I got this idea in a server a while ago and decided to make a thread.

the certain areas are EC, theme, gameplay, placement, and fastest improver


(ill post mine laters)

EC: P4ul
No one can create EC better than this guy can. His pack Agony especially looks amazing.

Theme: snz
His creative ideas really get to me every time.

Gameplay: Blur
n/c

Placement: EvilMike
His SP packs make really innovative and genious use of JCS.

Fastest Improver: N/A
No idea =P

gameplay: stripe

EC: Cooba has done some of the most creative things I've seen eyecandy-wise.
Themes: EvilMike, especially in his Resurrection series, completely nails atmosphere and theming.
Gameplay: Blur for multiplayer, EvilMike for singleplayer
Placement: Not sure what this means. Does it refer to the placement of events?
Fastest Improver: Pretty much all the up and coming level designers of this year, most of what I've seen are excellent jobs. Special props to Jimbob, though, since he seems to be the most enthused.

I think placement is placement of events. If so I'm surprised so many people consider me to be good at that. The only placement I put any thought into is where enemies go (I try to be as devious as possible, especially on hard mode). But when it comes to ammo/gems/etc it's mostly an afterthought for me, and never put much attention into it.

In any case, I think p4ul's levels have the best EC, hands down. I can always tell it's one of his levels just because of the stunning use of tilesets.

For gameplay, I'm going to say blur, because he has made a huge number of very unique levels. Far more than anyone else. For regular ctf (or other gamemodes) I also like firesword and stripe's levels.

I can't think of anyone for the other categories.

EC: Snooze. He makes great EC and he doesn't take long to make it. Just give him a tileset and he'll make something great out of it.
Theme: Snooze. The theme in Dreaming.. is one of my favourites, and he has made lots of other levels with good and original themes.
Gameplay: blur. He makes levels that almost feel perfect. His levels usually have some secrets, and that's pretty fun.
Placement: EvilMike. Well, I don't know who else I could put here. Lots of people are good at placement, as it's the easiest part of JCS (in MP, not in SP)
Fastest Improver: PurpleJazz. He went from Easter Feasta to Sunken Realm in less than a year. That says something.

ec: p4ul
theme: sn0zi
gameplay: blur and evilmike
placement: mike
fastest improver: not really sure :f

well, I guess I have favourites really similar to others' faves ;p

p.s. nice avatar snz

Ooh fun...

Best Eyecandy and Theme would probably go to P4ul from me, just because. In fact, this guy is the whole reason I stopped using WSF >_>. Snooze comes close.

Gameplay : Birdie/Cooba - I'm kinda torn here. They both really make the most interesting levels, and fun if that wasn't implied. [FS and blur are both rly good too]

Placement : Sorry, I don't really get this one. ):

Fastest Improver : Birdie, anyone ever notice how he became so awesome? ): I miss that guy *sob*

NEW CONCEPTS : RAG

Eye-candy:
A 3-way tie between Snooze, Purplejazz and P4ul. They can all make real impressive eye-candy. I think Snooze is the swiftest and most imaginative, while P4ul spams eye-candy everywhere to the point where gameplay suffers from it, but in turn his levels look quite awesome.

Theme:
I know there are potential equals, but from what I've seen, I can quite easily determine that Snooze can create lasting, well upheld themes for his levels that hardly any other level maker can hold a candle at.

Gameplay:
For a long time now, I've considered Stripe and FS the only true masters of this department, mostly because they seem to care that much more about gameplay than eye-candy and their levels turn out to be the most enjoyable to play. I do have to point out that the likes of CelL, BloodBunny, EvilMike and Blur don't fall far behind.

Placement:
I consider this something impossible to determine.

Fastest improver:
Purplejazz went from zero to hero in the blink of an eye, while others who were new to level-making (in the community) around the same time are still struggling to produce even mediocre levels.

Eyecandy: P4ul's levels look nice, but as St. Louis says the eyecandy tends to hinder gameplay. Snooze and cooba are good at eyecandy, but I'm going for Splash. The eyecandy in his later levels was exactly the way I like it.

Theme: This is mostly relevant to singleplayer where you want to immerse the player as much as possible. EvilMike's done a great job at that with his packs, but having catched a glimpse of what could've been Tomb Rabbit 2 I have to pick Kejero here, who created some incredibly atmospheric levels that managed to immerse me really well without even having a story.

Gameplay: [It is] stripe.

Placement: wtf?

Fastest improver: That's a tough one. I think I'll go with Ragnarok and go for Birdie here, who seems to have disappeared from the community recently though

I think I am the best

Originally Posted by Crimiclown™

I think I am the best

Everything I said earlier is discarded as now I agree with this.

Fastest best Reviewer: PT32
Best Eye Candy: Happy Three Friends
Fastest Improver Jimbob
Rest is for me

EC: Paul
theme: Qz
Gameplay: Firesword
Placement: Evilmike
Fastest Improver: ... hard one. i also think PJ. but i am getting pretty close 2 i only made 7 levels uptil now, and the last 1 is quite good. people forgot me

Originally Posted by technopauluz

Fastest best Reviewer: PT32
Best Eye Candy: Happy Three Friends
Rest is for me

Your opinions have been rejected

Why am I so good at placement!!! What is placement!!!

Honestly, can someone please explain placement?

Its a concept I always see in reviews but can never comprehend. Is it like nerdy Feng-shui where the proper placement of events lead to the feeling of zen?

'Placement', as the name says, is all about event placement (e.g. ammo spammed or not/springs put in appropriate areas, etc). Just like if you have a bad habit of putting ammo in the wrong areas/spamming it, 'placement' means if you are or aren't very good at placing ammo/events.
For example: if you run out of ammo or are in need of a Full NRG carrot in CTF, you should easily be able to find ammo, but it shouldn't be spammed. Same with the Full NRG carrot, except those need to be harder to find/harder to control.

Also:

Originally Posted by snzspeed

Your opinions have been rejected

You don't mean the 'Fastest Improver Jimbob' part as well, right?

Originally Posted by Jimbob

'Placement', as the name says, is all about event placement (e.g. ammo spammed or not/springs put in appropriate areas, etc). Just like if you have a bad habit of putting ammo in the wrong areas/spamming it, 'placement' means if you are or aren't very good at placing ammo/events.
For example: if you run out of ammo or are in need of a Full NRG carrot in CTF, you should easily be able to find ammo, but it shouldn't be spammed. Same with the Full NRG carrot, except those need to be harder to find/harder to control.

Also:


You don't mean the 'Fastest Improver Jimbob' part as well, right?

i mean the part where he said "rest goes to me " :P

I remember EvilMike telling me "I suck at placing ammo" on some occassion

y, they're all just sucking up

Originally Posted by Jimbob

'Placement', as the name says, is all about event placement (e.g. ammo spammed or not/springs put in appropriate areas, etc). Just like if you have a bad habit of putting ammo in the wrong areas/spamming it, 'placement' means if you are or aren't very good at placing ammo/events.
For example: if you run out of ammo or are in need of a Full NRG carrot in CTF, you should easily be able to find ammo, but it shouldn't be spammed. Same with the Full NRG carrot, except those need to be harder to find/harder to control.

So basically placement is... level design.

Originally Posted by n00b

So basically placement is... level design.

the placing of events, whether events are placed well or just 'tacked on'

Right, level design. Placing ammo in a good/strategic place in a stage is good level design. Not having random springs in a place where it doesn't need to be is good level design. Placement and layout seem to be just breaking up level design into two, when really it should be considered as a whole. Either of the two cannot really excel unless it is being done in conjunction with the other, unlike an entity like eyecandy which can properly stand on its own.

You say it with too much conviction when it's but a whim.

You're partially correct though, but placement of events such as ammo, carrots and power-ups and how well the playable area of a level has been made have always been two different things.

placement of groundtiles

placement of eyecandy

Originally Posted by St. Louis

You say it with too much conviction when it's but a whim.

You're partially correct though, but placement of events such as ammo, carrots and power-ups and how well the playable area of a level has been made have always been two different things.

What you're telling me is that instead of considering how a house is going to be built and where the plumbing and wiring for said house is going to be as a whole, you're considering it completely separately. This is nonsense. You're going to have to wind up tearing down parts of the house to add in the toilet that should have been planned for in hand with the house design. This is an awful way to design. For someone who can decide a level is bad because of the layers used, you seem to have some awful methods of designing the way the thing is played.

They are two different things but they make up a complete stand-alone whole. You don't eat a burger and go "This lettuce was lacking the proper taste and the tomatoes weren't juicy enough for me. Also the cheese was in the wrong location, it should be right under the pickles NOT under the ketchup. 3" and then go "Also, this bun was good so the bun rating gets a 7.5" You go "That was tasty burger." and go into detail on how tasty it was, describing everything under a "tasty burger" catagory. Before you mention Eyecandy and how it too makes up a part of a whole, in this analogy its the wrapper and establishment you got the burger from. A clean establishment and well designed wrapper may make you enjoy your burger more, but they don't have any bearing on the burger's taste. The bun, meat and toppings do. The burger is level design. Having a seperate rating for a bun and the contents of the burger is just unnecessary splitting up.

@ Noob's house parable: However the layout mustn't suffer for the placement, when it comes to levels. That's the clearest separating factor between the construction of a house and the construction of a level.

@ Odin: Likewise since late '03, figures we shouldn't comment on each other, and thus save a whole lot of inconvenience.

wow, massive off-topic. gg.

anyway... is there anyone left who didn't send the list of favourite levelmakers in certain ways ;D?

i havent posted yet and will post today

odin and louis i have a request. stop the offtopic, ty

To be honest, I think the whole JCS section should be closed down as it's just prone to frickin' PA WARS >_________________________>. I mean really, I've seen people on countless occasions try to stop fights and people apologize, but then it frickin' starts all over again. I'm getting sick of it. If you have nothing good to contribute, don't contribute at all (-)(-)(-).

Originally Posted by FawFul

anyway... is there anyone left who didn't send the list of favourite levelmakers in certain ways ;D?

I haven't.
BAM:
EC: P4ul for MP, EvilMike for SP (because his extremely minimalist style of Eyecandy is awesome)

Theme: snz for MP, EvilMike for SP

Gameplay: EvilMike

Placement: I refuse to answer this because it is gameplay. Bad placement leads to bad gameplay.

Fastest Improver: I don't really know, haven't been following the level scene this year to be honest.

Originally Posted by Ragnarok

To be honest, I think the whole JCS section should be closed down as it's just prone to frickin' PA WARS >_________________________>. I mean really, I've seen people on countless occasions try to stop fights and people apologize, but then it frickin' starts all over again. I'm getting sick of it. If you have nothing good to contribute, don't contribute at all (-)(-)(-).

I just described reviewing a JJ2 level like it was a burger. That is the most ridiculous post perhaps in the entire JCS forum section. How is that a PA war (unless this wasn't directed at me. I don't really know, I just feel guilty)

It wasn't directed to someone specifically, I just mean in general, I just want people to stop arguing over nothing >__>. Heehee, what I said earlier was a little extreme (and retarded). And don't provocatively start something by saying "it isn't nothing, so and so did this".

Again, not at anyone in particular.

Please ignore whatever I said.

Originally Posted by n00b

I just described reviewing a JJ2 level like it was a burger. That is the most ridiculous post perhaps in the entire JCS forum section.

Honestly? I thought it was clever )=

I guess it was, I just chose the most ridiculous concept so if the post was to get out of hand there was no way for it to lead to a flame war. Because it was about a tasty burger.

EC: FireSworD/P4ul

Gameplay: BlurredD for MP, EvilMike for SP

Placement: EvilMike

Fastest Improver: Purplejazz/FawFuL

EC: P4ul/Snooze

Gameplay: Birdie/Blur

Placement: No Answer

Fastest Improver: Me of course Birdie/PurpleJazz

ok i'll take it the emphasis is on "certain" so i won't list all areas that come to mind. Here's my list:

Breda: Stijn
Noord-Brabant: ChippieBW
Germany: me (!)
Poland: cooba

Can't think of any other regions bye

Unhit wins the thread.