The Custom Level Megacollab

[swietymiki]

Tomorrow (4th of April) will be the first anniversary of our Gruntz chat on Discord. On this occassion, we decided to make something special, something which would involve a bigger part of the Gruntz community. As you can guess from the title, we are planning to create a big collaboration on a Custom Level (Quest, obviously).

What's important is that anyone can join, even if one never visited our Discord, or created a Custom Level. All that's required is time and willingness to learn. As I'm writing this, we already have 5 people confirmed to be participating, but we are always looking for more. Post a reply here or contact us on Discord if you want to participate, but you must sign up before 8th of April.

The size of the map will depend on the number of designers, so we can't decide it before the submitting period ends. Each participant will have a designated, equally sized spot for his puzzles, divided from the other designers' areas by an impassable barrier. Checkpoint pyramids will be the only passage between neighbouring players, so the level will be generally linear. Whoever creates the first part starts off with only one barehand Grunt and his goal is to create two new Gruntz, to a total of three. These three Gruntz will be passing through all other puzzle areas (like in Guenter's The Three Musketeerz) cooperating with each other.

There used to be more rules here but they got moved to a separate post below the designers' order.

To make things go smoothly, the participants will be required to "register" their chosen unique tool in advance. The Gruntz entering each area will be known, which allows everyone to work on their part simultaneously! Later we'll just merge all these sections into one using a program based on Tomalla's WWD Framework and after applying some final touches it will be ready for release.

Any news and updates about the Megacollab will be posted in this thread!

[athrun]

If this is the signup thread, I'll sign up here. Newbie in general at creating any kind of custom levels, but seems like fun.

[swietymiki]

Alright, I added you to the list.

There is also an ongoing poll, which will decide the graphic set of the level: poll finished, link removed

[SwordGrunt]

This is good stuff, I'm looking forward to it. Definitely want to take part, I'll stay tuned on this thread.

[swietymiki]

Of course something had to prevent us from going to the next phase of the collab on time, but now the registration is finally closed. There will be 8 designers in total, including 2 who have never created a Custom Quest. After each person picks a unique tool and chooses his position in the order, we will be able to start. The list will be updated here:

1. athrun - Gauntletz, Barehand, Barehand
2. @benadnam - Gauntletz, Spongegun, Barehand
3. Tomalla - Gauntletz, Spongegun, Bootz
4. BattlezM - Gauntletz, Toob, Bootz
5. Theo - Gauntletz, Toob, Bricklayer
6. SwordGrunt - Gauntletz, Shovel, Bricklayer
7. swietymiki - Gauntletz, Shovel, Springz
8. MMM - Bomb, Shovel, Springz

The graphic set that received the most votes in the poll was "High on Sweetz". This is the map layout:

[swietymiki]

We're finally ready to begin. For those participating, please read the ultimate rules and gameplay guidelines list once again:

- You can only add 1 previously chosen unique tool to your part, in addition to "inheriting" them from the previous ones, and are encouraged to make puzzles based around the use of this tool
- There is no limitation to the number of toys, powerups and coins in each part but please include these with deliberation
- Calling for items by megaphones is allowed, just make sure there's no way to keep it in the Gruntz Machine for a later part
- You can't kill and replace your Gruntz (no Conversion powerup)
- Tightly timed or unfair puzzles are not allowed, don't try to make the level hard on purpose
- Only place logics and tiles on your designated plot, don't change the size of your area and don't move the checkpoints
- Place a single Red Warp leading to your secret platform in the corner, rewarding the solver with coins
- Every part must contain one (somewhat hidden) Orange Switch, working like the ones in The Final Battle - pressing all 8 Switches will unlock a path to the final secret in the fort area and the WARP letters

Everyone starts simultaneously and fills their area on the map layout which is available for download from the Discord server. The deadline is the end of April but of course you can submit your part earlier. If something remains unclear, please contact me as soon as possible.

[swietymiki]

After a month full of hard work, the level is ready to enter the Beta phase! I just merged all the parts together and so far it's looking good. As a little sneak peek, have this screenshot of the in-game minimap:
Attachment Deleted

[powerfulmind]

It's so hard to find the boundariez of each Designer's zone... And that means, you all made some good work!
Waiting for this CL to publish! 

[swietymiki]

In case someone randomly stumbled upon this thread, the level has been released under the name 8-Layer Frosted Cake.