Porcelain Dreams
As the video shows, the main gimmick is faucet handles attached to thin air ( or thin water ) that raise or lower the water to their level — a blatant ripoff from Super Mario 64.
I’ve actually been working on this level for a while. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in earlier updates, might’ve shown screenshots, & you would’ve seen the unfinished level if you looked @ the source code or paid attention during level select screens.
The problem I’ve had with this level was that I just felt like ’twas too small, too insignificant. Originally there were no enemies & it took ’bout 15 seconds to beat. You just hit a handle to move the water up so you could jump up some place, go down, get to the end so you can raise the water higher, & then reach the goal. For a while, I did have 2 enemies round where the eels are, but they were awkward spikes that jutted out & in & were impossible to dodge consistency due to their dicey hitboxes. The eels mostly fix that — their hitboxes can be questionable, but they leave a wider gap ’tween their runs through the pipes, so you’ll probably only hit them if you’re rushing & mismeasure them by a few pixels, rather than trying to guess which milliseconds in the spikes’ second-long pattern count as harmful or not.
Actually, I should admit that the video isn’t accurate to the current version o’ the level. If you pay attention you’ll note a subtle graphical glitch: sometimes the eels go past the end o’ pipes, popping back out. I fixed that by lengthening those pipe ends, but after I’d already recorded the video & o’errode the save. It’s probably better this way, since it saves evidence for the original flaw.
The future
I’m currently working on ’nother sewer level with 2 gimmicks: being able to warp to the other side o’ the screen from the sides, like Mario Bros., & constantly-rising water that you need to keep ’head o’ to avoid drowning. I’ve also been trying to draw graphics for a train level that’ll probably be the 2nd-cycle desert level. My planned gimmick for that level would be to make Autumn be able to shoot enemies & to have a bunch o’ enemies shooting @ you, forcing you to hide ’hind crates. Just thinking ’bout all that I’ll need to finish that level, I can already tell that it’ll take a’least a month.
I had the idea to have a space world, but that would require reorganizing the map, so I don’t know. Also, transitioning from sky to space to ice may be awkward. Plus, it may not be that creative an idea.
