Dev Commentary Time! Tilapia Trench Is Practically The Poster Child Of Remixes, To The Point That I Revealed

dev commentary time! Tilapia Trench is practically the poster child of remixes, to the point that i revealed this remix first and crammed it in all the trailers that i could find room for. like, a desert level that turns into an ocean? hot DAMN that's sick!! i wish i remembered what inspired the idea initially... it might as well have come to me in a vision!

have i posted this gif enough yet? no? here it is again.

unlike the 12 levels in the original plan, this one was made with remixes in mind from the get-go. that means a lot of the base layout of the level was already designed to be "punched up" in the remix, like this vertical pit that forms the centerpiece of the level. in the original the challenge is to avoid falling back into the plant at the bottom; in the remix, the eel is designed to harass you no matter how far up you are.

also love how this section has a shortcut designed to test your knowledge of standing vs running jumps...

speaking of the eels, these are a fully custom sprite! i think this might be my first character animation ever, so i'm pretty proud of what i was able to accomplish here. especially considering i chose the whole "recolored SMB1 tiles" aesthetic to avoid making my own sprites in the first place...

CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP

i also found some really old iterations on the eels buried deep in my screenshots folder; this first attempt was designed to be one tile wide, just like the plants (16 pixels). these don't look scary at all, they're just adorable!

nibble nibble nibble

the final eel sprites are one and a half tiles wide (24 pixels) to make them bigger and more imposing, as well as give myself more room to add detail. for the most part, though, they carry the same style as the smaller version... i knew i was on to something, i just couldn't make it fit in 16 pixels!

but getting back to the level... designing the base layout around making it remix-able means that i pretty much knew what i wanted to do the moment i started working on the remix. i wanted to focus on enemy bounces and flying gracefully over the whole level, just like you're swimming – even though you can't swim in this one.

and since i made this back in older versions of Mari0, that means i was using the old red coins... which can't move. so to build the level around enemy bounces, a lot of red coins were just floating in the middle of the screen, out of reach of a regular jump. you needed to get a running jump to reach them, or even bounce off an enemy at the right time! and if you missed, you had just a few stressful seconds to come up with a backup plan, or double back and jump again.

the first and second coins, respectively. they're too far up to grab from the ground.

this was... fine, when i wasn't designing the remixes for casual players to complete. but when i switched gears, i wanted to make it more fair for players seeing the level for the first time, while preserving the speedrun flow that i had already built the layout around.

that's when it hit me – i'm using a new red coin object, and i can do whatever i want. so i made them slowly drop into the ocean from the top of the screen!

left is the first coin, right is the second; top is the fast way, bottom is taking it slow.

it took a little work to line up the gravity so that speedruns collect them in the same places, but the result plays AMAZINGLY well and i'm really happy with how it satisfies both types of players. skilled players can grab them in style; casual players can wait for them to drop to the sea floor. it's way more forgiving and way more dynamic!

not discussed: these old cannons used to fire bullet bills underwater. they were changed to fire more cheep cheeps in the final... to feed the eels, of course.

in the old version, some red coins were already on the sea floor to begin with, caught in little corners that were admittedly a pain to get into. the new dynamic red coins allowed me to rethink those as well, giving skilled players a chance to nab them with a jump before they land in the corners. that makes running the level even more fun!

pretty slick jump, if i do say so myself.

all in all, between the main level and the remix, i think Dijon Dunes and Tilapia Trench are among the most polished levels in all of Retrush. i really pushed my limits here – inspired themes, custom sprites, a fantastic dual-purpose layout, and then elevating the remix with dynamic red coins... definitely one of my biggest level design accomplishments 💖

Tilapia Trench (A-3) | Retrush

The fish might be swimming in this sandy reef... but you still have normal gravity! Some well-timed enemy bounces will help you catch Red Coins dropping in from the top of the level, making for a fun, dynamic run~

Blueberry Blizzard (4-1) | Retrush

An icy mountain ascent with slim platforms and enemies flying overhead. Just one slip could cost dozens of precious seconds! The shortcuts here are very technically impressive... and very punishing if you miss.

Pierogi Pier (A-4) | Retrush

BOMBS AWAY! This battered boardwalk is under assault from constant cannon fire. Stay on your toes, because the explosions will open up shortcuts – and sometimes even *destroy* them!

dev commentary time! Kolache Keep was originally going to be called Ravioli Rampart – and stop me if you've heard this before, but this level was a LOT meaner under its original name. it needed lots of love to work into something that was fair to play!

the most obvious difference is that the animated tiles worked in completely unique ways – the original lava bridges would get hot over time and kill while they were flashing. compare the original opening section to the final, which are both teachable moments like Cinnamon Cavern!

(unrelated, you can also see in the gifs that the level featured spinies – the enemy choices were much meaner across the board, but they all got scaled back for the final.)

another major difference is that the old animated tiles were ONE cycle, whereas the new version uses two alternating cycles. in this middle section, for example, you were pretty much always forced to wait for the cycle at least once, even while speedrunning! much less forgiving…

changing the animated tiles to use an alternating cycle wasn't too hard – it uses the same timer as the single cycle, which means all the speedrun strats line up perfectly with the cycles from the old version. straightfoward to update and plays way better now!

one thing that was inadvertently made worse by the new animated tiles is this section with the locked door near the end. all of the old tiles were solid, meaning there was only one way through the room, to the switch, and back over to the door.

in the new version, the drop-through bridges add a new shortcut! …which people often think is the correct route on their first time through. oops! so i see a lot of people get confused about where to go here, even after i opened the room up and added coins to clarify the route.

either way, for the most part, the new animated tiles are a HUGE upgrade over the old ones for more than just the obvious – the old tiles were very touchy and killed the player over any little misstep. by comparison, the new tiles still kill the player… but only by falling in~

animated tiles aren't the only big change to the level – there were also some layout changes. like these, uh. what do i call those random floating tiles up there? i have no idea why i added them in the first place. so i gave them some context and added a bit of challenge to them!

there's also this setpiece, which was a stressful balancing act across a bunch of fire blasters. besides the way they were arranged to fire at the player on the lower steps, these were removed because i don't like making the player platform on one-tile-wide platforms over pits!

this was changed to tie into the level's gimmick more closely and rely more on good jump timing; the bridge alternates sides while a blaster fires over your head. still tense, but much safer, and way easier to speedrun!

honestly, the only remnants of how mean this level used to be are the fire blasters themselves, which fire quite fast and without proper warning! but even though i forgot to tone them back, there are so few of them left in the level that they don't ruin the experience.

so hopefully by now you have a good idea of how i go about polishing these levels! a lot of simple tweaks that feel big and make a big difference when the player actually gets to them… while preserving the flow of the original as much as possible~

Kolache Keep (3-4) | Retrush #Mari0

This classic castle features bridges that sink behind the lava on a timer, meaning less room to slip past the fire bars and other enemies. The cycles all line up for an impressive run, but the execution is extra tight!

i remember just enough about these levels that i can't contain my excitement. experimental blends of mario and portal elements. wildly inconsistent castles. WAY too many mazes. impossible to guess secret paths. levels so bad i buried them on purpose. an honest to god plot twist

y'all have NO idea what we're in for on friday it's gonna be magical. i'm going to be so nostalgic. i'm going to cringe into the stratosphere

FRIDAY'S FEATURE STREAM: come watch me replay my first ever Mari0 fangame, New Super Mario World! i haven't seen it in years, so i'll be live-reacting to all of my old levels – the good, the bad, and the VERY ugly. this is a one-of-a-kind stream that you don't want to miss!

New Super Mario World was the VERY FIRST time i got to make Mario levels, ever. before even Super Mario Maker! as we go through all 60 levels, you'll get to see where i got my start as a level designer while i reminisce on old memories and lessons learned. it's gonna be a good time~

the stream airs on Friday, June 2nd at 7pm central time (UTC-5)! you can view the time in your time zone or add it to your calendar from my Twitch schedule: https://www.twitch.tv/skysometric/schedule?segmentID=a1a31b05-4ed2-41c3-b998-504f22509537

you can also follow me here or on Twitch to get notified when i go live: https://www.twitch.tv/skysometric

Earl-Grey Electricity (4-2) | Retrush

This storm-driven power plant is a maze of portals and platforms aplenty, making the routes hard to follow and the shortcuts even harder to spot. Running this level takes a keen eye and solid execution!