# Super Mario Maker Course Sharing & Feedback Thread



## JCnator (Sep 12, 2015)

*SUPER**
MARIO MAKER
COURSE SHARING & FEEDBACK THREAD*


Unless you're living under a rock, you've certainly heard about Super Mario Maker, one of the most essential Super Mario titles finally arrived on Wii U. It allows you to create and play platforming levels on both offline and online. Speaking of which, this thread strives for making easier to share and receive feedback from your fellow members (and guests) of The Bell Tree Forums.


*How do I share my Super Mario Maker levels?*

You'll need the 16-characters ID that is associated with each level. You can easily find them from your in-game profile on Course World and tapping the ID button from the levels you want to show in this thread. Write the name of that level, describe about the level and copy its ID to the post.

Although you only need to do what I said above, we'd prefer that you also specify the *game style*, the *main area's course theme*, the *region*, the *difficulty*, the associated *tag* and the *date said level was uploaded*. It'll help to raise the likelihood that we'll end up finding your course and add them to my bookmark even when we aren't at home yet.

*How do I play these levels?*

Grab the ID from any level posted there, type it in Course World's search tool and enjoy!

Or even better: Log in Super Mario Maker Bookmark Portal with your NNID, and place the ID after the "/courses/" part of the following URL:

```
https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/(insert Course ID here)
```
Once the level you wanted to play is shown, hit bookmark and you're ready to rumble. So much convenient and faster than typing the same ID with the Wii U GamePad.

*Lacking ideas? Here are a few of my levels*

Occasionally, I will post a reply in this thread to bring up a few levels that I recently uploaded. As of now, here's a few levels to get you started :

*Sweeping Snake Block Fortress*







You like fast snake blocks? Well, the fortress will sure covers all of those needs! You get to follow it, ride it and even fight against it to some extent. And if you dare, find the alternate paths and be prepared for some quick challenge goodness.

*48E3-0000-0106-AB4E*

*Nerves of Steel Fortress*






Exercise your wit, patience and courage to bypass the Chain Chomps in this challenging level. Some of these metallic foes are attached to their post or track, while others are left unchained. There are a few Galoombas that can be grabbed and thrown if you're in mood for defeating the Chain Chomps. Collectibles are found in the level, and some of them can be tricky to grab. Key Coins often require you to perform well-timed jumps or chucking a Galoomba at them. None of them are mandatory for clearing the stage, although there is a Key Door near the end of the stage that not only has a bunch of coins, one 1UP Mushroom and a Star, but also let you skip the entire boss fight.

*79F7-0000-01EF-F6F7*

*Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE! v1.1*






It's a challenging level that expect you to master the spin jumping technique on Jumping Piranha Plants. A quick and light puzzle has you carrying the spring underneath a large plant, so you can continue to proceed with a running spin jump. If you end up being crafty, you could possibly see a bonus area and perhaps even find a shortcut or two.

*2B9C-0000-00DA-C534*


*Eggman's Airship of Doom*






Mario, er... Sonic boards on Eggman's Airship of Doom in a very fast, yet simple auto scrolling obstacle course. Keep in mind, that what awaits there are something that our speedy blue hedgehog never faced before.

*5B81-0000-0050-A5C0*


*Mounted Monty Mole Puzzle*






Solve the simplistic one-screen puzzle by leading a mounted Monty Mole to drop the passenger at the right place and clear the level. And that mysterious pipe... What does it lead to?

*767A-0000-01A4-9444*


That's all I have to say. Now, get your creative juice flowing through your soul and bring on those levels!


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## Justin (Sep 12, 2015)

*#KeepTheFaith (BA27-0000-0018-D790)*






*Trials n Tribulations (C644-0000-001D-6766)*






*Goomba Pipes (926C-0000-0017-4898)*


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## Murray (Sep 12, 2015)

Here's what I've made so far

Goomba Infiltration (B203-0000-001C-0782)





Escape from the Toadstool Armada (CBEF-0000-001F-2932)


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## matt (Sep 12, 2015)

Just my first try at making a level:

251A-0000-001F-605B


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## Boccages (Sep 12, 2015)

I updated the ID number of this level. Please try it, and comment. I'm glad this level has had great reviews.

*Animal Crossing: R?novations*
839F-0000-001D-57D5

As you guys can see, I took some of your advices. The bridge at the end was suggested by you !


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## Lancelot (Sep 12, 2015)

I made my first level :]]]]


9D2A-0000-0023-6B87


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## Micah (Sep 12, 2015)

Hey guys, here are three different levels that I created. I'd say they lean towards easy/medium difficulty, but feel free to try 'em out, comment, star, and follow me (let me know and I'll follow you back). I'd love to hear your feedback.

*Underground Mayhem*
8B47-0000-001C-FDE6





*I Live, I Die, I Live Again*
4F13-0000-001C-749E





*Mad Mario: Beyond Underdome*
9F61-0000-001B-EF5E


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## Tsunando (Sep 12, 2015)

Both me and my girlfriend are enjoying this so much,we're making lots of stages but our best so far:

*Find the Golden Pearl! *






This is my stage,it's an underwater cave,it's medium difficulty.

*973E-0000-001B-2290*




*Burning Love*






This is my girlfriend's,it's a castle stage that also tells a love story as you go. It's tough but fair,i think it's a really great stage.

*1A88-0000-0020-9F46*


Try them and comment if you feel like it,also subscribe to us to see more like this


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## Micah (Sep 12, 2015)

Here's one more stage of mine: Fish Fly! I'm really proud of this one.

*A670-0000-0025-2C24*


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## Justin (Sep 12, 2015)

PS: It's much easier to just type in one code, and then you can check out all of that person's levels through the in-game menu after that without anymore codes. Also, you can follow them if you like the levels and then you never have to enter a code again if they post more. Just head to their profile yourself in the game.



TheBigJC7777777 said:


> *Wall-Jumping Exercise*
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I gave this one a go. I like it, although I think it could benefit from being a bit longer. Also, was there meant to be anything special way up on the left side? I managed to make it there and all I could find was a block with coins, was kind of disappointed!



Micah said:


> *Mad Mario: Beyond Underdome*
> 9F61-0000-001B-EF5E



This is fun. It's also the kind of level that makes me develop an irrational fear of bad things coming out of pipes.


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## lars708 (Sep 12, 2015)

I have just one level to share even though i have more levels uploaded, i share just one since it is the first level of a full world i created (level 3 is a bit hard though) so it is ment to be played in order by visiting my profile :3 (oh and please favorite me, i will add you too to my favorites so we can create some sort of Mario Maker community)

*The Journey Begins!*

4EBB-0000-0014-65D4 

EDIT: CODE SHOULD WORK NOW!


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## mariostarn (Sep 12, 2015)

To learn the creator from top to bottom I tried creating a stage that was "just right" for me while binge-watching Vinesauce. Problem is I think I went a bit overboard and made it super-hard, but not in the "pixel-perfect leap" type of hard.
Any criticisms or suggestions?



8C97-0000-001D-D2A6


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## JCnator (Sep 12, 2015)

Justin said:


> [...]
> I gave this one a go. I like it, although I think it could benefit from being a bit longer. Also, was there meant to be anything special way up on the left side? I managed to make it there and all I could find was a block with coins, was kind of disappointed!
> 
> [...]



So much for that leap of faith! Never thought about that, since I'm used to perform running jump and then mid-air spin to gain longer air time. In that respect, I agree it should be more rewarding, as I could've stuffed that block an optional Propeller Mushroom that would be helpful for certain sections.

As for this level's length, I also took the lesser experienced players into consideration, since there is no checkpoint in this game. Since it doesn't take that long to reach where you were when you last wasted your life and the overall difficulty, it could've been longer.



Turns out that I managed to upload one more level to the server, this time more difficult than my previous stage. It involves skull platforms that start moving upon landing and collapses after a while, along with fire bars thrown in for good measure. And to top it off, we have a forced Bowser battle this time around. Since I went with Super Mario Bros. 3 theme, Bowser behaves differently compared to the rest, as he breaks brick blocks. The only way to win is to have him land on P-Switch to convert all of the brick blocks into coins, and then proceed to the goal. Just be sure to stand on the gray block whenever he's about to land on any switch. 

*Bowser's Dramatic Drama*






*FCA2-0000-0024-51A8*



I've certainly got more levels coming tomorrow or Monday. One of them is filled with level design decisions that could potentially render any level more tedious than fun to complete, for the sake of learning on how to better design the more difficult levels. Trap without a way out, blind jumping, excessive precision jumping segment, a build-a-block segment, a pointless room with a lot of chaos that doesn't mean anything and mean invisible coin blocks placement that makes the section requires an extremely precise spin jump maneuver.
Thankfully, it turns out you aren't forced to do any of them to win. For giggles and people playing this stage via 100 Mario Challenge, I added a door right at the start that leads you directly to the goal. All you need is to press up for insta-win. I also intend to litter snarky comments throughout the stage to poke fun at the horrid level designs, whenever's possible. The actual level is almost finished. It needs some final touches before I upload it.

Another level is a SMB3 airship themed with a slow autoscrolling and let you take the high or low route, unless you happen to find a secret section that has a much faster autoscrolling and plenty of coins, which has enough coins to give you 3 lives. At the current state, it's beatable, but this level seems to be a bit too empty for me to upload right away. It needs more well-placed obstacles while not overwhelming players.


Also, this is the first time in a while that I spent more than 12 hours on Super Mario Maker within two days. Usually, I don't play video games for that long nowadays, but I'm playing more and more since I stopped studying and managed to get a proper job.


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## Micah (Sep 13, 2015)

lars708 said:


> *The Journey Begins!*
> 
> 4EEB-0000-0014-65D4


For some reason, the code's not working for me.


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## mariostarn (Sep 13, 2015)

Micah said:


> For some reason, the code's not working for me.



Isn't working here either.
You must have typed it wrong or the level might already have been deleted. mind reuploading it?


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## Murray (Sep 13, 2015)

Added a couple more to my sig, they are probs a bit too hard though - try them if you want!!

*Goomba Guidance* - F007-0000-0028-C503
*Boo's Basement *- 4AB3-0000-002A-159F

EDIT: Will give 20tbt to anyone who can complete goomba guidance and 50tbt to anyone who completes boo's basement


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## Cress (Sep 13, 2015)

Can someone make me a copy of the game first
:_(


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## Zigzag991 (Sep 13, 2015)

7636-0000-002A-A3F7

Made this in the meantime as I attempt to unlock more parts (yeah it's pretty basic).


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## Chaotix (Sep 13, 2015)

I made this outta boredom.

It's called Nice 

*2FB0-0000-002B-EC8A*

Enjoy.


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## SodaDog (Sep 13, 2015)

Here's one of the hardest courses I made so far.
The Koopa Hop Challenge!




ID: 6B0F-0000-0026-711B
The trick is in the timing, rhythm and the jumps!
This level took me FOUR HOURS to make and most of it was based on the timing.


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## lars708 (Sep 13, 2015)

Sorry i must have typed my code wrong, i will check after i am done with my 100 mario challenge 

- - - Post Merge - - -

It should work now!

The Journey Begins!

4EBB-0000-0014-65D4


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## xiaonu (Sep 13, 2015)

Do you think this will be a 3DS title one day? I really love the concept of this game but don't personally own any consoles besides a 3ds. It looks amazing


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## Micah (Sep 13, 2015)

lars708 said:


> *The Journey Begins!*
> 
> 4EBB-0000-0014-65D4


Nice, simple level. I really enjoyed it.


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## lars708 (Sep 13, 2015)

WUUT MICAH HOW COULD YOU! You did not even give my levels a star T-T

But thanks ^^


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## Lancelot (Sep 13, 2015)

I made a course called Mushroom Kingdom!!

8189-0000-002F-CD82

- - - Post Merge - - -



xiaonu said:


> Do you think this will be a 3DS title one day? I really love the concept of this game but don't personally own any consoles besides a 3ds. It looks amazing



No


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## Tsunando (Sep 13, 2015)

I made a Donkey Kong Country 2 inspired stage,i think it's my best so far,please try it!

*Super Diddy's Kong Quest*

*660C-0000-002F-396E*







I know the miiverse screenshot doesn't look great but please try it and let me know!


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## JCnator (Sep 13, 2015)

I've uploaded another level today, and it's the one that teaches you why certain bad level designs will ruin an Average Joe's enjoyment of the level. Not only everything I previously said about that level is there, I also added two more examples of problematic bad level design decisions. One of them forces you to turn into small Mario for no apparent reason and another that has a room full of useless 1-UPs.



*What to NOT create 101*






*11BB-0000-0030-94C6*


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## jPottie (Sep 13, 2015)

My boyfriend and I made some levels! Try them out!

Here are the ones I made. I tried my best to make them like regular Mario levels, that are a bit on the challenging side. Except for Space Invasion... which is much tougher:

Mush Hills 1-1
1943-0000-0027-3541

Mush Hills 1-2
E6E5-0000-0027-FEFA

Spectre Shack
F45E-0000-002F-0586

Space Invasion
C314-0000-0029-D9B6

Holy Moley!
D203-0000-0032-7488

And here are the ones my boyfriend made. They are very tough, tight platforming stages:

Spikes
B970-0000-0031-3B4D

Hidden Block Mania
8F1E-0000-0031-25D6

If you try them let me know what you think/what we can improve on! I hope you all like them! : )

- - - Post Merge - - -



xiaonu said:


> Do you think this will be a 3DS title one day? I really love the concept of this game but don't personally own any consoles besides a 3ds. It looks amazing


There's a very good chance, there was an interview with the producer a while ago who said they have thought about a 3DS version, but it basically depends on how much interest is in the game. My bets is yes.


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## lars708 (Sep 13, 2015)

jPottie said:


> There's a very good chance, there was an interview with the producer a while ago who said they have thought about a 3DS version, but it basically depends on how much interest is in the game. My bets is yes.



Pfft if there would be a 3DS version it will be very limited. Even with the Wii U hardware everything in the New Super Mario Bros. U theme has been downscaled in terms of graphics. Everything (except for Mario and Yoshi, they seem to still have their models implemented) turned into sprites. And to make it worse, most of the objects (Hammer Bros. for example) have a noticeable low frame rate. I really can not see now they would make a full fledged 3DS version of it unless they remove the New Super Mario Bros. U theme. (Or probably New Super Mario Bros. 2 since rhat was the 3DS Mario Bros. title.)


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## Zigzag991 (Sep 13, 2015)

2E53-0000-0033-6D63

My attempt at a moderately difficult level. But now that I've finally unlocked more items, I can really start making levels!


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## JCnator (Sep 13, 2015)

That airship level I've been working since yesterday has finally reached to a state that I consider satisfactory. In this generally slow autoscrolling stage, the difficulty here depends on what routes you take, with the lower route often being the easiest. There are a few shortcuts and secrets thrown in for good measure.

*Hardship on Airship*






*019D-0000-0033-F962*


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## Murray (Sep 13, 2015)

Forgot to say I made a kirby's dreamland level last night. I'll probably remove it and try to improve it eventually so it would be great to get any feedback on it.

*Kirby's Dreamland: The Halberd* (3083-0000-002B-A526)


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## Justin (Sep 13, 2015)

Murray said:


> Forgot to say I made a kirby's dreamland level last night. I'll probably remove it and try to improve it eventually so it would be great to get any feedback on it.
> 
> *Kirby's Dreamland: The Halberd* (3083-0000-002B-A526)



Yo guys make sure to check this out, it's really great!


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## Azza (Sep 14, 2015)

Okay well I got MM a few hours ago, so this is what I've made so far:
Under Pressure: D671-0000-0035-C34A

Coin Heights: A087-0000-0035-5DEA

Feedback is appreciated considering I'm not sure if these are too good XD If you have followed someone, how would you find them again, in like a following list or something? The menus and stuff for this game are really weird :/


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## Murray (Sep 14, 2015)

Azza said:


> If you have followed someone, how would you find them again, in like a following list or something? The menus and stuff for this game are really weird :/



The menus are a bit confusing at first but once you get the hang of them I find them pretty good. From the course world where the three options are - 100 mario challenge/courses/makers (with the ufo's) select makers and I think there's a tab for following... I think...


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## Murray (Sep 17, 2015)

Have made a few new maps since I last posted here.

Here is my most recent:

*Boo's Challenge House - 513A-0000-0045-4008*






If you want to try the others you can just look at my uploaded courses to try them out


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## Boccages (Sep 17, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> *SUPER**
> MARIO MAKER
> COURSE SHARING & FEEDBACK THREAD*
> 
> ...



I tried all of them, except for the *Revenge against Cheep-Cheep!* because I really do not enjoy underwater levels.

We can recognize a progression from *Mario's Fun Playground* to the latest one (which I think was *Hardship on Airship* level). When first using a tool, TheBigJC7777777 knows it's best to start small and master the tools and progressively get more ambitious. And his levels gets progressively better and better. The Airship level, I suspect must have taken several days to make. I really like how he selectively chose a few enemies and designed the challenge around them. I really dug the clever and frankly brilliant boss fight in *Bowser's Dramatic Drama*, even though, I think, the level wasn't long enough. It's all very positive, though, as TheBigJC7777777's levels are eons way more intelligently crafted levels than you would normally find in the random 100 Marios challenge. I now follow him, and looking forward his next creations.

- - - Post Merge - - -



Justin said:


> *#KeepTheFaith (BA27-0000-0018-D790)*
> 
> 
> 
> ...



A few days ago, I tried every level made by Justin. He has a nice selection of loosely themed levels that he has crafted on the course of a few days (I guess). I command him for *Trials n Tribulations 1 & 2*. Even though I think those aren't the most recent levels, they stood out for me. *Keep the Faith* was aesthetically interesting (and boy did I feel dumb when I found out there was a floor in *Goomba Pipes*, but once I was going down that flagpole...), but I thought most lacked a good challenge (were too easy or too short). *Trials n Tribulations 1 & 2* though were more on par with what I was looking for. Justin has inspired me with these two courses by making it a task to go out of your way to find the right tool to progress in the level (for example, a shell). Mario has to execute a few platform jumps and show technical prowess in order to pick up that shell and come back on the main course to use it. I really loved them and I'm looking forward to try his next creations.


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## Chaotix (Sep 18, 2015)

I made a new stage tonight.


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## Cress (Sep 19, 2015)

Finally got the game and made a stage
*Balance Yourself!





Code: D494-0000-004D-C9B2*


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## lars708 (Sep 19, 2015)

Shall i post all of my stages on here? I dunno if that would be good idea since i have uploaded 13 of them


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## Murray (Sep 19, 2015)

lars708 said:


> Shall i post all of my stages on here? I dunno if that would be good idea since i have uploaded 13 of them



Just post the code to one and then we can check out the others - or if you want to include pics/names of others you could do that too


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## shunishu (Sep 19, 2015)

i found this cute blathers level earlier 2733-0000-003A-CAC3 .. not mine tho


btw how many stars do you need to upload more than ten?


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## JCnator (Sep 19, 2015)

shunishu said:


> i found this cute blathers level earlier 2733-0000-003A-CAC3 .. not mine tho
> 
> 
> btw how many stars do you need to upload more than ten?



You actually need 50 stars, so you can get a Koopa medal and raise your upload limit to 20.

Last time I checked, I'm currently 20 stars away from that goal and I got the game since the launch day. I did have a good amount of people playing my levels, but lot of them seems to forgot how to star levels. I find it even more hilarious that What to NOT create 101 level somehow gotten the most stars, despite solely educating about what's wrong with the terrible level designs. Miiverse in general must have bad tastes on level design.

Anyhoo, I uploaded another level. It's been a while since I've last done that.

This one is all about speed with the fastest autoscrolling speed, so of course the level will be pretty short. The first half of the level is relatively easy, since it wants you to get accostumed with this type of autoscroll and throw simple obstacles for you to dodge. It will then assume that you've mastered on how to time your jumps, therefore the difficulty will raise a notch as soon as you get in any pipe but the very last one.
I couldn't bring picture this time around due of a stupid glitch in Google Chrome that prevents me from logging on Miiverse even though I entered the correct username and password.

*Eggman's Airship of Doom
5B81-0000-0050-A5C0*


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## shunishu (Sep 19, 2015)

yeah people seem very greedy with giving stars and only give them to big youtubers or levels that already have thousands of stars and dont need them. i try to give stars whenever i enjoyed a level or saw a cool idea. it's hard enough to get stars as is..


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## Zigzag991 (Sep 20, 2015)

My newest course:

*Mario in Mushroomland (V. 1)*

63A2-0000-0054-E48B

I was a bit sleepy/tired when I made this, so I didn't really check and see how skippable it is, but just know that you need the weird mushroom to clear it! This was also another stage I made that some-what focused on aesthetics as much as gameplay, so it's probably not going to be *amazingly* fun gameplay wise, at least until I fix it up.

Oh, and speaking of which, the other aesthetic stage I made was this one:

*Super Mario Galaxy (Maker-Beta)!*

D1B5-0000-003E-C95E (There are two other versions that I uploaded if you find this one too hard, with Deer being the easiest, so just look at my uploaded stages if you want to try those.)

For this one, don't take the door at the beginning; I just placed it there because when I was uploading it I had been playing for hours and didn't feel like clearing it.

I also plan to fix this one up know I have sub-worlds, that way I can add more places that I didn't get too at first. The planets are supposed to resemble galaxies, so lemme know if you can recognize any (yeah they look crap there's not much to work with aesthetic wise).

But yeah, these aren't fully gameplay catering and they had to be edited so I could fit in the random details.

Let me know what you think!


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## 00jachna (Sep 20, 2015)

PuffleKirby21 said:


> Can someone make me a copy of the game first
> :_(



Me too

k thx


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## Cress (Sep 20, 2015)

Just made another new stage!
*Robin has nothing to fear!






729F-0000-0055-2251*
Based around choosing to either fight your way through (the left path), or solve puzzles to pass (the right path). It's medium difficulty I think, but it could be hard since I know the puzzles. Or easy. Not sure. Just try it for yourself!
(I wanted to name it "A good tactician has nothing to fear!", but there wasn't enough room.)


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## Midoriya (Sep 20, 2015)

PuffleKirby21 said:


> Just made another new stage!
> *Robin has nothing to fear!
> 
> 
> ...





I'll definitely give it a shot!  I can't use my Wii U until Monday though and try it out since I'm at my dad's house and my Wii U is at my mom's apartment....


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## lars708 (Sep 20, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> You actually need 50 stars, so you can get a Koopa medal and raise your upload limit to 20.
> 
> Last time I checked, I'm currently 20 stars away from that goal and I got the game since the launch day. I did have a good amount of people playing my levels, but lot of them seems to forgot how to star levels. I find it even more hilarious that What to NOT create 101 level somehow gotten the most stars, despite solely educating about what's wrong with the terrible level designs. Miiverse in general must have bad tastes on level design.
> 
> ...



That's unfortunate, i have around 130 stars. However not all the people who play my levels star them either.


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## lars708 (Sep 20, 2015)

Oh i totally forgot to post a level here! I have 14 in total but i will just post my most popular one here. 

*New Bowser's castle U!*

C4C5-0000-001F-E96C


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## Cress (Sep 21, 2015)

Okay here's another one. Made an actual level this time instead of focusing on the amiibo outfits. 
*The Frozen Lake




ID: CC7B-0000-005A-B607*


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## lars708 (Sep 21, 2015)

lars708 said:


> Oh i totally forgot to post a level here! I have 14 in total but i will just post my most popular one here.
> 
> *New Bowser's castle U!*
> 
> C4C5-0000-001F-E96C



I got 16 levels already lmao. By the way, i just got 150 stars and now i am allowed to opload 30 levels


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## shunishu (Sep 21, 2015)

congrats on the stars ^^ i'm at 10 i think


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## JCnator (Sep 23, 2015)

I just made another stage, this time having fun with Wigglers on rail.

*Wild Wiggler's Ride*

In a stage where fun is focused, anyone is welcome to embark on Wild Wiggler's Ride. Featuring Wigglers of course, but they're giant this time around and are attached on rails. Be sure to visit the alternate route for further embracing your platforming skill and even more satisfactory fun!

*0D41-0000-0067-45CB*

May 22nd 2016 EDIT: I deleted this level, because it hardly receives star anymore due of being rather low-quality by my standards. The same could be said for Wall-Jumping Exercise and Platforms Ahoy! [WIP].


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## Cress (Sep 24, 2015)

Has anyone else made any stages recently? It's pretty difficult to find fun stages sice all of the popular ones are overrun with the "Don't move!" courses. And the 100-mario challenge almost never has anything good. :/


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## JCnator (Sep 24, 2015)

PuffleKirby21 said:


> Has anyone else made any stages recently? It's pretty difficult to find fun stages sice all of the popular ones are overrun with the "Don't move!" courses. And the 100-mario challenge almost never has anything good. :/



My best advice to search for any fun stage is to look for Super Mario Maker stages on the Internet anywhere else than in-game. It sounds painful to need typing the code for each stage you'd like to play, but it might worth the extra effort just to be more likely on getting stages that doesn't suck. It's also a good idea to follow any TBT player for easier access to all of our stages.

Also, try to stick on Normal and Expert difficulty for the 100 Mario Challenge, because the Easy difficulty tends to have the highest amount of poorly designed stages. Granted, you'd still often get pretty bad stages, since a course with too few players who played that would also appear on the mix as well. Fortunately, you'll also get more players to try your courses by playing loads of stages (you'll appear on the list of users who played it) and perhaps even more stars.


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## Midoriya (Sep 24, 2015)

How and where exactly does one enter a code on the Super Mario Maker game for a stage they want to play??  I'd like to start trying out all the courses made in this thread!


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## Cress (Sep 24, 2015)

Ryu said:


> How and where exactly does one enter a code on the Super Mario Maker game for a stage they want to play??  I'd like to start trying out all the courses made in this thread!



On the Course World, go to Courses. There should be a small magnifying glass on the row below the top row. (That's the best I can explain it off the top of my head )


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## Midoriya (Sep 24, 2015)

PuffleKirby21 said:


> On the Course World, go to Courses. There should be a small magnifying glass on the row below the top row. (That's the best I can explain it off the top of my head )




Okay, thank you, Puffle!  I am going to have some fun trying out some of these courses...


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## Cress (Sep 26, 2015)

Made another new stage. Not posting a picture because that takes too long. :/
*Climbing the Tree
ID: AEEF-0000-0071-DD43*
It involves going inside the tree to get to the goal. You can even get to the top of the tree by going a hidden path!


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## lars708 (Sep 26, 2015)

PuffleKirby21 said:


> Has anyone else made any stages recently? It's pretty difficult to find fun stages sice all of the popular ones are overrun with the "Don't move!" courses. And the 100-mario challenge almost never has anything good. :/



I have 21 in total online lmao, you should look for one of my earlier posts because i have a code on here. And 1 of them is an auto level but i don't like them actually so it will also be the last one i upload.


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## Cress (Sep 26, 2015)

lars708 said:


> I have 21 in total online lmao, you should look for one of my earlier posts because i have a code on here. And 1 of them is an auto level but it don't like them actually so it will also be the last one i upload.



I've already played all of your levels.
And you still haven't tried any of mine yet...


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## lars708 (Sep 26, 2015)

PuffleKirby21 said:


> I've already played all of your levels.
> And you still haven't tried any of mine yet...



Wait you did? What is your ign name then? And sorry for that i keep forgetting it  Can not try then now by the way since i am not home.


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## Cress (Sep 26, 2015)

lars708 said:


> Wait you did? What is your ign name then? And sorry for that i keep forgetting it  Can not try then now by the way since i am not home.



KA Zachary, but there's a star where the space is.


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## JCnator (Sep 27, 2015)

Hoo boy, this stage might took the longest amount of time to create. Here, it's a Mario stage that is very focused on exploration, until you found a way to get up on that seemingly unreachable platform. And there's some sequence breaking goodness to be found, too! I got a bit too impatient to upload that stage, so there might be some flaws here and there, but this should be an enjoyable romp for seasoned platformer fans and a good way to learn about some of the Super Mario Maker intricacies.

MarioVania - Jumpman's Ascension







5A63-0000-0074-1D29


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## lars708 (Sep 27, 2015)

PuffleKirby21 said:


> KA Zachary, but there's a star where the space is.



OHHH yeah i have seen you, i was like who tf is playing all my levels... whoopsie. But i believe that you havent played all of them tho. I upload new levels almostnevery day. Sometimes i even upload 2 . But i can check yours out then very easily since i just can check who has played my levels and go to their profile


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## Murray (Sep 27, 2015)

gonna go through as many courses (that i havent played yet) that have been posted in this thread as i can right now - will edit some feedback into this post as I go 

*TheBigJC7777777* - I envy your really good grasp on difficulty, something I always struggle with. Hardship on Airship I thought was a fantastic stage, but then I played Eggman's Airship of Doom, and I think it is your best level. Great work

*Matt* - My favourite level of yours is probably Crazy Maze, the feeling of exploration it creates is really fun.

*Boccages* - Courses are obviously well made, but they are really hard, I actually couldn't complete either of them. Maybe a bit of guidance would have been helpful.


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## lars708 (Sep 27, 2015)

Murray said:


> gonna go through as many courses (that i havent played yet) that have been posted in this thread as i can right now - will edit some feedback into this post as I go



Okay i will be looking forward to your replies!


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## Prime (Sep 27, 2015)

Apparently my first course is my hardest. 1/249 attempts have cleared it and I could've done way more to it (I dislike cheap deaths like enemies randomly falling from the sky and invis blocks though).

The Prime Path (3310-0000-0068-09C3)

I guess most of my levels are medium to hard based off clear rate.


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## Stalfos (Sep 28, 2015)

Jumpman! (010E-0000-007A-75D7)

I just made this on my brothers game (I don't have one of my own). Feel free to try it out. It shouldn't be too hard.

There's a little bit of precision jumping so if you don't like that stuff you might wanna stay away.


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## Boccages (Sep 28, 2015)

Murray said:


> *Boccages* - Courses are obviously well made, but they are really hard, I actually couldn't complete either of them. Maybe a bit of guidance would have been helpful.


The Animal Crossing one has a YouTube video with the solution since it's a puzzler. The second one is one of the hardest course I have ever made or played but it's quite straightforward


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## allstar689 (Sep 29, 2015)

I put all the codes and details to my levels into this document for easy sharing/updating. 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18nf9VorKPOHr8s2wXGsx5Z2HjaqOZaWesvttvifk_VY/edit?usp=sharing

Enjoy.


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## Boccages (Sep 29, 2015)

I am writing a blog post on the best 12 courses I have come accross. And I have 4 left to be included. I wanted to include some from you guys, which I've found to be quite clever desiners. For example, I want to include *Trials n Tribulation 1* (from Justin) and *Kirby's Dreamland : The Halberd* (from Murray). I'd also like to put in there the level made by Murray, *Boo's Guidance* (the one with stuff on the boo's backs), which, to me, is extra hard.

My question is the following. Have you guys done a walthrough or let's play video of your level ? If not, could you make one (do you have the tools or the time) ? At the very least, do you guys have a big enough screen capture of these levels that I could include in my blog post ?

As far as the *BigJC777777's levels* go, I would need to go back and replay some of those because I cannot really remember which one I liked best.


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## lars708 (Sep 29, 2015)

Boccages said:


> I am writing a blog post on the best 12 courses I have come accross. And I have 4 left to be included. I wanted to include some from you guys, which I've found to be quite clever desiners. For example, I want to include *Trials n Tribulation 1* (from Justin) and *Kirby's Dreamland : The Halberd* (from Murray). I'd also like to put in there the level made by Murray, *Boo's Guidance* (the one with stuff on the boo's backs), which, to me, is extra hard.
> 
> My question is the following. Have you guys done a walthrough or let's play video of your level ? If not, could you make one (do you have the tools or the time) ? At the very least, do you guys have a big enough screen capture of these levels that I could include in my blog post ?
> 
> As far as the *BigJC777777's levels* go, I would need to go back and replay some of those because I cannot really remember which one I liked best.



You didnt really play any of my levels did you? I am putting lots of effort in it but no one ever plays them


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## Boccages (Sep 29, 2015)

lars708 said:


> You didnt really play any of my levels did you? I am putting lots of effort in it but no one ever plays them


 I am sorry. Nope ! I haven't had the time to play all the levels I wanted, dear lars. But I promise I will in the next few weeks. I have a full-time job, a significant other I need to spend time with, a family, I'm trading Animal Crossing amiibo cards, I'm running a Nintendo blog, I'm also paid to translate websites and newsletter from English to French on the side, etc. So the Super Mario Maker time I had was a few weeks ago.

EDIT : Never mind, I was able to capture all those levels with my elgato device.


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## JCnator (Sep 29, 2015)

Spin Jump and Piranha Plants... How do they mix? Well, I've got the answer!
Keep in mind that I will send this level to a more recent and well-known YouTuber. Hopefully, they'd play this one, as I took a couple of days to make this one as enjoyable as possible.

*Those Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE!*






Those twisted plants sure are EVERYWHERE! But, how could you scale against most them without your beloved Fire Flower? Master the fine arts of Spin Jumping on these plants in this fun level. Who knows you'll end up having green thumbs?

*C4FC-0000-007D-CC56*


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## Boccages (Sep 29, 2015)

I have finished my blog post on 12 great Super Mario Maker levels. I went ahead and recorded me playing *Trials n Tribulations, Boo's House Challenge, Kirby's Dreamland : the Halberd and Hardship on Airship*. Those videos are now on my YouTube channel. Yet, you can find these by consulting my blog post here (in French) : 

http://www.monnintendo.quebec/12-niveaux-super-mario-maker-a-ne-pas-manquer/

Nota bene : The Boo's House Challenge video was upload last and might be ready in 10-15 minutes. I wasn't able to complete the level while recording.



TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Spin Jump and Piranha Plants... How do they mix? Well, I've got the answer!
> Keep in mind that I will send this level to a more recent and well-known YouTuber. Hopefully, they'd play this one, as I took a couple of days to make this one as enjoyable as possible.
> 
> *Those Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE!*
> ...



Just played it. After a dozen try, I can't figure out how to complete this one ! You got me there JC ! I'm going to try again in the coming days.


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## Midoriya (Sep 30, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Spin Jump and Piranha Plants... How do they mix? Well, I've got the answer!
> Keep in mind that I will send this level to a more recent and well-known YouTuber. Hopefully, they'd play this one, as I took a couple of days to make this one as enjoyable as possible.
> 
> *Those Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE!*
> ...





Woah, that looks amazingly dangerous and fun!  XD....


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## JCnator (Sep 30, 2015)

So, it turns out that Cosmos Wright, one of the famous speedrunners of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time actually ended up playing my latest level and apparently liked it a lot. I think a footage of that level is up on that Twitch broadcasting, only if you subscribed to his channel after paying five bucks.


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## JCnator (Oct 3, 2015)

This thread needs to be bumped. I'm still trying to get more stars on my levels. One of my levels have 20 at highest, and I'm currently 45 stars away from my next medal (which then raises my upload limit to 30).

I've noticed that a lot of people never heard of spin jumping mechanic on both Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U mode, since my latest level has a clear rate under 5%. I mean, once they understand this mechanic, they shouldn't find this one unfair.


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Oct 3, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> This thread needs to be bumped. I'm still trying to get more stars on my levels. One of my levels have 20 at highest, and I'm currently 45 stars away from my next medal (which then raises my upload limit to 30).
> 
> I've noticed that a lot of people never heard of spin jumping mechanic on both Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U mode, since my latest level has a clear rate under 5%. I mean, once they understand this mechanic, they shouldn't find this one unfair.



I was actually going to get this game tomorrow. I'll help you get stars when I figure out how to do that in the game.


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## JCnator (Oct 4, 2015)

Not long after my first MarioVania stage has been published and gathered quite a decent amount of stars, some may say it's a bit too cryptic. Other managed to find a game-breaking exploit due of said elements being placed too close to each other.

Here comes the sequel, this time more streamlined and less backtracking than my previous one. There's six different routes to take in this level, A decent player should be able to pick one or two routes in a single playthrough.


*MarioVania II - Ghastly Ship*







The sequel to exploration-oriented MarioVania - Jumpan's Ascension has finally arrived! Be on the lookout for a Super Leaf and a huge High Heels, or even just a P-Switch to reach on the exit. Can you find your way and get out of the haunted airship?

*1C6D-0000-008D-A6CA*


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## lars708 (Oct 5, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Not long after my first MarioVania stage has been published and gathered quite a decent amount of stars, some may say it's a bit too cryptic. Other managed to find a game-breaking exploit due of said elements being placed too close to each other.
> 
> Here comes the sequel, this time more streamlined and less backtracking than my previous one. There's six different routes to take in this level, A decent player should be able to pick one or two routes in a single playthrough.
> 
> ...



I really should try one of your courses so i can add you to my favorites but always when i am on this thread i am not home or i am not playing Super Mario Maker. Did you actually try my courses btw?


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## Nebuladark (Oct 5, 2015)

I dunno how you all get those pics but here is the code of my animal crossing themed level 

*9A21-0000-007C-FAC7*


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## JCnator (Oct 5, 2015)

lars708 said:


> I really should try one of your courses so i can add you to my favorites but i always when i am on this thread i am not home or i am not playing Super Mario Maker. Did you actually try my courses btw?



I got to try Bowser's Private Pool without ever taking a damage, as I thought I'd be in for some hilarious shenanigans and needless to say, it's a pretty fun level that Nintendo would easily leave it on a official Super Mario Bros. game. While being surprised at a rather low clear rate (around 17%) for a simple enough and straightforward stage, I do have a few concerns about its level design, specifically for the less experienced players.


Spoiler



- The first powerup is a bit too far from the beginning, leaving people wondering where the heck they are long until they hit the underwater portion. Although I did found at least one invisible block early on, a lot of players might won't look for that potential invisible block spot.

- That huge winged Bowser Jr. fight might be where a lot of players fails if they aren't Fire Mario, in which the latter makes this one easy. Most players who never seen that form might be caught by surprise that he also throws hammers, something that a lot of players have trouble to dodge should Mario be too close between wall and Bowser Jr. I'm aware that a standard version of him is incredibly easy to beat




I figured out that "Those Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE!" stage has a few problems that I could've ironed them out in order to make this one even more accessible. Keep in mind that I sent this one to Super Beard Bros. (Jirard from The Completionist and Alex), so the challenge might be too much for those who thought that spin jumping is a pretty foreign concept.
This stage assumes that the player already know how to run, jump, spin jump and dealing with the SMW Piranha Plant's unique behavior early on, yet it shouldn't be too difficult for any Mario veteran that takes time and knows most of the aforementioned mechanics.
I'm planning to release a stage that fixes the rougher parts of "Those Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE!" level. While it still requires spin-jumping, that one will features a more reasonable difficulty curve from start to finish.
For example, an intuitive tutorial on how spin jump works on a Piranha Plant, adding more Super Mushrooms in place where players seems to struggle the most, replacing most small Piranha Plants by a few larger ones (easier to spin jump on). I wonder where else could I improve on to make it more enjoyable to a broader audience.


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## Boccages (Oct 6, 2015)

lars708 said:


> Sorry i must have typed my code wrong, i will check after i am done with my 100 mario challenge
> 
> - - - Post Merge - - -
> 
> ...



I want to apologize to Lars. Why apologize ? Because I made my list of top 12 Super Mario Maker levels I have played BEFORE playing his levels. Lars has a great attention to details. I have played half a dozen stages from his extensive library up to now and they are aesthetically pleasing and fun to play. 

Lars' stages have this distinction when creating stages : they are all targeted for easy to medium difficulty. He is pretty consistent in this fashion, yet his stages show a real progression in his mastering of the tools available in Super Mario Maker. Maybe Bowsjer Jr. pool party stage may be a bit more difficult than the rest, but it is not impossible to get through.

Also, I want to point out that he has killer underwater sections or stages like Getting to Bowser's stage (paraphrasing the name of the level). I'm now folowing you mate. And I left a couple of messages on Miiverse in both Dutch and French. Tot ziens, mijn vriend !


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## lars708 (Oct 7, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> I got to try Bowser's Private Pool without ever taking a damage, as I thought I'd be in for some hilarious shenanigans and needless to say, it's a pretty fun level that Nintendo would easily leave it on a official Super Mario Bros. game. While being surprised at a rather low clear rate (around 17%) for a simple enough and straightforward stage, I do have a few concerns about its level design, specifically for the less experienced players.
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...



OHH you were the one who replied to my level! Thanks for trying it out and yes i know those problems, this one was specifically designed to be a bit more challenging since the rest of my levels aren't that hard 

- - - Post Merge - - -



Boccages said:


> I want to apologize to Lars. Why apologize ? Because I made my list of top 12 Super Mario Maker levels I have played BEFORE playing his levels. Lars has a great attention to details. I have played half a dozen stages from his extensive library up to now and they are aesthetically pleasing and fun to play.
> 
> Lars' stages have this distinction when creating stages : they are all targeted for easy to medium difficulty. He is pretty consistent in this fashion, yet his stages show a real progression in his mastering of the tools available in Super Mario Maker. Maybe Bowsjer Jr. pool party stage may be a bit more difficult than the rest, but it is not impossible to get through.
> 
> Also, I want to point out that he has killer underwater sections or stages like Getting to Bowser's stage (paraphrasing the name of the level). I'm now folowing you mate. And I left a couple of messages on Miiverse in both Dutch and French. Tot ziens, mijn vriend !



Thank you so so much! And it's okay, i don't really mind that i am not in your top 12 levels list. I am just really happy that you enjoyed them! Where are you from actually, France?


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## Boccages (Oct 7, 2015)

lars708 said:


> OHH you were the one who replied to my level! Thanks for trying it out and yes i know those problems, this one was specifically designed to be a bit more challenging since the rest of my levels aren't that hard
> 
> - - - Post Merge - - -
> 
> ...



Qu?bec. But I'm trying to learn Dutch.


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 8, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> I've uploaded another level today, and it's the one that teaches you why certain bad level designs will ruin an Average Joe's enjoyment of the level. Not only everything I previously said about that level is there, I also added two more examples of problematic bad level design decisions. One of them forces you to turn into small Mario for no apparent reason and another that has a room full of useless 1-UPs.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



tbh this level was only like 10% annoying at best, which is obviously ignoring that you gave a quick exit for people that don't want to deal with its ****


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## lars708 (Oct 8, 2015)

Oh my god i just earned my fourth medal! (It's a Spiny if i remember correctly...) Which means that i can now upload 40 levels!


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## Boccages (Oct 8, 2015)

Well. Last night I played a few more of your levels, like Koopa Family Reunion and lined a few of them!


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## JCnator (Oct 8, 2015)

LambdaDelta said:


> tbh this level was only like 10% annoying at best, which is obviously ignoring that you gave a quick exit for people that don't want to deal with its ****



The funny thing about this level is that the way that it's built (having a room for each bad level design or terrible level designing philosophy) isn't supposed to be outright annoying. It shows examples of bad level design. Granted, it won't be too annoying to deal with, since you already knew from the very beginning it's going to suck for purpose and these sections are pretty short. I do have to say that if the real deal often revolves these level design decisions, then this one is most likely going to be a stinker.

The door at the beginning was made for someone who goes through 100 Mario Challenge and don't want to waste lives on that one without needing to skip that level. But at the same time, it could become a bad level design when the maker left a challenging/impossible level, but for some reason didn't bothered to play test it and put doors warping from start to goal.

Pipe #1 in this area is Inescapable Trap. The example I shown may sounds crude by its concept, but the point is: if your level contains an area where the player can't escape just because they picked the wrong path, then it's more frustrating than challenging.

Pipe #2 is Blind Jump. Where exactly should you land, if you can't see the land below you? At this point, it becomes a guessing game rather than pure skills.

Pipe #3 is Excessive use of precision jumps. This one's pretty self-explanatory. If it were to be longer, it would easily become tedious. Who wants to do the same thing over and over and over consecutively?

Pipe #4 is Build-a-block segment. It consists of an empty room... filled with invisible blocks. Similar to Pipe #3, this one can get tedious if it gets too long.

Pipe #5 is Sensory Overload. There's so much stuff going on that it's not even a challenge; it's about getting lucky to get past that segment as fast as you can.

I don't remember what the last pipe and the few doors lead to. But, you get the point.


If you really want me to make the worst level in existence, I can quite easily blend all of these elements in an obstacle course to frustrate the player as much as possible. How fast will you give up on trying would be the real deal here.


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 9, 2015)

Ok, but it needs a billion more Lakitus that you can't even see tossing a billion enemies, a 100 second timer at most, fast autoscroll, and to be an obnoxious maze for starters.

Oh, and trampolines EVERYWHERE.



Also, one was a bunch of 1-ups and another an invisible block trap that tbh was quite easy to get by.

From what I can recall at least.


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Oct 9, 2015)

I have just recently uploaded my first level. The code is:

7A66-0000-0076-5B6A

Since I only had basic tools, I decided to create a tutorial based level. I tried to be creative with it too.


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## JCnator (Oct 9, 2015)

LambdaDelta said:


> Ok, but it needs a billion more Lakitus that you can't even see tossing a billion enemies, a 100 second timer at most, fast autoscroll, and to be an obnoxious maze for starters.
> 
> Oh, and trampolines EVERYWHERE.
> 
> ...



Crazily enough, I began creating the worst level I could possibly can. There's definitely plenty of winged Lakitus at the start of subworld, along with a Thwomp trying to hit you at the very beginning of the stage and an intentionally boring, long and tedious section that wastes about 200+ second out of your timer. More bad level designs to be thrown in it when I go back a creating this stage.

Fast autoscroll isn't actually a bad gameplay element all things considered. One of my levels, Eggman's Airship of Doom has it on every section and you had to dodge obstacles along the way. When there's alot of breathing room between those jumps, players usually won't mind much about that. And that's ignoring poor uses of it.


I'm also trying to create some sort of Mario's horror story in form of a level, and I'd like some inputs from you guys. At the moment, nothing is set in stone, so go ahead and drop some ideas about it.


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## JCnator (Oct 10, 2015)

Guess what? A new level has been uploaded from me, this time teaching you on how POW blocks work, something I haven't often seen them being properly utilized.

*Now you're playing with POW-er!*






Hankering for more POW Blocks? Well, you're pretty much covered with this stage. This one demonstrates some of the potentials level designs that these blocks demonstrate. And there's a few puzzle sections thrown in for good measures.

protip: If you want to drop down a POW Block without breaking it, hold Down on Control Stick/Pad and let go the run button. POW Blocks can be stacked up. To equip a Spiny Shell on your head, simply grab it and press Down.

*FCC5-0000-009C-6E96*


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 10, 2015)

ok but how do you throw items straight up in NSMB style?


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## JCnator (Oct 10, 2015)

LambdaDelta said:


> ok but how do you throw items straight up in NSMB style?



Right from the get-go, throwing item upwards only work with Super Mario World style. This is done by holding Up and then let go the Y button. Though, there is a workaround for both New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 style. Throw or drop the object at a trampoline or note block, but it won't be at the same high height as Super Mario World does.


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## mintellect (Oct 10, 2015)

Ghost House (9E6C-0000-0099-39A6)

It's... A ghost house. Except no Boos. For some reason.

Chaos Castle (E0F1-0000-008D-248A)

Get Lakitu's cloud, and then float to the end. Except a little more complicated. 

Save Yourself (6908-0000-0085-18C5)

In this level you play as Princess Peach. When you realize Mario isn't coming to save you anytime soon, you take matters into your own hands and try to break out of Bowser's castle yourself.

Might be hard. (75B2-0000-007D-C531)

My first course. I'm not telling you anything, just figure it out.

? (3E5B-0000-0094-BC14)

Not saying anything about this one either.


Sorry if my courses are crap. I'm new to this.

- - - Post Merge - - -



TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Crazily enough, I began creating the worst level I could possibly can. There's definitely plenty of winged Lakitus at the start of subworld, along with a Thwomp trying to hit you at the very beginning of the stage and an intentionally boring, long and tedious section that wastes about 200+ second out of your timer. More bad level designs to be thrown in it when I go back a creating this stage.
> 
> Fast autoscroll isn't actually a bad gameplay element all things considered. One of my levels, Eggman's Airship of Doom has it on every section and you had to dodge obstacles along the way. When there's alot of breathing room between those jumps, players usually won't mind much about that. And that's ignoring poor uses of it.
> 
> ...



Mario's horror story? Is that a creepypasta or something?


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## JCnator (Oct 10, 2015)

Magic Marshmallow said:


> [...]
> 
> 
> 
> Mario's horror story? Is that a creepypasta or something?



I'd like it to veer on the creepypasta territory. Either a story revolving around Mario or Luigi would do fine for me. I've already got some ideas in mind, but I'll wait and let you guys drop ideas about that.


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Oct 11, 2015)

I should really start playing some of the levels that everyone has posted here. I definitely will have a lot of free time tomorrow so I can try out many levels.

In the meantime, I have just finished creating my 2nd level:

Underwater Fire Bowling
(FE15-0000-009D-FD2C)

This level is basically self explanatory on what to expect. I strived more for creativity rather than difficulty on this one. I only unlocked items up to the underwater set, but I did do the best I could. I may make a 2nd version of this stage if many people want me to.


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## Cress (Oct 11, 2015)

New level yay





*The Wind Waker: Ganon's Tower
ID: 3E88-0000-009E-3AA4*

I feel like the first part was really good but then it get worse as I ran out of ideas to make the level.


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Oct 11, 2015)

How do you make warp pipes work so they can warp you to different parts of the stage or to a new environment completely?


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## Cress (Oct 11, 2015)

AkatsukiYoshi said:


> How do you make warp pipes work so they can warp you to different parts of the stage or to a new environment completely?



It's the last thing you unlock, but once you have it, just drag Mario onto the pipe. I heard that there's a limit of 10 connections per stage (so 20 pipes).


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## JCnator (Oct 11, 2015)

AkatsukiYoshi said:


> How do you make warp pipes work so they can warp you to different parts of the stage or to a new environment completely?



The ability to warp to subworld with pipes is unlocked pretty late. Once unlocked, drag Mario to any of the pipes and place the pipe anywhere in the subworld/overworld. There is a limit of ten warp pipe connections per level. Warp pipes are best used to transition between overworld and subworld, but they can be also used if you don't want to use doors.


I've also played all of your levels available, and here's my thought on each level.


The first level is of course meant to be a tutorial level, but this one definitely have some improvements to do even if you don't have all of the necessary tools right away. For a tutorial level, the clear rate is ironically pretty low, sitting at about 25% when I last checked. Why that low? There's a few level design issues that you might haven't seen yet came into the play.

First up, there is zero powerup in this level, therefore players have to clear the level without being hit even once or else they get sent at the very beginning of the level every time they die. This is especially true when your levels are long and Super Mario Maker lacks checkpoint, as the further the player dies, the more aggravated they will become. Since a lot of people don't have much patience, they would easily quit the level. It would be nice to add at least a Super Mushroom near to the starting point and also after a tricky segment of a level to encourage them to go on further, because it grants Mario the ability to take one more hit before shrinking back to its weakest form. And that definitely reassures players seeking for more room for errors.

Second, some parts of the level asks you to perform certain moves, but the level design doesn't prevent players from not heeding your advice and let them proceed in ways you wouldn't expect. For example, the running portion can be beaten by walking instead of running. You could at least leave a small hole for every 2 squares of ground (without them being bottomless) and you'd already have a level design that encourages players to run that section, although a super-fast conveyor belt with super-low ceiling would do a much better job on teaching that particular move's usefulness.
It's also worth noting that the run and jump segment can be beaten by just walking and jumping, because walking at full speed still gives the same jump momentum as running in full speed. The difference between walking jump and running jump is that the latter lets you traverse a significantly longer gap than the former.

Third, Spin Jump isn't what I would call a basic move. In fact, it's an advanced technique available on both Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U style that not a lot of people actually knew its existence, save for a few later levels. The move is tricky in its nature and the games that featured this move didn't emphasized it often enough for it to be second nature for most players. It can take a longer while for them to master the intricacies of spin jumping. Therefore, I suspect a lot of players died between the tight Spin Jump section by accidentally hitting a Goomba afterwards and the stair of Piranha Plants near the Goal Pole. Speaking of the staircase, there isn't enough leeway to avoid inadvertently hitting one of them and requires the player to perform very precise spin jumps. That is already a pretty hard section, let alone without a powerup for an otherwise easy level. And that is coming from someone who is very familiar with spin jump.


The second level isn't really memorable for me. Just like your first level, it has the same problem of players not heeding the directives you want them to follow, since players could skip the entire mini-game with the Cheep Cheeps giving them a wide opening, thereby ruining the whole point of the stage. Thanks for letting me know that bowling is all about hitting Cheep Cheeps one-by-one with fireballs and guarantees the players a full strike every single time! Also, the stage suffers from some repetitiveness as the same exact bowling segment occurs four more times. The only good thing about this stage is that it isn't even challenging at all, which should be a fine stage for those playing 100 Mario Challenge on Easy.


So yeah, it's nice to be creative and all, but you'd have to make sure that your ideas will stick pretty well whenever you want to. And most importantly, make sure it's enjoyable for many players who would stumble in your levels. Since you were hankering for more course elements, have you tried spamming tonnes of blocks every time the game says more of them would arrive at certain date? It'll make them happen like right now.


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Oct 12, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> The ability to warp to subworld with pipes is unlocked pretty late. Once unlocked, drag Mario to any of the pipes and place the pipe anywhere in the subworld/overworld. There is a limit of ten warp pipe connections per level. Warp pipes are best used to transition between overworld and subworld, but they can be also used if you don't want to use doors.
> 
> 
> I've also played all of your levels available, and here's my thought on each level.
> ...



Thanks to both you and PuffleKirby for clearing that up for me. I don't understand why that feature has to be unlocked so late, but I should be able to do that soon.

Yeah, I didn't really think about that at the time. As a new player in the game I really wanted to make a level and submit it. I didn't really think about my designing until I saw that the clear rate was at 19% for my basic level. It was only then when I thought my basic level isn't really that basic like I intended it to be.

I am aware that there are no powerups. Since most of the opposition was just Goombas, I didn't really think a powerup was needed. The level was only very long because I tried to teach as many moves as possible within the max distance a level can be. While I thought of putting a Super Mushroom at the beginning, I couldn't think of a way to get the Super Mushroom without jumping and hitting a block when I was teaching about movement. I could've put one in the jump setting, but a random mushroom block in the middle of nowhere would look weird. I know what to do now, so I'll just use it when I create a revised version of the level.

During one of my test runs, I knew this could've been exploited by simply walking and jumping. I just couldn't think of way to fix it and I just ignored it and hoped people wouldn't figure that out. (bad idea) Your suggestions would work well in my revision. I can't use a conveyor belt yet, so that leaves me one other option obviously.

I've learned about the spin jump and it's uses right away. Sure, it wasn't given much explanation, but it can be easily figured out with trial and error in both Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros U. Ironically, half of the deaths were where the first few Goombas were. The other half is where you just said.... I'll admit that even I died at the staircase of Piranha plants once before I was able to submit my stage. I was mostly trying to show how useful the spin jump is. I think I went too overboard with it so that is just bad designing on my part. I'll just take off the Spin jump section completely then if it isn't really as basic as you say. I should add in a different move though otherwise my stage would just be too short.


As for my 2nd level, I once again knew of the exploit of not having to follow directions. In my defense though, I lacked the resources to fix the problem. If I had doors that appear after beating all the enemies, then my problem with that could easily be fixed. I thought about using koopa shells instead, but I thought the shells can pose as a problem if you don't hit them all and that using more than one shell would NOT actually be a strike. Also, it can't really be fire bowling without the use of a fire flower, right? I also wanted to use different enemies, but the lines would not be straight with any other enemy besides the Cheep Cheep, so that is why it was all the same. This level was never meant to be challenging anyways. I was only trying to show off a unique and creative idea. Since only one enemy will work, I can't really fix the level up to much to make it look better either. Perhaps this was just one of those ideas that is impossible to do to begin with. (at least by me anyway)

I actually did complete a 3rd level that is impossible to exploit in any way. I don't remember the code though. If you want to try it early you can find it by checking my uploaded levels since you already played at least one level by me.


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## lars708 (Oct 12, 2015)

PuffleKirby21 said:


> New level yay
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Ima try out all your levels if i get the time for it today! And why are all those miiverse screenshots so blurry? I don't get it. I mean it makes no sense, if i would post a regular screenshot it has a far better resolution than those crappy thumbnail things.


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## mintellect (Oct 12, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> The ability to warp to subworld with pipes is unlocked pretty late. Once unlocked, drag Mario to any of the pipes and place the pipe anywhere in the subworld/overworld. There is a limit of ten warp pipe connections per level. Warp pipes are best used to transition between overworld and subworld, but they can be also used if you don't want to use doors.
> 
> 
> I've also played all of your levels available, and here's my thought on each level.
> ...



After reading this, I'm scared to see what people will think of my levels. 

I try to make my levels harder (and sort of like troll levels?) and they tend to have a lower clear rate, but I don't know if it's because I'm actually good at that or the people playing my levels are just noobs. And someone could criticize my levels for being too hard or pointless.


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## JCnator (Oct 12, 2015)

@AkatsukiYoshi & @Magic Marshmallow: I would give this section of a popular GameFAQs FAQ a read if you need some more insights on how to design a good level. I mostly relied on these words of advice when I attempt making stages that would interest a good amount of players.


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Oct 12, 2015)

Magic Marshmallow said:


> After reading this, I'm scared to see what people will think of my levels.
> 
> I try to make my levels harder (and sort of like troll levels?) and they tend to have a lower clear rate, but I don't know if it's because I'm actually good at that or the people playing my levels are just noobs. And someone could criticize my levels for being too hard or pointless.



I have tried your ghost house level and I have found it to be a troll level as well as confusing. A lot of my deaths were due to either troll doors, unexpected thwomps, and the fact that I was lost in the section I needed the Lakitu cloud because the maze was confusing. Even after going straight through it looked like I was no where close to finding the exit. I basically gave up at that point.


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## lars708 (Oct 12, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> @AkatsukiYoshi & @Magic Marshmallow: I would give this section of a popular GameFAQs FAQ a read if you need some more insights on how to design a good level. I mostly relied on these words of advice when I attempt making stages that would interest a good amount of players.



Are my stages good according to these rules? I never used these but people are still amazed by my levels.


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## JCnator (Oct 12, 2015)

AkatsukiYoshi said:


> I have tried your ghost house level and I have found it to be a troll level as well as confusing. A lot of my deaths were due to either troll doors, unexpected thwomps, and the fact that I was lost in the section I needed the Lakitu cloud because the maze was confusing. Even after going straight through it looked like I was no where close to finding the exit. I basically gave up at that point.



Sounds like this stage is heavily relying on memorization/luck rather than being skill-based, which in turns usually waste more time than the players should. Perhaps the designer remembered exactly where to go and consistently beat it without much effort, yet players who landed the stage for the first few times won't have familiarized the stage beforehand unless they download that level and start editing to see where the problems are.




lars708 said:


> Are my stages good according to these rules? I never used these but people are still amazed by my levels.



Keep in mind that those are simply guidelines on what makes your stage enjoyable, whether you wanted them or not. If my playthrough of Bowser Jr.'s Private Pool is any indication, then I'm fairly sure you've nailed at least some of these guidelines effortlessly.

Maybe it could be you were initially very lucky to get that many players to try your stages and loved them, perhaps being attributed to them being usually easy enough yet satisfying enough for a lot of players to stumble in your levels. It might be you playing a lot of people's levels and starring them.


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 12, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Right from the get-go, throwing item upwards only work with Super Mario World style. This is done by holding Up and then let go the Y button. Though, there is a workaround for both New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 style. Throw or drop the object at a trampoline or note block, but it won't be at the same high height as Super Mario World does.



I already knew it was possible with SMW which is why I asked.

list of reasons why NSMB is garbage


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## Spongebob (Oct 14, 2015)

I just made a level that is kinda sad 

Bowser's Torture Chamber
COURSE ID: 9FB5-0000-00A8-D146


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## adrino (Oct 15, 2015)

By the looks of things, there's some fierce Mario players here.. just what I've been looking for. I've got a lot of levels, some of which I think are easy but result in people not completing them so let's see what you guys think. Here's a few of my levels I have uploaded.



Spoiler: Click here to see level listings



Pipe Dream
_First level ever made._




*Course ID: 0B15-0000-0018-7664*

Jellyfish Lake
_Inspired by World 7-4 of SMB3_




*Course ID: E036-0000-0026-1924*

A Big Finish 
_Got to finish the level off in a big way._




*Course ID: 3424-0000-003D-6563*

"Another" Castle 
_The Princess should be here.._




*Course ID: 7D30-0000-003E-28D4*

Take a Ride on Buzzy Beetle 
_Not all enemies are bad._




*Course ID: E13D-0000-007A-FD6D*

Koopa Keep 
_Bowser has his own castle but wants more._




*Course ID: 6C3D-0000-0096-6846*

Boss Chomp's Castle 
_Second upload of this course. Original was too challenging for many._




*Course ID: 58F3-0000-00A9-097C*


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Oct 15, 2015)

Some of you may have already played my latest stages, but here are the codes to those who haven't tried them yet:

Smash 64- Race to the finish!
E4D7-0000-00A8-24BD

Those who have played Smash 64 should already know what to expect. I tried my best to closely replicate that bonus stage.

Mario 101- The Basics: Revised

The feedback from TheBigJC7777777 made me realize that my original version of this stage was way too hard and that some of my directions did not have to be followed. This version has fixed those flaws and I made my tutorial level more beginner friendly like a tutorial level is supposed to be.


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## JCnator (Oct 15, 2015)

Here comes a sneak peek of one of the levels I'm making while still trying to figure out on how should I create a level that twists the tropes around Mario and/or co.






Who said that platforms aren't quintessential to the platforming genre? This one focuses on those things while staying accessible for the less experienced Mario players out there. The stage is beatable, but I'll need to do some adjustments to make this one more enjoyable.


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## lars708 (Oct 16, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Sounds like this stage is heavily relying on memorization/luck rather than being skill-based, which in turns usually waste more time than the players should. Perhaps the designer remembered exactly where to go and consistently beat it without much effort, yet players who landed the stage for the first few times won't have familiarized the stage beforehand unless they download that level and start editing to see where the problems are.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Noooo i never star levels besides the levels from friends. If i star a level, it must be REALLY impressive.

- - - Post Merge - - -



TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Here comes a sneak peek of one of the levels I'm making while still trying to figure out on how should I create a level that twists the tropes around Mario and/or co.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



It looks fun though


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## adrino (Oct 16, 2015)

Sooo... feedback for any of my levels.. anybody..?


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Oct 17, 2015)

I just finished my first very hard level. Would anyone like to give it a try?

A 1-way ticket to pain!
847F-0000-00BO-6144


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## JCnator (Oct 17, 2015)

I finally uploaded a new level called "Platforms ahoy!", but it's in a state of work in progress as it needs your feedback on how should I fine tune the level should you find any issue within the stage. It's a rather easy level when you simply do the main path, but taking on the alternate paths can make the level a bit more challenging. It can be completed pretty quickly no matter which route you take, but it's entirely possible to beat this stage in around 30 seconds or less if you're skilled enough.


*Platforms ahoy! [WIP]*


*E601-0000-00B0-A15E*

May 22nd 2016 EDIT: I deleted this level, because it hardly receives star anymore due of being rather low-quality by my standards. The same could be said for Wall-Jumping Exercise and Wild Wiggler's Ride.


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## KingKyle (Oct 20, 2015)

*Share your Super Mario Maker courses here!*

Here's some of mine:







Trust me, they are really fun. I wouldn't upload boring courses!


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 20, 2015)

NSMBU style is never fun I'm sorry


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## JCnator (Oct 20, 2015)

LambdaDelta said:


> NSMBU style is never fun I'm sorry



He hasn't unlocked Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World style yet by the time he uploaded his levels. All 4 styles has the same physics in Super Mario Maker despite the difference in Mario's abilities, which seems to be more refined. I've felt his SMM physics are more agile than those in NSMBU and in SMB.

@KingKyle: From what I've seen from the pictures of your levels, I already see some problematic level designs going on, even though I haven't played your levels yet.

I immediately understood that you were very obsessed on "mindlessly" spamming many stuff in a level. I know it's fun placing as many thing as you could possibly fill, but any level where the sole main point of interest is nothing more than stuffing up things without much purpose screams the lack of creativity and are a waste to your level upload limit. "CRAZINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!", "COINS EVERYWHERE!" and "Bounce on enemies!" to some extent are example of this form of boring level design, although the much longer latter level would make players feel it drags on and on without much interest aside of bouncing enemies.

"Super Bounce!" doesn't seem to be very hard, although having to press the jump button at the right moment to gain extra height is the most annoying part of any stage that involves excessive use of trampolines. In Super Mario Maker, the timeframe for registering a successful timing press is pretty slim, compared to all of the other Mario games ever released. Have to give this one a closer look later on.

The starting point of "Extreme" has enemies way too close to Mario's start point, according to the preview image for that stage. That means if the players don't react within less than 1/2 second by the time they start playing this one, they'll lose a life. People unknowing stumbling in this stage will very likely get hit as small Mario, which may be one of the reasons why your stage has a low clear rate. It's a cheap way to artificially increase the difficulty, since players are relying more on memorization to avoid this trap right the beginning of the stage rather than pure skills. You could have avoided that level design flaw by placing enemies far enough for any player playing this stage for the first time a chance to prepare themselves and react accordingly. I'll have to give this one a proper look to form a better view in this one, since the rest of stage seems intriguing.


I'll examine some of your levels tomorrow and come up with observations. I'll admit I might be a bit too intimidating for anyone creating levels for the first time, but that's because I'd like you to become a better level designer. Just don't sweat yourself too much and you'll have an even more fun time!


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 21, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> He hasn't unlocked Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World style yet by the time he uploaded his levels. All 4 styles has the same physics in Super Mario Maker despite the difference in Mario's abilities, which seems to be more refined. I've felt his SMM physics are more agile than those in NSMBU and in SMB.



NSMBU in SMM is still a constant state of me fighting with the controls to be able to do anything notable

none of the other SMM styles have this issue

its flat-out garbage and needs to be completely overhauled or dropped in the future


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## lars708 (Oct 21, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> He hasn't unlocked Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World style yet by the time he uploaded his levels. All 4 styles has the same physics in Super Mario Maker despite the difference in Mario's abilities



That is not true, Super Mario World is far more slippery than other styles. I know this for sure because i made an auto mario level and it wouldn't work anymore if i switched to a different style than Super Mario World.


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## JCnator (Oct 21, 2015)

lars708 said:


> That is not true, Super Mario World is far more slippery than other styles. I know this for sure because i made an auto mario level and it wouldn't work anymore if i switched to a different style than Super Mario World.



Oh wow, I thought the Super Mario World physics in Super Mario Maker felt a bit more like New Super Mario Bros. U to me. I remembered that the physics of the actual SMW on the SNES was more slippery than those of the SMW style in SMM.


I further examined KingKyle's stages by downloading his stages to Coursebot as opposed to hit "Play", and my initial doubts are indeed real. I think it's easy to guess why "Super Bounce!" is a disappointingly boring stage that you'd regularly find in an Easy 100 Mario Challenge. Nothing much else to say here.

Beyond a Goomba being extremely close to Mario's starting point, it turns out that "Extreme" gets a lot of things wrong in the process too. A huge part of the stage's difficulty relies on cheap shots, and the rewards are disproportionately distributed based on how much effort it took the player to obtain them in first place, discouraging pure skills in favor of luck. I'll point out a few examples of where I found some of the bad level design in this stage.

1- Enemy hidden by the camera





In the high-jumping section with brick blocks and a few trampolines. Sounds safe, right? There's actually a green Koopa Troopa that'll eventually fall down while navigating this area. Since the camera don't let the player see this guy, he/she will most likely get hit because they couldn't see that from happening. That's not a challenge. That requires memorizing where the guy was, and therefore is one of those cheap shots.

2- Blind jump





Right after the hidden Koopa section, there is another bad level design thrown in because the creator thought it constitutes a challenge, yet relies on memorization instead. Again, the camera don't let player see what's below from this point and there's zero indication on where the player should be while doing a leap of faith. There are trampolines down below, but there's also a possibility of failing this one because the player would have enough time to react to land on one of them and falls down to bottomless pit instead.






3- Unrewarding reward placement

So, "Extreme" doesn't reward skills from the players. But what further exemplifies that issue are how illogically the rewards are placed. There's a secret that can be seen right at the start of level that players could effortlessly reach by jumping on the trampoline. Sounds neat, right? Well, that's one thing. But how they were rewarded is another thing.






For one, you were given a ridiculous amount of coins because of that very accessible secret? How about getting 25 coins by simply jumping in another easy to reach secret area, as shown above?

Also, if you managed to clear the hidden Koopa section and reach the right ledge far out of the camera, it'll lead you to a virtually non-existent challenge section, complete with a Fire Flower and a Star that won't be much use. Here's why:






If the player takes the upper path from there, which is easy to reach and impossible to die afterward, the player completes the stage.






The lower path is a a dead end without an appropriate redeeming reward whatsoever. Talk about disappointing, but hey, you can backtrack. But, getting back where they were is a bit trickier than it should be. Knowing on how bad is the timeframe for timing press on a trampoline, it's possible for the player to be forced to restart the whole level by accidentally destroying the brick blocks underneath the trampolines if the player isn't small Mario, never heard of an obscure trick that safely drop any item down and struggles on stacking trampolines.

When a player overcomes one of the most difficult sections of said level or find a difficult-to-reach secret, you should give them a proper reward to commemorate their efforts. The stuff they get should actually aid them to clear this stage easier or in a more interesting way than if they weren't rewarded.


Overall, "Extreme" seemed to be promising despite the cheap shot at the very beginning of the stage, but it ultimately fails to deliver the fun you were touting thanks to a number of questionable level design choices. Cheap damage/death sections due of unforeseen obstacles and unrewarding reward placement are what makes many players not bothering to give you a star. Also, if you were wondering why you couldn't place certain elements in a course, it's most likely because you filled the stage with tonnes of enemies, most of which didn't even needed to be there to begin with, which I noticed right away when I started analyzing this stage.


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## adrino (Oct 21, 2015)

@TheBigJC7777777 You seem to be the one who pulls the weight around here.. so uh.. any chance you can look at my levels and tell me what you think? I posted a couple of my levels a while ago here.


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## KingKyle (Oct 22, 2015)

I'm bad at course making.


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## lars708 (Oct 22, 2015)

KingKyle said:


> I'm bad at course making.



As if we couldn't tell. I mean, i am not trying to offend you in any way but, your levels are the levels i just call garbage. Because they show up at the easy challenge because they contain 100 stars and 3 Bowsers which are easily gone because of the stars. Or because they show up at the hard challenge because there are so many troll deaths and cheap enemy placements. I still have to encounter my first hard challenge level with a legit challenge. Not that the levels are easy, but they are literally all troll levels. I mean come on! I died a lot in the real New Super Mario Bros. games but i was motivated to go on because it had a fair difficulty. This is just nonsense.


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## JCnator (Oct 22, 2015)

adrino said:


> @TheBigJC7777777 You seem to be the one who pulls the weight around here.. so uh.. any chance you can look at my levels and tell me what you think? I posted a couple of my levels a while ago here.



These levels look fun to play to be honest! I'll be sure to give some of them a shot at least before Monday. I blame unexpected events occurring to me and the Tri-Force Heroes hype train.



KingKyle said:


> I'm bad at course making.



Judging by when your first ten uploads were made, it seems like that they're your first foray on level designing. Making a course that you enjoy by yourself is of course easy-peasy, as it can possibly take a very little effort. But making ones that will be enjoyable to everyone including yourself is much trickier than it sounds, and that's where most of us in the community are interested for, at least in this topic.

Just so you could get an idea of how enjoyable a course should be, I invite you to try one of my best levels for example and analyze about what makes this particular level potentially enjoyable after playing. The elements you appreciated might serve you as an inspiration to better design your levels compared to your previous efforts, and may very likely lead you to more stars. It can be about the visuals, the audios, the level design, how well elements are incorporated in a level, the difficulty curve, difficulty vs. reward, the overall experience, etc.

*Eggman's Airship of Doom
5B81-0000-0050-A5C0*


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## KingKyle (Oct 24, 2015)

OK! I just need more stars so I can upload more courses.


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## matt (Oct 24, 2015)

Number 1: AD12-0000-00BB-8F1
Number 2 E193-0000-0051-5B24
Enjoy


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## JCnator (Oct 24, 2015)

I finally played some of adrino's levels, and I must say that most of those I tried are pretty fun to play, especially "Another" Castle and Boss Chomp's Castle.


A Big Finish is probably my least favorite out of the bunch due to one problematic area in level design. Before the goal pole, I met with a large wall that seems to be impassable at first. After I lead a Bob-Omb next to a blocked pipe and went through that one, I thought that room was just a decorated optional secret room. That is not the case.



Spoiler



The thing is, the secret room was also actually hinting that there are invisible blocks to hit, but I interpreted it otherwise and left me stuck until I downloaded the level to Coursebot to check if there was anything I missed and indeed, one of the invisible blocks had the giant mushroom, which is mandatory to beat the level since it lets Mario break brick and course blocks by walking through them. Had that hinted environment easier to memorize, I would've quickly figured that out.



This level suffers from relying an finite item resource in order to clear it. Between the P-Swtich and blocked pipe area, it's possible for the player to end up being permanently stuck by accidentally amassing too many coins or losing the one and only powerup. Keep in mind, these don't respawn even when taking a door/pipe. Aside of the aforementioned issues, the level isn't very difficult at all if you exactly know what you're doing and shouldn't take too long to come back where you were. I guess the level itself is passable at best.


The best advice to beat Pipe Dream is to spend a few seconds to check if there's anything popping out of pipes to avoid some nasty surprises. This also applies to any level where you'd want watch out for the pipes. Super Mario Maker engine has an odd habit of taking around 2 extra seconds to load whatever thing inside a pipe that appears on-screen before it assumes the supposed behavior. This can make possible for players to get through certain sets of pipes without ever seeing anything come out of it, unless they were slowed down. All of the other Super Mario Bros. games never had that quirk before, as the enemy would spawn as soon as the pipe is shown on-screen. So basically, anyone with a decent amount of patience is rewarded here. I don't have much else to say about the level, but I can say it's a fine level for a first-timer.


Jellyfish Lake, a difficult and hectic autoscrolling level has you slalom through Jelectros, Green Cheep Cheeps and Bloopers. What makes this level so good, is that it doesn't even feel it drags on and on. And that is one heck of an achievement, considering it's a mostly underwater level.


Koopa Keep is a short but sweet type of the level. It has you do one of the two trials twice before leading up to the boss fight, leading to different playthroughs, which adds to the replayability and variety. The difficulty in this level is reasonable enough to not feel being stuck and unable to complete the level.


"Another" Castle is my personal favorite out all of the levels I tried today. For one, it managed the difficulty to be consistently engaging without being unfair as a result of a rather ambitious challenge. This level expects you to have a good amount of Mario bestiary knowledge to efficiently beat the level, something that many players might not have. Using some of the New Super Mario Bros. U's advanced techniques helped me a lot to overcome many of its obstacles. FYI, I beat this one in a single try. I love on how I had to spin jump on Spiky Parabeetles before the Skull platform drowns in the lava, so I could safely land on the next Parabeetle without spike without much effort. And the forced boss fight works so well that it rounds out the package quite nicely.


Boss Chomp's Castle is another great level with a consistent high difficulty throughout the stage without feeling cheap and frustrating. This one exploits the mechanics of Chain Chomp quite nicely to provide challenge that I believe they're barely used in the Super Mario Bros. games and on most Super Mario Maker levels. I haven't tried the much more fiendish original version of it, but I can definitely say that I enjoyed this updated version quite well. I also beat this one in one try. I think I've played too many platforming games in my life.


I've got another level coming next week that has Bullet Bills and Rocky Wrenches. It has you to jump on the former to reach chasms and platforms. It's a challenging stage for sure, but it ain't going to end up as hard like "Those Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE!" accidentally did. I'm currently trying to improve this level to make this one more fun and aesthetically pleasing to eyes.







I'm also looking to remake one of my past levels, as I feel like that some of them are barely receiving any star for quite some time. Since I'm too lazy to repost level codes here, you can check my list of stages I created from Nintendo Life's Super Mario Maker level directory as well and grab the codes from there.


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## KingKyle (Oct 25, 2015)

Here's a another course I made:


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## lars708 (Oct 25, 2015)

KingKyle said:


> Here's a another course I made:
> View attachment 153949



You literally used one of the title screen samples to create a level? I know it is kind of ment for that but it is pretty lame nontheless...

- - - Post Merge - - -



TheBigJC7777777 said:


> I'm also looking to remake one of my past levels, as I feel like that some of them are barely receiving any star for quite some time. Since I'm too lazy to repost level codes here, you can check my list of stages I created from Nintendo Life's Super Mario Maker level directory as well and grab the codes from there.



Jeez that DOES look like a design mistake even though it's fine, the camera can be horrible in Super Mario Maker sometimes. Still have to play your levels, i always forget about Super Mario Maker. So busy with Splatoon... Lol i will try to play them when i finish dinner!


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## JCnator (Oct 25, 2015)

lars708 said:


> [...]
> 
> Jeez that DOES look like a design mistake even though it's fine, the camera can be horrible in Super Mario Maker sometimes. Still have to play your levels, i always forget about Super Mario Maker. So busy with Splatoon... Lol i will try to play them when i finish dinner!



Since the camera does move up and & down during airship areas, that section could be problematic if I put any enemy or course hazard away from the visible area. The way that the game scrolls vertically is solely based on how high the ground or enemy you're standing/jumping on is. For that section of the level, I didn't put any trap there and added an arrow there. I also brought the second Bill Blaster a bit closer so players could see it before they jump, rather than having to jump off from the first Bullet Bill to get closer to the otherwise hidden cannon for the second Bullet Bill to pop up and then bop from it.

Speaking of which, the level is finally uploaded. I had no idea on how to name that level, so I just went to naming this one in a quirkier fashion, kinda like on how the staff at Super Mario World would actually name the levels.


*Coconut Airship*






*A9B5-0000-00C2-6954*


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## adrino (Oct 25, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> A Big Finish is probably my least favorite out of the bunch due to one problematic area in level design. Before the goal pole, I met with a large wall that seems to be impassable at first. After I lead a Bob-Omb next to a blocked pipe and went through that one, I thought that room was just a decorated optional secret room. That is not the case.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



First off, I really appreciate you taking the time to play through my levels and am glad to hear you enjoyed them. And Secondly, regarding what you mentioned above, yeah. When creating and testing that level, I had a tough time figuring out how to lead players to enter that pipe without destroying the bridge of coins. I thought my counter solution to having a broken bridge was adding a Stiletto Goomba to the room with the hint but that just watered down the challenge. I also didn't want to remove the Muncher/Bob-Omb section that being the tricky part of the stage but then I faced the trouble of having only 1 Star provided leaving little room for error. So yeah, I've been aware of this fault and have considered going back and stretching it out a little more to make the hint room mandatory but also not a trial and error ordeal.


I've uploaded a new level today that I created after learning a new technique that I can't believe I had not known about since I've had the game on release. Dunno if I'm just the last person to know about it but in case it's not common knowledge, here's the level. 

Step On Down 




*Course ID: C647-0000-00C3-8C8D*
The level is designed to be beatable for the most part without this newfound knowledge I learned today. But at one point in the level, you have to use this technique to progress.


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 25, 2015)

adrino said:


> The level is designed to be beatable for the most part without this newfound knowledge I learned today. But at one point in the level, you have to use this technique to progress.



Is it the point that's screencapped?


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## adrino (Oct 26, 2015)

LambdaDelta said:


> Is it the point that's screencapped?



Nah, it comes a little bit later on past that point.


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## adrino (Oct 27, 2015)

So an update coming out next week.. I'm so glad we're getting checkpoints. I hope they're utilized wisely.


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## JCnator (Oct 27, 2015)

adrino said:


> So an update coming out next week.. I'm so glad we're getting checkpoints. I hope they're utilized wisely.



This might be the feature that most of my long-ish levels needed, especially "Those Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE!". Now those who quit my stages at the first stage have one less excuse to come up with!


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## adrino (Oct 27, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> This might be the feature that most of my long-ish levels needed, especially "Those Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE!". Now those who quit my stages at the first stage have one less excuse to come up with!



The patience required for that stage... arrrg.. It was good but yes, I think a checkpoint would do it some good.


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## JCnator (Oct 31, 2015)

I just noticed something about myself when I try to create a stage.

I seem to do pretty well when it comes to adopting the less is more approach. That meant sticking with one or two core ideas per level, as opposed to throwing everything in one stage. My stages that opt with this approach often become more focused as result, which makes them more memorable for the players.


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## lars708 (Oct 31, 2015)

I have a lot of levels in the works simutanously! They have been in development for over a week but i plan on uploading them once the updste arrives so i can actually add checkpoints with the first version! 

That update is really good for all my other levels as well, checkpoints are not the only thing i wish to add to them. Some levels are too hard or have some design mistakes which i wish to fix. But deleting the level and reuploading it is too much work for those minor things. But now we have got the checkpoints, i can fix everything while i am at it! 

I hope my levels can finally reach a Nintendo -ish quality after the update! ^^


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 31, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> I just noticed something about myself when I try to create a stage.
> 
> I seem to do pretty well when it comes to adopting the less is more approach. That meant sticking with one or two core ideas per level, as opposed to throwing everything in one stage. My stages that opt with this approach often become more focused as result, which makes them more memorable for the players.



I kind of figured this should be the most basic aspect of a level tbh.


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## lars708 (Oct 31, 2015)

LambdaDelta said:


> I kind of figured this should be the most basic aspect of a level tbh.



There are so much kids who do not even understand that aspect though.


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 31, 2015)

lars708 said:


> There are so much kids who do not even understand that aspect though.



and that's why Mario Maker is full of crap levels


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## JCnator (Oct 31, 2015)

I just uploaded a stage that is basically a tutorial about the unique abilities of Cape Mario, something that some people haven't learned yet but sure is helpful when tackling certain stages. I plan to draw Miiverse posts in this level explaining on how to execute certain moves, but it'll take awhile, especially considering on how mediocre of a Miiverse artist I am. I already managed to get 2 of them so far. Someday, I might even capture a footage of it and explain the mechanics of it.

This level covers on how to fly, slow the plumber's descent, steering left or right in mid-air before Cape Mario starts parachuting, maintaining the height while flying, Spin Jumping with Cape Mario and the extra hit point when Cape Mario is in parachute mode while hitting an otherwise hurtful obstacle.

The maintaining height section has two 1UP Mushrooms that can be attained if you master on how to stay in the same height as before going into parachute mode and perhaps even higher than that if you're very good at it. For that matter, downloading this stage might be ideal if you'd like to brush up your flight skills.

*Cape Mario Tutorial







B8C1-0000-00CE-7A9E*


If you have any problem on performing certain moves, feel free to holler me about the area you're struggling with. I'll clearly explain what to do there.

The level I posted isn't the only tutorial level I've got. More stages of its kind are coming later, such as the advanced moves and expert techniques that can be only done in New Super Mario Bros. U style, and another progressively covering the basic moves found in every Super Mario Bros. game to date.


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 31, 2015)

tbh I wish more stages actually utilized cape Mario for flying

I've barely even come across any


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## JCnator (Oct 31, 2015)

LambdaDelta said:


> tbh I wish more stages actually utilized cape Mario for flying
> 
> I've barely even come across any



I kinda get the reason why we rarely see levels where utilizing Cape Mario's abilities is mandatory for completion. It might be due of the lack of variety of challenges that the powerup may offer considering on how large the flight sections needed to be. If a level would heavily rely on that, it would often requires trials and errors to get the flight right in sections that require coming at a proper angle and precise movements.

At best, I feel like that they're best used to reach secret areas and shortcuts, and even make certain sections of a difficult level easier. I've never seen an official Super Mario World level on the SNES asking us to precisely manipulate the flight controls to clear a stage, and that's for a good reason.


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## LambdaDelta (Oct 31, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> I kinda get the reason why we rarely see levels where utilizing Cape Mario's abilities is mandatory for completion. It might be due of the lack of variety of challenges that the powerup may offer considering on how large the flight sections needed to be. If a level would heavily rely on that, it would often requires trials and errors to get the flight right in sections that require coming at a proper angle and precise movements.
> 
> At best, I feel like that they're best used to reach secret areas and shortcuts, and even make certain sections of a difficult level easier. I've never seen an official Super Mario World level on the SNES asking us to precisely manipulate the flight controls to clear a stage, and that's for a good reason.



I just mean utilized to the point where you can even reasonably fly period

also are you forgetting that one secret exit for cheese bridge area?


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## JCnator (Oct 31, 2015)

LambdaDelta said:


> I just mean utilized to the point where you can even reasonably fly period
> 
> also are you forgetting that one secret exit for cheese bridge area?



Oh yeah! I forgot that I could do that with just Cape Mario. Jumping off from Yoshi below the first goal is also a valid method.


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## JCnator (Nov 5, 2015)

Let's give this thread a well-deserved bump, especially in the wake of yesterday's update.

My old version of Coconut Airship is now replaced and has received a few tweaks, including the most-wanted checkpoint.

*DE8F-0000-00D8-46F6*


I'll release a more enjoyable version of "Those Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE!" within a couple of days. The difficulty of the stage itself is nearly the same, but we do get a few somewhat tricky shortcuts, 2 checkpoints, more reasonable and rewarding powerup placements, added some more aesthetics, restructured certain areas to make them less frustrating and give them some more replayability. It also finally properly introduces the concept of spin jumping to bounce off from a Piranha Plant without taking any damage, because a lot of people probably never heard of that and won't grasp it properly. I'll leave the old version available on the server for comparison sake and if anyone is still hardcore enough to complete a rather long level without checkpoints.


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## JCnator (Nov 6, 2015)

Looks like a new version of my current hardest level has finally been uploaded! As I said before, adjustments were made to make this level more enjoyable to clear.

*Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE! v1.1

2B9C-0000-00DA-C534*


Next stage to update is going to be "Hardship on Airship". I'll include two checkpoints, considering to fix the odd bonus room because cheetah autoscrolling speed, Koopa Clown Car and cannons don't mix, as well of tweaking the stage to make it more enjoyable.

I'm also considering to make a stage based on the level design philosophy of the Kirby games. Given that a lot of people loved on how well I implemented the concept of Sonic dashing through Eggman's Airship of Doom, I figured out that I'd like to transpose a concept in a Mario level.


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## Murray (Nov 7, 2015)

First level made since the update - took me way too long but hopefully someone likes it.

*Goomba Pipework Plumbing* - (562B-0000-00DC-214F)






I tried to make it more of an adventure map rather than a platformer - aka it's really long


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## NerdHouse (Nov 7, 2015)

My very first Mario Maker level:
*E0EA-0000-00D5-339D*

My second, much better level:
*F42D-0000-00D5-3746*

Still unlocking new elements and features to use, so my options are still very limited at the moment. 


Gonna be going back and looking at other courses posted here later today!


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## JCnator (Nov 7, 2015)

Alright. I played some more of your levels starting from page 14 to 16. Here's what I got to say among the levels I tried.

@matt: The ID from the first stage you posted at page 14 is missing one character, but I've managed to salvage it by using your second level's ID.

Needless to say, navigating the first stage is pretty tight, along with safe areas thrown in for good measures. The challenge here is straightforward, so anyone's skilled enough can beat this short level without taking too long to figure out. Though, the burner trap is placed too close to Mario's starting point, which some people might accidentally hit it after starting the level.

The second level I played seems to be unbeatable when I reached the room with circling Boos. I had to download the level to my Coursebot to figure out if there's an important invisible block I missed, and yes it does! The important one has a growing vine that you could climb your way to the next section of the stage. Remember, finding where a useful invisible block might be isn't even a challenge in this context, but more like a way to artificially pad the stage's length. Most players don't like wasting time searching for important invisible blocks.
By the way, what's the point with that ? Switch and the line of brick blocks and coins? I thought it would have a purpose, but turns out I didn't really needed this thing.



@Chroma Red: I pretty much agree with your statement about your very first stage. The stage mostly consists of precision jumping to the victory, something that a good amount of players would struggle. Aside of that, it's kinda a boring stage, so I don't have anything else to say here.

The second stage does seem to show how improved you were in comparison to the first stage. Nothing outstanding here, but hey, there's progress!

By the way, if you want to unlock the tools faster, just spam tonnes of blocks after spending 5 minutes or longer with the level editor. That's how I got everything in 2 days.



@Murray: There's no denying that this stage is visually appealing, while some of the sections provide some interesting moments. The Bob-Omb portion is well-implemented, since it doesn't waste you too much time on a same spot. The section that has you getting past of Bowser Jr. with the ? Switch activated just to grab the Propeller Mushroom is also fairly fun. That was a good stage, but I did find some ideas that don't work quite well to the detriment of greatness. Here's where these issues arises.




Spoiler










When I first came across this section, I immediately thought I needed to bop of a Goomba. But how to do this isn't quite clear as you would expect, as the pipe spawns 4 Goombas at a time, there's super-fast conveyor belt and a very little margin of success to pull it off without getting hit, if that's even possible. The proper timing just seems to be too luck-based for me. As a result, I ended up tanking this segment as Super Mario, so I could get past this area.








This is another section where I had to tank through, because there's a very slim opening that no average human could react in time, and the section is too tight to maneuver. By the way, the conveyor belt is slow and 4 Goombas spawn out from a pipe. Also, I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but it is possible to spin jump off from that Thwomp to get past that section pretty easily. If the player doesn't know how to do that, then they might try to do the same way as I did.








This isn't too big of a deal here, but the pipe above is hidden by the camera. When a pipe that spawns something is visible, they'll start spawning in a few seconds. Should that be offscreen, it'll stop operating. The player might be wondering where the heck is the ? Switch, until they board any platform around this area and wait for a short while. At least, that design oversight made the Goomba horde much easier to deal with.








The second Goomba bedroom is accessible by being Propeller Mario via the otherwise inaccessible pipe from the Bowser Jr.'s room. To progress any further, I need to slip through the tiny opening that leads us to another room. As Propeller Mario cannot flutter jump while crouching in this pretty tight section, I had to take a hit from a nearby Goomba, so I could do pull that off as Super Mario. Had this section altered, Propeller Mario still won't break the rest of the stage anyway.


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## Murray (Nov 7, 2015)

wow thanks for the really in depth feedback, TheBigJC7777777! And you're actually meant to spin jump onto the thwomp at that section but maybe some coins up there would make it clearer.


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## JCnator (Nov 7, 2015)

Murray said:


> wow thanks for the really in depth feedback, TheBigJC7777777! And you're actually meant to spin jump onto the thwomp at that section but maybe some coins up there would make it clearer.



The coins above the Thwomp would work fine if you couldn't adjust this very section to be a bit less tight, so it would encourage anyone to spin jump at it.


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## Cress (Nov 8, 2015)

I updated my Ganon's Tower level by adding checkpoints, so it should be more doable now. 

*ID: A4D8-0000-00E0-420C*


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## lars708 (Nov 8, 2015)

I finally uploaded a fresh, brand new course after updating all my older levels. I sure took my time on creating this level because i did not upload anything new in october. That is kind of sad actually... However here it is:






Pipe abundance! (0AED-0000-00E0-5829)

I found it quite difficult to keep this course decorated and anything besides bland because i wanted this level to be a level with lots of pipes. So i implemented a little puzzle thingy, there are three ways to get out of it, and all of them are good ways but one exit leads to a 1-up mushroom and a bunch of coins. I did not drop any hints on which route to pick in the level so it is kind of luck based (unless people are going to make posts and spoil the fun lol). 

Please let me know what you think of my level and can anyone who played my older courses try them again and give some feedback if i improved them well? Thank you in advance! 

Oh and for the people who are planning to scroll through the posts here and try out all the levels, all my codes (except for this one) will no longer work as i have to delete the levels in order to update them.


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## adrino (Nov 8, 2015)

@TheBigJC7777777  I'd like you to try this one out if you can. I discovered something about the kuriboh's shoe that I didn't know before and decided to make a level with it. Hopefully it's more common knowledge than it was to me. Also PS, thanks for the add!

Step on Down
Course ID: C647-0000-00C3-8C8D


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## Boccages (Nov 10, 2015)

I have remade my tougher than tough level so it is actually easier with a mid-level save point.

Try it out !

*?pines, canons & tapis roulants
*E610-0000-00E3-A9D9


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## KingKyle (Nov 11, 2015)

KingKyle said:


> Here's a another course I made:
> View attachment 153949



Are you going to check this course out?


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## adrino (Nov 22, 2015)

Well I decided on finally making an "expert" level. Might not be that hard of a level for classically trained Mario platformer players, but it's got some zest. Anyone willing to give it their best shot?

*Playtime is Over*




*Course ID: 853A-0000-00F6-C944*


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## JCnator (Nov 22, 2015)

Been a long while that I uploaded a level that isn't a remake of my previous stages. So, I uploaded a relaxing stage mainly addressed for the lesser skilled players. It has you to stroll through the cave filled with Goombas and Koopas, with the level design philosophy being similar to the commercially released Super Mario Bros. games.


*Expedition to Koopa Mines
3479-0000-00F7-B19B*







I also will eventually add a moderately challenging stage involving fast snake blocks, Thwomps and Grinders, complete with a boss related to the stage. Here's a sneak peek of that stage that will be released this week.


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## adrino (Nov 25, 2015)

So far once person has been able to beat my difficult stage. Clear percentage of 0.72%. Anyone want to change that number up a bit?


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## lars708 (Nov 26, 2015)

adrino said:


> So far once person has been able to beat my difficult stage. Clear percentage of 0.72%. Anyone want to change that number up a bit?



If i remember it when i get home sure, but i actually always forget about Super Mario Maker and play something else... OOPS!


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## JCnator (Nov 29, 2015)

Alright, here's the rather challenging level uploaded as promised.

*Sweeping Snake Block Fortress*






Test your accuracy, reflexes and wit in a fortress filled with faster Snake Blocks to ride on, Grinders and a few Thwomps. If you search hard enough, you might find some secret areas that will further challenge you and possibly reward you a little help on defeating the unique boss fight.

*THIS COURSE NO LONGER EXISTS*


Man, I spend so much time creating levels that I ended up playing too few levels so far. Guess I'll take a 2 weeks break of creating my own levels and focus on playing my video game backlog and levels that I'm yet to play in Super Mario Maker. I'll have to check every level from this topic's 17th page, as well of JasonBurrows according to that post from the general thread.


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## JasonBurrows (Nov 29, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> as well of JasonBurrows according to that post from the general thread.


Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay me!!!! 

I have recently uploaded a World 7 Castle level. The level code is here TheBigJC7777777.

072B-0000-0104-34A1


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## KingKyle (Dec 1, 2015)

There's this really hard course called "Sacrificial Yoshis " where you "sacrifice" Yoshi in order to clear the course. It has a clear rate of 2-3% but I cleared it. THE COURSE WAS NOT MADE BY MADE. The ID is C411-0000-0019-E21D.


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Dec 1, 2015)

It has been a while since I posted here, but here are some new courses I finished:

Paths of Peril:
*B8DB-0000-00DA-F450*
Description: Doors and warp pipes lead to 3 different routes: An easy route, A normal route, and a hard route. An emotion will appear telling you which route you are taking. Positive emotions means an easier route. Hard routes are more rewarding though.

Training in the Monado Arts:
*95C0-0000-00F5-81C8*
Description: If you played Smash 3DS/Wii U you should know what to expect. The challenges consist of speed, jump, shield, buster, and smash. 

Breaking through to Bowser's Lair:
*8F24-0000-0100-6463*
Description: Break through the Magikoopa defense system and infiltrate Bowser's Lair. After that, you must escape from Bowser's Lair before the castle collapses.


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## JCnator (Dec 1, 2015)

Technically, this isn't exactly a new level I uploaded tonight, but it's a revision of Sweeping Snake Blocks Fortress that brought quite a good amount of fixes. I'll mention a few of those:

- The overall difficulty curve is now much less out of whack; seems like there were quite a lot of players struggling in the early portion of the level, so I had to heavily edit it in order to keep the difficulty consistent throughout its entirety, save for the secret areas
- It's gotten easier to tell where to go after failing to stay on the snake block, so you can try again quicker
- The odd death at the wall before the Thwomps is fixed
- The overall stage requires less precision than in the older version

The ID for the revised stage is 48E3-0000-0106-AB4E. The older version (which had the completion rate of less than 9%) is removed, but is still stored on my Wii U console for future uses.



I'm pretty much done with the level right now. I might not upload another level for at least two weeks due of having to do other stuffs and clear a bit of my video game backlog. However, I was thinking of having my own series of levels that escalates from very easy to difficult. For example, World 1-1 would be based on the level design philosophy of Expedition to Koopa Mines, which focused solely on the rudimentary basic moves in order to beat the level, while stuffing some small optional challenges just for fun. I'm perfectly aware that levels can be fun without being too overwhelming for casual players with very little knowledge in Mario games to enjoy, but I personally find creating levels designed for all ages and skills more interesting and challenging than making difficult levels that isn't Kaizo-style.


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## JCnator (Dec 5, 2015)

Well, I've played a few levels yesterday so far, and all of them are from Page 17. I'm yet to play AkatsukiYoshi and JasonBurrows levels, but I think it'll take me a little longer, since I've got to play about 10 levels.
Without any further ado, here's what I think about one of them.

*?pines, canons & tapis roulants - Boccages*



Spoiler



I have to say that this level is pretty tight, but straightforward and fun. The thing is, Super Mario Maker engine isn't exactly great at dealing with precision jumps thanks to its floaty NSMBU-like physics that applies on every style, while the Super Mario World style Mario physics are apparently a bit slippier than the rest. It's not bad level design by any means, but definitely keep that in mind if you'd like to create more accessible levels in the future.

Everything before the checkpoint is pretty easy to understand what to do. Though, the invisible blocks can pose problems to those who are trying to get a running jump to the next set of blocks, although they're supposedly there to make things easier. I got lucky by jumping at the very edge of the top block to not hit any of the invisible block.
The spike section can be easily bypassed by getting the star from the conveniently-placed pipe, although I believe it's possible to do this section by spin jumping on the Spinies without being invincible, which could be very tricky. Haven't tested that, so I'm not entirely sure about that.

The door next to the checkpoint leads us right above a rather small conveyor belt with Munchers around it. While it's still possible to no get hurt by that on the first try, the required reaction time is so small the players (especially those with slower reaction time) might unknowingly get damaged. Maybe if the door was above a totally safe platform, this would prevent a number of unnecessary deaths.

The projectile-laden section isn't actually too bad, though I find the early part of that easier if I simply spin jump on Koopas and/or Spike Tops. It also helps that the bullets can be stomped to make things even more manageable, especially when I reached to the point where a Galoomba on Koopa Clown Car comes in, waiting to be hijacked as we're approaching very closely to the goal. I'm not going to hide the fact that some players may not have the strict level of accuracy that this section asks. It's all or nothing, with touching the checkpoint being the only way to grant Mario an extra hit point.


Overall, I find the level fun and beat it in one go. The aforementioned difficulty elements, a few questionable level designs and the rather huge variety of enemies all make this level difficult and unpredictable to those who aren't prepared for that, all contributed to a clear rate of under 2%.




All right, I gave ?pines, canons & tapis roulants a proper coverage. I also finished Ganon's Tower and Playtime is Over, but I'll give them a proper review soon. I have a lot to say about the latter level, which might take a good while to write everything about it. Right now, I've got priorities to sort out today, therefore I'm a bit too busy to write them and play some more levels.


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## Boccages (Dec 6, 2015)

Thank you for that review, JC. Much appreciated!


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## Goth (Dec 6, 2015)

I wish I had Super Mario Maker and a wii u


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## ZekkoXCX (Dec 6, 2015)

Okay i finally got Mario Maker (yaaay) and i decided to create and upload this levels:
*Fire Flower Castle:* 7CA4-0000-00F8-1C6C
*Yoshi Airplane:* 66F5-0000-00FF-6260
Any advice will be highly appreciated!
Thanks


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## JCnator (Dec 8, 2015)

Here comes the feedback for Ganon's Tower, Playtime is Over! and all of the Jetix's uploaded levels.

Ganon's Tower - PuffleKirby21



Spoiler



The level isn't too difficult to clear if you know how to deal with the simple challenges in there, yet somehow the clear rate is around 10% last time I checked, which makes the level appears on Expert 100 Mario Challenge, as opposed to Normal. Maybe part of it has to do with the forced boss fight sections, but those aren't really a bad thing. Maybe it also has to do with a few issues I encountered. Which are...

- The Podoboos in the main hall can easily catch unsuspecting players by surprise, and there's no indication where they actually are until they see them. Some visual clues on where they might be (e.g. course blocks indicating where in the X axis are) would help the player memorizing these obstacles.
- The Thwomp corridor has one Thwomp that's a bit too close, which forces the player to bait it to fall and then start running to deal with the rest of them. When I came across to another staircase of the same room, the camera didn't show there were more Thwomps before I crossed the staircase as fast as I possibly can and therefore got hit by the first one of the second batch. Perhaps removing the first Thwomp on both batches would help alleviating the problem. Otherwise, this section is pretty simple.

I do have to admit that the visuals are very fitting the mood the stage is going after.




Playtime is Over! - adrino


Spoiler



The stage plays more like of a tight action and puzzle platformer, but not overwhelmingly difficult for me to figure out on what to do in every portion of the stage.

The stage does assume the player knows a lot about how the assets in Super Mario Maker engine works in order to progress, which might explains the very low clear rate. Not a bad design choice, but it's definitely a turnoff for those who don't quite have the puzzle-solving mindset and patience, which constitutes a lot of the players.

The most interesting section of the stage but also the most difficult is the cave room. Here, we got to free the Koopa Clown Car with Magikoopa's magic beam, but having him to aim at the proper angle involves quite a fair bit of trials and errors that might take a good chunk of time. We then had to bop the once-freed Koopa sitting on the flying vehicle and have the Thwomp riding on it, which again requires trials and errors to get the timing right. Then, lead the Thwomp just below the top of the green ceiling platform and spin jump on it.
Oh! And don't forget the spring, or the player might lock out of the win just because they didn't see the impassable ledge beforehand. Thankfully, the checkpoint alleviates part of frustration, but not completely.

I did failed a lot on the part with the Bill Blasters wall-jumping, because I thought ground pounding on the top of one of them would be easier than simply wall-jumping with a consistent rhythm (which prevents them shooting any Bullet Bill), but the NSMBU physics is a bit too finicky to pull that off with ease for some reason.

The rest of the stage is easier as the next few puzzles let me do so at my own leisure, and finally proceeded to complete it.
Overall, the stage is worth playing for the cave puzzle alone. I had a blast figuring out what to do.




Every Jetix's level



Spoiler



Yes, I played every level you uploaded so far. I get that you're excited trying many of the unique assets that Super Mario Maker has to offer. The game's user-friendly interface and the endless possibilities certainly has you enticed in the world of many user-created levels. However, I didn't really enjoyed playing them. The overall experience on every single level of yours ultimately felt shallow for a few reasons:


- Reliance on enemy spam as challenge: Not only you have a tendency of spamming enemies, but you also used large variety of enemies, which made certain sections more of a "luck-based" affair and render your level unrecognizable among the crowd. Your very first uploaded level ever suffers heavily from this problem, therefore making it more of a luck-based affair than promoting some gaming skills. Thanks goodness it's also very short and I could beat it with a Lakitu's Cloud to cheese the entire level. The enemy spam is toned down in the subsequent levels, but they still pose problems. If you don't know how that's a very bad level design, the very first Mary. O's official course has you covered and I dare you to love it. Spoiler alert: you'll either quit or lose many lives even before you clear the stage.

- Reliance on poor use of Damage Boosting as challenge: Damage Boosting involves taking a hit in order to get through obstacles. There were some instances on your levels where this tactic becomes the most efficient way, if not the only way to get through the toughest sections. The stretch between the angry Wiggler and the final door in Fire Flower Castle, along with the Boo Buddies section of Yoshi's Airship rely on this trick, but they don't really promote actual skills and feels like a wasted opportunity.

- General lack of effort for level design: At the risk of sounding like I was being too harsh on you, I didn't feel that your levels were actually finely crafted. The aesthetics often felt average if not subpar in some cases, certain sections are being too tight for no reason whatsoever, Cape Mario being able to fly over the entire subarea of Yoshi's Airship. And there are more cases of rushed level designs that managed to make me cringe. With these problems in mind, I believe you didn't took very long to create a level, but getting most of them to upload might have taken more time than you initially thought and possibly died a few times during the upload process.


I'll give you some advice of my wisdom. Since you have a tendency to throw too many ideas on one level, therefore easily getting lost in the translation. There's not one idea that seemed to stand out among the crowd. I suggest you try to pick an idea or two, and limit yourself to a few course elements you'll actually ever need to achieve that purpose. That will help you to make your levels seem more focused and possibly fun if you manage to place these course elements in a strategic way. Remember, the fun factor is the most important, while difficulty should come in second.

Also, take care of polishing your levels once you've set everything else in stone. The more care you poured, the better your level will be perceived when players get to play. It can be fine-tuning the sections to make them more fun for anyone who would stumble on your levels, it can be making the level more aesthetically pleasing to our eyes.

Did you considered having your siblings, parents and friends on testing your levels before you upload them? You'll be surprised on how many design oversights you might spot when they get to play your levels and you also have an added bonus of receiving feedback among your peers. Do take their advice in consideration when optimizing your levels and you'll end up with a more enjoyable level.


I also saw that you played my levels, which I really appreciate. Yet, none of my levels received any star from you, therefore making me concerned about your preference. While it's understandable that some of my earlier levels aren't exactly up to my current standards, I swear that I actually spent a fair amount of effort on fine-tuning my levels to ensure they're fun and rightly challenging to a wide variety of players. So, I went to your starred levels and played some of them. A couple of which ended up being star-worthy because I feel like they're actually fun to play and don't feel like to be a waste of time based on my preferences.

Keep in mind that if you star well over 100 levels, the older ones will be removed from that list, but you can star them again. You could also write down the ID of your favorite levels somewhere or even download them to your heart's content. It's best not the use the star system as your "favorite", but more like of a "Like" button. No need to be stingy with the stars, since no level can be perfect for every type of players involved, but there's bound to have some good time, especially when you're looking at the right places.


Whew, I wrote quite a lot here. I hope my feedback is useful enough to enhance your Super Mario Maker experience even further!




I finally got around and played the levels that AkatsukiYoshi and JasonBurrows posted tonight, but I'll be providing feedback later this week. I've got other things to do, too!


----------



## ZekkoXCX (Dec 8, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Here comes the feedback for Ganon's Tower, Playtime is Over! and all of the Jetix's uploaded levels.
> 
> Ganon's Tower - PuffleKirby21
> 
> ...


OMFGZZZZ MAH LEVELZ WARE GUD I HATE YOU
Just Kidding 
Im really sorry about the star-thingy! Sometimes i forget to star levels >.< tbh, i really like your levels! 
I also gonna take your tips! (i know that i should let my family touch my wii u xD) 
Thanks you from the review JC! Keep the good levels c:


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## Cress (Dec 8, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Here comes the feedback for Ganon's Tower, Playtime is Over! and all of the Jetix's uploaded levels.
> 
> Ganon's Tower - PuffleKirby21
> 
> ...



Hey thanks! ^_^ Did you by chance play the version with or without checkpoints? I deleted the one without checkpoints, but its clear rate was higher than the one with checkpoints before I deleted it. :|


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## JCnator (Dec 8, 2015)

PuffleKirby21 said:


> Hey thanks! ^_^ Did you by chance play the version with or without checkpoints? I deleted the one without checkpoints, but its clear rate was higher than the one with checkpoints before I deleted it. :|



I haven't played the one without the checkpoint. Was the checkpoint really the only thing you added the latest version? If that's the case, the level shouldn't be any harder. There's probably more players who strives to complete your level, or they may be less skilled to deal with the same exact obstacles than we do.


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Dec 9, 2015)

I think I made my Training in the Monado Arts too hard. (well one section anyways) I was going to update that course, but let's see if I get the feedback I am expecting for it first since you already played it that is.


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## Cress (Dec 9, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> I haven't played the one without the checkpoint. Was the checkpoint really the only thing you added the latest version? If that's the case, the level shouldn't be any harder. There's probably more players who strives to complete your level, or they may be less skilled to deal with the same exact obstacles than we do.



There were a few small changes but nothing that should make the level easier or harder (besides the checkpoints.)


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## matt (Dec 9, 2015)

40D7-0000-00EF-0B74 - Submitted By Matty
C954-0000-00D2-9C48 - Submitted By Matty


----------



## JCnator (Dec 10, 2015)

Alright, the feedback I got to give to JasonBurrows and AkatsukiYoshi are there.

Levels made by JasonBurrows in general



Spoiler



I cleared all of your levels from the very first to your latest and found a few of them were actually worth starring. I don't have much to say here, except for a few particular level design decisions that are good or bad and your most recent level, which is my least favorite among the bunch. I'll start with the bad ones.

Most of your levels involved waiting for something to go away before I could proceed to the next area. A good example of that design is in the third level, which involved a lot of waiting due of the way the Grinders are positionned. The level itself is short, but it still feels so long that I eventually decided to Damage Boost my way to skip the waiting in my subsequent playthroughs.

Speaking of the third castle level again, I've also noticed that the third section of Grinder with the conveyor belt and the set of ? blocks on rail are misaligned due of the way the game handles spawning as you advance to the right. And there are a few ways to make sure they'll be correctly aligned no matter how fast the player goes. A vertical line of track is guaranteed to ensure the objects placed in there will move the way you intend them to be. The doors also work for that purpose, as they reset back to their original placement, just like my synced Jumping Piranha Plants in my level called Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE! v1.1.

Your latest castle level I played sounded like it would be a good level, but there's so much wrong in this one I can't even call that good, not just because of the forced waiting sections.
There are occasions I can get completely stuck because I did the "puzzles" the wrong way, such as accidentally dropping a trampoline on a 2-blocks wide passage and hitting an invisible block before the trampoline fell down to my grasp unless I brought a second one with me. The last one is pretty bad, as the only choices I had is to wait 450 seconds or so for the timer to kill me or just hit Restart to come back at the very beginning of the level. There could be at least some spikes or even a bottomless hole, so I could return to the checkpoint instead.
Thankfully, I can easily cheese the early portion, because it's possible to outrun the winged Chain Chomps and eventually reach the checkpoint. Even the large Piranha Plants are somehow blocking them!
Then, we have the P-Switch and spin jumping on Chain Chomp on Koopa Clown Car challenge. Due of the way the otherwise simple layout is conceived, I had a hard time spin jumping on it when didn't expected it to be more difficult to pull it off. The timing is pretty thin as a result. And even after I cleared this section, there's a trap that I couldn't see before and immediately landed on an previously unseen Grinder before I was even aware of.
I also checked the entire level by downloading it to my Coursebot, and I noticed there's a shortcut right at the beginning of the stage that sends me pretty close to the goal. I don't think it really needs to let us pretty much skip the entire level. It could be just a bonus room with worthy rewards or even a shortcut that could warp me to the checkpoint at best.

Basically, when creating a level that isn't aiming to be trolling the players, you should look for the places where a player might get stuck if something goes wrong. Also, you have to make sure the level guide the players where they should go to clear the level. Normally, there should have a reason why the player should wait. For example, if you have a section filled with pipes containning traps, you could force the player to waste enough time just for the upcoming challenge to prepare, such as making vertical jumps in the room before the challenge mandatory to progress even for those who rush through it.

To end this feedback with a more positive note, there's one level of yours in particular I'm actually enjoying the most. It's the one that has a giant Bowser being moved by a set of conveyor belts that sends him to his own demise at the end. At first, I thought I managed to get stuck on the POW block puzzle, but turns out I only needed two of them in order to get through it. How rewarding for such ingeniosity.



AkatsukiYoshi



Spoiler



*Paths of Peril*

If an Expert 100 Mario Challenger comes across this level, they might be thinking they're in for playing Russian Roulette style of luck. Thankfully, that isn't the case, as it'll only affect on how difficult and rewarding their journey will be. In my playthrough, I ended up only picking the easiest routes out of the bunch until the very end of the stage, which was my only opporturnity for a powerup. Surprised that I didn't got hit by any of the obstacles as I approached to the goal.

Overall, it's a pretty solid and enjoyable level!


*Training in the Monado Arts*

I know that one section you're probably be thinking about, in which I'll mention that later in this feedback.
So, the challenges are inspired by Shulk's Monado Arts in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Speed has you Leeroy Jenkins through bunches of enemies with a star, which is something that anyone won't have any trouble whatsoever as long as they don't dare to commit suicide. A bit wasteful of a section, considering on how much harder the rest of the stage is. It could be easily made into a Sonic-esque speed platforming. So much opportunity wasted.

Jump is a pretty tricky one, due of the fact that timing your jumps on trampolines are a bit finicky to some players. And we have to jump on the red Koopa Paratroopas as well. The section is pretty much all or nothing affair, as one misstep will send you back at the beginning of the level. Since I was pretty good at Super Mario Maker and had a bit of luck, I managed to survive without any problem in one go.

Defense has you go through a few enemies. It seems the best way to get past this section is to defeat Goombas by luring them to the left and jump on them. The only ones that have to be avoided are the 2 Spinies and 2 Koopas to some extent. Did got hit by the first Spiny because jumping with the super-low ceiling, but managed to survive nonetheless. Don't see where it could be improved as of now.

I hit the checkpoint for what is possibly the most disappointing and infuriating section of the stage, the Buster section. I think this is pretty much the only section I got decimated, and that happened around 10 times because of that one seemingly frame-perfect jump.
The early half of that part consist of Hammer Bros and Magikoopas. It's possible to avoid them just by running and jumping, which is certainly better than just fighting them anyway. When I arrived near Bowser, the difficulty spike ratchets up way higher than even the Jump section.
In the latter half of the Buster section, there's 3 blocks containing a Shulk costume, which is pretty much telling that this isn't going to be a pushover. There's a pipe that constantly spawns Buzzy Beetles ready to be launched at Bowser. I first thought that I have to damage him this way, but it takes forever to do so. He spams a lot of RNG flames in a consistent manner and keep jumping like a child on a trampoline, since he's confined in a room he couldn't get out. Even if he's gone, there are cannonballs to deal with, and they're placed in a rather fiendish way. Which kinda make the fight pointless, because I could just Damage Boost through the section and save me a lot of trouble, hoping that I get that very specific jump done right to fit in a very tight hole that leads me to the another warping pipe. Because the conveyor belt rolling away from the pipe, fitting in the hole is impossible without the tricky jump, I have to be jumping at a specific distance and hold the jump button for a very specific amount of milliseconds. Here's a picture on how I did it, with the gray course block denotating when I should press the jump button.







Yup. For me, that section seemed to be more luck-based affair than anything really challenging.

If I had a Star, I could fit in the tight hole with a lot more of ease. But that could break the point of the Buster challenge, which we were supposed to bust stuff. It needs to be reworked to be more on par with the overall stage's difficulty.

Buster section frustrations aside, we're moving on the final challenge, the Smash. Now, this one is fun. You actually have to break the course blocks with Bob-Ombs. It doesn't even matter if you defeat the giant Bowser, which he's still as agitated as an angry child. While there's a pipe that constantly respawns Shulk costumes, dodging the RNG flames is still pretty intense due of so many close-call moments I've gotten. And after that, I'm now really feeling it.


This stage had a potential to be an enjoyable one, yet it is ruined by that one particularly annoying section at the Buster challenge. Glad that I didn't end up busting my GamePad out of agony this time around, as I'm controlling my rage better than in the past. Since the Xenoblade Chronicles games are known for providing intriguing scenery at every possible opportunity, it definitely could use some helping of aesthetic prowess to make the stage look more visually attractive. I can't help myself but this level kinda reminds me of the Mechonis in some fashion due of the SMB1 airship theme being used...


*Breaking through to Bowser's Lair*

I'm not a fan of the plentiful of Magikoopas (along with the bigger ones) warping around with a lot of possibility of RNG screwing me while I try to break off the vertical walls. I could use shells to get through the majority of the section, but still. It's possible to actually get stuck if I end up defeating too many Magikoopas. So I quickly gave up, even though I didn't appear on the list of players who came across this stage. I downloaded the level just to see what the rest of the level is about, and the sub-level contained typical boss fights I've seen too many times before, save for Bowser being completely stuck that opens a gamut of possibilities to humiliate him. Funny at first, but I'm not really missing that much of a deal either way.




That's it for the feedback I've got so far. I'll be playing more levels later this week.


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## JasonBurrows (Dec 11, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Alright, the feedback I got to give to JasonBurrows and AkatsukiYoshi are there.
> 
> Levels made by JasonBurrows in general
> 
> ...


Thanks for the review. 

I will keep that in mind for future levels.


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Dec 12, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Alright, the feedback I got to give to JasonBurrows and AkatsukiYoshi are there.
> 
> Levels made by JasonBurrows in general
> 
> ...



Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I expected that response for the Buster section. After seeing my sister and neighbor playing that section, I realized then that I made that section too hard. My ideas with the cannons was to prevent people from just rushing through it, but instead I see I did the exact opposite. I was going to remake the problem sections in the stage in the future. I never played a Xenoblade game actually, so if anything looked like a reference from Xenoblade it was just by luck. My creation was based on the arts itself.


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## KingKyle (Dec 13, 2015)

Look at this:


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## JCnator (Dec 13, 2015)

KingKyle said:


> Look at this: [...]



It sure is impressive feat to perform a combination of frame-perfect timings, very tricky puzzles (often with a very very few solutions), almost no safe zone until the very end of the stage, along with the lack of checkpoints and savestates.

For the reasons I've mentioned, it doesn't sound like I would enjoy this extreme Kaizo type of level. I could theoretically clear the stage since I could figure out what to do, but all the fails I would accumulate because the level design requires such insane amount of dexterity add up too many times before I can beat it. I've got better things to do than to mindlessly waste days to beat this type of the stage.


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## JCnator (Dec 20, 2015)

Let's give this thread a well-deserved bump.

Since the Super Mario Maker Bookmark Portal is going to be out very soon and doesn't seem to let us search by name and course's ID, I'd like to add a few more steps.

You'd want to also specify the game style, the main area's course theme, the region, the difficulty, the associated tag and the date said level was uploaded. These aren't required by any means, but it'll raise the likelihood that I'll end up finding your course, as it'll allows us add levels to play even when we aren't at home yet. And that's without having to type Course ID everytime I want to play a level I find in this thread.


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## JCnator (Dec 22, 2015)

Actually, the 1.30 update is finally out and I discovered a much better way to use Super Mario Maker Bookmark.

Turns out that we don't need to specify anything else than the Course ID, as we can use the following link and replace the Xs part by the actual Course ID:


```
https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
```

Let's say that I want to add Eggman's Airship of Doom to my bookmark, so I can play it when I come back from home. The Course ID I'm looking for is "5B81-0000-0050-A5C0". The link would look like this:


```
https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/5B81-0000-0050-A5C0
```


Now I won't have any excuse to skip whatever level that gets posted in this thread.


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## lars708 (Dec 22, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Actually, the 1.30 update is finally out and I discovered a much better way to use Super Mario Maker Bookmark.
> 
> Turns out that we don't need to specify anything else than the Course ID, as we can use the following link and replace the Xs part by the actual Course ID:
> 
> ...



Haha you are doomed!


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## Cress (Dec 23, 2015)

https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/EDC0-0000-0127-2D4F
I just wanted to make a level with stuff from the new update.
Don't hate me for it please. ;_;


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## JCnator (Dec 23, 2015)

I finally played some more levels made by TBT users, and here's some of my feedback.



PuffleKirby21 said:


> https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/EDC0-0000-0127-2D4F
> I just wanted to make a level with stuff from the new update.
> Don't hate me for it please. ;_;





Spoiler



I went ahead and beaten the level. There's not much to say about that short level filled with winged Para-Beetles and a few bumpers, but it thought it was pretty fun and didn't took too much of my time. Though, the hitbox of the giant Para-Beetle is deceivingly short in NSMBU game style, which was the reason I failed on the goal post twice in a row.





matt said:


> 40D7-0000-00EF-0B74 - Submitted By Matty
> C954-0000-00D2-9C48 - Submitted By Matty





Spoiler



The first code leads to a level called "Mommy I still can't do it", while the other leads to "Mommy I can't do it". And I beat both of them. By the looks of it, I might be that son's greatest father. I'll start by the latter.

For some odd reason, I enjoyed "Mommy I can't do it" quite a bit. Sure, there's some shade of troll-ish level design, but the traps aren't overly annoying to deal with, as we could often work around them. Everything is straightforward and easy to figure out what to do, despite the level having a few occasions of blind jumps and often requires very accurate movements. Keep in mind that it might poses a lot of problems to anyone who's not a Mario veteran, and there's a lot of those players than the veterans.


"Mommy I still can't do it" on the other hand, isn't fun. It basically have the same philosophy of level design as the previous level I tried, but the level just doesn't feel as polished as the other level.
As soon as I reach close to the second Grinder, it's possible to have the one or two of the flying course blocks de-syncing when they get too far away from the screen. It doesn't make the yellow platform impossible to reach, but that flaw could quite easily make the wait longer than it needed to be. I did waste many seconds in order for the course block and platform to sync perfectly enough to make the leap. Also, that semi-solid platform is floating. It could be easily fixed.

There's no consequence on Damage Boosting through the segment of firebars and spikes, as there is another powerup that could be easily reached in no time. The Sledge Bros. has a Lakitu cloud that players could potentially be used to skip every section before the checkpoint, along with some Damage Boosting through the obstacles as Fire Mario. It is still possible to get through these sections without the cloud, but the blue platform section requires such a strict timing that anyone couldn't usually overcome on their first attempt. 

Everything after the checkpoint is easier to deal with, aside from a few problematic level design decisions. The section with the Thwomps and firebars is confusing at first. Instead of passing the firebars loyally, I figured out it would be easier to cheese the section by having the first Thwomp destroying a few blocks and spin jumping at it after it fell and hope for the platform from below to be accessible before the firebar gets me. Once again, the synchronization issue arises and make the firebars moves in an inconsistent manner. I had to rely on that loophole to get around this section. Oh, and didn't I mention that going in the right leads to an inescapable Schmuck Bait trap without anything that can kill Mario? Once trapped, I could wait for 400+ seconds to respawn at the checkpoint, but I'd figured out it would be faster to hit the Restart button and go back to the very beginning of the stage. Yes, the Pause menu doesn't let you immediately restart to the last checkpoint. I guess cheesing my way to the checkpoint was an intentional level design decision.

Otherwise, the rest of the stage is about smooth sailing, as we reach to the end. And by the way, don't put any of the laughter sound effect next to the pit and on Mario. Falling in the pit with that sound effect applied takes around 2 extra seconds before the death jingle plays.

Overall, I don't recommend that stage. There's nothing really special that makes it worth trying with all of the aforementioned flaws I came across. At one point in the playthrough, I could've ended up exiting the stage before I could complete. I would totally skip this one in 100 Mario Challenge.


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## TykiButterfree (Dec 24, 2015)

Here are a couple of courses I made. My newest one is Buzzy Beetle Barrage. 0065-0000-0127-6100 I like spiky parabuzzies so it's fun to make courses with them. My brother helped me upload it. lol

Another course I made is Have some Death! 9CF7-0000-0102-15D6 This one has an autoscrolling part. I made a second version of this to add a checkpoint, but I still think it needs something. I'm not sure what though.


----------



## GalacticGhost (Dec 25, 2015)

I just got this game today, and I made my first level - 6636-0000-0134-2341

...Ignore the terribly uncreative name I gave it haha

It's meant to be hard, but it might not be that hard because I changed a few things before uploading it because I kept on losing lives >_<

I also left a little secret in the level...

Let me know what you think


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## JCnator (Dec 26, 2015)

TykiButterfree said:


> Here are a couple of courses I made. My newest one is Buzzy Beetle Barrage. 0065-0000-0127-6100 I like spiky parabuzzies so it's fun to make courses with them. *My brother helped me upload it.* lol
> 
> Another course I made is Have some Death! 9CF7-0000-0102-15D6 This one has an autoscrolling part. I made a second version of this to add a checkpoint, but I still think it needs something. I'm not sure what though.





Spoiler



*Buzzy Beetle Barrage*

At first, I thought that the fact you couldn't beat this one to upload it is a sign that level might be too difficult for players to beat. To some extent, that turned out to be true, but I didn't exactly struggled much since I'm experienced enough. It's often a matter on landing dead-center on top of each Para-Beetle. The hitbox of the large Para-Beetle can be pretty deceiving, regardless of the game style.

What you've done with the first level you posted is a step to the right direction about how focusing on an idea will often end up get you more of the idea. The first horde of Para-Beetles is basic, but it works. It has you to jump from one to another to make your way to the first checkpoint. The section after the checkpoint has you raising these creatures coming out from pipe to overcome obstacles that would otherwise plummet Mario down to his doom. The barrage after the 2nd checkpoint is basically the same idea as the very beginning of the stage, this time they're bigger and supposedly easier to land. It does feel a bit redundant, so either shortening the stage or throwing something new to the table would make the level less of a drag.

Considering this level is a bit on the long side, I felt that the safe spots are rare. It means that if I were to dawdle a bit too long on any area other than the section with pipes spawning Para-Beetles, it'll make the stage unwinnable. Consider using the doors to respawn them if you give the players more breathing room.

I really enjoyed the level, but there's still a lot of room for improvement.


*Have some Death!*

I went with the one that has checkpoint, so I'll assume the older version is quote-on-quote similar. The problem you had with the level stems from the fact that you threw too many ideas on one stage, something I'll explain later in this post, since this also applies to a good amount of levels posted in this thread so far.

At beginning, I was almost caught off-guard by the very fast autoscrolling right at the beginning of the stage. If I had more breathing room at the start, it would help a lot of players not to fail right after they begin playing the level.

Also, there is a room where there's plenty of Magikoopas on one screen. Them, along with plentiful of course blocks caused a lot of RNG mayhem with them cast spells and warp all over the place. It's a lot confusing, but I was thankfully fully equipped with Fire Flower and Yoshi, so I could get through the room without too much problem.

So yeah. It's not bad but it's also forgettable.






SuperStar2361 said:


> I just got this game today, and I made my first level - 6636-0000-0134-2341
> 
> ...Ignore the *terribly uncreative name* I gave it haha
> 
> ...



Hoo boy, those are the signs that the level might be poorly designed. If you struggle on beating the level, it's also the sign that many players who would stumble on your stage will often die too. But anyway, let's delve deeper into the level.



Spoiler



So, the level's called "My first stage ", which made me very suspicious about some potentially level design quality in there. It turns out I was right.

The first screen I see is the ledge I spawn from, with a blue platform and coins forming a misleading arrow that leads to an immediate death trap. While it's just at the beginning of the level, people will definitely stop playing this one as soon as they see that. That's not even a challenge; that's memorization. It turns out you were supposed to have a running jump from the start point and do a blind jump off at the very edge of the blue platform. And the stage doesn't indicate where they should go.

Next up is a corridor of spike traps where they have to slalom between them to avoid getting hit, with a firebar at the end that expects them to be landed on. There's two problems with the layout that makes the stage more about memorization than challenge:

- Players can't predict where they need to land
- It's possible for the firebar to be sitting at the wrong position when the player lands on the block, because they didn't reached there at the same moment you'd expect them to; again, they can't see the firebar

The next section asks the player to perform a blind running jump on the yellow platform that's placed quite far from the stationary semi-solid platform, then hop on the stack of Koopas and land on the bridge. Alternatively, player could just wait for the winged Wigglers to fall down to their doom and then jump on one of them and reach the ledge, thereby skipping the whole section. It's far more reliable than doing the former method.

The burner and firebar section is also broken for a couple of reasons.
First, the firebars won't be at the same position as the other does because of the way the Super Mario Maker engine works with spawning stuff is quite weird. As soon as said object reaches on the "visible" area of the playfield, they will activate. This will make this section easier or harder depending on how they reach on the "visible" playfield.
Second, you can cheese the entire section by jumping on the top of the burners. Surprise surprise! You still have to avoid the firebars, but they don't pose as much threat as if you were below the burners.

Then, the path splits in two. One that involves picking the right door by pure luck or else you die, which isn't challenging at all. Another has you dodging the Hammer Bros., the Piranha Plants and the fireballs spit by them. The problem with the plants is that they spawn a certain amount of seconds after said pipe is visible on the screen. If you clear that section fast enough, they don't pose much threat, but you'd still have to perform a precise running jump (spin jump seems more efficient due of its lower jump height) from one Skull Raft to another.

Next up is the stacks of Galoombas that can be easily bypassed, along with 3 Bowser Jrs. that can be easily ignored, where the goal stands. The secret I found plays a simple remix of Gusty Garden from Super Mario Galaxy and leads directly to the axe.


The main problem of the stage is that it treats stage layout memorization as a huge part of challenge. That strips out the rewarding feel of the stage and has the players wishing they'd be done with the stage already rather than enjoying it.
You really want to know that the challenge is all about how to overcome whichever obstacle that gets in the way. Knowing the entire stage layout beforehand to win doesn't constitute as a challenge. That's memorization. In order to make the stage more enjoyable, the stage has to allow players to complete the stage in one try if they're skilled enough. Nobody knows your stage's layout beforehand, so forcing them to rely on blind luck for completing the stage on their first try can be a turnoff for a lot of players. That and the lack of focus of one idea or two made the stage not quite memorable for me, nor enjoyable.




After playing quite a fair amount of stages made by TBT fellows, I came into a realization on what could possibly be the most common level design thought process that often leads to making a stage feels bland in execution.

One important aspect that makes a stage so good is the emphasis on one idea or two, something that some level makers never thought considering when making stages. The more ideas you try to incorporate on one stage, the less memorable said level will become as the risk of lacking focus would exponentially increase. The levels that are touted to be very challenging often relied on a mishmash of a lot of ideas that almost never get expanded upon and render the level less recognizable for the player.

For instance, try limiting yourself to only a few course elements per course as needed and try to work your level design around them. You'll be surprised on how much you can do with them and possibly end up making a level that will be more easily remembered among players and offers a more challenging and fun level as a result.

As an example, I've made a challenging level called "Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE! v1.1" that restricts to spin jumping and Piranha Plants, in the hope for train the with some of the most important intricacies of spin jumping while still challenging players without being too demanding, assuming that they've mastered the basics of running, jumping and controlling Mario's momentum on a dime. It's not newcomer-friendly by any means, but it should provide a reasonable dose of challenge nonetheless.


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## Zulehan (Dec 26, 2015)

Adding another example to what was said above, settling on a theme before creating a level has been an important step of level design for me. For instance, in one level, I settled on vines and piranha plants as the main elements around which the level and all its 'set pieces'/sections would be designed. Even the boss battle required you to climb vines to grab a p-switch which would then allow you to 'drop' the giant fire piranha plant that was blocking your exit (by turning the 'turn' blocks/yellow blocks it sits on into coins). 

In a more recent level, I settled on moles as the enemy that all sections should highlight in some way. For instance, at one point, you are on a platform high enough so that you cannot see the two spined moles following you, but the tall red bill blasters on their heads stand over the platform, so you must duck to avoid their cargo and jump on the first to get over the second. Once you get through the door, you stand on a lower platform where now the spiked moles running on 'turn' blocks, and on which the bill blasters sit, can be seen, but of course now the bill blasters are too high to get past. That is when you will notice the question block with a p-switch, lowering the moles and their bill blasters enough so that you can again get past them. Since moles move fast, this whole section of the level feels intense. 

Also, since I had moles in mind the whole time when making the level, the idea for this section came more readily to mind because, earlier in the level, I already had moles with regular height bill blasters on their heads, and knew I wanted to revisit the idea later on in a later section of the level. If I did not choose to focus on moles but kept all enemies in mind for the level, I ironically might have had a harder time deciding what to do with that section, and may have ended up creating something less distinctive.

Of course, I did not need to select a particular enemy for the level, but it is one possibility when selecting a theme. Other times a creator might choose to focus on highlighting certain 'mechanics' of the game (e.g., a level that utilizes 'shell jumps,' 'p-switch jumps,' or the many uses of the cape), or might have a particular subject in mind (e.g., a Christmas level, a 'tank level' (similar to one of the levels of World 8 in _Super Mario 3_), or a 'puzzle' (whether 'one screen' or not; in this latter type, the level creator may focus on utilizing puzzles while minimizing platforming, or more specifically difficult obstacles meant to kill)). 

And of course you might _combine _themes, such as when, for one level, I had in mind 'garden' and 'propeller;' I made each section of my level look like part of a 'hanging garden,' and made each section utilize the propeller power-up in some way.


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## Zulehan (Dec 28, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> *Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE! v1.1*
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Spoiler



*Edit:* Just realized I actually cleared the more challenging version of your level, heh. Woot. 

I don't mean this as a review, but there is a lot more I was interested in saying about the level, and couldn't fit in my Miiverse comment.

You know the part of the level which first drops the spring for you? I tried to take it up a vine (right of the two giant piranhas stacked on each other), and managed to soft lock myself, heh. I assume the vine was meant to show me what is above, which is a vine use I have employed before. 

That said, really liked the level; very much enjoy using piranha plants, and I think they are used creatively here. I like that even the piranha that comes out of the coin block at the start of the level is not simply a troll, but to reveal a secret. I was even almost expecting another secret over the 1-up coin block (the ol' 'hide-the-real-secret-over-a-smaller-one'). My favorite part of the level, though, is definitely when I had to spin-jump over the giant winged piranhas from the pipes, and along those lines I think that feather cape secret was well placed. I also liked that it seemed I was rewarded with a valid alternate path if I made a mistake, instead of automatically killed or soft locked (I am thinking of the portion where you balance on small piranhas over spikes, which is a part of the level I ended up taking several times after falling). 

For some reason it took me awhile to remember that you may place a spring under the piranhas to raise them; I initially kept trying to place it over them like you would a muncher, which led to a face palm moment. When I figured it out, realized what those coins next to the piranhas were trying to tell me. 

The end of the level felt like the choices were multiplying, and I was initially a bit confused, but the whole while I was thinking I should probably get to the pipe at the very right (where those giant winged piranhas are that I have to balance on). Fortunately, that led me the right way.


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## FreezeFlame (Dec 29, 2015)

*Super Mario Maker Course Feedback!*

Hello There! I am quite new to making courses in Super Mario Maker, and I have noticed not many people have actually played my courses. This is a problem since I won't actually know what I'm doing wrong in them (and sadly, I haven't been starred yet  ). Here are my 5 current uploaded courses:

1E31-0000-013F-D565
E46B-0000-013F-D7DB
05E9-0000-014A-85A6
98BB-0000-014F-48B3
2346-0000-0152-8FBA

I would really love some helpful feedback (and starring!  ) Thx in advance for the constructive criticism, I know it would really help me out in making fun, enjoyable courses!


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## uwuzumakii (Dec 29, 2015)

Tomorrow when it isn't the middle of the night, I'll be sure to test these for ya!


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## TykiButterfree (Dec 29, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## JCnator (Dec 29, 2015)

FreezeFlame said:


> Hello There! I am quite new to making courses in Super Mario Maker, and I have noticed not many people have actually played my courses. This is a problem since I won't actually know what I'm doing wrong in them (and sadly, I haven't been starred yet  ). Here are my 5 current uploaded courses:
> 
> 1E31-0000-013F-D565
> E46B-0000-013F-D7DB
> ...



It's perfectly normal that you won't get many stars right off the bat. It's a matter of time that you'll end up gaining more of them, especially when you just recently got the game. Therefore, I'll go easy with you. I've certainly got things to say about making a good level design in general. I won't provide feedback specifically for each level, but rather about some of the level design decisions that you often implement on most of these levels.


A common problem I've noticed among many new makers is that the level lack identity of its own. I wasn't surprised to see your levels suffer from that too. When I played them, I've felt that these either are just mere mishmash of ideas that never seemed to expand beyond the moment you introduced the course elements, or the ideas weren't clearly defined to begin with. As result, the levels would end being forgettable. If you stick to just a few ideas and limit the amount of different course elements you'd throw at a level, you'd be surprised on how much they could be expanded.
"Sweeping Snake Block Fortress" is one of the examples of a level that introduces one idea and then expand upon it. It has you riding on a fast moving snake block and jumping out of it and crouch down to dodge the obstacles and keep tracking the snake block. There's some challenge in it, but it shouldn't be difficult for anyone familiar enough with the platforming genre. At the end of the stage, there's an interesting twist that occurs near the axe, but I'll leave that for yourself to discover.


I see that you're quite proficient with jumping from one square-long block to another, which is why I've seen some precision jumping sections. However, there's plenty of players who couldn't quite do these feats in a consistent manner, since they have to control Mario's momentum falling after jumping so they can land on ground safely. As such the level becomes more difficult than you might think it is. If you'd like to create a more accessible stage, give them at least 3 spaces-long of ground for a walking jump
and 5 for a running jump.


As much as I want the levels to be more playable, you might want to consider making them look good as well. For example, the ground you've laid out are floating above the bottomless pit. You could add more ground below the already existing ones to make them not hovering above the gap.
Have you noticed that decoration elements pop out while you're laying some ground? Here's another nifty trick you could use to make certain areas of your stage prettier: Hold L or R in the editor and draw a rectangle that covers whichever ground that has a decoration. Then, let go the shoulder buttons. Hold ZL or ZR and drag that set of blocks to wherever you want. And voil?, you also  copied the decoration along with the ground.
A good example of mine is "Expedition to Koopa Mines". It's not a challenging level by any means for an average player, but it encourages you to explore a little bit and has some aesthetically pleasing areas.



@Zulehan: If had to upload another version of this stage, then that soft-locking incident is going to be fixed. Thanks for telling me about that.
As for the Jumping Giant Piranha Plant escorting with trampoline, I did address the issue by providing a visual hint next to the checkpoint area I added in version 1.1, which is supposed to tell what's coming ahead. I also added course blocks underneath the giant plants to give a better indication on where to place the trampoline.
The somewhat confusing Winged Piranha Plants coming out of pipes section are functionally the same between both version, but the only difference in there is that if you reach where you had to balance with the plants, is that you restart at that very specific section instead of warping you back to the first pit. Though, I suppose I should have added coin trails that leads to the right way.

By the way, I gave a shot to all four levels from your signature yesterday. I'll be giving them a proper feedback later this week. These levels are pretty tough for me, so I'll have to take time to examine them with proper attention.


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## Zulehan (Dec 29, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> @Zulehan: If had to upload another version of this stage, then that soft-locking incident is going to be fixed. Thanks for telling me about that.
> As for the Jumping Giant Piranha Plant escorting with trampoline, I did address the issue by providing a visual hint next to the checkpoint area I added in version 1.1, which is supposed to tell what's coming ahead. I also added course blocks underneath the giant plants to give a better indication on where to place the trampoline.
> The somewhat confusing Winged Piranha Plants coming out of pipes section are functionally the same between both version, but the only difference in there is that if you reach where you had to balance with the plants, is that you restart at that very specific section instead of warping you back to the first pit. Though, I suppose I should have added coin trails that leads to the right way.
> 
> By the way, I gave a shot to all four levels from your signature yesterday. I'll be giving them a proper feedback later this week. These levels are pretty tough for me, so I'll have to take time to examine them with proper attention.





Spoiler



The soft lock might have been a problem if I had been traversing your level for a long while as some levels require, but your level, though not short on challenge, is relatively short, so it did not discourage me at all from restarting. 

I believe there may have been fewer options toward the end of the level than I supposed. Part of why I started getting confused was when I entered one pipe and ended up in a room with a red shell koopa and three coin boxes. The first box I tried gave a sound effect indicating 'incorrect answer,' while the second I tried indicated 'correct answer,' and I foolishly jumped to my death, ha. So I decided maybe that entire room was incorrect and I should try a different one instead. So I ended up in the one with the piranhas in clown cars, and found the end. 

I didn't notice any actual flaw with your design and am not sure if you should be adding coin trails or anything like that.

Thanks for giving my levels a shot, and offering feedback. There are a few issues I noticed so far, and would have re-uploaded if only I am reluctant to upload another version while keeping the original up, or deleting the original entirely and losing stats.* (Even so, I definitely want to take all advice I've gotten into account for future levels.) For instance, in 'House of the Spined Moles,' I noticed it is possible to soft-lock in the area with the two red bill blasters on moles if you drop below the raised platform in the center, though one player interestingly dropped down from that platform on purpose AFTER using the p-switch he brought back up with him, turning what would otherwise be a soft lock into another way through. 

Moreover, some game 'mechanics' in 'Big Boo Sisters' New Castle' may not be apparent, such as the idea (even with the 'tutorial room' I set up) to move the cannon with the p-switch, or to place the POW on the muncher, or that you must be close to the pipe in order for its contents to drop down while the yellow blocks are turning. 

And in 'House of the Munchers,' in desiring two paths that ultimately meet up in the same room, I ended up putting my first checkpoint pretty late in the level, and by not making my pipes one way I left open the possibility for 'cheese' near the end. 

Finally but not least, I underestimated the difficulty of vine jumping, since it comes easy to me: apparently there are people for whom vine jumping comes easy, but even players who enjoy 'Kaizo'-type levels were made to cry (e.g., one said, 'How the f--- do you do vine jumps?') when playing 'Princess Daisy's Hanging Gardens' and 'Naval Piranha's Stray Vines.'

* I know stars are kept, but I like keeping all the stats shown for the levels.


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## FreezeFlame (Dec 30, 2015)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> It's perfectly normal that you won't get many stars right off the bat. It's a matter of time that you'll end up gaining more of them, especially when you just recently got the game. Therefore, I'll go easy with you. I've certainly got things to say about making a good level design in general. I won't provide feedback specifically for each level, but rather about some of the level design decisions that you often implement on most of these levels.
> 
> 
> A common problem I've noticed among many new makers is that the level lack identity of its own. I wasn't surprised to see your levels suffer from that too. When I played them, I've felt that these either are just mere mishmash of ideas that never seemed to expand beyond the moment you introduced the course elements, or the ideas weren't clearly defined to begin with. As result, the levels would end being forgettable. If you stick to just a few ideas and limit the amount of different course elements you'd throw at a level, you'd be surprised on how much they could be expanded.
> ...



Thx so much for the feedback! I'll definitely incorporate some of the new techniques you stated.


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## mintellect (Dec 30, 2015)

Dan the Man said:


> Awesome



Please stop spamming a bunch of threads.


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## JCnator (Jan 1, 2016)

Zulehan said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Spoiler



So, you've found the bonus room on my level then. I don't exactly remember what I stuffed in the ? blocks in that room, probably a lot of coins, one 1UP mushroom and perhaps Cape Feather. You'd have to spin jump on the small winged plant to reach to the rewards. This was addressed in v1.1, where wrong choice will give them winged plants (which still gives you an option to access to the rewards), whereas the correct one will grow a vine. Perhaps one of the minor mistakes I slipped on the level design of the early version is that the only exit pipe of the bonus area warps the player backwards, but never away from the pipes sections.

In the levels I tried, I didn't have much problem figuring out exactly what to do, since I do have a fair amount of knowledge on how the course elements work. Perhaps it's the lesser experienced players who couldn't easily figure out what to do at times. I do have to give credit for implementing such interesting ideas on your levels, which made them worth playing. Let's delve a bit deeper on the levels!

Vine jumping on "Naval Piranha's Stray Vines" didn't pose me too much of an issue, but I do have to admit it can possibly becomes tricky at times if the player hanging on a vine is required to hop on a block sitting on the top end of a vine, like during the fight with Giant Fire Piranha Plant. I only ever lost two lives in this level, which was caused by that section alone. The vine jumping idea worked well throughout the stage and never required a ridiculous level of precision unlike one of the other levels, which I'll mention that later on. The level makes use of this mechanic fairly regularly during the stage, which made me get used to it to easily overcome the later obstacles. Some of these sections had Jumping Piranha Plants that I could spin jump on them to make my way without necessarily having to use the vines.
This is a great level to train with vine jumping!

However, on "Big Boo Sisters' New Castle", vine jumping only happens on one section before the checkpoint, and its layout is much trickier to perform than anything that "Naval Piranha's Stray Vines" threw at me. The Boos aren't a problem here, but it's once again the sheer level of precision being required that cause this particular area to be annoying. If I want to make the P-Switch elevating the Cannon part clearer, maybe I would have to add a ? Block close to the the cannon hanging the wall. Players would be more inclined to watch what happens if they hit the block. A bit similar to the official Bowser's Puzzle Dungeon level, which had the P-Switch being activated by the Bill Blaster just above it with the ? Block method. Not entirely sure that method would only elevate the cannon hanging on a wall, but it's worth trying.
The best part of the level is at the end of the stage, where the player have to carry a Koopa shell spawning from a pipe and launch them on the blocks to uncover a pipe that spawns a Spiny Helmet and smash blocks with it to be able to spawn a P-Switch. And all of that while being careful on how the Boos should be positioned in order to minimize their threat and having to climb the vine to make the pipe visible, so it could spawn something.
Still a well-thought level in overall. I ought to give it a star that when I get back to the game.

The "House of the Munchers" appeared to be pretty difficult for me at first, especially the main route before the first checkpoint. But then, I eventually found out an easily accessible shortcut at the beginning and an exploit with that particular checkpoint setup (which is fixed in "Big Boo Sisters' New Castle"), both of which helped me a lot on beating the stage. That exploit involved Mario having enough running momentum to jump in the rightmost block of the checkpoint platform and holding Down and Left so Super Mario could immediately crouch slide and completely skip the Grinder unscathed. It's a bit tricky to do, but I guess being crafty did rewarded me quite well, hehe.
Oh, and I found out that in the first checkpoint area, there's no clear indication on which pipe to go. If I were to take the left one, it leads me to the secret room and I would then immediately fall to the spikes. A possible workaround for a one-way pipe is to make sure the horizontal pipes that I shouldn't go lack any supporting block that allows Mario entering through pipe. The same can be done to fix the pipe exploit you've encountered.
I do think that "House of the Munchers" is definitely another star-worthy level!

I'm quite surprised to see that "House of the Spined Moles" having a significantly lower clear rate than the rest of your levels, and the bookmark site doesn't consider its difficulty as Super-Expert right now. The stage as a whole doesn't require as much precision movement as some of the other levels of yours. In comparison to the others, it shouldn't be too difficult for me to clear with a little more effort on my side.
I love on how you added that failsafe Lakitu cloud in case I fail to spawn a high enough vine from the very beginning of the stage, assuming that the P-Switch effect didn't run out of time. But then, speedrunners would prefer getting the vine grow long enough so they could shave off a few seconds off. Spin jumping sure helps a lot when getting past of the Spined Moles, so does quickly clearing sections that has cannon in order to minimize their screen-time, therefore reducing its threat.
I haven't said that this one is a pushover, so there's still fun to be had. Maybe I'll finish the level in a proper manner, to rise the clear rate by a bit.


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## Zulehan (Jan 1, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Spoiler



Thank you kindly for the feedback. The vine jump portion of 'Big Boo Sisters' New Castle' was brought up by another player, as well, though in this case he was more concerned with the 'stretch' Boos not always having the same order, which might throw a player off with the already difficult vine jumps. The solution we both thought to possibly implement is the use of a warp door nearby to reset, which is an idea I've since used on my most recent level (uploaded about 48 hours ago).

Going back to the precision required with the vine jumps, however, I definitely believe this relates back to my underestimating the difficulty of vine jumps. In fact, there is an ever more precise vine jump required in another of my levels, 'Princess Daisy's Hanging Gardens,' and I suspect it may be largely responsible for the 'super expert' label that the new SMM bookmark site has given it. Feedback such as yours and those by others about the vines used in my levels have weighed on my mind with the most recent level I created, which definitely has the least frustrating vine jump so far, heh. 

In regards to the section requiring use of a p-switch to move a cannon up, I have to admit I have some difficulty picturing what you suggest with the question block. When you suggest adding the block, do you mean to the 'tutorial' itself where the note block is hitting the p-switch, or in the 'main' room where there is just the cannon and POW block? Sorry for my confusion, heh.

Speaking of tutorials, I was also thinking of adding one for the part where you place the POW block on the muncher, as I remember seeing one player confused on this point for quite some time; he ended up using the POW on the munchers left of the warp door where the snake blocks are, which made me think this might be a good place to show a muncher with a POW block on it. And I also thought to stretch the end of the level (the 'boss fight room') to add a fourth pipe leading to a room that shows two things: (1) that the spiky helmet kills Boos and (2) that it may be suggested to hit the two question blocks to reveal vines, and to jump between the vines to hit the turn blocks while also staying near the pipe, though I think this may make the tutorials a bit overkill. 

In regards to 'House of the Munchers,' I assume the shortcut you refer to is the pipe right next to the start of the level. Interestingly, I found not only that players were just as likely to find this route first, but that some were actually convinced there was no other route even after using the vine leading to the two question blocks with munchers inside them. It has really been quite interesting to see how players interact with this first part of the level, heh. 

And good catch on the exploit (or, as some players refer to it, 'cheese') regarding the checkpoint, and it being fixed on a later level: indeed, I noticed one player used Mario's momentum to keep the mushroom power-up from the checkpoint, which led to me adding the vertical wall on one side of the checkpoint. Glad to say his attempt to 'cheese' the latter level worked no longer. 

Moreover, definitely agree with you on the need for a one-way pipe for clarity. I was naive to think that merely putting the 'correct' pipe at the center should be sufficient, but having the one-way block or otherwise preventing re-entry into the pipe for each route leading to the first checkpoint would be the clear indication I need of which way to go. I learned this the hard way when the person who took the route ending with the pipe on the left kept going to the pipe on the right instead of the center, even after falling to his death several times (one time the coins even turned into blocks, which probably encouraged him into thinking it might be a valid route after all, rather than the 'tail end' of an alternate route). Feedback such as yours and those of other players for 'House of the Munchers' was definitely the learning experience for me about being mindful of making sure players are not confused about which pipe to take. 

In regards to 'House of the Spined Moles,' particularly the use of a vine and Lakitu cloud as two ways up, I was interested to find out that most people so far used the cloud and did not even consider the vine (some not even hitting the question block once). And two players used neither: in that narrow gap I filled with turn blocks, they simply run to the end and hit the jump button at the precise moment allowing them to get to the block where the vine would end. Definitely the most difficult way to get up, but whatever works for them, heh, and certainly a third way to get up if both the cloud and vine fail. (Edit: Oh! Just remembered that the reason I initially added a Lakitu cloud was simply because I feel like they aren't used enough as a simple reward. I mean, yeah, you see Lakitu clouds a lot, but most often with Lakitu or other koopas using it and trying to hit you, rather than an unused cloud for you to just use as you see fit. And I knew I had to use the cloud again after seeing the pleasantly surprised reaction of one player to see that 'power-up' revealed to him after hitting a question block.) 

Yes, I definitely found myself enjoying using the spin-jump in this level: I invariably used it when getting past those wrench-throwing moles near the horizontal pipes with hidden tracks, and of course it is required with the boss and the mole stuck between two bullet bill cannons (by the way, in case you don't know, if you stick a giant dry bones between the two bullet bills cannons, he ends up on top of the second cannon after putting himself back together; seeing this in one level is what gave me the idea). 

Thank you again very much!

Edit: And, oh, yes, in that section of 'Naval Piranha's Stray Vines' where I had the piranhas on top for spin jumping, this is the method I've seen most players use, and indeed I am glad to have it there since those vine jumps, or so I felt, are a little more punishing. I actually naively intended the piranhas to prevent using the block on top of the vine, forgetting you could spin jump on them, but I was actually glad to discover the piranhas made it easier, as otherwise I feel a lot more players would have quit the level, especially as I figured out how much more difficult vine jumps can be for some players (as mentioned before, I once thought vine jumps would be so easy for other players just because I was having an easy time with them).


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## Yoshisaur (Jan 1, 2016)

Can anyone recommend a youtuber that frequently makes or used to make levels in Mario Maker? I watch plenty of series where youtubers play levels that have been created but I'd like to see the process some people go through to make levels so I can get better at it


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## Zulehan (Jan 1, 2016)

Yoshisaur said:


> Can anyone recommend a youtuber that frequently makes or used to make levels in Mario Maker? I watch plenty of series where youtubers play levels that have been created but I'd like to see the process some people go through to make levels so I can get better at it


I don't know about YouTube, but you can see plenty of creation in action on Twitch, not only live but through 'Past Broadcasts' on each user's profile. For instance, check out a guy with the user name GoSeigen: he is just as often creating levels as he is playing them.


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## Yoshisaur (Jan 1, 2016)

Zulehan said:


> I don't know about YouTube, but you can see plenty of creation in action on Twitch, not only live but through 'Past Broadcasts' on each user's profile. For instance, check out a guy with the user name GoSeigen: he is just as often creating levels as he is playing them.



Thanks! I didn't even think about twitch for that!


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## lars708 (Jan 2, 2016)

I made a few new levels starring the bumpers! 

Check out my profile if you want to bookmark them!
https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/profile/lars708

The first one is a bit uninspired as it is the first level i made in a long time, will update it to match my other levels more very soon.

The second one is a bit different, i thought of a new mechanic and this level is full of it! However, it is rather difficult to master the mechanic i used and i can not find a proper way to balance it sadly (you will know what i mean once you played the level). I hope that you guys won't give up and make it to the end! It is rather tough but i tried to make it fair at the same time!


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## TykiButterfree (Jan 4, 2016)

I have updated Have Some Death (47CD-0000-0169-E994) to have more Magikoopas and be in a boo house. There's even a shortcut if the Magikoopas are nice to you. 

I also finally finished my first music level. It is Rusty Bucket Bay from Banjo Kazooie. I love this one.  (CF29-0000-016F-630B) What do you think?


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## Matt0106 (Jan 4, 2016)

Hey guys! I made a Zelda-themed level called My Zelda Dungeon not long ago, made especially for Zelda fans. It's not the most impressive level ever, but I tried my best. Thank you!

Course ID: 30E0-0000-0168-85A9

Feedback is obviously welcome  (just don't be too nasty about it )

WARNING! Like most dungeons in the Zelda series, there are no checkpoints!!!


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## ZekkoXCX (Jan 4, 2016)

I made this level a month ago, which (as the title of the level says) contains the remake of world 6-1 of NSMB DS:
8A50-0000-011F-5138-Sunken Airship Ft. DS 6-1
Critiques are highly appreciated! n_n


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## Ras (Jan 5, 2016)

Yoshisaur said:


> Can anyone recommend a youtuber that frequently makes or used to make levels in Mario Maker? I watch plenty of series where youtubers play levels that have been created but I'd like to see the process some people go through to make levels so I can get better at it



Yeah.  Darby of Blue Television Games doesn't showcase making levels too often, but here's a good one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xwssvAQB98

He's a nice guy and makes great levels, and he showcases a lot of other peoples' levels.  He's worth a look.


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## Yoshisaur (Jan 6, 2016)

Thanks to the peoples who suggested makers to watch!

I finally completed a level. It's probably kinda cliche since it's my first but o well. It's called "Gotta P?" and it was intended to be a hard/expert level. If anyone wants to try it the id is: B2D8-0000-0176-C46E


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## JCnator (Jan 7, 2016)

I got to play some more levels tonight made from some TBT fellows there and here's my thoughts on them:

@lars708: 



Spoiler



The first level (at least, the early version) does seem to be, well, pretty standard overall. At least you didn't threw too many ideas on one stage and the difficulty is just right. Also, I thought I managed to get stuck between the Bumpers from the bonus room, but I eventually got shot out soon enough. Aside of that, nothing much to say here.

The second level is a bit more interesting to discuss about it, but that's mostly about on how the stage reveals the problems with the Bumpers. There's some blind jump involved in some of the Bumper sections, as they fall on rails off-screen and have to rely on memorization regarding where the Bumpers might be.
The camera doesn't follow quite well the player after jumping off from a Bumper until they land on another one, which could possibly lead to unwanted collisions from potentially off-screen obstacles. It's tolerable if the stage couldn't scroll vertically, but it does, so...
The final section has us relying on either holding the jump button or not, to dodge obstacles accordingly. It's tricky, since not holding it would make Mario jump rather low and not have much room to move between the Bumpers, while jumping higher would propel him much faster than bouncing high from a trampoline. The fact that hitbox of a Bumper is actually a circle, rather than a square? That also makes it harder to anticipate how to control Mario's aerial movement. Maybe if the Bumpers are bunched up closer to each other in a similar fashion to what I did with the blocks on my level called Sweeping Snake Block Fortress, it would make balancing Mario more controllable? It's even easier to do that by using the doors to "synchronize" the Bumpers on rail and make sure they're lined up the way you want without having to rely on vertical track.




@TykiButterfree: 



Spoiler



I have nothing to say about the music level, since I'm no expert on that matter. I've got to say a few things about the another iteration of "Have some death!".

I appreciate on how you picked the right theme for what the level is. It feels like the Ghost House theme is more fitting than the Castle theme of the previous version. All of the set pieces you've used feel right at home with that theme.

The section where you have to tread between the carefully placed masses of Boo Circles is probably one of the best aspects of this level. The difficulty is just right and it's fun having to adjust my character's position without too much hassle.

My only problem with the stage is that it's possible to instantly die right at the beginning of the stage. Thankfully, it's not immediately right next to Mario, but still.




@Matt0106: 



Spoiler



I did enjoy the level. The puzzles were pretty light, as it mostly involves hitting the P-Switch and hurrying up to open passages. It did made for a relatively seamless Zelda experience on a Mario platformer. The level is just short and easy enough that not including a checkpoint is pretty much a moot point, at least for a seasoned Mario player. I did get the feeling that you actually went up to polish the level before uploading it, save for one instance.

At the very beginning of the level, I can access the top of the dungeon by running & jumping off from a note block and landing on trees. Then I did the same from a higher tree to reach the top of the building. And it leads to nothing but an area that anyone could get permanently stuck until they fall in a hole. Since a fair amount of effort went for some outside of the box tricks, it would make sense to reward the player with something and a way to get back to the main path. A small shortcut, coins and/or whatnot are a good reward for that.

Overall, the level is solid!





I'll be writing my opinions about the levels requested by Jetix and Yoshisaur within 2 days or less. I was writing this entire post at night and don't want to be too late at work. I do have a lot to say about the former's latest effort, but I can definitely tell he has improved since I last played his levels. And the latter's level design for that stage is reminiscent of Kaizo Mario where repeated plays is the name of the game.


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## lars708 (Jan 7, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> I got to play some more levels tonight made from some TBT fellows there and here's my thoughts on them:
> 
> @lars708:
> 
> ...



Thank you very much for the detailed feedback! 

About the bumper tracks, i think that those should be fine and i put a checkpoint before the hard part so that should make up for it. I mean yes, the camera is horrible and it's hard to control but people forget that it isn't that much of a problem to lose a life sometimes. Like honestly, i died A LOT in the official games because of the surprises. However, it might be a good idea to remove some of the enemies, since the bumper mechanic is hard to control on its own and the enemies make it even worse.

I hope this all makes sense to you lol...


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## Yoshisaur (Jan 7, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> I got to play some more levels tonight made from some TBT fellows there and here's my thoughts on them:
> 
> @lars708:
> 
> ...



Thanks for trying it out! I made it to submit for the Beard Bros to play on youtube and the theme this go around was Kaizo, so at least I was on par with the theme lol


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## JCnator (Jan 8, 2016)

Without any further ado, here's my thoughts on what Jetix and Yoshisaur presented to us.

@Jetix: 



Spoiler



As I said before, the stage seems to prove you've improved a bit since I last dropped my views on your previous levels.

For example, you've certainly cut back the enemy spams you were used to and avoided encouraging Damage Boosting altogether, which made your latest stage a favor in giving more focus on the actual level design. And it also seen more effort put in it than your previous efforts. But, there's still more room for improvements.

First off, there are a handful of areas where one could skip a significant portion of the stage that might be where you'd want consider so they wouldn't inadvertently avoid the sections you may want the players to go through. One of them has a very skilled player who could pull off and skip pretty much the entire subarea that would otherwise be mandatory for clearing the stage. Someone could possibly pick up a shell, throw it at the wall near the goal pole, jump on the shell in midair and reach the ledge that leads them directly to the goal pole. Here's some examples of it in execution below.






Another huge shortcut is found by performing a wall-jump, then airspin and rinse and repeat to scale between the walls. Naturally, I was expecting being rewarded with something, but I've found nothing in there. It does have a purpose of being a shortcut, but it does allow players to skip a significant portion of a level you'd want them to go, which I believe is dealing with Bill Blasters and Cannons?

I believe that the waiting section was there to set up another P-Switch challenge, but it turns out it isn't used after a couple of segments involving the mechanic. Well, the wait was unnecessary at the end. Of course I could skip the waiting by doing a running jump, but it still doesn't have to be there in this case.

Airship theme from all game styles has some visibility quirk that might throw off some players off-guard. You may know that the camera for this theme is moving up and down slowly as if you were on an actual airship. When the ground from completely below is only 1 block high, like most of the subarea, I couldn't see the ground regularly and I had to wait until I actually see it before I could move on, since there is a possibly of a trap being hidden by the camera. That's why I avoid leaving less than 3 vertical lines of blocks if I should have some ground on the very bottom of the area.

Remember that I previously said that polishing the level also means making the level more visually attractive? Well, you've actually started doing so. But, I still feel there are some areas where it could be better decorated if more effort were put into them. At one point, I saw a mushroom platform that seems to float in air. That can be quickly fixed.
Did you know that you can use semi-solid platforms to form a more aesthetically pleasing wall? You can even cover the part of a semi-solid platform you don't want to show with any block.

I gave that level a star as a sign that you've actually done some effort to that level, yet I still feel like there could more improvements to be done. Keep besting your previous levels and who knows you might end up making great levels.




@Yoshisaur: 



Spoiler



By saying hard/expert level, you actually meant that the level is inspired from the level design of Kaizo Mario. I was surprised seeing that type of level popping up, considering that it would be more logical to start out with easy/medium difficulty levels and gather some players to play them, hopefully starring them in the process. And then Super Beard Bros. is now accepting these levels forever, so I figured out you didn't missed the opportunity. One day, they'll play your levels.

I didn't beat the stage the proper way, but I actually went to download this one to my Coursebot and played the entire stage, albeit without necessarily having to try certain sections over and over. In theory, the stage itself wouldn't take very long to complete without accounting all of the deaths from precision movements and one invisible block.

The falling platforms section is pretty tough to overcome consistently, as I have only a very few correct frames to jump and land on a vine without hitting the Munchers. I figured out it would be easier to throw the P-Switch next to the vine that came out from a block, grab the vine and hit the P-Switch.

The most difficult section has to be the one with a Muncher that holds the P-Switch. Getting the thing isn't too bad. However, it's gauging the jump after jumping high off a trampoline to get through a narrow passage that becomes problematic, thanks to the airship camera's visibility problem that could possibly hide Mario. After all of the most difficult segments done, the rest is pretty smooth sailing.

For a Kaizo level, this seems to be a solid effort on your part and is fun to figure out what to do. For that reason, you deserved a star.


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## Zigzag991 (Jan 9, 2016)

Finally, after 3 recreations and hours of having to rework it over a 3 month span (long story short: I started working on the level for a few hours, uploaded an almost complete version of it to have a friend test it out, then quit for 3 months, came back two days ago to finish it, found out it was taken down because it used the invisible glitch for one of the puzzles but I assumed that if I edited it out I could reupload it, added a bunch of stuff, then when I tried to reupload it wouldn't let me so I had to spend 4 hours remaking it today)...I'm finally done with...








*How well do YOU know SMM?*

F8D9-0000-0180-3375 (There's some minor things I need to fix to prevent cheap deaths, so I'll reupload it with a new code later, but this one still works if you want to check it out.)

Although fair warning; as the name implies, I designed the level with the intent of testing your knowledge of Super Mario Maker. With that said, some, if not most, of the puzzles will require you to know some random tidbits of info on how things work to progress through the level (albeit since I couldn't really force some of the puzzles without making the solution obvious you probably won't need to know all that much).

Hope you know your trivia!


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## Ras (Jan 9, 2016)

My new level might have some interest for this forum.  

♪Animal Crossing - Kapp'n's Song




5930-0000-0183-3170

To be honest, I'm not really looking for critiques at the moment.  I'm just trying to put this in front of people who are fans of the game with the hopes that you'll enjoy the music.


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## Yoshisaur (Jan 10, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Without any further ado, here's my thoughts on what Jetix and Yoshisaur presented to us.
> 
> @Jetix:
> 
> ...



Thanks a million for trying it out and letting me know your thoughts


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## ZekkoXCX (Jan 10, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Without any further ado, here's my thoughts on what Jetix and Yoshisaur presented to us.
> 
> @Jetix:
> 
> ...



Thank you very much for the review!! *o* Will consider your tips n.n


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## JCnator (Jan 13, 2016)

Zigzag991 said:


> [...]
> 
> *How well do YOU know SMM?*
> 
> ...





Spoiler



I'm surprised that this level hasn't been beaten yet and is considered as a Super-Expert level, presumably because of the possibly obscure tricks that the vast majority of players and one particular section. Perhaps that the most difficult section is the second one, with a Red Bill Blaster shooting out a Buzzy Shell. That threw off a good amount of players, probably because there's no clue on where exactly the player is expected to stand, as opposed to the first section, with a Bowser's Pole telling exactly where to stand to spit the triple bones. I had to crouch like 3-4 squares away from the blaster to be able guarantee on wearing the shell and grab a another. That's what I figured to clear this section. Otherwise, the level shouldn't be too difficult if you know those tidbits.





Ras said:


> My new level might have some interest for this forum.
> 
> ♪Animal Crossing - Kapp'n's Song
> 
> ...



Since this is a music level, which is usually an automatic level in first place, so I obviously couldn't say anything about the level design. I get what you were saying.

I can definitely see you've put a lot on effort on making the thumbnails look great, along with a music that is a near-perfect rendition of the Kapp'n Song from Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Both of them managed to co-exist in harmony, especially in the main area. I can safely say that the fans of Animal Crossing won't be disappointed at all.


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## Zigzag991 (Jan 13, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Spoiler



Well, what I intended was to have people stand under that little space with a block popping out, that way when the shell came out you'd just jump, land, and ride it over the nippers. Getting the shell works too, but I was planning on fixing that later, heh.



But yeah, the level itself wasn't so supposed to be challenging, with the main challenge stemming from whether you knew those tidbits or not, like the Yoshi not crouching to eat thing.


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## Ras (Jan 14, 2016)

> Since this is a music level, which is usually an automatic level in first place, so I obviously couldn't say anything about the level design. I get what you were saying.
> 
> I can definitely see you've put a lot on effort on making the thumbnails look great, along with a music that is a near-perfect rendition of the Kapp'n Song from Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Both of them managed to co-exist in harmony, especially in the main area. I can safely say that the fans of Animal Crossing won't be disappointed at all.



Thanks!  I like the review after all!    Thank you for playing!


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## Hippofalcon (Jan 14, 2016)

MY FIRST COURSE

My first attempt at a course lol. Using only the first set since that's what I had. Just wanted to get feedback thanks!


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## JCnator (Jan 15, 2016)

Hippofalcon said:


> MY FIRST COURSE
> 
> My first attempt at a course lol. Using only the first set since that's what I had. Just wanted to get feedback thanks!



I played the stage and here's what I have to say about your first foray:


Spoiler



The level have a few glaring issues, but its overall length does alleviate a lot of frustrations from such problematic sections.

The first section has you jump from pipe to pipe. It seemed you wanted to replicate that Mario is flying high in the air with its costume, but that portion of the stage is placed too high. Mario would have to jump offscreen to leap from pipe to pipe, forcing the players to memorize what position he is and where he should land.

The second section always force Damage Boosting no matter which path the player takes. If someone took a hit as Costume Mario before that particular area, they will most likely have to start over as a result of the level design decision. So, you're basically forcing every player to use a powerup. That's not exactly a fair level design, especially if someone tries to speedrun the level as small Mario. Yes, there is an alternate path that the player could use it to skip a huge portion of the stage, just by running and then jumping at the very end of the last ground block and land on a mass of course blocks. However, it still requires Damage Boosting to do so.

From what I've seen on the level, it does really feel like it's your first foray at level editing. I hope you continue exploring on what these tools can do and how to use them efficiently. The more knowledge you have on the course elements, the better you'll know how to design a level that's enjoyable to not only you, but everyone who would end up playing your levels. After all, it's only the beginning.


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## Matt0106 (Jan 16, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> I got to play some more levels tonight made from some TBT fellows there and here's my thoughts on them:
> 
> @lars708:
> 
> ...



Sorry I only saw this now but thank you! I really appreciate your feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed the level! Thank you!


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## Discord (Jan 16, 2016)

My levels

*Koopa's Revenge*:
Code: A5AF-0000-0165-2039
Description: Took me 2 hours to make and 3 hours to beat, my hardest level ever made.

*Run For It!*:
Code: E661-0000-0165-2108
Description: The title is quite literal


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## Matt0106 (Jan 16, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> I got to play some more levels tonight made from some TBT fellows there and here's my thoughts on them:
> 
> @lars708:
> 
> ...



Also, I think I came up with a small yet pleasant reward for the player that will be a nice little touch.


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## JCnator (Jan 17, 2016)

Iggy Koopa said:


> My levels
> 
> *Koopa's Revenge*:
> Code: A5AF-0000-0165-2039
> ...



I got to play these levels and cleared them without much trouble. Here's what I got to say about them:



Spoiler



On the first level, there's quite a lot to say about it, but given that it could have been your first foray on level designing, I'll just cut down to the most noticeable issues I've encountered.

First off, the first Grinder section had these things set up in such manner that it forces the player to get hit no matter how hard they'd try. I'm not sure if it's even possible to get past this section as small Mario, but I can definitely consistently cheese it as Super Mario by Damage Boosting through it and abusing his brief invincibility frames in a hurry.

The next problematic section is the room full of pipes where luck dictates the player's survival. One of them leads straight to insta-death, and is frowned upon. That's not really challenging; that's a cheap shot. Luckily, I took the third pipe at the bottom and managed to find the correct path on my first try. Avoid guess-which-path-doesn't-lead-to-death at all cost.

After getting past of the Bill Blaster and Rocky Wrench section, which was probably the most difficult segment in the level, the level suddenly thankfully becomes much easier than you probably thought because the rest of the stage gives you plenty of opportunities to cheese through. One section would normally require that I perform a tricky shell-jump or a triple jump to reach the otherwise unreachable ledge. Then, I found out that I could just use the Bullet Bill coming out of a blaster from the previous section and jump off from it to get over there.
Next up, we were told that the spring could mean something useful if I carry it with me, but it turns out it isn't even necessary at all. I can easily get past of the Boo Buddies by bopping on the cannonballs and skip it, and it's generally a better idea to either rush below the Thwomps or lure one of them to fall and spin jump off from a wall to the fallen Thwomp and have the second one drop down. Then, I reach the segment where Magikoopa spawns from, with a trail of coins telling me where to go. I can decide to ignore the coins, as I could jump high enough to reach those impassable ledges and reach the room with a POW Block.
And finally, the boss section is laughably easy in comparison to the rest of the stage. You don't really need to actually fight with the boss, as all I needed is the large Bowser to spit multiple large fireballs at once and destroy the course blocks that you thought they were for decoration. Then, I enter the door, quickly wall jump from the left wall to skip the enemy spam and immediately hit the axe.

All of these aforementioned cheesing portions made me even more surprised that the clear rate is extremely low at the moment. Part of that could be explained by the level design itself frequently requiring precision movements. The total absence of checkpoint made the stage more tedious than it should've been, considering how long the stage is. You could've shaken the arrow sign and transform it into one, and then place it like after the half portion of the stage is completed. Sure, it'll take you a longer while to beat the level for uploading, but it'll offer a much better experience for others who would stumble on long levels.

Also, there's too many different types of course elements in one stage. Some of them only ever appear in one section and then never reappear in a meaningful way. As result, it's very lacking in its identity and its cohesiveness, so it won't be memorable for me. Consider limiting the amount of course elements per stage and you'll be amazed on how much you can with just a few of those.

Overall, I didn't enjoyed that stage. The challenge mostly consisted of random mishmash of challenges that ask precision movements, a tiny bit of guessing which way is right, and relies on players who don't abuse outside-of-the-box tactics. Not exactly what I'd call a fair, fun and difficult level.
If you'd like a few examples of mine on how to make it enjoyable and challenging, why not trying Coconut Airship (clear rate: 25%+), Hardship on Airship (clear rate: 20%+) and Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE! v1.1 (clear rate: 15%+). All of these stages assume that you're familiar with the basic Mario's moves (including running, performing a running jump and precision movements), so you shouldn't struggle as much as you did with your early uploads.
Coconut Airship has you land with precision on Bullet Bills and hop off from them to gain extra height, which help you reach to the otherwise inaccessible ledges. There's also Rocky Wrenches and their ridiculously small wrenches to watch out for.
Hardship on Airship is a slow autoscroll stage that has move to dodge against a variety of obstacles, mainly cannons, Rocky Wrenches and Bob-Ombs. There are alternate paths you can take, but some of them are harder and more rewarding than others. Keep in mind it lacks checkpoint, but the latter half of the stage does certainly get easier to compensate.
And last but not least, Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE! v1.1 is a stage centered on spin jumping on Jumping Piranha Plants. You'll briefly learn on how to spin jump on these guys like a pro and control your landing before throwing some trickier challenges along the way, at least after the first checkpoint. And if you're crafty enough, you could end up finding a hidden area and a few shortcuts, but those are optional.


Speaking of your other level, I found this one to be much more enjoyable despite still suffering the "first-timer syndrome". The short and sweet stage doesn't take too long to finish it even after losing a life a few times, and is practically all about running and jumping. The stage didn't need any having both of the autoscroll the low timer at once. Either that autoscroll or low timer would suffice, although I would prefer you'd leave the autoscroll on and set the timer much higher. It can get annoying to hear the "hurry up" sound effect every time I start the stage.
I gave this one a star, as I enjoyed it.


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## Hippofalcon (Jan 19, 2016)

Two New levels I made. Thought you should see them. 

*Castle Blitz… OF DOOM!*
A level I made BEFORE reading your review of my first course. Actually quite sucky... Might take down and fix. 
https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/6506-0000-0192-1D71

*Airship Fortress - Mario Kart DS*
Made after reading review. A level where you run three laps of the Mario Kart course. I like it 
https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/CF42-0000-019C-DAFA

Two levels my SISTER (who is not on bell tree!) Made. (Optional review)

*Springs*
Take a guess
https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/7BBB-0000-018F-701F


*What the world needs*
Just... Look at it. 
https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/AA19-0000-018D-C129


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## JCnator (Jan 21, 2016)

Hippofalcon said:


> Two New levels I made. Thought you should see them.
> 
> *Castle Blitz… OF DOOM!*
> A level I made BEFORE reading your review of my first course. Actually quite sucky... Might take down and fix.
> https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/6506-0000-0192-1D71





Spoiler



For a moment, the way you placed coins and Question Blocks at the very beginning of the level looked, well, very odd. It was apparently supposed to be an arrow, but they were drawn in a way that reminds me of something else entirely. Perhaps I just happen to have such a naughty mind.

Anyway, the level seems to have little bit more effort put in it than the previous one I played, but it certainly has a few glaring issues. There's so much stuff going on at once (there's a too great deal of variety in the obstacles) and requires so much focus that rushing through the level is the best way to play it, which of course is the purpose. If I didn't took the star from the beginning, I would end up damage boosting through the Thwomps and Firebars section, along with the boss "fight" one.

For an expert level (it had a clear rate of around 7%), this is so easy I managed to beat it in one try, even if the supposed shortcut turns out to be a trick that thankfully doesn't outright kill Mario. The level is also fairly generous with its powerups shot by some of the cannons, which opens up for more damage boosting opportunities the stage seems to encourage.


Rather than fixing/remaking the level, I'd suggest you create a new level that incorporates one or two of the concepts that worked best and put enough emphasize on it/them. The course would be likely more enjoyable since you began acknowledging what works and what don't.





> *Airship Fortress - Mario Kart DS*
> Made after reading review. A level where you run three laps of the Mario Kart course. I like it
> https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/CF42-0000-019C-DAFA





Spoiler



The level design is quite certainly a noticeable step-up from your previous efforts. The course elements are finally more reasonably thought out. There's no enemy spam, the coins are actually guiding where I need to fly and the enemy placement is reasonable to say at least. It seems that you began to learn on how to properly decorate the stage with semi-solid platforms.

My biggest issue with the level isn't about the actual level design, but it's more about the idea of repeating the exact same layout from the first lap a couple times. There could be at least adding more differences to the duplicate sections, spicing things up a bit. It could be different course element placements, it could be remixing the first lap.





> Two levels my SISTER (who is not on bell tree!) Made. (Optional review)
> 
> *Springs*
> Take a guess
> https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/7BBB-0000-018F-701F





Spoiler



This level just seems to be pretty lazily made in my eyes, for a couple of reasons. It's obvious that the creator started with the cave theme level template and switched to the ground theme, as I recognized that layout despite some few minor differences here and there. Afterwards, they placed trampoline in a rather random fashion, along with a few Piranha Plants bouncing off from trampolines.

Also, the Lakitu Cloud is so easily accessible that I could thrash the rest of the level design to the oblivion, which was the only section that actually has springs, therefore missing the whole point of the stage.

Sorry if I sounded harsh here, but the level clearly lacked any real effort to make it worth uploading. I do understand that she was getting into level design for the first time in her life. One thing she should know, is that the level is expected to entertain the players who come across it. The manual does have some great tips on how to make enjoyable levels, which is really worth reading.





> *What the world needs*
> Just... Look at it.
> https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/AA19-0000-018D-C129





Spoiler



At the beginning of the stage, there's some semblance of level design, or so I thought. Hitting the ? Block actually made force to hit underneath the brick blocks to topple the Koopas and kick on it to reveal a Propeller Mushroom. With it, I'm not only assured that I could get a few extra hit points, but I can also bypass the stage just by propelling Mario a few times and skip many obstacles.

The ground looked like someone draw a few lines on and don't feel organic. Also, cutoff pipes. Yeah, there was nothing that supports the bottom part of the pipe.

I would say the same verdict as I did with the previous level of her, though I do have to commend her this time around for not blatantly leaving any of the default level template obviously untouched.





I guess I'll need a reddit account and frequent the Mario Maker subreddit to get my levels played. It's been more than a month and half that I last uploaded a level. And I've got an interesting idea on what my next stage will be, but I'm working to get it released before I go on vacation near the end of the next week.


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## Matt0106 (Jan 22, 2016)

Hey! I'm back with another level: A ZELDA LEVEL... AGAIN! But this time, things are different. Hyrule Castle is taken over by Ganon, but it won't be Link who will be saving it.

Personally, I'm not sure if this level is as good as the other one I did, but I tried my best to make it seem as though the castle is ruined and at the brink of falling. Some parts might be a little bit more challenging than "My Zelda Dungeon", but it might not be as long, I can't really tell. But I hope you enjoy! Once again, this is especially for Zelda fans who want a twist on their adventure. *Warning! No checkpoints once again!* 

*Course: Taking back Hyrule Castle
Course ID: 758F-0000-01A1-5AE1*

Let me know what you think! And don't be afraid to tell me any flaws it may have!


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## JCnator (Jan 23, 2016)

Matt0106 said:


> Hey! I'm back with another level: A ZELDA LEVEL... AGAIN! But this time, things are different. Hyrule Castle is taken over by Ganon, but it won't be Link who will be saving it.
> 
> Personally, I'm not sure if this level is as good as the other one I did, but I tried my best to make it seem as though the castle is ruined and at the brink of falling. Some parts might be a little bit more challenging than "My Zelda Dungeon", but it might not be as long, I can't really tell. But I hope you enjoy! Once again, this is especially for Zelda fans who want a twist on their adventure. *Warning! No checkpoints once again!*
> 
> ...





Spoiler



That level is actually pretty good. It's well-decorated for a dreary-looking castle that would appropriately fit in Zelda franchise, and the enemies aren't out of the place.

The challenge here is so reasonable that the lack of checkpoint is entirely a moot point and the stage progresses smoothly for any seasoned Mario player. Tricky jumps may be what trip the newcomers, but the more experienced players can through these just fine. I liked on how I can get through the small hole as Fire Mario and still be able to progress, despite ruining the Zelda thematics, and that any other form of Mario isn't entirely screwed as well.

Though, climbing the vine with SMB1 style is a bit trickier than I initially thought, due of Mario having to hang either at the left or right side of the vine, unlike the rest of the game styles. It might be wise to have at least one open space at each side to solve this minor issue.

This level could've benefited from having a secret bonus or two, excluding the item room right below the boss room. Sure, they aren't as useful as they actually are in the previous Super Mario Bros. games, but there's still the sense of satisfaction when collecting things that adds up to the experience.




So, I finally uploaded a level today, to prove that I'm still alive and well. "Mounted Monty Mole Puzzle" isn't a traditional stage that I often tend to create, as the name suggests. I came up with a simplistic one-screen puzzle that can be solved very quickly if you're a Mario veteran and provide some tidbits about how the Monty Mole and stack mechanics work for anyone. It involves having a mounted Monty Mole following you, while avoiding it being de-stacked from solid obstacles.






The Course ID for this one is: 767A-0000-01A4-9444


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## Matt0106 (Jan 23, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thank you so much! I'll be sure to take note for the Zelda level I make if I do make one again.


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## KingKyle (Jan 23, 2016)

If anyone wants to see some of the Bowser Junior bosses, I made a video showing all the Bowser Jr. bosses in all 4 games styles.


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## Discord (Jan 25, 2016)

Hadn't uploaded in a while
*Cave Of Pain:*
ID: 2FC5-0000-01A8-88AA

Be the first user to complete it!.


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## JCnator (Jan 27, 2016)

Iggy Koopa said:


> Hadn't uploaded in a while
> *Cave Of Pain:*
> ID: 2FC5-0000-01A8-88AA
> 
> Be the first user to complete it!.



Looks like I'm the first user to complete the stage. A review will be coming in the next few days, since I'm getting busier soon.

Also worth noting that the servers are suddenly down for around two days just to fix a glitch that happens in Create Mode. Wonder what was the glitch in question.


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## shunishu (Jan 29, 2016)

hiya, if anyone is good at puzzle levels, maybe try this and let me know how to beat this level, cause i'm lost
A62A-0000-0180-D545 - strange vision (all the comments are in japanese, so no help for me -_-)

but it's interesting, so i'd like to figure it out. also there's some graphics that i haven't seen before in it like peach riding a bowser etc..


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## Matt0106 (Jan 29, 2016)

I made another Zelda Level! I know, I know, I've already posted two, but this one is a bit different. It's called *My Zelda Overworld*. I decided to make a 2D Zelda level like the original Zelda NES, A Link to the Past, and others. Sadly I cannot take credit for this Zelda idea, since I saw a level on Youtube like this, but as a remake of the first game. BUT, mine is still different. This is more of "explore" instead of just "finish", and it is NOT really Hyrule. It's more of just a random adventure. There is obviously is a finish line and also, there is a 500-sec time limit, but you should have more than enough time to see everything. There will be some small challenges, but I wanted to take a different direction from the dungeons I've done. And due to it being a tad bit long, there is a checkpoint. Anyway, let me know what you think and enjoy!

*Level:* My Zelda Overworld
*Course ID: BB26-0000-01AF-ED8A*


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## AkatsukiYoshi (Jan 31, 2016)

It has been a while since I last posted a level to get reviewed, but I have a few new levels.

*Yoshi Station*
ID: B6EB-0000-010A-EF4C
Description: The concept of a "station" was first introduced to me by some of my friends from reddit. A station is basically a theme  where you can post your levels or play levels that others have posted that match the theme. For instance, a Yoshi station is a theme where levels posted should be Yoshi themed whether it is an amiibo Yoshi or Yoshi in the SMW or New Super Mario Bros styles. Even if you don't have a level that matches the theme, you can also enjoy Yoshi artwork. This is actually my most creative level.

*Deal or No Deal*
ID: C43A-0000-0114-8CA3
Description: A level based off of the game show "Deal or No Deal." In this level, there are 26 ? blocks with various good and bad cases. There is also one case that gives you an item that you need to reach the exit. As this game show always has a twist, you should prepare for the unexpected.

*Smash 64- Race to the finish!*
ID:42B0-0000-0139-A250
Description: This is based of the Smash 64 3rd bonus game. This course is actually a reupload to include actual bumpers this time.

*Can you escape the Hail Storm?*
ID: 2249-0000-0166-97C3
Description: It's basically self explanatory

*Breaking through to Bowsers Lair*
ID: B8B6-0000-017E-2176
Description: A reupload to make this level harder. I already know what you are going to say for the first section, so there is no need to review that particular segment again since I didn't change that section. I completely redesigned Bowser's Lair, so I would really like my review to be based on Bowser's Lair only if you don't mind. This redesign was made for players with a super expert skill level. This is my hardest level yet.


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## MeatBicycle (Feb 1, 2016)

My brother and I just got the game, but I became kinda crazy while doing levels, and only uploaded my two personal favorites:

*-The Great Aerial Offensive: 9C32-0000-01B6-030D
*
This is a 2D shooter, using the Fire Throwing Clown Car.


*-Trick House: 7E16-0000-01B6-C1C0
*
Just your good ol' Ghost House.


I hope you enjoy them and give us a star if you want to see more crazy stages like these ones!


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## JCnator (Feb 6, 2016)

I came back from my one week vacation to Orlando's Walt Disney World Resort, and boy that was worthy! Today, I completed the strange vision level that shunishu requested and provide a solution. Feedback for all of the levels after my previous post (including Iggy Koopa's Cave of Pain) will come in the following days.




shunishu said:


> hiya, if anyone is good at puzzle levels, maybe try this and let me know how to beat this level, cause i'm lost
> A62A-0000-0180-D545 - strange vision (all the comments are in japanese, so no help for me -_-)
> 
> but it's interesting, so i'd like to figure it out. also there's some graphics that i haven't seen before in it like peach riding a bowser etc..



I went and checked this level, and it took me around 30 minutes to figure out what to do. You actually need to be small Mario in order to complete the puzzle. Once the solution is found, the RNG aspect of Bowser will be the only problem to the execution. If you mess up in any other situation than destroying both Course Blocks from the above right room before letting one explodes next to the goal pole, you can use either the door (whenever accessible) or the pipe. If you still haven't figured out that one, I'll give you the solution in spoilers.



Spoiler



The first thing you want to do is to hit the POW block that comes out of the Bill Blaster while Bowser is in the air by jumping on it. Alternatively, you can just run towards it. Both of these methods will allow to get rid of the Muncher that blocks Bowser from moving backwards.
Next, immediately head the to left and wait for Bowser to embark on the regular Koopa Clown Car and spit some bombs. Hopefully, the RNG will correctly line both of the Koopa Clown Cars in a way that it won't bounce the Bob-Ombs the wrong way.

You want to attract Bowser without having the next one following him. The catch is, you have to get rid of the left course block from the above-right room first if it hasn't been done yet, so the other Bob-Omb could fall, turn to the left and move close enough to the second Course Clock next to the Goal Pole. Once that's done, break the second Course Block from the above-right room after that, so the Fire Koopa Clown Car can descend. A second Bill Blaster may fall during this process, which will allow you to enter in the otherwise inaccessible door by inching close enough to the door despite lacking floor right below it.

As you enter through the door, another Bill Blaster will appear in the below-right room to where you blasted that Course Block earlier, which fires a Mega Mushroom at you. Carry the Fire Koopa Clown Car next to it, so the mushroom will take over it (cuz video game logic) and shoot fire at you. Purposefully get hit, take the door and head to the lime green bar, which is the goal pole.



Even if I really messed up the explanation a bit, you should get the main idea on how to clear the level. I do have to admit that having a good knowledge on how the course elements actually work will help you a lot.



I'm trying to create a level that involves a thorough and newcomer-friendly spin jumping tutorial for players who never knew anything about spin jump, given that the part where many people died on my level called "Twisted Plants EVERYWHERE! v1.1" where the level's thumbnail image refers to. I get the feeling that they either didn't tried hard on that particular section or that they didn't have the habit to spin jump wherever needed, even though they knew how to do that already as they got past the quick and dirty spin jump reminder at the start of the level.

At the start of the level, I would force the player to Damage Boost through a thorny enemy by simply having them to land on them without spin jumping. Then, they have to grab Super Mushroom to break the flip blocks with spin jumping while not letting the players to backtrack once they begin breaking them. Then, they'd fall on a hole full of thorny enemies without knowing that would happen beforehand. Therefore, they'd learn Mario can land on these foes without being damaged while the spin jump is initiated.

I want the players to distinguish the differences between a normal jump and spin jump, so they get to know the benefits of doing so. A spin jump gives Mario's jumping height of 3 blocks, while the regular one is one block higher without running (5 with running). Spin jump also provide a slightly more floaty air hang to compensate for the low jump height.

Now to think how I could transform this tutorial into a traditional Mario-styled level... This is going to be tricky.


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## Hippofalcon (Feb 6, 2016)

Hey I was wondering if you could look at some levels I made. Even though you have a lot on your plate. Thanks!

0713-0000-01BF-46C8
*Everything wrong with this game.* 
Why sugar coat it. This level is awful. The only thing it's missing is it being a water level. (This level sucks on purpose.)

5B95-0000-01BE-FE24
*The Conveyor Belt Conundrum*
Messing around with the belts and made this. Could probably be better. 

583A-0000-01B9-D9F0
*Tall Track Time!*
Tried to somewhat follow the Nintendo formula. Proud of this one. 

C10D-0000-01A0-68DB
*Jumping Challenges: Pick a Path!*
A level based off jumping and spin jumping. Varying degrees of difficulty.


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## JCnator (Feb 7, 2016)

Played all of your levels up to this point. Here comes a feedback for each level I played.

@Iggy Koopa: 



Spoiler



Cave of Pain is considerably easier and more fun than your first level ever, for a Kaizo-like level. But there's still some progress to do if you'd want your players to enjoy your level. Let's start with one level design oversight:

In the P-Switch jumping section, there's one part of it where the camera doesn't pan far enough to see some of the spike traps from below, even when landing on P-Switches. I thought that what seemed to be holes were shortcut, but they turned out to be unintentional traps instead. It's worth noting that not many players knew they could immediately jump off from the switches, let alone react immediately before the game won't register a jump.

Another issue with the level is important to mention, since your first level was also plagued with the lack of cohesiveness and identity. It still boils down on "getting ready for whatever stuff I throw at you" type of level, where players are expected to know how things work right off the bat. It ain't enemy spam for certain, but that level design doesn't exhibit much creativity and make the entire level feels boring and disjointed in practice. Just like the first level, players will have a hard time remembering they played this level.

Take a look of one reddit comment about making a level for the player other than yourself. It does have quite a bit of strong language in it, but this'll help you considerably how to design difficult but enjoyable stages. The 6th level design point is debatable, since it assumes that powerups are strictly finite, but the level design could have a powerup generator or plenty of the same required powerup to render that point moot.




@Matt0106: 



Spoiler



I don't have much to say about the level, since it's well-designed for the most part. Rewards are thoughtfully placed where they should be, so that every bit of exploration is well worth the effort.

My only concern with the level is that in one of the subarea rooms, Bowser's flames can appear despite being in another room. It's possible to fix by having Bowser himself completely on the left of the map, thus preventing flames from appearing anywhere. It's still up to you whether you see it as an intentional challenge or not.




@AkatsukiYoshi:



Spoiler



Yoshi Station: Given that the entire level is about pretty Yoshi pixel arts and the subarea basically being a directory of Yoshi-themed levels, I don't have anything to say here of course, ha ha!

Deal or No Deal: The luck-based concept isn't even remotely bad at all; the player can always get rid most of the randomness ensured by the wrong question blocks by running far to the left to despawn them. Be sure that doesn't happen to the P-Switch, which is necessary for completing the level. There is no indication that you need to leave the coin trail alone and hit the only P-Switch in the level, which may render the level unwinnable. Maybe add more P-Switches in the boxes, or even make a wall of brick blocks that blocks the exit instead of having to transform the coin trail. Had the execution properly done, it would end up being a more enjoyable level.

Smash 64- Race to the finish!: Outside of the bumpers, the level pretty much remains the same as the previous version, so whatever I said to the older version applies to this version as well. I do have to mention that I cleared the level so many that I unintentionally raised the level's clear rate by about 7% or so, just to have the world record. I did it, with 0.021 less seconds than the previous record holder. The key for that success is to stay on the ground as much as possible and wall-jump to descend to the next floor to beat the level in less than 18 seconds.

Can you escape the Hail Storm?: Ironically, this is one of the cases where real life knowledge applies to video game as well. If I could just not drive until the hail storm is over, I also can do that as well in this level. It also seems possible to rush through the stage and avoid the hail, as someone with a world record of 25 seconds can attest.
The funny thing that happened during my playthrough, is that the hail actually crushed one of the Hammer Bros., something that I don't see that often when I play the levels. 
Anyway, the level is quite original and memorable and doesn't overstay its welcome. I suppose it wouldn't hurt adding some secrets in it, as the level is rather linear for the most part, but I've certainly enjoyed playing this level.

Breaking through to Bowsers Lair: Whatever I said about the Magikoopa section from one of my previous posts applies in this version as well. As for the modified parts, I would say it would be nice to add a second checkpoint after the Bowser Jr. fight, since the blue skull raft section is particularly tough, probably because of the enemies placement that made the jumps trickier. If having more checkpoints was your intent, you could add one next to the first pipe and move the subarea's one further in the dungeon.
Once the player grabs the Cape Feather, the rest of the level is all smooth sailing, which is much appreciated after the tough sections.

I also saw you've proposed this level to WhiteHawke's Challenging Level, as well of the hail storm stage on Normal Level. Can't wait for the YouTuber to voice his own opinions about these levels and see how similar his thoughts are compared to mine. I've only submitted Sweeping Snake Block Fortress as a Normal Level, as I feel confident that he might like this one.




@MeatBicycle:



Spoiler



The Great Aerial Offensive: I have to say that the difficulty is well-handled and consistent throughout the stage, especially that it gives powerups at the right moments. There is only one instance where the difficulty might be a bit much for some players, which had a lot of stuff going on to dodge while they're busy destroying the course block wall right before the checkpoint. Even the section where Bowser's RNG flames appear is more reasonable.
This short level is indeed fun!

Trick House: Yes, it is a typical Super Mario Ghost House level, although not short of fun when it comes to exploring the level a bit. Again, the difficulty is consistent and makes the overall level enjoyable. There's some replay value in it too, with its multiple routes and secrets galore.




@Hippofalcon:



Spoiler



Everything wrong with this game.: I see that one of my levels gave an inspiration for this one, which makes me proud of myself. As I said on Miiverse, it might as well be a 100 Mario Challenge Simulator, more specifically the random levels you'd find on Easy and Normal difficulties. Here, these common level design mistakes are condensed into one very short level to compensate its meaner aspects, although the level itself isn't necessarily difficult.
Well, that level was really worth playing for its educational purpose.

The Conveyor Belt Conundrum: I'm having a hard time to lay my finger on which part(s) of the level should be improved, as I thought I enjoyed this level. The homing Bullet Bills are actually posing me a bigger threat than they usually are in many other levels featuring them, especially since the corridor's height is a bit tight. Solid level design right there!

Tall Track Time!: Structurally, this a level that would fit on your average Super Mario Bros. game, especially in the Star Worlds. The difficulty is well-handled in a consistent manner, safe spots are well-placed and the secret areas do add some replay value for the level. For some players, jumping on a moving one-square wide block might prove to be very difficult, especially a bit after the first checkpoint.
I have to concur with you for the level being your best efforts so far.

Jumping Challenges: Pick a Path!: The level itself is very short, as the player only have to pick one path, do the quick-fire challenge and it's over. Though, there is a couple of issues that could ruin the level.
First, success in two of the paths (Chain Chomp and Wiggler) depends mostly on RNG, which is frowned in a challenging level. Maybe I could be wrong about the Wiggler one, but I'm fully aware that the movement of a Chain Chomp attached to a wooden post is purely based on how close it is to Mario and the RNG. It might be wise to revise these sections to remove the luck reliance.
Another problem with the level is that Goombas can drop and block the only exit pipe of the subarea. It's especially irritating when a player came from the Piranha Plant challenge and see the Goombas already blocking their only way out, therefore rendering the level's unwinnable. Adding a block or something to prevent the Goombas from falling would be a very easy way to fix this shortcoming.


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## Matt0106 (Feb 7, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Played all of your levels up to this point. Here comes a feedback for each level I played.
> 
> @Iggy Koopa:
> 
> ...



Thank you for the feedback! I really appreciate it, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! Sorry I always have Zelda levels xP It's just because using a different platform opens up new opportunities  And sorry for Bowser; that wasn't intentional


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## Hippofalcon (Feb 11, 2016)

TheBigJC7777777 said:


> Played all of your levels up to this point. Here comes a feedback for each level I played.
> 
> @Iggy Koopa:
> 
> ...



Thank you for looking at my levels. I'm glad you really liked them. (3/4 starred... I did something right!) I recently posted two new courses but I don't really need them reviewed. I'll take a look at jumping challenges and rework it some. Thanks so much!


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## lars708 (Feb 11, 2016)

I wanna get back into Super Mario Maker but there are so many other games like Smash Bros., Bayonetta 2 and Mario Kart 8... Help me!


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## JCnator (Feb 11, 2016)

lars708 said:


> I wanna get back into Super Mario Maker but there are so many other games like Smash Bros., Bayonetta 2 and Mario Kart 8... Help me!



Maybe trying the recommended courses from Super Mario Maker Bookmark will help you keeping interest in the game. Most of the featured levels I've played are usually league better than the "best" levels I could find in-game. Here's a few I played that I suggest you try them out:

Platform Panic

Inspired by the level 1-6 from Super Mario Bros. 3, this traditional level has you jump platform to platform and dodge Koopas and Grinders. The difficulty is well-balanced throughout the stage according to standards set by the classic NES video game.

Teamwork Castle

Help your shelled fellow by triggering contraptions, so you can advance through the stage. Don't worry about failing, as I've found it impossible to get stuck in an unwinnable situation.

Super Wario Land

Traverse a level where it would belong to any game from the Wario Land franchise. There's an interesting twist near the end of the stage that usually happen in Wario Land 4 and Shake it!/The Shake Dimension, where you rush all the way back to the start of the level for the very first P-Door to lead you right next to the flag pole.

Boring Menu-Based Combat

What if Mario had to settle in a simplistic RPG boss fight outside of Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series? This ingenious level is the answer to the question. Defeating Giant Bowser can take you a long while, especially as you have to dodge his flames, hit the Buzzy Shell whenever possible, and grab Fire Flower whenever needed.

Bouncy Trial

The entire level obviously revolves into one course object called Bumper. In this challenging but forgiving level, you have to time and control your jumps properly in order to progress. The stage periodically throws you something new to the table, and the difficulty raises in a naturally progressive manner.

Firefight at the 8-Bit Corral

This level won't waste your time immersing you in Far West throughout every playthrough. The thematic is consistent and the gameplay fits it very well. It's not a difficult level by any means, but I sure had a lot of fun playing it.


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## Discord (Feb 14, 2016)

*Gear Bouncer:*
ID: F592-0000-01AC-2760

*Flappy Mario:* (Quite easy)
ID: 26D8-0000-01B2-5C58

*Shells & Switches:*
ID: CE94-0000-01CD-A3CD

This is my hardest level to date, it took me 1 hour to make this but it took me 5 hours to beat and upload. I have uploaded many hard levels in the past couple of months but i finally uploaded my hardest level...yes.

My fingers hurt


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## Hippofalcon (Feb 19, 2016)

Hey, I saw you played (and starred) my 1 Screen Parkour level. Yay . So out of curiosity, I wanted to see what you like about it. Using this hereCourse Idea Generator found in this Reddit Post I was able to get the inspiration. You should give it a try!


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## JCnator (Feb 19, 2016)

Hippofalcon said:


> Hey, I saw you played (and starred) my 1 Screen Parkour level. Yay . So out of curiosity, I wanted to see what you like about it. Using this hereCourse Idea Generator found in this Reddit Post I was able to get the inspiration. You should give it a try!



I gave my view on the daily level sharing from /r/MarioMaker, which is quoted below:



> Well, what a challenging one-screen level we have here! Had to set my mind as a speedrunner, so I could avoid the last few Spike Tops before reaching to the door. The level's short length ensures it won't overstay its welcome for far too long, despite the level of precision and speed required to beat this one.


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## Hippofalcon (Feb 19, 2016)

Well I'm glad to see you joined the Reddit community.  Glad you liked my level! This was actually the first time I posted in the level sharing. I was surprised to see that you of all people ended up playing my level. Again, thanks!


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## Ness-Star (Feb 25, 2016)

01ED-0000-0090-A27B

First stage I ever fully finished. (Can't do anything about the green line at the bottom sadly.)


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## JCnator (Mar 2, 2016)

Ness-Star said:


> [...]
> 
> 01ED-0000-0090-A27B
> 
> First stage I ever fully finished. (Can't do anything about the green line at the bottom sadly.)



I got around and played your stage. For your very first stage, it's a solid effort. The difficulty is nicely balanced throughout the stage, despite the lack of checkpoint resulted from being a level uploaded before November 4th 2015. Though, there are some areas that might be problematic:

- In the section where players are normally suggested to enter into a pipe, they can completely skip it by using the vine early enough. Even the invisible blocks can't prevent the players from exploiting the possibly unintended shortcut.

- One of the rooms inside a train contains a pipe spawning upside down Buzzy Beetles that's too close to the end of the tight corridor. Unless that pipe is offscreen and the player quickly run and slide underneath the tight passage, the upside down Buzzy Beetle will always fall and hit Mario as soon as he gets out of the corridor. Either get rid of Buzzy Beetle or move the pipe a bit further away from the end of a tight corridor.

- The giant Magikoopa can get rid of the ? Block containing Yoshi, although it's fairly unlikely for most players, since their first instinct is to hit the block. Maybe have the Yoshi Egg outside of the block.

- In the giant Magikoopa section, getting in to the secret area and backtracking takes a long while. The player might eventually feel like they took the wrong way. A good bonus room shouldn't take too long for the player to check the room and get out of there.


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## Ness-Star (Mar 2, 2016)

Thanks! I'll definitely get around to addressing the problems and making a better stage. (I was aware of a few, like the beetles too close to the pipe entrance, but in played on for the video.)


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## lars708 (Mar 3, 2016)

Ok i have been designing a lot of levels at once since i had a TON of ideas suddenly (I didn't put all the ideas in one stage because the key is focusing on one particular theme in order for your level to be enjoyable). So expect 8 more levels from me very soon ^.^


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## JCnator (Mar 10, 2016)

Today, I just uploaded another level. And it's actually a challenging one, compared to most of my recent levels.








*Level title*: Nerves of Steel Fortress
*Level ID*: 79F7-0000-01EF-F6F7
*Game Style*: Super Mario World
*Difficulty*: Clear Rate unavailable - Likely to be Normal

*Description*: A traditional-type of level that involves sneaking past the Chain Chomps, with a quick pseudo boss at the end of the stage. There are a few Galoombas that can be grabbed and thrown if you're in mood for defeating the metallic foes. A seasoned player shouldn't take long to clear this level with ease, but it's also designed with speedrunning in mind, along with collectibles to be found. Key Coins are present, but aren't mandatory for clearing the stage.


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## Ness-Star (Mar 16, 2016)

My second stage. Give it a try/rate?

ID: 0D3E-0000-01F7-9ACA


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## AkatsukiYoshi (May 22, 2016)

It has been a while since anyone has posted here, but I'm sure some members on TBT still play Mario Maker. Here are some new levels I made:

Level title: The Mighty Octostomp (Splatoon)
Level ID: 0E2D-0000-01CB-7FA3
Gamestyle: Mario Bros.
Difficulty: Easy/Normal

Description: A recreation of the Mighty Octostomp boss fight in Splatoon. Choose as any of the Inklings or the squid and defeat the boss to save the zapfish.

Level Title: A New Super Ticket to Pain U
Level ID: 13E0-0000-022F-F6E1
Gamestyle: Super Mario World
Difficulty: Expert

Description: A collaboration level created by my sister and myself that serves as a sequel to my 1-way ticket to pain level. There are some similarities between the two levels, but there is more pain included in this level.

Level Title: The YLS Experience: EX edition
Level ID: AAEB-0000-0242-C961
Game Style: Super Mario World
Difficulty: Expert/Super Expert

Description: This level is a tribute to the Your Level Sucks series hosted by Gatorbox. The entire level is based on bad level design choices on Expert difficulty as featured on the show. (hence the EX)

- - - Post Merge - - -

It has been a while since anyone has posted here, but I'm sure some members on TBT still play Mario Maker. Here are some new levels I made:

Level title: The Mighty Octostomp (Splatoon)
Level ID: 0E2D-0000-01CB-7FA3
Gamestyle: Mario Bros.
Difficulty: Easy/Normal

Description: A recreation of the Mighty Octostomp boss fight in Splatoon. Choose as any of the Inklings or the squid and defeat the boss to save the zapfish.

Level Title: A New Super Ticket to Pain U
Level ID: 13E0-0000-022F-F6E1
Gamestyle: Super Mario World
Difficulty: Expert

Description: A collaboration level created by my sister and myself that serves as a sequel to my 1-way ticket to pain level. There are some similarities between the two levels, but there is more pain included in this level.

Level Title: The YLS Experience: EX edition
Level ID: AAEB-0000-0242-C961
Game Style: Super Mario World
Difficulty: Expert/Super Expert

Description: This level is a tribute to the Your Level Sucks series hosted by Gatorbox. The entire level is based on bad level design choices on Expert difficulty as featured on the show. (hence the EX)


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## lars708 (May 31, 2016)

Hey i am still playing Mario Maker every now and then, if you want me to play your levels please add your Mario Maker Bookmark account/profile link to a post so i can bookmark levels when i am not home, most of the time i reply here while i am travelling and i totally forget about checking levels out when i get home.

Also, here is my Super Mario Maker Bookmark profile.
Just in case anybody is interested~


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## JCnator (Jul 22, 2016)

Looks like I've got a new level that share with you guys. And here it is!






*Level Title:* Yoshi's Flutter Jump Challenge
*Level ID:* [removed]
*Game Style:* New Super Mario Bros. U
*Difficulty:* Unknown (Likely to be classified as Easy or Normal)

*Description of Gameplay Elements:* Hankering for some Flutter Jump goodness? Then this level might be your jam. In this challenging level, you'll quickly familiarize with Yoshi's Flutter Jump ability. After the first checkpoint, you'll need the 5 Key Coins from the next room. Most of which even has you hover next to them, so the green dino's tongue could reach them. Once that's done, you'll face a series of thrilling challenges that has you gobble a POW Block and spit it out to lower any red gate that appears on your screen.

And since this level is all about mastering Yoshi's hovering ability, getting off from him is not advised. I've set up a few Wiggler gates to make sure you were riding the green dino all along.

Did all of this sounded daunting to you? Don't worry! Outside of running out of time, I've ensured that losing a life won't happen in this level.


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