Super Mario Maker 2 challenge - June challenge has started!

[Dcubed]

Right! I’ve played them all now.  Thoughts...

 

@Vileplume2000 Really good level overall. I liked the concept, thought it was very clever how you built the level around SMB2 Mario’s ability to ride enemies.  It was well paced, interesting throughout and also hilarious how you could keep riding the bullet bill to your doom at the start 
 

I wouldn’t say it felt especially like a SMB2 level, but it made really good use of the SMB2 mushroom nonetheless.  The only real negative I have with the level is the fact that the first pipe is a bit awkward to get to if you are unlucky enough to hit the P-Switch from anything other than the front bullet bill; you end up giving yourself very little time.

Good stuff! Enjoyed this  

@Sméagol Your level does feel like a legit SMB2 level! Great job! You do a great job of picking out elements from various SMB2 stages; and I especially loved the trick you pulled with using the enemy throw to get across spikes.  Very clever! (As is the secret path at the start  ).  Your Birdo boss battle is also absolute genius, and I probably wouldn’t have thought of something that good myself.  Definitely one of your better stages.

I also really enjoyed this one!  

@RedShell You also really managed to really capture the look and feel of a SMB2 level here.  Great job as always! Lots of secrets, hidden areas and tricks here make for a really fun level.  Man oh man though do you have to WORK for Baby Face here!

Really enjoyed this one too!  

Finally, I do have to say... I LOVE how all of us ended up having a slot machine of sorts at the end of our levels! Great minds think alike obviously  

Overall, there’s no clear winner this time around, they’re all very close... but I think I’m gonna give my vote to @Sméagol this time.  The Birdo battle just manages to tip the scale for me 

[Dufniall]

I gave them all a whirl as well, and here is the verdict for @Dcubed, @Sméagol and @RedShell:

Spoiler

It's funny you went all out with the digging as that was something I didn't even put in my level. The idea is cool but like RedShell already said, it can be a bit frustrating at times. Chasing after a mushroom when you get hit through clouds was a bit annoying at times haha. Was there any purpose to the giant bombs by the way or just for the heck of it? All in all a fun one but not your best level.

Spoiler

Wait what's this, a pretty straightforward relatively easy level? I'll take it.  A lot of elements from SMB2 are in, including a lot of the level designs like the underground "jars". Very fun to play! That Birdo was very creative as well. Had to go back for the secret at the beginning because DCubed mentioned it.

Spoiler

The most varied level with some fun elements to it. Apparently there are a lot of secrets here as well, haven't searched for them! Cool to see you gave a whole different spin to Birdo! Not much more to add, very good overall.

As for my own level, a missed chance to not put in a slot machine! Funny thing with the ongoing bullets is that it wasn't like that in the first place. But I needed some extra room for the Koopaling so I extended the Bullet Bill part, forgetting to put in a wall to make it stop scrolling haha. I don't even know exactly how creating rooms works so I should check the tutorials I guess. There are more flaws in my level and I wasn't too happy with it myself, but hey it's something!

Thanks for your levels! I'm voting for @Sméagol as well. Very Super Mario Bros 2 and your version of Birdo was very creative.

[Dcubed]

4 hours ago, Vileplume2000 said:

I gave them all a whirl as well, and here is the verdict for @Dcubed, @Sméagol and @RedShell:

  DCubed (Hide contents)

It's funny you went all out with the digging as that was something I didn't even put in my level. The idea is cool but like RedShell already said, it can be a bit frustrating at times. Chasing after a mushroom when you get hit through clouds was a bit annoying at times haha. Was there any purpose to the giant bombs by the way or just for the heck of it? All in all a fun one but not your best level.

  Sméagol (Hide contents)

Wait what's this, a pretty straightforward relatively easy level? I'll take it.  A lot of elements from SMB2 are in, including a lot of the level designs like the underground "jars". Very fun to play! That Birdo was very creative as well. Had to go back for the secret at the beginning because DCubed mentioned it.

  RedShell (Hide contents)

The most varied level with some fun elements to it. Apparently there are a lot of secrets here as well, haven't searched for them! Cool to see you gave a whole different spin to Birdo! Not much more to add, very good overall.

As for my own level, a missed chance to not put in a slot machine! Funny thing with the ongoing bullets is that it wasn't like that in the first place. But I needed some extra room for the Koopaling so I extended the Bullet Bill part, forgetting to put in a wall to make it stop scrolling haha. I don't even know exactly how creating rooms works so I should check the tutorials I guess. There are more flaws in my level and I wasn't too happy with it myself, but hey it's something!

Thanks for your levels! I'm voting for @Sméagol as well. Very Super Mario Bros 2 and your version of Birdo was very creative.

I wanted to keep my course to strictly only having enemies that actually appear in SMB2.  So that means Koopa Troopas, Bobombs and Pokey’s only.  From there, I made use of the variants that were available and the idea behind the Evil Pokey Wall Of Doom came about pretty much by itself.  After that? the rest of the level just really ended up writing itself 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Dcubed

[Sméagol]

I know this is (very) short notice, and this'll be the last time I'm bringing it up again, but..

@Dcubed @RedShell @Vileplume2000

That UK streamer, Hanakane, is streaming in a few minutes again. I'm submitting my SMB2 level, could be cool to see everyone's challenge level in action.

 

[Sméagol]

Since I chose the theme last month, I'm fine with delegating it to someone else. If anyone else wants to come up with a theme, let me know. If not, that's fine too.

[Dcubed]

I wouldn’t mind having a go; but since I’ve been making courses (outside of the monthly contest) like a madman over the past month? I think I’d like to see some ideas from someone who hasn’t contributed a theme yet...

@Vileplume2000, @Glen-i, @Nicktendo, @londragon.  I want to see a theme from one of you guys!

[Sméagol]

3 hours ago, Dcubed said:

 I think I’d like to see some ideas from someone who hasn’t contributed a theme yet...

@Vileplume2000, @Glen-i, @Nicktendo, @londragon.  I want to see a theme from one of you guys!

I was thinking the same. However, if no one volunteers by, say tomorrow early afternoon, it's yours.

[Glen-i]

@Dcubed there, forgetting that I was the one who suggested the Spike theme.

[Dcubed]

Right, no takers? Fine, sod you then! I get my choice!

 

This month's theme is...

SWIMMING!1!1!1!1!

We've spent far too long walking and running on land, lets get Mario practicing his best breaststroke  

Your level must be focused on swimming.  However you choose to interpret that is up to you...

Edited June 6, 2020 by Dcubed

[Sméagol]

All right, let me do this before the end of the week.

June challenge: SWIMMING!1!1!1!1!
It's the start of Summer, time for the June Mario maker challenge!

The theme
The theme of this month is a level focussed on swimming! However:

On 06/06/2020 at 1:48 PM, Dcubed said:

However you choose to interpret that is up to you...

The deadline
The deadline will be on Sunday, June the 14th.

The entries
No entries yet!

The votes
No votes yet!

The next challenge will start on the very 1st of July!

[Sméagol]

On 06/06/2020 at 1:48 PM, Dcubed said:

This month's theme is...

SWIMMING!1!1!1!1!

 

So I was going to make a joke about how this is the perfect opportunity to recreate the much loved dam level from turtles 1..

 

[Dcubed]

Right! Here’s my masterpiece!

Spoiler

 

Try not to get too wet!
 

Edited June 14, 2020 by Dcubed

[RedShell]

Here’s mine:

[Sméagol]

All right! I ehh, started this a bit last-minute! 8 O'Clock to be precise haha. So it's missing a bit of polish. In fact I need to add a 1-UP room for endless, because this is not going be fun for endless players haha. But I can't be arsed to re-upload another version, clearchecking this level is horrible! 

I initially wanted to something more complicated and more trolly, but didn't have enough ideas. So I did something simpler.. Thought a MetroidVania lite would be fun.. And it's not. I like some of the ideas, but it's too long and slow for my liking. It does contain lots of swimming. A bit too much perhaps.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Sméagol

[RedShell]

Ok, played both levels...

@Dcubed, I’m almost lost for words with this one, just incredible!  Seriously, I had such a huge grin on my face playing through your level.  

Spoiler

You absolutely nailed the Balloon Fight gameplay/vibe! And the crazy mechanics you come up with to make it all work continue to blow my mind, how the hell are you setting a trigger on those enemies in order for the POW blocks to then appear in the opening section!? Super impressive.  I also love how you got literally everything in there, the bonus game and Balloon Trip! That final section was very tricky, but always fun no matter what, much like the real Balloon Trip.  And the fish saying “hello”, confused the hell out of me.  At first I thought the sound was coming from somewhere else!  Had no idea that was a thing.

Anyway, great work. That is my favourite level of yours so far, not to mention one of my favourite Mario Maker levels in general! 

@Sméagol, first of all you'll be pleased to know that I cleared your level! It took me a LONG time, but I did it.  

Spoiler

You definitely succeeded in capturing the feel of a Metroid style exploration game, and it was fun figuring out all the different sections and how to power-up in the correct order to proceed. I also like how you setup the checkpoints to save your progress with collecting coins, as I ran out of time on one occasion so it was good to not have to repeat those.  Think I got quite lucky with the timing on the last section (with the invincibility) but overall it wasn’t too difficult. 

So yeah, a well designed level with lots of cool ideas and power-up usage. Enjoyed it a lot.  

2 great levels, but this time my vote is going to Dcubed! 

[Dcubed]

50 minutes ago, RedShell said:

Ok, played both levels...

@Dcubed, I’m almost lost for words with this one, just incredible!  Seriously, I had such a huge grin on my face playing through your level.  

  Thoughts (Hide contents)

You absolutely nailed the Balloon Fight gameplay/vibe! And the crazy mechanics you come up with to make it all work continue to blow my mind, how the hell are you setting a trigger on those enemies in order for the POW blocks to then appear in the opening section!? Super impressive.  I also love how you got literally everything in there, the bonus game and Balloon Trip! That final section was very tricky, but always fun no matter what, much like the real Balloon Trip.  And the fish saying “hello”, confused the hell out of me.  At first I thought the sound was coming from somewhere else!  Had no idea that was a thing.

Anyway, great work. That is my favourite level of yours so far, not to mention one of my favourite Mario Maker levels in general! 

 

Glad you liked it! If you really want to know how I pulled off some of the tricks in this level and peek behind the magic curtain, see below...

Spoiler

The Enemy Death Trigger: All thanks to Entity Limit Manipulation.  The specifics are a bit complicated (I find this guide here to be a really helpful reference), but the long and short of it is that there is a limit on the number of enemies/entities you can have in a level that eventually prevents items from spawning from pipes when its reached.  With just the right layout and enemy/entity numbers, you can make it so that killing all of the enemies in each "round" brings the limit down to 99; allowing the POW block to spawn (to make it to 100) and allowing entry into the door.

"Hello!": This is actually a new sound effect that was introduced in Ver 3.0.  I'm sure you know about music blocks and how each enemy that bounces on them makes a different sound? Well, it turns out that the Koopalings come along with new Music Block sounds! And one of them happens to be "Hello!".  When I found this out, I thought it was bloody hilarious and figured that it would be perfect for the "oh no!!!" moment when the giant Balloon Fight fish shows up! (The pitch and exact sound that is made is determined by the height of the music block within the level; having it placed inside the lava at the bottom just so happened to make for the perfect sound I wanted, AND the player would never see it! )

BTW; I used another one of these Koopaling sounds at the Balloon Fight "title screen" to make that weird TV sounding noise too  (Having silence for that long just seemed a bit dull)

The Bonus Game: Again, this uses Entity Limit Manipulation too in order to pull off the trigger that gives you the key.  I basically wanted to replicate how you grab the balloons in the original game until you grab enough of them, so I needed a different way to make the balloons continuously respawn while having ELM cause the Spike Ball when enough "balloons" are popped.  I pulled this off by using different coloured Pipes with different spawning speeds; coupled with a P-Switch that "turned off" the Pipes when enough "balloons" were grabbed by the player.  Making this work properly was a right PITA!

The Balloon Fight "music":  This uses the BEEP noise on most tiles to give you that hallmark "glitchy" sound that the original game had; it just so happens to trigger a different pitch on each activation, making for a musical sound.  I felt it captured the original feeling nicely  

I did actually originally try making the Balloon Trip music with music blocks, but sadly it didn't work because I had to use the Slow autoscroll speed for the gameplay to work and the music blocks just sounded crap at this speed.  I did end up using another Koopaling sound to make that build-up noise before the SMG Gusty Garden music starts playing though; so it wasn't a total waste!

Little Thing You Might've Missed: There are exactly 100 coins in the Balloon Trip section; so if you collect all of the "balloons", you earn a 1-up! Believe it or not, but this was a complete accident! I wasn't even thinking about how many coins in total I was placing in this section; it was only when I was doing the final testing that I realised that I just so happened to have put in exactly 100 coins! What a nice coincidence!  

Right! Time for me to play yours and Smeagol's levels I reckon 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Dcubed

[RedShell]

44 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Glad you liked it! If you really want to know how I pulled off some of the tricks in this level and peek behind the magic curtain, see below...

  The Magician's Magic Unmasked... (Hide contents)

The Enemy Death Trigger: All thanks to Entity Limit Manipulation.  The specifics are a bit complicated (I find this guide here to be a really helpful reference), but the long and short of it is that there is a limit on the number of enemies/entities you can have in a level that eventually prevents items from spawning from pipes when its reached.  With just the right layout and enemy/entity numbers, you can make it so that killing all of the enemies in each "round" brings the limit down to 99; allowing the POW block to spawn (to make it to 100) and allowing entry into the door.

"Hello!": This is actually a new sound effect that was introduced in Ver 3.0.  I'm sure you know about music blocks and how each enemy that bounces on them makes a different sound? Well, it turns out that the Koopalings come along with new Music Block sounds! And one of them happens to be "Hello!".  When I found this out, I thought it was bloody hilarious and figured that it would be perfect for the "oh no!!!" moment when the giant Balloon Fight fish shows up! (The pitch and exact sound that is made is determined by the height of the music block within the level; having it placed inside the lava at the bottom just so happened to make for the perfect sound I wanted, AND the player would never see it! )

BTW; I used another one of these Koopaling sounds at the Balloon Fight "title screen" to make that weird TV sounding noise too  (Having silence for that long just seemed a bit dull)

The Bonus Game: Again, this uses Entity Limit Manipulation too in order to pull off the trigger that gives you the key.  I basically wanted to replicate how you grab the balloons in the original game until you grab enough of them, so I needed a different way to make the balloons continuously respawn while having ELM cause the Spike Ball when enough "balloons" are popped.  I pulled this off by using different coloured Pipes with different spawning speeds; coupled with a P-Switch that "turned off" the Pipes when enough "balloons" were grabbed by the player.  Making this work properly was a right PITA!

The Balloon Fight "music":  This uses the BEEP noise on most tiles to give you that hallmark "glitchy" sound that the original game had; it just so happens to trigger a different pitch on each activation, making for a musical sound.  I felt it captured the original feeling nicely  

I did actually originally try making the Balloon Trip music with music blocks, but sadly it didn't work because I had to use the Slow autoscroll speed for the gameplay to work and the music blocks just sounded crap at this speed.  I did end up using another Koopaling sound to make that build-up noise before the SMG Gusty Garden music starts playing though; so it wasn't a total waste!

Little Thing You Might've Missed: There are exactly 100 coins in the Balloon Trip section; so if you collect all of the "balloons", you earn a 1-up! Believe it or not, but this was a complete accident! I wasn't even thinking about how many coins in total I was placing in this section; it was only when I was doing the final testing that I realised that I just so happened to have put in exactly 100 coins! What a nice coincidence!  

 

Wow, that’s great stuff. Thanks for sharing.  

Definitely going to try and experiment with some of those mechanics myself sometime. 

[Dcubed]

Right! So I've played them both...

@RedShell Good stuff.  Simple and straightforward; which makes for a refreshing change of pace.  Frog Mario makes everything better!

Spoiler

I liked the idea of having an area where you need to get through with a minimum "par score" of hits to succeed; haven't really seen that idea used all that much!

Also I'm ashamed to admit it, but it took me quite a while to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do with the POW block because I totally forgot that Frog Mario can run on water when holding an object (It's a weird and bizzare mechanic, can you blame me!?).

Nice level, it's nice to play something more straightforward for a change  

@Sméagol Your level is basically the opposite of Redshell's, in that it's large, elaborate and complex.

Spoiler

I really like the way that you do your gating; there're some really cool ideas, like the Mushroom triggering the Spike Ball at the start (might need to nick that at some point!).

Ultimately though, the level is too long; as you yourself alluded to.  And there's too big a gap inbetween sections, so you end up losing a big amount of progress when you kick the bucket; making things frustrating.  The save system is cool, but its a bit annoying to get to the checkpoint from each area; if it was easier to get back, it would be a lot better.  Sadly the frustration proved to be too much and I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

Both have some great ideas, but my vote goes to Redshell this month 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Dcubed

[RedShell]

@Dcubed, just been messing around with the limit thingy, I have 100 enemies placed on tracks and some extra enemies inside blocks which no longer spawn when the level is playing, as expected, but how do I now add a POW block to a pipe when the option is greyed out in the editor? 

*EDIT*

Never mind, I figured it out.  

This stuff is so cool.

Edited June 15, 2020 by RedShell

[Dcubed]

8 minutes ago, RedShell said:

@Dcubed, just been messing around with the limit thingy, I have 100 enemies placed on tracks and some extra enemies inside blocks which no longer spawn when the level is playing, as expected, but how do I now add a POW block to a pipe when the option is greyed out in the editor? 

There are mutiple Entity Limits that you can manipulate.  If you look at this page, it goes over how the different limits work.

Basically, to do the trick with the pipe spawning, you need to max out Entity Limit B; then place a pipe with the object that you want to spawn.  When one object from Entity Limit B is eliminated, the pipe will then spawn the object.

Easiest way to achieve a working setup is to place around 95 One-Way-Doors somewhere within the area that is out of the player's view (One-Way-Doors are a rare example of a Super Globally Loaded object; these count towards the ELB limit and are always loaded no matter where the player is within the area, camera position is irrelevent here); then have 5 normal enemies (doesn't matter which), then place your pipe.  ELA will only be up to 6/100, but ELB will be maxed out at 100/100; meaning that when one of the enemies are defeated, ELB goes down to 99/100 and the pipe spawns the object! 

There are LOADS of potential uses for ELM, but this is basically how I did the pipe trick in this month's level.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Dcubed

[Dcubed]

BTW.  I also made heavy use of ELM to make my Super Koopa Bros level too (I used it to pull off the Voodoo Doll mechanic of having Mario die when the Koopa Troopa dies).  I was really proud of that level! It was a bastard to make work, but I was really happy with how it turned out! (Was really sad that almost nobody here has played it... and nobody has beaten it so far).

 

I also used it to make The Missing Mushroom Mystery too.  It's really versatile! 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Dcubed

[RedShell]

1 minute ago, Dcubed said:

BTW.  I also made heavy use of ELM to make my Super Koopa Bros level too (I used it to pull off the Voodoo Doll mechanic of having Mario die when the Koopa Troopa dies).  I was really proud of that level! It was a bastard to make work, but I was really happy with how it turned out! (Was really sad that almost nobody here has played it... and nobody has beaten it so far).

 

I also used it to make The Missing Mushroom Mystery too.  It's really versatile! 

Oh yeah! I forgot about that one. I did play it briefly a while back, but then got addicted to Animal Crossing again.  

Will revisit it soon. 

[Sméagol]

@RedShell, liked it for being a more or less straight forward level. Need to replay to see if you hid some stuff again, as I didn't find anything that stood out so far. What was disappointing is that most of the level is optional.. First clear was a bit underwhelming haha.

@Dcubed, I like the effort put in the technical side of things. I ehh, played without sound, so I'll need to replay it some time with the sound on, judging from the comments above. Never played Balloon Fight back in the day, and didn't like it much from the few times I played it on the NES app (and never played Balloon Trip), so the nostalgia was lost on me. Although from what I recall from those few times I played Balloon Fight, you got the feeling right.

Edit: Vote going to DCubed this time, mostly for being technically more impressive.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Sméagol

[RedShell]

@Dcubed, played your Super Koopa Bros. level again.  I managed to get to the end this time (check the position of my in-game comment) unfortunately the same cannot be said for the Koopa Troopa shell.  So yeah, wasn’t able to officially clear it I’m afraid.

It’s a super clever idea but also really tricky, for me anyway. Yeah, I very much struggle with multitasking, and keeping an eye on the “bottom screen” while also trying to move Mario in to the correct position for hitting the switches becomes incredibly difficult.  

If every single block above Mario was an ON/OFF switch I imagine it’d be a lot easier, but then you obviously wouldn’t have been able to implement the Voodoo Doll mechanic. Also, the way Koopa Troppa “jumps” is quite frankly, horrible, reminds me of Ice Climber.  

Anyway, very cool level. I hope you get more people playing it. 

Speaking of more people playing...

Are we going to get anymore N-E peeps playing and voting on the June challenge levels? I understand there not being so many entries, but it’ll be disappointing if it ends up being only the creators that vote too.  

Edited June 16, 2020 by RedShell

[Dufniall]

11 hours ago, RedShell said:

Are we going to get anymore N-E peeps playing and voting on the June challenge levels? I understand there not being so many entries, but it’ll be disappointing if it ends up being only the creators that vote too.  

I'm at least going to give them all a go, but can't promise I'll finish them all. I played and finished yours @RedShell, and I tried @Dcubed's as well but didn't complete it yet. @Sméagol still needs to be played.

But I got a bit distracted by your other levels such as Microgame$ and Mario plays Koopa, I'll talk about them tomorrow in the other thread!