit out of place in your level.

As for the gameplay, I really enjoyed it. I loved the obstacles and puzzles and never felt that any of them were too frustrating. You have some great trap doors and cinematic moments throughout, including the great mine cart ride and the cool temple escape. My only suggestion here would be to change the section where the platforms fall in front of you a bit. I'd make them fall a little sooner.

Overall, I found the level to be a lot of fun! Nice job!

I really enjoyed this. Some great gameplay elements in here.

There are a few things not great with it though.

- In places it can be bland looking. Add in a few new materials, some pillars, facemasks etc to break up the monotony of rough brick everything. And the start isn`t particularly good looking by any standard.
- Use lighting. The spotlights were about the only lights I saw. Use LEDs to light the place from above or below. Fire pits look great with red or orange light heating up the room.
- The very last rolling rock. I think you need to set that to emit only one at a time. I missed the jump, got sent back to do it again and it respawned, which is good. However the previous one was still sitting there. I think if you died more than once you`d find it hard to get out if they`re going to stack up.
- I'm in agreement with mrsupercomputer that the the columns at the end should collapse before you get to them. I know that you were to jump on every second one, but often the safe ones dropped down a bit as well, meaning your momentum kept you going, so I died a couple of times doing that.

Other than that I really enjoyed it. 5 stars and hearted.

I've updated my level in response to all your suggestions. I moved the troublesome speech bubble, cleaned up some of the spaces where you could see some of the outside level as well as extended the edges of the water at the end. I also made the falling platforms fall sooner so hopefully that won't be much of a problem anymore. As for the rolling rock, the very first rock seems to remain if you emit another one but every newly emitted rock emits one at a time making the previous rock vanish. I assume it's because the rock was emitted in CREATE mode. I'll try fixing that later.

As for the decorations, I've wanted to add more detail to the level but the thermometer was full but I managed to lower it so I'll be adding more detail soon. I also tried creating my own trees that would hopefully take up less room on the thermometer but it ended up being worse. I'll try to design a simpler tree to replace the MM trees. Thanks again for all your suggestions.

Really wonderful level! Right off the bat - the title treatment is great! Excellent choices of materials throughout the level. Challenging but FUN obstacles and platforming. Not once did I think any part was cheap or not thought out. Loved the statue, rolling rock and water plane references. Also nice touch adding the whip sound to the sponge swings - small but humorous detail that fits the level nicely.

I know you've said you're going back to add some more detail and I really hope you do. This has some amazingly great bones on it as level design goes - just needs a little paint, some throw pillows... you know. :) If you're adding a little more decor - I'd strongly suggest a little more dramatic lighting in a few places. It can be subtle (Most of your level appears very subtly lit) But a few punches of light could really liven up some of the darker areas.

Let us know when you've adjusted it and I'll happily play it again! Even as is I gave it 5 stars & a heart. Nice level - thanks for sharing it!

I just remembered another issue that I encountered while playing this level. There was a section with two levels right next to each other and you have to line up some circular plates behind you. I would suggest gluing the levels to the floor here, as I managed to flip them over multiple times when using them. I was always able to flip them back, but it was a tad frustrating.

I had my level reviewed by TSFRJ over at LittleBigWorkshop forums in his review thread:

Cue the [Indiana Jones] music, 5 star 5 star 5 star, wow, great job uncharted23, action adventure. wow perfect, im not going to say anything, because this level even better if no one knows whats going to happen. no spoilers here. everyone needs to play Indiana jones & the forbidden idol.

I really appreciate all of your comments and am currently figuring out better lighting to the level as well as designing my own trees and adding more detail to the entire level.

Just played through the level and I thought it was great. But like others have said certain parts are better then others in terms of visuals and game play.

I enjoyed the platforming in sections like the rolling spikes, the top section before you get the idol and just most of the level design overall.

Unfortunately i didn't really adore the visuals. It did look a bit bland in most areas while it looked great in others. Adding some stickers and what not could make it a more enjoyable experience.

Because I have to say that first of all the level plays great and the constant destruction of the temple as you play through is done very very well. Also I really appreciate that you surprise the player at every turn, but don't kill them because they are surprised. Some levels fail to do this without killing the person trying to have a good time. The only problem is that visuals in some areas don't live up to the way it plays if that makes any sense.

Kind of like the quality of the level design deserves better art direction.

-visuals were inconsistent
-Some parts could have been highlighted a bit more like the falling pillar, which could have looked and sounded spectacular with a bit more polish.

+Impressive visuals in some areas
+Great level design and pacing
+Destructible environments
+Fun climax
+Continuous surprises that don't "punish" the player

I'd love to see your future levels and love to hear your feedback on some of my levels.

BTW As of now i'm second place just under you! If only I didn't die that one time with the rolling spikes.

Well that was something special!


1st impression:

Great concept, great execution, and exciting!


So I played through this last night but came to work without my notes :(

I am still going to do feedback as my notes really just highlighted the things I really liked about it!

Your platforming (to me) was great. Constant platforming through out. Which I think is needed for this kind of level.

You had a nice variety of elements. The fixes you have made previously have made this an almost perfect level. Not that I can think off the top of my head what would have made it 'more' perfect. :)

I loved the story. I loved the big round door. (I did remark to a friend when it opened that while it was very cool, I felt you could have made it open in a bit more dramatic fashion.) All your components were in place so some minor tweaks could have had it open a little more 'polished' instead of fairly random. I hope that makes sense...if not let me know and I'll try and do a better job explaining. Don't get me wrong...I loved it!

I could rave on if I had my notes and be more specific about certain elements...but you have had plenty of people do that already! (And rightfully so!)


Overall I truly loved it and the subject matter.

I gave it 5 stars (which I don't give very often) an Ingenious tag and hearted!


Love it, loved it, loved it!


Great job and I cant wait to see what you do next!


* Please play Part 3 of my BORG series*


:grr:

Great gameplay but it looked soooo boring. At least my opinion is honest. 3 stars.

After some changes to my level, I had it reviewed by Elas12 from his review thread at the LittleBigWorkshop.com forums. I still am in the process of making the visuals better and I'll request more in depth reviews from differnent sites as well as try and post some pictures on this forum soon:

"Indiana Jones & The Forbidden Idol:

The good- This level was amazing. i loved the storyline and i love the amount of detail that was put into it. i also loved the creations and mechanics that you used. everything flowed nicely and it was just amazing.

The bad- pretty much nothing to say about the bad except sound effects. when the boulder chases you, make a sound effect when it hits the floor so it makes it seem more powerful.

rating 5/5 [Hearted]

Everyone should play this level. i recommend it."

It seems as if people on these forums offer a lot more suggestions and I still appreciate any more comments on how to make my level better.

I had my level reviewed by theonlybub over at Gamefaq.com in the LittleBigPlanet forums:

theonlybub the critic says, "One of the most creative levels on LBP I say. 5 stars right off the bat. Great for all players and pretty easy to beat. Good Job you!"

I like these good reviews but more suggestions on how to make my level better are also appreciated, especially in these forums.

Wow! I was not expecting my level to be spotlighted especially because it's my first level and could still use some improvements. Congratulations to all the other creators and thanks to those who chose my level to be spotlighted.

On another note, after recieving a message from someone on this site I realized that a F4F would help recieve more comments. I will try to leave feedback for those who left comments for me but school takes up a lot of my time. However, once school is over I'll add a F4F prefix in the title in order to help other levels in any way I can.

I had my level reviewed by gocubsgo2 from the LittleBIGReview Group at the LittleBigWorkshop.com forums:

INDIANA JONES & THE FORBIDDEN IDOL

AUTHOR: Uncharted23

DIFFICULTY: [Medium] to [Hard]

POSITIVES: This level is not the best I've seen, but it's up there to be sure. The gameplay was so solid that it was kind of a disappointment at how bland a lot of the visuals were. But! I enjoyed playing this level very much. The obstacles were creative, especially the awe-inspiring light and the spinning spikes. I especially liked how the temple began crumbling when you touched the idol. I pretty much knew it was coming, but nevertheless, it was a very nice touch to an excellently-designed level. All the gameplay was stellar, which is what really backed it up.

NEGATIVES: The visuals were pretty bland. More decoration could definitely go a long way into maybe getting this level five stars. The garden/forest/jungle outside the temple was passable, but most of the inside was blank stone and gold. Definitely improve upon that. Other than that, I can't say anything else.

NITPICKS: Umm...I can't really find one.

SUGGESTIONS:
-Improve the visuals a whole lot.
-Add more decoration.
-Add more stickers. I may have seen a few color ones on the plane, but that was it.

NOTES: None

OVERALL RATING: 4/5 stars; [hearted]; [not author-hearted]

I've already minimized the thermometer by making simpler shapes and plan to add more visuals to the whole level in two weeks after finals.

I realized that my posting of all these reviews for my level might seem like showing off. I don't mean to sound like this but I just want it to get more plays since I put so much time on it. I thought posting reviews would do this best and be better than just posting "bump" in order to bring this topic back up. Sorry if this is turning off people from playing my level.