Cave Story - Rise of Ballos

Okay, no one replied, I'm gonna introduce a new update anyway.

• Updated the Critter Machine once again, I'm thinking that this is going to be the final version, except for maybe bug fixing.
• Fixed Snake Mk3 showing level ups
• Redid the Fuzzes, Fuzz Cores are now green, with normal Fuzzes red and Super Fuzzes blue. Super Fuzzes do double damage, have much higher health, and NEED to be one-shot killed in order for it to die. It's best that you don't anger them before you get a decent weapon that can deal enough damage!
• Recoded the Spiked Balls, rewriting them from scratch using much less space. Now I no longer need to give @Bombchu Link any credit! Lol, BTW, if you're reading this BLink, thanks for encouraging me to learn assembly properly, I wouldn't have been able to do any of this if it weren't for you!
• Added Large Spiked Balls, they do damage to other entities.
• Added Omega II boss fight, slowly heals, shoots small spiked balls that explode after a certain (randomly generated) time, currently the death animation is bugged.
• Added Sandy Edge map between Sand Zone and Frozen Caves, now renamed 'Frosty Grotto.'
• Added Giant Spiked Ball, appears in Sandy Edge and chases you down a narrow path, does roughly 200 damage
  
• Added Shot Volley attack for Rainbow Critters.
• Made ALL damage to the player slightly randomised.
• Made ALL EXP drops slightly randomised.
• Coded a block that breaks and falls a while after you step on it
• Fixed Fuzzes crashing the game occasionally when they begin chasing you
• Edited some music
• Fixed Labyrinth H bug
• Fixed Monster X death animation crashing the game
• Gave Beserk Core extra health
• Nerfed Blade damage
• Rewrote Super Spur code, the bullets now deal less damage than the Spur in the original game! But there are a lot more of them, and they continue to deal damage the longer they touch an enemy.
• Fixed 2 small tileset issues
• Fixed two 'You were never seen again' places
• Fixed sudden spazzing of Lava Levels

 

Hi this is a reply!

But seriously, downloading/playing the mod right now for the first time, gonna post what I think in this comment.

EDIT: Holy shit the amount of work that has put into the weapons, orgs, and tile sets is absolutely absurd. And unlike a lot of mods (including mine ) this actually has good dialogue, I haven't gotten that far yet, but this have to the capabilities to one of the greatest CE mods of all time.

Spoiler: Also...

Can I use your lava background?
(The one that's used with water level to create the affect of lava flow.)

 

Hi this is a reply!

But seriously, downloading/playing the mod right now for the first time, gonna post what I think in this comment.

EDIT: Holy shit the amount of work that has put into the weapons, orgs, and tile sets is absolutely absurd. And unlike a lot of mods (including mine ) this actually has good dialogue, I haven't gotten that far yet, but this have to the capabilities to one of the greatest CE mods of all time.

Spoiler: Also...

Can I use your lava background?
(The one that's used with water level to create the affect of lava flow.)

Sure, I didn't even spend that long on it. Lol I just used the same sort of pattern from the Last Cave lava!
But if you're going to actually use the lava level system to deal damage, you'll have to do some assembly.
This mod wasn't all made with CE. For the weapons and more precise hacks, I used OllyDbg assembly to rewrite code, for the orgs, I used Resource Hacker, and for much of the NPC table I used Booster's Lab.

 

Well I normally be satisfied with just the background, but now since you mentioned it, I should defiantly be trying to get into hex-editing. Whelp, here we go...

 

• Recoded the Spiked Balls, rewriting them from scratch using much less space. Now I no longer need to give @Bombchu Link any credit! Lol, BTW, if you're reading this BLink, thanks for encouraging me to learn assembly properly, I wouldn't have been able to do any of this if it weren't for you!

This actually made my day, I've seen some of the stuff you've done from a distance and it looks pretty legit.

I think I'll sit down and play your mod this weekend if time permits.

 

Um...yeah, I've just encountered about 7 bugs already in this version, for example dead armor gaudis turn into half a Sunstone... I'm trying to fix them ASAP, but I'm really busy right now...

Also...

This actually made my day, I've seen some of the stuff you've done from a distance and it looks pretty legit.

I think I'll sit down and play your mod this weekend if time permits.

What do you mean by 'from a distance?'

EDIT: New Update:

• Fixed dead Armor Gaudis having half a Sunstone sprite, basically I made the Dead Gaudi entity set its tileset to the NPC tileset 1 once every frame, counteracting the normal tileset.
• Fixed impossible jump in Frosty Grotto, obviously caused by bad level design.
• Fixed normal Large Critters acting like Rainbow Critters and shooting projectiles, because I gave them the wrong state table!
• Fixed falling blocks not doing damage, occured when I was trying to make a new falling block that is of the small version, created when stepping on a crumble block, but I forgot to fix the original ones.
• Fixed random crash in the Sand Zone, caused by a H/V trigger having a no-longer-existing TSC event.
• Fixed H/V trigger in Sandy Edge, the one that caused you to be invulnerable to the Giant Spiky Ball.
• Increased Northern Star damage
• Increased Large Spiky Ball damage to other entities up to 4 damage/frame.

 

New update, featuring bug fixes, tileset redoing, weapon balancing, and Textbox.bmp retexturing.
Also features minor assembly optimising.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ncpwmitavti4llq/Rise_of_Ballos_v0.8.0.6.zip?dl=0

 

I didn't have much to do this afternoon, so I decided to give your latest update a whirl. Who knew? Maybe you actually listened to my feedback oh so long ago and fixed the mod up?

Spoiler: Big Boy Words Ahead

Disclaimer: I went straight to downloading this before reading the thread, so if I say anything that's already been said, that's why.

First off, you didn't put the contents of the .zip in their own folder.

Secondly, it starts in fullscreen by default.
not okay

what is happening

it's a little weird that you need to press Z (or whatever is set to Confirm) to transition to the title screen
you would think that something would happen after the Doctor appears

well, i wish i wasn't having a conversation underwater

the facepic was Curly for a split second before changing to Balrog
may want to check your script

and it happened again

and again

that's not how doors work

loads of awkward sentence structure

text scrolled more than I expected, but the next thing Itoh says has a typo
"I'd" should've been "I've" I think

pretty out of character for a guy like Prof. Booster, tbqh

well that was sudden

oh
it's this place again

killmenow

you're kind of dead if you go down here first

*war flashbacks*

I've died on this spike twice now
it did 17 the first time
and 23 the second time
what??

why is this fat critter hopping like a small critter
variable jumps are neat i guess but
why??

i like how the little critter was the one to oneshot me with 13 damage

this thing literally just shat fury down my throat in shotgun blast form
and i died
ok

how the fuck do i dodge this

what the fuck

10/10 level design
jk pls do not

why
also why did the bat do 8 damage
why does everything do so much damage

i thought that you would have fixed the attrocious level design by now
but i was clearly wrong

xin i'm going to murder you

FUCK

THOSE BAT DID 11 DAMAGE BEFORE
FUCK YOU

this design is not ok

you'realreadydead.jpeg

creative

just

why are these made of nintendium

h-hello?

help
i need an adult

*sweating*

polar has a point about that mod testing area

[screaming internally]

this is the first cave
LET ME OUT

please

PLEASE

P L E A S E

thefuckisthat

is the sky blue

xin i swear to god
oh wait
god is dead
nevermind

we in there

you forgot to lock the character's movement
you silly willy

why does this keep making the "equipped" sound
or whatever you'd call it

I may not screenshot all of the text errors or questions I find because it looks like a lot of what I said in the first set of mod notes forever ago was ignored.

i just
why is this here

oh it's the intro place

OC design is just as bland as I remember it being

nice high-jumping, flying, shooting critter
didn't get to check its damage output but i imagine that it twoshots me even at 55 hp

ohhey
it's literally sand zone

this thing hurts to look at

ok those flying pink critters do 16 damage
entirely too much damage

>open machine gun chest
>get machine gun
>suddenly appear here and get hit by a white critter
why??

HALLELUJAH

i swer on me mum ill bash yer fookn ead in

that's not how machine guns work

clutch

>shoot wall in panic while fighting pink critter
>find this
excuse me???

holy fuck

thank you daddy xin

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

the fire fires weird when it hits these blocks

THIS
IS NOT
OKAY

i uh
ok??

and apparently the yellow critters have forever hit points
rip me

why the heck can the level 2 blade go so much farther than the level 1 blade
it's ridiculous how much of a difference there is

these things do not die
and chase you forever after the green core dies
absolute shit design to be completely and brutally honest

nothing like a good ol' fashioned 100% blind invisible maze

that's entirely too much health on the yellow critters

level design?
what's level design?

QUALITY
LEVEL
DESIGN
>go to Sandy Path
>come back
>instantly get killed by the yellow critter before i can move

u wot m8

ahuhuhuhuhuhu

where the fuck am i going

you need more save points
like
really
YOU NEED MORE SAVE POINTS

now that right there is just bullshit
plain and simple

thanks

shitty design etc etc

ow the edge

>do 526 damage with the Blade
>barely scratch its health bar
holy shit why

wew lad what an intense fight
it slowed down before the boss started exploding and the victory theme played before the boss finished exploding
i liked how you got it to spit out those rolling wire ball things; never seen that before
only gripe is that it's super bulky for a boss
without the level 2 or 3 blade, I would been utterly screwed by its health bar as shown above

there was the sound of a block breaking throughout the entire fight, too, which was distracting

>die on the ball chase directly after the boss fight
ok fuck you
why no save

i like how it's possible to completely miss this room entirely if you accidentally shoot down at all

i apparently also missed the missile launcher somehow since you keep trying to feed me missiles

this is way too much shit to do all on one life

that spike did 21 damage
that single, small spike
did nearly 1/3rd of my max hp
fuck
OFF

F I N A L L Y
I
N
A
L
L
Y

oh great
just what this well designed mod needed
an ice level

i touched a rainbow critter
and took over 4000 damage
fucking WHY

my strategy of running forward while mashing Fire almost worked
almost

thanks for the +8 hp
sure means a lot when almost everything does at least 10 damage

creative 2: electric boogaloo

oh good
now there're critters
why critters

I DID IT HOLY SHIT
also i regret standing here for my screenshot

why must you torment me so

holy fr*ck
that life capsule gave me 21 life
why haven't you done this sooner

good use of spikes tbh fam

how'd I go through that door

and end up here???

>go through the door at the end of that lower corridor
>end up here
ok i'm confused

for the first time in literally several hours
DIALOGUE

please be a teleporter to the end of the mod

that works too i guess

and it auto-equipped
finally
a good point give to the mod

xin i'm going to end you

WHICH DOOR IS REAL YOU FUCK

ok
i literally cannot progress anymore
none of the doors work

oh right, and

this was gotten from the chest in curly's house, not from chaba
what the fuck is a chaba

Despite the surprising amount of work you've put into the mod, it's still just as unpleasant, if not more unpleasant, than the version I had played months ago. There's a lot of neat assembly strewn throughout the mod, but virtually no work went into balancing the enemies or designing the levels in a way that they can be considered playable. Do you even playtest this yourself?

I'm sure that the mod could turn out okay if you put some effort into the aforementioned issues, but after seeing how it's developed after my first playthrough I doubt that'll happen anytime soon.

 

I didn't have much to do this afternoon, so I decided to give your latest update a whirl. Who knew? Maybe you actually listened to my feedback oh so long ago and fixed the mod up?

Spoiler: Big Boy Words Ahead

Disclaimer: I went straight to downloading this before reading the thread, so if I say anything that's already been said, that's why.

First off, you didn't put the contents of the .zip in their own folder.

Secondly, it starts in fullscreen by default.
not okay

what is happening

it's a little weird that you need to press Z (or whatever is set to Confirm) to transition to the title screen
you would think that something would happen after the Doctor appears

well, i wish i wasn't having a conversation underwater

the facepic was Curly for a split second before changing to Balrog
may want to check your script

and it happened again

and again

that's not how doors work

loads of awkward sentence structure

text scrolled more than I expected, but the next thing Itoh says has a typo
"I'd" should've been "I've" I think

pretty out of character for a guy like Prof. Booster, tbqh

well that was sudden

oh
it's this place again

killmenow

you're kind of dead if you go down here first

*war flashbacks*

I've died on this spike twice now
it did 17 the first time
and 23 the second time
what??

why is this fat critter hopping like a small critter
variable jumps are neat i guess but
why??

i like how the little critter was the one to oneshot me with 13 damage

this thing literally just shat fury down my throat in shotgun blast form
and i died
ok

how the fuck do i dodge this

what the fuck

10/10 level design
jk pls do not

why
also why did the bat do 8 damage
why does everything do so much damage

i thought that you would have fixed the attrocious level design by now
but i was clearly wrong

xin i'm going to murder you

FUCK

THOSE BAT DID 11 DAMAGE BEFORE
FUCK YOU

this design is not ok

you'realreadydead.jpeg

creative

just

why are these made of nintendium

h-hello?

help
i need an adult

*sweating*

polar has a point about that mod testing area

[screaming internally]

this is the first cave
LET ME OUT

please

PLEASE

P L E A S E

thefuckisthat

is the sky blue

xin i swear to god
oh wait
god is dead
nevermind

we in there

you forgot to lock the character's movement
you silly willy

why does this keep making the "equipped" sound
or whatever you'd call it

I may not screenshot all of the text errors or questions I find because it looks like a lot of what I said in the first set of mod notes forever ago was ignored.

i just
why is this here

oh it's the intro place

OC design is just as bland as I remember it being

nice high-jumping, flying, shooting critter
didn't get to check its damage output but i imagine that it twoshots me even at 55 hp

ohhey
it's literally sand zone

this thing hurts to look at

ok those flying pink critters do 16 damage
entirely too much damage

>open machine gun chest
>get machine gun
>suddenly appear here and get hit by a white critter
why??

HALLELUJAH

i swer on me mum ill bash yer fookn ead in

that's not how machine guns work

clutch

>shoot wall in panic while fighting pink critter
>find this
excuse me???

holy fuck

thank you daddy xin

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

the fire fires weird when it hits these blocks

THIS
IS NOT
OKAY

i uh
ok??

and apparently the yellow critters have forever hit points
rip me

why the heck can the level 2 blade go so much farther than the level 1 blade
it's ridiculous how much of a difference there is

these things do not die
and chase you forever after the green core dies
absolute shit design to be completely and brutally honest

nothing like a good ol' fashioned 100% blind invisible maze

that's entirely too much health on the yellow critters

level design?
what's level design?

QUALITY
LEVEL
DESIGN
>go to Sandy Path
>come back
>instantly get killed by the yellow critter before i can move

u wot m8

ahuhuhuhuhuhu

where the fuck am i going

you need more save points
like
really
YOU NEED MORE SAVE POINTS

now that right there is just bullshit
plain and simple

thanks

shitty design etc etc

ow the edge

>do 526 damage with the Blade
>barely scratch its health bar
holy shit why

wew lad what an intense fight
it slowed down before the boss started exploding and the victory theme played before the boss finished exploding
i liked how you got it to spit out those rolling wire ball things; never seen that before
only gripe is that it's super bulky for a boss
without the level 2 or 3 blade, I would been utterly screwed by its health bar as shown above

there was the sound of a block breaking throughout the entire fight, too, which was distracting

>die on the ball chase directly after the boss fight
ok fuck you
why no save

i like how it's possible to completely miss this room entirely if you accidentally shoot down at all

i apparently also missed the missile launcher somehow since you keep trying to feed me missiles

this is way too much shit to do all on one life

that spike did 21 damage
that single, small spike
did nearly 1/3rd of my max hp
fuck
OFF

F I N A L L Y
I
N
A
L
L
Y

oh great
just what this well designed mod needed
an ice level

i touched a rainbow critter
and took over 4000 damage
fucking WHY

my strategy of running forward while mashing Fire almost worked
almost

thanks for the +8 hp
sure means a lot when almost everything does at least 10 damage

creative 2: electric boogaloo

oh good
now there're critters
why critters

I DID IT HOLY SHIT
also i regret standing here for my screenshot

why must you torment me so

holy fr*ck
that life capsule gave me 21 life
why haven't you done this sooner

good use of spikes tbh fam

how'd I go through that door

and end up here???

>go through the door at the end of that lower corridor
>end up here
ok i'm confused

for the first time in literally several hours
DIALOGUE

please be a teleporter to the end of the mod

that works too i guess

and it auto-equipped
finally
a good point give to the mod

xin i'm going to end you

WHICH DOOR IS REAL YOU FUCK

ok
i literally cannot progress anymore
none of the doors work

oh right, and

this was gotten from the chest in curly's house, not from chaba
what the fuck is a chaba

Despite the surprising amount of work you've put into the mod, it's still just as unpleasant, if not more unpleasant, than the version I had played months ago. There's a lot of neat assembly strewn throughout the mod, but virtually no work went into balancing the enemies or designing the levels in a way that they can be considered playable. Do you even playtest this yourself?

I'm sure that the mod could turn out okay if you put some effort into the aforementioned issues, but after seeing how it's developed after my first playthrough I doubt that'll happen anytime soon.

Wow jeez you put a lot of time into your posts.
Maybe there are still a few TSC and level design flaws, but right now I really don't have time for those. Thanks for pointing them out, though. I'll take a look at them when I get the time.
You did miss the Missile Launcher, which was right before the first Rainbow Critter Boss fight. You also missed quite a few Life Capsules.
Please tell me how you got into the Mod Testing map through the First Cave...?
The Omega II was supposed to be do-able simply by getting the two large spiky balls down from the ceiling, then stalling during the fight. It wasn't supposed to be that hard. But since they were partially covered up by shootable blocks that looked like regular blocks, maybe you didn't see them.
The crashing sounds you heard during Omega II boss fight were those two large spiky balls stuck in the corners.
The yellow critters, with really high stats, cannot see very far and are usually easy to dodge. But yeah, I'll remove the ones in places where they jump at you as soon as you enter an area.
I'd already nerfed the blue Fuzzes by about 10x, it's just that you aren't meant to anger them during the early game. They actually have 32 max HP, but regain that amount once every 3 frames. They used to have 64 HP every frame!
For much of the weapon descriptions, I'd had to really lower the amount of words because they wouldn't fit in the message box.
The puzzle in Labyrinth H is to go left on the bottom corridor, then middle in the second corridor, then left again on the top.
Also, for the intro, I think I'd gotten Booster's dialogue mixed up with Itoh's one. I'll get around to fixing it later.

 

Wow jeez you put a lot of time into your posts.
Maybe there are still a few TSC and level design flaws, but right now I really don't have time for those. Thanks for pointing them out, though. I'll take a look at them when I get the time.

"A few" is an insane understatement. Every level is fucking awfully designed.

You did miss the Missile Launcher, which was right before the first Rainbow Critter Boss fight. You also missed quite a few Life Capsules.

Make an actual way to figure out where they are then?

Please tell me how you got into the Mod Testing map through the First Cave...?

Broken level design

The Omega II was supposed to be do-able simply by getting the two large spiky balls down from the ceiling, then stalling during the fight. It wasn't supposed to be that hard. But since they were partially covered up by shootable blocks that looked like regular blocks, maybe you didn't see them.

Maybe your level design wasn't good enough for Seasons to see them, you mean.

The crashing sounds you heard during Omega II boss fight were those two large spiky balls stuck in the corners.

Fix this then?

I'd already nerfed the blue Fuzzes by about 10x, it's just that you aren't meant to anger them during the early game. They actually have 32 max HP, but regain that amount once every 3 frames. They used to have 64 HP every frame!

This is still shit design please don't.

For much of the weapon descriptions, I'd had to really lower the amount of words because they wouldn't fit in the message box.

Make your descriptions less overly wordy then?

The puzzle in Labyrinth H is to go left on the bottom corridor, then middle in the second corridor, then left again on the top.

This is not obvious please do something to make it actually able to be solved by not just you.

 

I'd already nerfed the blue Fuzzes by about 10x, it's just that you aren't meant to anger them during the early game. They actually have 32 max HP, but regain that amount once every 3 frames. They used to have 64 HP every frame!

So you were supposed to be able to deal 64 damage to them within 2 frames?? That is, within 1/25th of a second?
This seems like really poor design, which is fitting if the rest of season's post is anything to go by.

 

Wow jeez you put a lot of time into your posts.

Maybe there are still a few TSC and level design flaws, but right now I really don't have time for those. Thanks for pointing them out, though. I'll take a look at them when I get the time.

You did miss the Missile Launcher, which was right before the first Rainbow Critter Boss fight. You also missed quite a few Life Capsules.

Please tell me how you got into the Mod Testing map through the First Cave...?

The Omega II was supposed to be do-able simply by getting the two large spiky balls down from the ceiling, then stalling during the fight. It wasn't supposed to be that hard. But since they were partially covered up by shootable blocks that looked like regular blocks, maybe you didn't see them.

The crashing sounds you heard during Omega II boss fight were those two large spiky balls stuck in the corners.

The yellow critters, with really high stats, cannot see very far and are usually easy to dodge. But yeah, I'll remove the ones in places where they jump at you as soon as you enter an area.

I'd already nerfed the blue Fuzzes by about 10x, it's just that you aren't meant to anger them during the early game. They actually have 32 max HP, but regain that amount once every 3 frames. They used to have 64 HP every frame!

For much of the weapon descriptions, I'd had to really lower the amount of words because they wouldn't fit in the message box.

The puzzle in Labyrinth H is to go left on the bottom corridor, then middle in the second corridor, then left again on the top.

Also, for the intro, I think I'd gotten Booster's dialogue mixed up with Itoh's one. I'll get around to fixing it later.

Maybe there are still a few TSC and level design flaws, but right now I really don't have time for those.

Maybe there are still a few TSC and level design flaws,

a few

There's a lot more than "a few." Nobody will care how many tricks you can pull with assembly if your level designs are utter garbage. You need to seriously hold back on the assembly and work on the actual meat of the mod.

Where was this alleged Rainbow Critter boss? I legitimately never even ran across it. The missed life capsules can also be attributed to your level design, or lack thereof. They're either hidden behind blocks that you would have to randomly shoot in order to notice or walled off behind clusterfucks of spikes and enemies.

After getting the Northern Star, I fell down to the lowest part of First Cave and then shot through the floor. Took a while since it was 8 blocks stacked on top of each other but I eventually managed to do it.

How was I supposed to know to do that? Or that the large spiked balls damaged other entities? Or literally anything else about the boss fight other than "shoot it until it dies" like any other Cave Story boss?

It doesn't matter if the yellow critters don't see far or move fast. They have obscenely high health and kill you in a single hit. Instant kill enemies are never a good idea unless they're as immobile as Presses. You even completely threw out the "near-sighted and slow" shtick with the Rainbow Critters who do over 4000 damage on contact, jump quickly and with varied distances, shoot random and nearly unavoidable sprays of bullets, and have even more health than yellow critters.

Them regaining their health every 3 or so frames, or at all for that matter, is both unneccessary and unfair to the player. As you saw in my screenshot, I had done over 50 damage to each of them with the LEVEL 3 BLADE and they hadn't died.

How was I supposed to know that it was a legitimate puzzle and not just more TSC errors? Also, you really need to let the player know that it's an actual puzzle and possibly hint at how to solve it instead of just throwing them into three nearly identical corridors. As things stood before you posted, I assumed that your TSC completely failed, prematurely ending the mod.

 

So you were supposed to be able to deal 64 damage to them within 2 frames?? That is, within 1/25th of a second?
This seems like really poor design, which is fitting if the rest of season's post is anything to go by.

There's a lot more than "a few." Nobody will care how many tricks you can pull with assembly if your level designs are utter garbage. You need to seriously hold back on the assembly and work on the actual meat of the mod.

Where was this alleged Rainbow Critter boss? I legitimately never even ran across it. The missed life capsules can also be attributed to your level design, or lack thereof. They're either hidden behind blocks that you would have to randomly shoot in order to notice or walled off behind clusterfucks of spikes and enemies.

After getting the Northern Star, I fell down to the lowest part of First Cave and then shot through the floor. Took a while since it was 8 blocks stacked on top of each other but I eventually managed to do it.

How was I supposed to know to do that? Or that the large spiked balls damaged other entities? Or literally anything else about the boss fight other than "shoot it until it dies" like any other Cave Story boss?

It doesn't matter if the yellow critters don't see far or move fast. They have obscenely high health and kill you in a single hit. Instant kill enemies are never a good idea unless they're as immobile as Presses. You even completely threw out the "near-sighted and slow" shtick with the Rainbow Critters who do over 4000 damage on contact, jump quickly and with varied distances, shoot random and nearly unavoidable sprays of bullets, and have even more health than yellow critters.

Them regaining their health every 3 or so frames, or at all for that matter, is both unneccessary and unfair to the player. As you saw in my screenshot, I had done over 50 damage to each of them with the LEVEL 3 BLADE and they hadn't died.

How was I supposed to know that it was a legitimate puzzle and not just more TSC errors? Also, you really need to let the player know that it's an actual puzzle and possibly hint at how to solve it instead of just throwing them into three nearly identical corridors. As things stood before you posted, I assumed that your TSC completely failed, prematurely ending the mod.

I've already done that like a week ago, and looks like I'm going to nerf the difficulty and stats of the enemies AGAIN -_-
I just didn't want to nerf them too much, as I wanted to still be able to use some of them late game.
I'm trying my best to fix the level designs, but some tileset colours were screwed up and I really don't have time to recolour them.

"A few" is an insane understatement. Every level is fucking awfully designed.

Make an actual way to figure out where they are then?

Broken level design

Maybe your level design wasn't good enough for Seasons to see them, you mean.

Fix this then?

This is still shit design please don't.

Make your descriptions less overly wordy then?

This is not obvious please do something to make it actually able to be solved by not just you.

The crashing sounds are one of the clues of what you are supposed to do, and also the spiky balls slightly pop out of their spots in the corners, and they are pretty easy to see, unless you are too fixed on the boss fight to notice them. Also, once you get the Missile Launcher level 3, you can one-shot the blue Fuzzes.
Oh yeah, by getting the Machine Gun, the game glitched and skipped you past an entire section of the Sand Zone!
And also, the Pink Critters and Blue Critters only deal extra damage if they land directly on top of you after a flight. Normally they do 8 damage.
I do bugtest my mod, but I don't take literally every path possible. You just happened to take one of the paths that I hadn't thought you would.

 

I'm trying my best to fix the level designs, but some tileset colours were screwed up and I really don't have time to recolour them.

Level design doesn't just refer to the level's aesthetics, it also refers to enemy placement, the map layout, save placement, etc etc. Basically all the things that come together to make the level "fun", as opposed to a death trap with little to no savepoints that only the most masochistic of individuals would put themselves through.

 

Level design doesn't just refer to the level's aesthetics, it also refers to enemy placement, the map layout, save placement, etc etc. Basically all the things that come together to make the level "fun", as opposed to a death trap with little to no savepoints that only the most masochistic of individuals would put themselves through.

Have you actually tried this mod? The part he referred to as all those spikes and stuff is only the start. Save points are rather abundant throughout the Sand Zone, it's just that he skipped a majority of the place by using the glitch, which I am trying to fix right now.

 

I do bugtest my mod, but I don't take literally every path possible. You just happened to take one of the paths that I hadn't thought you would.

Take literally every path possible when playtesting or take out the ones you aren't going to playtest. If you don't want to test an area then players sure as hell won't want to play it.

 

Take literally every path possible when playtesting or take out the ones you aren't going to playtest. If you don't want to test an area then players sure as hell won't want to play it.

Yeah okay, I'll try and make sure no path has any glitches

 

This channel can provide help with game creation in general, so I suggest going and watching some of their videos. I learned a whole bunch from them too, which I'm currently applying to the mod I'm making.

Edit: Sorry it's just one video, but I'm on mobile so I can't get the channel link.

 

Edit: Sorry it's just one video, but I'm on mobile so I can't get the channel link.

Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz

...And while I'm here, I can also recommend Game Makers Toolkit. (In part because Extra Credits haven't actually done many "game design" videos as of late, they've mostly been doing "game philosophy" videos.)
https://www.youtube.com/user/McBacon1337

 

Okay, decided to give the mod one more chance since you were kind enough to tell me how to get past that "puzzle." Also have to split it into three parts because I can only post 100 images per post. A weird limit, but whatever.

Spoiler: Loss of Sanity Ahead

time to do the thing

according to this, there is actually more to the mod

hello good sir
you seem to be stuck

HALLELUJAH
i guess

despite the fake blocks being kind of visible, these kinds of mazes are still unfun
especially with no map system

looks like someone skipped leg day

why the actual fuck did you put enemies in a fake block maze

oh, they wandered in
you should still make it so they can't fall in there because enemies of any kind in those kinds of mazes is not okay

"Core" should be on the same line as the period

pretty sure that's not how caves work
i mean, it probably makes sense
but most of the water turned into lava
how do you explain that?

[weapon energy intensifies]

hehehe

what in the fuck
i went through the teleporter in chaba's shop and popped out here
when the gaudi next to it said all the teleporters were knocked offline
??????

gonna just
restart my game real quick

"hey, do you know how to make a original, yet challenging version of the Labyrinth?"
"oh, i know! let's just fill it with fake block mazes and lava!"
"yes, perfect!"

forcing the player to take damage not once
BUT TWICE
for a life capsule is bad level design

fuck you

there's a random white pixel on that cross there

oh baby
also there wasn't any kind of "item get" music like with life capsules
was that intentional? i forget if the first one i got did it

fuck
OFF

>defends yellow critters by saying they have poor eyesight and movement speed
>hides them in places like these
yeah ok

i still don't understand why these lava drops are breakable and drop loot, but i'm okay with it
*grinds up to full health*

there was a flash
but no boss
what?

literally and metaphorically why did you wait until NOW to spawn the boss???

lemme just take a break to say that this entire boss fight is utter garbage
thank you for your time

i'm not going to touch those rainbow fish missiles after all the shit i've just flown through
but i'm willing to bet they one-shot me, given your """balance"""

nope, they do 12 damage
god damn

i killed the boss and a cat popped out
but it never told me the name of the boss
the fuck was that monster-like tank that was vaguely X-shaped?

there's a reason why every save point that was uncovered by star blocks fell down
if it's in the same spot as the star block, you spawn inside it upon reloading your save

why hide the life station all the way over there and in such a way
other than to be a dick

excuse you

i decided to abuse my 105 health and jumped down here to see if you left the lower part of the map intact
and i fell out of the mod
no death message or anything

remind me again why you thought this was okay

like
seriously
why???

the flying gaudi's bullets do entirely too much damage
17 with 105 is a lot more than 3 with however much you have in the main game

can you stop shooting me through the walls
please and thank

boy do i love pure, unadulterated enemy spam

an unescapable dead end
thanks a million

of all the places to put bullshit death traps
directly after two enemy-packed winding corridors is not one of them

why the actual fuck are there death spikes there

wat

original design/10
also if there's a death trap in here
i swear on me mum

F U C K
O F F
Y O U
P R I C K

how did i end up here?

fuck off

gee, i wonder what these blocks could be :^)

these slopes are broken

oh boy
time for Labyrinth M 2: Electric Boogaloo

are you joking

i distinctly remember telling you that this idea in particular was stupid
especially since the last save was 100 years ago

dick move tbh imo fam
(the death spikes)

for what purpose

willing to bet you never fixed that slope trapping you inside that room
not willing to test it out in fear that i'm right

how much do you want to bet that this thing does over 50 damage?

just as bad

and it had over 250 health
why the fuck

it's sad that what little dialogue you haven't changed sounds better than your original stuff

oh god please tell me you changed the berserk core

why are those sparkles and not just the life/save/ammo stations?

wake me up

wait what the fuck
why did that door work

epic lava/10

why is the top of the lava tank coated in lava and death spikes

i actually kind of liked this place's gimmick aside from those spikes and that lava glitch
the machine gun helped with various mistakes i made, and having to slow my descent to avoid falling into the lowering lava was neat
it even had a save outside the door
something you need to do WAY MORE OFTEN

ok the rising lava nearly caught me off guard
thank you based machine gun

wait when did i get the turbocharge

wake me up inside

i can't wake up

wake me up inside

SAAAAAAAAAAAAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEE

how have you not fixed this spelling error yet
it's "Berserk"
not "Beserk"

how exactly am i supposed to avoid this overpowered piece of shit in water physics without taking damage

remove these yellow shits already

IT'S FINE IF THE YELLOW ONES HAVE BAD EYESIGHT AND MOVEMENT SPEED
WHEN THESE BLACK ONES CAN SEE YOU FROM LITERALLY ACROSS THE ROOM AND JUMP AS HIGH AS THE CEILING

it's especially fine if you spam the things
i already killed one of the two yellow critters in this room

YOU HAVE TO TELL THE PLAYER WHERE BREATHABLE AIR IS
THIS ISN'T EVEN A LOGICAL PLACE TO PUT AN AIR POCKET

gee xin
i didn't know you had a kid

wat

w a t

w a t
also taking the left path = unavoidable death
not okay

what the fuck was the point of that

>fall down hole again
>die
ok

you can keep interacting with this to replay the "open" cutscene as many times as you want

To be continued...
mods prease undastandu