Little Inferno Level Creation Contest [CLOSED]

77 replies [Last post]
Joined: 09/01/2009

EDIT: The contest is now over. A special thanks to all the participants. You can see the results here and the levels here.

So, continuing the discussion from here, here's what I'm thinking:

1. If we could get all four of you guys to participate, that'd be awesome. The more participants, the better. (The four who have expressed interest so far are puggsoy, MyGod, kirdneh, and goo23. Post below if you're interested in joining also)

2. The levels will be Little Inferno themed! Betcha didn't see that one coming. Wink Based off what little descriptions and reviews we have so far, what do you think the game would be like if it were a World of Goo level? Feel free to use a screenshot or two from the video Tomorrow Corporation released; be creative and all that. Ideally, I'd have you guys use "Reporting from the Weather Balloon" from the Little Inferno soundtrack, but that's only available for people who've preordered, so that kind of defeats the point. XD Ah, well. If you do create your own artwork/music, try to imitate Kyle Gabler's style. Or rip sprites from the images on tomorrowcorporation.com (I think that's legal, right?). Uncle Sam Goo Balls, anyone?

3. Blind study. What I mean by this is that I don't want to know who submitted what level. I'm not 100% sure how the logistics of this will work, but I'll need another moderator to be the mediator between me and the players. And by "Another moderator", that pretty much only leaves puggsoy or Albino Pokey. Tongue
3a. What I'll want is for everyone to submit their level with the addin name (On goofans) set to "LI LCC" or similar. Goofans will complain about not being able to create an alias if people submit different levels with the same names, so you'll need to rename yours "LI LCC 2", "LI LCC 1337", whatever. Just number it, don't give it a name. That way, when an email appears in my inbox, I'll see "MyGod has requested publish for LI LCC 42" and I'll know to ignore it. This leads me to:
3b. I'll need the appointed moderator to gather all the addins onto one temporary download page for me (i.e. create an empty addin page and add all goomods to it, so I can download all at once). Needless to say, your name MUST NOT be in the addin ID, the addin filename, or inside the addin.xml. I'll need this appointed moderator to double-check this for me.
3c. Please don't name your level "Little Inferno." Avoid name conflicts. I don't want levels overwriting each other. But do give your level a meaningful name, so I can tell them apart.
3d. I'll want to be able to install all the levels and play them all without having any idea who created which level, so I'll be critiquing on the basis of which level has good level design rather than "kirdneh is awesome so I'll give the game to him". So don't put your name in the level or addin anyplace. The aforementioned appointed moderator will keep track of who created which level, and will let me know who created the winning level.
3e. Ideally, aforementioned appointed moderator will playtest levels beforehand, so I don't have to worry about levels being broken or not working. But this will depend on their time constraints.
3f. Since I'll need to email the Little Inferno Preorder key to the winner, put your preferred email address on your level page, for the aforementioned moderator to give to me so I can email you if you win.

4. No signposts. This is for a couple of reasons. First of all, I've played enough levels that I can distinguish people's writing styles, at least to some extent. Also, as discussed in the latest interview, Little Inferno won't have a Sign Painter. So no text or signs of any sort.

5. Polish, polish, polish. I prefer short, awesomely cool, polished levels that I can beat in a minute or two, like the original levels. That's not to say that I'd necessarily beat it in a few seconds on the first try, but if you know exactly how to beat the level, and it takes you more than a minute or two, it's probably too long. Little Inferno will be short and polished, from what we've gathered so far, so make some really cool short and polished levels! Try to think how Kyle Gabler's twisted mind works when making the levels, and imitate as best as you can. Don't throw together a level in a day and call it done. Play it a gazillion times, smooth out stuff that annoys you (even if it's only a minor annoyance), spend hours on it. Play the original levels to get a feel for just how polished the original game is. Above all, make your level fun!

6. Judging. Hopefully I'll get the levels judged within a week or two after submissions close. I'll play each level thoroughly and critique level design, writing a paragraph or so per level explaining what's good level design in said level, what should have been avoided, etc, as objectively as I can. Then, I'll choose a winner, and the appointed moderator can tell me who made what level, and I'll make my final writeup. All submissions will be published for everyone to browse, and the Little Inferno preorder key will be emailed to the the winner.

7. Deadline? I'm not sure. Definitely before Little Inferno releases this winter, since that would defeat the purpose. Discuss!

Anything else I didn't think of? Any comments/questions/suggestions? Post below.

Joined: 07/05/2011

MOM4Evr wrote:
Based off what little descriptions and reviews we have so far, what do you think the game would be like if it were a World of Goo level?
Mmmm... I think this is what the level will be. Collecting creatives...
“Making new levels is hard,” says DeeDee the kitten.

Joined: 08/06/2010

I can mediate if you want. When's the deadline going to be?

Another Planet finally has an official release! Download chapters 1 through 3 here! Thank you for waiting so long while I kept starting over.

Joined: 12/23/2010

Right, I'll have to make time for this. It's been a while since I've made a level so it'll be interesting, especially since I'll have to see if I can do some nice tricks with fire and such Wink

Joined: 09/01/2009

I'm not 100% sure about the deadline, since there's been fairly low participation in the past. Maybe by September 1st or so?

Joined: 12/23/2010

I think that's fine, it'll give us 2 months. I'll probably be able to make a not-too complicated level and polish it nicely by then.

Joined: 09/01/2009

1 month actually. Maths. Tongue

Joined: 12/23/2010

Sorry, for some reason I thought that the 1st meant last Tongue Yeah 1 month's all right, I should probably get started soon then.

Joined: 12/29/2008

Wish I could participate, I probably won't have time...

Check out my SoundCloud, MomoSoundWaves

Joined: 02/20/2011

Set back: it won't let me download gootool. I click on the download tab and all it shows is the images.
EDIT: Nevermind.

-_-

Joined: 12/29/2008

LOL! Also came up with an idea for a level...

Check out my SoundCloud, MomoSoundWaves

Joined: 02/20/2011

Created my level, but now i am in phase two:
polishing.

-_-

Joined: 12/23/2010

Haven't started yet Tongue I spent the whole day yesterday trying to find out how to get Bastion sprites directly from the game's files (which I finally succeeded with so it wasn't a day wasted).

I have thought about the setting of the level though and I will try and start today.

Joined: 07/05/2011

Made one. Wink
Finding someone help me to test it...

P.S. By the way, could I upload multiple levels? Tongue
EDIT: And, should I upload a screenshot for my level?

Joined: 09/01/2009

Treat it like you would a normal addin. So upload a screenshot, level description, etc. I'll personally just play the level, so I won't see any screenshot while I'm judging, but once the judging period is over, I'll publish the level, so you'll want to have a screenshot then.

And only one level per entrant, please. Wink

Joined: 12/29/2008

I have an issue, I am creating a Toy Gooball but I am 99% sure that other gooballs will overwite each other, I suffixed it momo1526, but that gives you an indication of the creator... What should I do?

Check out my SoundCloud, MomoSoundWaves

Joined: 09/01/2009

So long as the name of the Goo Ball doesn't appear anywhere in the level, it shouldn't be an issue. I'll just play the levels normally; I won't rip it apart to see who created what.

Joined: 12/29/2008

Ok, cool! Get ready for an avalanche of toys...

Check out my SoundCloud, MomoSoundWaves

Joined: 08/06/2010

Offtopic, but how did you get sprotes from Bastion? I'd been working on that for a while, but it seems to be an undecompilable (new word!) XNA format.

Another Planet finally has an official release! Download chapters 1 through 3 here! Thank you for waiting so long while I kept starting over.

Joined: 12/23/2010

So as to not derail the thread, I'll email you about it.

Joined: 09/01/2009

Here's your friendly reminder: We have one entrant so far, so if you haven't started your level yet, you may want to do so. Otherwise, said entrant will win by forfeit, unless said level is particularly terrible. You have 14 days left.

Joined: 12/23/2010

Yeah yeah, I know. I'm getting along with my level fairly well, it's been a while though. There's a few things that are making it sorta difficult though. Mann vs Machine isn't making it any easier either Tongue

But thanks for the reminder anyway.

Joined: 09/01/2009

You now have 5 days left.

Joined: 12/23/2010

Wow really? Jeez better get it finished.

Joined: 08/06/2010

Only one person has entered so far!

By the way, if you want to use the Little Inferno music, set the music to WeatherBalloon or LittleInfernoJustForMe and I'll add it to the goomod I give MOM4Evr. Just make a blank track and point the level to that or something.

Another Planet finally has an official release! Download chapters 1 through 3 here! Thank you for waiting so long while I kept starting over.

Joined: 07/05/2011

Could I use customize music? I thought setting a music which I have never heard as my background music would be risky.

Joined: 08/06/2010

Of course. I just wanted to put it out as an option. Smile

Another Planet finally has an official release! Download chapters 1 through 3 here! Thank you for waiting so long while I kept starting over.

Joined: 09/01/2009

You can use custom music, so long as the music you use isn't copyrighted. Almost everything is, unless the license for the music is specifically labelled as Creative Commons, GNU GPL, that sort of thing. It basically has to be free for you to use and distribute. OCRemix and Bandcamp are good places to look for that sort of music, but in general you should only use music from the original World of Goo or make your own.

Joined: 07/05/2011

What about using music in World of Goo soundtrack? Is it legal?

Joined: 12/23/2010

I don't think music from the official soundtrack would be the best choice. I mean I don't think it's strictly illegal, since the soundtrack if free to download anyway, but there's no real reason to. As far as I can tell the music from the game files is pretty much exactly the same, and it's much better suited for looping. Plus if you use music from the soundtrack it'll have to be included in your goomod, making it bigger, whereas using the default music won't since everybody has it anyway.

Joined: 09/27/2011

Where do you get the Little Inferno Music from?

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