Araneae's Maze [HARD]

[Gilgamesh•]

Araneae's Maze [HARD] by Jirugameshi
Araneae has constructed a maze where unsuspecting Sackpeople are pitted against several grueling challenges. Those who do not succeed become her next meal.

Araneae's Maze is an extreme platforming level. This means that you will face a series of challenges which will seem impossible, and where you will die countless times until you finally get it right. Without a doubt, it is the most difficult level I have ever made.

This level is not for everyone. If you get easily discouraged, annoyed or frustrated by failure, you will not enjoy this level.

However, if you enjoy levels that challenge your ability to jump, grab and ceiling hop precisely, I hope you'll give this level a try. Although it's not as extreme as some other levels I have seen, I've tried to come up with some original challenges that are still tricky. Can you find all of the secret areas?

[mr Radical 5601•]

Really like your level. Made it through with a massive score of 119, having found 3 of the hidden areas. Looks like I was just the second person to finish it.

What I really liked about this level is that it's one of the most fair extreme platformer that I've ever played. The insane level of difficulty is there, but everything is passable once you get your timing down and manage not to screw it up. A lot of the others that I've played seem to lean more towards players screwing up with each attempt and occasionally lucking into getting through an obstacle.
Really liked the section where you need to outrun the gas and make it up the triangle platforms. I'd love to see a survival level where players would have to navigate an endless loop of tiny platforms and gas chasing them throughout.
Enjoyed the glass halfpipes. I tried putting one in one of my levels, and loved how such a simple obstacle seems to give the average player so much grief. Good concept with making players keep control of their halfpipe escape so as not to hit the electricity. The last few with the spinning objects seemed to push me out automatically. Not sure if this was luck, intentional, or a glitch...
I'll always hate sections where you need to jump through small electric openings... Between the floaty jumps and LBP's camera... It seems more like luck has more to do with getting through those sections than skill. Lost almost all of my points in that one section. I guess that's something that's come to be expected in an extreme platformer... so yeah...
Enjoyed the spinning wheel and ceiling grab combo. Those are two mechanics that when done the right way are still fun for me. This was fun for me.
Liked the look and concept of the boss, but it seemed super easy to beat compared to the rest of the level. It only took me 3 sustained grabs to defeat it. Seems almost anti climatic... I guess I can understand giving players a rest... Might have been cool to see the weak spot move around, or the boss kill you quicker once you have hold of it.

Awesome stuff dude. Hearted and already recommended to my friends. Would appreciate some feedback on my level "Dark Side of the Rainbow", but since this isn't technically F4F... I leave that up to you...

[s3xNstilettos]

@mrradical:

There's no luck involved in any of the obstacles. There's no luck in any extreme plat unless you're playing multiplayer, although he placed a fix for the multiplayer cp cam dart during the testing phase. You just have to practice playing expert levels more and you'll get better at this.

Death is garuntee to any player no matter how good they are. The obstacles aren't luck based, except for beginning creators that think putting cheap 'I killed you unexpectedly' obstacles in their level. It's LBP's physics system that adds a random factor to some of the things you do because there are so many possible input/output combinations because of the sensitive nature of the physics.

[Morgana25]

ok as a non-expert here's my take on this level.

Yarudark/Silverleon an I made it to the scoreboard - took about an hour.Did I get frustrated - yes, did I speak in tongues -yep, did I want to quit...nope I have to agree its insanely tightly designed - there is zero wiggle room or mercy but that seems to be the point. I also agree that at no point did it feel unfair or that I couldn't eventually make it through the obstacle that was facing me at the moment, it was just a matter of patience and time, so it's very well done imo. That said it's a niche level that you'll either get glowing praise from players or be cursed by the majority for making. Found 3 secrets but could only reach 2 (seems I'm better at that then the regular parts of the level. lol) Finished with a measly 300 points but I'm really proud of them! I got though MrRadicals rainbow in the dark last night and was pretty happy about that but this one is much harder - I prefer the lenth you have too - didn't feel too long - which just adds to the frustration on some hard levels.

I gave it 5 stars... thinking about the heart... I'm still shaking so maybe when that stops....

[mr Radical 5601•]

@stilettos - seems like you're contradicting yourself. you say there's no luck involved EVER, yet you also say that there's LBP's mechanics keep results random. also, wasn't specifically talking about his section - it's one of the best created that i've seen - i was talking about those sections in general since they always seem to appear in "extreme" levels and most that I've seen leave the openings so small that I can't imagine that there's a player alive who can consistently get through.

stilettos, if you've got more to say on the subject, feel free to message me so we don't clutter Gilgamesh's thread with a debate on extreme platforming.

[Yassen]

ok as a non-expert here's my take on this level.

Yarudark/Silverleon an I made it to the scoreboard - took about an hour.Did I get frustrated - yes, did I speak in tongues -yep, did I want to quit...nope I have to agree its insanely tightly designed - there is zero wiggle room or mercy but that seems to be the point.

^What she said.
(Cutting it for lack of space)

Anywho, yeah, that was retty good, with no "luck factor: in it.

Radical, there ARE random factors in the physics, that's not what stilletos meant by random traps in the level, which are such that have no patters or are beyond the player's control.

Pretty good m8, 5 stars (as apparetly she did even tho i would've anyways ) and heart once i found it.
Nice;y done.)

EDIT: Oh yes, before i gorget, the glass halfpipes were relatively easy IMO, i was easly able to pass those in one life, the 1st half is not really difficult compared to the rest of the level, (out of spcae)

[Yassen]

Not to mention the later halfpipes were even easier as those spining crosses gently pushed me from one to the next one...
I don't know what your intentions were with those, but i'd reccomend removing them, or adding spikes on them or something, because that's just waaay to easy for that level.

[s3xNstilettos]

@Morgana25

"did I want to quit...nope"
"I also agree that at no point did it feel unfair or that I couldn't eventually make it through the obstacle that was facing me at the moment, it was just a matter of patience and time"

Very well said, and nice job on clearing. ^_^

@mrradical:

Sounds like you took offense to my comment. Sorry that it came across like that. I wasn't attacking you. We're friends for crying out loud, lol, so I'm suprised you took that the wrong way. The practice thing must have offended you. That wasn't meant as an insult. It was meant as a friendly wording of something that is a fact. You're never too good to not need practice, even I practice. And players better than me practice. Yarudark said what I was trying to say. There's no luck to the obstacles. Nothing there that will kill you that you couldn't notice before, or not pattern based. The random factor to the physics is there, but has nothing to do with the obstacles or level. But the more skilled you are the better you can reduce that random factor, but never completely.

Also, the reason his gaps are easier to you than the ones you say are too small is because this is a beginning expert level, not the real hard stuff. I mean he wasn't trying to make a more advanced extreme plat. Just something he is comfortable with as he's been getting better after playing extreme multiplayer with me. So it's his first step towards that territory. So it wasn't a matter of he purposely made wider gaps for the reason you give of consistency. Unfortunatly, due to this game's physics engine, consistency is hard to pull off in some cases, which again has nothing to do with the creator makes gap too small. It's never too small as long as it's possible.

@yarudark:

I thought the same about the half pipe part even when we were testing the level. Then I just realized I never pointed that out to him. At the beginning the first 2 obstacles were easy and I helped him with some suggestions on increasing difficulty, but the halfpipe part completely skipped my mind, lol.

[Gilgamesh•]

Wow, I didn't expect to get any feedback yet, at least not positive ones.
Congrats to everyone who made it to the scoreboard, it's no small feat as far as I'm concerned.

I'll see what I can do about the spinners in the half-pipe section and the boss. I agree that they seem much too easy in retrospect, and I have some ideas on how to make them more challenging.

@mr Radical : I'll be sure to check out your level when I get home from work and leave feedback.

Thanks again everyone.

Edit: I've republished with changes to the spinners in the half-pipe area, and a bit of tweaking to the boss. It should be a bit more challenging now.