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LittleBigPlanet: Water! Kraken Infested Pirates of the Caribbean Levels, 12-22-09
Posts
http://www.audioentropy.com/
I tend to make gadgets and never publish them rather than making cool levels, tho I did have an idea for a level recently. My coworkers have complained that, due to the number of people they've introduced to LBP, they've played through the beginning levels a zillion times and are sick of them. I thought it would be cool to make a new set of tutorial levels to keep things fresh for seasoned players while still being fun and informative for new players.
(PS3 Firmware is updating as I type)
I can try it out later tonight.
Going to play it right now.
Err, I would be if I didn't have to update as well.
Also play around with lights a bit so that the front sides of the clouds in Heaven aren't dark.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
OK, played it with you...
PROS: Liked the platforming bits, the rotating platforms were really cool. The glass L thing was a little hard, but like you saw it only took a couple tries to get the idea.
I don't think it is too easy or hard; I feel like I should die a couple times on my first playthrough of a level.
I liked how you somehow kept the fire from hurting Sackboy. Not sure how you did it, but if I had to guess I would say... a super thin layer of invisible dark matter just above the fire? Just a guess.
CONS: Like Speed said, the clouds should be lit up, and the overall lighting could be improved. That is probably done last, though, so I'm sure you haven't worried about that too much yet.
One of your platforms has a split section (on fire) that you have to jump through. I didn't see that at first and only knew what to do because I saw you do it.
Really good, so far.
Thanks for the feedback
I think you're the only person who tried it after I adjusted the Glass Platform (I made some of it stone so that it is less evil) and you didn't complain about it, so I'm gonna consider that fixed
I will definitely work on the lighting, at the moment I'm kinda just adding lights as I go so that I can see what I'm doing as I build it :P
And you're right about the dark matter, I absolutely love using it invisibly now. Half of my platforms use that now because string/rods/bolts are unsightly.
I think I'll finish it soon...then I'll have the next week to polish it
Looking forward to seeing everyone elses
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Edit: And I just figured out that it's the dark matter, which sucks, but can be worked around.
Yeah, I spent probably 2 or 3 hours last night on about 10 seconds worth of level. Once I get going though it should be a lot faster.
Yeah, I have no idea why but Dark Matter won't cooperate.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
If you put two dark matters far apart, connect with an elastic and make the elastic shorter in the tweak menu :P
Of course I have no idea how you'll fight the demon truck. The best idea I have so far would require two players, where one pops wheelies to dodge attacks and the other shoots with the Paintinator. I'd really rather to not require more than one player, though.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Would you consider putting in ramps (aka breaks in the road that point up to make the motorcycle jump it) to give the player the opportunity to jump on the truck and fight it like that? It would certainly be one way to have a 'fight' like that. And if the player misses the chance(chances, whichever), you could always have a player detect sensor on the bike, and have it set to a magnetic Key or something so if it passes a certain point, something drops down to help the player climb onto the truck.
It doesn't give a drive-by vibe, I know, but it's definitely one way to go about it, I'd say. It's the only thing that pops into my head right off.
But it's seeming more and more like I might have to compromise this idea!
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Oh. Well if that's the case, couldn't you just have the motorcycle on a track? Just have the wheels spinning, and have the road be a paper-thin foreground piece to make the illusion that it's driving? You could have the paintinator on the back (or side, if the motorcycle is a multi-layer 'item') so that the Sack person has a little range of movement on the thing. Just have, like, a "Cruise Control" bit or something, and then Sack person shoots off the Paintinator at the demon.
You could even do some Invisible Dark Matter columns so that if you wanted a 'wheelie' button or switch, you could have your track set to elevate the front via those columns and you wouldn't really be able to tell.
I'm still gonna play around with it though, mostly just because the visual of sackboy hanging from the handlebars of the oversized bike is pretty funny.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
http://www.audioentropy.com/
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Did you do the level part and then added the pretty, or the other way around?
Uh gee lemme think...
If I remember right, I came up with the idea for the level, and doodled out a rough outline of it. Then I thought of what all characters I'd need and made them since that's the easiest thing to do from a technical standpoint (they're just static cutouts, they don't have to do anything fancy). So yeah I guess I did the pretty first.
Don't get too bogged down with it. It's honestly not all that difficult to make good looking-characters. Just make a doodle of a character on a piece of paper, then do your absolute best to recreate the doodle in LBP. Assuming that you, like me, suck at art, this is pretty easy because it's very simple to break the drawing down into basic geometric shapes. One thing I learned designing those characters is that even though they weren't especially well-drawn, the way they looked in relation to the rest of the level made them endearing.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
I using this in my Sci-Fi level. Have an emitter emit your piece of scenery that moves by a piston, the piston also attached to dark matter to keep it up. I'm not sure it's the best method, but it's the best I've done so far, although there is a small gap in between the objects emitted, so I'm not sure it will work for you as it did for my hover vechicles.
However, Playstation BLog has a run-down of what's going to be coming in the next couple weeks. Whoo God of War pack! Now we just need Heavenly Sword to make my lady happy.
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/01/22/little-delay-to-littlebigplanet-content/
PSN: SAW776
Now I just gotta get the wheelie mechanism figured out and also work out how the hell the player will be able to fight while driving. Sackboy dangles off the handlebars of the bike so swinging your body into a button on the bike is going to be a part of it, but I don't know how exactly this is gonna work.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
My guess is that the piston isn't perfectly parallel to a nearby chunk of something, and once you hit 48 units long the thing attached to the piston rams into the piece of static material and breaks.
If there's nothing around for it to break on, then I have no idea.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
It's wide open air. 191, it's fine, 192, *crunch* and a wiff of smoke.
I was trying to make one of those falling platform jumping puzzles (Super Mario 2, the logs going over the waterfall), thought I needed just two really big pistoned chunks of jumping puzzle, alternating. Turns out I need probably three, at least four, all going both up/down and left/right and meshing just right and I'm just not seeing how I can fit that in.
Hmm... a conveyor belt can't take the weight of the platforms, but maybe two of them, one on each side, and then an emitter that spits out chunks of glass with peach platforms attached...
Or not edit...
But still, nope. At least, not the powered platform the game provides. Isn't stable enough to ensure a smooth ride down.
On the layer of the platform that's flush with the conveyor belts, put little knobs so that it fits snuggly into the two notches. You don't need lots and lots of conveyer belts. Instead, have the back layer extend the entire length of the area, so that each platform fits into both conveyor belts.
If the platforms are so heavy that the conveyor belts are breaking, you should probably just use lighter material. Having something look exactly like you want it is always nice, but you shouldn't let it complicate things unnecessarily.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
It's not that they're breaking, it's that its bits of rubber held together with string. There's no way to get them aligned and just the weight of sackboy alone is enough to wobble them out of alignment if you do get it. Which means crooked platforms and not a lot of fun. Hrrmmm... I'll play around with it a bit more.
I was planning on doing a weird amalgamation of Japanese Hell and Dante.
Is there a big problem with just making the platforms a solid block?
Or, if you want 'em to wobble, attach the layer that Sackboy actually jumps on with a Sprung Bolt.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
The conveyor belt in the Mines are really just pieces of rubber held together with string being pulled around by a wheel. There's no way to make the left belt align with the right, even when they do seem to be aligned, the weight of Sackboy alone is enough to make one side drop. So even solid blocks of polystyrene come down swinging, wobbling and crooked.
I'm working on a solution with emitters now, but getting a constant stack where the bottom object disappears at regular intervals is proving... challenging.