The level was enjoyable for the most part – it’s large, with enjoyable, action packed gameplay and a plethora of goodies to collect. It also makes decent usage of the Haunted House set. However, this level is most certainly not worth a 9.5. It’s not bad at all, but I wouldn’t go as far as calling it “amazing”, although I still recommend this.
Howling House
Single player, by Mac.Lynx,
requires 
The Secret Files
Description
This is a level I created about 2 years ago basing on the “haunted”-tileset from the secret files. Unfortunately, I don’t have Jazz Jackrabbit installed anymore so I’m not sure what’s up with the level in detail.
However, I thought it might be interesting for you since I’ve spent quite much time creating this level. It has LOTS of secrets and details in it, and you’ll definitely have to investigate a lot to find everything unless you check the level out with JCS.
I also tried to do the hard mode really hard (not just a little harder like in the “normal” levels).
As far as I can remember, there are some issues:
• Lighting effects don’t work (the game might can’t handle the size).
• The very end might be incomplete (I can remember that there is an empty room in a big house and the finish is just somewhere).
• I used some wires/thin tree branches as poles in between the house gaps. Sometimes you can unwillingly stay on them instead of being spun around them. If this happens, do a butt-stomp on them.
Please apologize if I put a wrong description or made a mistake in it – I’m not up-to-date about JJ-versions anymore. Also, since I’m unable to play the level right now, there’s no screenshot. :( Please have a look at it anyways!
Thank you!
Btw: there is a second file in the archive (“._Haunted_4.j2l”) which can be ignored – this is an example for a hidden file Mac OS X creates for their appearance preferences.
Credits & Acknowledgements
MacPhantom
Contains 2 Files
 ._Haunted_4.j2l |
/38.118.213.187/24z6wu7g68+/pers | 0.39 kB |
| Haunted_4.j2l |
Howling House | 23.55 kB |
Write a comment or review
You must log in to write a comment or review.
Reviews and comments
PurpleJazz 18 Mar 2010, 07:51 (edited 18 Mar 10, 07:52)
8
Impure Ace 7 Apr 2010, 15:30
10
Great level
abgrenv 3 Dec 2012, 15:16 (edited 3 Dec 12, 15:16)
8
Nice level though the last third of it can get confusing after a while. I had to walk the same path about 15 times which gets a bit irritating. Apart from that it was well made. It was quite long with lots of secrets. Though as I’ve mentioned the end was a bit too repetitive(could have used some text messages to help the player). By the way it was finished. There was a trigger crate that opened the area which lead to the end of the level. It was difficult to find it though. This however doesn’t ruin the level so I definitely recommend this.
Jahari 26 Feb 2010, 21:14 (edited 27 Feb 10, 18:44)
10
Amazing. You really should get JJ2 again and make more levels like this.
Bugs:
– The poles can be fixed by putting them in background layer 5
- The tiles as the base of hte staircases toward the end could have been fixed in a similar fashion (wall on layer 5, stairs on layer 4, floor below stairs on layer 3).
– The problem with the ambient lighting is due to the fact that this tileset doesn’t have enough palette entries to produce the lighting underwater. Only a few tilesets like Beach2 will let you do this. There’s an artifle on JCSRef about it.
The eyecandy is very good. You brought some new ideas to the table with things like the animated vines. It made it look like they were alive or dripping with something. Very cool. The background eyecandy was lacking. Some towers or something would have been enough. What amazes me is your use of the Haunted House tileset. It’s really hard to use. The eyecandy is very appealing except for at the very end where the staircases are stacked one on top of another.
Gameplay was fun and challenging. One part of the level has a pretty long series of trigger crates you have to smash. Normally, this would be boring but because the general structure of the level impedes you it’s fun. There are collapsing floors and well-timed jumps a-plenty. Pickup placement was very good – lots of secrets and such. I think the food items could have been used as a contrast rather than a compliment (peaches in a level that’s generally purple for example). The ammo was fine, and it had a practical use. I never did find all 20 coins, unfortunately.
The music could be changed. These would be my suggestions for something more original:
- Haunted Terrero: tek11bak.s3m
- All Hallow’s Eve: K_HALLOW.s3m
The problems with this level are very minor. If you decide to create more levels, you should try to integrate ideas from other people.
PS: How did you make the demons walk off the edge of the platforms? That could be a really useful gimmick.
Ktos. 26 Feb 2010, 22:00 (edited 26 Feb 10, 22:09)
The problem about ambient lighting is not because game can’t handle the size, I have got one sp level which size is 41kb and ambient lighting is working very good, but for example in my test lighting is not working. I have no idea why.
Edit: Level is not working for me, I don’t know why but i don’t have got this tileset in my TSF directory. Btw i remind something about lighting… Did you put water into level? If you did then its possibile that lighting will not work. I found an article about ambient lighting under water, and there was something about changing colour of water using ambient lighting, it was working only at 8bit. So if im sure, thats possibile why ambient lighting is not working in your level, but if you didn’t put water into level then i have no idea why that’s not working.