Would love some feedback on my level
Bare Bare Bluffs, SMB3
Code: 24L-XV9-JQF
A classic desert level. No nonsense Super Mario-platforming that hopefully wont make you want to tear your hair out.
Thank you for playing!
Not bad; I cleared it in one attempt, but it was an engaging experience, and I could see where I might slip up. The SMB3 theme is a good fit here, as the pacing and length would have reminded me of that game regardless, and you get a bit of aesthetic mileage out of the pipe-styled ground tiles. That one lonely 1-up spot that you have to hit with a shell was a nice touch. Both Mario Maker games have a problem with Piranha Plants spawning much later from pipes than in the original Mario games, so if you're going quickly you can't always see them coming; I'd be wary of players being ambushed by this, but the level had a lot of safety zones to work with, so I never got hit.
I can tell you adhered to the common wisdom about traditional levels to just focus on a few elements at a time (in your case: winged platforms, Piranha Plants, Paratroopas), and I think it paid off.
Uploaded my first level, if anyone is bored or interested in giving it a go.
Pitter-Patter, SM3DW
Code: LV9-6CY-FYG
A somewhat short level with a handful of (maybe) tricky spots. Was shooting for a "mild challenge".
Appreciate any feedback. Thanks!
Welcome to SMM2. I claimed the first clear on this level, but it took a fair bit of work, and it wasn't because the platforming was hard; as you said, the actual segments are at most a mild challenge.
The problem is the camera. This is a common first-timer's mistake, so don't feel too bad, as you won't be the first person here that I've scolded about it. Sometimes, when I play a level, I can just tell that it looks better in the editor than it does when you play it straight from the start. If you're only testing an obstacle or segment by dropping Mario into a certain position from the editor and just taking it from there, you're not going to have an accurate picture of how the camera scroll behaves for new players. Things will look more reasonable to you than it does to them.
For testing the camera: you don't need to run the whole stage from the start, but every time there is a pipe or door transition, enter the pipe or door from the other side so you force yourself to see where the player starts. That way you can get a sense of how the camera scroll works, when objects come into view, and how much visibility the player has for what's coming. Otherwise, most of the difficulty won't come from platforming, but from blind guesswork.
It's especially a problem in any of the airship themes (which include the 3DW circus theme), because the camera bobs up and down, which creates visibility problems for the floor and the ceiling. In your level, you have a lot going on that either puts the player on top of the bottom row, or pushes them up towards the top row. This is a big problem because if you don't already know what the level looks like going in, there are multiple places where, if you arrive at a certain timing, you can't actually see the floor, and can't tell if there are blocks there or an empty pit. Just as one example, I died twice to the clear pipe exit right before the goal flag because I couldn't see what was going on down there while the camera was bobbing—my first time there I didn't know there were donut blocks, and I also didn't know that getting there as Super Mario would force me to crouch in the one-tile gap between the donut blocks and the pipe (which meant I couldn't just stop the donut blocks from falling by jumping up and down).
That brings me to the second problem: if you put power-ups in your stage, you need to test all of them. In the editor, you can feed Mario a power-up before you hit Play if you need to test him in a certain state. There were several parts of this level that feel like they were only tested against small Mario. For example, before you get the first key, you feed the player one Fire Flower and two Mushrooms... only to force the player to do a fidgety wall jump into a one-tile gap. That forces skilled players who kept their power-ups to intentionally take damage. Likewise, the pipe exit at the goal flag might make sense as a final check on the player (get off these donut blocks quickly and get past the Bully)... except that you're forced to crouch if you get there while big.
Some makers like to get around this by inflicting unavoidable damage to force small Mario. No need to do that. Just playtest to accommodate all the power-ups you put in the level. If the player is allowed to be big, make sure they have enough headroom throughout the level while big. (The track block segment with the bees is an example of a part where you
can get through while big, but it feels pretty rough.)
Finally: entering doors from vertically moving surfaces is never fun. I've never seen it done well—not with seesaws, not with lifts, and certainly not with the falling donut blocks you have here. It doesn't come off as hard because everybody knows what to do, but it's very unreliable—especially with the weird parallax in the 3DW theme where you can be a little off-centre and misread how far you are from the wall. I died a few times just failing to enter the door.
Don't worry too much about revising this level; just keep these principles in mind for future creations.
