DarkDedede's Review Shop.

[Mnniska]

Thank you so much for that constructive review! I was thinking about giving the level a bit of an update since I finished it in a rush and this was really helpful. When you have spent so much time on something it's pretty hard to see the downsides. I'm definitely going to consider your feedback and improve the level.

Thank you so much!

[DarkDedede]

8-Bit Wonderland DEMO by mikemichaelmic




CATEGORY: Demo (Level Series)
DIFFICULTY: Hard
Last Updated: 30/Jan/2012

PRIZES:
[spoiler]None[/spoiler]

Summary:

Another interesting concept comes my way. It’s like 3d Dot Heroes meets Onion Gale, without the fun rewards. From what I gathered, this is a demo for a level series that is currently being developed. Quite a tall order, considering the style they’ve chosen. As this is just a demo, I will refrain from giving it an official rating, as it’s technically not done yet. Therefore, I will try to be a bit more focused on the feedback. After all, the rating is really just a formality, right? No big loss.

As for the level design, I thought the level of difficulty was a bit much for the first level. Just my personal opinion, but I would think that the first level of a series would be more fun than challenging. I would definitely be the least frustrating of the series. As the player continues, the level of difficulty increases. This demo wastes no time getting right to the challenging bits.

Strengths:

• Aesthetic
• Nostalgia
• Custom Music

Weaknesses:

• Difficulty may not appeal to all players.
• No multiplayer

Nitpicks:

• Hitting the block, after it’s been emptied, still makes the ding sound.
• Not everything is pixel styled.
• Getting killed again, immediately after I respawn, does not make me happy.

Smells like onions

Ratings:

Concept/Originality: N/A

Gameplay/Implementation: N/A

Level Design/Communication: N/A

Aesthetic/Presentation: N/A

Ratings Explanation & Tips

OVERALL SCORE: N/A Looking forward to the final result.

[Level hearted/Author not hearted]

Suggestions

• I would consider scaling back the difficulty for your first level. As I’ve said before, the first level should be more fun and engaging, than frustrating. It should be an introduction to the mechanics that you plan to use in your designs. You need to get your player hooked, so they will want to play the series all the way through.
• I really dont think the plasma hazard or effect fits the style of the level. You should think of ways to make the hazard not have that glow, but still be lethal. Perhaps you should even consider a different death animation for it too.
• I have a very unnatural hatred of long transitions, especially those that can’t be skipped. The HUD intro, with the horizontal lines, either needs to be made faster, made to be skipped, or removed all together. Sure, it works the first time, but after that, it gets old quick.
• For the second area, there really is no warning that going too high, too fast, will cause death. You should consider repositioning the camera, so the player knows to pace themselves as they ascend. It may be also suggest considering removing the top hazard completely. That way, you can reintroduce the concept in another level, with the added hazard. I think it would make the gameplay experience more dynamic and interesting.
• Be careful when dealing with nostalgia. While nostalgia may play rather effective supporting role the overall gameplay experience, it is not the only element in the equation. Many game designers tend to rely on it far too much. A design should stand on it’s own merit, despite what may have inspired its development. That way you’ll appeal to a much wider audience.
• I don’t know what issues your level has with multi-player, but it should be resolved by the time this series is officially released to the public. Leaving your level with a problem that could potentially cause your players PS3 to burst into flames would not be the wisest decision.

The End.

[Kalawishis]

Do you review movies?

I miss the good old pre-war LBP days when we didn't have to dodge all these stupid bombs.

[Pickle962]

PSN: Pickle962

Level Name: I actually have a series of levels I would like you to review. They are as follows

The Hunger Games Part One: District 12
The Hunger Games Part Two: The Capitol
The Hunger Games Part Three: The Arena
The Hunger Games Part Four: The Victors

thx a bunch

[DarkDedede]

Do you review movies?

Yes I do review movies.

[damaz10]

Hey dude, glad to see you're active again, oh how I've missed your spot on reviews! so.... you can guess what I'm gonna say next... can you review my latest level Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy 2? http://lbp.me/v/9-5q0n I need some honest details about how it fairs against a objective player Much appreciated!

[Undarivik]

So I've notices though a level got 5/5, you didn't heart it. What's your curriculum for hearting?

[DarkDedede]

So I've notices though a level got 5/5, you didn't heart it. What's your curriculum for hearting?

Oh, I did heart the level, I just forgot to change it in the posted review. Sorry about that. I start all my reviews off the same template, and I must of overlooked that part.

To answer your question, as far as hearts go, if I like something about the level, it will get a heart from me. It really has little to do with how strong the design is, overall. For example, one of my favorite levels is Onion Gale, but it isn't the strongest level that I have reviewed. However, it does implement some rather successful concepts, the characters are fun, and the collectables actually have a purpose.

[DarkDedede]

Little Big Top Circus in: Off the Wall! by Geet-R


Cannons! Fun Stuff! Boom!

CATEGORY: Obstacle Course
DIFFICULTY: Easy
Last Updated: 11/Feb/2012

PRIZES:
[spoiler]None[/spoiler]

Summary:

Compared to other obstacle course type levels, this one is pretty good. I can tell that a lot of love went into both the visuals and the level design. I also noticed that the designer also incorporated multiple variations of the same obstacles. This helps the player learn the mechanics of the level, while the variety keeps them entertained. It also gives the designer the opportunity to gradually change the difficulty of each variation, while avoiding too much player frustration. Of course that’s not to say there weren’t elements in this level that didn’t frustrate me, but we’ll get to that later.

Oh, and the level has attracto gel. Walking upside down is fun.

Strengths:

• Visually engaging
• Good pacing
• Creative design
• Cannons

Weaknesses:

• Visual communication
• Color contrast

Nitpicks:

• For a circus, the setting was somewhat lifeless.
• Ceiling grabbing annoys me.

Ruh-roh!

Ratings:

Concept/Originality: 3/5 ★

Gameplay/Implementation: 4/5 ★

Level Design/Communication: 3/5 ★

Aesthetic/Presentation: 4/5 ★

Ratings Explanation & Tips

OVERALL SCORE: 3/5 ★ Make it shine! (now, please)

[Level hearted/Author not hearted (yet)]

Suggestions

• You should have another checkpoint, immediately after the player jumps up after the beginning. When I respawned at the start, I wasn’t able to jumped up, and fell through the floor.
• You should also put more checkpoints throughout. The checkpoints were spaced out too far apart.
• I would consider developing the aesthetics even further. While your they were stronger than most, they lacked a good amount of life and personality that would help the design tremendously. Again, it’s not bad, as is. However, more polish could really make it shine (sing even).
• Work on developing the visual cues/direction in your level. Some areas were a bit confusing. I did notice that you did incorporate some patterns, which is a good thing (white for grabbing, red for bouncing, etc). However, this should be developed further. Even if you were to explain with text, not everyone that plays your level understands English. Your level should have a certain degree of intuitiveness, despite the instructions that require the ability to read.
• You may want to add some more variety of color at certain platforming areas. Some areas were all very similar colors, and everything blended in.
• You should also consider a way to have the player easily escape the trampoline pits. Some times I got stuck and was forced to respawn. I noticed that some did, but all should have such functionality.
• Despite my well known predisposition concerning this type of obstacle, ceiling grabbing really has no place in this level. The other obstacles are far too creative for you to resort to something like that. I would advise either making a more creative variation of the obstacle, or replacing it with something more creative.

Ring of fire.

[a_mailbox]

Just out of curiosity, dedede, but do you like alternate adventure games?

Like ace attorney, for example. (I'm asking for the sake of asking )

[mikemichaelmic]

Thank you for your honest review. I appretiate you taking your time to review my DEMO. To address a few of your concerns.

- As you did mention in your review, it is indeed a DEMO, and I will assure you that the full game will have ironed out all of the akward level design errors such as respawn deaths.

- I will work on making the difficulty more resasonable. I will actually have a few BETA testers play my game before it gets fully released. This will insure that I have feedback from multiple people.

- As for the multiplayer complaint. Sorry, but it can't really be adressed. Since I am creating using 8-bit visuals, it takes a huge toll on the thermometre. Some stages in the game will FREEZE in mutliplayer, and can't be resovled unless I seriously dumb down the visuals a heck of a lot. It's a single player experience, and won't change. It's unfortunete yes, but can't be done without downscaling.

- I'll look into making level intros more optimized.

- The nostalgia factor plays a big part in the game yes, but to re-assure you. The later stages feel less familiar than Stage 1-1. The first stage is meant to introduce new players, as well as re-aquaint old players to the retro world. Later Stages do still have a good amount of nostalgic enemies, but they fell less familiar, and are drastically changed from there original designs, and attack patterns.

- All of the prize bubbles, and collectables have been removed from the DEMO, but will be there to collect in the full game. A lot of other featured have also been detracted from the DEMO as well.

If you want to see a later Stage in action, here's a trailer:



Thanks again for the review.

[DarkDedede]

- As for the multiplayer complaint. Sorry, but it can't really be adressed. Since I am creating using 8-bit visuals, it takes a huge toll on the thermometre. Some stages in the game will FREEZE in mutliplayer, and can't be resovled unless I seriously dumb down the visuals a heck of a lot. It's a single player experience, and won't change. It's unfortunete yes, but can't be done without downscaling.

It's not a complaint. It's a serious issue, and it has nothing to do with the fact that you want the level to be a single player experience. I can't imagine that anyone would be thrilled to have their console freeze up, because of your level. I find it very disappointing that you would even consider allowing such an issue to even exist in your design. Now I do understand the thermo excuse, but it is just an excuse. You need to design smarter. If you run into problems or limitations, it is your responsibility to come up with the creative solutions around these problems. I'm sure there are plenty of things you could have done, and still can do, to make your design more thermo friendly. Right now, you're more interested in making yourself look good, and the player experience is secondary. Just my opinion, but I find that incredibly irresponsible.

[mikemichaelmic]

It's not a complaint. It's a serious issue, and it has nothing to do with the fact that you want the level to be a single player experience. I can't imagine that anyone would be thrilled to have their console freeze up, because of your level. I find it very disappointing that you would even consider allowing such an issue to even exist in your design. Now I do understand the thermo excuse, but it is just an excuse. You need to design smarter. If you run into problems or limitations, it is your responsibility to come up with the creative solutions around these problems. I'm sure there are plenty of things you could have done, and still can do, to make your design more thermo friendly. Right now, you're more interested in making yourself look good, and the player experience is secondary. Just my opinion, but I find that incredibly irresponsible.

Yes, I understand what you're saying, but from the very beggining I wanted a single player experience. A lot the level gimmicks in other stages just don't play well with multiple people. There are countless stages out there that simply don't work with multiple people. Yes, I could use sticker panel, and images for the visuals instead of drawing them all out, but his would make the stage look blurry, and unappealing. This isn't an excuse, and I'm not trying to make myself look good. I'll be first to admit that Im not 100% happy with some of the stage designs, and am also upset as to how short my stages are. After working for over a year on the project, and have made countless stages shoehorning multiplayer even though it doesn't work with the stages will make the end product worse. I'm too far into the project to make many major changes. I'm sorry if I sounded rude (or snobish as you would say) but that's not how I wanted to come off as. I'm happy with your review, and whatever issues I can address I will.

[DarkDedede]

Don't misunderstand, I do understand your position. You have gotten far too invested in the way the design is, and you can't afford the time to make it right. I'm sure the last thing that you want to do, after a year of development, is redo the entire thing over again. Also, please realize that my worries have nothing to do with multiplayer. I personally like the idea of a single player experience. It's about the game freezing, and the fact that there really not much that you can do to prevent it. It will be an issue, but of course, you do realize that. If you're willing to accept that, and all the potential grief that comes with it, then that's your right. It's your design, not mine.

Funny thing is, had MM implemented a feature to limit the number of players in a level, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[mikemichaelmic]

Don't misunderstand, I do understand your position. You have gotten far too invested in the way the design is, and you can't afford the time to make it right. I'm sure the last thing that you want to do, after a year of development, is redo the entire thing over again. Also, please realize that my worries have nothing to do with multiplayer. I personally like the idea of a single player experience. It's about the game freezing, and the fact that there really not much that you can do to prevent it. It will be an issue, but of course, you do realize that. If you're willing to accept that, and all the potential grief that comes with it, then that's your right. It's your design, not mine.

Funny thing is, had MM implemented a feature to limit the number of players in a level, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Sorry if it sounded like I snapped at you. I agree that there may be greif with people, and that's something that will have to deal with, but I am putting in multiple warnings. Do it is there choice wether they choose to take a risk or not. I'm still happy with your review, as believe it or not, I am actually making changes to the demo as we speak, including fixing the difficulty spike. I'm in a much better mood now we cleared things up. Sorry again if I sounded a bit mad. Thanks again for your honesty, and heart

oh and PS: We need Media Molecule to implement a feature like that.