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Many people have created fabulous levels, but they have failed to attract attention and rise up the ranks of the lobby to make their rooms full. They will most likely stay at the bottom ranks of the lobby due to people coming and quitting as a result of loss of interest. This page will describe how a popular level should be made. People creating popular levels have various reasons for doing so, to make their room ranked at the top of the lobby and to prevent their room from disappearing after they have gone. However, gaps in player flow due to the change of players from different places around the world because of changes in time could render your room empty. This is a natural phenomenon and affects all rooms, populous or not.


Properties of a popular level[]

A popular level is a level which keeps people staying in the level for an extended amount of time. The longer the time, the better. Therefore...

  1. Players must not ragequit due to the difficult challenge of the platforming level, more notably at the very beginning. Start off easy, then make it harder and harder. Rage-quit-worthy challenges are usually only good as a bonus after the player has completed the main part of the level.
    • The difficulty of the level should also appeal to the majority of the player base. For instance, if you did research and found out that many players are unskilled and quit easily, then your level should have a low difficulty and more gratification.
  2. There must be an objective to the level. If there is no objective, there is no drive to completing the level. Including the code is a good but risky method, because someone can easily break out, tell the code to everyone and trolling may begin. Various rewards are described in a lower section of this page.
  3. Art rooms are another great method. However, instead of making just art, try including a boss or some minigames or something of the like to give them something to do while enjoying the art.
  4. Players must not lose interest in the level. Sure, the level has reasonable length and an interesting reward, but keeping the players interested is one of the main factors of a popular level. Players lose interest in a level quicker for several reasons, including no originality, long waiting times with nothing to do, and overall bad map design. New concepts, keeping players busy, and making the minimap look better will slow the players' overall interest loss.

Objectives[]

In a level, there are many objectives. The most popular levels usually have "Get The Code" included in their names. Without an objective, players would just linger and go back to the Main Lobby due to loss of interest.

Another objective, that is more recommended than handing out the code at the end since that encourages trolling, is to create the level so that it is interesting, unique, and fun. This tends to allow players to have a good time and makes them want to continue playing the level through the end. Levels like this are hard to make and thus scarce nowadays. However, that also means less competition for those unique levels, so making a fun, unique and interesting level will mostly be worth the effort.

Coins[]

Coins are important in a level. One may think that they are just decorations, but they actually used to motivate most of the players to go from one platform to another, especially if the coin is at the end of the platformer and in sight of the player's point-of-view. People tend to go for yellow coins more often than blue ones because yellow coins can provide magic.

That does not mean that one should put coins everywhere a block isn't. Coins are often used to be a reward for players after they have finished a small section of a level. Putting too many coins will cause people to lose interest in coins, and therefore skip some optional parts of a level that contain more coins. Coins also make a repetitive sound when collected, so putting an entire line of coins may induce quitting due to the annoying noise it makes when players run through it.

Also, the highest number of coins that can open a coin door or close a coin gate is 999, so any extra coins after the 999 one might be skipped by the players due to not needing to collect the coin to progress. (Although this isn't as much of an issue now that it's 999 instead of 99.)

Rewards[]

If the world should encourage players to beat it, something valuable needs to be put at the end. This includes...

  • The Crown
  • The code or edit rights
    • Again, providing the code is very risky as your level could be trolled in a matter of seconds.
  • A trophy
  • Blue or Yellow coins in mass quantity
  • The ability to move freely around the level and watch other people play without the code or edit rights.
  • Bonus minigames that are simply extra challenges
  • Music blocks in a sequence to produce an original soundtrack.
  • Even a simple, secret message can keep players engaged.
  • The ability to move around art close-up to see the blocks used to make it.
  • It could also include a simple glitch that was found.
  • Other things you think a player will find interesting.

All of these are great options for a reward for a level, so worlds should try to put at least one of these things to engage players to reach the end.

"Reach the End" Levels[]

These type of levels can either be platforming levels, a maze level, or even a gravity level that could also be mixed with coin doors, portals, or purple switches.

While most levels have one linear path, a level with multiple splits and paths will encourage players to play through the level again, this time playing through a different path. Splitting the level into two paths will also separate easy minigames from hard minigames as players who want a walk in the park will take the "easy" path, and people who want a challenge will take the "hard" path.

What Not to do[]

Because you want a level that people of all abilities would enjoy, adding certain bits in the wrong place will ruin the level experience for players, thus leading to lack of interest and rage quitting.

The one piece of advice you need to keep in mind is to test your level. Most people cannot be bothered, but testing is a sign of a well-planned level. Play through your level like you're a stranger who doesn't have edit rights. Also know what attributes you think your world should have. Do you want to make it hard? Do you want to make it easy? How about making players interested in the art while they're playing? Do you want unoriginal, overdone so-called "challenges" that most people will ragequit on sight? If you're playing your level and your experience does not fit the type of map you want it to be, that obviously means that you need to make changes.

Once you have set the cycle going, keep it consistent or risk losing interest from the majority of the community.

Types of levels[]

(Main Article: Levels )

In the game, Everybody Edits, there are four main types of levels

Note that many people will combine these types, such as platforming with an optional Boss and sometimes some art on the side, maybe just a little room somewhere that wastes people's time.

Artistic[]

(Main Article: Artistic levels )

Self-explanatory. Levels in which players make art.

Platforming

(Main Article: Platforming Levels )

Levels which players make platforms for other people to have fun.

Time-Waster

(Main Article: Time-waster Levels )

Levels which other people generally don't do anything, usually paired with something entertaining like music or a set of signs.

Boss[]

(Main Article: Boss Levels)

Levels which are continually editor-made, animated or made of locks. See main article for more details.

Pros and Cons[]

Different types of levels have different types of pros and cons. Thus different types of levels could increase the interest of people.


Artistic

Artistic levels can look pretty, but unfortunately does not keep players in your room if there is not much artwork. Additionally, you must find artwork that appeals to the majority of the community. Some people don't like smiley art, some people don't like game sprite art, and so on.

Platforming[]

The best type of level to keep players in, although most platformers have repetitive level types. There have also been numerous platformer levels, so you're going to have to make your platform level stand out from them.

Time-Waster[]

Generally keeps players in for a long time, but will quit easily if the level seems long and there is no clear reward after the level. A lot of effort is also required to build the level.

Boss[]

Keeps players in for a long time too. The problem lies with the editor, or the boss. The editor could fail to meet the fourth property in the properties of a popular level (see above), which includes being original, making everyone busy, and a nice map design, players may play for only one time and quit due to long waiting times, an unfair boss, etc. As such, it will be difficult to entertain the players who are "eliminated" from the boss round.

Title[]

You do not have to have a catchy title to introduce crowds. Just get a bunch of people to join your level and soon your level would be almost full, if you follow the above guidelines. However, if one does do a not-so-good world, one could have a title associated with something famous to get people's attention. If you are out of ideas for a name you can use http://www.gamenaminator.com/ to get an idea.

Conclusion[]

Based on the many levels which have made it to the top, the best levels to make to attract crowds are:

Platforming Levels[]

Easy enough to build and keeps players entertained for quite a while.

Time-waster Levels[]

Players must be enticed with a goal that can be seen or else they would lose interest in doing repetitive tasks for a long time.

And of course utilizing the properties of a popular level (see above) will make for a popular level.

Art[]

The creation of art is not hard if you want more help, look at these pictures and learn a little more art from the Everybody Edits ( if you are noob don't even try )

Trees:[]

Arts Tree1
Arts Tree2
Arts Tree3

See Also[]

Guide:How To Create A Hard Level

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