I made space for a new little one just now… “MothershipConnection” (since I have airship theme/parts now):
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i probably won’t keep this one up for too long…
I need to plan ghost levels out before making them. It’s too hard and too tedious to think of something as I’m making it when it comes to these levels…
The Power (it’s gettin hectic)
https://youtu.be/WJnfyoYQxUI
It’s way too long. I could’ve stream lined it if I thought about what I wanted to do before I did it. 
That wall kick level… I’m just bad at wall kicks, I know, but holy hell did it cramp the ever-loving bejesus out of my hands lol. I was in actual pain.
So that… proooobably fueled my frustration.
Also, I now have two of debs’ levels I need to finish. This one felt very doable, just couldn’t figure out that jump at the end before the vid started running long…
Preview of the next level I’m working on…
https://youtu.be/JHkwGPzhm_U
The pink coin placement will be different once I finish it…if I have them at all. Not sure yet. I’m going to play through a couple of smb3 levels to see how long levels should be so that I can make this one shorter and without a checkpoint.
SMB has some pretty short levels, and a few long ones too. It kinda varies, but they are some of the greatest designed of all the Mario games.
@roknin I love your videos man. I want to see you play through my Under… Where? level. It has some exploration elements, as well as some tricky platforming parts, and a pretty cool boss battle. If you made it through Nice and Easy I think you can handle it.
For an “interim” vid, I decided to give that level a try that the Game Grumps put out there as a challenge:
Actually a pretty fun level, interesting gimmick and kind of amazing that it works that way. 
Really seeing more impressive, fun and genuinely challenging level design as of late (partially due to the website). And of course, you guys here do fantastic work.
Thank you! 
Since I have more time now, I’m trying to put more work into them as well, like I used to do whenI first started (re: the editing in the above video). That, and I REALLY need to get a better mic lol.
I’m down to give it a try! I need to do like, a full week’s worth of Mario Maker vids to be honest lol. So many levels to try to beat… might have to give up on a few.
…but I refuse to let debs’ defeat me :nunchuck:
What’s great about the levels being short in SMB3 is that it also helps make them very memorable, because each level usually has one “tricky” part or gimmick or visual choice that defines it (ie., that one grass level in Ice Land). Very few of them ever feel like a slog. 3D World I feel has that same charm though not every level is quite as easy to get stuck in the player’s mind.
Of course, time will tell in that regard.
So the update that gave us Keys and Skewers limited the amount of numbers we can use in course titles. No more the four numbers. Also, certain symbols are a no-no, like the star symbols of all things. I’m partifularly annoyed as it meant I had to look for something else to name my former Star Special courses. After doing some research, it turns out the Black Diamond symbol is used associated with difficult challenges, so that all works out.
Do you all prefer asymmetrical layouts when you make designs and enemy placement? or do you all prefer a more uniform layout on certain things?
I don’t think the symmetry matters too much as long as it’s a good design. Though I do pay attention to smaller sections where certain elements have symmetry, like platform placement or blocks. My Nice and Easy level has some intentional symmetry throughout, but that’s part of the puzzle. In general, I don’t think symmetry is crucial to good design, but it can help organize things I guess.
Well my Star Special courses have a new name. They are now Diamond Special but still pack plenty of challenge. Speaking of which, the fourth one is up!
◆S-4: TOTALLY TUBULAR
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I wanted to make a course somewhat similar to Super Mario World’s Tubular course. In that level, the only way to get through the stage was with the P-Balloon or a Blue Yoshi. In the case of Totally Tubular, Yoshi is your only means of making it through. If you lose him, death is inevitable. Of all the special courses I’ve been making this is the first one I’ve felt frustration at when it came to clearing it for uploading. I spent a good 15-20 mins just trying to clear this sucker. A few times I was at the end but lost Yoshi and died. SMH. Like Tubular that inspired it, this is a short level, the shortest one I’ve made thus far. Due to the brevity of it, there is no check point. It is entirely possible to clear without the Cape Feather, but I decided to leave it in to give players options.
Does New Super Mario Bros. engine feel… odd compared to the others? I’m not saying its bad or anything but compared to SMB, SMB3 and SMW, NSMB just feels off somehow.
Maybe it’s just a factor of playing the older ones for so many years…but yeah the game feels more “at home” in the older engines… I love the graphics of the new one but in terms of pure gameplay and control… SMB3 and World feel like they are the more “correct” iteration of what Super Mario is all about for me. I still consider part 3 to be one of the greatest games ever made.
*It would be interesting to see what people would come up with if there was no censorship or “report” to worry about… I’m assuming certain things I’d have in mind would be taken off the servers with the quickness. I love seeing what gamers can produce when there’s little to no censorship going on. Modnation Racers was a good example of that. Haha I want to make “2 Tickets to Tittytown”, or perhaps a whole level about period blood or shit, etc…y’know, just go out of my way to be as disgusting and offensive as possible, for my own amusement. I suppose just making them for myself would be entertaining enough for me.
*I just beat some level that was simple but the danger and randomness was a real bitch… the flag and castle are really just a short run/jump away, but there was a tall stack of Magikoopas…so many that the flagpole disappears. until you kill some of them…it seems like you have no choice but to take the hit and use your moments of invincibility to spin jump and hope to stay above them while not falling on any magic shots, and hope the flag re-appears asap.
NSMB does feel a little different, but I think it’s the most fun to do speed runs with because of wall jumps and air stalls and triple jump flips. But really, I don’t think it feels any more different than SMB does compared to SMW. Honestly, I’d say SMW has the most floaty controls of all of them, and that makes it stand out as the most difficult to be precise with. But I love them all for what they are pretty much equally.
Smw is off IMO. Flight is definitely different in Smm than in smw.
For me as a creator, nsmb is the most fun to work with because Mario has a lot of options as far as jumps. I’m trying to give all of the themes a chance. Obviously I grew up with the older games and when I first go this game and started creating levels I started out with smw since it’s my favorite (besides 3). I don’t feel like nsmb has the same charm as the others.
As you create more you might give the other themes a chance. I liked what I did in the sub level section of my level the pipe is right. I might make a smb underground level.
There are pros and cons with each game in Smm IMO.
I hover more towards SMW style even if some things are different. My newest stage:
Fire Fight ‘n’ Flight
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Sadly I had to take away my bullet’s a plenty for this stage to be uploaded but I had fun making it. MY attempt at an auto scrolling Shoot 'em up. Hardest part was balancing difficulty with powerups and fun. Enjoy!
I just wish more of the themes let you use the costumes and not just SMB1.
I wish we could use the functional costumes from 3 and NSMB. I want Mini Mario speed runs and Penguin Mario water and ice levels. And give me my Tanooki suit so I can make a level impossible to beat without using the statue!
(Ugh. I can’t believe that I had the url tag for Roknin’s 27th numbered video so screwed up for a week.)
Anyway, useless apologies aside, everyone’s new stages since my last post in here have finally been added to the front page, as have the three play-through videos that have been added in the meantime. I still need to do more though, like look if some of the limits have changed if the star symbols randomly can’t be used in titles now and there’s potential glitches with the pink coin system as described above. I’ll try to get that done after this weekend given I’ll likely actually be busy both days for once instead of just lying in bed all like lazy bastard.
Also, before I forget again, it’s good to see that you’re having basically as much as fun as I thought you would have with this @Million, but when you get the chance, I still need the name of your very first stage a.k.a. that one that corresponds to code “9C98-0000-0202-F156”. If I actually had the game myself, then I’d just input the code and check, but alas…
Too bad that would utterly nightmarish for them to actually implement from a realistic standpoint in basically every other engine except maybe SWBM given that 3D models are slightly less time-consuming comparatively.
I don’t disagree that that it would be nice though.
My ass forgot to respond to this. Yeah, I agree with all of this, though with regards to the second point, I’m not sure many more could be added. I mean, the only really prominent one missing is, what, Rip Van Fish I think. Torpedo Ted would be nice, but that’s only appeared in two games. Same with those urchins too I think. And the fact that people would doubtless abuse the fish that instantly kill you by swallowing almost goes without saying. I really can’t think of any other water-specific enemies they could add, honestly.
shaking a bullet bill blaster should give you a torpedo ted in water IMO. on that note, adding a mushroom to a bullet bill blaster should have given us banzai bill but thats another topic.
rip van fish is needed but so are the fish that can eat mario. yeah, ppl would abuse them but there could be unique levels if blaarg and/or the fish could be used IMO. especially if somewhere down the line they do give us water tiles, a jungle, beach, desert or forest theme…etc.
side note but while its on my mind…if they gave us water tiles, we could have floating water squares in castles and put dry bones in them and have floating bone fish. if we could get rising/falling water levels it could be even cooler to see dry bones walk, turn into the fish and turn back into dry bones. it’d make for some unique courses.
even though some of the enemies in water or unique and specific to specific games, i still feel like they’re all needed just to make decent water levels. its extremely hard with so many limitations. it feels like the water themes in each game are the most limited out of the available themes.
even if we just got water tiles and nothing else, that could help. it’d be a start. i want water tiles more than lava tiles.
any new themes should come with at least three new enemies each IMO.
i really hope that themes with enemies or water tiles will be in the next update.
or at least an update with physics to allow for faster/slower enemies or floatier jumps to help with space themes or something. anything.
Big Bertha/Boss Bass is the big fish that swallows Mario. And yeah, people would abuse it, but no more than they already abuse dumb shit like hidden blocks over jumps and doors that lead to instant death. I’m hoping we eventually get BBs when we get water tiles because they add such a big element to those levels where you’re on land but there’s water you can swim in, especially in SMB3. Same goes for Skeeters and Chuckit Crabs with water tiles. They’ve been pretty good at including versions of enemies that didn’t previously appear in earlier games so far, so hopefully they keep that trend going if we ever get more themes like desert, snow, forest, and water tiles for beach levels.
Edit: I see @debs responded to this just before I did, while I was writing my response, and covered a lot of the same things I said, lol. Didn’t mean to be redundant, but it just goes to show how many common elements we all really want added to this game!