PRO DRESS EVERY THURSDAY! You get grace today but next week the hammer drops.

Alright, we are cooking now! You should be comfortable with the interface and created your first level. Remember, your goal is not to knock out the points, yes of course get your points but that is not the purpose of the course. Your purpose in being here is to take this game engine to its limit. This is the time that you take the simple concept of layers & events and do something clever with it. This is your opportunity to create something worthy of a child learning! Think about that, you are practicing right now because soon you will be developing educational software for students that 1. Is cool 2. Is actually worth playing 3. Is helping kids 4. Is something you can talk about in college essays, scholarship applications and of course resumes. Welcome to the studio!

Let us start off the day with a warm-up

You have created a level so let’s play and talk about it. First we are going to take some time to play test levels. This is where you can get ideas and share how you did something. We will play for about a half hour and then I want you to review at least four different student’s level including someone you don’t know well yet. Include the name of the person whose level you played.

Some questions to consider

Core Gameplay & Mechanics

• Primary Objective: Is it obvious what the player needs to do or where they need to go?
• Difficulty Curve: Does the level introduce mechanics safely before testing the player under pressure?
• Pacing: Is there a balanced rhythm between intense action, puzzle-solving, and downtime?
• Fail States: When the player fails, is it clear why they died or lost?

Layout & Navigation

• Signposting: Do lighting, color, or visual cues naturally guide the player’s eye toward the correct path?
• Sightlines: Can the player see upcoming hazards or goals before running into them?
• Chokepoints & Flow: Are there tight spots where geometry or enemy spawns cause frustrating bottlenecks?
• Backtracking: If backtracking is required, is it engaging or empty time-wasting?

Feedback & Polish

• Readability: Can the player easily distinguish foreground action, walkable terrain, and background elements?
• Reward System: Are secrets or alternate routes worth the effort and risk to explore?
• Controls & Physics: Does the level design play nicely with character movement, or do collisions feel sticky/buggy?

150 words

What are we working on Today?

OBS and World Building

Why is it important?

OBS is pretty industry standard screen recording software, it’s free and it’s pretty good!

We need to create the world to connect the levels and complete the game.

What is the assignment? How do I show I understand?

In OBS

Make a clip of the best 10-13 seconds of your level and turn in an MP4… NOT A MATROSKA MKV!

No seriously, make sure and select MP4 when you export!

In SMBX

Save four levels in your SMBX Worlds Folder

Create a world that connects all four levels

Create a new folder for the world you just created

Add the level and world files

Use OBS to include the following in your video:

Starting the game so that is shows the name of your world in the game list

The world with four levels and you playing about 15 seconds of the level

Switch to World Editor

Select Tiles

Create a world map

Select and add some scenery

Select Levels

We are going to use the Start Graphic to begin the game

In this order

Select your Start Graphic

Add file name cartland.lvl

Add the Level Name

In Level Exits, use 8 – SMW Exit

Options

Check Always Visible

Check game start

Save your world in your worlds folder

In your World Folder

Create a new folder and name it AMworld or PMworld or whatever

Place the practice world you just created in the new folder

Place the four levels you just downloaded from the share drive

You should now have the world and four levels in the new folder

Start your game

Notice there is an empty space

This is your game but we have not given it a name yet!

Select and test your game.

Open the game and test

Return to the world editor and open your world

Let’s fix the name not showing when we choose the game.

Click Settings

Add a name to your world

Now click paths and create a simple path to go to your next world

How we will add our second level

Click Levels

Level File Name – cartair.lvl

Level Name – Air

Exit 8

Options Always Visible and Game Start

MAKE SURE YOU PUT EVERYTHING IN BEFORE PLACING THE LEVEL!

Save and test

Your world should now show up in the list. Why didn’t I show you this at the start? For some reason, students always forget this step and then wonder why the name doesn’t show up so I wanted to show you exactly why it is important.

Air

Repeat the process for the water and dungeon levels

Save and test!

Once your world has all the levels and the game is fully playable, record it from start to finish in OBS and turn it in.