218 - SPOTLIGHTED! (Pics inside)

[OCK]

Level name: 218
Creator: OCK



It's been a long time coming but my third level is finally done. This level is the result of 80+ hours of hard work and a couple of very loooong creative blocks. Fortunately I have had large bursts of creative energy the past week that have allowed me to finish the project which I hope everyone will enjoy. After "The Legion" I knew I wanted to do something in the sci-fi genre and the MGS pack came at a perfect time. Without the paintinator and the materials/decorations from the MGS pack this level would not have been possible. As always I have provided pics and notes on every aspect of my level which I hope you will take the time to read through:

Pics:















Story/Theme:

The story here revolves around a character named 218 (you). Who is 218? Where is 218? All these questions are answered in the story and although I wish I could say more here it would really spoil a lot of the surprises. The main themes I wanted to explore were vengeance, solitude and memory. I also wanted to look at subjects that were important/of interest to me such as science and illusion. All of these are weaved into what is my deepest and most complex story yet. There is a lot of symbolism/metaphor in the objects I have created/ stickers I have used which I will leave up to the individual player to interpret. I even went so far as to integrate symbolism into the voices of the NPC's. I would kindly ask anyone wanting to discuss the story after playing the level to use spoiler tags so as to not spoil it for others

The numbers themselves are the most important numbers in my personal life which is the only reason I used them


Single Player Gameplay:


Once again I have intended this level for SINGLE PLAYER! In terms of gameplay I wanted to try my hand at some puzzles which I have not done in my previous levels. I think I have managed to create some truly original stuff and I am happy with the end result. I would say the level is a mix or action/puzzles with a touch of platforming. There is also vehicle-based gameplay in the latter part of the level. I have played a couple of levels that made use of an anti-grav vehicle but it was never controllable and it forced the player to hang on without letting go. I created something that is both controllable AND weaponized and I think it's pretty cool. A special thanks here to NinjaMicWZ who first discovered you can capture paintballs and who partly inspired some of the gameplay with his level Paintball 3000 A.D.

Lighting


I knew from the start that I wanted a strong emphasis on lighting and I wanted to use lighting in ways that have not been done before. Takelow was a major inspiration here. I think he is truly a "master of lighting" and his work really inspired me to push my use of this element to a whole new level. Everything from LED's to Fairy Lights to Spotlights to Searchlights to Candles is employed. I hope you enjoy some of the visual effects I was able to create with all this lighting.

Playtesting and Community Support


The following people either playtested the level at various points or encouraged/supported me throughout the creation process: Whaaaale, Takelow, NinjaMicWZ, Jaeyden, Hexagohn, Voltiare, Xx FAF Sniper xX. Thanks for everything guys, I appreciate it. I need to point out that I did not playtest the final 40% of the level with anyone else so there may be 1 0r 2 bugs. I personalluy playtested dozens of times so here should not be any major problems. I also want to thank DrunkMiffy who gave me the idea of using a slide to move checkpoints when I posted in the HELP section a long time ago. I used the idea and it worked perfectly



Feedback4Feedback

As of right now I am willing to accept 218 F4F's (no, I am not joking). I know there are some people who have yet to return feedback on my levels so here is your chance lol. For everyone else just let me know what level you want to me to leave feedback on after your comments, old or new, it doesn't matter to me. If you do NOT have a current level then that's fine too. I will comment on any future releases you put out there (which I would have done anyway for the most part). If you do not have a lot to say except "I enjoyed the level" or "This was not my cup of tea" then that is fine too. I will still check out your level and repay the courtesy.


I look forward to every one's thoughts and I hope you enjoy my creation. Once again this level is dedicated to my daughter

[Voltiare]

No feedback necessary. Instead, come online so I can show you my puzzles already. I've been so looking forward to blowing your mind.

Anyway, the level is good, but it lacks player direction. You need to work on your camera zone skills. For example, the part where me and Trap had the most trouble...the garden scene. How were we supposed to know that we should jump down when the camera doesn't show that the player could? Another example would be the static camera zones that I have seen in your levels before. It just doesn't play right to me. I am driving or running and I have to run all the way to the edge of the screen before the screen follows me (and very jerky-like I might add) so I know where I am going. I would either make the zone smaller or increase the player follows slider.

Another issue is speech bubbles. This isn't new, but the ending was a wall of text lol. Simmer down now. 5 speech bubbles at a time. I know the story will demand some text, but there has got to be a way to trim some off.

Thirdly, is there anyway to make the vehicle you travel on cooler looking? It's just so basic. Oh and maybe you could put Trap's Alternating Switch to control the direction of the car. Grab once goes forward, grab again and it goes back. Trap rammed it into a wall and we had to start over. It would help out to make it idiot proof lol.

It may seem like I am hating this level, but I don't. I don't play your levels because they are flawless, I play them because I know it is going to be something that is totally unique. You use shapes that most never use (stars on the walls and such), colors people rarely use (Purple, blue, pink tie die craziness) and do things that people rarely do (Make a strange timing puzzle or have people shooting in a car upside down). You have a knack for story and artistic design, but I think if you should work on your sense of cameras, objects (like the vehicle), and condensing your story into fewer speech bubbles.

I still gave you 5 stars and hearted as I didn't want to ruin your chance to get on the highest rated. You deserve recognition as it is still a lot better than most levels.

[Neverynnal]

I'm pretty pumped for this level OCK. Your material is top-notch stuff and as soon as I can commit some time to my PS3 I'll make sure to tackle this level and give you a nice review Screens look phenomenal by the way.

[OCK]

Anyway, the level is good, but it lacks player direction. You need to work on your camera zone skills. For example, the part where me and Trap had the most trouble...the garden scene. How were we supposed to know that we should jump down when the camera doesn't show that the player could? Another example would be the static camera zones that I have seen in your levels before. It just doesn't play right to me. I am driving or running and I have to run all the way to the edge of the screen before the screen follows me (and very jerky-like I might add) so I know where I am going. I would either make the zone smaller or increase the player follows slider.

OK, I will work on the cam zones and apologize that they caused frustration.

the garden scene. How were we supposed to know that we should jump down when the camera doesn't show that the player could?

You are NOT supposed to jump down lol. A glowing orb comes down from the heavens and the player dies, respawning then in the "Hall of Light" below. It is timed to come down right after the player finishes reading the speech bubbles but maybe I will speed it up.

Another issue is speech bubbles. This isn't new, but the ending was a wall of text lol. Simmer down now. 5 speech bubbles at a time. I know the story will demand some text, but there has got to be a way to trim some off.

Honestly man, this is who I am. I like to tell a tale and there was so much more I could have wrote but I knew I already had a lot. I understand not everyone appreciate a good story but at least I am true to myself. Maybe for my next level I will have no speech bubbles...

Thirdly, is there anyway to make the vehicle you travel on cooler looking? It's just so basic. Oh and maybe you could put Trap's Alternating Switch to control the direction of the car. Grab once goes forward, grab again and it goes back. Trap rammed it into a wall and we had to start over. It would help out to make it idiot proof lol.

The room in the vehicle is limited but I will check out how the switch works. Regarding the decoration on the vehicle, on one hand I wanted to keep it basic and keep the players eye focused on all the lighting vs staring at the car. On the other hand I suppose I could do a bit more with it lol. When you say Trap rammed into a wall and had to restart do you mean restart the level? I added that speech bubble directing the player "to kill themselves" if they get stuck. That way they can respawn a new vehicle and continue on their way. There is absolutely no need to restart the level, that is why I made a spawnable vehicle and added the speech bubble.

It may seem like I am hating this level, but I don't. I don't play your levels because they are flawless, I play them because I know it is going to be something that is totally unique. You use shapes that most never use (stars on the walls and such), colors people rarely use (Purple, blue, pink tie die craziness) and do things that people rarely do (Make a strange timing puzzle or have people shooting in a car upside down). You have a knack for story and artistic design, but I think if you should work on your sense of cameras, objects (like the vehicle), and condensing your story into fewer speech bubbles.

Well thanks for all this. Regarding a level being flawless, no level is. I just do what I do and hope people enjoy and appreciate it. I think I have a very distinct style and I guess not everyone is a big fan. No matter how much heart and soul I put into a level I know there will be those tha don't like it but what cna I do about that?

I still gave you 5 stars and hearted as I didn't want to ruin your chance to get on the highest rated. You deserve recognition as it is still a lot better than most levels.

Thanks but I hope you gave it 5 stars and a heart because you felt like the level genuinely deserved it lol.

I'm pretty pumped for this level OCK. Your material is top-notch stuff and as soon as I can commit some time to my PS3 I'll make sure to tackle this level and give you a nice review Screens look phenomenal by the way.

Thanks man, I look forward to your thoughts

[CCubbage]

WHY do you have to do this to me???? I was tired, about to go to bed... now I need to play this level..... but Ok, here we go!

[Trap_T]

Trap rammed it into a wall and we had to start over. It would help out to make it idiot proof lol.

LOL _tear.

So ya, I played with Voltiare, and the level was nice, but after reading 50+ speech bubbles and the random light flickering and super bright white zones.. my eyes (and my back strangely) started to hurt.

Direction also, half the time I wasn't sure what to do or where to go... the part where you're in the box-vehicle shooting at the button that makes the semi-circle shoot out the blue light thing... we did it twice (my fault ). The first time we shot at the button for a good 2-3 minutes and nothing seemed to be happening.. that's when I ran the vehicle into the wall ( ) and we had to restart. The second time Voltiare was hitting the button and it opened.. but I wasn't really paying attention so I wasn't sure what happened.

Then the garden area thing with the plants of life. I'm not sure if it was supposed to happen but the car fell apart.. all the wheels and the gun thing at the front.. so after trying to jump onto the plants we got stuck infront of the vehicle and were just jumping around till we some-how figured out to jump down.

All in all, it was nice. Just work on your spastic lighting and maybe add some more directional signs.

EDIT

You are NOT supposed to jump down lol. A glowing orb comes down from the heavens and the player dies, respawning then in the "Hall of Light" below. It is timed to come down right after the player finishes reading the speech bubbles but maybe I will speed it up.

That orb was supposed to kill us? It kinda just fell and was bouncing off to the side.. lol.

When you say Trap rammed into a wall and had to restart do you mean restart the level?

we just suicide'd and got into another vehicle.

[NinjaMicWZ]

I'm taking my time with this review, but oddly enough, I want to rebut the camera angle issue. Early on in my creations I really strove for the cinematic allusion that a great camera angle can give, and I more-or-less failed with it to where I mostly work only with the most advantageous camera angle rather than the most cinematic or dramatic. I think you have a balance of both and your long, and drastically skewed camera angles (ex: the bridge battle), and the transition (ex: from the first drone, to the elevator) are very clean and add so much to what is typically a brief experience. I think that was something that helped Legion feel so epic and grand in it's confines, and is even more-so present here.

I could see the camera follow really screwing up for a multiplayer run through... I had to log off and quit when 4 people joined and they burned through all our lives in like 5 seconds. I didn't kick them because I wanted them to keep playing. So really, you could think about sacrificing effect for appeal to a wider spectrum of players (the gang), or opt for the more appreciative solo player and have a smaller reception because of it.

I'll be back with more soon.

EDIT: The 2nd checkpoint at the bridge has forced me to restart twice. It respawns me directly into a missle from the 3rd wall's fire everytime. If you die there, you die for good.

3rd restart... I can't finish this yet.

[OCK]

WHY do you have to do this to me???? I was tired, about to go to bed... now I need to play this level..... but Ok, here we go!

lol, sorry

Direction also, half the time I wasn't sure what to do or where to go...

You know it's funny but when I added direction to my boss battle in the Legion some people said it was unnecessary. This level already has a ton of speech so in certain areas where (to me) it is obvious what the player should do I did not want to add even more speech bubbles. Having said all that based on the initial feedback perhaps I will hold the players hand a bit more.

Then the garden area thing with the plants of life. I'm not sure if it was supposed to happen but the car fell apart.. all the wheels and the gun thing at the front.. so after trying to jump onto the plants we got stuck infront of the vehicle and were just jumping around till we some-how figured out to jump down.

Certain parts of the vehicle are supposed to dissolve (wheel support, cannon etc) but the main structure remains. What amazes me is that you you were actually able to get out of the vehicle lol. I designed a grid that does not allow the player to exit so please let me know how you did it. I think I will make the speech here all cutscene so the player cannot move. When the orb comes down it triggers emmiters with poison gas in the vehicle that kill the player but if you manageg to exit then naturally you would not have been killed lol. I will do some tweaking here.

but after reading 50+ speech bubbles and the random light flickering and super bright white zones.. my eyes (and my back strangely) started to hurt.

Sorry for this but the lighting is intentional. I guess those that are a bit sensitive to it might not enjoy it too much lol.

Thanks for checking out the level.

[Voltiare]

OK, I will work on the cam zones and apologize that they caused frustration.

You are NOT supposed to jump down lol. A glowing orb comes down from the heavens and the player dies, respawning then in the "Hall of Light" below. It is timed to come down right after the player finishes reading the speech bubbles but maybe I will speed it up.

Oh. Well, that didn't happen. We managed to survive and escape the car. We then were like "What now?". Since the camera is pointed up, we tried climbing the plants lol. Then I just jumped down and fell down to heaven.

This was the biggest flaw in the whole level. If we really just got unlucky (I'll play it again and make sure), then it goes way up and you can almost forget about the camera zone problems. Just try to use less static cams I think.

Honestly man, this is who I am. I like to tell a tale and there was so much more I could have wrote but I knew I already had a lot. I understand not everyone appreciate a good story but at least I am true to myself. Maybe for my next level I will have no speech bubbles...

Aw, don't get like that. You know I love you lol. I know it is hard to do with LBP since you can't create any cutscene or whatever to tell the story without words so if you love creating a story and you need a lot of speech bubbles to do it, then do it. It didn't stop me from finishing it, it was just a minor suggestion.

The room in the vehicle is limited but I will check out how the switch works. Regarding the decoration on the vehicle, on one hand I wanted to keep it basic and keep the players eye focused on all the lighting vs staring at the car. On the other hand I suppose I could do a bit more with it lol. When you say Trap rammed into a wall and had to restart do you mean restart the level? I added that speech bubble directing the player "to kill themselves" if they get stuck. That way they can respawn a new vehicle and continue on their way. There is absolutely no need to restart the level, that is why I made a spawnable vehicle and added the speech bubble.

The switch is actually off screen so room won't be an issue.

I would do a bit more. It should look awesome for how much that guy hyped it up lol. My philosophy is that you can't have too much awesome.

Trap ran it into the wall blocking our way, and we couldn't shoot what we needed to shoot anymore so we killed ourselves and went back to the start. I was like "Nice one". With the alternating switch, you grab the button and it goes forward. If you go forward to much, you can grab again to go backwards. If you need to go forward again, grab it again.

Well thanks for all this. Regarding a level being flawless, no level is. I just do what I do and hope people enjoy and appreciate it. I think I have a very distinct style and I guess not everyone is a big fan. No matter how much heart and soul I put into a level I know there will be those tha don't like it but what cna I do about that?

True that.

Thanks but I hope you gave it 5 stars and a heart because you felt like the level genuinely deserved it lol.

On the run I had where we didn't die and we had to jump down, I would have given it 4 stars because we had no idea that we were supposed to die lol. It was a potential game stopper and it should be fixed. Make it impossible for the player to not die.

Direction also, half the time I wasn't sure what to do or where to go... the part where you're in the box-vehicle shooting at the button that makes the semi-circle shoot out the blue light thing... we did it twice (my fault ). The first time we shot at the button for a good 2-3 minutes and nothing seemed to be happening.. that's when I ran the vehicle into the wall ( ) and we had to restart. The second time Voltiare was hitting the button and it opened.. but I wasn't really paying attention so I wasn't sure what happened.

I think this was actually your fault and not OCK. You were firing at the button so fast that you probably activated the emitter before the emitted object could hit the key so that it would dissappear and the emitter would do another one. When I shot it, I did controlled bursts that only activated the emitter once.

[Trap_T]

What amazes me is that you you were actually able to get out of the vehicle lol. I designed a grid that does not allow the player to exit so please let me know how you did it.

Well, originally I escaped by jumping onto the leaves of the plants, and I'm not sure if Voltiare escaped the same way, but after a bit the door in the back was opening and closing.

On a side note the orb that was supposed to kill us didn't even land on the vehicle, it landed off to the left inside the wall.

I think this was actually your fault and not OCK. You were firing at the button so fast that you probably activated the emitter before the emitted object could hit the key so that it would dissappear and the emitter would do another one. When I shot it, I did controlled bursts that only activated the emitter once.

Ya, maybe.. but even with me just holding on firing at the button continuously, the blue light ball made it past the blue part of the wall, which I though was what we had to hit. But I could see it being my fault.. I'm a failure!

[Yarbone]

Hey you finally managed to complete it! coool!
I'm gonna play it right away!!!!

[Voltiare]

Well, originally I escaped by jumping onto the leaves of the plants, and I'm not sure if Voltiare escaped the same way, but after a bit the door in the back was opening and closing.

On a side note the orb that was supposed to kill us didn't even land on the vehicle, it landed off to the left inside the wall.

Ya, maybe.. but even with me just holding on firing at the button continuously, the blue light ball made it past the blue part of the wall, which I though was what we had to hit. But I could see it being my fault.. I'm a failure!

I think we were able to rock the car around with our weight. Maybe that was part of it. And I guess whatever switch controlled the motor of the door broke off so it was opening and closing.

And yes, you are.

[Ozwald_the_cat]

Hey OCK,

I guess I'll have to write a review in pieces, I tried your level but got stuck. I was at the Destiny with the rotating moon/arch, first time I drove it into the wall and could not go back or aim at anything productive so I retriedand drove all the way back up there. Second time I shot the cover off the button and kept shooting the button...stuff would fly out of the spinning arch and once and a while go near the moon but not do any thing. I changed my position/angle a couple times and nothing seemed to happen after minuted of firing at the button then I heard the sound of an object breaking and the arch would no longer fire.

I'll try the level again tomorrow and see if I get farther.

[Trap_T]

I drove it into the wall

HA.

I feel better now.

[Thee-Flash]

If you made it then it's great haha, cool man i'd love to give this a good play mate,


80 hours + then i have no doubts this will be short of amazing