9th March 2022, 10:00 PM
Yes, I am still playing this game about as much as ever. It's one of the greatest things ever. And so, I made another level. This one is my 16th stage.
Cat Claw Clinging - This level is a Super Mario 3D World stage all about the cat suit's ability to hang on metal grilles and trees. This is my first level with a clear condition, and I use the don't touch the ground one. When used to make levels where you have to stay on the ground, Don't Touch the Ground is insufferably tedious... but when used the opposite way, such as here, it's great! For the most part this is a platformer stage about jumping between places you can grab on to that would work with or without the clear condition, but there are some points where the clear condition matters and makes the stage harder. I think it's a pretty well-made stage with a good challenge level. It's tough, but not one of my hardest levels, certainly. It's not easier but is a lot less challenging than my last stage. And at a clear check time of only 53 second it's one of my shorter levels too. I had fun laying out the obstacles and grilles and such. The level is mostly just 'learn the jumps', but one part is a bit tricky -- the level is mostly another of my enemy-free stages, but one section has enemies: you have to bounce on bees through one part. It's a bit tricky because you have to line up the jumps just right or you will get hit and fall.
And on that note, I decided to fully mark out where to jump from in this level with coins. I'm inconsistent at whether to mark jumps or not; for the most part, I think that as long as a jump is visible and not something off screen, you should be able to do it without the additional help of an indicator. Indicators on jumps are a difficulty-reducing crutch often used by Mario Maker creators that Nintendo would never use so blatantly in one of their games. However, there are a few parts of this stage where I thought marking the jump points would be very helpful to reduce player frustration. And once I had started, I decided to just continue on and add coins between every platform. Why not.
Oh, this level makes frequent use of a move not listed on the controls page: if you start a cat claw dive with R, then hit the R button again while in the dive, you will cancel it and return to a normal jump. You can't do another dive without landing or grabbing on to something, though. I use this feature a bunch of times for maneuvering around obstacles. I decided to put in a hint room at the start saying to press R in a dive to cancel it, for anyone who is playing the level but doesn't know that. Sure, at this point maybe all of the few people playing this level already know that, but I'd rather help people out.
Code: D9L-F3K-PMG
Cat Claw Clinging - This level is a Super Mario 3D World stage all about the cat suit's ability to hang on metal grilles and trees. This is my first level with a clear condition, and I use the don't touch the ground one. When used to make levels where you have to stay on the ground, Don't Touch the Ground is insufferably tedious... but when used the opposite way, such as here, it's great! For the most part this is a platformer stage about jumping between places you can grab on to that would work with or without the clear condition, but there are some points where the clear condition matters and makes the stage harder. I think it's a pretty well-made stage with a good challenge level. It's tough, but not one of my hardest levels, certainly. It's not easier but is a lot less challenging than my last stage. And at a clear check time of only 53 second it's one of my shorter levels too. I had fun laying out the obstacles and grilles and such. The level is mostly just 'learn the jumps', but one part is a bit tricky -- the level is mostly another of my enemy-free stages, but one section has enemies: you have to bounce on bees through one part. It's a bit tricky because you have to line up the jumps just right or you will get hit and fall.
And on that note, I decided to fully mark out where to jump from in this level with coins. I'm inconsistent at whether to mark jumps or not; for the most part, I think that as long as a jump is visible and not something off screen, you should be able to do it without the additional help of an indicator. Indicators on jumps are a difficulty-reducing crutch often used by Mario Maker creators that Nintendo would never use so blatantly in one of their games. However, there are a few parts of this stage where I thought marking the jump points would be very helpful to reduce player frustration. And once I had started, I decided to just continue on and add coins between every platform. Why not.
Oh, this level makes frequent use of a move not listed on the controls page: if you start a cat claw dive with R, then hit the R button again while in the dive, you will cancel it and return to a normal jump. You can't do another dive without landing or grabbing on to something, though. I use this feature a bunch of times for maneuvering around obstacles. I decided to put in a hint room at the start saying to press R in a dive to cancel it, for anyone who is playing the level but doesn't know that. Sure, at this point maybe all of the few people playing this level already know that, but I'd rather help people out.
Code: D9L-F3K-PMG