Matan's Talk Corner: Is PlatinumQuest EASY or HARD?

Might as well post something Matan said on the webchat here too:

mbp was made in 2006-2007
the community and their ideas of level difficutly and how they should've been made are super different to today
when mbp was made, it was for that community back then
complaints about not being fun started in 2009
so when pq was made, it was for the new age of how levels should be made (something that holds today)
however despite all those complaints
people still make super hard frustrating levels
see, frostfire's early levels
everyone says "make fun and easy levels" and complain about mbp
but make tough levels themselves
they eventually learn how to make the fun and easy levels
complains about difficulty mainly
and length
so pq is the opposite of mbp
(for most part)
as it turns out, no one has an idea of what a good level is, but generally easier/shorter levels gather better response, especially from casual-standpoint of view
pq followed these guidelines:
fun/replayability top ranked, originality/creativity second ranked
we limited time length for levels as 2 minutes, which forced us to think outside the box
we allowed VERY FEW levels past-2 mins or to be outrageously hard
and guss what, it took us 6 months to realise how to make fun/replayable levels that are under 2 mins and have originality/creativity to them (and reminder, 95% of pq's features didnt exist back then)
so basically, don't give up and put more time and effort into levels
we put in a lot of effort into pq
it won't be to everyone's liking
but we learned from the community and the way it evolved over the years
if you look at the levels featured in the trailers and spotlights
you'll see how we followed suit with those guidelines
and that was the response we got from 2009+'s community

Also, we'd like to thank the majority of Threefolder's free time for all of these campaths.

I must admit that new level select interface is a pure feist for the eyes. Also glad to see the level builders change how they make their levels.

When I saw "Matan's Talk Corner" I knew I was living a [strike]nightmare[/strike] dream!
This looks absolutely sublime and I can't wait for the demo!

I made a better transcript since I'm more fluent in Matan-ese. Enjoy: pastebin.com/JaEP3mgZ

Woohoo, PQ demo will be out next month! That means more levels for me to destroy! Unfortunately, though, I will be starting college around the time it will be released so unfortunately I doubt I'll have much time to try it out .

This looks amazing! Really impressed with the level select and I can't wait to try out the levels in the demo.

Hmm, do you know about how many levels will be in the demo?

My reactions :
HOLY CRAP THE LEVEL SELECT!!!?!!!!!

And that's about it to be honest

I really like the Hints feature and the scroll thing for selecting the levels. But the thing I liked MOST is the level preview. Like, I have never thought about this before, and it's mind-boggling!

Very intriguing video, I love the level select idea, although (as frosty said) bigger icons are preferable. Also surprised to hear the release of demo next month, although unlikely that I would play it, I could watch people fail in it.
Also thanks to hPerks and Threefolder for the scripts, I wish they were available for all Matan's videos.

The Level Select is sooooo Cool!

I'm so glad you did this!
Everything looks great, super excited for August. Sad that you didn't make it funny though (I wanted to see you play the level the "noob" way), but it showed off a lot. Level select is awesome! Good job Platinum Team!

Imperial wrote: I love the level select idea, although (as frosty said) bigger icons are preferable.

We've already started updates to the actual GUI of the level select. What's in the video was the conceptual idea; we're now using a modified design from Paperboy which features, among other things, larger images.

Finally there are fly-bys! It's about time!

And the level select is really gorgeous.
May I suggest more gui animations, like zooming in/out, fading, and such?

Not sure that kind of stuff is possible in the engine (UI is REALLY finicky when it comes to that), but as HiGuy said, what you see in the video is a WIP.

Good news: Next month PQ demo will be released. Bad news: College classes start August 24th for me. Hopefully I'll find some time in between to try it.

Im Surprised To Hear That The PlatinumQuest Demo Will Be Released On August (idk what day) 2016!

The new menu looks great. It sorta reminds me of the MBU menu, except the camera isn't fixed.

I'm really excited to hear and play PlatinumQuest. It seems like a fascinating game that will open many gateways and doors to the Marble Blast World -- more than ANY game has ever seen. I commend everybody for the work they have put (along with those people banging their heads on the keys while trying to code.) into this amazing project.

"This board has all the info released so far about PlatinumQuest that you're looking for. We don't have a release date yet, though, but most likely by late 2011." -Andrew 2010
Six years later...

The demo is finally (almost) here!!!

-INATG