Dev Commentary Time! I Think Toffee Tracks Is The Worst Looking Of The Main Levels, Even After Several

dev commentary time! i think Toffee Tracks is the worst looking of the main levels, even after several art passes for design and readability... ah well, can't fault myself for my ambition! there's just no good tiles for train cars in the SMB1 tileset.

two major readability fixes were the doors and the windowsills, both of which still aren't perfect… the doors were going to have a foreground effect that made it too hard to see if they were locked, and even now people frequently mistake the windowsills for window dressing.

the wheels are probably my least favorite animated tile in the game, a weird combination of the castle door and flagpole top from SMB1. that's not to say they're *bad,* but i definitely wanted to give these a second pass... and never had time ^^;

a major source of cut content is that the train cars were intended to have graffiti of Mario sprites! ultimately, this was never fully implemented – i had already copied over the remix, and it would be too tedious to manually update both sets of train cars with matching graffiti.

why did the graffiti come in so late? i was having trouble finding a place to add a star around here, and the best i could come up with was a hidden piece of star graffiti under the windowsill. so i decided to justify it by adding graffiti everywhere else too!

early versions of Mari0 didn't have a "background" tile layer, so if i wanted to put a ? block in that train car, it'd look kinda weird (see below). that's why all the other blocks in the level are in the windows!

long story short, i couldn't find a good place for the block without changing the train car's existing layout, hence the graffiti idea. but the graffiti was too much of an undertaking, so the whole thing got scrapped...

and in the end, i forgot to put a star there at all! WHOOPS

finally, there's this section – i don't think i conveyed very well that the key on the right is in fact intended to be a fake. it's a different color than the door, but that takes time to realize... too much time when you're in a hurry and have only seen keys in one other level!

the fake key launches you to the other side, with intent to minimize confusion and time lost... but i think it just made players more confused!

i wish i'd put the fake key on the left – it still wouldn't have been clear that it's a fake, but it'd have been less confusing.

Toffee Tracks is a weird level with a lot of regrets, but i still think it plays decently well, especially after the Portal switches were replaced with keys. it's at least a lot more dynamic that way, and has some neat shortcuts! not the worst, but it definitely shows its age.

Toffee Tracks (2-1) | Retrush

A race to the caboose! Find the right keys to get in and out of each train car. Once you find the key, use portals to skip the trek back to the door! Just don't disturb the passengers along the way...

nine years of development time comes with nine years of developer's commentary! so starting on Monday, as i post video playthroughs of each level, they'll come with additional threads featuring behind the scenes details, early versions, and cut content 💖

videos will go live at the usual 11am slot, with threads to follow in the evening once i get off work!

Oregano Oak (3-3) | Retrush

A classic athletic style level with a fresh coat of paint! The flying enemies provide lots of opportunities for bouncing to shortcuts on higher platforms... and with good timing, some of the falling enemies do too!

dev commentary time! Watermelon Walls was another of the very earliest levels from the first demo nine years ago. but unlike Pineapple Pipeline, this one's had some substantial improvements over the years!

the most obvious change is the color palette, which tones down the red and adds a splash of green to fit the watermelon theming. i swear, you could barely even see Mario or the enemies in the old version...!

and speaking of colors, before this area was two-tone... the bricks were instead invisible, and you had to feel your way around with the portal gun. while spinies were piling up around you! how did i think this was okay!!

in fact, pretty much the entire second half of the level was similarly reworked. like, this jump required perfect precision JUST to get barely saved by the blue gel??? i like the new version much better, Thank You Very Much!

so between reworking so much of the nonsense and running out of steam getting that first demo out the door nine years ago... this level is weirdly short? i think that's fine, it doesn't overstay its welcome.

a lot of the level's mechanics are based around the consequences of slowing down. the lakitus have a long wind-up on throwing spinies, so they don't show up as much if you're running. the koopas here destroy the bridges, but only if you slow down and kick them.

remember how i said there used to be mushrooms and flowers in early versions of retrush? of all the early levels, i think the slower pace of this level's mechanics makes it uniquely suited to having power-ups.

which makes it weird that there were only, like, two mushrooms. instead, oddly, this level had more 1-ups in it than mushrooms?? even though the mappack has infinite lives???

…as it happens, infinite lives were a last minute decision for the first demo, and i didn't have time to remove all the 1-ups! you can tell i was in a rush… a RETrush [roll credits]

most of the 1-ups were buried in hidden blocks and random bricks that probably nobody ever found. several of them got converted to stars for the final release, and given a bit more visibility so they'd actually be of some use!

finally, i'd like to touch on the music choice - my partner @harmonyfriends picked this one out! i think it's a fantastic fit that i wouldn't have found otherwise. i just wish the stage wasn't so short, so you could hear more of the song...

Watermelon Walls (2-3) | Retrush

This rooftop run tests your confidence, with lots of quick tricks backed up by safer, slower strats for casual players. Just don't take it too slow, or the Lakitus will swarm the area with enemies!

Toffee Tracks (2-1) | Retrush

A race to the caboose! Find the right keys to get in and out of each train car. Once you find the key, use portals to skip the trek back to the door! Just don't disturb the passengers along the way...

Pineapple Pipeline (2-2) | Retrush

Swim up the waterfalls to the top of this filtration plant! Watch your ascent, as there's plenty of enemies overhead. The open-air layout hides speedy shortcuts and strategies in plain sight...