Meet the Judges
Each level was judged by five judges based on a score rubric, out of 50 points, and was ranked based on the average of each judge's total score. Each level was also given a comment by each judge that conveys their thoughts about it. Below are messages from the five judges introducing and talking about themselves.


![]() The Stage Nobody Asked For Least Favourite Level: Forgotten Fortress |
Hii!! I'm SnoruntPyro, also known as Pyro, and I'm the one responsible for this game and its predecessor! For those that don't know, the concept of Make a Good Mega Man Level was basically ripped off from the Make a Good Level contests, which are based around Mario engines (Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. X mainly). I'm super happy that my dumb little idea was able to get so huge with 81 submissions and so much more beyond it!! But enough about the contest itself and more about me as a judge because that's what this monitor is supposed to say.
The levels I love the most are the ones that either take an existing idea and run with it in crazy new ways, or come up with some new, really cool concept and do tons of things with it. I'd say I'm all about creativity, honestly. If you make a level that has nothing but Mets, Sniper Joes and Shield Attackers, don't be expecting any high praise with me. Have variety and do something cool and creative! I don't like playing rompy levels very much and even really badly designed levels with a cool idea I can still have some appreciation for. I also am not an artist, like, at all. If your level is made entirely of a glitched graphic looped over as every single tile I probably wouldn't care. If the gameplay is great, I couldn't care less about the visuals. This is why I am insanely generous with aesthetics scores, lol. I don't have an eye for 'eye searing palettes' or cutoff or anything like some other people do so any graphical errors will fly over my head. I'd at least like to think that I can definitely appreciate some great visuals but sometimes I tend to forget about them. Because of this, if I play a level where its main draw is some kind of spectacular visuals or something I'm going to leave the level thoroughly unimpressed. tl;dr if a level has a new or cool idea you'll have me reeled in, and then do some great design with it and I'll love it <3. I try to look for the best in every level, and as such I ended up as the insanely nice judge again, just like the last contest. Though the times where I scored a level the lowest also amuse me ;p. This contest was super fun to judge though, and I hope you as a player can enjoy it! |


![]() Identity Crisis Least Favourite Level: Holy Crap! Mega Man Can Air Slide?! |
Hey, I'm JupiHornet. I've been playing Mega Man games since 2010. I'm also a moderator on SMBX.org and a co-owner of the Geometry Dash forums, but who cares about that stuff :v
Here's the thing about me. If you give me one level that's absolutely horrible, and another level that has a ton of potential but fails in execution, I'd dislike the second level more. I'd rather be able to chuckle at a terrible level than be disappointed in one with a lot of promise and bad execution. That all being said, flashy gimmicks and custom assets alone won't earn your level a high score. The most important things are design and fun factor! To me, it doesn't matter that much how original your stage is, or how good it looks. If it's badly designed and not fun, chances are it won't get a high score from me. |


![]() The Stage Nobody Asked For Least Favourite Level: Yggdrasil |
Hey there, I'm Enjl. If you haven't heard my name before it's because I don't frequent Sprites Inc.... at all, really. I'm a nerd who's been studying Game Design for a year, heard of the contest through Pyro and has a ton of fun judging levels - and that's how I happened.
> 'Yeah man that's nice and all but what's your gimmick?' may be your possible reaction. I aim to bring feedback to the table that not just analyses the levels themselves but also helps improve levels outside the closed realm of this contest. In competitions like this people can learn from each other's levels and gain some sweet experience. To support that my comments aim to encourage by focusing on how levels can be improved and how their greatest shortcomings can be sorted out. What I'm looking for in levels is clever implimentation of creative ideas, but don't expect to see me going hardcore focus mode on that creativity aspect. What I kinda DID focus on for many levels in this contest is how levels execute common design concepts such as teaching and combining of mechanics and creating mutations of previously used setups. Naturally though these technicalities aren't everything, because even a level that perfectly follows 4-step design can manage to fall flat in its enjoyability. To summarise that mess of a paragraph: I like creative stuff, I think proper implimentation of Game Design techniques is important and I believe that levels should first and foremost aim to be enjoyable to play. Quite a mouthful, I agree, but this is such a broad subject that I could write an entire paper on it. Overall I had a blast judging this thing. There are some incredible levels up in the higher ranks that I think are must-plays if you wanna have a good time and they are insanely replayable as well! And even many of the less memorable levels show great potential. I hope you'll have as much fun as I did playing through what this contest has to offer. |


![]() Identity Crisis Least Favourite Level: Airflow Hubble |
Hello, I've been known as Garirry on the Internet for the past 10 years. I've played many different games since that time, I have been making games from an early age, and I have been a huge Mega Man fan since late 2014. This has helped me learn various aspects of game making, including level design.
I've used this knowledge to contribute to this game in the form of judging all levels submitted for the contest and in the form of creating a few of my own levels to be played, with hopes that my comments will be helpful for the improvement of one's future level design and that the stages I have made will be enjoyable to play through and to learn from. While judging, I considered that, without a doubt, the most important factor of a good level is how enjoyable it is to play. Frustrating and boring are the worst qualities your level could inherit, and for your level to recieve a high score, it is required that it is fun, exciting, attractive, and creative. |


![]() Launch and Shuttle Man Least Favourite Level: Yggdrasil |
Wotcha folks, ACESpark here, owner of Sprites Inc, confirmed furry, possibly British, and most important to this: a massive Mega Man fan. Pretty much played and completed the majority of the series, own most of them too, so on an official front, I have a pretty keen idea on what I'm looking for out of a Mega Man stage.
I've also created several fan games at this point, which have (mostly) been well received, so I know the effort it takes to build a Mega Man stage, and have a greater appreciation for those who would enter something like this. The key thing in building a Mega Man level is to listen to your audience, as nine times out of ten they'll spot things you would never have thought of, and an outsider can tell you where you've tripped up in design. Today, I am one of those outsiders. This was interesting to judge. Under normal circumstances, I judge fan games by the sum of their parts, which has lead me to enjoy games even with fairly glaring flaws in the past. Overall, I think everything going into MaGMML2 makes this one of the best fan games ever made. However, since I am only judging the parts here, I've found I've ended up far more critical than I would otherwise be. But that doesn't mean I'll only tell you where you went wrong - I feel people deserve to know what they did right, so expect some fairly lengthy comments from myself. What I'm looking for is either a level that feels like it came out of a Capcom game... or a level that is so out there in idea and concept yet has the quality level to come out of a Capcom game. And if you exceed the quality of the official stuff... well, expect some high praise indeed. I also really, really dig a good boss fight. While their absence won't drag a level down, the inclusion of a good one will certainly boost a level up. (Of course, do not make me expect a boss fight that never happens. I despise anti-climaxes.) I apologise in advance for the walls of text. |