Sméagol

Since this doesn't pertain to games 9or at least not yet), I feel this is more at home in the general section. Looks like 12 sets and a mini figure series planned.

Have some classic Techno.

I need to see how creative they get with the sets, the fun for me with Lego is building, not displaying (don't really have the space for it anyway, so I'll keep future bigger sets to a minimum). @Vileplume2000 mentioned a recreation of 1-1, which I also immediately thought of. Which at first glance, as Mario and Lego nerds, sounds cool, but if you think about it, that's just fucking boring to build (plus something you can almost do with basic Lego, no need for a set). The problem is Mario has barely any iconic buildings, they're all platform levels, and especially in the 2D games, they're visually not that super interesting, or at least not interesting to serve as a basis for a Lego set. I think most ideas for sets will come from the 3D games. I think the flagship set for this series will be Peach's castle, which I'd love to build, but probably don't want to display haha. I can also see them doing some retro throwback to 1-1, but definitely not a flat one-one-one recreation, just a small "3D" set inspired by those looks, with unique Goomba figures and obviously question mark stickers. I could maybe see a generic mushroom village, and a Bowser's castle. The last one they'd have to design themselves, where surprisingly it's probably the Mario Kart games where you can get the best look at a full Bowser castle, and would also be easy to do as they have plenty of existing castle blocks to use. Just a grey castle with lava bits thrown in, an Thwomps as exclusive figures, apart from ario and Bowser and Peach of course. That said, if the tweet is a real indication, I'm not going to like the look of a Mario minifigure. Luckily I can stick ot my Nendoroids.

It is. More bad stuff: I've spent all afternoon and evening reading that Reddit thread.

Haha, I have no idea why that final jump is such a problem.. It's really not a tight jump, and you've done more difficult jumps by then. Performance anxiety I tell you!

I edited my previous post before you posted, but technically you have until the start of the next challenge as we need a theme by then. Would be cool if you voted way before then! The seesaw was one of he first sections I came up with. I thought there was more margin for error, but watching my brother play and then replay it myself, I found it's a bit more specific. Still.. But yeah, I don't think you're going to enjoy the rest.

@RedShell replied to me in a tweet, so I'm quite certain it's the opposite! (and I replied back I didn't check your spoiler) @Vileplume2000 It's the last part where the drybones shell is required yes. You didn't lose it the the lone and optional Spike in that room, right? Technically you have all month. Have fun!

Oh, trust me.. You haven't seen real evil yet.

Haha. You're almost there! That one last jump wasn't meant to be a huge obstacle, I suspect performance anxiety must have been doing you and @Glen-i in! Now I'm really curious how you two would have reacted to the troll that was originally there.. Edit: Boss tip: visually it looks frantic, but what you have to do and focus on is very simple. For those who haven't defeated it yet and want to see what's going on: stand still when you enter the room, you'll automatically land on the only (temporary) safespot.

Ah right, I didn't try that no. Probably experience of my own level getting in the way in that case! I updated the challenge post with all the levels, I'll update votes later since I think I've only seen one actual vote? I'd have to check, but please do them on a single line and in bold!

Next one will be first Saturday of April, so you have a month to practice in the editor! You can play the 6 levels from this month right now. Since videos are more fun: I also had videos of @londragon's level, but I messed up the timing of capturing, so they're not really interesting, and, by now, obsolete thanks to @Dcubed

@Dcubed quickly before I go replay all the levels for more comments; Regarding super hint, I must be missing something obvious. Also, I didn't complain about this before, but yeah, that vertical section! You really could have tweaked that to force only 2 active Spike's at most. What you say isn't true.. They will activate switches if they're barely above or below screen. Which, depending on how high you jump or how low you fall, results in various numbers of active Spikes. Combined with the fact that Switching also depends on how fast they throw their balls, makes this very unpredictable. 2 simultaneous thows result in one switch activation. You also can't rely on sounds for that reason, and for the fact that some sounds get cancelled when Spike's throw in really short succession. All this combined has various results: you can have 1 switch, 2 switches in short succession, 3 switches in short succession, or even no netto change at all, with often not knowing which one will happen. To top it off the pipe entrance has a very tight timing. I wouldn't have a problem with that last one if the rest were predictable, but it isn't. I suspect most of the endless runners give up here and don't even make it to the puzzles. I didn't complain about it before because.. I miraculously did it first try the first time. After that.. It took numerous tries. I sometimes fall in the pit deliberately, just to reset the timings. @RedShell that second tweet haha. That was a welcome side effect. The pipe actually has a very specific purpose, and it was one of the things I was breaking my head over on Monday, and I was considering removing it yesterday. But seeing it in full effect made my day haha.

@Dcubed Gave your level another go, got the key on my own. But still couldn't figure out the rest. I'll give it another go with the hints. Tried to get some in-game hints by abusing that first p-switch, which let me see the top of the left pipe room, and while that did something, I still couldn't figure it out. As for my level.. I don't have a hatred for CP's, if you haven't reached the first one yet.. What comes after is more deadly. They're are both placed where they are for a reason. If you're getting hit by that one spike cannon (there is only one), you're spending way too much time at that part. It's there for a very specific (puzzle) reason, which you can see in Glen-i's tweet, and is optional, so just avoid it. When I placed it, I considered letting it shoot coins, but decided "it fit the theme" to have it shoot Spikes. It's funny that my brother who playtested it, and doesn't have any major recent Mario platforming experience, and no Mario Maker experience at all, apart from playtesting my levels, had no problem with the spike cannon at all, despite having major problems with basic stuff like the claws and drybones snell mechanics, stuff all new to him. I didn't place any mushrooms except for at the end as a set-up for some trolls and puzzles (after the 2nd CP), and the requirement that for the true ending you can't get hit at all (until the end). Plus the fact that there are actually few Spikes directly in your way to hurt you. You have more risk of falling to your death, the Spikes are mostly used for puzzles or indirect obstacles. Edit: Also, damn you for that WR!! (no it wasn't 100% optimized) Tried your level again for a third time.. Even with the hints I don't get it.

It wasn't the most satisfying finish! Though it's probably the fastest one! Edit: Also, I'm going to give you guys one more day to "enjoy" Spikes on a Slope before I delete it!

First, let me say I love we have some more participants this month, and I love the variety. Fun to see 6 levels with all a different take on the same theme, with funnily enough not even that many similar ideas. I'll do some short comments now, and I'll elaborate later, after I've went to bed and woken up again haha. This time though, i remembered to capture videos, so I'll post those then as well. Oh and I'll update the challenge post at the same time. @Glen-i, the title wasn't planned (went through several iterations, just like the level), but I intentionally kept it! Edit: Also, that was the best troll I didn't plan!

I gave up trying to go for a near-perfect speedrun, but the time should be reasonable (for those who want to speedrun a level with a cleartime of 2:45). I underestimated myself how hard the hard route was in this level.. Must have spent hours trying to beat it with the true ending, before doing the actual clear check. Then trying to speedrun the clear check took some time, before I settled for something less time consuming. Unlike most of my levels, this is more puzzle orientated, though still plenty of platforming to be done. There are a few trolls, though the biggest one (I think, or at least the one with the biggest downside) I removed. You can partly thank my brother for that, he endured the torture of playtesting the level, which gave some helpful insights. Red coins are optional, and are needed for the "true ending". Like I said, I underestimated this myself, and it's ridiculously hard. But it's optional, the only reward is that you can remove the blocks after the goal, and walk out the level like a champ. I also included an #NE easteregg.. That one isn't as hard to do as the true ending. Anyway, since the level contains puzzles, the trailer is not a speedrun of the first section, rather it's proof the true ending is actually possible.

Rick Astley.

Who said anything about fake?

Maybe you can try to convert people to Flat Earth theory.

Oh and a tip, if you're done, you can do a clear check without actually uploading the level. If you have the time anyway, it's a good opportunity to set a good cleartime if you're into that, and to see if there are any small things you need or want to edit.

I think my level is almost ready to troll, but I'm still mulling over a few things. I have a hard decision to make, one I've been mulling over for the last few days haha. I'll get it sorted and most likely upload it tonight.

This is an interesting video series. I think I've posted other videos before (they have cool ones one Command & Conquer, Thief, Blade Runner and DeadSpace amongs others. But I wasn't aware they had added new episodes to it, like this one which by now is almost a year old, still very interesting. They also have a special message for you @drahkon, @ around 2:09. I think I'll do a quick run before going back to Mario Maker. I wonder when the update will be released on Switch though. Oh wow, and I found this lone before I hit that submit button.. A video in another interesting series (I just watched a dev commentary on a speedrun of Tomb Raider, and some time ago I watched one of Outer Worlds). The guy looks like a young Newman.

It's from a Brazilian studio yeah. Not being very knowledgable about Brazilian culture, a lot of things flew past my head, but there are direct references to Brazilian things. Dandara herself is inspired by an important warrior from Brazilian's history. One of the first npc's you meet is named after a Brazilian artist, and she looks like a character of one of her paintings. Something I only learned yesterday.

The update is out now. The game's also on sale, though I can't check the price. On Steam the discount is 60%. And once again you can win codes on their Discord. I'll probably do a new full playthrough next week.

Looks pretty good, although I don't want to see what's going on behind those shelves.