LBN: Tale of the Sea contest: Voyage to the bottom of the Sea

LBN: Tale of the Sea contest: Voyage to the bottom of the Sea by mistervista
My entry for the 'Tale of the Sea' contest over on LBN ( littlebignetwork.com )

http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...IEWandfont.jpg

Apart from being my entry for the contest this is also the first in a planned series of 'HOMAGE' levels to classic tv of my era. I planned to have the word 'HOMAGE' in the title but had to take it out as there wasn't enough room for that and the required prefix for the contest. However once the contest is over I will change the title to "HOMAGE 1: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".

For those who don't know ( which will probably be most of you as I am very very old !! ) it was a sci-fi series from the 1960's set on board a privately owned nuclear submarine called the "SEAVIEW". Rather than me try to explain it all I suggest you google it if you're interested. Alternatively follow this link ( http://www.iann.net/voyage/ ) which is a mine of information about this and also another of my planned levels for this series, namely "Land of the Giants".

As is my usual style I've gone for detail over gameplay so don't go in there expecting to be jumping and swinging all over the level. There is a little of each but the main focus is on detail and easy fun and most of all paying homage to this wonderful show which was one of my all time favourites as a child.

The next in the series should have much more gameplay but that's not even started yet so it will be months before that one is ready.

Anyway here are a few screenshots to give you a taster of what to expect:

http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...imanNelson.jpg http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...ea/SEAVIEW.jpg

http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...torsoffice.jpg http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...ifiedfloor.jpg

http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...dperiscope.jpg http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...essionroom.jpg

http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...engineroom.jpg http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...a/hospital.jpg

http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...caketosser.jpg http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s.../radarroom.jpg

http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...ea/reactor.jpg http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...andmonster.jpg

Please let me know if you want F4F on your level, if i haven't already done it, and which level you want it on.

Thanks.

i Will play this right now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ferrrch

i Will play this right now.

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It's not published yet ;)

Update: Publishing now

Well I must be very old too mrv because I remember Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as if it were yesterday!

What an absolutely brilliant representation of this amazing classic t.v. series.

The opening sequence is brilliant and when I first saw the Seaview I was staggered, visually superb. It has an amazing 3D quality.

The characters throughout are well crafted and presented and, as always, your trademark humour didn't disappoint.

With the addition of delightful gameplay, fantastic sound effects which are perfectly timed and some ingenious ideas this level is fab-u-lous!

Good Luck mrv!

Icey

Hi Mistavista, I too am old (37 in a week) so straight away I feel a connection lol, though I was never a fan of Voyage to the bottom of the sea' in fact I don't remember ever seeing it...but I still am looking forward to playing.

Writing and playing. Love the start.
OK, now I found the first door to the engine room hard to open.
Nice touch to give people A CHOICE whether they want prize items, I wish more people did that.
Enjoyed the swinging on the wheels to get to the breaker switch.
Lol, at the infirmary, nice job!
Really like your characters faces, nice effect.
Love the kitchen....erm, I have a feeling that this review is just me saying I love this and love that, so I'll just shut up and play the game OK.
HA HA, gotta say this aleast...the PERISCOPE!!!!!
OK, Finished.

Oh, I loved the sub part, all your details, and characters were fantastic, it was nice and easy, (I don't like hard games, blooming terrible at this game) I was so having fun, I was going to give you five stars, and a heart, then er.....it got to the mini sub part...mmm, this bit so split it for me. The mini sub is such a hindrance, I tried playing with out it, but of course you need its spears. It's slow, and REALLY hard to maneuver (if you would like to add me as a friend, I'd love to share a few ideas I have about controls for subs)

SO, I only gave you four stars, sorry!

If you'd like to F4F me, TANKINATOR please :)

Played this earlier today, lovely level ( especially the intro, you need a picture of that on this, you know, the steering sackboy at the start) anyway great visuals ( as usual) lovely characters, 5 stars, tagged beautiful and a heart, thoroughly deserved :) well done

Well I finished your little sea cruise! Nice level, I think you carved a nice little niche for yourself on LBP. Everything about the level is sound... The intro was done nicely, and my personal favourite bit was the periscope! Listen, the tasks were tasks and it got me from 'point a' to 'point b'. Your prize bubble placement was very very tricky sir... Some difficulty on the ol' noggin... anyways, good stuff - thought the mini-sub was neigh controllable but I only died once- so who's to complain. As you already left your mark on my thread... as I apparently scarred your heart... let's say we score this round even.

Congrats on another winner!:D

Thanks so far everyone.

Just to address the issue with the speargun/minisub , whatever you want to call it. This is around version 22 of it believe it or not. It was originally much smaller which made it lighter but unfortunately too unstable. I've tried for days and days to reach a compromise between stability and maneouverability and the present version, albeit bigger and heavier than I wanted, is the best I've managed. It's pretty easy if you move to the back to change the angle of it and then move to the front to push it forwards. It's reasonably neutrally bouyant. It just takes a little practice. I guess I find it easy now because I've done it a hundred times or more. That's always the case though. The creator of any level usually finds them easier than anyone else simply becasue they've tested it to death and knows how everything works.

@Gravel - It's good to hear you found the bubbles tricky because I was worried I'd made them too easy ( refer again to comment above about a creator and his/her level ).
My intention was to make them appear difficult to get when in actual fact they are very easy. If you've got them all now you'll know what I mean. If you haven't then you will kick yourself when you discover how easy some of them are !

Very ell done mistervista! i love the intro it was to good so was the original game-play and the submarine part. Liked a lot the way doors worked, and the fact you put so much prices in it, including that amazing amount of bubbles. Keep up!

I really enjoyed this level. I thought the visuals were great, the story was good and the gameplay was well done. My one complaint would actually be the doors, as I was confused at first as to why they didn't open right away. Other than that you have a really good level. It's hard to give you anything new that no poster has talked about yet.

If you had a chance, could you check out my World 1-4 level?

Hi again.
Played round with a sub last night for you, it is about the same size as yours, and is very manuverable. (It has five jets in total) Assend, desend, and back and forth, again, add me, and I'll show you how it works.

loved it until you get outside the sub. the attention to detail was outstanding. sounds, lights and custom stickers very well used.
I hated the wee boat thing outside, very hard to control . Would have been nice to see the inside of the sub looking a little darker in places (globals).

im gonna play right now.

Very cool! Loved the progressing story line and the challenges.

However, the small craft you pilot is difficult to control. You could probably easily fix this by adding a stabalizer to it. Take a piece of dark matter and attach it horizontally to a piece of material with a spring set to 0 strength. Then attach this piece of material vertically to the underwater craft using another 0 strength spring. You can now pilot it around freely but keep it straight in the water. (Donkeyshow recently put a tutorial showing how to do it. I also used this technique in Sea Dragon several months back).

You got a heart out of me - really ingriguing level. Well done!

I really can't understand why people are having trouble with the spearguns. They are very easy to control. Even mrsv said so and she doesn't play that many levels. All you have to do is swim normally and press x. If you want to change the angle of it move towards the back and use your weight to move it to the required angle and then swim forward again. I did explain that in a magic mouth but I guess people don't bother reading instructions. Well I know for a fact they don't because I've had complaints on my 2 player level that it can't be played alone even though it's clearly stated it's a 2 player level.

@CC It isn't meant to go in a dead straight line as if on rails as you need to angle it to shoot at the enemies. I certainly wouldn't want it to be like the one in your Sea Dragon level as you can't angle that at all or go backwards if you need to. Mine can be taken anywhere you want within the confines of that last area.

Thanks anyway.

No problem.... although if you're interested - it would in fact handle 100% freedom up/down/left/right and if you put it on a pivot it would also handle rotation. But, it was fun as it is. I gave it 5 stars in a heart regardless, it just occurred to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CCubbage

No problem.... although if you're interested - it would in fact handle 100% freedom up/down/left/right and if you put it on a pivot it would also handle rotation. But, it was fun as it is. I gave it 5 stars in a heart regardless, it just occurred to me.

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I took a look at that tutorial by Donkeyshow and apart from being a bit complicated it looks to me like you could only have 1 in use. My present system has 5 emitted at any one time ( 1 for each player if 4 are playing and 1 in reserve ). Unless I'm missing something this would be impossible with that setup because of the dark matter anchor. Even if that weren't present the floaty maerial at the mid point would be on the same layer as another one and would collide with it wouldn't it ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mistervista

Even if that weren't present the floaty maerial at the mid point would be on the same layer as another one and would collide with it wouldn't it ?

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Each one would need to be emitted a bit below the previous one so that the connector material wouldn't collide. There are numerous levels out there that do 4 player coop with this design (check out Operation 107 from Samson107 sometime or Steampunk Samarai from Gevurah22 in the GOTY edition).

It's not really complicated (probably appears more complicated than it really is reading the tutorial). It's just a piece of dark matter attached to a piece of material, then attached to your craft. It only takes a few minutes to set up. Even if you don't mess with it in your current level, it may be worth playing with for the future. It lets you create contraptions that feel more like a vehicle.

Great level Vista. It felt very much like i was in a Sub and the characters added to the atmospere very well. I thought there character with the wrench was very nicely done. The intro was excellent. Probably one of the best. THe only problem i had was that there could been more scenery around the ship. But still a good level. Also I had no problems with the ship controlling part :p
Very good level-:star::star::star::star:

If you have a chance do you mind giving some feedback to my level
Kings Wish: Mighty Quest
http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/sho...h-Mighty-Quest