[PS3] LittleBigPlanet Impressions
- Thread starter patsu
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You are competing with 300,000 other levels
Once a few people have tagged it, it will appear in the search lists when people search for specific tags. If they've given it a good rating, it will appear pretty high up the list behind those searches. If you spent 6 weeks on it, it's got a decent chance of getting a good rating...
I'll give your level a go over the next few days.
Tried it tonight. Seemed pretty cool. I did a few levels and saw a couple community ones.
Not a big fan of the feel of the jumping. Too much inertia and the jumping is touchy on sloped surfaces. Transitioning between the three planes of depth is also a bit weird at times. During multiplay, I frequently found myself mixed up with someone elses character.
Overall, seems like a solid game and there should be a lot of content for those that are big enough fans to want more.
Not a big fan of the feel of the jumping. Too much inertia and the jumping is touchy on sloped surfaces. Transitioning between the three planes of depth is also a bit weird at times. During multiplay, I frequently found myself mixed up with someone elses character.
Overall, seems like a solid game and there should be a lot of content for those that are big enough fans to want more.
Tried and hearted your level Shifty ... At my first try I didnt get the purpose of the level because I couldnt see ...... .... and went straight to the dragon and got past it also ... After my first try gave it another try and found out the ...... .... ... But I was very sleepy and did not play it completely ... But I'll play all of your levels tonite ...
Jaeyden I havent played your Arctic level yet but Abyss!! is fantastic , it is a bit hard for beginners but for me it is great , congrats ... Hearted it too ...
and went straight to the dragon and got past it also ... After my first try gave it another try and found out the ...... .... ... But I was very sleepy and did not play it completely ... But I'll play all of your levels tonite ...Jaeyden I havent played your Arctic level yet but Abyss!! is fantastic , it is a bit hard for beginners but for me it is great , congrats ... Hearted it too ...
I think that's a serious problem of the level as it's a break from the LBP standard. Before publishing Arwin tested it and suggested some other hints like a trail of points bubbles, but upon consideration I decided against it. It's an adventure, listed as such, and it should be played as an adventure reading the clues and thinking about what your character should do. I orignally wanted all clues to be in the story content, but the liited comments put a damper on that. I think most people would prefer far simpler, less cognitive designs with the route laid out, and that's something to consider for future levels. But as is, I hope those who get the Scourge appreciate it. It was a particular sector fo the gaming population I created it, not the masses! This is where a good categorisation of levels would be nice. If levels could be more clearly labelled or filed, players' expectations would probably tally better with the level designs.Tried and hearted your level Shifty ... At my first try I didnt get the purpose of the level because I couldnt see ...... ....
As for ratings and reviews, thanks to anyone having a look at my levels. Please be honest in your criticisms! I've learnt from a comment on my Bubble Challenge and a test with a mate that the difficulty level needs to be way lower than I've set. I completed the Easy challenge in half the alloted time, yet I see that I want a good 2x as long time-limit for it to work for everyone. The idea I now understand is that everyone can complete the level, but those who like a challenge can aim for a faster time. A score of 0 for not being good enough is a harsh reward for someone's time to play your level! I think the chief LBP player is looking for a fun, easy sense of satisfaction, and not a challenge to be repeated until success. Looking at my own LBP behaviour this is true even for me! To much tricky platforming and I won't try a second time. But of course, when building a level you get so used to the puzzles and such that it becomes easy and you lose sight of how other people will experience it. I imagine this explains a fair bit in the official Story campaign!
Yeah, this is true of so much. There may be dozens of truly fabulous books written which we'll never get to read because we never hear about them. The real route to success is popularity, being just good enough and then well marketed so given the zillions of choices people have to make, they chose you. I can't see there being any solution to that whatsoever. As long as people create lots of stuff, it'll be hard to get noticed, and in the Real World that's where people make it their (oft highly paid) job to get you noticed. Regards LBP, getting noticed means reaching out to other familiar populations, just as musicians start out playing to local populations while they court publisher with the hope of getting noticed and promoted.
Shifty, loved it. Although I'll admit I missed the point on my first attempt!
Will heart it and tag later. I did get the impression your narrative was aching to get out. Shame that the text boxes are as limited (as you note).
Don't give up on level design and creation just yet!
Cheers.
Will heart it and tag later. I did get the impression your narrative was aching to get out. Shame that the text boxes are as limited (as you note).
Don't give up on level design and creation just yet!
Cheers.
deathindustrial
Regular
Howdy. I left a bunch of comments on a couple of your levels last night Shifty.
The adventure one breached the limits of my frustration level at the point of dealing with the explosives in the mine. To me it had the same feel as say the delivery missions on the first PS1 Driver - making the least fun thing that the engine is capable of being the play mechanic.
=)
Also not sure I liked the black and white aesthetic as it did not seem integral to the layout. On something like the Metropolis level it is a given but given the 8 bit adventure motif it seemed out of place to me. Even the Atari 2600 was in colour, he he.
The two line limit for text sucks as I h-h-hates lots of text pop-ups as they are disruptive of the flow, especially on subsequent playthroughs. What would be cool would be if you could put that text on a sticker instead so that it does not require user intervention to get by.
I probably played like 10% of the level because of the touchy explosives. Do you have a video of you playing it to show how you expect people to move the bombs? I never did figure out the "grab it again after you let go" bit, seemed not work for me at all. I just dangled 'em and hoped for the best which meant a lot of deaths and repetitive back and forthing.
Cheers
The adventure one breached the limits of my frustration level at the point of dealing with the explosives in the mine. To me it had the same feel as say the delivery missions on the first PS1 Driver - making the least fun thing that the engine is capable of being the play mechanic.
=)
Also not sure I liked the black and white aesthetic as it did not seem integral to the layout. On something like the Metropolis level it is a given but given the 8 bit adventure motif it seemed out of place to me. Even the Atari 2600 was in colour, he he.
The two line limit for text sucks as I h-h-hates lots of text pop-ups as they are disruptive of the flow, especially on subsequent playthroughs. What would be cool would be if you could put that text on a sticker instead so that it does not require user intervention to get by.
I probably played like 10% of the level because of the touchy explosives. Do you have a video of you playing it to show how you expect people to move the bombs? I never did figure out the "grab it again after you let go" bit, seemed not work for me at all. I just dangled 'em and hoped for the best which meant a lot of deaths and repetitive back and forthing.
Cheers
Played some more. I'm not sure if I'm really blown away by the mechanics of the game, but there's an addictive quality to trying to find all the stickers, costumes etc. I really don't like the weight of the character when jumping; There is too much inertia. My other grip is switching between the three planes. I'm not big into the default look of the sack boys, but there are some really funny costume pieces. I haven't played too far, so I haven't encountered any levels that I'm in love with, but the ones so far have been pretty good, but basic. Very early in the game, so I'm sure that would change.
I'd like to see that too ...
First of all , if those prisoners keep jumping like crazy , sooner or later they die because of explosives ... You have to change that jumping thing imo ... Because whenever I try to go past them , if I'm a lil slow , they jump like crazy towards explosives and BOOM !.. It's frustrating ... Sometimes I want them to die , and it makes me feel good lol ...
And , that damn key which vaporise whenever I try to pick it up ... I've read your comment , you say it's rare but hell no ... Grab it and pooff , its gone ...
I dont have problem with explosives , sensitivity is ok for me ... But those prisoners have a big problem with explosives ... You need to fix it ...
And hardest part for me , the real key on the left , can we grab it or not ?.. I've tried so much to reach it but there's no way to go past those lil creatures ... But I'll try it more , I've reached the key holder but couldnt even try to pull it because I'm killed by gas ... Maybe you need to make it easier ...
I like the idea , but this issues make your level way too ard and after a while it takes the joy away ...
And one more thing ; why those prisoners vaporise when going up by elevator ?.. I wish they reach the ground and give us some prize bubbles ...
But not always the same amount of bubbles ... I dont know if you've played or not but iirc the Silent Hill level has a very good rewarding system ... When you finish the level , you see your grade at the wall and get your bubbles for your grade ... Eg. 100 bubbles for A , 70 for B etc. ...
I have no idea how the hell he managed that but its very cool ...
Btw , sorry for my english :/ ...
I finally got a chance to try it, I got to the dragon part and could not figure out how to kill it. I looked like it had a brain on it's head or neck, but jumping there just killed me. I'm not sure how the level develops beyond that point, so I won't judge it.
I do think there was too much text, LBP isn't really the right kind of vehicle for advanced story telling.
The system that Silent Hill level had was indeed very cool. It had a scoreboard and all. If I remember correctly, it showed if you could do parts of the level within a set time, and gave you a grade depending on how often you made those times.
I think it works in a similar way as the timer I made for my level. I use a proximity switch for the part for the level I want to time. Once activated it pushes a piston against a 3 way switch, so it's moved to the left. That activate's another piston with a magnetic switch attached. Only if the piston fully extents will it activate, this piston can be set to the time you want it to take. And after players leave the range of the proximity switch, the first piston goes back to its starting position, the 3 way switch goes back to the middle position, and finally the last piston stops at the position it was. If the magnetic switch is activated, the players weren't fast enough.
And adding the times up can be done by connecting several pistons in a line, with each one activated pushing a magnetic switch past several magnetic triggers.
I think it works in a similar way as the timer I made for my level. I use a proximity switch for the part for the level I want to time. Once activated it pushes a piston against a 3 way switch, so it's moved to the left. That activate's another piston with a magnetic switch attached. Only if the piston fully extents will it activate, this piston can be set to the time you want it to take. And after players leave the range of the proximity switch, the first piston goes back to its starting position, the 3 way switch goes back to the middle position, and finally the last piston stops at the position it was. If the magnetic switch is activated, the players weren't fast enough.
And adding the times up can be done by connecting several pistons in a line, with each one activated pushing a magnetic switch past several magnetic triggers.
The motion detection uses motion sensors, which are only triggered by players. So it can't be the prisoners that were setting it off.
Interesting, and annoying! I tested every feature 20+ times, and wasn't happy with more than a 5% failure rate. I went through a half-dozen setups for the final key piece, finally building a carefully timed roof-collapse so it'd survive and be collectable without getting trapped under a rock or destroyed.
It is frustrating when the problems people report just weren't present in the building. Without being able to watch people play, I've no idea what's different. But I am rather unsure that the Create gameplay mode matches the Play mode exactly. The lightning strikes were very different. It's as though uploaded levels increase in sensitivity? I also see that one of the speech bubbles is filled with a long string of asterisks. What's that all about?!
These two points are another valuable lesson in LBP creating. In both cases the text is very clearly 'You can't do this' and yet expectations are that you can. The key is placed in a gas filled cavern with an army of killer Grimmaulchkins and spikes on the entrance, no way to reach the key on the pedstal, no way to get the key out even if you can grab it...and it's on the wrong plane to be of any use to boot! Yet the standard play experience of LBP is that every goal can be directly reached and solved. Likewise, the fire-breathing dragon, we are told, has killed an entire army, slays the critters effortless, is bristling with spikes, and we are told it could never be beaten in a frontal assault, if only it's power could be UNDERMINED, and yet the player expects it to be killable by jumping on its head!DrJay24 said:
Seems that one should really 'know ones audience' and target it with what it is expecting. Kinda like, dropping a Zelda level in the middle of Mario would leave the players scratching their heads.
I have to get rid of them somehow. Reaching the top, they'd either have to run off to the town or be disappeared. There are very limited ways to disappear objects. You have to kill a creature object for it's brain and legs to disappear and it's death effect is tied to the hazard that killed it. I have the prisoners rigged to set themselves alight on a trigger (which is inconsistent! You'd have been very annoyed if when the prisoners set off the explosives, they lived!). It wouldn't make sense to have the prisoners reach the surface and then go up in flames! Alternatively I could have tried a patch of gas so they disappear in a puff of smoke, but that would pose the problem of the player accidentally getting gassed for no reason. Best case solution would be to clear the existing prisoner object and replace it with a different one to serve a different purpose, perhaps whizz off to the left. That was something considered, but the level was 100% full and I was having to delete stuff at the end to make room for edits. It's just the best compromise I could come up with.
A point reward is a good idea though. I have all the rewards at the end only, which limits any sense of accomplishment. Each successful action, such as unlocking a prisoner, should have a small reward as well.
I hadn't noticed
All feedback is good. I'm certainly learning a lot from it all.Likewise, the fire-breathing dragon, we are told, has killed an entire army, slays the critters effortless, is bristling with spikes, and we are told it could never be beaten in a frontal assault, if only it's power could be UNDERMINED, and yet the player expects it to be killable by jumping on its head!
But I went behind it and climbed on it's back. Only then did I try jumping back to the front in hopes that what I saw (no color so it's hard to see) was its brain. I'm glad you are being clever, but if it's not fun and the player just quit what is the point? Game design is to satisfy the players not the developers.
So what is the trick, nothing in the rear seems to do anything either.
Mr. Domino
Regular
