To keep you updated:

My latest one, BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET, is now - slowly - nearing completion. (Of the basic building process, that is.)

It's gotten quite big..... at the moment about 130 rooms, or so.

Also - as I had mentioned elsewhere on these pages, due to the "improvisational design process" the story has considerably moved away from the initial "Jack is in space / emergency-lands on strange planet" - scenario, even if the beginning with the ejection seat still stands.
Somehow the layout of many later rooms didn't really turn out very "extra-terrestrional" at all....   :-[   ahem.. :-/     :'(

So I thought I could do either of 2 things:
1.  Trash the opening sequence and rename the whole mansion.....  or:
2.  Leave the opening sequence in, and treat the mansion name quite literarilly:   Jack IS the brother from ANOTHER planet, which doesn't have to mean he has to emergency-land on a "strange" planet.
It could very well be our own blue one....only he's not sure where exactly he is.  And we - as players - aren't that sure either, 'cause there are enough unusual, "strange" looking rooms in the first half.

I tend to go with solution number 2.

Any opinions ??

Option 2 sounds just fine to me.

If you already put a lot of work in, you should definitely try and save everything you did.

Can't wait to play your new mansion!   :D

My Jack Wants So Bad To Try The Ejection Seat, please don't remove it !!!!!  (remember, he is a tad suicidal  ;))

thanks,

SandyBean

(Jack made me do it!)

Yeah, please keep it all in. Can't wait!
[smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Wow, thanks for the feedback !!

That's decided, then !

I'll leave it in......  
....but I hope it won't backfire on me that we have talked about this "ejection seat" scene now repeatedly....I can see how expectations are building up unproportionately..... :o   ;)
Please don't expect too much.....and then be disappointed.
It's just a lil' gimmick, really.

Thanks for the positive, encouraging remarks.

I'm off....building.   8-)

Hi aquaMat !

Be disappointed........ya right !  By one of your mansions???  Me and my Jack don't think so !

Looking forward to it, hope it's soon, as we are going through MM withdrawal.  

thanks, and take care,

SandyBean  [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Hey aquamat, check your PM's   :)

Uh oh... another one of AquaMat's crazy (but awesome) masterpieces. :) I haven't finished that last one he made yet, still stuck somewhere, I think... :P

Your mansion building style still befuddles me though. You have a very unique style. :P A very cool style, might I add.

Wingy, my man!

That wasn't what I intended..... that a mansion of mine is so a) hard or b) boring  that a master practitioner like yourself is forced to give up on it.
I'm truly worried.  
But I know what you mean.  For me, this often happens with Freddie's designs. I completely admire them and I do like them....  but usually somewhere in the second third of one of his designs I can't seem to get further and eventually give up.
I know I shouldn't though, so I retry half a year later - maybe get a little further maybe not. But still can't finish before I lose patience.

However, I had always hoped this phenomenon is not the case with my designs....and - luckily - until now I haven't heard too many complains.  
Maybe one nice winter day you'll find the time to re-try "The Complex", I assure you it's perfectly manageable. (I even consider it to be less hard than many earlier ones.....).

For you, and all the others - here's a teaser preview of one room only (from BFAP):

---

aquaMat wrote on 03.11.2009 at 19:18:11:

Wingy, my man! That wasn't what I intended..... that a mansion of mine is so a) hard or b) boring  that a master practitioner like yourself is forced to give up on it. I'm truly worried.   But I know what you mean.  For me, this often happens with Freddie's designs. I completely admire them and I do like them....  but usually somewhere in the second third of one of his designs I can't seem to get further and eventually give up. I know I shouldn't though, so I retry half a year later - maybe get a little further maybe not. But still can't finish before I lose patience. However, I had always hoped this phenomenon is not the case with my designs....and - luckily - until now I haven't heard too many complains.

In the end this is really a matter of taste.  I myself like Freddy's mansions very much.  There is something about his building style that stimulates me.  It has very little to do with how easy/hard they are.

In my opinion, therefore, we should all be reluctant to critizise the bulders' building style.  There will always be someone who likes or dislikes a special building style and that is quite normal.  If I, for example, decide to make another mansion, I will not be deferred from my building style for 2 reasons:
1. I like it myself  ;)
2. I know that at least some of you like it.

Speaking of Freddy, he disappeared again. I hope he's able to come back soon!

I'm sure he'll be back, eventually. . . Hopefully in time for the MMExpansion pack to be released  ::)

brell wrote on 03.11.2009 at 19:50:05:

In the end this is really a matter of taste.  I myself like Freddy's mansions very much.  There is something about his building style that stimulates me.  It has very little to do with how easy/hard they are.

Dear Brell,
this was in no way intended as a criticism of Freddy's design. As I said - I like & admire his mansions....and I'm sure he knows that (as we have several times spoken about my "dilemma").
Although it's not entirely a question of how hard, I do think it does play a part...... but not in the sense that the designs would be too hard.
No - it's rather this certain harder quizzical style which - in my case- above a certain level, gets harder than my patience allows.
I'm fully aware that my patience is at fault here, not Freddy's design.
That's why I said I admire the designs. The same goes for Psychotronics "wonderful beast" A Curious Observatory, which I absolutely love and replay time and again.....but still have not fully mastered. At times it drives me just crazy....and I pack it in for a few months.

But - after all THAT EXCTLY is the point why we love MM (+ especially the custom mansions) so much...... where else can you have years + years of fun for 20 $ admission?  And I don't even begin the talk about the fun that's to be had when you start building.  For me that has really become a beautiful hobby / pasttime ..... a vocation  ;) even ??


brell wrote on 03.11.2009 at 19:50:05:

In my opinion, therefore, we should all be reluctant to critizise the bulders' building style.  There will always be someone who likes or dislikes a special building style and that is quite normal.  If I, for example, decide to make another mansion, I will not be deferred from my building style for 2 reasons: 1. I like it myself  ;) 2. I know that at least some of you like it.

Here, I'm not so sure (in this context)..... because - see above. There was no real design criticism involved.  And we should be able to talk freely about our shared mansions, without silencing ourselves through political over-correctness.

When it starts to get personal, or unfair though.....that is another question. Then I'm fully with you.

PS: Nobody would ever want you to change your building style, and neither anybody else's (unless it is technically faulty, of course).
Why? Because that IS exactly the interesting thing: the custom mansions bring so many new and different sides to the game......just think of all the innovative things we've come up with, stuff of which Vern never had thought..... just by using or mis-using the normal tools he has given us.

Don't worry, Brell.....  a little talk like the one above will not bring up an atmosphere where anyyone would reasonably want to stop or change any other designer from doing HIS stuff HIS way.

Back to topic:

Dear friends.... you might remember that I mentioned that "Brother From Another Planet" was almost finished already a few weeks ago.
Well, indeed it is finished (at least the design process) since mid-December or so.... but - I decided to let it "rest" for 2 weeks until my Xmas holiday, 'cause I felt I needed to look at it from another perspective. I was too close.

And indeed - when I played & tested it on my Mum's TFT-equipped iMac (which always helps me w/ the dark colors, as you might remember) I was shocked how hard it is in certain spots.  Having not played it through for at least 3 weeks let me come at it almost "fresh"......well - not quite, but at least all the perfect finger movements for jumps and other timed stuff had gone from my memory (a bit), so I wasn't playing as good. I admit - in certain rooms I was shocked to see "that's how it must feel for any other player, someone who has not designed that himself. That's insane.".

So I decided to make a few things a bit easier again, wherever that is possible... others I will leave as they are.
It still will be a mansion with a considerable amount of "extra hard rooms".... but as usual I tried to counterbalance that w/ enough money and more than enough saves.

I know how good it would be..... but I simply do not have the time and energy to build an additional EASY or NORMAL version...  and I don't even think it would be possible. Sorry for that.  I know there'll be players out there who will find it "too hard" or even (I hate that word in this context) "unfair"..... but I really don't include those kind of hard spots to frustrate anyone.... just to make it interesting.

However, in this case I really decided to change a few things back to a little easier - I got carried away....  ;) 8-)

So - please give me another few weeks until release.

Thanks,
aquaMat 

Really looking forward to it.
8-)

Hi aquamat- maybe you could have an "experts only" area in the mansion, that would be optional? That would save you from redoing the hard parts, and less-skilled players would still be able to complete the mansion.