Zephyr Valley (Spotlighted - Pictures & Video)

[mrsupercomputer]

I've just published my third level entitled Zephyr Valley. Inspired by the recent Prince of Persia, I decided to make a level with platforms suspended in the air by giant balloons where the player must navigate from one to the other. I feel that this level is more difficult than my other levels, but nothing too frustrating... I hope. Please let me know of any areas you have difficulty or areas where it was unclear what to do next. I will try to do as many F4F requests as possible.

Also, for some reason, my level is giving the fail to load error on the first attempt to play it, but it seems to work on the second attempt. Let me know if you receive this error and if you are able to play the level at all. If anyone knows how I can fix this error, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

UPDATE: I believe the error message has been solved. If you continue to encounter it, please let me know.

Level Information:

PSN ID: mrsupercomputer
Level Name: Zephyr Valley
Description:Local villagers are constructing a massive windmill that will provide power to all of Zephyr Valley! Alas, sky pirates in the area want the windmill for themselves and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it! Can you stop the pirate takeover?

Pictures:

Video (generously provided by Cog! Thanks!):

[dawesbr]

Wow! I saw this as a future project in your sig, and, having played your previous levels, decided it'd be a good idea to play this on release. I will give it a go when I'm next on and not having internet issues (I love the characters you've made and the charisma there is in the pictures )

[Trevor]

That waterfall is beautiful.

[mrsupercomputer]

My apologizes to anyone who played the level immediately after I published. There is a boss in the level and he's kind of complex and I somehow managed to screw it up right before I published, making him unbeatable. I believe I have fix the problem though and you should be able to take him out now.... assuming something else doesn't break on him!

[dawesbr]

Oh my god I just saw the waterfall in the photo. If it looks half as good in-game, I will be amazed! How is it made?

[mrsupercomputer]

The waterfall probably looks better in the picture than in game, because it's pretty simple (I think I just took the picture it was at a nice angle!). I used two different methods that I have seen used in levels. The top part is a piece of glass on a piston that is moving back and forth very quickly to give the appearance of moving water, then I just made the middle layer a single piece of glass, then the thin layer in front uses an emitter to emit a little squiggly line of glass over top make the waterfall look like it is flowing over the side.

[Kog]

Haha, I versed that boss for five minutes, shooting him numerous times, it's a good thing you joined, or I would NEVER had stopped.

Everything about that level was amazing! The artistic look, the boss, the platforming, everything!

When you spawn, you instantly see the detail you put into it, and I love your style, which may sound normal but always makes your levels stand out, and that's your use of materials, you also stick to several great materials, and don't really change them, aside from adding several stickers to make them look real, and I LOVE it! This was probably your best level so far! The waterfall at the beginning was amazing and beautiful, and looked so real! Then came the chubby guy, who looked like someone from Mesopotamia, which was really neat. He also looked very realistic and detailed. (Lol, it was funny when you were there, and I went underneath him )

The platforming was great and had some really cool elements. It was really fun and great when you go across the little platform, and have to shoot the incoming missiles. (Which were really cool by the way!) The boss, after it was fixed, was amazing and detailed, and was just like a real games boss, were you attack him, then he has several attacks. The helmet coming off thing was cool, and fun to shoot him in the face. I almost forgot to add that I loved those little balloons in the distance, they looked like they were actually far off!

There were only two things that you might want to change; The button that you press, then run over to the now raised platforms, should be held up for longer, about 1 second. I got pretty good at it, but one second should make it better, and easier. Also, the missiles look a bit plain, this isn't that big of a deal, as there are a lot of missiles in your level, but if you do, maybe add a sticker to make them not look like MGS missiles, as this level looks old. Nevermind, I just noticed that everything is old aside from the pirates, and the missiles belong to the pirates. Ok, thats find then!

An amazingly epic level, and definitely worth 5 stars, and a heart, also, I will definitely record your level sometime. Hopefully later today, as I am just getting everything together!

As for F4F, I don't really need any of my levels feedbacked, so if you just read my story 'The Unknown' that would be great, but you don't have to. :C

[mrsupercomputer]

Haha, I versed that boss for five minutes, shooting him numerous times, it's a good thing you joined, or I would NEVER had stopped.

Yeah, sorry about that! I seem to have everything working just fine before publishing and then I manage to screw up a major part of the level, making it impossible to beat! Figures!

Everything about that level was amazing! The artistic look, the boss, the platforming, everything!

When you spawn, you instantly see the detail you put into it, and I love your style, which may sound normal but always makes your levels stand out, and that's your use of materials, you also stick to several great materials, and don't really change them, aside from adding several stickers to make them look real, and I LOVE it! This was probably your best level so far! The waterfall at the beginning was amazing and beautiful, and looked so real! Then came the chubby guy, who looked like someone from Mesopotamia, which was really neat. He also looked very realistic and detailed. (Lol, it was funny when you were there, and I went underneath him )

The platforming was great and had some really cool elements. It was really fun and great when you go across the little platform, and have to shoot the incoming missiles. (Which were really cool by the way!) The boss, after it was fixed, was amazing and detailed, and was just like a real games boss, were you attack him, then he has several attacks. The helmet coming off thing was cool, and fun to shoot him in the face. I almost forgot to add that I loved those little balloons in the distance, they looked like they were actually far off!

Thanks for all those compliments! I appreciate it! (Oh, it it was very funny when you went underneath my villager, I should have took a picture!)

There were only two things that you might want to change; The button that you press, then run over to the now raised platforms, should be held up for longer, about 1 second. I got pretty good at it, but one second should make it better, and easier. Also, the missiles look a bit plain, this isn't that big of a deal, as there are a lot of missiles in your level, but if you do, maybe add a sticker to make them not look like MGS missiles, as this level looks old. Nevermind, I just noticed that everything is old aside from the pirates, and the missiles belong to the pirates. Ok, thats find then!

It's funny, I had the timed platforms set for a second longer until about 5 minutes before publishing it when I reduced it by one second. I'll consider putting it back. As for the missiles, I was originally going to place stickers on them, but it the sticker only colored the tip of the missile which I wasn't happy with so I just left it alone. I still might change them in the future though.

An amazingly epic level, and definitely worth 5 stars, and a heart, also, I will definitely record your level sometime. Hopefully later today, as I am just getting everything together!

As for F4F, I don't really need any of my levels feedbacked, so if you just read my story 'The Unknown' that would be great, but you don't have to. :C

Thanks again for putting up with me as I figured out the boss! Thanks for volunteering to record the level too!

As for your story, where would I find it? Is it on the forums?

[Kog]

The link is in my signature, below the levels.

[rtm223]

This level is beautiful. Just the detail on everything is amazing, the machines, the characters, the ballons and did you even add something to the plasma balls? I actually died a couple of times because I was too busy looking at the scenery!

minor critisisms:

1. The glass on the slopes caught me by suprise, would have been nice if I could see it, but as it was consistant throught out the level I think it was ok.
2. It's a shame you can't make the baloons dissapear when the bombs go off, but that's not really down to you!
3. The section where you have to press the button to get the platforms was a little cryptic, it would have helped the flow if you put a cutscene to show something happened, or move the timer sound source slightly closer so I could hear it through the right speaker
4. The one time I died on the boss, I got killed on respawn, I really hate that.

Those are all pretty minor, but I had a bit of an issue with the boss. I defeated it, but I don't really know how. I worked out that hitting his rocket pack brought him down to ground, but pummelling his back seemed to do nothing. Tried shooting him on the ground in his legs face etc, nothing seemed to make the paintenator sound. Eventually he just dies and I don't know how. It took a long time, I didn't know if I was really doing any damage, and with only two ineffective attack patterns, I found it tedious. Sorry, that sounds like I'm really slating it and I'm not. It's just the lack of feedback as to how well I was doing. On the plus side, the animation on the boss was sweet as well.

I've given it 4* and a heart.

[mrsupercomputer]

This level is beautiful. Just the detail on everything is amazing, the machines, the characters, the ballons and did you even add something to the plasma balls? I actually died a couple of times because I was too busy looking at the scenery!

Thanks for the feedback! Yes I did add decoration to the plasma balls, just because I wanted it to look a little bit different than your standard plasma.

minor critisisms:

1. The glass on the slopes caught me by suprise, would have been nice if I could see it, but as it was consistant throught out the level I think it was ok.
2. It's a shame you can't make the baloons dissapear when the bombs go off, but that's not really down to you!
3. The section where you have to press the button to get the platforms was a little cryptic, it would have helped the flow if you put a cutscene to show something happened, or move the timer sound source slightly closer so I could hear it through the right speaker
4. The one time I died on the boss, I got killed on respawn, I really hate that.

Those are all pretty minor, but I had a bit of an issue with the boss. I defeated it, but I don't really know how. I worked out that hitting his rocket pack brought him down to ground, but pummelling his back seemed to do nothing. Tried shooting him on the ground in his legs face etc, nothing seemed to make the paintenator sound. Eventually he just dies and I don't know how. It took a long time, I didn't know if I was really doing any damage, and with only two ineffective attack patterns, I found it tedious. Sorry, that sounds like I'm really slating it and I'm not. It's just the lack of feedback as to how well I was doing. On the plus side, the animation on the boss was sweet as well.

I've given it 4* and a heart.

All good criticisms and a lot of that is stuff that I even thought about myself while playing, especially the the section with the button. I think you are correct that a cutscene of some sort is in order, so I will work to add that.

The boss battle was pretty hard to figure out a way to show the player that they were doing damage because of the way the fight is handled. Essentially, I have two versions of the boss, one that flies left and one that flies right. I needed to make it so that the hits a player lands on one, count on the other, if that makes sense. Because of that, I had to rig another paintinator switch off screen that is getting shot with emitted paint balls every time you shoot the boss in the face. This made it hard to hear the paint switch count down, so I added a little "Ugh" sound when you shoot him in the face. I'll try to work out a better system of telling the player how much damage they have done, I even though about a life meter at one point, maybe I'll bring that back.

Thanks for your wonderful feedback, I appreciate it!

EDIT: Just want to add that I have added a cutscene with the timed platform and I have also added a cutscene that occurs when you shoot the boss down for the first time from each direction. Hopefully, it will help the players understand that they must shoot him in the face to do damage.

[Matt 82•]

- 10 seconds in and I think I may be in love with this level.
- That first windmill is gorgeous.
- The part where you have to press the button to rise the platforms is not so well implemented. I only hit the buttin when I jumped by accident (I was taking a pic and pressed 'x' instead of square). Outwith that I'm not sure I would even have seen it let alone worked out what I was supposed to do.
- The balloons in the distant background were a nice touch.
- I threw myself off the edge of the boss platform to see if you`d covered that angle (well done ), but when I respawned I died instantly as a bomb landed on the checkpoint. Maybe some sort of cover to prevent cheap deaths?
- The boss. I really didn`t know what I was supposed to do. Often I`d hit him and he`d lower himself down, but i was behind him by that point and any attempt to get under him would end in me getting squashed. There were other times where I thought I was hitting him in the face but nothing was happening. I`m afraid you`ll have to tell me what I`m meant to be doing before I can finish that because as it is, I`m clueless :/.

[Trevor]

Same here with the boss problem.

[mrsupercomputer]

- The boss. I really didn`t know what I was supposed to do. Often I`d hit him and he`d lower himself down, but i was behind him by that point and any attempt to get under him would end in me getting squashed. There were other times where I thought I was hitting him in the face but nothing was happening. I`m afraid you`ll have to tell me what I`m meant to be doing before I can finish that because as it is, I`m clueless :/.

Right now, shooting the boss in the face 25 times will finish him off. I thought that would be a good number as I could usually shoot him about 5-10 times each time he landed. Maybe I will lower the number a bit, since it will take some people time to figure out what to do.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, this is very helpful as this boss was very difficult to build, but I'd like him to be as good as possible!

[Matt 82•]

What do you shoot to get him to land?