so remember when i just wasn't uploading? i was working on this. well, this and some other side projects too 👀
emerald quest is a charming level pack where you go through 7 stages to collect all emeralds to once again bring down the death egg. the level design here highlights constant forward movement over connectivity in each level, and it’s a really solid example of how this design can work.
most of the time, this type of design falls into a variety of “traps.” to name a few, the “square hallway into big room” pattern, the “am i going backwards?” trap, and the “there’s no decoration here” trend are all common in levels built by less experienced designers. while the third is somewhat true in places, what’s shown in the video is the 1.1 patch of emerald quest (well, most of it anyway - i edited the hub world a bit to make better cutscenes, as well as the final boss arena so that it wouldn’t sap super sonic’s rings to 0 causing an immediate death). as of this video, the pack is on version 1.6. along with other changes, this pack has constantly been getting small visual upgrades.
all of that is to say, of course, that you should give this pack a try if you haven’t already. i really didn’t do it justice in just words, so check it out below
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mods used:
level pack (once again): mb.srb2.org/ad...
inazuma’s shadow: mb.srb2.org/ad...
zeuvia’s super sonic: mb.srb2.org/ad...
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i really hope you enjoyed this little deviation from what i normally do. between routing, run attempts, learning mpd, cutscene direction, and pasting everything together, i ended up working for the greater half of a month on it pretty much straight. i’d taken the sort-of dry spell of new custom levels to work on branching out a little, and i’d been able to work on some other projects. that said, i’m ready to come back to what i normally do since we have all of these new packs coming out - new oldc (which i think i'm pretty much done with now), new uldc coming up (or two), new cyberdime levels (i have to rerun like half of them now), and i’ve picked up an idea or two playing on tps. so there’s plenty to run, and plenty to do. ideally, i’ll be able to get a sort-of backlog done at some point for these levels so i can passively upload while working on aforementioned bigger projects, but you know how life gets. just know i’m thinking about this channel, even if i don’t upload for another month (the most optimal upload schedule)