I don't know about you, but my favorite games have always been the ones where you can create your own levels. Those are the games I think have the most replay value. Whether it be SHIFT 4, Crush the Castle 2 Players Pack, Spewer, any of the other level editor games AG has to offer, or any game at all with a level editor, I'll play, I'll build, I'll conquer.
Level editor games are the reason I became interested in flash games, and the only ones I still play. They have unfortunately declined in popularity over the past few years, and new ones rarely surface, so it's up to the small minority of people who still enjoy them to keep them alive.
Am I the only one who loves building custom levels in games? I'm pretty sure I'm not. Who else is out there?
We could hypothetically create an editorial that links to a bunch of levels and call it a "Level Pack". I'd be up for creating the page if you guys want to figure out the criteria and how to choose the maps. It does sound like a fun bit of content.
When it comes to coding a level pack though, I think we're pretty dead in the water at this point. :S
@Ferret For the criteria, they should be gamer levels rather than purely aesthetic ones, almost none of them should use the big rock or the portal, at least half of them should be multi-shot rather than single-shot, and none of them should shift to the point where they collapse. Past contest entries will be easy to use because they are all in one place and not spread out over 2,000 pages, but any castle that fits the original criteria should be welcome.
There are 63 castles in CTC2PP campaign mode. Should we aim for that high a number? It would allow for the works of many different builders to be included, but it would take longer to gather the castles. However, I am willing to collect them all once the criteria is finalized, and I will even arrange them in order of difficulty. I will need some help finding older levels since I have not been building or crushing as long as some of the veterans, so if @Ernie15, @CourtJester, @SSTG, @DeathstormKnight, @FishPreferred, or anyone who has years of experience with this game can point me towards some of your older works that you think fit the criteria and should be included in a level pack, I would greatly appreciate that.
We could hypothetically create an editorial that links to a bunch of levels and call it a "Level Pack".
Would it be possible to award something to users who have completed every level with a gold medal? Otherwise the only people who would take it seriously would be the people whose levels are in it.
There are 63 castles in CTC2PP campaign mode. Should we aim for that high a number? It would allow for the works of many different builders to be included, but it would take longer to gather the castles.
50 might be a better number to use since it's a nice round number, and it's less intimidating than 63. Remember that there can always be more than one player pack, and just because something doesn't make it into the first one doesn't mean it won't be in the second one.
Gathering levels will be easy if everyone who wants to be included in the pack can give their own recommendations of what they want included. Levels in player packs should always be of "Goldilocks" difficulty, meaning that they're not too easy or too hard. Because player packs, like most games, become more difficult as the game progresses, Goldilocks difficulty covers a wide range. These 10 levels would be examples of the range of difficulty that a player pack can and should encompass. Some are very easy, and some would be hard for an inexperienced player, but none are overly easy or strenuously hard.
I have not built a lot of castles, so I shall leave it to you to decide if any of these are what you're looking for in your player's pack. I left out the ones that I believed were too easy for anyone, and I also discarded the ones that did not consistently function properly the majority of the time.
For the castle I build this round, I have spent more time on the doorway than I have building any other entire castle, so it will probably be one that I will make very easy to destroy and even easier on the eyes.
I checked my link, twice, and it took me straight to the level that it's supposed to take me to. Something must be wrong on your end if you are unable to access the level from that link.
I have just finished a great puzzle game called Sum Points that I thought while playing would be even better if it had a level editor, and I thought the same for a similar but completely different game called Sum Tracks made by the same developer, @eliolanda. Both have quests, and both have come out within the past year, so people may still be interested in creating their own puzzles if it were an option.
Sum Points has level editor potential, and it even has contest potential. Since it's a fairly new game, it would be one of the more popular custom level contests. Sum Tracks has less contest potential, at least in the way I plan to set up future game contests, but it does have almost as much level editor potential as Sum Points. The trick would be convincing @eliolanda that enough people were interested in building custom Sum Points and Tracks levels, and for that to take effect we would need at least a few more people who were interested in building custom Sum Points and Tracks levels.
Its more production-time trick for me, than convincing trick for you.
Adding level editor (player can use, not the quickly-made I use myself) to game takes time. Production time depends of amount of money ArmorGames can pay for game. Money AG can pay for game depends of number of plays and game rating. And it's really few people who actually like and play those small puzzles I made, and players who need level editor are even less. Sum Tracks and Sum Points got 85, but latest Finite Moves got only 75. Number of plays are bellow average. So, the actual question is who pays extra work?
By the way: thankfully to this tread I surprisingly find out that I made a clone of enDice, which I can't remember ever playing.
@eliolanda That is very good news about the next game. Not only that there will be a Sum Tracks 2, but also that we will be able to create our own puzzles.
A show of hands. Who would be interested (and regularly submit entries) in a SHIFT 4 contest?
