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[Xion]

Nice, Adam!
So you start in the upper left?
question: how exactly do you administer the syrum(s) and where do you find them?
'nother question: can you walk through debris/damaged?
I don't think you should lose your labcoat just by jumping and doing necessary actions. Maybe there's a vent somewhere that blows it off of you? I really like the idea of administering different syrums to each mouse. It'd be cool if each mouse had different behaviors and looks, too.
Just one more crit: That room to the left of lab 1B is a bit big. I think it could be cut in half and something else could go there, too.

Arg, All these levels need pixels! I want to see something fleshed out! But I'm lazy! Someone fix it!

[Jimbob]

Adam: A couple of things:
- Firstly, how are you meant to get past the guy in the staging area to the elevator without jumping or shimmying across the hole (I assume that's what you mean by 'mantle').
- Secondly, what will actually happen if they see you? Will there just be an exclamation a-la Metal Gear and it fades to black saying, 'You've been caught!' or something? Or just get kicked out of the reception door?
- What would be cool would be if you reduced the total number of mice to say, two or three, and you made the level design so that if they see you, they run in the opposite direction through holes you can't pass through. Thus, you have an added element of having to figure out a path to avoid being seen by the mice (and/or scientists to add a bit of spice) to inject the serum.
- Finally, as a cool side thing: Get rid of the hole in the reception and let the player (if he wishes) enter the room with the lab coat on, prompting an animated gesture or sound clip from the receptionist. Or maybe even a 'Gordon Freeman to the locker room' loudspeaker type Easter Egg. Utterly pointless to the level, but it requires backtracking and not a lot of people would think to do it.

Other than that, great idea.

[Caio]

Arg, All these levels need pixels! I want to see something fleshed out! But I'm lazy! Someone fix it!

How do we fix your laziness?

[ravuya]

Usually, you fix laziness with a high speed drill.

I'm really liking the idea of the lab coat being used to identify yourself as a scientist.  :D I demand 70s-style James Bond music while you're doing it, though.

[AdamAtomic]

Sorry I was busting that thing out in a rush earlier.  Let me add some extra explanation!

The level has basically two phases; stealth, and hunt & destroy.  The stealth phase involves stealing the actual labcoat item, then walking non-chalantly (so no jumping or crawling - you're a scientist for god's sake, act like one!) to the elevator to the lower levels.  When you arrive in 1B, the other scientists warn you not to go in there, somethings gone horribly wrong, and they're going to gas the lower levels despite the trapped assistant in subbasement 3.  But of course, you're Guy Fucking Balding, and you're not about to let that happen!  Being a fellow scientist thanks to your labcoatedness, you continue through the white door, and as you leap up onto the first pile of debris, your coat falls away, and you get your acrobatics on!

1 - The hole in reception is there mainly for fun.  If players should try to go in there, they'll be caught right away if they're not wearing their labcoat yet.

2 - You're right about there being a bug in the Staging Area.  And in Reception really - I had ladders there, but I forgot why, and took them out at the last minute.  NOW I remember why - so you could walk back across without losing your labcoat!  Thanks for the sharp eyes   That will be fixed in the final version.

3 - Xion, the right side of Lab 1A is a little bit boring, I'll try to spice it up!

4 - You get the serums from Lab 2D.  There will be 3 different serums in there, then once you rescue the lab assistant, a 4th.

5 - I think when you get caught like the whole screen will flash red, klaxons and sirens, then fade to black, and basically resets.  Though now that you've mentioned it, i don't see any way NOT to include the MGS '!'s :D

6 - Yeah actually I want people to visit Reception right after they get the labcoat, just to hear the receptionist or loudspeaker say something funny right off the bat.  BUT, I want to also have special text from all the scientists if you return to the upper levels after slaying the Mouse Queen, like "oh man Guy Balding you are so awesome - science can't even handle it!!"

7 - You can not walk through debris/damaged.

Finally, I will be pixeling the crap out of this level over the next week I promise :D  will be a decent amount of animation involved as well, but I think it will be worth it!

[AdamAtomic]

Also, talking with BMcC, I think we should coerce Tennis/Kenneth Fejer into doing a Kid Icarus extra board, and I'd like to volunteer to do the Super Mario Bros. extra board, complete with pipes and flowers and clouds and LAVA.

[AdamAtomic]

Long ways to go still!  Gotta go back and study Arne's maps a little more before I go too much farther...

[Xion]

That is AWESOME!
Great work, Adam. You've fixed my lazy!

[AdamAtomic]

hahaha i LOVE fixing lazy!  Here's my mario tileset (no level design yet so far):

[Alec]

Looking delicious! If only pixels were edible. 

[AdamAtomic]

Mostly done, have to animate the goombas, and do gfx for the fireflower + vine, possibly piranha plant, and those rotating fireball things in the castle portion (2 in the lower left there).  Oh yeah and bowser!

EDIT - woops forgot the ah picture

[Xion]

Whoa...semi-mandatory 3-gap jumps. 
Looking great Adam.

[Derek]

Yeah, that is incredible!

Great work, guys!  I hope to contribute more myself this week.

[Derek]

Just updated the first post with everyone's new level ideas.

[Derek]

Yay!  Triple post.  Just wanted to clarify that if you have a great level idea it doesn't have to fit into any of the current level themes.  The themes and map that Arne came up with should just be used as a guideline and nothing else.  So we can have more levels of a given theme than there's space for on the map, or we can have a level of a theme that's not yet represented.  The final map will be based on the levels that we create, and not vice versa.

I updated the first post with a note about that.

Sorry about the confusion.  It was only (relatively) recently decided based on the way level design was going that we wouldn't adhere to Arne's original map design (although I still think it's a great place to start).