User blog:Petuala/How to Make Better More Challenging Levels

Often people don't understand what makes a level 'good', so no one ends up playing their levels, and the few people who do usually 'boo' it, so I've decided to help increase your chances of success on Mario Maker.

Tip One-Having a Clear Goal
When building a level make it obvious what the players goal is using coins, arrows, etc. Players hate nothing more than working towards an uknown goal. This also means no misleading arrows leading player to their death. Don't be afraid to ask friends and family to play your level to see if the goal is clear enough to them.

Tip Two-Picking a Theme and Sticking with it
Players expect a level of Consistancy in their levels. I understand you may have tons ideas and cool concepts, but you can make them their own levels later, this will allow you to fully explore theses concepts in later levels.

Tip Three-Giving Players Contstant Acticity
No one likes waiting for an elevator in real life, this apply's to Mario Maker too. Don't make people wait to continue playing. You should try to make everything move at the pace of the average player.

Tip Four-Removing Fate from your Levels
Very rarely do people want to leave their success up to fate. If your players success doesn't soley rely on their skill; they will most likely skip to the next level. This includes making 'invisible blocks' neccesary to find as this takes forever and, by the time they do find them they have already lost intrest in your level.

Tip Five-Completing your Level in More Than Five Tries
If you're to beat your level in less than five tries it's probably not hard enough and will probably not challange others on your skill level. This means your level is probably not very fun.

Tip Six-Beating your Levels for Real
Somepeople enjoy making an excruciatingly difficult level and then using a secret door or vine to skip to the end. This typically means that the level is impossible or is not well play tested, and as soon as your players catch on to this they will 'boo' your level.

Tip Seven-Asking for 'Play-Testers'
'Play-Testers' are the first to play a game or level to make sure it is fun and works well. These can be anyone friends, family members, colleagues, etc. After they finish asked about things such as thoughts, possible improvements, what they liked and disliked about the level, etc. Thank you for reading this far; I hope these tips were helpful to you in some way.