Dr Who : Lost soul [1P Only]

Fantastic level, party worm :)

Pros:
The general theme of the level was really great. Having never seen Dr. Who, I was confused by the story a bit at the beginning, but toward the end it started to make more sense. The soul / sackbot mechanic was extremely cool, especially how the lighting and mood of the level changed with it. Really great job.
The puzzle with all the shapes was extremely well done as well. I liked that you didn't give the option to automatically solve the puzzle, I think the 5 and 10 minute timers are a great solution to that. I'd maybe suggest taking even more points from the player though.
Visuals were consistently great throughout.

Cons:
The puzzle in which you have to line up the sections with the 2 way switches I felt was far too easy. It just seemed to me that you pulled each switch one time in order and you were done basically. It was also kind of hard to get each part lined up exactly so the soul could squeeze through.
The first few areas were fairly confusing story-wise to me, having never seen the show. But like I said it made sense (mostly) by the time I finished the level.
At the big puzzle, I was initially confused as to what to do. Some kind of direction for that would help, I think.

That's really the only cons I can think of right now. You did a wonderful job with the level, I'd love to see more levels from you :)

Thanks for your feedback!

About the story, I'll try to make things clearer at the begining. I have recently done some changes on soul control, and have to replace the indroduction sentence by the instruction to control soul. I think I will add some text introduction to avoid confusion at the begining. Also, the story is probably confusing not because you don't know Dr Who, but because my english is not very good. Sometimes I get lazy on the story aspect because I don't want to explain and translate something in english, so I go to the easier and cheaper way.

About the level itself now, your'e not the only one to say that the first puzzle is too easy. I've already try some tweaks to make it harder but I didn't found something that i liked. I'll continue to work on it. I will also try to implement an auto line up. And I will add some visual clues in the bloc puzzle section, this can be done easily, thanks for pointing that out.

Again, thanks for this helpful and nice feedback!

Believe me, your English is better than some people whose first language is English :P I'll continue to check out the level as you make improvements, I really dig it.

Thanks for your kind words :).

I've done some tests on the auto align stuff and...well it turned out to be quite hard to implement.

I think I have to either found a way to force a 90° rotation with the curent setting or destroy and recreate this part of the level. And as only one people played the level since you've played it and didn't even get to the second part, I'm not sure if I want to spend hours on fixing it for no one :(. I'm also kind of stuck with the implementation of the grid logic mover on my bloc puzzle. I've added visual clues here, but nothing that worth a second play.

Anyway, even if I don't have lots of plays, i still enjoy creating, so I'm already working on a new level at the same time I do small improvements on this one. But it's far from being finished...

Returning the review favor. Fun experience and it uses a rarely-used game device. Feels original in LBP.

Slide puzzle was good but has 2 nuisances. 1) Leave a little extra space for nudging. It's annoying to go back to a button just because a block is only 99% of the way over.
2)Tell the player to use the right stick. Without a control device, it's not intuitive to start moving the right stick.

Other than than, no complaints.

Thank you for your feedback !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hoplyte

1) Leave a little extra space for nudging. It's annoying to go back to a button just because a block is only 99% of the way over.

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I'm working on a grid movement logic but it doesn't work as expected, so i'll try this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hoplyte

2)Tell the player to use the right stick. Without a control device, it's not intuitive to start moving the right stick.

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Oh sorry, there was actually a small text about that, I must have removed it by accident. I'll add it as soon as possible.

Thanks again !

Ok, now this is just awesome and the gameplay was unexpected - in a good way! I like the way that you have created various elements here and how you combined them. I didn't get to play it all the way through unfortunately due to some time constraints but I have left it queued and will play it over the weekend when I have some peace and quiet.
All in all a great level with some really fresh ideas and definately worth the play!

Loved it. Absolutely loved it. My costume is the eleventh Doctor right now. The only thing I would suggest is grid movement for the puzzle. Also, I don't know if it was intended, but the Icing breaks during the boss battle. I can pass right through it, and so can everything else. I didn't know if that was meant to look like we were in the snow, or not, but it seems like a bug.

Great job! Hearted. :D

Thanks a lot !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seanfletchr

The only thing I would suggest is grid movement for the puzzle. Also, I don't know if it was intended, but the Icing breaks during the boss battle. I can pass right through it, and so can everything else. I didn't know if that was meant to look like we were in the snow, or not, but it seems like a bug.

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I'm still trying to implement grid movment but there's always someting wrong. Everything is tweak to have a 0 friction but pieces always get stuck or slightly move when they hit the border of the puzzle, so I'l still working on it. It's on the to do list...

and I'll check this bug during the bos battle. This never happens to me, but maybe the recent patch have changed things here.

Thanks again for this nice and helpful feedback !

Hello Slurm,

Thank you for reviewing my level. It's very motivational.

I played your level and got stuck. The inability to pop made me have to reset the level. Got stuck again on the second playthrough almost exactly the same way. It happens in the room where you possess the little dudes so that they can rotate the circles. When you go up to higher levels, your teardrop can get stuck in the outer edge of the circles that rotate. A possible solution to this problem would be to put the circles on thin layers.

It's also hard to see that there are other guys to possess in that room. You may want to alter the lighting slightly. Another idea is to have circles rotate at 90 degrees at a time, so it doesn't take so long to turn them.

The flashback is a bit jarring, and I couldn't tell what was going on. It looked like a big guy with an afro was at a rave.

I really like the concept of the possession mechanic(which is remarkably well done) and I feel that you didn't have to attach it to Dr. Who. You could have made it your own and ran with it.

I do feel that I can't give it a proper review or rating without playing through the entire level. I look forward to playing through the entire level if you can fix that puzzle room issue.

Cheers!

Thanks for your helpful feedback !

I thought I have already fixed all the problems with stucking the soul in the moving circles during my tests, it seems that i was wrong. I will work on this problem, but changing this part of the level is quite complicated. I'll let you know when I deliver a fix for this !

About using a Dr Who context to the story, you're right, I can try to make my own story. I'm using the Dr Who context to avoid an introduction in english, but I guess I can tell a story without having to write a lot of stuff. And I'm not really good at making movie in LBP, I have a lot to learn on this... This explain the rubbish aspect of the first movie :)

Thanks again !

Hey this level was amazing! A level where you fly around as a soul and possess sackbots in order to control them to solve puzzles? How cool is that!? I plan on recommending this level to others! Here is my in-game review:

"This level is a must play for puzzle fans! The 'possessing and leaving bodies to solve puzzles' gameplay is absolutely amazing and very well done. On top of that, you even got OTHER puzzles in there to solve! All the puzzles are different AND fun. None of them ever made me want to give up. My favorite puzzle was the sliding block puzzle. Brilliant! Great use of logic as well. This level definitely gets a heart, and I'll recommend this level to others. Let me know if you publish another!"

I recommended this level to creator Reef1978 to include it in his level 'Sleeper Hits', a collection of level links leading to underplayed levels. He may include it in there for you!

Thanks for your nice review ! I'm glad you enjoyed the puzzles, and that you did'nt gave up (it seems that a lot of people give up during part 2, I guess it's at the sliding puzzle. I've added unlockable hint and solve buttons, but it doesn't seems to avoid people leaving the level).

Also thank you for the recommandation. Even if it's not picked by Reef for his 'Sleeper Hits' level, it's really appreciated.

I'll sure check this hub level. And reading your previous comments, I'll also give a look at 'Monkey Hunter', it seems to be my kind of level !

Thanks again for your nice feedback !

DARN you and this block puzzle! I will beat it!!!!!!! :)

Thank you for your comment on lbp ! I hope you managed to solve the block puzzle without too much frustration.

Thanks a lot for your kind words about the music. I know it's not perfect, but it's the best I was able do by myself.

I got that warm fuzzy feeling I get every time I hear that music, then the level was just fantastic. I'm glad there are some 'outs' with the block puzzle so people can continue at their own pace. I'll play the other Dr. Who one today. Keep up the great work!

I got to play this level right before the psn outage and loved it. I thought the puzzles were great, the game play fantastic and the overall atmosphere super. I loved the original idea of this and at first was skeptical but after playing for a couple of minutes I was like, "oh, ok, this is cool!" Great job.

@Snorkledork : The other "Dr Who" level was my very first level on LBP (this one being the second). I'm afraid it won't be as polished as this one. I hope you'll enjoy it though.

@biorogue : Thanks ! I had a lot of ideas with all that soul/possession system, but only a few of them made their way to the final level (lots of them were abandonned because they where too hard to implement). I'm glad you liked it !

A fantastic Dr Who themed level that will be loved fans of the time lord.
Some of the best puzzles I've encountered in quite sometime and these combined with the soul/ possession mechanism really take the gameplay into interesting new areas stimulating thought rather than lazy regurgitation of standard gameplay devices. The story is suitably Whosian and helps drive the action and adds impetus. Enjoyed the boss battle at the end wrapping the level up nicely. I have a friend who is a Dr Who fanatic, I'll recommend your level to him as I'm sure he will enjoy.
magnifique level mon ami.

Thanks for your nice feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the level !
Et merci aussi pour ces quelques mots en français :)