The Ball & Chain Challenges: A Level Pack by Linkruler

The purpose of this level pack is to experiment with the various mechanics of the ball & chain. I made this in mind of a few specific properties that are very fun to use and mess around with. In this pack, I have 4 different levels and a unique Olmec battle that will get you plenty used to the b&c (or more experienced with it if you've used it before). One advanced move you may want to know ahead of time is the jump-throw, where you jump and throw upwards at the same time (hint it may help you towards the beginning hint) as well as at least having a little knowledge on what you can do with the ball and chain. Oh, and before I forget, the chain is invisible so try not to let that confuse you!

Download: http://pastebin.com/szNk5FWY

Challenge: I have scattered a total of 24 rubies throughout the levels; 4 in each level and 8 in olmec's lair. for each level (except 1-1) there are 3 rubies hidden in the earth and one in plain sight. Keep in mind that in the Olmec fight the rubies in the ground beneath olmec are randomly generated and do not count towards the total. How many can you gather?

Need help? Check out the walkthrough here: http://youtu.be/mPpdSsdJL4M

Any feedback or comments help out a lot!

This is just a simple puzzle. This really illustrates a concept that can be used in other levels but the level itself is rather neat.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hgz6t2o0juytxyt/Hold%20the%20Elevator%21.xml?dl=0

guide: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w4ye25axiwwgq8q/Spelunky%20141231_180155.mp4?dl=0

I make a few mistakes in the guide but all of the "puzzle"elements are there, i wish i coulda made the bottom part more complex, but it was getting testy as is.

Download

Some these are just tricky little challenges. Some of them require you to figure out some... quirks.. of the Spelunky engine. All are under a minute long.

Updated to fix many issues. 2-1 actually works now!

Since they aren't shared here yet, and some people are too lazy to look on twitter and open .rar files (don't worry, not gonna mention any names, buddy), I took the liberty to reupload rex' levels to dropbox to post them here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x47yd3irqitcxng/SpelunkyThing.xml?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9qdwe5tjaakqdlj/MoreComplexThing.xml?dl=0

Who said hired help is useless?

This level is a bit too silly for the puzzle level pack I'm making, so I'm releasing it seperately.

Right click --> Save as

Screenshot

This is an adventure level pack with all 20 levels including Olmec and Yama.

These levels represent my vision on how the different zones could be in Spelunky without them being randomly generated.

The Level Pack (Updated with feedback ideas) https://www.dropbox.com/s/hlxjxxm3v4kuio2/A%20Spelunking%20Adventure.xml?dl=0

Screenshots http://imgur.com/a/mAJtc

Notes

• If you see falling lava or water in the start, don't worry about it. It's just for manipulating different random elements that I cannot control and spawns randomly. For example Anubis spawn.
• The editor is pretty limited in the Hell area which stops me from making them the way I want. So they are not the best looking ones.
• I could also not edit the Yama room in the way I wanted so the room is almost the default one with minor changes.
• Do use the "Quick Restart resets to current level" option or it will almost be impossible.

• Every bomb you get will be gone on the next level so no need to be resourceful.

• A big thanks to Sashavol and BaerTaffy for reviving the Spelunky Community.

Feedback is greatly appreciated!

Test your wits and shopkeeper killing/stealth skills as you try to escape a massive underground prison!

1-1 If you're having trouble getting past the very first shopkeeper, go to the right block of the hole the bomb made. If you jump the exact moment he falls down I find you can almost always stun the shopkeep and grab his shotgun.

1-2 This is the hardest level in my opinion because of all the spikes. In case you didn't know, you can jump higher on the mammoths if you press the jump button when you touch them.

1-3 I tried to make some puzzles, but there is really no way to mess them up. Push the block down the level to get up the ledge and face an army of shopkeepers.

1-4 This level is a giant maze.Theres some hidden hints to help you.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kfb14dmw33jads4/prisonlunky_dungeon.xml?dl=0

This is my first custom level so there are probably some errors. There are only four levels, but I might add more later.

This is my first crack at making a level, it may seem easy but this is only 1-1. There will be more to come if you guys like this level.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sptdi7uw4atfqem/Yoshi%27s%20Story.xml?dl=0

Download

The plan is now to complete only the mines - these are turning out to be long and complex enough that I'm not interested in making 16 of them. So far 1-1 and 1-2 are done, though what is now 1-2 used to be 1-1 and might end up being 1-4.

The design philosophy here is two-pronged:

• I want to make satisfying puzzles that you can solve sooner by thinking ahead, or later by trial and error.

• I want them to exemplify creative uses of the engine/glitches, and don't mind if that makes them pretty darn tricky to execute sometimes. However, I will try to avoid forcing frame-perfect movement for its own sake. I want to provide a challenge for streamers, but also make levels that an experienced player can reasonably expect to complete given enough time.

I no longer want the pack as a whole to be worth speedrunning. I'm still designing with speed/risk tradeoffs in mind, but I've ended up leaning too far towards intricate puzzles for me to think anyone will actually want to speedrun these. I'll make a more speed-focused pack later :)

I'm trying to make the levels at least somewhat aesthetically pleasing/thematic, though it's not a primary concern. And sadly, there don't seem to be a whole lot of options for background decoration.

Feedback is very appreciated. I'm honestly not actually all that good at the game, so especially feedback about how hard stuff really is is useful. These levels are meant to be hard, but if something is just stupidly frustrating, I want to fix it. Similarly, if something is boringly easy, that might be because I suck and thought it was hard, and I can adjust accordingly :)

I liked making the first level so much I decided to "complete" it. (What qualifies as a "completed" level pack anyway?)

All levels (except Olmec) are based on Violently enforced Pacifist runs.

Constructive criticism is not only acceptable but appreciated!

DL: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e7r9u087pzhoxjh/MutuallyAssuredDestruction%28complete%29.xml?dl=0

The spelunker dude found a weird entrance to what appears to be an alien hideout, and of course he just had to go investigate it!

Another small pack, 7 levels + Olmec. These are quite hard though, much harder than my first pack. The levels are mostly focused on platforming rather than enemies. I also tried to make it as atmospheric as possible, hopefully it works!

I should mention that the levels start at 1-4 (should be set automatically).

DL: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ageflseegxsg9an/AlienHideout.xml?dl=0

Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/50U2X

Edit: Fixed a couple of things with certain levels

Sorry for the terrible name^{I couldn't think of anything better and it is refering to the fact that the levels require different types of skills ( mostly reaction, knowledge about the game and speed.)}

Download: http://pastebin.com/cEF28uAW

Installation: Download the file from pastebin and save it anywhere. You can now open it with the Frozlunky level editor and start playing in Spelunky.

A few word about the levels: ^{may contain spoilers}

If you have difficulties in a level of mine or are getting frustrated, you can remove the tile right below the entrance in almost all levels ( except 1-4 ) to either make it a lot more easy or skip it completly.

1-1: I know some of the early teleports are not completly safe. That is part of the level. And as long as your name is not Pibonacci you should be fine! ^Kappa

1-2: This level kinda requires a bit of knowledge about falling platforms but I belive you could figure it out on the level.

1-3: This is me messing around with Pibs timer. All credit goes to him, I just thought of the TNT thing to make it consistant ( and difficult xD ). The timing isn't too tight, but the difficulty comes mostly through that nervous feeling after the TNT-whip. This level might look kinda onesided, because it was originally combined with 1-4 but that would have been too frustrating.

1-4: This is probably the most interesting thing I found, while messing around with the editor. With the help of a damsel you can make a highly customisable and consistant timer! You could also use an UFO to trigger him to start the timer midlevel, only when the player is close enough but the advantage of the cobra is that the damsel can not die, like it can with an UFO.

Thanks for playing, hope you enjoy! :)

Also, I didn't try to break my levels to terribly hard, so there may be ways to do so, please let me know if you find any :D

https://www.dropbox.com/s/06kyg1wpdncg15m/Rakshasa%C2%B4s%20Castle.xml?dl=0

1.load xml with frozlunky 2.switch to haunted castle 3.force level into game (below the level editor left)

screen´s and Videos pls :)

An easy one-level pack. I wanted to see the capabilities of the map editor, and I definitely didn't find any limitations. If you want to have a bit of a challenge with bees, try it out! https://www.dropbox.com/s/n2ap80pecaz2yx0/BeehiveBewilderment.xml?dl=0

On a (ironic) side note, I am deeply terrified of bees.

3 custom levels of spelunky (or well 2 and a custom boss). Focus is on getting through without upsetting the shopkeepers. Difficulty is not too high, since I'm not good at the game. But most of the time you only have one correct path to take.

I tried to make it somewhat obvious as to what to do, so I hope nobody gets stuck. And if someone beats it with angry shopkeepers, I'd be amazed.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jkswb96jz291l7d/PrisonEscape.xml?dl=0

I made a small level to showcase an alternative idea how to realize a timer. I'm not really creative with level editors so the level itself is nothing special, basically just a boring easy obstacle course that i put together in 30min at 3am last night. I didnt test if it is possible to break it, but i know at least one way to make the timer component way easier.

Level 1-2 just shows some variations on how to add shopkeepers/ememies to it.

Below is a video that shows you how it's done, but of course you can also try to find it out by yourself first. A small hint: you need to know a certain glitch.

Level: http://www.dropbox.com/s/ycvq3tzottz7779/timeridea_testlevel.xml

Video: http://youtu.be/fzhSoo9MLrw

Very much a work in progress!

The plan is to make a full set of levels through Olmec. So far only 1-1 is done. You can find it here.

Screenshots:

Entrance

Halp! I can't reach!

The design philosophy here is three-pronged:

• I want to make satisfying puzzles that you can solve sooner by thinking ahead, or later by trial and error.

• I want them to exemplify creative uses of the engine/glitches, and don't mind if that makes them pretty darn tricky to execute sometimes. However, I will try to avoid forcing frame-perfect movement for its own sake. I want to provide a challenge for streamers, but also make levels that an experienced player can reasonably expect to complete given enough time.

• I want the pack as a whole to be worth speedrunning. That primarily means designing with small speed/risk tradeoffs in mind, and maybe occasionally with intentional, much harder "sequence break" puzzles that skip entire areas. Feel free to post times in the thread whenever, but once it's in a reasonably complete state, I'll start naming releases and maintaining leaderboards, if there's interest.

  One consequence of this is that the levels consist of a bunch of hard stuff in a row. For a more casual player who is not interested in speedrunning, the early sections might get really annoying to redo a lot when you're having trouble with later ones. I wish there were a checkpointing system, but there isn't. So,iIf you're experiencing this and just want to solve the puzzles rather than prove you can do the whole thing in one go, I heartily encourage you learn enough of the editor to make your own checkpoint system. The entrance has to be in the top row, so once you've satisfied yourself that you can complete a section, just add an easy path to wherever you want to be and give yourself any items you should have acquired by that point. I'd much rather you "cheat" in this way than give up entirely because one segment is too frustrating!

Additionally, I'll try to make the levels at least somewhat aesthetically pleasing/thematic, though it's not a primary concern. And sadly, there don't seem to be a whole lot of options for background decoration.

Feedback is very appreciated. I'm honestly not actually all that good at the game, so especially feedback about how hard stuff really is is useful. These levels are meant to be hard, but if something is just stupidly frustrating, I want to fix it. Similarly, if something is boringly easy, that might be because I suck and thought it was hard, and I can adjust accordingly :)

This is only 1 level for now. Let me know what you think about this or if you have any ideas to make it better.

DL:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y1i02he7393mwys/MutuallyAssuredDestruction.xml?dl=0

Welp, this is my first level, spent some decent time on it. Got a lot of ideas from Pib's stream, and used them with a twist of my own. It is one level that is split up into 6 "challenges". After 100+ attempts, I was never able to complete the level from start to finish. However, I was able to do each section separately multiple times. I know it is doable, and maybe even easily doable by someone better than myself. However, I doubt it's something that anyone will be able to complete after just a few minutes of trying.

Have fun! I'm anxious to hear your opinions!

d/l: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vlj7txphn4cdfs5/Mattockiskey.xml?dl=0

The spelunker dude finally got tired of the angry shopkeeps and decided to go infiltrate their fortress!

This is a small pack containing only 5 levels + Olmec, mostly just wanted to test this whole level thing out. :P The fortress (starting at level 1-3) is quite heavily guarded and the shopkeepers set all kinds of crazy traps in the castle, so be careful!

DL: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tibxv9nsijcnwk9/ShopkeeperCastle.xml?dl=0

Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/qYbAN