***SPOTLIGHTE******* Hoola Man Jenkins' Cabin ***THE TRILOGY***

[ApellesJr]

HOOLA MAN JENKINS' CABIN ***THE TRILOGY*** (VERY DETAILED) *PICS AND VIDEO* by ApellesJr
Enter a world of magically breathtaking wonder. Your truck has broken down in the woods and it's getting dark out. Luckily you happen upon Hoola Man Jenkins, who offers his cabin to you for the night. Little do you know, this is just the unfortunate beginning.


Hoola Man Jenkins' Cabin: The Trilogy


Alright! After a ridiculously long time, (almost 5 months actually) I've finally finished my Hoola Man Jenkins Trilogy. Hopefully with everyone's help, I can get a great rating and lots of plays!

The levels are short because of thermo issues with the trees, but I just thought they looked so good I didn't want to change it.


So please enjoy, and take your time!

Part 1: An Unfortunate Beginning
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Part 2: The Search for the Genie
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Part 3: The Genie and the Wish
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And here's a shot of the Genie:
[SPOILER][/SPOILER]


Enjoy!

Please specify if you want F4F!!!! I want to do it, but I won't unless you tell me what level you want F4F on.

[CCubbage]

NICE!!!!!!! I've been waiting with baited breath for this series!

I'm on it as soon as my wife goes to bed in about an hour.... from what I've seen so far, these are VERY cool. Feedback soon!

[ApellesJr]

Thanks! (By the way, I happened to notice that part 3 took you a while to finish....So I'm anticipating trouble. Haha)

[CCubbage]

Heh.... yeah, but I was also doing some testing while I was finishing. It wasn't THAT tough.

But, here's my feedback on the levels:

The visual style is impeccable. I loved the characters, the humor, and the premise.

Couple things:

Since the first level is so short, I would call it more an "Introduction" rather than part 1. Also, at the end of it I wouldn't put the filled up thermo message.

The 2nd level has several "wow" moments - I think seeing the perspective looking at the rocks falling along with the small rocks was classic. Also, the log float on the river was really well done.

Now, the third part really surprised me - the first 2 levels were so easy and light-hearted but suddenly you have that rock-balancing part and the end boss - both of which were fairly difficult. This ramp-up on difficulty could frustrate some players that got used to the easy-going first 2... but it was definately my favorite part of the series.

On the part 2 description I would lose the "Duh" - will probably rub players the wrong way.

I really enjoyed this series - it's fun, quirky, and has a genuinely original style about it. I'm not sure many players will "get it" but I do.

Very cool! I gave each 5 stars and a heart. Great job!

[Morgana25]

Hey there! Just finished all three and had some feedback for you

Part 1
+ visually stunning
+ your usual brand of quirky humor
+ very short

I think your thermo got eaten by complex shapes or stickers on this one. It looks great but it's really REALLY short. I agree with CCubbage - throw a prequel tag on it.

Part 2
+ Visually stunning
+ Longer gameplay which is nice.
+ Love the banter with the Magical guy
+ Camera angles are dramatic
+ Balaced Rock is Hillarious (like Wile-E-Coyote cartoon)
+ Cool way to end it with the raft

Making your way back to the right side of the cliff isn't instinctual but people should figure it out. The only other problem I had is when you cross the big tree if you jump from that tree layer you don't automatically go to the layer in front. You need to jump on the trunk of the tree then forward a plane or you fall. Just a little bit frustrating when it happens the first time.

Part 3

+ Raft is cool
+ Plunge is a nifty idea but I almost wanted it longer/more dramatic
+ Cool looking cave
+ Freaky creatures in the cave - nice sound design
+ Boss is awesome and weird all at once - It screams of your design style.
+ Liked the humor at the end.

I ran into some trouble on this level:
- how to get the middle set of bubbles under water - couldn't get into the right plane
- The sprint loaded platform that takes you up to where you unite the sponge halves was hard to use. Took many MANY tries for me to get up there. Just a possible point of frustration for players.
- managed to break the magical guy in the long area with the creatures that come up. One of them smashed the magic guy and I had to start the level over.
- Boss it's very hard to tell when you should grab the sponge but that's just my opinion.

On the whole I liked the series. I think they are visually very strong and have some great moments and humor in them. I don't think the mainstream LBP player is going to really understand these levels at all though. I had a group of younger players I randomly met and they were not into it at all. Just letting you know what I saw out there "in the field" as it were.

I gave them all 5 stars. I can tell you worked really hard on these too and not just because I see you in create mode all the time. lol. Thanks for sharing them!

[ApellesJr]

Thanks Morgana.

I kind of made this series knowing it wouldn't be as popular as my last, even though I would consider it a HUGE step forward in my abilities as a creator.

There shouldn't be any problem with getting the bubbles...so that's weird. I'll check it out.

I don't know what to do about the magical guy breaking...First of all, my thermometer on that level is completely done, but I can't just emit another guy because he's attached to a piston above the scene.

On the X2 scene, did you try jumping at the right time? I found it pretty easy to do. I can actually even do it without jumping by timing the platform to go up just as I land on it.

For some reason I can't get part 1 and 2 to show their pictures...Part 3's picture has been showing for hours...

[Morgana25]

I might have had the timing off. I was playing with a group of very young players and it's like herding cats sometimes ya know. I'll have to try it again to see if it was a group dynamic or just me playing lousy. lol.

Can you make it on the creatures so the gas can kill you but they don't go high enough to crush the magic guy? it was the edge of their mouths that was crushing it. If you just adjust the piston height it should fix the problem without costing you thermo.

[ApellesJr]

That's a good idea...That might actually make it harder because then you couldn't use the magic guy to block yourself on the side...

[ApellesJr]

Alright, I took a few people's suggestions, and fixed a MAJOR bug that I found from reading the comments on the level. Apparently the genie attack that drops from his eyes was causing the sponge to break if the player took too long to defeat him.

I changed the attack completely so this won't happen anymore.

[Whalio Cappuccino]

I played all three parts when I read your message, and you already know if I liked them or not.

I don't have much suggestions to give, all I want to say that it was very well done, had lots of humor which I always love in levels.

Anyways, I agree the 3rd part is very different from the other two, mainly because of the difficulty but this is my favorite section, the first time I played the level, the speeches at the end were disappearing because I wasn't paying attention to my screen and I wasn't closing the ones I would've already read earlier, not so sure if you can make it so they all stay until you manually close them, but that would help greatly.

Anyways, like I already told you. You got yourself 4 hears (3 for the levels and one for you, no there isn't a secret fourth level haha. )

Thanks, I enjoyed the trilogy very much.

[ApellesJr]

Yeah, the dialogue at the end was really difficult to pull off actually... Because the magic mouths were forced to be far apart, so if I had the player chose when to close them, usually the last 2 messages would disappear before they could read them. So I set up a timing system that activates the next part of the conversation at the appropriate time as long as the player is reading the text at a normal pace. Unfortunately, for situations like yours, it doesn't work out too well....There's really nothing else I can do though...

Thanks for the hearts by the way! I'm honored.

[julesyjules]

Well firstly, your design (characters especially) is ace. : ) There's a really solid cartoon-like vibe to the visuals that i loved. Also, the set pieces are in Pt2 are just great, by the time i got to part three, i had no idea what to expect next. Funny dialogue too.

The platforming in 3 was a surprise, it went very hardcore all of a sudden, which I thoguht was great. If you play all three consecutively, it felt like it was placed in exactly the right spot, a challenge to get stuck into after the relatively easy first two parts.

With the boss, I wasn't sure if i was supposed to close the camera or follow the falling rocks down the path. I think my instinct was to close the cameras so I could see myself instead. Have you though about putting having magic mouths appear only the first time you grab each sponge.....?

[BasketSnake]

Very good but I gave up after five minutes of boss frustration. I don't know how to begin on that one so read the others suggestions. 4 stars.

[Oddmania]

I played them earlier, but I didn't know you had made them !

I played the first first, it was short, but really good. So I played the second, better And the third too ! I haven't understood how beat the boss (maybe because I'm not English, I haven't get everything ) but this series is really great, I liked them. Good job.

Oh, by the way, could you please try my level " The Adventures of Tom Sawyer : Chapter 1 " ? This would be nice ^^ (If you don't mind, search my ID Teddyboy13 and choose " More Level From This Author ", you'll be able to see it like that, it doesn't appear otherwise )

[CCubbage]

Hmmm. Since there's 2 in a row that couldn't beat the boss, here's how "I" did it:

You have to hit the boss in the head once with each grab sponge. But, when you grab the sponge the rock that falls takes a while to come down, so you have to time when you start it. I did one at a time since it allowed me to try timing in a bit different until it hit.