Glitched up Beta

173rd: Glitched up Beta Make a Good Mega Man Level 3

What an awful dream! Ones and zeroes everywhere!

Overview Creator(s): Garion/Garebel/ShatteredCards Statistics Scores: 19 14 29 24 19 Total: 21 / 100 Rank: 173rd Elements: 1 Collectables: Enemies: Neo Metall Bosses: Sonic Man

Theme Music Depeche Mode - Black Celebration Boss: Mega Man V - Unused 2 Stage Order Location: Tier 1 Previous: CrashMan Simulator Next: You Don't Know the Drill

"You Didn't Install Mega Man: Source."

―Pachy, judge comment

Glitched up Beta is the 173rd place entry in Make a Good Mega Man Level 3. It is a level that tries to emulate the experience of a game glitch, and features a gradual ascent through mostly empty screens with a few instant death hazards.

Strategy

Upon entering the stage, Mega Man will encounter a giant Dangan Man NPC stuck in the floor, who will inform him about the stage's "gimmick": the terrain is mostly made up of 1 and 0 tiles, with 0 tiles acting as instant death. Walking to the right, Mega Man is confronted with a flat floor of 1s and a bunch of 0s strewn about the screen.

After a few screens of avoiding 0s, Mega Man is given two checkpoints and an upside-down Quick Man NPC to talk to, and then has to navigate a stretch of 1 platforms above a line of 0s that leads to a ladder. After climbing up and triggering another checkpoint, Mega Man can head left to find a Yashichi to the left of a fake floor that drops down into a room containing the level's four Trickster Tokens. This room can be left by walking right to return to the ladder; the two 0s under the ladder are fake and can be safely stood on.

From the checkpoint at the top of the ladder, the next two rooms to the right are empty and contain no hazards or obstacles, save for an sign and another ladder with two checkpoints. The next four rooms to the left contain two Neo Metalls each and are set in front of a giant Metall helmet sprite in the background. After climbing up from the Metall rooms, Mega Man must jump across a few platforms above an abyss to reach the boss corridor, after which is a battle with Sonic Man. Although the room appears to be underwater (reusing Splash Woman's boss room tiles), the room in fact lacks water entirely.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
Mick Galbani  : 19 / 100
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 4 / 35 2 / 25 1 / 15 3 / 15 9 / 10 Well... this was a whole lotta nothing. The concept had potential, and I was certainly baffled when I arrived. But this is just dull and bland and instead of anything interesting-throwing out what little concept it had in short order (the zeroes seem to disappear about halfway through the level) and having barely anything to interact with. At the very least, it was surprisingly functional for a 'glitched up beta'. But... that's not the most significant bar to pass. Otherwise, there's... really not a lot to comment on here.
Shinryu  : 14 / 100
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 2 / 35 1 / 25 1 / 15 1 / 15 9 / 10 There's...virtually nothing to talk about here. Even taking this level at face value, in that it's a joke about the game/engine getting messed up, and therefore "it's supposed to be bad," it still ends up falling short. I get the intention here (even if I didn't find the joke itself funny), but the problem is you still need an actual level to support it. Granted, the concept of a "glitched" level isn't exactly new, but I think this still could have worked if a lot more effort was put into it. If you're going to do something like this, you might as well go all out with it; Make the visuals more unique and twisted as the level goes on, or add strange new enemies and gimmicks to mix things up. Basically, my advice would be to take the "glitched up" aspect and make it a part of the level's identity, instead of just being a weak punchline.
Pachy  : 29 / 100
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 4 / 35 10 / 25 5 / 15 3 / 15 7 / 10 You Didn't Install Mega Man: Source. An... interesting choice of aesthetics, I guess? That's right, I'm talking about the music. It do be so gosh darn loud, holy garbles. Honestly though, if you take away the whole "glitchy" part, the stage is really not that visually impressive. The architecture involves all straight paths, with only one section of the whole platforming stage involving any platforming at all, and you reach the next part by a ladder each time, accompanied by the "Checkpoint Reached" notification. It almost felt like sections were just lazily copied and pasted together with the same lame way of transitioning. The stage would've been more interesting had it tried to utilize its theming a lot more, like having clashes of different tilesets together to form interesting terrains to traverse through, enemies fused together to create a glitched abomination, make the stage layout more chaotic by having more varied transition methods, etc. Just things more on the top of the mind than... splattering giant 1s and 0s in places. Numbers. How spooky.
Flashman85  : 24 / 100
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 5 / 35 5 / 25 1 / 15 6 / 15 7 / 10 Thank you for calling the MaGMML3 Level Design Support Center. Before we connect you with a representative, please listen to our self-service checklist, which can help resolve many common level design problems: 1. Has this level been playtested by multiple people? Hazards placed too close to screen entrances are a common sign of underplaytesting. 2. If your level has any text (eg, NPC dialogue), has it been reviewed for typos and clarity? 3. Is the level visually appealing? Little touches (eg, background tiles arranged to look like an enemy or like a glitchy program) are nice, but remember that repetitive textures and long stretches of solid-colored background should be avoided, regardless of the theme. Choosing enemies that fit the theme (or respriting them to look like they fit) is also recommended. 4. Are the challenges thoughtfully constructed and organized into some sort of thematic/difficulty/complexity progression? If there are blank screens with no apparent purpose, and if every challenge contains only one hazardous component and can be overcome by doing the same thing four times in a row, then the challenge design is probably not sufficiently innovative or meaningful. Disguising spikes and platforms as binary code is a cute idea, but not enough to carry a level. 5. Are checkpoint objects placed at logical intervals, using the correct type and quantity? 6. Has the level been checked for any oversights or inconsistencies with collision and section objects (eg, bottomless pits where there should logically be a transition to the screen below, tiles that didn't function like they look they should especially if deception isn't a core theme)? 7. Does your level avoid making the player fight Sonic Man on dry land? Because seriously, fighting Sonic Man on dry land is not any fun for Flashman. We apologize; no representatives are available. Please hang up and try your level again.
ACESpark  : 19 / 100
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 4 / 35 3 / 25 2 / 15 0 / 15 10 / 10