User:LMH

From SuperTux

Greetings, I am LMH. Since I was five-years-old and got my hands on my first NES I've had an interest in designing my own levels for 2D side-scrollers. Back then it was magic marker on discarded continuous feed paper for recently out-dated dot matrix printers. Later I deciphered the format of level files for a Mario clone on my TI-89 calculator, which kept me entertained in my less interesting high school lectures (unfortunately those levels are likely lost to time). When I discovered SuperTux, I was made immediately nostalgic for the simple yet entertaining gaming style of my youth. When I found out there was an editor, I just had to make my own levels. I never got the editor working, but that's nothing a sophisticated system of spreadsheets can't fix. As I made more levels, I learned more about how SuperTux works and am now able to make modest contributions to the project. Below are some of the projects I'm currently working on.

Contents 1 Levels Collection for 0.3.3 1.1 Downloading and Playing 1.2 Updates and Additions 2 Mattie's World 2.1 Mattie's Iceberg 2.2 DOOM Islands 2.3 Peninsula Inland 3 New Icy Island Worldmap Graphics 4 Glow Effects

[edit] Levels Collection for 0.3.3

With the SuperTux fansite no longer in existence, finding additional levels that can be played with version 0.3.3 and later can be rather difficult. Fortunately the Add-ons feature available in 0.3 allows levels and ideas to be shared more readily than in Milestone 1. However, add-ons made available to players by download through the game are currently few, and the list changes infrequently. This means that player-made levels are not easily shared and level designers typically experience long waits for their content to be enjoyed.

Since the most common comment I hear from other players is that they desire more levels, I have begun to collect custom levels in order to make them more accessible. The resulting collection can be found here. Although the collection is available by a rather crude method, its simplicity should also make it more robust. I am hoping that this means I will be able to maintain it with a minimal commitment on my part yet will be a reliable source of levels for players (i.e. it won't disappear like the fansite).

[edit] Downloading and Playing

What you need to do to access the level collection:

• Install either the development snapshot (0.3.3 or any others you can find) or the Git version of SuperTux
• Download the desired add-on from the level collection (please pay attention to the version the level was made for, they may still work but might suffer from bugs)
• All downloads are "zipped" and there is no need to extract them...
• Instead, place the .zip file downloaded into your supertux2 directory (alternatively if you are using the recent Git version you may place the .zip file directly into the data directory)
• Start SuperTux and choose "Contrib Levels" on the main menu, the add-on should be listed here

Note that these levels are of many different difficulties. Some may not conform to the level design criteria. Some may suffer from bugs. Please do not contact the developers about any issues you may encounter, instead try to contact the level creator (there may be information in the description on the download page if it is available). Remember that these are unofficial add-ons.

[edit] Updates and Additions

Currently the collection consists primarily of the add-ons I've come across more-or-less randomly on the bug tracker. You can see the current state of the collection here: Levels#Add-on_Collection_for_0.3.3_and_0.3.3-SVN. Updates and additions will also be done more-or-less randomly as I encounter them. However, if you have a custom levelset you would like to share you may contact me via email: <LMH.0013_at_gmail.com>. Please keep in mind the following if you want your levels to be part of the collection:

• Levels must be packaged as an add-on (it's not difficult to do and it minimizes confusion for installation)
• All levels should be completable, all secrets should be reachable, and coins/poweups attainable
• Keep in mind the level guidelines; although they are not a hard requirement for this collection, following them will make your levels appeal to a larger audience
• Levels should be designed for 0.3.3 or 0.3.3-Git (let me know which yours are intended for)
• Let me know if you would like some sort of contact info to be included with the download
• Feel free to provide a level description- although due to the limitation to the file hosting service, only the bare minimum will appear, I may put together a more comprehensive set of information about the levels
• Have patience, I will generally play through the level first before uploading it to the collection; if I choose not to upload your set I will tell you why but I should be fairly lenient to creative liberties

[edit] Mattie's World

Mattie's World is the collection of all the levels I've developed. It will be a work in progress so long as I'm making levels. Although designing levels is my primary interest, it should be fairly evident that I'm easily distracted. My current plan is to have three worldmaps.

[edit] Mattie's Iceberg

The original set of levels made for SuperTux and available as an in-game add-on, Mattie's Iceberg is the first worldmap (lives here). Although it has changed considerably over the years, it is likely in it's final state and was made for the SVN version of SuperTux (requiring only compatibility tweaks as SuperTux is further developed). Set near Antarctica, levels are primarily ice-themed. The story is that the iceberg has been overrun by the minions of the DOOM Toad who resides in the end castle.

[edit] DOOM Islands

The rest of the ice-themed levels that I make are expected to live in the worldmap DOOM Islands which is currently under construction (beta here). These frozen islands are to the north of Antarctica, and the stronghold of the DOOM Toad. There will be more flexibility in path for this worldmap, and my intention is to have a second optional storyline culminating with a unique boss fight. The main idea is to take out the Toad on his home turf. Ideally these levels will be optimized for Milestone II.

[edit] Peninsula Inland

The final worldmap is meant to be a for forest levels and is only in the concept phase. The general idea is that Tux reaches a peninsula where the DOOM Toad had a new and powerful ally. There is no ETA on this portion of the project.

[edit] New Icy Island Worldmap Graphics

In anticipation of Milestone II, I thought it would be appropriate to give the main worldmap a bit of a visual revamp. The results of this effort can be seen here on the bugtracker. Although I am mostly done with my efforts here, there remains plenty of room for improvement. As far as my own efforts go, I will likely try to put together an alternative Icy Island worldmap using these graphics and maybe a few more tweaks to the graphics. The use of these graphics is a bit more complicated than the traditional worldmap graphics (requiring more tilemap layering), but the idea is much more can be done with them. Unfortunately I have yet to find a way to use these graphics concurrently with the traditional graphics without making an absurdly long and kind of repetitive tile mapping configuration. I would be interested in the use of multiple tile mappings being used at the same time.

[edit] Glow Effects

One of the most interesting mechanics in SuperTux (for me) is the use of light (ambient, candles, magic blocks, and lanterns). However they are not often utilized or are easily made obnoxious. In an effort to make lighting a little cleaner and more enjoyable I've begun some coding work to add more built-in lighting effects. The progress can be tracked in the "glow_effects" branch of my SuperTux clone in Google Code. My ideas for this project are listed below:

• More ability for candles: choose color, option to disable flicker and glare, allows for better integration of custom sprites and environmental glow
• Optional candle graphic sprites: animated background torches from underground tileset, glowing crystals for the crystal tileset, maybe a brazier/open flame for castles, maybe a light bulb
• Powerups glow-in-the-dark: standard powerups (excepting 1ups) are easily located in dark areas and look cool in dim areas
• Fireballs glow: they are fire after all, this always bothered me about the current configuration
• Explosions light up immediate area: another obvious improvement
• Weakblocks burn: probably should make burning weakblocks give off light as well
• Some badguys glow: flame, willowisp, kugelblitz (I also want to play around with making flames vulnerable to ice and expanding to have other vulnerabilities/appearances at this point)
• New badguy, dark_snowball: a dark themed badguy for the icy tileset, would be invincible while in the dark and vulnerable/stationary in the light. Gives off a sinister glow.
• Possible new badguy, walking flame: like spiky, but can be "extinguished" using iceflower. Would obviously also glow.
• Tux glows when invincible: still need to check the feasibility of this with my current skill set, but might be a nice addition
• Possible new powerup, earth flower: would give Tux a mining hat and subsequent light directly in front. Would also have the ability to turn to stone momentarily similar to the Tanooki Suit of Mario 3