(Link to AcmlmWiki) Offline: thank ||bass
Register | Login
Views: 13,040,846
Main | Memberlist | Active users | Calendar | Chat | Online users
Ranks | FAQ | ACS | Stats | Color Chart | Search | Photo album
03-28-24 11:00 PM
0 users currently in ROM Hacking.
Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - ROM Hacking - Platformer theory! New poll | |
Add to favorites | Next newer thread | Next older thread
User Post
Gideon Zhi

Keese








Since: 12-05-05
From: ...behind you! Boo!

Last post: 6250 days
Last view: 6248 days
Posted on 01-26-07 08:45 AM Link | Quote

Okay so I'm on-and-off hacking a platformer game (blaster master.) A lot of the fun here is exploring, and while conceptually I've got the level design in my hack down really awesome, I'm having trouble building rooms that aren't really really bland. So I thought I'd start this thread here, especially since there was that whole discussion surrounding the Zelda Parallel Worlds hack.

What makes a good platformer? Not necessarily in terms of difficulty - I've got a good idea of where I want my difficulty to lie, and I know all about fair jumps and enemy placement and all that. What I'm more interested in is the actual level design. What makes a platformer more interesting than another? How does one keep from making lots of Really Boring Straightaways? Discuss! Someone throw me a bone here.

(Yes, I know, big translation man actually doing something not translation related? Gasp shock horror :p)
Shadic

The Adventure of Link
Perfect Member








Since: 11-18-05
From: Olympia, Washington

Last post: 6254 days
Last view: 6250 days
Skype
Posted on 01-26-07 09:20 AM Link | Quote
An important aspect in game isn't just how the levels play out, but the environment as well. Rocky areas should contain more vertical aspects than a grasslands, and imagining something THEN designing it helps greatly. What do you want the player to feel when they're playing? Are they areas wide and open, with a bright sky? Or perhaps a dark, cramped cave with creepy music. (played in minor!)

Besides those things, I admit to making levels on sort of a "Do it as I go" basis. Imagine playing through the game, know the character's abilities, and how easily things will be to reach. Don't make a level with the intention of giving the player a difficult time of getting from point A to B, make an actual landscape that just so happens to be able to be traveled by the protagonist.

I sound strangely deep when saying that, but it is just something I've come across when thinking about how the bigger games are designed. It seems to be what separates the expert designers from the commonplace ones.

Also, it is a pain trying to make such things when stuck in the limitations of someone else's game engine. That would be why I'm doing my own tile based game right now, heh.
Simon Belmont
Except I'm totally fucking hyped about Dracula X: Chronicles.








Since: 11-18-05
From: Pittsburgh

Last post: 6248 days
Last view: 6248 days
Posted on 01-26-07 09:23 AM Link | Quote
While I don't know if it makes "good" level design, I'd say take a straightaway and throw "loops" into it; blockades, pits, jumps, floating blocks. Kind of as if it were a painting and you speckled some paint onto it, and those areas the paint hit you'd touch up. Try to make the areas feel natural, a forest wouldn't be flat, but a castle would, apart from stairwells and such.

Keep in mind that every block doesn't have to be where it is for a reason: a block in the middle of nowhere leading up to nothing would be fine, it would encourage the player to explore even if there's nothing up there.
srothroc

Red Paragoomba


 





Since: 04-27-06
From: Chambersburg, Pa

Last post: 6266 days
Last view: 6253 days
Posted on 01-26-07 09:31 AM Link | Quote
Challenges and puzzles. If there are any little-used abilities, try to make levels that exploit those abilities -- themed levels, so to speak. Make people think and figure out how to do things, rather than making it runnable. If you're making a horizontal level, make sections that must be traversed vertically, and vice versa.

Secret things for people who think a little harder are nice, too.
Zepper

Paragoomba








Since: 09-04-06
From: Brazil

Last post: 6249 days
Last view: 6248 days
Posted on 01-26-07 02:42 PM Link | Quote
I *hate* certain puzzles present in a few NES hacks mainly, from Metroid to Megaman hacks. Don't puzzle the things, but create something enjoyable. You know... you're playing nicely the level when you enter in a room and wastes a lot of time to figure out a stupid and picky puzzle with traps.
Gideon Zhi

Keese








Since: 12-05-05
From: ...behind you! Boo!

Last post: 6250 days
Last view: 6248 days
Posted on 01-26-07 07:11 PM Link | Quote
I wasn't really planning on putting in a whole lot of "puzzle" elements. Blaster Master is an action game with a dash of exploration at heart, and should remain such. The closest thing you might get to a "puzzle" is a powerup behind a destructible block underwater, that you know you need the Dive function to reach.
DahrkDaiz

Nipper Plant
U wan hax Mario?!








Since: 11-17-05

Last post: 6249 days
Last view: 6248 days
Posted on 01-27-07 03:57 AM Link | Quote
Keep it INTERESTING. Use the same basic layouts if you must but introduce new elements in the next level, then reintroduce old elements combined with new ones. This is a great way to inspire ASM hacks. Create an ASM hack that introduces a new element to a level and have it appear in one level, then again in another level mixed with other elements. This is what I did with Mario Adventure 2.
Drag

80








Since: 01-18-07
From: USA

Last post: 6248 days
Last view: 6248 days
Posted on 01-27-07 08:12 PM Link | Quote
Could you give an example of what an element would be? Do you mean new hazards like "omg I can fall down pits now wtf", or new items, or new enemies, or what?
Xkeeper
Took the board down in a blaze of glory, only to reveal how truly moronical ||bass is.


 





Since: 11-17-05
From: Henderson, Nevada

Last post: 6248 days
Last view: 6248 days
Skype
Posted on 01-29-07 10:25 PM Link | Quote
I'd venture to guess a little of everything.

SMB3 didn't introduce firesnakes in World-1 or Flying Goombas in Level 1-1...
Jigglysaint

Octoballoon








Since: 11-19-05

Last post: 6267 days
Last view: 6253 days
Posted on 01-29-07 11:17 PM Link | Quote
Expand the Rom of you hadn't allready. What I did as a small example of a level specific hazard, was make level 2 act like water untill you got the Hyper upgrade. It was cheap, but it did prevent the player from going forward even though they could go to the next level before finding the boss.

For me I like the kind of game where you see places you can't go that require powerups, then you go back and get them. In my game after you beat level 7, you have to do a horrendous amount of backtracking to find every last item to proceed.
Add to favorites | Next newer thread | Next older thread
Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - ROM Hacking - Platformer theory! |


ABII

Acmlmboard 1.92.999, 9/17/2006
©2000-2006 Acmlm, Emuz, Blades, Xkeeper

Page rendered in 0.018 seconds; used 391.76 kB (max 482.30 kB)