General Discussion What was your favorite level to MAKE?

OK I'm game. I think the level I had the most fun making was The Earthquake because I had to figure out how to make it full of action but not have everything fall apart!
Most rewarding was definitely my Perpetual Mech series. And I was surprised at how many views my Aztec Island Demonstration level got, and some even liked it better than the real level I used that trick in.

How about you @sawdust ?

 

The one that actually surprised me a lot is Upside Down, as it's my most rated level and probably the easiest one It made me realize that easier levels usually get more ratings than difficult and complex ones. It was definitely fun to design it, but I myself would have preferred Back and Forth as well as The Twins over it.

My most fun to design would be my latest one -- Catch Me If You Can, though I'm not sure if it's more frustrating than fun to play it. I went all out to make my most complex level within all the available space and ended up with a really densely packed level that sets B and the zapper bot on their distinct yet intertwined paths. The most difficult thing I found was to keep them together since R moves in such a different manner compared to B, and I wanted the zapper bot to automatically follow B without the player's intervention so it took me a lot of effort to design R's path without using any draggables (though I had to use one in the second quadrant), and make sure he would be needed at later moments where B is stuck (so that players won't just leave the zapper bot behind ). It was really fun to make every part of it as I (kind of) applied the sense of limited space (for compact/minimal levels) to a full 16x16x16 area, especially when designing the staircases to allow a selected bot / both bots to walk through.

I also experimented with falling ground blocks (and came up with a self-destruct block mechanism that I'll post later ). Each section has a different architecture/terrain design to make them more distinguishable, and with the amount of space available I also added some final touches to the tall structure. The first two quadrants are more focused on the puzzle element while the latter two are more action-packed. I don't know if it will ever get a good rating but I really enjoyed the process

[Edit: I updated the link to Catch Me If You Can as it was re-uploaded.]

 

I have to say that I'm now really, really surprised to see my latest colossal level just got two perfect ratings. I almost thought it'd end up as a total flop. In hindsight I probably should have implemented the ideas in two separate levels so people won't get overwhelmed (plus I just read reports of lagginess when running it on lower-end hardware), though as I worked on the level more and more ideas came to mind -- it actually feels great when you can create whatever you want without the concerns typically in designing compact levels. Initially I started this project due to the fact that I have yet to create my own blockbuster level (Upside Down is well-received but the design is still small-scaled), but in the end I was so into the design process I kinda forgot to maintain an optimal difficulty setting. I learned a great deal from the process nonetheless (I lacked experience in making colossal levels) so I'm satisfied.

 

It's actually my very early level: Selling Machine. It was the first level in which I used very complicated mechanisms to make a giant machine. The hardest part is to make the three balls roll away once they activate the machine, and I had to try many configurations to achieve it. I also used the ball-spacer mechanism for the first time. It still ended up being not so stable: sometimes the bots cost two balls each and sometimes the machine gets stuck. However, in this process I discovered how sophisticated mechanisms can be in Mekorama.