Spotlighted! Chroma Stone Chronicles: Part 4 - Irridia's Gem

The cymbal crash was inspired by what I named those little guys. I called them Ions (eye-ons for Silverleon) and thought of them as charged particles that floated in the air. So when they got destroyed I wanted an interesting but not typical sound. Cymbal seemed to fit the bill and it stuck. :)

Sorry about the lag. I can't get that color with the global lighting tool so the only way is to saturate the level with spotlights. It's not that I won't like your comment - it's a perfectly valid point of view and I respect that. I just made the choice of color/light over frame rate in a few spots. Pulling out some electricity may be an option I could live with. I'll have to try it and see how it looks.

As for inspiration. I really started out this whole series with a very simple story in my mind. Dark Queen hates light, wants to destroy it. Light Queen finds a champion to collect pieces of the Chroma Stone to protect it and if need be use it against Abyssia. Then I just picked the four gem colors and the rest is all just playing around with materials and colors that help me stay true to the particular theme or element associated with each fairy. The final level will be Abyssia's lair and is going to be MUCH darker in terms of lighting..... unless you can defeat her. That's all I know I'm going to do in the final level so far. I have to let the subconscious work on it for a little bit yet.

Thanks for playing it!

Well I played the other chroma stone levels a while ago and enjoyed them, but found them a bit easy. I'm well aware of what you were trying to achieve with them so that's not a critisism and I think they all got 5 stars from me.

You've certainly upped the difficulty on this one. I think I got through most of it without dying but definately more of a challenge. Good choice using the infinate life checkpoints to make it more accessible. So general feedback with no particular organisation:

It's a visual feast, just like your other levels, absolutely stunning. A little bit too purple :p but then it did coordinate with my sack so that's kinda cool :) There is almost nothing I could suggest in terms of improvement there. The only thing is that a couple of places are very slightly laggy from the lights, not so much it gets in the way, but you are close to the limit IMO.

I like the little rocket enemies, they were kinda fun to kill.

Generally the gameplay was well constructed and fun. I found the grab wheels with electrical segments went on for a little long, but no big deal.

A pet peeve of mine is using invisible dark matter to create barriers for edges of the level. I just really don't like it. I'm convinced there is always a way to incorporate the barriers of the playing area into the aesthetic. But then I'm not an artistic guy, so what do I know? :p

I think I got to the boss without a single death then got to him and tried to take him on tactically, like the mouth said. I kinda struggled to work out what plane I was in and died about 4 times. Then I just started bouncing around and spamming R1 and he died. I'm actually embarrassed at how much fun I had bouncing for bubbles on the jump pads after he died! Very nice touch.

Overall a very good level, well deserving of the 5 stars and heart I've given it. I've also gone back and hearted the previous episodes as I somehow forgot to do so before :blush:

PS Bear in mind all the critisisms I've made are very nitpicky.

Morgana25, I loved your level I gave it 5 stars. It was a beautiful dream scape. I kept killing my self while admiring the level. Great little obstacle sections(some frustrating though). Overall 5/5 stars. I would recommend this to anyone who whats to see what can be done with LBP.:D

Hi Morgana25!

I'm glad you got to put my boss AI tutorial to good use! I've been very impressed with some of the bosses people have created with the technique (Maraz_Matari, Luckyshot, Milotac, etc). I was going to check out this level anyway (played and hearted the first 3 a few months back) but this makes me even more excited!

I'll post again when I get a chance to play part 4. In the meantime, I've got some new boss AI tools I've been working on that I can send you if you're interested. :)

Awesome level here again Morgana :)
It's really good looking as usual and I love your "light hearted but just right" difficulty level.

One point I really like is how you keep this all "a series". One element per level as a theme, always the cute fairy at the beginning, always get to see the bad fairy right after. All those little details that come back every episode are making this feel nice.

Only one thing though, and it's more or less because of you... You win the prize for a level that is "as awesome as the amount of slowdown there is in".

:star::star::star::star::star: + Heart + Brilliant

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Morgana25

Thanks for playing!

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No, thank you for sharing this level to the "oh not so great" comunity.
(lol, not you guys, i mean the overall LBP comunity, with its hundreads of H4H, Cheetah, Bomb Survival and other "not so good/ original" levels)

lol - speaking of that we're now at 91 plays and 29 hearts average 4 star rating.... 5 was nice while it lasted. ;)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K-fOcM-ePY"]YouTube - LBP Level ~ The Chroma Stone Chronicles Part Four: Irridia's Gem [HD][/ame]


:hero:

Cog - you rock! Thank You a Million!

I finally played through all four levels in the series! I really liked them. They were all a bit short (except maybe the last one), but they were still amazing. And I'm guessing the thermometer was probably maxing out or close to it, so I can't really complain :p

You do a really great job getting the atmosphere just right. I think you could work on making the ground a bit more interesting sometimes though. Take a look at Journey to the Center of the Earth 2 (which I also just played today) to see what I mean. The ground is almost never completely flat.

Then again, especially on this one, you still had varying ground/structure. Overall, amazing stuff! I gave it either 4 or 5 stars and hearted.

Thermo is maxed on all four. And it's from complex shapes so the floors tend to be a little square. I've taken to saving every corner I can on the floor for use in an object or decoration. Good point though.

I learned a few more thermo saving tricks since #3 so I got #4 a few more sections worth of stuff to do. It's the longest of the 4 so far.

Thanks for playing!

Hi Morgana! Played your level earlier (I know, I know, late as ever!). Here's my thoughts...

Well, I can't agree more with what others have already said. But that would be lazy of me!

I love the familiarity of the level. This may seem a strange way to open a review, but it's true. I felt like I'd waited for the sequel of a favourite movie, and as soon as it started, I was reminded why I was eagerly awaiting the next installment. The level had an ethereal quality about it - slightly unnerving like Hansel and Gretl. Loved the atmosphere throughout, and the challenge had increased from what I remember of the previous levels. The boss has had a few comments about it. I thought it suited the level perfectly.

PROS
+ A beautiful work of art by a craftswoman
+ increased challenge - not impossible by any means, but harder to finish
+ your 'trademark' font title. I love it, and always have
+ Boss was a fun challenge
+ The Mystery Bubbles Effect (i.e. how the %£$ am i supposed to get THOSE!)
+ Sheer charm, innocence and FUN

CONS
- Dilemma time: make another one. Comply. Or die. ;)

OVERALL
Part 4 is my favourite part of one of my favourite series'. I knew I'd enjoy it, but my enjoyment surpassed expectations. It was a pleasure to play this - the creativity and craft was sublime. I will recommend this to people on my friends' list who appreciate talent.

I rated 5*, tagged with 'Beautiful' and hearted.

Thank you.

*Hurrah! I've been allowed on the laptop for 10 minutes*

Hi there, Chroma Girl! Just for the record, I was out of the room when my good lady wife played your level, and I was playing it while she was writing her review. So, I didn't see it, nor knew what to expect, when I played it...

... and what a pleasant surprise it was. Now listen here, Missy. You're good. You're very good. The artistry on show in part 4 is pretty wonderful. A player just knows they're in for a treat as soon as they cross the 'Chroma Bridge' with that title above it. Groovy!

Gameplay was enjoyable too - seemed a bit harder than the first couple I played. All good, too, as I seemed to be in a quandary whether to look at the scenery or contemplate dying!

I liked the platforms that were floating about the place, and the boss was ample reward. Good stuff.

In closing, it's good to see a good creator continuing to satisfy in all respects. Well done!

Okay, I've played the level now.

I didn't notice too great an increase in difficulty. I did notice the slowdown a bit, which seems to be a problem everyone runs into with lights and glass :(

Aside from the slowdown, I noticed a sync issue with the first set of rocket lifts. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not. If it is intentional you may consider reducing the period of time it takes for the lifts to sync up. I wasn't waiting too long (30-60 seconds), but it was enough time that it was fairly noticeable.

Aside from that I didn't have any problems with the level. I thought the airy feel was well done. You've done a good job of giving each level it's own design based on the element in question. As always, the logo and fairy designs are top-notch. I also appreciated the wind gust sound effects throughout the level.

I had one comment with the boss. Was it intentional that you can shoot down at the head from the top of the area? I managed to do this and was able to defeat that part of the enemy without it getting to attack me.

Looking forward to part 5!

Hey TC, I played your level, and unfortunately, I didn't like it as much as the other posters in this topic.

Before I played your level, I felt obligated to play the previous 3 and I loved them, and IMHO, this level took a step backwards.

What I loved about your other levels is that they all took a theme (the color of the stone) and implemented it well throughout the level. I really loved the way you integrated the colors into those levels.

But here I felt like you spammed purple everywhere to the point that it was blinding. Maybe what I was hoping for is some purple accents all around, but your level has way too much purple everywhere. The objects are purple, the background is purple, the lights are purple, and if that wasn't enough, the gas in the background is purple! I can understand some of your level to be purple, but when EVERYTHING is purple, your level starts to become nauseating. IMO, I felt that you should at least change the lights and the background to something neutral. It makes it hard to see your objects when they blend in with everything.

Other than that I enjoyed your obstacles and enemies and the Boss was stunning! I can't really stay anything more than that I found one place where Dark matter is showing, and another place where You have block of material on fire that really doesn't fit in with the whole structure.

For the dark matter, after the first set of obstacles and enemies, just before you grab the sponge, it is possible to jump down to the first layer and fall to your doom. Unfortunately, if you fall to right you can see your dark matter that is used to secure the mechanism that lifts that queen up.

For the material that's on fire, there is a place in your level where you pull 4 switches to get the jetpack. Now, before you enter that said place from the left, look at the wall made of wood. In the third layer of that wall, a lone piece of material is made of fire and it looks weird. I don't know if this is intentional but I'm guessing it's not.

One more thing. That girl in the beginning is not glued down.

And I had an idea for the queen herself. You use the evil voice sound effect, but considering that she is a queen and the evil voice is that of a man, it sounds weird. I've never tried this before, but what IF you could mix sound effects. Put a girly sound effect and the evil voice sound effect next to each other and trigger them both. Maybe that would make the voice sound more like a woman's? :confused:

Overall, I gave if 4 stars. I think I gave your other levels 5 stars, but I don't remember right now.

Since you're doing a F4F, try my Moon Temple Beta. I plan on making a lot of changes to it today since I have time, so check it out later and let me know what you think.

Thanks for the comments. I'm not exactly sure I understand what you mean by the fire not fitting? I just wanted some movement in the background so it's not literally fire but just some light effect in the background. It's covered in glass so it's not dangerous at all.

I know it's possible to see the dark matter if you fall in the front layer. I need to work out how to fix that as I don't think I can move it. Thanks for pointing it out though.

I don't know about it being too much purple though. The green level has green everywhere, the red one is red everywhere.... the thing about the purple is the theme is air..... how do you depict air? I needed to keep materials light and semi-transparent in places and the color theme is purple. I tried to adjust the shades of purple so it wasn't one big block of Barney purple though. Sorry you didn't like it.

I'll glue down the fairy. Most people just run past her and since she's not essential to a platforming bit I didn't think she needed to be.

I actually like that the evil queen is a bit gruff. I like the contrast between the uber girly fairies and the more gravelly one. Just a personal opinion though.

Technically I don't do F4F, I have too much going on between work and LBP and LBPCentral that I don't officially do it. I will get to playing your level though as I play practically every level in the showcase. I'll leave you my thoughts as soon as I can.

Thanks for playing it and for your constructive feedback :)

Whoops! Almost every topic I see has a F4F next to it so I assumed yours did as well. I don't know how I missed that! Sorry :blush: Don't trouble yourself with my level.

And I'll take a picture of that fire thing I'm talking about.

Played all four today and overall I give them 4 stars. Great work.

Hi there, just played and here are my (few) thoughts:

Actually they're not much different than the overall feedback you recived, but I suggest to sticker the bubbles in purple, so they'll look more blended with the theme of the level.

I noticed that the bubbles gifted by the sticker-switch are purple (or at least it seemed to me).

I have to agree a bit with gulliver49, the other levels doesn't seemed to me that they are so sticked to the theme color.
Maybe this is due to the material you used for this installement (that is glass or glassy-glitchy-materials) that, also if stickered with different nuances of purple, make the level look more purple than the others looked blue/red/green.
But I don't consider this to be a real issue with the level, it is just a matter of personal taste.

I liked the balloon enemies and faced the same rocketplatforms issue mentioned by dcf.
It seemed to me that this level is actually shorter than other chapters, but maybe is just a feeling.

I liked the overall decoration and found that the music you selected fits perfectly.

I had really no problems gadding into the level, all works good and nothing broke.

Great work, I'm waiting for the final fight with the dark queen!

Rated :star::star::star::star::star: and <3, and is deserving them.

Thanks guys for the great feedback!

Some updates:

- added intro music to the track above the title in case people bypass the bridge.
- glued down the white queen
- took a few of the decorations out of the bouncy section to try to reduce some of the frame rate issues - it's still slow though which I like.
- adjusted the timing on the last of the grabable glass wheels on the tower so you have a longer window to jump.
- cleaned up some more of the visible dark matter in the front and gassified some of the spotlights.
- made the smoke in the corridors white so it contrasts a bit more. Should be easier to spot and also adjusted the radius of the magic mouth so the combo isn't inturrupted.
- tweaked the rocket lifts but will double check them again as they still seem to go out of sync occasionaly.
- changed the two triangles on top of the boss to the front plane to make it easier to switch planes when shooting.

Thanks again for all the plays and comments. It was locked on page 5 of the cool pages yesterday. It's the best I've ever done on cool pages so I'm pretty excited! Thanks!