Room of the Week 2011 - Archives

[Lunaria]

Both are pretty terrible.

Mon´s room is terrible bland, boring, and frankly a waste of time for the player.

FoF´s room is shitty by graphics. While I think the imported graphics look great, and the background is rather sexy, there is simply too much wrong with it. There are cut off tiles, which is okay since this is a rip and I know megaman games have rather weird tile layout, but that's for the rip itself, this is clearly not RotW material. Next there is a cut on all of the tress, which looks unusual, and frankly, rather bad. There is also the nagging lack of a slope to ground progression, naturally, this could be by design from the tileset itself, but it looks bad stacked on top of the filler tiles regardless.


Who do I vote for? Neither, none of them should win this with room like these IMO.

[A_red_monk_called_Key]

fulloffail the megaman graphics look awesome as always in an SM hack.

crys if you posted in ROTW then you could have proved

Both are pretty terrible.

...but no

[FullOfFail]

Crys is right on some accounts. The tree was chopped in half when I ripped it (might've been unavoidable) so I had to improvise. I disagree with the both rooms are terrible comment, though. I don't mind the negative reviews myself, but I think MoN just started hacking SM and that kind of counter-productive feedback could be discouraging. Atleast be constructive.

[Power Missile]

Mon732, unfortunately I will have to agree with the rest of the general consensus in that your room is very bland in the fact that all it is is just a copy and paste job.  Nothing new or unique about your room, and as Crys said, boring and a waste of time.  I will tell you that I'm guilty of doing this to some of my rooms, so don't feel alone.  Just keep working on the rooms and do your best to produce something unique, not necessarily to the likes of DMantra, but something that will catch the player's eye.

FullofFail, in my opinion, this is a good rip of tiles, as always.  I can't say any more than that.

So, of course, my vote goes to FoF.

[Katelyn]

My problem with Mon732's room could be said by doing little more than copying every else's opinion on it, so why should I waste your time making you read it again?

FullofFail's room, as sexy as the tiles look by themselves, some don't flow very well. The filler times look really repeated, and I know they're just filler, but can you have a little variety? And then the slopes are a major annoyance to me, but you've already been told that. Also, the room is rather boring you get a 0/10 because I hate you forever for lacking detail and bland. I mean, yes, the BG looks fantastic...anything else to add to the room? No. It just looks like a room to test the graphics out.

[FullOfFail]

As much as I'd like to add to it, the tree alone took up half of the tileset. I agree with most of these criticisms, but there's certain things I can't really do much about. Megaman X has a slightly different perspective, and sometimes I have to cut things off. In any event, it's only for two simple rooms in the hack, so your boredom shouldn't last long ingame.

[Mon732]

Thanks for the crisisism guys, room design is my weaker area so this is invaluable.
I've been working on the room and will post an improved version at the weekend.

[Mon732]

Ok here's my second attempt, I hope it's better than the last.
[spoiler=Entry][/spoiler]

[silverpaw84]

@Mon732, just a few tips I would like to give you for future reference:

1. Vertical rooms are hard enough as it is to make appealing, much less RotW material. I would suggest you try a 2x1 or 2x2 room. Definitely do not keep trying to use a vertical room that tall, either.

2. When you edit a room in 32x32 tile size, it records it that size, which is why your picture is so big. SAVE what you did, then reduce the tile size back to 16x16. It just makes it more appealing, especially, again, for rooms that tall.

3. "mastering" or even getting decently good with any tileset takes practice, and it takes a lot of tweaking and looking at details. For RotW, people will notice even the smallest things. Some tiles I saw that didn't match up included: Purple platforms at the bottom next to mushroom cut off, pipes next to the top door went from the "tourian" look to the "corroded tourian" look, and the pipes that overlap actually don't look that bad, but some people are very anal about the pixels not lining up, in which they dont. Also the pipe connecting to the mushroom, although it doesn't look half bad, really looks out of place.

4. For vertical rooms especially,  lack of any angles is extremely bad. If this room was in-game, Samus would have to walljump up for, what is that, 8 screens? That's one hell of a walljump. Putting in some platforms, obstacles, etc. would really spice the room up

5. The foreground detail is bad. I don't say that to be mean, you said yourself you lack in the level designing, and I said before that getting good with using the tileset takes time. I recommend starting off with a smaller room, maybe one that was in the original game, and working off of it to better get the hang of editing. It is a long road, and takes a LOT of practice. Stick around the RotW, browse the archives, and see what works for others. I found a lot of cool ideas that way, and on top of playing the Metroid series quite a bit (as well as other games, oddly) got some new ideas for when I had "hacker's block". Also play the hacks, some of them are quite good.

Good luck in your hacking!

[Mon732]

Thanks, silverpaw84!

1. I'll try a smaller room.

2. I hadn't realised that the picture was that big, I'll make it smaller next time.

3. Thanks for the feedback, most of that I hadn't noticed.

the pipes that overlap actually don't look that bad, but some people are very anal about the pixels not lining up, in which they dont.

Do you mean the gap where the vertical pipes overlap the horizontal ones? If so I'm sure adding a tile to the tileset would resolve that.

4. Yeh, the player is meant to have space jump by then but even with the changes I made to it (spacejump) I see the player getting very sore thumbs.

5. I'll take that on board. I have a variety of video games so that, and browsing the archives, shouldn't do any harm.

[herald83]

Here's a little something I've been working on.  The room itself has no purpose beyond showcasing the tileset, so no raging about level design fail.  It's still a WIP, but I thought I could use some comments on it.  Also, no more subs for this week??

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Scyzer]

They are the sexiest doors I have ever seen.
Looks like the weapon needed to open them is decided by the color of the little glowy parts in the middle, which is a great idea.

This room gets my vote solely because of the doors. That is all.

[ProjectXVIII]

Last minute post?

[spoiler]

Last minute post.[/spoiler]

[Power Missile]

Herald83:
[spoiler]
I'm not fond of that olive drab-like color on your tileset.

But damn, I learned something from your picture today:
SM, MF, and ZM doors having a three-way with each other can produce great results.  Your doors simply kick ass.  The rest of the tileset is badass as well.  Just that olive-drab color is somewhat bugging me.
[/spoiler]

Project18:
[spoiler]
I made it clear that your rooms were awesome.  That said, as much as I also love this room, it's not one of your best.  Still, because of your submission, I'm teetering between this room and herald83's room.
[/spoiler]

Mon732:
[spoiler]I have to say that at least you made the room a little more unique and not cut and paste, however, IMHO, I still find the room boring and uninteresting.  I hope you have some FX1 planned for that room should you put something of that nature in your hack.[/spoiler]

When voting comes, I'll make my decision and edit this post.

[herald83]

PM's post already got archived but w/e.

I'm not fond of that olive drab-like color on your tileset.

But damn, I learned something from your picture today:
SM, MF, and ZM doors having a three-way with each other can produce great results.  Your doors simply kick ass.  The rest of the tileset is badass as well.  Just that olive-drab color is somewhat bugging me.

Thanks!  I swiped the bubbles from SZM, obviously, but getting the tubes to look right took me a while.  I'm still pretty new to making gfx, so I've been pulling inspiration from a wide variety of sources.

The palette is very much a work in progress.  Once I get the tiles where I want them I'll spend more time playing with it and will post a much better looking room.

[Power Missile]

I don't post often, so I assumed the posts were going to be transferred here, not archived.  Ah well, gotta read more.  Anyway, I've taken the liberty of copying my remaining two opinions of the last two submissions, since herald83 already posted mine.

Project18:
[spoiler]
I made it clear that your rooms were awesome.  That said, as much as I also love this room, it's not one of your best.  Still, because of your submission, I'm teetering between this room and herald83's room.
[/spoiler]

Mon732:
[spoiler]
I have to say that at least you made the room a little more unique and not cut and paste, however, IMHO, I still find the room boring and uninteresting.  I hope you have some FX1 planned for that room should you put something of that nature in your hack.
[/spoiler]

My vote goes to:
[spoiler]
Herald83.  Awesome work!  As much as I love P18's work as well, his is something that I've seen before.  I suppose I'm a sucker for new content, GFX or ASM.  Nevertheless, that's pretty good if you're still new to making GFX (though I don't know one thing about importing tiles from other games).  I already praised you for the doors, but I think there's potential to make them even better.  I look forward to more content from you. :grin:[/spoiler]

[Qactis]

ProjectXVIII's room serves its purpose I guess, no criticism there.
Mon: If you're making a room that is only 1 scroll wide you need to add some variety to the walls. Put some breaks in the walls of the shaft, have ledges that unexpectedly jut out and platforms that hang down with enemies that try to attavk you when you navigate them. Looking up a shaft and seeing a straight vertical wall is what makes this room so damn boring.
Herald: Looks like your set is coming along nicely. I like the way the tiles look like there are many bars attached to the walls and travel in different directions. Agreed the palette is booty (the current palette on my first set is probably the 7th or 8th try). You also could use a LOT more variation on the walls and filler tiles, you need stuff hanging off the walls; ladders, vents, glowing lights, screens, levers, knobs, pipes, etc. Lastly get working on that BG!

[Mon732]

Put some breaks in the walls of the shaft

The reason why the walls are so flat is because of the wall clinging space pirates in that room. It looks odd seeing a space pirate with half its body in the air. Though I will add more platforms to stop the players' thumb from aching.

have ledges that unexpectedly jut out and platforms that hang down with enemies that try to attavk you when you navigate them.

Hmm, nice idea. I shall try that.

I hope you have some FX1 planned for that room should you put something of that nature in your hack.

I hadn't considered FX1, I think I actually replaced the FX1 pointer for that room but I'll find another one and try it out.

[ProjectXVIII]

Woo, roomless weeks.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[herald83]

Derp.  Something old I've had laying around.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Qactis]

Only gripe with either room is the brightest color on Herald's CRE palette. It's too white, if everything else is dark, make it only 2 or 3 bits higher and you'll be fine. The white is just too clashy

[Scyzer]

Toooooob!

And a SMILE shot because it's required:

[Quietus]

Project for me.  I likes me some saturated colours, as long as they're done sensibly.  I also like the simplistic room style.  When it's done right, it's just as good as the eye-sex rooms.

[ProjectXVIII]

Rooms.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[herald83]

I got nothing this week.  Holiday with the in-laws and all...