Attention Everyone--Mod Challenge

I thought the deadline was the *end* of the 15th

 

OK, Safusaka. Played your entry. Did not finish.

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The mod would be pretty fun if it wasn't the physics. I hated one time jumps with them. Not fun to fall and start the entire area again.
But oh well. Your graphics and sprites are brilliant as usual. Music is great. Weapons are quite cool. (+1 for the assembly hack for Machine Gun and making it fire rocket-like projectiles, that was OP)
Enemies are placed kinda well, maps design was good as well. Your tiles aren't like by Cave Story, though, and sometimes I could jump into walls, sometimes I would fall through the ground around the edges. I didn't like this.
Generally, it was pretty fun, but since I haven't finished it, I have no idea what the name is supposed to mean. I didn't delete anything, really, just destroyed everything.
Also, nice animation at the beginning. And Sue is the ultimate troll. I stopped at that are where she is because of stupid jumps. (little block NPCs and single tiles)
In the beginning, I had problems with understanding where I should go until I noticed you can go through the ventilation shaft in the ceiling. That wasn't too obvious for me.

Nice work, anyway. That was a well-done contest entry.

 

Surprise bitches

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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84809278/Don%27t%20Let%20Go.zip

Thanks to Randolf for a couple of simple hacks he helped me with.

Enjoy the ride

 

Okay DT, I played your mod and holy crap, you must've had a lot of patience with the level design. I really like the timing of the events while still holding the left key.

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That fade-out trick really tempted me to let go of the left key, so have an extra 20 points for cleverness.

Don't Let Go is definitely an entertaining mod and I love it.

 

I thought the deadline was the *end* of the 15th

oops, I forgot. scratch that until 12 more hours in my region

 

OK, DT, that was short, but pretty fun.

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You are a master of level design. How long did it take you to complete this?
And now I see why you needed to remove the jump key. Nice job with using it well.
+1 for the ending screen.

I encourage you all to try this out.

 

You sir have made my day (well it's night so you've made my night I guess...)

Nobody mention anything more about what time of day it is in your area.

Time is a liar and he knows it.

zxin, You're welcome.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42853625/Temp/story.zip

ok, the contest is allowed to be over now

 

this is basically the best mod and all of you should play it

 

Noxid, fantastic job on the mod.

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To sum up my feelings: this is what Cave should have been. And honestly, if I had to label it, this feels like Rave Story combined with Cave. A surprisingly unique and fascinating experience. If I had to nitpick, I'd say that I wasn't too fond of having to replay the same areas over and over again (especially considering the amount of mods that make you play through those areas), but I suppose that was the point considering all of the buildup.

One question that's probably dumb, but was Jenka's speech sort of a metaphor for the modding scene? That may be looking too deep into it but that's how I initially interpreted it, lol.

 

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A surprisingly unique and fascinating experience. If I had to nitpick, I'd say that I wasn't too fond of having to replay the same areas over and over again (especially considering the amount of mods that make you play through those areas)

One question that's probably dumb, but was Jenka's speech sort of a metaphor for the modding scene? That may be looking too deep into it but that's how I initially interpreted it, lol.

think about this now

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(especially considering the amount of mods that make you play through those areas)

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sort of a metaphor for the modding scene

 

Noxid, fantastic job on the mod.

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To sum up my feelings: this is what Cave should have been. And honestly, if I had to label it, this feels like Rave Story combined with Cave. A surprisingly unique and fascinating experience. If I had to nitpick, I'd say that I wasn't too fond of having to replay the same areas over and over again (especially considering the amount of mods that make you play through those areas), but I suppose that was the point considering all of the buildup.

One question that's probably dumb, but was Jenka's speech sort of a metaphor for the modding scene? That may be looking too deep into it but that's how I initially interpreted it, lol.

Thank you!

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You wouldn't be wrong in calling it that, haha. Rave Story definitely had an impact on me, and I didn't actually play Cave but I was intrigued by the concept. I actually had to wrack my brain to think of who to give the speech at the end besides debug cat, so I wouldn't appear to be infringing too hard . I know replaying the first 15 minutes of Cave Story isn't the most thrilling thing, but yeah it was important to the execution of the idea.

You're actually right about that, haha. It's supposed to be alluding to the many modifications (and bastardizations) of Cave Story that have come out over the years, and as nameless pointed out, especially the overuse and abuse of these first few areas. There's a bit more to it, but I didn't have time to fully flesh out my concept cuz' I ran out of time >.>

 

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I felt as if everything has a distinct lack of purpose in this mod.
huh.

Yeah, I felt as if the ending was rushed, but honestly everything else is really well done.
I love it.

 

So now that the deadline has passed, is someone going to make the new thread with the download links all conveniently in the OP and/or host the remainder of this contest?

 

Noxid, played your entry.

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The general idea was neat, but I didn't find this mod really enjoyable. Yeah, maybe that's only me, but still...
I liked the flight/levitation hack that was just before the end, though...
Well. Still, good one.

 

Noxid, your mod was pretty cool.

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Although, the pink and black gell thing that appears later, that looks like something out of kero blaster. Is there a connection?

 

So now that the deadline has passed, is someone going to make the new thread with the download links all conveniently in the OP and/or host the remainder of this contest?

I can't do it, I realized that I have way too many things going on this weekend.

 

Noxid, your mod was pretty cool.

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Although, the pink and black gell thing that appears later, that looks like something out of kero blaster. Is there a connection?

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It was mostly a coincidence that it happened to look the same. It started out as a black tile with some pink lines on it, then I decided to animate it, then I changed the design and decided it could pass for some kind of toxic sludge

Anyway, I can make a new thread later today

 

Before this goes on any further can I sperg out about the scoring for a minute? Okay I'm going to do that now.

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I don't quite like the setup at the moment. 40 points come from basically making no technical mistakes and only 30 come from the community. IMO a better balance would be more like this, at the least:
-30 points of techincal/'negative' marking, with the losses for each error readjusted if necessary. While this does deserve some emphasis, I don't really see it making much of a difference to most mods anyway. There will need to be some way to judge this as well, but hopefully it will be mostly objective?
-30 points for creativity, based on judging panel average. I think that in order to work, this will need to be strictly focussed on said creative aspects (e.g. original content, use of scripting or artistic ideas; execution will probably fit into this to some degree) rather than a judge's entire opinion of an entry; that's what the community voting is for, after all. I would suggest 15 points for a 'neutral' entry with little OC or ideas but no obvious failings, which judges can scale up to as much as 30 based on individual discretions. Subtractions may be made for unoriginal or failed content, but the point here is to give credit.
-40 points based on community voting. I am not a fan of the idea of running this as a basic poll, on the basis that there's zero reason not to vote for some of these aside from trying to pick a winner. Single choice would be even worse due to all the credit it leaves out. Therefore, I will advocate a post-vote system. Here's the layout I've come up with:

1. First place vote (40 points)
2. Second place (34? points)
3. Third place (29? points)
Hon. mentions: As many other games as a person desires can be placed here, for 20 points each.

Like the creativity judging, the community score will be the total average of all votes. The gaps are fairly large because I figure it's important that this be competitive. It's still better than all-or-nothing votes. Also voters will have had to play all the entries to be eligible, naturally

I don't mean to harp on about this, but I do believe it's important to take balancing this seriously, considering it's the thing that's going to determine the combined efforts of everyone involved.

I'm also willing to offer my services as a judge, bringing with me my love of all things mod and painfully sunny disposition. I know I have an entry but I think most of the others are better than it anyway so


Finally, some feedback comments:

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Don't Let Go is definitely an entertaining mod and I love it.

OK, DT, that was short, but pretty fun.

Thank you kindly

How long did it take you to complete this?

I'd say I spent maybe 20 hours on it in total, at least half of which was spent messing around trying to see if things would work or not (like everything else I make ).