Room of the Month - December 2015

[Vismund Cygnus]

Getting in early on my own competition. This is from my unreleased and probably never to be released ANTI hack. It was almost entirely vanilla, with some palette trickery as seen in my Crateria entry that other time.
[spoiler=I need sanctuary in the pages of this book]

[/spoiler]

[X-tradyte]

I came to crush Vismund.

[spoiler=Let the colors begin][/spoiler]

[Quietus]

The background looks a bit wacky with the colours and heights changing, but I actually quite like the rest. :^_^:

[Jiffy]

I came to crush the crushment.

I'd do some more, but I gotta watch Anime and work, of course.

[snarfblam]

If you gave what looks like a derelict vertical shaft a little more love (and maybe the rest of the room a background), I think that room would look pretty sweet.

[Tarince]

Hey. So, I am still kinda newish to this whole thing, even to the point where I didn't know how to post the screenshot of the room without posting a link. Shoutout to Grime for telling me how to do that. I really like this room. It may not be the complete masterpieces that some of these people make, but I at least wanted to include what I had. If I don't win, it's all good. Never hurts to try though.

Edit: Revised the room a little. Took out those boring spots and fixed those pesky copy/paste spots. Might have missed some stuff.

Current Room:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

How the room looked before:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Quietus]

You've got a lot of places that stand out as copy / paste, which you can avoid to some degree by flipping tiles for variation. It doesn't require any technical wizardry, and can easily make a big difference. :^_^:

[Tarince]

You've got a lot of places that stand out as copy / paste, which you can avoid to some degree by flipping tiles for variation. It doesn't require any technical wizardry, and can easily make a big difference. :^_^:

Yeah, I revised my last post. I am still working on it. I may even change the entire layout as it is, but I haven't fully decided yet. I still have not a clue how I am setting up Crateria, but I think I am going to sit and have some real nigganinja thinking time about it.

[MetroidMst]

I love using that tileset, and I see bubbles! Tarince going to wipe the floor with the other plebian's slopfests soon.

[Vismund Cygnus]

I had it pointed out to me the other day that my room looks really similar to a room that won way back in 2010.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

So in the interest of entering something more Vismund-y, have Sunshine.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Digital_Mantra]

[spoiler][/spoiler]

That right side bg of the cave walls leading to the bubbles is so lush! Gives that 2d appearance of depth, room is so much bigger now.

[Vismund Cygnus]

[spoiler][/spoiler]

That right side bg of the cave walls leading to the bubbles is so lush! Gives that 2d appearance of depth, room is so much bigger now.

Thanks! At first I overworked it, so I ended up toning it right down and I think it came out alright; Norfair backgrounds are one of my weakest points imo, so it's nice to hear that the great DMantra himself thinks it looks decent.  :^_^:

[Tarince]

So, I decided to add just one more room to this thread. The last room I added is no longer my entry.
Forgot to take out scroll areas, so I am revising this.

Room:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Vismund Cygnus]

Gohan made a room, and evidently it was better than MetroidMst's conglomeration of puke colours, because he won in a landslide victory:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

This week, we double the competition:
[spoiler=Gohan][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Jefe962][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Vismund Cygnus][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Tarince][/spoiler]

The brave Knight Sir Gohan is the defending champion, but can he hope to defend the title?
Baron Jefe962 is a veteran and winner of multiple Room of the Weeks, but can he claim his first Room of the Month victory?
Young Squire Tarince may be a newcomer, but will his prowess allow him to dominate the competition?
Or will I, your great and powerful leader Lord Vismund of Cygnus XIV, claim victory over the lesser peoples?

Only you can decide, Metconst! LET THE VOTING COMMENCE!



Meanwhile, if you wish to be the first of the best of 2016, then DO YOUR WORST BEST AND SUBMIT IT HERE!

Good luck competitors, and happy hacking Metroid Construction!
(It sometimes helps when I add a poll)

[Quietus]

Going with Gohan this month, as I lurve me some vibrant colours. :^_^:

[Black Falcon]

[spoiler=Gohan]
While this is a solid room using vanilla tilesets, I'm not a fan of the palette and background design.
To me it looks like a weird puzzle with the parts being everywhere. The vivid colors of each background add to this effect and thus it appears like an awkward mesh of all kinds of things.
It makes hard to distinguish the individual layers and IMO ruins the sense of depth.

On the contrary the foreground design is quite good and while busy not too crazy.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Jefe]
The tiling at the door section on the bottom right hand corner looks a bit odd (those grid shaped blocks in front of the doors look misplaced, but that's just me).
Other than that I do like the detailed foreground using an interesting mix of the crateria and old tourian cave tilesets
Tough IMO this room would greatly benefit of having a background of some sort.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Vismund]
First thing that came to mind when looking at this room was Eris, which is not a bad thing.
A solid vanilla Norfair room with an interesting palette design.
What I like about this room is the smooth and seamless foreground design, giving you the oppertunity to charge up speedbooster.
The bubbles being held up by the stone structures is a nice touch as well as the interesting background design on the right hand side.
While there's nothing too fancy going on, this room does nothing wrong either.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
Personally I've never really been a fan of those kind of tilesets because they clashes too much with the usual Super Metroid artstyle, but that's just me.
Also I recommend adjusting the background brightness a bit, as some foreground tiles are sharing the same kind of grey, which makes it look a bit odd.

What I like however is how you managed to break up the walls and floors by adding a few slopes and corners, it greatly adds to the room, making it more interesting and less bland.
Only thing it would need are some more colors IMO, even if just a slight hue, as I'm not a fan of monotone palettes either.
Otherwise a nice and solid room.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Vote]Ultimately voted for Vismund, though none of the rooms were bad in particular. :^_^: [/spoiler]

[passarbye]

[spoiler=Gohan] holy shit how much saturation do you need? it's a great room, but the palette just ruins it for me.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Jefe] I like the room (2nd place for me), but you have so much space in the middle and didn't bother to even use it. Lack of color variation also didn't help.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Vismund]love this room, nice design and it looks very easy to traverse while being aesthetically pleasing. I only wish the rocks were less saturated than the bubbles, i think it would help with creating a focal point towards the bubbles. still a great palette (and room) though.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Tarince]never did care for this tileset, and the fact that you really didn't change the palette makes it just seem like a lazy attempt. it also just looks like a generic L shaped hall to me. nothing really special, but nothing really bad about it.[/spoiler]

Vote goes to Vismund, nicely done everyone.

[SpoOkyMagician]

@Gogan:

[spoiler]
Pretty good room. I am a bit put off by the colors but, otherwise, it's good. Good use of depth, design, etc.
[/spoiler]

@Jefe:

[spoiler]
Pretty good room as well. I feel like it could use more depth use but, then again, if your intent was a dark room, it looks good. I cannot really say unless I saw it in game though. Overall, really good design, depth, etc. I did notice one possible flaw. Bottom left door seems to be missing a tile with the background cavern near the door. Could be an oversight but, whatever.
[/spoiler]

@Vismund:

[spoiler]
Very good room. I still question the color choice but, for all I know, that could be the theme or whatever. Anyway, design/depth wise is perfection. This looks/feels like a Metroid room. (besides the color of course but, that is irreverent.)
[/spoiler]

@Tarince:

[spoiler]
Good room design. I like the simplicity of the room. The only thing that really bugs me is the background/depth tiling. I feel like it could have been better. I don't know if you were limited to a background tileset or what but, I think it could of been improved slightly. I do like the metallic tile set though.
[/spoiler]

@Vote:

[spoiler]
Tough call honestly but, I have to go with my gut feeling on this and vote Vismund. Good job/Congratulations.
[/spoiler]

[Tarince]

Thanks for the feedback so far! I think my main goal, and my biggest goal at that, is to solely get feedback on my level designs as a whole. It helps me grow as a hacker and get the creative juices flowing a lot more. I will definitely be tweaking these tilesets a little to make them look better. I might even work on the background(s) a little more and change the overall design of the room(s). If anyone has any other suggestions, I am more than happy to listen.