How Does the Community Spotlight Actually Work?

[Holguin86]

How Does the Community Spotlight Work? ...
Things We Look For, and How We Decide

As most of you know, the Community Spotlight is a fortnightly display of some of the best levels in LBPC's very own Level Showcase. Recently, there have been a few inquiries into how you actually get your level into this pool of awesome creative talent, and how exactly we make our selections. Thus, being a Spotlight Crew member myself, I thought we should put together a friendly guide as to how to give your level a much better chance of getting into the Spotlight, and provide an overview of how we crew members decide if a level makes a given spotlight. Enjoy!

Tip One: Make It Fun That rhymes! (Totally unintentional, I assure you)

This is the number one thing for me, personally, as to whether or not a level gets into the Spotlight. And while you might think that the notion of "fun" differs from person to person, well... you are absolutely right! But, you can still ask yourself these three things:

1. What do you have in your level for your players to do? Platforming, puzzle-solving, combat, cake-baking ... Is there much variety, or do things get a tad repetitive?
2. Will the player enjoy what you have given them to do? For example, I wouldn't enjoy jumping over scores of tiny little platforms that wobble underneath you while dodging half a dozen fireballs raining from the sky ... but that's just me .
3. Is your level too difficult, or impossible to complete? Make your level accessible to rookies and hardcore players alike, and try and make your level difficult for the right reasons. If someone playing your level dies, and they don't think it's their fault, their appreciation for your level is going to be tarnished.

If your level is fun, expect it to be played. If it's really fun, expect it to be played again and again. However, fun-ness is only one ingredient to a Spotlight-standard level.

Tip Two: Make It Pretty

How often have you jumped into a level and said to yourself "Well, you can kinda tell they haven't put a lot of effort in here..." or "it's all made of the same stuff!" For example, take a look at this screenshot, borrowed from a tutorial from our very own Advanced Logic Pack.

Now take a look at this one.

We don't need to go into detail about making your level look pretty here, mrsupercomputer's tutorial in the Logic Pack does that very well indeed. It's just a very powerful example of how making your level look good just makes it ten times better. Obviously random stickers, colours, lighting and music jumbled together don't automatically work - you have to match stuff up and be creative - which, after all, is what LBP is all about. We love pretty levels, and whilst prettiness doesn't usually sell us all by itself, it certainly goes a long way towards bumping your level into a given fortnight's Spotlight.

Tip Three: Make It Work

This one should be the easiest to answer, but it can be deceiving after you've played the same level 100+ times. So, does your level actually work? Can it be completed? Does all of your logic work as it's supposed to? Do the players know where to go? Does your level break? It's very easy for you to understand what to do whilst playing your level, since its creation emanated from your own mind. New players don't have the luxury of reading your mind.

Also, if you haven't put "One Player Only" in your title, have you checked that your level can be completed with multiple players? You should add a sufficient number of checkpoints, so dead players don't spend too much of their time just watching. Do lifts and platforms fail to accommodate second, third, and fourth players? Sometimes working out these issues is a bit more intensive, but it's really where the bar has been set by the community.

Now, I know you're thinking, "Woah, Holguin, that's waaaaay too much to consider..."

It sounds intimidating, but it's the only way you know your level's going to be appreciated by as many people as possible. If it doesn't work, your players will be completely switched off, and many will get so frustrated that they'll prematurely return to their pod and be more likely to give a low rating.

And the only way to tell if your level works is to playtest your sacky socks off. Playtest throughout your build, and rope in your online buddies to test as well. Where do they get stuck? What jumps can't most players make? We don't enjoy levels that don't work, and unless they have some other redeeming quality, they rarely get into the Spotlight. Spend the time getting your level working smoothly; you won't regret it.

Bear in mind though ... if your level doesn't break very often, there's always a chance people will miss the breaking point! Even the best levels can break somewhere - you just can't prepare for every eventuality.

Tip Four: Make It Different

OK, so your level's reasonably fun, and looks good. What more could you want? Well, your level simply being fun, pretty and functional on their own don't necessarily cut it. The level has to be out of the box! Something that isn't done all too often in LBP, or something done in a slightly different way. Creating a different world for sackpeople to gad about in is much harder than copying that awesome level you played last week, and you'll get a whole load more respect from it.

Tip Five: Make It Better!

Well, to put it bluntly, your level has to be great. What constitutes a great level now, is very different from a great level a year ago. The community to continues to raise the bar, and so our tastes have grown to require more from creators. This is not something unique to the Spotlight crew... it's universal across the board. It's also important to understand that greatness is subjective, and it always will be. You cannot define a level's quality on a point scale. The spotlight crew has played many, many levels, and we have a pretty darn-good grasp on what it takes to make a great level... in our eyes!

So, to summarise, we are looking for levels that:

• are fun to play;
• look pretty;
• work (as far as we are able to tell);
• provide something unique;
• are better!

Sometimes, there'll be a level that does one of these really well that it'll get into the spotlight because of this. And sometimes, a level will be good at one of these but lacking in other ways - it's an entirely subjective decision as to whether a level is good enough in these aspects to make the cut, and, ultimately, the Spotlight Crew's decision is final!

Making the Decision ...

The Spotlight Crew plays EVERY level in the Level Showcase. We decide as a team which levels get in, usually after numerous and repetitive plays. After this, we all make comments on the levels we have played, and make efforts to comment on levels chosen by other members. What results, then, is the bi-weekly, twice-a-monthly, 26-a-yearly Community Spotlight that you all know and love! (we hope)

Remember, while you might not like what you find in the Spotlight, there is usually plenty of other people that do! After all, that is what the Community Spotlight is all about - exposing content that we believe others will enjoy! That we believe others will enjoy. This last point is important. The community spotlight is not designed to be a feedback loop to creators... it is designed to be a resource of levels for players! Any benefits that a creator may reap from the community spotlight are just a cheeky bonus.

The Community Spotlight Crew hope you find some answers to some of your burning questions in this wheezy waffle of a post. Happy gadding!

[FreeAim]

GJ for posting this! Thanks!

[SpeedyMcKnuckles]

Very awesome. I've been curious how ya'll go about it.

[Muffin484484]

awesome before I read this I had no idea how the system actually worked :-)

[JustinArt]

Thanks for the tips. I always come up with some great gameplay and visuals that could add some great fun and that's where I already followed all those tips. I always test the levels before I publish them and I edit them to do some changes that could improve the levels. So far the only level of mine that made a spotlight [well is in Also from the showcase...] is "The Hero Chronicles LV2 Twilight Towers" because of great visuals, lighting, usage of jetpack, boss battle, puzzles, and gameplay. Of course one advice I like to share is always looked up feedbacks of your level threads and find out what could be fixed and what needs work.

[Gravel•]

Ah-Ha! So in actuality, there is no methodology behind how the spotlight shines... Just do your own thing, have fun and hope you catch someone's eye! Be it silly or sly... Aye?

[Mnniska]

Hmm, what if your level sinks the second you make a tread about it to about, well let's say page 3? Oo

Oi, you're doing a great job spotlight team, keepidup yes?

[rtm223]

Hmm, what if your level sinks the second you make a tread about it to about, well let's say page 3? Oo

You can reorder the forum view to show you threads in the order of when they were started, so it's easy to find all levels posted in the last 2 weeks. THerefore the spotlight team will find you even if you drop off the front page of the level showcase.

[Powershifter]

Wow, VERY well done Holguin86!

[Sim725]

This is very helpful Thank you this post is a god send!

[X-FROGBOY-X]

Thanks Holguin!

[Fun_Flyer]

thianks for this, i found it rather informative and helpful

[LWBear2]

Your list doesn't only tell us about the ingredients of a spotlighted level, but as well as a good level thanks for the info

[wolverinebball2]

Is it possible that the spotlight team could miss levels in the showcase if their are many consecutive posts by the same author? Because I posted four levels in a 2 day period that were all first published a while ago, and only one of the posts got included in the "Also from the showcase" section. I felt some of my other posts were far better and more unique than the one that got chosen, so I thought maybe the spotlight crew missed playing some of my levels?

[Keldur]

Is it possible that the spotlight team could miss levels in the showcase if their are many consecutive posts by the same author? Because I posted four levels in a 2 day period that were all first published a while ago, and only one of the posts got included in the "Also from the showcase" section. I felt some of my other posts were far better and more unique than the one that got chosen, so I thought maybe the spotlight crew missed playing some of my levels?

I can assure you we play them all. Your levels that got considered for spotlight 48 were: DISNEYLAND! Level Series, The Spy Chronicles Part 1: Jungle Mayhem, Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure Theme Park!, The Best of HARRY POTTER! Part 2!

Out of those, the ones that we liked more were the Disneyland series. The rest of your levels aren't bad at all, I assure you so, but we felt that those Disneyland levels were had a lot of charm, so they were the ones that got mentioned.

The levels that will be considered for the upcoming spotlight 49 are: The Spy Chronicles Part 2: Laboratory Mystery, Adventure in LAS VEGAS! Rides, Casinos, and Fun on.

I hope that helped, and remember you can PM me or everyone else from thecrew if you have any other doubt.