23 Responses to “Retrofit Contest – Week 2”

1. Jojo Says:
   February 20th, 2010 at 11:36 am

   Great submissions this week! I like the GFX from feb 16th, especially the gem by Eric F. The GFX by Tim K. are nice, but I think that the first red wall tile looks a bit too blurred or something. Can’t really explain, it just does not look good to me.
2. Amorphous Says:
   February 20th, 2010 at 4:13 pm

   Joseph S’s tileset is really close to what I imagined Jetpack 2 to look like. Love it, just use Eric F’s gems/fuel and add extra crisp to the brick walls.

   And I didn’t realize there were so many level submissions. I’ll likely send mine near the deadline, if you don’t mind. I’m proud of the ones I’ve made so far, but they’re also on the high end of the difficulty spectrum. The original Jetpack’s difficulty was fine, I was 4 or 5 when I first tried it and got through the first levels with ease. Actually, there could’ve been a higher spike in the final levels, as extra lives were plentiful and there was a save option anyway.

   I personally don’t see the need to adjust to the needs of a non-gamer audience when the people who are the most excited about Jetpack 2 find the DOS era nostalgic. But yeah, obviously the main game is always the author’s decision, and custom levels can be as hardcore as the community desires.
3. AdamDobay Says:
   February 20th, 2010 at 4:43 pm

   Yay, statistics! Seeing that you’ve reviewed so many levels Adam, I’ll stop with going through all of the levels myself, it’s really tedious. And I’ll think about easy & introductory levels. Can you tell me how hard did you find my two easy levels (A stroll in the Park and Rockfall)? Do levels need to go much much easier, or just somewhat?
   I’m playing around with this concept of introductory levels and I found myself making one entirely without threats. I had my wife test it who also never plays action/jumping games, and she found it okay to be able to practice how jumping works, how phasing works, how big a gap she can jump over, etc. Can I send this over to you, out of contest, just to see if it’s the type of thing you’re looking for?
   My problem with difficulty is, the moment I put a monster in, things get ugly. They’re just too good. I myself have never used the slowdown feature — it never helped because I needed to have the same quick skills because of the monster speeds being so close to or greater than Jetman’s, and the reduced speed also made the game boring because Jetman just lagged along. One thing that pops into my mind as a possible solution is to have the monster speed altered only during the beginning stages, or have “rookie” versions of each monster, perhaps specified with a different colour (colour-coding like in the old days’ palette swapping method), which would go slower than the normal monsters. The very first level in Jetpack is good in the sense that it has a large area for the Trackbot to cover so you can learn its patterns early on. The same goes for the little spiky thing the name of which escapes me at the moment. If you had a Trackbot running at 60-70% of its current speed, it would be much less hard for new players.

   A sidenote: Sludge pool? Wow. I always thought that was grass!

   Corner stuckage and spike collision detection fixing are great to hear. I did modify some of my submitted levels (especially one with the grey/purple block phasing/jumping around challenge) because of the Jetman’s jumping problems onto adjacent blocks.
4. Alex W. Says:
   February 20th, 2010 at 4:57 pm

   I have a few more ideas for gameplay changes:

   - A Checkpoint Flag for the longer/harder levels (a player can choose to start from the beginning or checkpoint upon death).
   - A Par Score for each level.
   - To go with that, a score bonus for trapping enemies (only applies once, or the bonus depreciates each time).
   - Trapped enemies are non-lethal.

   Anyways, I’ll be making some easy levels pretty soon.
5. Adam Says:
   February 20th, 2010 at 7:18 pm

   Adam: I found them easy, but my wife didn’t! Even easier…

   It occured to me looking at all these great tiles that there’s no reason to stick with a single visual theme – with only 10 tile swaps we could totally retheme most levels.
   So I’d like to challenge our artists to make a theme by redoing 10 tiles:
   background, ladder, brick, hard brick, stone, steel, gold brick, column, ivy, & fence

   The theme could be anything: candyland, nature, castle, etc. In the editor I’ll have an option to preview different themes. This won’t be like jswitch, the theme will stay with the level. Then in the game we can group levels by theme.
6. Daniel Kalne Says:
   February 21st, 2010 at 4:26 am

   I’m in the midst of creating a 15 pack of easy levels, about half of which have no fuel. I’m also going to include my “cream of the crop”, about 20 or 30 levels of the ~300 I’ve created that I’m extremely proud of…
   Also, I love Tim K’s gem, it’s the best one I’ve seen yet!
7. InsaneJetman Says:
   February 21st, 2010 at 8:11 pm

   I did it! I’ve played and passed every level submitted so far.

   I’ve written a bunch of feedback and suggestions for the designers but don’t know where I should put it. I’d post it here, but it’s 1600 words. I could email Adam a text file or PDF.

   Right now I just want to say that there’s some really great levels in there, and I really enjoyed playing all of them. Thanks a lot to all the people who submitted!
8. Alex W. Says:
   February 22nd, 2010 at 12:47 am

   You could post your comments here, splitting them up into multiple posts as needed.
9. InsaneJetman Says:
   February 22nd, 2010 at 6:16 am

   Some notes about what I look for in a Jetpack level:

   I like it when a level has a distinct theme such as with Alex’s ARTEE020.JET (“Thief in the Night”), Eric’s EF10 (“Box Factory”), or Juan’s WER03.JET (“Forts”). When this isn’t possible, a good overall visual style is still desirable. Some examples such levels include: Adam’s D-H-LADD.JET (“The Ladders Look Safe”), Saga Musix’s WHERE.JET (“Where Is My Breakfast”), and Juan’s WER11.JET (“Eye of the Storm”).

   I like good gameplay. A level should present an engaging challenge. The difficulty of the challenge isn’t what’s important but rather the goal oriented atmosphere it sets up. This can be achieved with a good puzzle (e.g. Ben’s RIDDLE.JET – “The Riddler Riddles Again”), an action packed environment (e.g. Juan’s WER07.JET – “Rolling Stones”), a simple grab-the-gems walk (e.g. Adam’s D-E-PARK – “A Stroll in the Park”), or any variety of other level styles.

   If a level contains both of these features, I consider to be first rate.
10. InsaneJetman Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 6:17 am

    Adam Dobay
    Your levels are great, all of them! I didn’t feel that any of the modifications you considered in your notes were necessary. I didn’t find D-M-JNGL.JET (“Jetman of the Jungle”) as engaging as the other levels. I really enjoyed D-X-ROCK.JET (“Rock the Puzzle”). Since it doesn’t use the right side of the gameplay area, I would move the whole level over to squares.

    Alex W.
    There is some good gameplay in these levels as well as a number of neat themes.
    ARTEE011.JET (“Blue Switch Paradise”): This level has a good overall theme and design.
    ARTEE020.JET (“Thief in the Night”): I really like the theme of this level. I think, however, that it might use some design tweaks.
    I think that several more of the levels could be made first-rate with some more attention.

    Arthur M.
    I didn’t like ENDSTART.JET (“The End Is Near”) – too much fuel, too many free lives, unstructured gameplay, and that spear behind the door is just wrong! COLDDAY.JET (“It Is Cold Day”), however is much better. The gameplay is decent, the structure is good, and it’s not too difficult.
11. InsaneJetman Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 6:18 am

    Ben J.
    RIDDLE.JET (“The Riddler Riddles Again”): This is quite a clever level. There are some things you might not realize:
    It is possible to get up to the moving floor platform while the green door is closed.
    It is possible to get from on top of the red doors up to the treasure.
    Also, what’s the two-square green door for?

    Ben S.
    The only level I really liked was BEN.JET (“Ben’s House!”). With the placement of a few ladders, this level actually wouldn’t require fuel (which might make things a little more interesting).

    Ben T.
    There were some decent design concepts in these levels. Most, however, seemed to lack a really cohesive structure. My favourite was:
    BNTA1.JET (“Rocket Chamber”): All those flitzers are annoying, consider replacing at least some of them with spinners. Also, round out some of those sharp corners.
    The labyrinth style levels have a good sense of flow to them:
    BNTA8.JET (“Silver Labyrinth”): I’d switch change all the corners so that they’re rounded. You spelled ‘Labyrinth’ wrong.
    BNTA10.JET (“Golden Labyrinth”): No suggestions (except the spelling again), it’s good.
    BNTA23.JET (“The Maze”): I would place instead, four half tanks of fuel on the starting platform.
12. InsaneJetman Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 6:19 am

    Eric Frederick
    For the most part, I liked all of your levels. I would suggest a few minor (mostly aesthetic) changes in several places. I also played around with an overhaul for E4 (“No Jetpack”). Parts of some of the levels felt like they were there just to take up space, e.g. the bottom-left corner of E3 (“Start Racing for Your Life”). I really liked the theme of EF10 (“Box Factory”). EROCKET (“Blast Off!”) is clever.

    Jason W.
    PIT.JET (“Pitstop”): Not a bad level. None of the challenges were particularly exciting, and the big open space beside the starting point leaves something to be desired. However, the level does have a logical structure and appealing design.
13. InsaneJetman Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 6:19 am

    Joe C.
    Some of your levels are better than others. The following are the ones I liked best:
    CAVERN.JET (“Can You Get to the End?”): The gameplay on this level is excellent. Aesthetically, I think it could use some improvement. I’m not sure about all the fake tiles.
    JUMPIN.JET (“Jump Over The Chasm!”): I like this level, but there’s a problem with it. The player can finish it by using only the green switch. To solve this, swap the blue and green barriers that lead to the fuel (not the ones between the green gems).
    LEVEL.JET (how does “Palace Garden” sound?): Some might find this one a little simplistic, but personally I like it. I would widen the structure above the door to the left so that it’s even. I also played around with shifting things at the bottom, but the change was more-or-less cosmetic.
    OUTOFGAS.JET (“The Leap of Faith!”): This is a difficult but good level. As such, your traps are overkill. Therefore, I’d remove the false floor tile and move the door one square to the right. I also played around with the aesthetics on the left to get what I thought were some improvements.
    SHRINE.JET (“Can You Survive?”): Nice level, good design, good gameplay. Fuel is kind of tight, but personally I think that’s a good thing.
    TUNNEL.JET (“Traverse the Cavern!”): I like the concept of this level. I suspect there may be some situations, depending which way the spikes go at the start, when this level is impossible. I would round out the corners for a slightly smoother feel to the level.
    Honourable Mentions: THEMINES.JET, THERUN.JET
    BTW, I think there’s an impossible jump in TOWER.JET.
14. InsaneJetman Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 6:20 am

    Joe S.
    I like this fairly straight forward set of levels. They’re all fairly well designed. My first picks here would be VENTUZ01.JET (“Switch Order Matters”) and VENTUZ06.JET (“You Need Jet Pack Here”).

    Jonas R.
    Woah! These levels of yours are great! There’s a problem with WER06.JET (“Detour”) in that it is possible to phase the brick up-right of the green gem and hence jump back up to the teleport and bypass the entire level.

    Juan G.
    These levels aren’t too bad. Probably the best one is WASTSTUN.JET (“Don’t Waste the Stunners”). JUSTONE.JET (“Just One Diamond”) is also a decent overall level. There are lots more good ideas contained in the other levels as well.
    Honourable Mentions: BALLRAIN.JET (“Ball Rain”), BIGLADDR.JET (“The Big Ladder”), JPTETRIS.JET (“Jetpack Tetris”), SAVEFUEL.JET (“Save Fuel!”), TOOSPIKE.JET (“Too Many Spikes”)
15. InsaneJetman Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 6:21 am

    Nick R.
    RAIN2.JET (“Avalanche”) is a pretty cool level. It’s great for honing those jetpack skills.

    Saga Musix
    Some of these levels were great, others I didn’t find quite as appealing. The good ones were:
    THEPARTS.JET (“Many Parts in One Level”): This is a good challenging level. What’s with the stuff behind the door, I’m sure it makes the level impossible. Get rid of it (coins too) and you got yourself one good level.
    TOUGHHUN.JET (“The Hunt / Tough Version”): This is a toughie, but when I slowed it right down I was able to manage. If you think it’s too hard, just remove some robots.
    WHERE.JET (“Where Is My Breakfast”): This is a well designed level, and it’s not too difficult either. I’d get rid of the spikes on the side of the platform above the starting point.
16. InsaneJetman Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 6:21 am

    Sebastian M.
    This is a good set of well thought out levels.
    GOLDFACT.JET: A nice level with a good concept. For use in an actual Jetpack game, there’s too many free lives. One could simply collect a bunch, suicide, repeat for essentially infinite lives. Are you sure you want one missile going backwards?
    HARDONE.JET: A devilishly well constructed puzzle.
    There is one thing I wonder about and that is the green barrier to the left of the yellow teleport. It makes the jump from the green barrier below it to the one to the left a jump which, try as I might, I cannot get with any kind of consistency. I suspect that the barrier is there for the player who has phased out both boxes immediately up-left of it can still make it to the yellow teleport while the green switch is on. However, since it is unnecessary to phase both, this isn’t strictly necessary. I recommend removing this barrier.
    HARDONE2.JET: This an reasonable obstacle course.
    SPIKY1.JET: A good level with a neat design which isn’t too difficult (for those who can handle a jetpack).
    SWITCHES.JET: A nifty puzzle with more than one solution which doesn’t punish mistakes too harshly.
    TRAPS.JET: A straightforward set of challenges forming a reasonable level.
    TRICKY.JET: Yet another quality obstacle course.
17. InsaneJetman Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 6:21 am

    SN
    The ‘easy’ levels are just what one would hope: a set of decent easy levels. My personal favourite is EASY1.JET (“We Get Signal”).
    The ‘hard’ levels demonstrate some precision design. They are also infuriatingly difficult. HARD8.JET (“Go With the Flow”) is perhaps the best overall of the hard ones. I also like the concept of HARD7.JET (“Fuel Conduit – Be Advised”).
18. Jojo Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 6:50 am

    “What’s with the stuff behind the door, I’m sure it makes the level impossible.” – It actually works very well. But yeah, maybe they should be removed in the final version, I dunno.
19. InsaneJetman Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 7:47 am

    Really? Well I’ve tried every trick I know to no avail, and I know a lot of tricks including the fact that only your body needs to make it to the finish line. The only way I can see it working is waiting around for a shield to appear.

    Anyway, I see there’s a bunch more levels for me to try so …
20. Denilson Figueiredo de Sá Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 8:25 am

    Joseph S. tiles look great, but somehow I feel that Tim K. tiles look a bit more high-def. But it’s still hard to compare them.

    I see that Joseph S. tiles used different colors for double and single fuel tanks. Please, DON’T do that. Different colors will mean “different effects” for the player, but that’s not the case here. Thus, it’s better that all fuel tanks look the same, otherwise the player will be confused. (I like the one with a red strip)
21. AdamDobay Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 12:48 pm

    Hey InsaneJetman, thanks for the feedback! I did move the Rock the Puzzle level two blocks to the right, added some extra symmetry and it looks wonderful now, much better than before. Thanks! Also, I agree that the Jungle level is the least good in the pack.
22. InsaneJetman Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 1:42 pm

    New level updates:

    Alex W. has really outdone himself with a couple of his latest levels: ARTEE025.JET (“Locked In”) and ARTEE026.JET (“The Funnel”).

    Joe C.’s update to JUMPIN.JET (“Jump Over The Chasm!”) still hasn’t fixed the problem. The fix is still to swap the blue and green barriers (except for the one you’ve already swapped) that lead to the fuel (not the ones between the green gems).

    The latest submissions from Joe S. all are excellent introductory levels – just what the doctor ordered. I’m afraid that the bonus level VENTUZBL.JET (“Risk for Big Fat Golds!!!”) might be a little too lucrative. I had 10 new lives by the end!

    Saga Musix’s new CRATES.JET (“Crates Exist for a Reason”) is another good introductory level.

    Tim Bell has contributed a set of fairly uncomplicated set of levels. Some of the switch control systems they have are neat.

    Eric F. has contributed a straightforward beginner level – EFE1.JET (“Learning the Basics”).

    Juan G.’s second set of submissions has got some great introductory levels along with some other intriguing challenges. TRAPS.JET (“Traps”) and GO!.JET (“Three, Two, One… Go!”) are my favourites from this set. And I definitely remember playing Jumpman, that was a long time ago, nice idea.
23. Amorphous Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 2:07 pm

    Nice, someone really took their time going through the submissions. Brings back memories of how I once rated and reviewed every level pack I’d played.

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