[VLDC14] Luminous Flora - Edited Blind Playthrough
1Author: mariofan_171 (don't get mad at me, chap)
Place: 62nd (standard)
I'd never like to play this again, no matter what the visuals are like and how great the music is. Don't let crystal aesthetics fool you! I have a feeling that the author focused on overdecorating more than communication, mechanics or fairness. While there's a message box that explains to you what each color type of beams does, not even that helps. Instead of adding as many details as you can on one screen, focus on including less and loosening everything. The 1st part seems to have a segment (which appears to be a Dragon Coin route) where line guide mechanics are broken and make it impossible to advance without cape. While the 2nd part (moon route) includes layer 2 smash, which differentiates the level from others, the spikes don't have a much different color from the rest, and I wouldn't actually use these GFX for them. There's that one part where you don't immediately know that you have to toss the shell through a red question block. There's also that one wonky part where you can make a jump and miss the layer 2 water, which saves you from dying only when on-screen. I fell for that a few times. Also, avoid adding solid or - God forbid - hurt tiles at the very bottom of the level. At least make sure the entire row is visible, not just the topmost pixels (these are barely visible that way). The 3rd part seems fairest, but the 1st rope detaches from the line guide, thus returning Mario to the mid-air state. In consequence, he may die to that. Also, there seems to be a path that's totally unnecessary, which feels out of place while you don't have multiple paths to select throughout the whole section. The top of the section is cutoff - make sure you move everything on the top of a vertical level or just make it so the player can't see cutoff in-game. I didn't know that there was a 1-up checkpoint. Make it so there's a forced way to achieve it or indicate it clearly and you'll be fine. There's also a reset pipe that doesn't work properly. Avoid placing exit-enabled vertical pipes so near the screen boundary in a vertical level or set the exit for both relevant screens. Make sure you can test your level properly or have playtesters before the deadline. With all these problems piling up, you shouldn't be amazed why such an interesting-looking level placed so low, even lower than some less elaborate courses. When visuals compromise gameplay, the score shouldn't be too high for both design and aesthetics. BTW, what's with that jump SFX being higher than usual?
In this series, I will be playing levels from SMW Central's Vanilla Level Design Contest 2024. All playthroughs of standard levels will stay blind, albeit their respective videos will be all edited. This means that I only play my levels for the first time while capturing footage. However, an exception will be made for kaizo entries. After I've played them blind first, I'll record their replays and only leave successful attempts.
Super Mario World belongs to Nintendo. I don't own the game itself nor do I monetize its contents. This video wasn't made for business anyway and its sole purpose is showoff and entertainment.