by Alex Kurcharski, featuring Tanner Rogalsky and Matt Blaylock

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The Daily Rundown
August 26th to September 1st

August 26th

Pretentious? No, you are!

August 27th

Pretentious? No, you are!

August 31st

Pretentious? No, you are!

September 1st

Pretentious? No, you are!

Maps of the Week

1. yahoozy_Guacamole - Sludgefeast
2. sept - fermata in mistoc air
3. drikam - Thwump Pit
4. fingersonthefrets - Angel.

News

The Metanet Podcast

Volume One is up. Expect volume two very soonly.

The Songs I Listened To, As I Wrote This

The Flower Kings - Garden of Dreams, from the 1999 album Flower Power

Artist Commentary of the Third Kind

Not possibly as good as last week's, Jig!

Eleven Ring Circus: In my early days at Numa, I feel I drew most inspiration from one tktktk. I became enthralled with his "one-shape" jumper puzzles. Perhaps the best part about these puzzles was the absence of enemies. Gravity is your only foe, now go jump. It's a great concept. I strove to make maps just like these, because I loved his so much. I think this map is probably one of my best. I just created a ring, and it looked pretty cool, so I made the puzzle out of it.

I later got pretty bloody sick of making maps like this, but I look back at this period of my Numa career and smile. With regard to this map in particular, it's quite aesthetically pleasing, both in the presentation of the tiles and the standard plus-sign gold.


Stage: I had forgotten about this map until scrolling through all my maps to find ten for this set. This was a vent map I made with Linus, Jerrod, and the late Aju. There are neat, not-too-overused mechanics for this level. Grab the switches to make the path. Otherwise, it's frightfully simple and just a fun map, in my opinion.

When I was making this map with the other guys, I suddenly found myself enjoying the concept of a vent map immensely. Every time the others made a suggestion, I would embrace it, and fit it into my map in a way that I liked. The best example was, Aju said "Make a circle in the middle of your map" as the first suggestion, and I made that...I don't know what to call it, but I love it. I shudder at the gold placement and haplessly placed enemies, but the mechanics and tileset made up for it.


Nine Chambers: Possibly one of my greatest triumphs, this DDA was the first map I made that hit top rated. It's also now my first map on record at Numa, as I used to delete my maps like a faggot. This is my only KRADDA, because I'm not particularly skilled in that field. Looking back, it's just not that great. But it was amazing for its time and I still look back in awe of my talent, which is now waning quickly.

There's a decent variety of propulsion methods, but a lot of launch pads, and a lot of gold delay. And no close calls. What I tried to focus on was actually the rocket's passage through walls. I seemed overly fascinated with the trap door + locked door glitch, and overused the hell out of it, but it definitely adds an element of excitement to the rocket's path, while the ninja floats around not doing much.


Scrambled Bramble: For some reason, many see this to be a defining map for my career. It was the start of a horribly dead-horse-beaten style (tiles that look like vines, I guess) that several of us used over a few months. I realized when I was making the map that simplicity is highly appreciated, and thrived on it in the placement of the door switches. It's an easy map to beat, and a slightly challenging map to take all gold on.

The high praise I received from the people on the comments of this map really helped me take my mapmaking to a new stage, when I created some of my greatest works.


Multi-tasking: This is probably my most innovative map concept to date. Playing it in userlevels is highly unsatisfying, so don't. Basically, you delete one of the ninjas, and play the level as you normally would. Then delete the ninja you just played the map with and put back the other one and play back the demo. If he completes the level, you win.

Neither half of this map is really that fun by itself. But you have to think, visualize, as you're playing one half, what the enemies on the other half might be doing at that instant. Playing it with that mindset makes for a very intense but fun experience. Then again, you could just zoom through and flukily win, but where's the fun in that?


Onomatopoeia: Well, I'm certainly proud of this one. It came in stride with "Where did YOU come from?!," "Squib," and "Thump!" Around that time, I had decided innovation was more important than how fun a map is, and I made some crazy interesting maps. This is my favorite of the bunch. I like the way Linus described this map. It relies on the success rate of teleporters (which, as we know, can be unreliable in playable maps) to achieve its means. You have to know you can't approach a teleporter from the right or left, or you get smashed.

I think this map is bleeding style. The gold placement and ninty degree angles (though they provide little flow) satisfy most any aesthetic desire you could possibly have, and the concept in itself certainly makes this one worth playing.


Glitchtastic 6 - Points for Style: This and the other maps in the series are probably the thing I'm most famous for at the moment. In a true affront to sniperdom, this particular installment has been in the top thirty maps for about a month and a week now. This is my favorite of the series because, as its name suggests, it's very stylish. I also like it because it's got more variety and interesting jumpy things (that's a technical term) than its predecessors.

The Metanet community can certainly expect more from the Glitchtastic series, as it's the biggest ass ratings padder I've ever created...I mean...because I love making them and reading your comments.


Feels like...fascination...: This was the map I returned to Numa with fairly recently. I couldn't stay away. This is one of my faves, but not because of the gameplay or anything about the finished product of the map. I love it because I didn't think of that drone path dealy until I was about halfway done with the map. It was a complete afterthought. So, as that works so well in the map, I just love it.

As far as playing the map goes, you'll need a good deal of speed, but more helpful is precision. If you can make the required jumps the first time you attempt them, it's just a slightly tricky puzzle. I find this one very fun, and it's probably in my top ten favorites of mine.


Relic:I adore this. I just adore it. I don't care what all the other people are saying/said about it. It was inspired by the classic "Clearway" by Lucidium. I think it accomplishes the same aim, but with a bit more style and a lot more flow. You have to be super fast on this map, so don't get discouraged if you don't beat it on your first several tries.

In its early development, this map lacked flow, and had the cruddiest gold placement imaginable. After I cleaned it up, though, I really consider this a good looking, well executed, fun map.


The Dreaming Tree: Well, to top off the list, my greatest map, to date. I can safely say this is the only map ever made by anyone that I actually have emotional ties to. I don't know why. Perhaps it's because, as I made the map, I was very depressed, and channeled my emotions into a map that depicts a withered, dead tree. Something about the map made me happier. And I still can't reason why.

It's a bit of a throwback to old mine jumpers like "Crumble" and "Rite of Passage," but it's less cluttered, more simple, and much prettier. The map as a whole is not only very fun to play but also...just gorgeous. You can't look at it without wanting to play it. Eye candy? Perhaps.

I don't know if I'll make a better map than The Dreaming Tree. It's actually pretty unlikely. I'm slowly fading away from the Numa scene, and, while I'll likely never leave, my contributions have been and will continue to be getting fewer and fewer. As for now, I'm happy to look back through these maps, relive all the memories, and talk a bit about my favorite ten to the community. Thank you for this opportunity, Alex.



Aww, isn't he sweet?

Random Rates

TANNNEEEERRRRRRR

Love 'im.


Small Crevices by sneekfeet
1.5/5
In the description, the author writes, "Fun map...". Honestly, I thought it was going to be. I did have fun for the first little while, the switches were challenging but not overly difficult once you figured out how to get them. The goddamn gold, on the other hand, is just ridiculous. Some of it's fairly easy but there are certain pieces that are just annoying. I, for one, don't equate annoying with fun.

Pros:
- Mildly clever tileset. It really was a map that consisted of crevices.
- Decent problem solving. You can't just go right at some of the switches. There's a dance that needs to be carried out.

Cons:
- AGD's too hard. I don't think the difference in difficulty between a completion and an AGD (or even a mostly AGD) should be so large.
- Turrets behind bounce blocks aren't cool. They just aren't.


Laser Vision by john_jarvinen
3.5/5
I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but this reminded be a lot of 16-3. I actually really enjoyed it, though. It was different enough to be called a remix instead of a ripoff. I might have found a way to make it a little harder but I did still die twice. The rotating drones were a welcome introduction as well as the thwump-elevator.

Pros:
- Fun. Not exceptionally fun, but I wasn't bored.
- I have a soft-spot of Metanet remixes. I don't know why.

Cons:
- Too easy.
- This is still a remix and, as much as that doesn't bother me, I have to mention it.


Tilt by Psycho_CO
2.5/5
This is a tileset so it's going to be a little different. I personally, can't make a decent tileset to save my life so I'm always sort of in awe when people can churn them out like it's nothing. I wandered around in this one for a while and I wasn't struck by any sort of inspiration. It's a decent tileset, I guess. Visually, it's alright. The moving about is fine. But that's all it is. It's just fine. You could probably do something with lasers. It would probably be mediocre.

Pros:
- Visually appealing.
- Cohesive.

Cons:
- Didn't allow more movement to be as fluid as I like it to be.
- It's just so... ordinary.


Enemy Exchange by Musicwumusic
3/5
When you play this, you'll get halfway through and suddenly the level explodes. Seriously. I was like, "Holy shit." The first half is sort of boring but the second half is utterly frantic. You have to understand that Musicwmusic makes friggin' strange levels. Musicwmusic levels are to NUMA as noise metal is to music. You either love it or you hate it.

Pros:
- Second half is hella intense.
- It isn't dumbed down.

Cons:
- First half is boring.
- It isn't dumbed down.


USS 6 - Standard Drones by makron
1.5/5
This map is not good. It's not detestable, but it's just not good. The most important thing in a survival is the experience changes over time. The fact that that is vital is only too apparent in this map. The only thing that changes in this map is your position as you collect the gold. The gold isn't even especially difficult to collect. The most likely outcome if you're, like I was, playing the level in your user levels is that you collect all the gold and then just stand in one place, avoiding drones until you run out of time. It's completely unsatisfying.

Pros:
- The level is designed well. I would enjoy it if it wasn't a survival.
- I can dig drone levels every so often.

Cons:
- Waaaaay too easy.
- Experience does not change over time.

Uh, could someone please volunteer to do this week's Random Rates? It'd really make it easier for me!