Iko's general showcase

[Iko]

I decided to open a general thread where I can show some of my stuff.

Since I usually do stuff at a pretty slow rate, I prefered to open one single thread with everything instead of many threads for each media.

For now, I want to share my levels created with Dream Crafter (Kirby fangame featured in this year's SAGE), since I have no idea of where else I could share them.

I only created 3 levels so far, and I'm not sure if I'll make any more since the content of the editor is limited and I already used most of the assets.

Level 1-1 is the typical introduction level, Level 1-2 has an hidden route with a secret switch; 1-EX is supposed to be the secret level you unlock after finding the secret switch in 1-2.

I've tried to make the levels as easy as possible, since Kirby is usually meant to be accessible for the beginners, though I still wanted to make them fun enough, so I kept the risk of damage decently high while I compensated by putting many healing items everywhere (be aware that spawning blocks will kill you if you are exactly inside them when they spawn... that's a bit cheap but I wanted to use it in a couple of places regardless, for the sake of experimentation). The EX level is harder though, it's actually challenging, but still easy enough if you are an experienced player. Also, these levels require that you know the basic controls of Kirby, such as

• inhaling and copying
• Press C to drop an ability (it's usually select or an equivalent of it in the official games)
• press down + jump in order to drop through slim platforms
• double tap a direction to run
• press down plus attack to slide (this is actually different from the official games where it's down + jump)
• press the attack button in air or land while floating in order to shoot an air bullet

1-EX might be a bit laggy on low end computers, that's because I had to use a workaround else the Gordos used in the first section would glitch through the other sections of the level. All the sections are connected as if they were a big single section, so that the game keeps the collisions of all the rooms active and Gordos won't clip through the platforms (this makes the map heavy to handle though). If one of the developers of the fangame can read this, well, consider it a bug report (along with the fact that if you use the fire dash on ground and hold down when you hit a wall, Kirby will fly up in the sky like a rocket until you release down, and that the screenshot feature when you share a level works but the coordinates of the screenshots are all messed up so you have to try random screens until you find the wanted one).

To import these levels, just download the .png files and import them into the game; the levels are coded into the image files.

Here you can find the fangame, required in order to play the levels: https://sonicfangameshq.com/forums/showcase/dream-crafter.393/

Feedback is well appreciated as long as it's constructive.

 

[Iko]

More Dream Crafter levels.

I completed the first world of the "game" (it's not really a game), there are 5 normal levels, 1 secret level and 1 boss level, for about 20 minutes of gameplay. I would call this firts world "Castle Courtyard". The names of the levels are generic on purpose.

The previous levels have been updated as well, so I'll post them again. Since the amount of pictures is bigger than last time, I'll put them in spoiler.

Spoiler

I think I'll stop for real now, I have used almost all the content of the game and it's extremely difficult to come out with new ideas with this little content (I didn't use everything, a couple of elements remained unused because I simply couldn't fit them in my levels; the most note worthy is the Yoyo ability/enemy... I'd have placed it in another EX level but I wanted to have only one per world).

I have some ideas for more levels, though I think they would end to feel a bit samey compared to the previous ones. Water is missing, so I can't do water levels; lava is missing, so I can't do lava levels; ice is not slippery, so an ice level is the same as a regular level with different graphics; the game has no bosses nor minibosses, and other important game elements are missing as well; so, I decided I'll just stop there, at least for now, until an update with more content will come.

For the developers, I have found a couple of more glitches:
 

Spoiler

 

-If you place a slope (grass block changed to slope), then select the same type of grass again and try to overwrite the already placed slope, the game will crash.

-The same problem of the gordos ignoring collisions when you are in a different rooms seems to happen with Bronto Burts as well: they don't clip through other rooms, but if you return to a room with a bronto burt visible on the screen after visiting a different room (using a door), if the Bronto Burt was on ground (it should fly up vertically before starting to move horizontally), he won't be detected as "on ground" and will start flying horizontally from the spawn position instead of flying up first.

-Occasionally enemies won't spawn. It happens especially in vertical levels, but occasionally it happens on horiziontal levels as well. I don't know the cause of this glitch but it's annoying, I had to use almost only static gordos and cannons in each vertical room because if I placed other enemies they didn't spawn.

 

I created these levels as a way to improve my level design skills, so I'm interested in hearing some feedback, I hope someone will try my levels and leave an opinion.

On a side note, I'm aware that the amount of stars and bonus lives is excessive (you can grind more or less 10 lives per level if you get everything); I placed them in some specific places as a form of gratification; they are pointless because lives reset every time and you don't carry them between levels. Doors should work as checkpoint but they don't, so it may be frustrating to restart a level from the beginning each time you die... forgive me for this but I designed the levels as if you can restart from the last door visited (like in the official Kirby games), assuming that this will be fixed in a future version of Dream Crafter.

Edited December 1, 2019 by Iko
Updated level 1-2 and 1-5

[Iko]

I finally decided to post something new into this thread.

This is not really new actually, I posted it in another thread a lot of time ago, I can't remember when; though this version is updated with a few changes and additions.

It's a sketch of Amy's gameplay. I want to do it for all the characters that appeared as playable in the Advance series (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Cream), but I might expand it to more characters once I'm done with them.

This one is pretty simple... I think that Amy doesn't need a very complex moveset in order to be fun, as long as she can exploit the springs to make very high jumps.

I decided to give her the Super Peel-Out for a couple of reasons: It originated from Sonic CD like Amy, and Sonic himself rarely uses it; In Sonic Advance, Amy was unable to curl up in a ball, and the Super Peel-Out consists in doing a Spindash-esque move but staying uncurled. Also, in Sonic Advance 2, her spindash animation was similar to a Super Peel-Out already even if after releasing it she would still curl into a ball.

She can curl in a ball there. I decided to simplify her gameplay because I feel like, while fun and rewarding, controlling Amy in Advance 1 was a bit too hard for beginners. Also, after a discussion with another user here on this forum, I decided to make the use of the hammer completely optional (if you prefer, you can play as her the same way you play as Sonic in the classic games, spindash aside).

She has lost her basic melee attack, also because I wanted to use only one button for all the movesets. You can still hammer your enemies indirectly by performing the acrobatic jump, or hit them while spin-jumping like a sort of gigantic insta-shield (you can decide if to bounce on enemies or fall through them while hammering them this way, it requires some timing though).

The shockwave move is designed for fast paced gameplay. In Sonic Advance, you had to be precise if you wanted to hit the enemies; here you can just slam the hammer on ground and create an hurt box (sphere actually) around the point of impact. It also preserves some speed (Amy slides for a fraction of second and then she can run normally without losing the flow), so you don't have to stop in place like in the former version.

The little cooldown after performing a Super Peel-Out forces her to stay uncurled (vulnerable) for a while, so you have to think well where to use the move and where it's too dangerous; on the plus side, releasing this move will make her run on feet, so you can face a steep slope with more traction than Sonic's "roll and jump" way of running after a spindash.

The hammer moves can leave Amy vulnerable as well, depending on the timing. This because her secondary gimmick aside of the spring enhancing thing, was to be more vulnerable than the other characters. I didn't want to make her weak, but I wanted to preserve this "being vulnerable" thing by adding all those frames of being uncurled.

As always, opinions are well accepted, and if you have suggestions feel free to write them in the thread.

 

Cream is next... she's very complex, her scheme is HUGE, but the reasons are: I introduced a new type of "boost" that I wanted to explain in detail, and, well, it's not just Cream, it's the whole Chao Garden gameplay turned into a traditional Sonic Character (70% of the picture is dedicated to Cheese's interactions). The thing is almost finished so expect it to be released very soon (maybe tomorrow?). Other characters might require a lot of time (Cream required me months to be completed and it still isn't yet; I work on it occasionally in some spare time when I feel to, so the progresses are very slow).

[Iko]

And I finally completed the Cream gameplay scheme! (sorry for the compression, it was the only way to make it smaller than 1MB).

I said it was going to be HUGE, and I wasn't lying.

 

Basic Controls section

Cream is more floaty than the other characters, because she's very light. She has a multiple jump system that allows her to float through the stage and bounce on enemies, though she has lost her Tails-like flight. If you have ever played Kirby's Dream Land 3, her new multi-jump system is very similar to Chuchu's multiple jumps in that game (with Nago's count reset whenever you bounce on an enemy). The first 3 jumps will let you gain height, the subsequent ones will only let you glide a bit. I used another game as reference: Hollow Knight. In Hollow Knight, at some point you get a double jump power-up. In many game, the double jump has a set height or force that's all the same every time... in Hollow Knight instead, the height you gain from a double jump depends on how long you hold the jump key, exactly like when you jump from ground in most platformers. This version of Cream has this same thing, though with each new jump, the amount of height you can gain from holding the button decreases, until it becomes nothing after the third jump.

When performing a multi-jump, she loses the ball form, becoming partially vulnerable. She still has an hitbox at her feet, so that she can bounce on the badniks and defeat them this way. Sometimes the game puts you in free fall mode (for example when you are launched by a spring, or when you walk off a cliff): Cream is completely vulnerable when she's in free fall mode, but you can re-gain the hitbox by doing one multi-jump. Multi-jumping out of free-fall automatically sets the jump count to 3, so that you can't gain height from that.

The effects of bouncing on a badnik after a multi-jump are designed to resemble the r-tricks from Sonic Advance 2.

Playing as Cream replaces all the shield monitors with regular shields... yes, she can't use elemental shields. Why? Because she already has her own set of special abilities through the interaction with Cheese, and I felt like allowing Cheese and the elemental skills (even the passive ones) to coexist would have been too much of a mess... the character is already complex as it is. I've got the idea of replacing the monitors exclusively for a character when I was thinking ideas for Blaze... I think that Blaze should get only flame shields from the shield monitors (and she should also be the only character able to keep it underwater). But that's a different character.

 

Bunny Boost section

The Bunny Boost... Yeah, the name and the flowery trail come from the Sonic Forces mobile game, but in fact the idea comes from Amy's gameplay in Sonic Advance 1. In that game, Amy had that bunny hop instead of the spin-dash... and since Cream was introduced in the franchise, I always thought that the move was more fitting on the actual bunny than on an hedgehog, I mean, the rabbit character. This version of the Bunny Boost is an enhanced version of Amy's hop from Advance 1.

The move is way simpler than it looks in the scheme. It's like a boost, but you only gain it after doing a little hop and landing. If you don't land, the boost doesn't start. The boost is short, and in order to continue it, you have to perform several hops consecutively. This boost does not give you instant max speed, you have to perform 3 to 4 hops before reaching the speed cap, and anyway if you want to go over the speed cap you still have to roll.

This boost does not make you invincible, but has another special property: it let Cream ignore the angle of the ground and the terrain properties (such as slippery terrain). This means that you don't lose speed if you run up a steep slope, but also you don't gain speed if you run down of it. This effect only lasts until the flowery trail is active, but as I said earlier, the boost is short, it consumes fastly.

In a way it's like a spin dash that must be charged in movement... the fact that it's actived by doing little hops means that you can only charge it on flat or low angles of terrain, and you can't use it on walls or ceilings because you would detach from them. Like for Amy's Super Peel-Out, the Bunny Boost has a cooldown that force Cream to stay uncurled for a while: this is because I wanted to make it a dangerous move, so that you don't just spam it.

Preserving the Bunny Boost is a bit similar to preserving the Boost Mode in Sonic Advance 2, but the two boosts function in a different way.

 

Cheese section

Cheese is not a killing machine anymore. You can't control Cheese directly anymore, he's passive now. You have to trust Cheese and you can't rely on him all the time.

Cheese can perform 3 actions: stun a badnik, interact with a switch, and hug an animal.

Stunning a badnik will stop it from moving, disable any barrier or other effects the badnik had (such as electricity), and if the badnik is flying or attached to the ceiling, it will fall on ground. Some badniks will return to work after a while, but others will stay stunned (such as the ones that were attached to the ceiling and can't work anymore once detached).

Potentially, if the level is designed with this in mind, you can complete it without destroying any badnik, just by stunning them... maybe it would make you gain a Pacifist Bonus at the end of the act? Cream would be the most fitting character for something like that right?

Speed Shoe and Invincibility monitors are replaced by Chao Garden elements. There's a toy monitor and a fruit monitor, both of them are there to boost Cheese's stats. Yes, Cheese has some stats!

By holding up, you can grab Cheese and see his stats while petting him. The first stat, Animal, is a new thing that I will explain next. The second stat is Mood. The mood will let Cheese do his actions in a shorter time when the value is high, or will make them fail when the value is low. Several things will increase the mood, including collecting rings, hugging animals, and even petting him.

In the original Chao Garden from the Sonic Adventure games, a chao could copy some animals' parts if they hugged one. I decided to give this ability to Cheese, by using the classic animals from Sonic 1. The effect of copying an animal is temporary, but it gives Cheese a set of passive skills that will help Cream to make some sections of the levels easier, or to reach some secret places.

This said, since the invincibility monitor is replaced, it means that Cream can't become invincible. This is because she's meant to be a weak character, but I think that with the wide set of moves and her floatiness, she would still make the platforming easy enough that invincibility won't be a big problem.

 

Animal Powers section

I admit that this concept is the result of me being a Kirby fan. Yeah it's a bit like Kirby where you can copy the abilities from the enemies, but it also resembles the tag actions from Sonic Advance 3 a bit. I wanted Cream and Cheese to fight together, I didn't want Cream to just give orders and Cheese doing all the dirty jobs.

But the idea also came from thinking about the other characters. All of them focused on different aspects of the level design, and that was what made them unique: Sonic is all about speed, keeping the flow and running, plus his gimmick is to gain special powers from the elemental shields; Tails is all about vertical spaces and exploration; Knuckles is a bit like Tails, but he is also able to break strong walls and in some games he can dig, so he's about breaking the limits of the level and opening a way on his own; Amy instead focused on acrobatic jumps and finding new uses for the springs in the stage... since Cream is based off Tails, what could make Cream unique? Is Cheese enough? As a living bullet probably not, but some day I've got this idea: since Cream is all about taking care of a pet, why don't focus on taking care of the little animals that you release from the broken badniks?

The pig power brings back the ability to destroy badniks and damage bosses with Cheese, but only for a limited amount of hits.

 

Super Form section

Well, I did this for fun, it would be hilarious! Cream with an army of chao, definitely something I want to see in a game some day.

All the chao abilities are designed so that they can be used together, and the colors of the aura is inpired by the colors of the Chaos Emeralds... this is why I decided to add this nice little extra to my concept. I won't talk about the super forms of all the characters, this is an exception only because I had this idea and I though it was cool.

I imagined the Pig special level to be a bossfight against a huge Chao Walker.

And even with a sort of Super Form, Cream still can't get invincible -.-

 

Finished!

The next one is likely Tails! It won't be as complex as Cream (nobody else will be), but I already have some nice ideas for him. Expect a lot of changes from his classic gameplay, he will probably be the most different character of all.

Sadly I don't know when Tails will be ready, it depends on several factors; it might be ready next week, or in 6 months, or even next year, I don't know, sorry.

[Iko]

This was supposed to be a warm-up sketch that I did after months without drawing. It turned out better than I expected, and I decided to finish it with colors and all; didn't take me too much time anyway.

Drawing Cream is a lot of fun lol