The Dr. Spongehead "How to" series

I've been trying to explain some advanced design concepts a few times with words, but sometimes it's hard to explain. Some people also learn better through visual or hands on experimentation.

So I thought I'd make a series of "How to" levels, featuring detailed step by step instructions on how to do complex stuff. I won't just be giving away an object with the settings put in, I'll try and explain "why it's so" and have some examples of the concept being pulled apart so people get a chance to grasp the deeper meaning.

I've already built the first one, called Elbee23's "How to make a monster give out more points". It's in the showcase section already.

Now that the first one is built though, any further object lessons would be easier as the rough design values are already put in place.

So, what do people think of the idea? How did they find the first example? What ideas or concepts should I be implementing for the sequels?

Here is a list of the ideas that have been suggested in this topic so far. All the names here are just working titles.

• How to make good wave like effects using pistons.
• How to make a smooth conveyor belt with no strings or gaps.
• How to make doors open and close in different ways.
• How to make a vehicle reappear after the player dies or tries again.
• How to make doors only open when all the monsters in the room are killed.
• How to make things explode without using explosives.
• How to make a permanent swtich. (done)
• How to do alternative endings.
• How to make an elevator come back after you fall off.
• How to make an epic boss.
• How to make the player respawn at a different point.
• How to make a reliable multiple magic mouth system (man, that sentence is a mouthful) (done)
• Some sort of credits level, where I can give credit to the people have helped make this possible.
• How to make one button do multiple different things.
• How to use custom music in levels.
• How to make a rocket fly dead straight up and down.

Please keep coming up with suggestions. Also, if you really want one of these ideas done in priority over others, let me know. The current list is in the order they have appeared in this thread.

I'll also list here the levels as they come out. They aren't meant to be played in any particular order, but this is the order that they were built. The levels have changed their names to "Dr. Spongehead's How to..." so it sounds less arrogant.

• Dr Spongehead's How to make a monster give out more points
• Dr Spongehead's How to make a permanent switch
• Dr Spongehead's How to make Magic Mouths work in different ways

Some people cant make a good wave effect using pistons. I know its simple, but its the first thing I thought of...

Cool. What other do-hickeys and jibjabs do you have to show?

Smooth conveyor belt with no strings or gaps.

If you dont know how, then I can explain it to you.

Hmmm... I have never had the need for a conveyor belt, at least in full concepts I've built. They sound like fiddly beasts though, so it could be good topic to cover.

Wave effects with pistons... I suspect it's just a matter of using the sync setting. Again, it's something I have not built yet, but this one sounds a lot easier to do.

Some ideas I was thinking of doing include:

• Various door opening and closing techniques - the ones I use in the level already are not immediately straight forward.
  
• The one shot vehicle emitter system, as seen in the small intestine and also the bowels (it's not so obvious in the bowels though, the vehicle is much more stable).
  
• How to get doors to open only when a bunch of monsters are dead. It's another idea implemented in the liver, but I didn't want to overload people.
  
• How to make things explode without using explosives. It's the system used in the pancreas, I just don't think many people have seen it yet.

Those are some initial thoughts I've had. Keep the ideas coming! :)

I don't have any ideas off the top of my head but I just wanted to thank you for starting what is sure to be another great resource for creators, I really do appreciate it and I am sure everyone else feels the same :)

Permanent switches (Always on or always off).
Alternate endings

Let me just share my own thoughts on this project so far before I deal with the quotes...

I've considered changing it to "Dr. Spongehead's: "How to..." series instead of Elbee23. It sounds less arrogant, and is kind of redundant as using Elbee23 would identify me as an author anyway in terms of the search engine.

Dr. Spongehead is the name of the story character that does all the teaching in the levels. So it does make sense to call it that.

That would make it an avatar of an avatar though, which would be a bit odd. Elbee23 is not really me, the person at the keyboard, nor is Dr. Spongehead. Still though, I might soon change the name to that. I'd still like to keep the name of a character in the title though, as it sort of makes it feel more like a teaching series and gives it it's own character.

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Another idea that I had thought of to do a "How to" for would be sensor activated returnable lift. That one would be relatively easy to do but should help developers a fair bit. The first thought when people think of lifts would be a 2 or 3 way switch, but depending on the scenario, a sensor activated one is much, much better as it goes back to the player if they fall off (or jump off).

I'll probably update the first topic to list future level ideas as well as implemented ones.

Anyway, on to the quotes...

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Originally Posted by Voltiare

Permanent switches (Always on or always off).

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Permanent switches would not be that hard to do. The doors that you see in the first level are actually on a permanent switch system. Sure, it looks like you press one button, but it's running through a permanent switch system.

It's also not that big a jump from the first level in terms of teaching. It's the same concept just with different bits doing the stuff.

It's probably the easiest boiled down concept to do from the list I have so far. Maybe I'll look into doing this when I write out another one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Voltiare

Alternate endings

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To teach this concept though would be very, very hard. I was already using a tonne of speech bubbles to try and teach the current lesson. The last talking head point has 7 speech bubbles on it. Sure, 3 of them are "thanks for coming" and "here is your hand out", but the other 4 were trying to remind people about the key ideas. I had to cut out a lot of the finer point because of space constraints.

It's not just the final point, the average for each teaching room would be 5 point bubbles. The start has 3, the middle has I think 8 or so.

But yeah, back to the idea of alternate endings... there are many ways to implement them, from going left or right in a fork to using different custom sticker switches to activating a switch or not activating a switch. I think those are the three main methods of doing alternate endings, at least in terms of the key branch point. To teach all the theory behind it would be really, really hard in terms of brief writing. :(

Still though, it's not entirely impossible, but I think I might wait a while before tackling this one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OCK

I don't have any ideas off the top of my head but I just wanted to thank you for starting what is sure to be another great resource for creators, I really do appreciate it and I am sure everyone else feels the same :)

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Thank you for the kind words OCK. I'm glad to hear people appreciate this. :) If it can make people make even better levels, then that makes me glad as well. :)

PLEASE DO YOUR 'HOWTO MAKE GOOD WAVES' lol sorry bout caps but please

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Originally Posted by Kaplan_T3

PLEASE DO YOUR 'HOWTO MAKE GOOD WAVES' lol sorry bout caps but please

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Yay! My idea!

You already know how, dont you elbee?

If I have understood you right, you are trying to make a visual effect where things are "rollling", one after the other. It's meant to be a visual effect rather than a play mechanic. I haven't built such a thing yet, but I suspect it's a matter of getting a series of pistons attached to the bits that look like waves, and then using the synchronisation option to make it look like they are "rolling". The player is not meant to interact with it though, but the idea is you put the system in front of ships to make it look like it's going across water.

Is that what you meant, moleynator?

It does not sound like too hard a one to do, if that's what you meant. If I've misunderstood, please help me to work it out. :)

No...

I meant to be able to interact with it, not as in a sea wave, but as in the motion of it. There are ones in some of the MM levels. But you were on the right track. You only needto change the sync of the pistons to a couple of milliseconds apart.

You could also use it as a danger using 2 opposite eachother to crush you if you arent fast enough. Or you could electrify them so you need to time your jump as to not hit them, or to run past as it lifts up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moleynator

No...

I meant to be able to interact with it, not as in a sea wave, but as in the motion of it. There are ones in some of the MM levels. But you were on the right track. You only needto change the sync of the pistons to a couple of milliseconds apart.

You could also use it as a danger using 2 opposite eachother to crush you if you arent fast enough. Or you could electrify them so you need to time your jump as to not hit them, or to run past as it lifts up.

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Ah, so you mean a cascading sort of effect as a player element, most likely two opposing directions (roof and ground, left and right) which could crush the player?

If I'm thinking of the same thing now, there are a few MM objects that do do this, I just can't think of precisely the ones off the top of my head. But the idea is that it slows the player down so they have to time their walk or get crushed.

Is that what you meant?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elbee23

Ah, so you mean a cascading sort of effect as a player element, most likely two opposing directions (roof and ground, left and right) which could crush the player?

If I'm thinking of the same thing now, there are a few MM objects that do do this, I just can't think of precisely the ones off the top of my head. But the idea is that it slows the player down so they have to time their walk or get crushed.

Is that what you meant?

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Yep. :)

Thats it.

Do a "How to make an Epic Boss"

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Originally Posted by DRT99

Do a "How to make an Epic Boss"

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Goodness. I thought the multiple story line one would be hard to do, I think this one is even harder. Let me write some initial thoughts.

There are a few things that make a boss "epic".

One is size. Having a boss that's as big as the screen, or even bigger, is by no means impossible. But to make that sort of dimension you need to be using motors, pistons and other such things rather than the simple AI brains you find in the game.

Another way is through giving it multiple "hit points" by giving a largish boss multiple brains.

Finally, there are "epic bosses" in terms of complexity. This could be in one of two ways. The story might dramatically build up to a final duel with your arch-nemisis who has wronged you for many years. But that sort of fight would not really be given justice by jumping on the bad guys head to kill him (or her).

The other way in terms of complexity is through having a very complex and likely multi-part way of killing the boss. You might need to jump on platforms at certain times, then maneuver some part to the other side of the screen, and then finally press a switch. That's just an example rather than a formula, by the way. :rolleyes:

But yeah... to teach the concepts behind all of this in a short teaching level, especially one that gives out hand outs, I fear that would be "epic" in itself. I guess the concept could be broken down in to a few lessons, however, say like tackling each aspect of what makes an epic boss in seperate lessons.

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-UPDATE-

I've written out the layout and script for the second one, "How to make a permanent switch". It's a lot longer in terms of dialogue than the first one, but it's a pretty fundamental lesson, so I think it's worth it. It's also harder to demonstrate because, well, when you fire a permanent switch, you can't really repeat it. :rolleyes:

In it I've got a theoretical system for making an "on/off" switch do 4 different things. I haven't built it yet, but the theory behind it should work.

I'd just like to thank OCK and his find of the talking machine in advance. I haven't tried using it yet, but it should really help in making more reliable dialogue. Previously I stuck a whole bunch of Magic Mouths all over the character, then numbered their positions and went into play mode. I'd then see the numbers of the bubbles as they appear, write that down and then change them to the right order. That talking machine should make things a whole lot more reliable and accurate. :)

I've also had a think about more things to teach...

- How to have the player respawn in a different point. This is basically moving the checkpoint and then killing the player. It should not be too hard to do, but the writing for it could be tricky.

- How to make multiple speech bubbles fire reliably. This would basically be the same as the talking machine that OCK featured. I'd probably skip this one. I can't see an easy way to link to that level apart from maybe writing a "credits" level in the future that I can list to the people who have helped me with this. I'll probably save that for latter on when a few lessons are in place and hopefully the series has increased in popularity. :)

More updates

I've officially released the second one in this series, "How to make a permanent switch". The thread for it is here.

Please feel free to add more suggestions! :)

Played and hearted Elbee. Awesome awesome work. Your step by step tutorials are so easy to follow as long as you have some understanding of the game. Just implemented the permanent switch into a level I'm currently building. Works perfectly :)

Keep it up! :cool:

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Originally Posted by Neverynnal

Played and hearted Elbee. Awesome awesome work. Your step by step tutorials are so easy to follow as long as you have some understanding of the game. Just implemented the permanent switch into a level I'm currently building. Works perfectly :)

Keep it up! :cool:

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They are not meant to be replacing the in game tutorials that are almost compulsory for create mode, but instead are aimed at people who have a little understanding of create mode and want to know some advanced tricks, or even better, why those advanced tricks work.

It sounds like it's doing that job well. :)

In the second level that's just been published, I used a pretty advanced middle system to make one button appear to do four different things. Each time you pressed it, a different event occurred.

The middle machine was pretty complex and actually goes through 3 different middle systems though, the permanent switch system just goes through one. I don't know how to explain that one briefly though, it's a beast in itself. :blush:

I guess if I was to summarise it, I'd call it "How to make one button do multiple different things".

I'm not sure when I'll come back to this project, at least in the immediate short term. I will return though, I just need a short break, as I pushed through what should have been one weeks worth of creating into 3 days.

But I will return! Stay tuned and keep suggesting! :)

UPDATE

I'm considering doing the wave piston one next, or possibly some of the others. Can you describe what sort of things you would like me to cover, Moleynator?

At the moment I am considering covering some possibilities with the sync settings using the pistons as an example and showing some examples. What did you have in mind?

Examples could show how to represent water movement for a boat lvl, how to use them as dangers and how to use them as obstacles.

On reflection the next one I'll start to produce will be "How to make a reliable multiple Magic Mouth system", though I'd probably want to change that to something more readable as a title. Things I was thinking of covering included stuff like:

• A way to make an ordered system for multiple mouths
• How to implement Magic Mouths with switches
• How to use them to make cutscenes
• How to make monsters speak when they die.

Those were the topics I think I can cover, are there any others I might have missed specific to this topic?

Note that those aren't meant to be headings of sections, but just ways of me describing what I want to be covering in this episode.

Note as well that I won't be focusing heavily in what Marazs talking tool level covered, but I will reference it in passing. I use a different system as I have so much dialogue in such a close proximity, that I find his 8 point talking system tends to not work for me. :(

I'll likely do the piston one after this episode. I'm more familiar with magic mouths and so it will be easier to produce. I'm starting to come up with a few ideas for how to implement the piston episode, but I'll focus on the magic mouth one first.