Little Big Commando: The Oil Refinery (Screens+Video)

[Coreymill]

Level Info: "Use your bionic arm to traverse the oil refinery and destroy the main computer. Don't forget to stay in contact with the agents by using the communication towers to gain access to other areas."

Level Name: Little Big Commando: The Oil Refinery
CreatorPSN: Coreymill
VideoProducerPSN: xTrapperJonx

- This is my first level to be published on LBP so far, I am currently working on a completely original level which I am pretty excited about. Also, if you have never used the paint gun, then you may find this level to be rather difficult.

Trailer:
*If you can, watch the trailer in high quality on youtube it looks MUCH better*

[Watch YouTube Video]

[Sackdragon]

Interesting concept. I'll look that up right now *turns on PS3*

Overall, I gave it a 4/5. Overall, I didn't see any major problems. This level keeps you on your toes; as soon as you go up to the next area, you're being shot at. About a 1/4 way through the level I got used to jumping off of the "claws" at the right time. I like the effect you did there with the claws. Checkpoints were laid out nicely, except for the boss one. 8 lives should be enough to fight the boss. I think it only took me 3 or 4.

I've never played Bionic Commando, but I'm pretty confident that you did a good job of making the level right.

Btw, how do you get that one prize bubble? The one floating above the lethal gas near the start? I'm guessing it has something to do with that one rotating arm.

[QuozL]

We played this tonight with three of us and it was a lot of fun, some great design and interesting game play.

Cheers QuozL

[Neverynnal]

Alrighty, I played through this until the boss, where the checkpoint bugged out on me and after 1 death I couldn't continue:

Pros

- The beginning was really well done! Loved the intro scene.

- Great use of the paintinator. Your enemies really fit the level and were challenging enough to make it a lot of fun.

- The "bionic arm" concept was awesome. As mentioned above, at first I got frustrated with it, but later on I got used to it and it was pure fun flying around. Great work!

- The level was polished. No switches visible, no snags, nothing. Perfect

- It felt like I was playing NES. I hope you take this as a compliment, because you should. Felt like this obscure game I used to play when I was young, "Viper". Thanks for this

- The platforming was challenging enough to keep me interested. A lot of timing involved, which is a great aspect of any "shooter" platforming game.

Cons

-As mentioned above, the "infinite" checkpoint didn't work for me. Maybe try and address this. (sorry I haven't messed with infinite checkpoints before so I have no tips)

-Ice is a pain. Anyone will tell you this. Plus it didn't fit in with the factory theme at all. This is your call, but personally I could have done without.

-It didn't feel like a refinery. The barrels were a really nice touch, but it didn't have a "factory" feel for it (colours, materials, ect). I mean, I personally don't care all that much since the level was tight, but maybe address this in any future levels.


Overall it was a treat to play. 5 stars and hearted, and I'll be back to play it and beat the **** thing next time.


Check out A Knight's Tale: Ranaku's Awakening for the F4F. Link to thread in sig.

[Coreymill]

- 8 lives should be enough to fight the boss. I think it only took me 3 or 4.
- I'm pretty confident that you did a good job of making the level right.
-... how do you get that one prize bubble?

- I agree that 8 lives should be enough. I was just being extra cautious about the difficulty because I didn't want people to become too frustrated. Probably will switch it now that I have heard about it not working for someone anyway.
- And I certainly did make it a top priority to stay as true to the original as I could.
- For that prize bubble, you have to swing out with the 'claw' and then there is grab-able material above on the ceiling which you use to get over, kind of a pain to get really. There's a clip of me coming back from getting in the the Trailer actually at 1:17.

We played this tonight with three of us and it was a lot of fun, some great design and interesting game play.

- Thank you, I am glad that you enjoyed it!

Pros
- The beginning was really well done! Loved the intro scene.
- The "bionic arm" concept was awesome. As mentioned above, at first I got frustrated with it, but later on I got used to it and it was pure fun flying around. Great work!
- Felt like this obscure game I used to play when I was young, "Viper". Thanks for this
- The platforming was challenging enough to keep me interested. A lot of timing involved, which is a great aspect of any "shooter" platforming game.

Cons
-"infinite" checkpoint didn't work for me.
-Ice is a pain. Anyone will tell you this. Plus it didn't fit in with the factory theme at all. This is your call, but personally I could have done without.
- It didn't feel like a refinery.

- Really sorry that the checkpoint didn't work out, I have never had a problem with it before. I will probably change it to either one or two double save points there instead so it won't happen to anyone else.
- Thanks for all the compliments, I am glad to hear that people are able to get the hang of the swinging. I know it's quite a bit different than other things in the game so I was wondering how much of a 'learning curve there would be'.
- OH! By Viper do you mean Code Name Viper !?! That is a pretty obscure, but also one of my favorite NES games. REALLY TOUGH. I thought of making a Code Name Viper level but couldn't figure out a way to do the flipping doors that you can hide behind/save people from and figured it was too obscure for very many people to enjoy in a nostalgic sense.

- The reason for the strange colors is that I stayed as true to the NES version as I could, which had bright strange colors.



Thanks again for the compliments as well as ideas for improvement so far.

*plays your guys' levels*

[Sackdragon]

I'm about to go through it a second time.

- For that prize bubble, you have to swing out with the 'claw' and then there is grab-able material above on the ceiling which you use to get over, kind of a pain to get really. There's a clip of me coming back from getting in the the Trailer actually at 1:17.

Can't believe I missed that. I have something just like it in my wizard level.

Also, a couple of things I forgot to point out: In the beginning with the agents talking to you, if you hold down right and keep jumping, you can get on top of the codec screen. This also lets you skip a section of the first part.

Once, I somehow got stuck in the grapple claw thing. Of course, there was no way out, as it was in the foreground, and you can't fall down into the midground from there. Almost the same thing happened recently when I jumped up between a soldier's leg and the wall. It was the one after the long gap where you have to swing across the tower or whatever it is.

[Coreymill]

- In the beginning with the agents talking to you, if you hold down right and keep jumping, you can get on top of the codec screen. This also lets you skip a section of the first part.

Once, I somehow got stuck in the grapple claw thing. Of course, there was no way out, as it was in the foreground, and you can't fall down into the midground from there. Almost the same thing happened recently when I jumped up between a soldier's leg and the wall. It was the one after the long gap where you have to swing across the tower or whatever it is.

- Yeah, I have realized that you could sabotage the intro, but I can't really think of a way to stop it from happening at the moment ... and I guess if you want to ruin the intro then it's your choice to go ahead and do so.

- And as far as getting stuck do you think there's anyway to avoid this? It seems like kind of freak occurrences which don't really have a way to fix. Not sure though.

[Neverynnal]

Haha yeah man! Code Name: Viper! I thought I was the only person that played that game when I was young Yeah the swinging doors and saving the people was awesome, and I loved the hero. Reminded me of the Fonz with a gun haha!

[Pinkcars]

There is few games I enjoy more then Bionic commando. I would be surprised and shocked if I didn't play this.

[gameguy888]

Wow, I was just amazed with the intro. Very nice job with that. Maybe it's just me, but the letter stickers don't really match computer text much... Not sure what, if anything can be done about that.

This part after the third checkpoint is a little annoying, cause you can get unfairly killed by that guard up there if you don't have amazing reflexes to drop down in time. First time I grabbed the arm to get up there, the arm flings you through the paintinator (making you lose your grip), and straight into the guard. If he happens to fire at this point, you're screwed. I dunno, maybe some layer switching would be helpful here. Then again, it could have just been a fluke or something.

This level also seems to suffer from "single layer enemy syndrome" in a few places (yes, I just made that up). There's a lot of occasions where the enemies pose little threat and can be just walked right past. This poses a big problem sometimes however. That small cavity where you put the bubble can be landed in, and in some cases get you stuck, and force you to kill yourself.

As you enter the second half of the level, I have to say I love the way you transitioned. My only real issue with this part of the level is that the grabable walls make it hard to grab some of the arm things. Also, being able to lose the elevator is intended, right? I guess I didn't need it, but I think I missed some stuff. Oh well.

It really does feel sort of like an NES game, and I enjoyed all of the platforming challenges this level had to offer. The level was great fun. Keep up the good work and such.

</returning feedback>

[Coreymill]

Wow, I was just amazed with the intro. Very nice job with that. Maybe it's just me, but the letter stickers don't really match computer text much... Not sure what, if anything can be done about that.

- Thank you, and I definitely agree that the letters don't really match too well, but the only other option I could think of was to 'build' custom letters. But I wasn't about to take the time to do that.

.... you can get unfairly killed by that guard up there if you don't have amazing reflexes to drop down in time.

- Yeah, I was aware of this but had kinda forgotten about it. It kind of is a fluke, but not really. There's a percentage of times that he will shoot at just the right time that you can't get out of the way at all. I remember when I was trying to ace the level he killed me a couple times and was pretty annoying. I will try and work something out for that.

"single layer enemy syndrome" ..... That small cavity where you put the bubble can be landed in, and in some cases get you stuck, and force you to kill yourself.

- Yeah, I do realize that you could just 'sneak' by many of the enemies ... especially in much of the first area of the level. But figured it would be okay because I didn't want the level to be too difficult, I dunno. And now you are not the first to have been caught in the enemy now ... I will probably have to go through and add a thin layer wall to prevent this from happening.

My only real issue with this part of the level is that the grabable walls make it hard to grab some of the arm things. Also, being able to lose the elevator is intended, right? I guess I didn't need it, but I think I missed some stuff.

- The grabable walls do cause a problem in a couple places that I can think of, I will think about moving those walls a bit further away from the arms. And yeah, you can lose the elevator, but you should be able to get almost everything in the level without it. Other than the first opening towards the top, after that you can still get everywhere else without it.

= Thanks for the compliments and critiques. I will try and fix some of those issues to make the level better.

[larryjoe701]

When I first got Bionic Command for the NES I couldn't figure out how to get past the very first level. In fact I was stuck for quite some time until a friend from school told me the secret. I open with this because your level evoked the feel of BC enough to recall that obscure memory. The background, the colors, the plaforms, and the enemies all evoke the 80's classic. That was an impressive feat.

The mechanic of the arm was interesting. It too felt like the original game. I had a little trouble getting the right momentum coming off some of the arms which got a little frustrating. What really gave me trouble were the enemies: the only approach seemed to be playing the plane jumping game as green shots came by. That part just didn't seem "fun" enough. I don't know if that's a problem with just your level or perhaps with the game play in the original.

I too had problems with the checkpoint at the final area. After I activated it, the checkpoint got crushed. I took a hit and that was it.

I would suggest fixing the final checkpoint, maybe making some of the arms a little longer/shorter in order to make the transitions easier, and possibly activating the enemies by a proximity sensor on a timer. That would give the player a chance to attack before immediatly facing a barrage of green globes.

The level was a very good take on a classic, I was impressed.

[Coreymill]

The background, the colors, the plaforms, and the enemies all evoke the 80's classic. That was an impressive feat.

- Thanks, I put a lot of effort in being true to the NES classic so it's great to hear that it reminded you of the original so much.

What really gave me trouble were the enemies: the only approach seemed to be playing the plane jumping game as green shots came by.

- Well, the original is considered to be one of the harder games, kinda like Contra is. But yeah, I can see why you might say this. I guess it's more a limitation of the game than intended. Since you can't duck or grapple out of the way of bullets like you could in the NES one.

I too had problems with the checkpoint at the final area.

- Once again, I am really sorry about this I have been busy and didn't fix it earlier but I did a quick fix on it so the checkpoints won't be disappearing anymore.

I would suggest ... maybe making some of the arms a little longer/shorter in order to make the transitions easier, and possibly activating the enemies by a proximity sensor on a timer.

The level was a very good take on a classic, I was impressed.

- I do have the enemies set up with proximity sensors ... but I will look into maybe lowering the radius on them. Thanks again.

[Pitcard]

Those hookshots look proper fun from seeing the trailer! I'ma gonna check this out next

Did he do the dialog in the trailer or is that from Bionic Commando or something cause i've only played the demo.

[Pitcard]

Okay, played it and was havin fun until the little piston near the boss broke and I couldn't get up. Its the one where some lad wavin a stick about at this electrified control board yokey. Probably broke cause it was too small maybe..

So I never got to the boss, but I'll try it again some other time. Really enjoyed the hookshot mechanics. and I like the way you can swing around each area before finding your way to the next.