Threnody for an Enchanted Seamstress (Series)

[discokrakken]

Thanks for the extensive feedback, discokrakken. (Love the username, by the way--I see this big tentacled thing with platform heels and mondo flares doing its best John Travolta impression...)

I picture the same thing, haha... Big lit up dance floor, all the ladies watching the squid monster bust moves like it's 1977.

The earthquake part hasn't sat just right with me, either. It was one of the my very first goes at the sequencer and movie camera tools, and I think I stretched too far with the series of tilting zooms. It was supposed to be a little cheezy, like a B-movie sort of thing, but I admit it doesn't quite work. I had some trouble with the sound effects because anything MM has given for rumbling is quite low volume-wise, and gets drowned out by music and other sound effects. I'll try turning off the sound positioning, and maybe fool around with some of the cinematic music.

All good ideas. If you sequence your SFX here, you may want to try layering a rumble effect on top of itself to get more volume, though I'm not entirely sure if you can layer ambient effects (the sounds effects with the * in their name). If you want six seconds of rumbling that gets increasingly louder, you may be able to achieve the desired effect by having six rumble effects layered on top of each other. Each new second could add on more rumble, but they would all end at the same time, so it would look kind of like a staircase on your sequencer.

I'm not sure what kinds of DLC you have, but I'd be really surprised if you're not already using the Monsters pack. I'm never quite pleased with creator kit DLC until I start probing for a way to make an idea work, and then discover that the perfect solution lies within such DLC.

Is the "large dark thing" you saw sort of roundish? It's a water-wheel. It shouldn't be flashing, but there is, as you mention, the flickering light near the minecart... I'll check that visual again--it could chalk up to the difference in our TVs, but I could probably use a bit of extra lighting there.

Yeah, it was like a big dark circle flashing every 1 or 2 seconds in the middle of the screen. It almost looked like it was centered on the second yellow light on the ceiling. A very minor thing either way, though it did distract me for a moment. If this is really just a flashing light bulb that you built into the scene on purpose, you may want to consider using a randomizer to make the light blink unpredictable and more ambient.

As for length, I personally prefer to play a level that is short and to the point, that uses a number of good ideas but doesn't overstay its welcome. Same for games in general, for me. I'd rather spend five minutes in a level that leaves me wanting more than ten or fifteen minutes of a level that lost its appeal for me half way through. That said, I did want it to be a little longer, but the thermo is maxed to the point where another couple of point bubbles makes the emitters stop working. It's the stupid waterfalls and the falling leaves at the very beginning. They heat up the level in a major way. In any event, the next in the series is about 75% done and should be a bit more meaty.

I'm not surprised at all to hear about the emitter-related overheating. I am 100% on board with your design philosophy here. Short levels may not please some, but those people probably fail to realize how a creator must compromise between a level's length and a rich density of decoration and visual effects.

[discokrakken]

Another suggestion: After the mine cart, there's a platform-and-wheel contraption that you have to roll across a flaming pit. This section is tricky, and if you got far before you died, you have to wait longer for the wheel to roll back to the checkpoint. Have you thought about having the wheel return itself to the player? This could be a quick and easy thing to implement.

Here's the logic: If there are no players on or near the wheel while there is at least one player at the checkpoint, a mover speeds up the wheel's return.

Mechanically, this would look like this:
Player sensor at checkpoint, requires all players, radius big enough to cover the checkpoint's platform.
Player sensor at center of wheel, output is inverted to signal when no players are near. Radius 150 - 200 or so, big enough to cover the checkpoint platform when the wheel is at the starting position.
Wire these to an AND gate. If both conditions are true (no players at wheel, at least one player at checkpoint), activate a Mover.
Mover located on wheel, set vertical direction 0, horizontal direction something like +5 to +10, nothing too crazy.

This is something simple that could potentially make this little section less frustrating for less skilled players.

[Cheezy WEAPON]

The levels and story is just.. amazing.

Everything is so finely crafted with a slightly sinister touch reminiscent of Victoria's Lab. I look forward to more!

[Bercilak]

I have refined "Threnody, Chapter 1" in a number of ways based on a lot of the great feedback I've been getting so far.

• Replaced the background foliage in the first part of the level. Cut-out trees replaced by cool impressionist trees. Removed thermo-intensive falling leaves (I'm not sure if anybody really noticed them anyway...).
• The minecart now respawns on a timer that starts once the player jumps in, which resolves a potential level-breaking problem. The controllinator on the cart is now set to "automatic enter"--it starts up as soon as the player jumps into it.
• Moved a few of the point bubbles in the minecart challenge that the cart simply flew over before.
• Simplified the feedback on the retracting bounce pads near the end: green lights mean go, red lights mean stop.
• Added some extra visual feedback as the boss is progressively damaged, which also has the added benefit of increased gross-out factor.
• Reduced the number of hits to defeat the boss by one.
• Re-enabled controller during boss' death cinematic to help alleviate unavoidable sackperson deaths from rogue projectiles.

[Scholarship]

for prologue: This was really short, that being the only problem I had. Great camera work and script-writing, however! The way you set up the story was also REALLY awesome!

for mines and mollusks: This was also a great creation, but it had no story put into it. Doing so would have given it more meaning. The only part of the visuals that makes this suffer is your use of stickers: try shaping your own objects. Besides that, the level looked gorgeous, so keep it up!

[MrTran]

Sad in the beginning, comedic in the end. I enjoyed this intro and I'm off to play the following levels!

[Domik12]

Hi, Bercilak

you created very cool level with outstanding intro movie and dynamic and interesting gameplay part! I like level's visuals and mechanics! it was really nice and fun! Great level!

here is my video of your level:



I also will add you level in recommended levels list on Russian LBP community site LittleBigRussia.ru

Thank you for this interesting story and funny adventure!

From Russia with love,
Domik12