CSTSF 2016 Modding Competition Discussion & Submission Thread
- Thread starter Tpcool
- Start date
Jul 7, 2016 at 5:28 PM
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- I may be more serious in my notes, but that's because I want to point out errors with them. When you say "lighthearted," you actually just toss around foul language for the hell of it and make "jokes" for the sake of making jokes without any kind of relevance to the mod itself. See: <TURd, etc.
- You say you saw tiling errors, yet you didn't specify where; you merely took a screenshot of the entire screen. The way I see it, it's a road with a roof consisting of natural stone and a patch of bricks separating it from the rest of the cave it intersects with.
- Thank you. I tried my best to avoid the whole "everything is flat and boring" problem that a few mods suffer from.
- There should be no difficulty spike, though? If you do everything right, you should only need to make three jumps, and you can take all the time in the world to make two of those three jumps.
On to the recent submissions...
my my, that sure is a lot of extra junk in the mod folder, though i guess that's necessary for whatever extra stuff you added
the player's physics feel a little sluggish
methinks what you added is causing some lag
music room is neat, though its door lacking a door frame bugs me slightly (same goes for the room you start in)
the actual game's intro text could be a little less shaky, to be honest
also, Esc exiting out of the game and not pausing it is bothersome considering that the game doesn't automatically pause when you click off it anymore
gross, i can't even skip the game intro
oh nevermind, it needs Esc
which i don't think you told the player
the "game over" screen is too long
literally impossible
also, the final level's required amount of dead cats spills off the edge of the screen
i'm pretty sure a few cats (read: hundreds) got past me
this should probably be on one line
the player's physics feel a little sluggish
methinks what you added is causing some lag
music room is neat, though its door lacking a door frame bugs me slightly (same goes for the room you start in)
the actual game's intro text could be a little less shaky, to be honest
also, Esc exiting out of the game and not pausing it is bothersome considering that the game doesn't automatically pause when you click off it anymore
gross, i can't even skip the game intro
oh nevermind, it needs Esc
which i don't think you told the player
the "game over" screen is too long
literally impossible
also, the final level's required amount of dead cats spills off the edge of the screen
i'm pretty sure a few cats (read: hundreds) got past me
this should probably be on one line
It was neat, sure, but it was also fairly short. The different levels could have probably used something to make them different from one another aside from names, and the final level is a little unbalanced given how many cats "fall" towards you.
The mod's window name along with Studio Pixel and the version number being unchanged concern me
one ellipses is two periods long while the second one is four periods long
>flaming dick masturbation
you should probably get that checked out, kazuma
i know this isn't necessarily your fault, but clicking out of the game window while the voice acting is saying something cuts it off, causing it to get skipped over by the time you click back onto it
yes i wanna save
are you sure that was the healing sound, mr. VA man
>there wasn't a voice clip for taking damage
0/10
uh
is there any reason why that's in moonrunes?
"gun" should probably be capitalized
the VA kind of got desynced with the automatic text in the second Kazuma cutscene
I don't know why, but the inventory screen randomly flickers in and out of existence whenever I open it
and now "shit" needs to be capitalized
needs another period
needs another period
needs another period AND a space
ok a lot of your ellipses are missing periods
it's three, not two
>no VA of Toroko freaking out when you crash down in front of her
0/10
>no VA for the sprinkler
0/10
jack you creep
make up your mind on the capitalization already
jeez
whoa who the h*ck is Quote
it's easy at times to press Z to skip dialogue and ultimately end the event while the VA is still talking
your humor relies a little too heavily on foul language tbh
it's the easy way out
wait why is this in moonrunes, too
where did mr. little go
wait where'd sue and igor go
what did he mean by this
when you talk to Cthulhu again, he doesn't exhale a cloud of smoke a second time
0/10
i accidentally skipped over the letter's text due to it using <TUR
oops
oh it's over
one ellipses is two periods long while the second one is four periods long
>flaming dick masturbation
you should probably get that checked out, kazuma
i know this isn't necessarily your fault, but clicking out of the game window while the voice acting is saying something cuts it off, causing it to get skipped over by the time you click back onto it
yes i wanna save
are you sure that was the healing sound, mr. VA man
>there wasn't a voice clip for taking damage
0/10
uh
is there any reason why that's in moonrunes?
"gun" should probably be capitalized
the VA kind of got desynced with the automatic text in the second Kazuma cutscene
I don't know why, but the inventory screen randomly flickers in and out of existence whenever I open it
and now "shit" needs to be capitalized
needs another period
needs another period
needs another period AND a space
ok a lot of your ellipses are missing periods
it's three, not two
>no VA of Toroko freaking out when you crash down in front of her
0/10
>no VA for the sprinkler
0/10
jack you creep
make up your mind on the capitalization already
jeez
whoa who the h*ck is Quote
it's easy at times to press Z to skip dialogue and ultimately end the event while the VA is still talking
your humor relies a little too heavily on foul language tbh
it's the easy way out
wait why is this in moonrunes, too
where did mr. little go
wait where'd sue and igor go
what did he mean by this
when you talk to Cthulhu again, he doesn't exhale a cloud of smoke a second time
0/10
i accidentally skipped over the letter's text due to it using <TUR
oops
oh it's over
Despite looking like yet another "Cave Story, but Slightly Different" given the screenshot along with it being literally Cave Story upon playing it, it was somewhat passable. However, your usage of NICE wasn't used thoroughly enough if it was going to be your only gimmick. There were quite a few objects that didn't receive voiceovers. There's also the whole "Cave Story, but Slightly Different" thing; if you changed anything else, I probably would have liked it more, but it was just Cave Story with voice acting.
okay let's do thi-
triggered
I'll give this a go later, but knowing you this is probably suicide.
ok wow uh
you should've told the player that you start with an invisible Booster v2.0
I was hoping you'd fix this horrid tiling.
You didn't.
I don't know why, but sometimes the hit effects or death smoke from dying critters flies off the screen at supersonic speeds.
holy shit why do you get so little money from demolishing towers
jesus christ dude i only have bubbler towers
>super missiles don't have infinite range
>they disappear before they can do anything
>forcing me to waste over $150
gee thanks
probably gonna lose this round now thanks to that loss of firepower
ok good you don't instantly die when a critter reaches you
at least you learned that much
something is restoring my health but i don't know what
FUCKING RAINBOW CRITTER GET OUT OF MY LEVEL
what i've learned from level 1:
- Polar Star is literally worthless. Shoots too slow even at Level 3.
- Bubbler is just as decent as the others said.
- Spur is just as overpowered as the others said.
- Level 3 Blade is decent for crowd control.
- Super Missile is just as underwhelming as the others said. Just make more Spurs.
- Destroying towers is really stupid because it barely gives you any of your money back. Fuck up and place a bad type of tower in an important location? Say goodbye to your dosh.
this music really is starting to get irritating due to it looping throughout every single level
err
round 22 in egg corridor instantly ended for me
My Level 3 Fireballs have been wrecking everything up until now, but these things couldn't care less.
WAAAAAY too much HP.
and i can't even get more money since they kill themselves after hurting me
and i can't scrap more towers since they give so little money
like really, i demolished a level 3 fireball tower, which took $175 to make, and only got around $10 back
i forgot to mention this, but this tiling is also bad
way too much empty space
also, please remove any and all spikes in the playing area
they shouldn't be there whatsoever
now level 7 instantly cleared
that feel when you're literally 1 buck away from another spur upgrade
why can't there be a repair option
this is literally just "save up for Spur towers: the game"
no other option is safe
every single one of my towers is a level 3 spur tower
wow
such strategy
NOT EVEN ALL THE TOWERS BEING LEVEL 3 SPUR TOWERS COULD STOP THIS THING
R E M O V E
R A I N B O W
C R I T T E R S
time to skip
1. remove spikes
2. bad slope
bad slope 2: electric boogaloo
>Want to re-die?
gee, i wonder what mod you built this off of...
and yet again, you have to put in at least one way to die per screen
even when it serves no purpose
are you serious
did you actually put DEATH SPIKES in one of your maps?
1. hory shet i'm a critter
cool
2. this tiling is even worse
literally why
why don't i get super jumps like the normal rainbow critters
this is rigged
i can't get up
and why do i only get 200hp
the other rainbow critter had at least 500
why did you make it so hard to figure out where to go
now to check out hardcore mode
good joke
triggered
I'll give this a go later, but knowing you this is probably suicide.
ok wow uh
you should've told the player that you start with an invisible Booster v2.0
I was hoping you'd fix this horrid tiling.
You didn't.
I don't know why, but sometimes the hit effects or death smoke from dying critters flies off the screen at supersonic speeds.
holy shit why do you get so little money from demolishing towers
jesus christ dude i only have bubbler towers
>super missiles don't have infinite range
>they disappear before they can do anything
>forcing me to waste over $150
gee thanks
probably gonna lose this round now thanks to that loss of firepower
ok good you don't instantly die when a critter reaches you
at least you learned that much
something is restoring my health but i don't know what
FUCKING RAINBOW CRITTER GET OUT OF MY LEVEL
what i've learned from level 1:
- Polar Star is literally worthless. Shoots too slow even at Level 3.
- Bubbler is just as decent as the others said.
- Spur is just as overpowered as the others said.
- Level 3 Blade is decent for crowd control.
- Super Missile is just as underwhelming as the others said. Just make more Spurs.
- Destroying towers is really stupid because it barely gives you any of your money back. Fuck up and place a bad type of tower in an important location? Say goodbye to your dosh.
this music really is starting to get irritating due to it looping throughout every single level
err
round 22 in egg corridor instantly ended for me
My Level 3 Fireballs have been wrecking everything up until now, but these things couldn't care less.
WAAAAAY too much HP.
and i can't even get more money since they kill themselves after hurting me
and i can't scrap more towers since they give so little money
like really, i demolished a level 3 fireball tower, which took $175 to make, and only got around $10 back
i forgot to mention this, but this tiling is also bad
way too much empty space
also, please remove any and all spikes in the playing area
they shouldn't be there whatsoever
now level 7 instantly cleared
that feel when you're literally 1 buck away from another spur upgrade
why can't there be a repair option
this is literally just "save up for Spur towers: the game"
no other option is safe
every single one of my towers is a level 3 spur tower
wow
such strategy
NOT EVEN ALL THE TOWERS BEING LEVEL 3 SPUR TOWERS COULD STOP THIS THING
R E M O V E
R A I N B O W
C R I T T E R S
time to skip
1. remove spikes
2. bad slope
bad slope 2: electric boogaloo
>Want to re-die?
gee, i wonder what mod you built this off of...
and yet again, you have to put in at least one way to die per screen
even when it serves no purpose
are you serious
did you actually put DEATH SPIKES in one of your maps?
1. hory shet i'm a critter
cool
2. this tiling is even worse
literally why
why don't i get super jumps like the normal rainbow critters
this is rigged
i can't get up
and why do i only get 200hp
the other rainbow critter had at least 500
why did you make it so hard to figure out where to go
now to check out hardcore mode
good joke
Sure enough, you made a tower defense-esque game in Cave Story. I personally haven't played very many tower defense games, though this was pretty neat. However, there are quite a few issues with it:
- The designs of the levels are incredibly lazy in most of the maps. Empty space, reuse of the same block tile for entire maps, broken slopes, etc.
- The inclusion of spikes in 90% of the levels. Combined with your lack of invincibility frames, they are incredibly inconvenient. I know I should be surprised that you thought it was a good idea to place a death spike in the final level, but then again...
- The towers themselves are very unbalanced. Even with a moderately damaging tower like the Level 3 Fireball tower, it becomes impossible to recover if you don't start buying Spur towers as soon as possible. You're not even allowed to experiment with the towers and gauge how good each one is due to how little money you get back from demolished towers. In some cases, not even the strongest tower in the game, the Spur tower, can win you the level, which brings me to...
- The critters are similarly unbalanced. Roughly the first half of the game is fine, but once you get to the indigo critters, dark blue power critters, and the rainbow critter it starts to get unfair. The indigo critters are fast, come in huge swarms, have quite a bit of health, and do more damage than the other critters. I have had cases where not even an entire hallway of Level 2 Spur towers could stop them. The dark blue power critters have an unholy amount of health and phases, as well as the ability to split into even more full-health critters upon death. Again, I struggled with these ones even with numerous overpowered Spur towers. Finally, there's the elephant in the room: the rainbow critter. You apparently decided to throw out everything you learned from its use in the past and revert it back to its former "glory": obscene amounts of health, quick speed, and the ability to do over 4000 damage on contact. Not even an entire armada of Level 3 Spur towers can put this thing down.
- The Bonus Room seemed rushed. For a majority of the map, you used a single type of tile. The controls for the Rainbow Critter were very unclear and the Rainbow Critter itself was very awkward to control. You are limited to 200 HP, far lower than the amount normal Rainbow Critters get. It was really easy to get lost and jump off a cliff thinking it was the way to go. You didn't use <PRI at the end of the map, so I could still hear myself taking damage once everything faded out.
- The designs of the levels are incredibly lazy in most of the maps. Empty space, reuse of the same block tile for entire maps, broken slopes, etc.
- The inclusion of spikes in 90% of the levels. Combined with your lack of invincibility frames, they are incredibly inconvenient. I know I should be surprised that you thought it was a good idea to place a death spike in the final level, but then again...
- The towers themselves are very unbalanced. Even with a moderately damaging tower like the Level 3 Fireball tower, it becomes impossible to recover if you don't start buying Spur towers as soon as possible. You're not even allowed to experiment with the towers and gauge how good each one is due to how little money you get back from demolished towers. In some cases, not even the strongest tower in the game, the Spur tower, can win you the level, which brings me to...
- The critters are similarly unbalanced. Roughly the first half of the game is fine, but once you get to the indigo critters, dark blue power critters, and the rainbow critter it starts to get unfair. The indigo critters are fast, come in huge swarms, have quite a bit of health, and do more damage than the other critters. I have had cases where not even an entire hallway of Level 2 Spur towers could stop them. The dark blue power critters have an unholy amount of health and phases, as well as the ability to split into even more full-health critters upon death. Again, I struggled with these ones even with numerous overpowered Spur towers. Finally, there's the elephant in the room: the rainbow critter. You apparently decided to throw out everything you learned from its use in the past and revert it back to its former "glory": obscene amounts of health, quick speed, and the ability to do over 4000 damage on contact. Not even an entire armada of Level 3 Spur towers can put this thing down.
- The Bonus Room seemed rushed. For a majority of the map, you used a single type of tile. The controls for the Rainbow Critter were very unclear and the Rainbow Critter itself was very awkward to control. You are limited to 200 HP, far lower than the amount normal Rainbow Critters get. It was really easy to get lost and jump off a cliff thinking it was the way to go. You didn't use <PRI at the end of the map, so I could still hear myself taking damage once everything faded out.
Last edited:
Jul 7, 2016 at 7:10 PM
Join Date: Jun 27, 2013
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Age: 29
Pronouns: She/Her
A new mod has entered the competition!
--Story--
--Bug Fixes--
Download
It is the year 2647, and the evil General Mitch has taken over Grubland and is currently in his base in Planet CXG. Meanwhile, Judith Estrella has already been though multiple levels (of a non-existant game), and has collected the three elements that could be used to create a weapon strong enough to defeat Mitch. Now that she is at full power, can Judith defeat General Mitch in time and liberate her country?
--Bug Fixes--
V1.1 - Prevented exploit for enemies not hurting you in Yoku Block room.
Download
Last edited:
Jul 7, 2016 at 11:48 PM
Eevee Enthusiast
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Join Date: Mar 26, 2014
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General poor behaviour/treatment of other users
Uh huh, sure. You usually only do it when you're not enjoying an aspect of a mod.
light·heart·ed
[ˌlītˈhärdəd]
ADJECTIVE
- cheerful and carefree:
"excited, lighthearted chatter"
synonyms: carefree · cheerful · cheery · happy · merry · glad
Jul 7, 2016 at 11:50 PM
Join Date: Aug 28, 2009
Location: The Purple Zone
Posts: 5998
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you guys are both very nitpicky. You can disagree with a stylistic choice (eg two-period ellipsis instead of 3) but that doesn't necessarily make it wrong. just sayin.
Jul 8, 2016 at 12:04 AM
Eevee Enthusiast
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Since when were proper ellipsis allowed to be two periods long? I've only heard of three-period ones. 'sides, I'm a bit of a stickler when it comes to spelling/grammar in mods.
Jul 8, 2016 at 12:07 AM
Join Date: May 28, 2008
Location: PMMM MMO
Posts: 3713
Age: 32
Proper ellipsis aren't allowed to be just 2 periods long. But that doesn't mean its not a nitpick, because it's generally an inconsequential detail. I'd comment on it as a general thing to correct, but I wouldn't bring too much focus to it.
Jul 8, 2016 at 12:19 AM
Eevee Enthusiast
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I know it was a nitpicky thing to point out. If I knew it was going to be that common, I would've just made a note to consider fixing them all, but I only realized that three or four mistakes in.
do not
Jul 8, 2016 at 2:12 AM
Join Date: May 28, 2008
Location: PMMM MMO
Posts: 3713
Age: 32
A new mod has entered the competition!
--Story--
It is the year 2647, and the evil General Mitch has taken over Grubland and is currently in his base in Planet CXG. Meanwhile, Judith Estrella has already been though multiple levels (of a non-existant game), and has collected the three elements that could be used to create a weapon strong enough to defeat Mitch. Now that she is at full power, can Judith defeat General Mitch in time and liberate her country?
--Bug Fixes--
V1.1 - Prevented exploit for enemies not hurting you in Yoku Block room.
Download
Ok so this was interesting and fun to play, although a bit short. The laser things that spawn as you fall were neat but there's 1 room (with a save right before it thankfully) where it's pure trial and error since the only way to know how to dodge them here is to die 3 or so times on the way down (especially with how in order to dodge one set you have to be in the middle and then RIGHT AFTER THAT there's a set right in the middle you have to dodge). This would be a neat challenge if you could actually see the lasers before you fall into them, otherwise its a leap of faith that you can only get past after learning the pattern.
As for the boss:
The first boss being the not-doctor was alright, mostly just spammed him to death with my fireball and used his body to get iframes at a cheap cost of 3hp.
The second boss is kind of a nightmare though. Normally bosses have attack patterns, but this one just spawns enemies left and right with no discernible reason as to why. I wish this boss was more readable/predictable.
Also there are H/V triggers in this fight??? This wouldn't be so bad if they didn't steal your temporary invulnerability, which adds another layer of fake difficulty to this already randomly difficult fight.
I eventually learned how I think you're supposed to do the fight? (keep moving, shoot a bunch on the left, fly to the other side, shoot a bunch there) But I'm not sure how I was supposed to know how to do this other than trial and error since the boss doesn't really have any patterns. This strategy mostly works because you get hit by the flying fishes less.
After the credits there's a room with a save and a heal and a door that is locked?? This ending is confusing and I feel like there's more but I just can't get to it. This leaves me unsatisfied, if this is really all there is to the mod I'd recommend just removing this room entirely.
The second boss is kind of a nightmare though. Normally bosses have attack patterns, but this one just spawns enemies left and right with no discernible reason as to why. I wish this boss was more readable/predictable.
Also there are H/V triggers in this fight??? This wouldn't be so bad if they didn't steal your temporary invulnerability, which adds another layer of fake difficulty to this already randomly difficult fight.
I eventually learned how I think you're supposed to do the fight? (keep moving, shoot a bunch on the left, fly to the other side, shoot a bunch there) But I'm not sure how I was supposed to know how to do this other than trial and error since the boss doesn't really have any patterns. This strategy mostly works because you get hit by the flying fishes less.
After the credits there's a room with a save and a heal and a door that is locked?? This ending is confusing and I feel like there's more but I just can't get to it. This leaves me unsatisfied, if this is really all there is to the mod I'd recommend just removing this room entirely.
Jul 8, 2016 at 2:19 AM
Join Date: Jun 27, 2013
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There will be more to that room, but for a separate project. When that will be made, I'm still not sure yet.
Jul 8, 2016 at 2:22 AM
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Location: East Coast America
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Can all of the submissions be added to the original post so it doesn't take ages for me to find each one?
Jul 8, 2016 at 2:23 AM
Eevee Enthusiast
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I can see that happening once we hit the real deadline.
Jul 8, 2016 at 2:30 AM
Tommy Thunder
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Yeah, what @SeasonsOfDestiny said. I'll be making a new thread for voting once the deadline hits, and once that happens I'll make a nice, clean list of the entries in the first post.
Jul 8, 2016 at 8:59 AM
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being lighthearted in 1/16 of your post doesn't count
Jul 8, 2016 at 3:01 PM
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Since I said I would write home about The Final Level; I guess now's a good a time as any.
Most people have said what I would have for the most part I'll keep it brief.
I can't wait for the mod's sequel/finish one day. You have something really good going on here.
Most people have said what I would have for the most part I'll keep it brief.
The intro was really good; Felt like a really high quality mod; especially with the characters; music and level
I just lovelovelovelove cute little girls ohcomehereIwannasqueezeyousotightawww
I like the idea that you are thrown into the middle of a story; it just made it feel more real? and better told this way?
The level itself was kinda... meh nothing spectacular since you used modified vanilla tilesets and vanilla enemies.
Mitch is a badass
The dialogue before phase 1 is pretty ok; I like the references to the creator and I just like dialouge that's decently written anyway. ^^
Boss phase two isn't really all that good; to be perfectly honest (I hate to say it since you've prolly put a lot of time into it) It was a big letdown. When I saw it appear I was expecting the spikes on the neck to be animated and for Mitch to let out two giant hands that he would try to crush you with. As another attack he would smash hit head on the ground and try to hit you that way after restricting your movements with his hands and I though that lazers would come out of the fish missile slots.
Then I saw he was made out of tiles and it was a H/V trigger boss.
WHAT HAPPENED TO [insert protagonists name here] COUSINS!?!?!
I like the idea that you are thrown into the middle of a story; it just made it feel more real? and better told this way?
The level itself was kinda... meh nothing spectacular since you used modified vanilla tilesets and vanilla enemies.
Mitch is a badass
The dialogue before phase 1 is pretty ok; I like the references to the creator and I just like dialouge that's decently written anyway. ^^
Boss phase two isn't really all that good; to be perfectly honest (I hate to say it since you've prolly put a lot of time into it) It was a big letdown. When I saw it appear I was expecting the spikes on the neck to be animated and for Mitch to let out two giant hands that he would try to crush you with. As another attack he would smash hit head on the ground and try to hit you that way after restricting your movements with his hands and I though that lazers would come out of the fish missile slots.
Then I saw he was made out of tiles and it was a H/V trigger boss.
WHAT HAPPENED TO [insert protagonists name here] COUSINS!?!?!
I can't wait for the mod's sequel/finish one day. You have something really good going on here.