Ossu! Friday's come around again, and we've got another episode coming up hot and fresh!

https://youtu.be/s_5N8Tf45VQ

This week, we're having a look at:

DaVinci's Flash Platformer - Dany88games (currently down)
Caverna - Thiag0_Neves3000
*Star Travel* - Hana-Momo-Nao
Rainy Tower - justjar95
sand splash! - Daemalous

It's an interesting set of levels, though for some reason DaVinci's Flash Platformer isn't up anymore, with luck it'll be back sometime soon. i hope you find something here you might find fun. Thanks as always for the support, and i hope you have a great day!

Behind the Curtains Stuffs
So...i made that off-hand remark last week about how it wouldn't be all that hard to kit up a top down sackthing for a level. Of course, i'd never actually done that myself, so i thought, "hey, why not try that out for the hub?" i'm...not going to do that again. The scakthings themselves weren't so hard on the basic level, i just modified Danx87's recipe a little. But getting the animators to work consistently on them was not easy at all. Sometimes their facing would be what i needed, other times they'd suddenly just flop down on their sides (or at least, it looked like that from the perspective of the camera). In the end i just settled for look-at rotators and called it a day. The real issue i had, though, was for some reason building from the top down, and moving the camera to see place things was starting to make me feel a bit sick. Big props to folks who use the style frequently, because i just don't think i could do it.

When i was a kid, i used to watch a lot of wrestling. This was back in the heyday of the 80's when most every heel was some kind of really bad ethnic stereotype. i think i started to tap out around the time of the first Iraq War, Sgt. Slaughter turning evil and teaming up with some faux-Iraqi soldiers while we were firing rockets at Baghdad. Even at 12yrs old, that felt pretty wrong.
i suppose "heel-in-the-ring, nice-guy-outside" is probably a cliche, but i have to imagine Wolfram and Tommy Tungsten are pretty decent people. i bet they visit hospitals to cheer up sick kids.

i've been feeling, i don't know, down-ish recently. Given which, getting the Neir Automata soundtrack was probably not my best decision, timing-wise. It's like pure, concentrated melancholy. Still, it's so good.

Great episode, waffleking! It was a neat set of levels!

Ossu! Tuesday Takeaway Time!

DaVinci's Flash Platformer - Dany88games
Another one that's been abruptly pulled. Still not up as of yet.

Caverna - Thiag0_Neves3000
Not much changed this go about, though the grabble ground seemed to stand out a little be more this time. It didn't really cause any trouble, but it was a touch annoying. Still found myself charmed by the simple, old-school feel to the level. Never quite figured out what the thing with the wall jump section was, but i'm certain it was some kind of given ability. Was pretty awkward, though.

*Star Travel* - Hanna-momo-nao
Eeeeh... as a short, cool-down level it's fine, but it's pretty thin; and the presentation is on the cludgy side. It's not bad, it certainly has its charm. That being said, it's not the best to come out of the Jside. Then again, it's not the worst. That would be hello....

Rainy Tower - justjar95
This one just hit all of my "like me, like me!" buttons so hard. Simple, straightforward cardboard presentation that makes clear expected gameplay? Check. Interactive mechanical elements? Check. Challenging, but also fair? Check. If a level's going for gameplay over environment, this is an almost textbook example in my book. For some reason the bounce pad section i pointed out in the episode as being really hard, this time i cleared it in one go. Now, the cannon bit before that? Probably a billion lives spent there.

sand splash! - Daemalous
We've all made a level like this one, whether it got published or not. i should have just put an overlay over this section of the episode saying "This will be your first level. Get it out of the way, and learn what doesn't really work."

So, that's the that. Hope you found something you wanted to play in this set. If you've only got the time for one, i'd give it to Rainy Tower myself.

Behind the Curtains Stuffs
Yes, yes, i slept in this morning. Again. Freaking Tuedays. It doesn't much help that i don't get home until 11ish on Mondays nowadays.
So...one of the levels i'll be looking at...umm...in this Friday's episode (having two on the dock can make it difficult to remember which levels are in which, especially when you're looking at last week's episode's levels at the same time) got picked up for LotD. It's kind of teeth-gnashing. Especially because, *Spoilers* it's not like, particularly great?
At some point shortly after LBP1's release, i completely forgot that reviews/comments on my levels might be an actual thing. So, i just stopped looking at them. Oops. There are like 9yrs worth of comments that i really would have been better up following up on at the time. Kind of bummed that i missed that opportunity.