Warning: This will be a pure ranting thread. So always keep in mind that all this is coming from a frustrated player, who cannot even recognize the clearest designs and has no freaking clue how hard it actually is to come up with proper sprites.So if I rant about your amazing new style here, please keep in mind:
- This is just the opinion of a single misguided human being, not necessarily the view of the majority of the players or even absolute truth.
- Whatever I criticize, I am sure that - at least partially - I am at fault as well.
- Nothing here is meant as a personal attack on you.
- I will try to spread my wrath evenly between all style designers, so you won't be alone
- and you can always improve your style
Today's victim: The city style
Background OBJECTSThe style still doesn't use background images, but honest background objects! The attached image was taken with "disabled backgrounds" in effect - notice how very well this setting works? So there is simply no way to escape the madness of the distracting background. NO WAY AT ALL, because even the clear-physics mode keeps these background objects!
Only redeeming factor: It isn't a movable background...
Where are my hatches?Easy test questions: How many hatches has the attached level?
FOUR hatches: Top left, bottom left, top right and... bottom right!
Hatches at the very top or at the very bottom of the screen are pretty well visible. But the farther they wander towards the middle of the level, the harder seeing them becomes. To the point of almost vanishing in the very center.
(In)visible updraftsOk, to be fair: With the constant animations of updrafts, it is easier to see them in the actual level than in the screenshot. But given the information that the attached level does contain updrafts, can you find them? Another of these typical cases of background-screws-you...
One-way-walls a.k.a. the laser trapLook at the black circle at the bottom right or at the right half of the zoomed image. It has only two frames, which swap the yellow and the red pixels. This reminds me very strongly of... laser and fire traps! Reddish-yellowish theme - check. Flickering instead of linear movement or waves - check. But wait: Why does this "trap" appear only on terrain? If it would have been a fishthekiller-level, then this only-on-terrain trap wouldn't be suspicious at all. But the designers of this level actually care about the user, so it probably is something else. Perhaps a one-way-wall?
But this only leads us to the next question: Does the one-way-wall face right or left? Or down? Or up? Or does it change its direction each frame? I have literally NO clue.
The signpost - finally a honest one-way-wall?After successfully identifying the one-way-wall at the bottom right, it is time to consider the signpost: You can see it in the second black circle or in the left half of the zoomed image. One would probably think: Finally a terrain piece that hints at the direction of the one-way-wall placed on it. Unfortunaly this only holds true if the level designer was nice. There are two pitfalls here:
1) Signposts and one-way-walls are two different pieces. So there is no guarantee at all that the direction of the signpost has anything to do with the direction of the one-way-wall.
2) There is an object that combines both the signpost and the one-way-wall. There is not a single pixel difference! But of course none of the pixels are solid now. And it gets even better: This object is not - I repeat
NOT - a one-way-wall at all!!! Ok, perhaps it is a force field then? "One-way-wall minus terrain equals force field" makes kind of sense, no? Wrong again: This f***ing piece has, believe it or not,
NO effect at all!
Dear city style designer: What did you smoke when you created these one-way-walls and signposts?