Drawing Levels Pre-JJ2
 

I've been meaning to make this poll for a while, and seeing what Tik wrote here (second paragraph) reminded me to create it. This should be an interesting poll simply because you wouldn't really expect too many others having the same odd drawing hobby as you used to, yet that may be the case. The question is, have you ever drawn levels on paper way before knowing about JJ2? I mean something along the lines of drawing the entire layout to a homemade Sonic or Mario level.

Bonus points if you have any level drawings to share.

I have drawn game concepts on paper long before I've played jj2, and I used to draw commander keen levels when I was 5.

I even made levels in other media for JJ2 before knowing about JCS.

Tons. Really. Back when I was 6 or so, I filled a whole around 200 page A4 notebook with a simplistic (a stickman walking on straight lines and fighting evil man-eating plants) platformer game, which I passed myself by drawing character's track with lines, where for example a loop in the line could mean a punch or a salto and so on. I lost the notebook long, long ago, but I have some Mario level drawings back home. I could scan them next week if anybody wants to see.

Lol yeah, I planned an entire game which spanned like 5 A5-notebooks and probably a couple of A4 ones too.

2*A5=A4

In theory. But i'd say 1*A4 > 2 A5*since you rarely put something in the very margins of a paper.

Hah. This explains quite a few things :)

And well, it looks like I'm not the only one who had drawn entire game designs on paper. What's even better, my last (and apparently the biggest) one was inspired by JJ2 (I was using 640x480 and couldn't use JCS :D ), which includes the custom levels included in the TSF release. Half of the environments were grandly "derived" from JJ2 - I had levels which took place in an english colony(!), a grassland planet with purple mushrooms(!), a laboratory(!), and a rabbit land with big carrots(!!), which I used for the last two levels (Carrot Cream Clone had impressed me quite a lot). I even remembered to use different tile colors for each level and to use alliteration in the names. I was amazing. :(

I'm more happy with the enemy designs I made up, though. I was a little disappointed with JJ2's scarce variety of those, and wanted to have a little more fun with turtles (yes, I used turtles as the basic enemy). I remember that I made a variation of the Normal Turtle with a lantern mounted on its shell, so that he could be used in the 'Colonius' levels. There were even day/night versions with the lantern respectively lit on/off. Cute )=

I don't think I ever drew any levels before experiencing JJ2. I was only seven when I first played JJ2, anyway, and (still) not much in the way of drawing. But like (probably) anyone who played platformer games (JJ1) I imagined it, and did have ideas. This post contains many parentheses.

I used to draw levels for Supaplex on paper and I made some levels to play as well. And I made levels for some other games as well, but I didn't draw those levels on paper.

Yeah. Before I learned how to use JCS I used to draw out jj2 levels on paper. Actually, I seem to have done the same thing for quite a few other games I've played when I was young. I used to have about 3 notebooks of levels I've drawn for Donkey Kong or something, hahah. I'd assume my entire collection of drawn game levels would span a tome of some considerable size..

Before 2003 (the year I got JJ2) I drew stuff for other games (not rarely my own thought-up games), but then I got pretty much fascinated with JJ2 but I couldn't use JCS back then and drew levels for JJ2. (also the drawings sucked) I dunno where most of the stuff I drew is now. Sometimes I still draw stuff for other games on paper. =D (my stuff doesn't suck as much as in the past now)

About drawings of JJ2, I didn't actually find much drawings of levels, but I found lots of planet and enemy designs. ;P

One of the games I wanted most during my childhood was Worms. I used to play the demos over and over again, and that led me to draw 'levels'. They were mostly 2D battlescenes in Worms landscapes with a lot of simultaneous action and gore, neither of which were really present in the games.

You should see my collection of crayon-drawn platformer levels.

Oh, yeah... I also made 3D level layouts (mostly puzzle-type games) out of building blocks, LEGO, Playmobil, and whatever else was handy. :) Lots of castles, bridges, slopes and whatnot for the basic structure, then it'd get lavished with lots of objects the player (usually a parent) had to use in some specific order, like vending machines and buttons and wings and whatnot. Who needs the limitations of paper?

Oooh, I did that too. Although more often I made 3D board & dice games this way.

Yes. I am a total geek.

I remember coming up with game ideas using Lego and such. Not levels per se, but entire game ideas.

Don't flatter yourself. Now on topic, yes I did. To proof that I am the most creative person in this community I will tell you what I did: I made some sort of console from paper and its design was like so you could slide paper through it and I drew one long paper with the level and enemies and bosses and I drew a character and cut it out so you could move the character with one hand and with the other hand I let the paper slide though the console to get further in the game. It did not really worked that well though. :mad:

I drew some levels in paint and on paper as well when when I was young.

I probably had enough Mario, Kirby, and Donkey Kong Country level designs to fill a book.