[Environmental] Falling Water

Falling water is great though i gotta admit that im stuck in the caves where you get wallclimb, how du I get out?

ahh figured it out..

Ok so i'm finished now.. pretty cool

Hey cheescakeFTW, I'm just gonna mention here that, even though Hmpf doesn't seem to mind, it's generally considered pretty untactful to post screenshots of your own levels in another person's thread, and putting more than one is generally taken as rude. Most people would view it as an attempt to divert the discussion to your own level. That's clearly not what you were aiming at, so it's fine in this circumstance, but I'm just letting you know now so that you don't run into misunderstandings later on.

REALLY QUICK EDIT: Hurp de derp, it appears that Hmpf already mentioned this stuff. Sorry for being redundant.

After taking a break from Falling Water to build Remembering the City (what is it about me and titles involving the present progressive tense... or whatever that is? There's Jumping in the Rain, too...) I'm back on track with FW. Sadly, it turns out I miscounted when I proclaimed I had passed 300 screens, so I've in fact only passed the 300 mark *now*.

Currently building some pretty neat stuff, btw... but I'm trying to be good and *not* post screenshots of everything. *g*

ETA: Oh, and also: both sides of the world seem to be growing at about the same pace, and I also really like the idea of handing you guys a *huge* world to explore, so I've decided against splitting this part in two.

Maaan... I wish I could give myself selective amnesia when I'm done with this, so I could explore it as if I'd never seen it before. Because in so many ways, this really is the level of my dreams. In a very literal way, too: I tend to have dreams in which I'm exploring huge, convoluted, crazy structures and/or landscapes (sometimes the difference is hard to tell, in my dreams) that are often staggeringly beautiful and awe-inspiring. So I'm kind of trying to recreate the feelings those dreams evoke in me, to some extent. I think I'm succeeding... but I'll never be able to experience the level as if I hadn't built it. :-(

Maybe if I just don't touch it at all for a couple of years after finishing it, and then play it in 2013 or so... *g*

Some 320 screens now, I think. Areas that were unconnected before are beginning to link up, sometimes in ways I hadn't exactly planned...

Also, I'm having trouble with the actual logic of designing this level. Mostly it's just a free roaming level, but there are a few keys and two powerups still to hide, and thus a few areas that will have to be accessed in some kind of logical order... only I can't really figure out which areas those should be, etc.

It's doing my head in...

Sorry, btw, for the kinda uninformative rambling. I tend to use this thread like a blog, I guess. ;-)

Also, I'm having trouble with the actual logic of designing this level. Mostly it's just a free roaming level, but there are a few keys and two powerups still to hide, and thus a few areas that will have to be accessed in some kind of logical order... only I can't really figure out which areas those should be, etc.

Ooh.  This is bad.

See, generally one plans for this shortly after, or even before, one has started making the level itself - not after making hundreds of screens.
I'm afraid that there's no easy way out of this, but keep in mind that it usually makes sense to place more than one of a powerup in a level, thus encouraging the free-roaming playstyle.  (I don't recommend this with the detector, eyeball, hologram, or keys, though.)

Quote from: Hmpf on March 04, 2010, 22:11:40

Also, I'm having trouble with the actual logic of designing this level. Mostly it's just a free roaming level, but there are a few keys and two powerups still to hide, and thus a few areas that will have to be accessed in some kind of logical order... only I can't really figure out which areas those should be, etc.

Ooh.  This is bad.

Yeah, I know. *g* It's because this is essentially an environmental, and I only decided to put in the keys and the eyeball powerup later. (For that matter, I don't *have* to put them in, really. It's not like the idea of the level requires them; I just figured it would be cool to have some stuff to 'find' that wouldn't be accessible by just stumbling into it.)

ETA: Also, just because it's 320 screens already doesn't mean that its internal layout is very defined yet. I built the (outer) outline of my world first, and now I'm beginning to fill it in. So, I'm only just beginning on the phase of actually constructing the parts that require the kind of logic we're talking about here.

I had an English teacher once who said the only right way to write a termpaper was to start with an outline, and then follow that outline to produce a rough draft, and then rewrite the rough draft into a proper essay.

Notwithstanding the fact that many people do find that method, or some variation of it, helpful... the teacher was very, very wrong.

I had an English teacher once who said the only right way to write a termpaper was to start with an outline, and then follow that outline to produce a rough draft, and then rewrite the rough draft into a proper essay.

Notwithstanding the fact that many people do find that method, or some variation of it, helpful... the teacher was very, very wrong.

Well... I *did* start with something like an outline. Though probably not in the sense that s/he intended... *g*

The closest thing I had to an outline when I started both of my levels was a vague idea of what I wanted. In my opinion, outlines are best for things that require careful positioning (such as challenge levels), whereas they aren't as necessary for things like environmental levels where it won't make that much of a difference if that block is moved over a bit or if there's an extra screen somewhere.

The closest thing I had to an outline when I started both of my levels was a vague idea of what I wanted. In my opinion, outlines are best for things that require careful positioning (such as challenge levels), whereas they aren't as necessary for things like environmental levels where it won't make that much of a difference if that block is moved over a bit or if there's an extra screen somewhere.

Yeah, I do think the 'flow of consciousness' approach to level making can work quite well for environmentals.

In my level i just wanted to learn the editor and it became a level.. kind of.. I got all of my ideas while playing.

In my level i just wanted to learn the editor and it became a level.. kind of..

Yeah, that's what happened with my first level, Jumping in the Rain, too. :-)