Super Mario Bros. X Forums

zlakergirl357 wrote:Here are tips for what to do and not to do when you're making a project. You can also post your own tips. Please make this sticky and don't lock it mods.

1. Don't have long levels unless there is between 30-50 levels in the game. If they're short make up to 80+ levels

I agree! And for me, preferably the phases must be shorter.
And coincidentally, my episode follows this tip to the letter!

zlakergirl357 wrote: 5. Get inspired by others levels. Even the greatest level designers can get inspired by others.

If inspire other level designs, I find that is a very big mistake! The "newbie" will lose all your identity, and if you follow this tip, the episode ends that becoming "cliche".

If you make any kind of post-game/bonus worlds, go all-out on their levels! Be creative and put in stuff that wouldn't fit in your episode otherwise. That way the post-game will feel really fresh.

Nickname wrote:If you make any kind of post-game/bonus worlds, go all-out on their levels! Be creative and put in stuff that wouldn't fit in your episode otherwise. That way the post-game will feel really fresh.

This comment should fit with an entire game. The whole game should feel fresh, new...or at least bring new elements to the table at all times. I feel bonus worlds should be the combination of everything you've dealt with.

Alright, this is a thing I commonly see in episodes and which needs adressing:

Planning out your worlds and levels per world counteracts your project's overall quality if you run low on ideas while designing.
I've seen - and experienced myself - situations when I thought: "Alright just two more levels and I can finally I can work on World 4 levels. I'll just make... uh... anything, I guess."
Bad idea. Really bad idea. If the quality of your project decreases the further you get because all ideas were blown onto the first levels, people aren't going to like it.

Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't plan your project's overall length, but I am saying you shouldn't make it too long, unless you have a .txt file on your pc with notes on how each level will be designed and what will set it apart from the others. If you have any ideas how to get past such a stage or fix these "inspiration lows" which lead to people designing "filler levels", let me know. I'm sure it'll help anyone working on a project. But here are some of my ideas:

Make a short episode. Really, even if it's just one large world without a theme encompassing all your ideas you've gathered over the past months. Even if you place Bowser in the desert world. Even if you don't have any grassland levels or lava levels at all. If your episode is 100% made of high-quality levels, people are going to play it. And the short length will be even more appealing because people won't have to sink hours into playing the game.

My other idea is purely hypothetical, but I believe it can work: Design backwards. Make your last world first and work your way back to the first one. Design 5 levels for World 6 and World 5, then, uh-oh, you don't know what to do for the 5th level of World 4? No problem!
Many Mario games have an increasing amount of levels per world the further you get into the game. Worlds 1-4 will just have 4 levels each. And for consistency you can strike two more levels away in worlds 1 and 2 to have a steady increase in levels per world. In this case, 3 - 3 - 4 - 4 - 5 - 5.
This makes your episode shorter, reduces the amount of filler levels, and makes the curve more interesting.

If you can and want to, design multi-themed worlds.
for example: beach+grassland, forest+mountain, cave+lava (I posted the most common ones)

Enjl wrote:Planning out your worlds and levels per world counteracts your project's overall quality if you run low on ideas while designing.
I've seen - and experienced myself - situations when I thought: "Alright just two more levels and I can finally I can work on World 4 levels. I'll just make... uh... anything, I guess."
Bad idea. Really bad idea. If the quality of your project decreases the further you get because all ideas were blown onto the first levels, people aren't going to like it.

I did my planning of layout on paper first. Wrote names down for this location, drew lines, more names, locations, lines, very basic. Then I went with a common idea, and that common idea is changed throughout each area/level, and different gimmicks in said levels directly relating to that idea.
I also work in different levels at different times. My suggestion is if you're making the beginning levels, and you don't have the encouragement/mood for creating those levels, start making what you want to make, the way you think it should be made, then place it where you believe that level/bonus should be located. Like jumping around your worlds with a big spring or cannon.

zlakerboy356 wrote:6. Try to come up with new features in the game.

Yeah, mah mind's totally filled with different ideas.
NOOOOOOOOT.

MECHDRAGON777 wrote: That may be true to have more levels would be better, do not put to many levels in! Not to many people want to play though 200 Plus Levels! and SMBX does have a 400 Level limit on the World map!

Also: If you reach any limit on the World Map, Your episode is to long! There is no shame in breaking it into two episodes or even three. I know I do not follow this, but still, you need to half the size of your episode of you either reach the:

• World Map Tile limit of 19,000 to22,000
• World map Level limit of 400
• World map Path limit [currently unknown what said limit is though, but there is a limit]

The Scenery limit is not that big of a deal, but if you reach that, you do need to cut back some!

And also the star limit which is 9999.
Entering the 5th digit will crash the game with a runtime error.
But it's not like that there will be a project with 9999 stars anyway.

lol nobody even would play one with 9999 stars.

Sinem wrote:lol nobody even would play one with 9999 stars.

The download alone- we'd be dead before the download finished.

You should only have about up to 3 or 4 long-term projects and then all your other ones should be short.

SuperMario12345 wrote:You should only have about up to 3 or 4 1 long-term projects project and then all your other ones should be short.

ftfy

SuperMario12345 wrote:You should only have about up to 3 or 4 long-term projects and then all your other ones should be short.

Sounds like you have no idea what you're talking about.

Enjl wrote:

SuperMario12345 wrote:You should only have about up to 3 or 4 long-term projects and then all your other ones should be short.

Sounds like you have no idea what you're talking about.

I do know what I'm talking about. When i say "long term project" I mean a episode that is 30-50 or 80 levels long.
And when i say short project i mean an episode 15 to 25 levels long.

SuperMario12345 wrote:

Enjl wrote:

SuperMario12345 wrote:You should only have about up to 3 or 4 long-term projects and then all your other ones should be short.

Sounds like you have no idea what you're talking about.

I do know what I'm talking about. When i say "long term project" I mean a episode that is 30-50 or 80 levels long.
And when i say short project i mean an episode 15 to 25 levels long.

You can't have 3 or 4 projects each 80 levels long at the same time. You'd go insane.
Also, why these weird arbitrary limits? What's wrong with 14 levels?

SuperMario12345 wrote:

Enjl wrote:

SuperMario12345 wrote:You should only have about up to 3 or 4 long-term projects and then all your other ones should be short.

Sounds like you have no idea what you're talking about.

I do know what I'm talking about. When i say "long term project" I mean a episode that is 30-50 or 80 levels long.
And when i say short project i mean an episode 15 to 25 levels long.

A quality "long-term episode" should be your main focus with MAYBE a small side project. A quality episode will take at least a year as well, so I agree with Enjl on this. I don't think you know what you're talking about.

if you want to change a sprite in all your levels the same way, just put your sprite (and it´s mask) into the world-folder instead of one level-folder.
now all levels of this world (episode) will load this sprite instead of the standard one.

I'm pretty sure we all knew this.

When working on a project, you don't have to make the levels in order you play them. However, you should not work on the final world
until you finished working on the other worlds.

TNTtimelord wrote:
A quality "long-term episode" should be your main focus with MAYBE a small side project. A quality episode will take at least a year as well, so I agree with Enjl on this. I don't think you know what you're talking about.

I wasn't going by the terms of the quality of the episode, I was going by the length of the episode it's self.

SuperMario12345 wrote: However, you should not work on the final world
until you finished working on the other worlds.

Woops i already did that. Meh idk why i shouldn't finish of the last one if i shouldn't do it in order