Ok, I’ll be gentle with this. This won’t be a regular review of mine because… well, this level’s short and seems unfinished. Instead I will just point out the things this level can be improved upon (if necessary I’ll do it in dutch, the filename is dutch)
Lay-out
The lay-out on its own is straight-forward: walk straight forward, enter a warp, walk some more while killing baddies till you meet the boss. The main thing is it’s way too short. I can understand the author intended it for beginning players, but still, it can be made just a bit longer. Also, you can just jump over the boss area and fall endlessly.
Tileset Use and Eye Candy
The second worst offender of this level. The background immediatly shows the author needs to learn some skill before publishing her work: none of the layers have been resized, so the sky doesn’t look the way it should. The eye candy is basic, and incomplete: I see turnips and carrots with out their tops. I’ve also spotted some tile bugs here and there.
At least she know how to make animations: those twinkly stars. Unfortunately she didn’t see the stars are masked
Events
That’s the worst offender. Anyone who’s played this level may have noticed that at the end, the boss music plays, but there’s no boss. Well, a quick trip to TSF JCS reveals why: it only appears on easy mode. That makes no sense! It’s a training level, why is it set on easy only? Better would have been to set it on hard for more experienced players. As for the rest, the only thing worth mentioning are:
- there are hardly any enemies, no ammo, just a shield and just one piece of food: a coconut.
- there’s a gem crate near the warp, with heaps of gems (15 of each)
- the boss area has End of Level. events. The boss doesn’t show up, but come on! This makes the level less than a cakewalk.
Miscellaneous
What do you know? The next level setting is missing, as well as the music. And as noted it’s TSF only (v. 1.24!). That’s all.
Verdict and Final Thoughts
I may have seemed harsher than usual, but believe me: other are even worse than me. I know the author is inexperienced, but it’s usually a good idea to learn some skills first before you publish a level. Sorry to say this,
but this is just junk. Here’s some tips, if you want to be a good level maker, follow them:
1) Learn how to resize layers. It’s easy, and for layer 8 it’s a cakewalk: just check “Texture mode” to resize to 8 × 8. All textured backgrounds have that size.
2) See how tiles fit together. It’s easy to make a level ugly if you just slap some tiles on a level.
3) Make some smal levels first for practice, but don’t publish them. Instead, show them to friends and ask what they think of it, learn from it. Make each level longer than the last, trying something new each time.
4) Find out the filename of the level, and the music you want to use. The level is for the Next Level Setting (setting it blank doesn’t mean it will loop) and the music is selfexplanatory
- JelZe GoldRabbit =:3