The Great Tree

[MattAtk]

Hi everyone, I've finally finished making my first LBP2 level.

This is a platformer type level...and was maxed out because of all the details I added into this level. Towards the end I was forced to emit the last bits, because I had no more room at all... :P

Enjoi. Thanks!

Here are some screenshots. (These were taken when the level was about 3/4 finished)

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k111/itsrocklee/1.jpg
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k111/itsrocklee/2.jpg
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k111/itsrocklee/3.jpg

http://lbp.me/v/zbtsmq

UPDATED: Gameplay
http://youtu.be/UHOQHMhhggY
http://youtu.be/qDzQpxIcHqc

Special Thanks to ChimpanzeePS3 and AssassinatorRFC for the recorded gameplay.

[KRX]

i queue your level i wrte a in game review

[Kanada Ten]

I felt the only really difficult part was the flame on branch. Really tight timing. And that one jump with the slanted platform took a few deaths to figure out where I was supposed to jump (which was made more annoying by having to climb the timed platforms - but that seemed in keeping with the theme. It's very cramped feeling, which makes sense, but adds to the difficulty. There's a neat puzzle-platforming aspect, though it's not always clear what order you should do things in. It's got a good challenge level overall. Both the monkey and the creatinator at the end felt really out of place to me.

[shropshirelass•]

This is a fun level with some nice platforming ideas in it - the burning branch section was very cool and I enjoyed looking for the secrets too. Another highlight was the intricate design of the level with all the doubling back on yourself. Top this off with some great visuals, very nice use of colour and lighting and you have a really beautiful small world to explore.

I didn't find the difficulty too bad but I can understand that with the spikes section being so close to the start players may think the whole level is going to be like that (or even get more difficult!). My only issue was with the section in the dark at the end. It took me a while to work out what to do. Other than that, great job! I had fun! A heart and smiley face from me.

[Edeslash]

What a great level. I enjoyed playing it, the length of it was perfect. I'm just going to repeat what others have said in-game, I think. First of all, the underwater part really sucks. It took me about 15 tries. You should at slow the branches down or make them rotate more (further away from each other) etc. And when the dark part began, I really had troubles understanding what I should do next, because it was too dark. On the positive side, the dark areas were beautiful. You should have used more (quite dim) lights. It felt like it was only lit up by the fires. In the ending scene where you water that seed, I had problems with layers mainly because it was completely dark. You should make that part 1-layer. I don't think you should sacrifice any of the atmosphere the darkness gives to that last bit. Thanks for the good level.

For F4F, see Digging for Inventizite.

[MattAtk]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Here's some changes I plan to do this week when I republish it. PS3 Internet not working atm.

-I made the pause time on the spiked roots a second longer giving you more time to get through. (If you happened to die multiple times still, there's something I did to make things easier. ;D)
-The platform where you try to jump over the burning part of the tree I changed it by making it more straight, giving you a better jump.
-The timer where you first activate the switch once you entered the cave was extended by .5 seconds.
-Additional details were added.
-I changed the ending by dimming up the darkness, making it easier to see... and also adding a bounce pad in the front layer so that you can now walk forward, hit the bounce pad to jump over the green seed and reach the creatinator all in one layer. ( Not Possible atm, because of maxed thermo. )

[faulky]

Queued up. Will feedback as soon as possible. Can you feedback on my Clone level in my signature. Cheers.

[faulky]

As promised:

First of all, it was a very beautiful level with creative platforming. You obviously have a knack for level design and platforming. I loved the intertwining feel of all the branches. Brilliant job matey. Here's a few points:

- The water drop emitter right near the start makes a weird noise, not very watery - more like a fizzy sound. Emitters can be a pain to get them to stop making a noise but I'm sure it'd be worth it.
- The underwater spikes are pretty tough so early on. The difficulty curve peaks here. Maybe make them easier as I'm sure some people will quit at this stage and not get into the meat of the level. Maybe just have one arm?
- Maybe some more environmental sounds (birds tweeting, trees groaning) would add to the atmosphere?

but these pale into insignificance on what is a great level.

Can you feedback on my Clone level in my signature in return? Cheers.

[MattAtk]

Thanks for the feedback, and ideas faulky. I'll be sure to add more environmental sounds, to give the level more atmosphere.

And yeah I was informed about the underwater spikes trap part was too hard for some people...and I've changed them to have a extra second pause. Also If you happen to die three times, I added something to make thing easier when encountering the underwater spike trap the 4th time.

You'll just have to wait and see this Fri/Sat...my online is down...atm.

Also I queued your level. I'll leave feedback this week.

[discokrakken]

I love it! Great use of layers, great mechanics, great platforming, great decor. People will say "it's too short!" but they probably fail to realize that your thermo is undoubtedly maxed. Looks great, plays great, love to see more like it.

I can only think of one suggestion for a minor improvement: At the beginning, a monkey delivers three subtitles, between which the camera jerks a bit. This appears to be a sequencer that contains three magic mouths, all with the exact same cut-scene camera angle set within the magic mouths themselves. I can think of two ways to smooth out this camera jerk:

1. Disable the cameras set within the mouths' options. On the sequencer, where the first mouth starts, place a battery, and run it to a movie camera. Set the movie camera's duration to equal the number of seconds that the mouths take up on the sequencer. This will also allow you to leave controls enabled, if you'd like the players to be able to move around during the monkey's lines.

2. This could be easier, but I'm not sure it would work: Just overlap the mouths on the sequencer a little bit. They might flow more smoothly if #2 begins before #1 ends. This would be a two step fix (Make mouth #1 longer, make mouth #2 longer, done), but it maintains the cameras within the mouths. I just don't like using mouth cameras anymore now that movie cameras have shown themselves to be very slick by comparison. At the same time, this is a sequencer based fix and sequencers are pretty slick themselves.

[MattAtk]

I love it! Great use of layers, great mechanics, great platforming, great decor. People will say "it's too short!" but they probably fail to realize that your thermo is undoubtedly maxed. Looks great, plays great, love to see more like it.

I can only think of one suggestion for a minor improvement: At the beginning, a monkey delivers three subtitles, between which the camera jerks a bit. This appears to be a sequencer that contains three magic mouths, all with the exact same cut-scene camera angle set within the magic mouths themselves. I can think of two ways to smooth out this camera jerk:

1. Disable the cameras set within the mouths' options. On the sequencer, where the first mouth starts, place a battery, and run it to a movie camera. Set the movie camera's duration to equal the number of seconds that the mouths take up on the sequencer. This will also allow you to leave controls enabled, if you'd like the players to be able to move around during the monkey's lines.

2. This could be easier, but I'm not sure it would work: Just overlap the mouths on the sequencer a little bit. They might flow more smoothly if #2 begins before #1 ends. This would be a two step fix (Make mouth #1 longer, make mouth #2 longer, done), but it maintains the cameras within the mouths. I just don't like using mouth cameras anymore now that movie cameras have shown themselves to be very slick by comparison. At the same time, this is a sequencer based fix and sequencers are pretty slick themselves.

I knew something was wrong when I placed all three magic mouths in a row on a sequencer. Thanks a lot for this problem...I'll indeed fix this along with other issues! Republishing this week. Really appreciate the positive feedback.

[anoken]

Great stuff! The visuals are great! Very good material choice, legit platforming, and fun puzzles.

However... There were a few parts that were quite difficult. I simply just sat for a few minutes trying to think of what to do a couple times. Also, it was a bit short, but I'm sure this was a thermo issue, so it doesn't really matter.

F4F: Thanks!

[Bercilak]

There is some fantastic gameplay here. Your use of layers, trap doors, falling platforms, exploding walls, and so on, really make for an intricate level. Everything is so tightly focused that I really get the sense that I'm in this knotty, organic tree world. Everything was paced nicely--there was always something curious happening each time I pulled a switch or sneaked behind a root to the next little area.

I found it to be the perfect length. I'm not sure why people so often criticize levels for being too short. I spent somewhere between five and ten minutes navigating yours, which is optimal, at least for me. You were focused, deployed a bunch of little ideas, had a simple little story to kick things off, and pulled out with a cool finish (more below). There's a nice flow to your level, and it never feels repetitive. I would rather leave someone's level wanting to play another one they've built, or even play the same one again, than be part way through wondering when it's going to end (which could mean an exit to the pod).

You do a great job balancing exploration and some exacting platform-based gaming. The one place I found it to be too exacting was with those spiky roots at the very beginning. The timing isn't the problem--it's the space between the roots. Even at their widest, I find that controlling sackboy is just not precise enough to navigate the gap. (I also find the hit detection on spikes in LBP a little irksome.) It's hard enough just swimming through on your own, and when you add the sponge block it's just brutal! I got really frustrated at this part. As one of the previous posts pointed out, this challenge, placed as it is at the very beginning of the stage, could turn off some of the less patient players. I would suggest spreading the roots apart, or having them open a bit more at their widest. Aside from this part, everything was great--challenging enough that I died a number of times, but never in a way that felt cheap.

Great job on visuals. Your use of the various woods was well thought out, and the overall tree-like shapes and branching structure of the level really sold the theme. It is the little details that I really enjoy, like that jump pad near the end that has crumbling bits of dirt fall out of the bottom each time you bounce. Nice work with the hologram material, by the way. I liked the firefly/mote effect at the beginning with the monkey, and I found the colored lights that surround sackboy in the final room really cool. Like I said, it's the little touches that grab me as a player.

I loved the final bit where you have to water the stump to make the scoreboard "grow" out of the tree. The way you put the light on a dimmer was sweet. That was the perfect way to end things off. It would be cool if you put some more leafy decorations on the scoreboard, just to sell it a bit more, but it's cool as is.

In all, an awesome job. I can't wait to see more.

I'm hoping you can find some time to check out my level and leave an F4F post for me. I would really appreciate it. Check out the link in my signature.

[MattAtk]

There is some fantastic gameplay here. Your use of layers, trap doors, falling platforms, exploding walls, and so on, really make for an intricate level. Everything is so tightly focused that I really get the sense that I'm in this knotty, organic tree world. Everything was paced nicely--there was always something curious happening each time I pulled a switch or sneaked behind a root to the next little area.

I found it to be the perfect length. I'm not sure why people so often criticize levels for being too short. I spent somewhere between five and ten minutes navigating yours, which is optimal, at least for me. You were focused, deployed a bunch of little ideas, had a simple little story to kick things off, and pulled out with a cool finish (more below). There's a nice flow to your level, and it never feels repetitive. I would rather leave someone's level wanting to play another one they've built, or even play the same one again, than be part way through wondering when it's going to end (which could mean an exit to the pod).

You do a great job balancing exploration and some exacting platform-based gaming. The one place I found it to be too exacting was with those spiky roots at the very beginning. The timing isn't the problem--it's the space between the roots. Even at their widest, I find that controlling sackboy is just not precise enough to navigate the gap. (I also find the hit detection on spikes in LBP a little irksome.) It's hard enough just swimming through on your own, and when you add the sponge block it's just brutal! I got really frustrated at this part. As one of the previous posts pointed out, this challenge, placed as it is at the very beginning of the stage, could turn off some of the less patient players. I would suggest spreading the roots apart, or having them open a bit more at their widest. Aside from this part, everything was great--challenging enough that I died a number of times, but never in a way that felt cheap.

Great job on visuals. Your use of the various woods was well thought out, and the overall tree-like shapes and branching structure of the level really sold the theme. It is the little details that I really enjoy, like that jump pad near the end that has crumbling bits of dirt fall out of the bottom each time you bounce. Nice work with the hologram material, by the way. I liked the firefly/mote effect at the beginning with the monkey, and I found the colored lights that surround sackboy in the final room really cool. Like I said, it's the little touches that grab me as a player.

I loved the final bit where you have to water the stump to make the scoreboard "grow" out of the tree. The way you put the light on a dimmer was sweet. That was the perfect way to end things off. It would be cool if you put some more leafy decorations on the scoreboard, just to sell it a bit more, but it's cool as is.

In all, an awesome job. I can't wait to see more.

I'm hoping you can find some time to check out my level and leave an F4F post for me. I would really appreciate it. Check out the link in my signature.

Will do! Thanks for the detailed feedback, really appreciated.

[melomaniac]

Queued, I'll leave feedback in-game. Check out my level digital in my signature, thanks.