Introduction
Screenshots
Details
FAQ
Downloads
Introduction
Cartridge Tilt is a series of randomly generated mappacks using a highly experimental, structure-based level generator. The generator builds ground, ceilings, pipes, bridges, blasters, enemies, and more, all with a steadily increasing difficulty curve.
Based on that description, you might be expecting the level generator to have traditional SMB-like design sensibilities, like the 1.6 level generator mod, or maybe even Level-Headed.
Not even close.
If anything, this is more of a sequel to The Random Mappack, a really early "random level generator" I made that simply fills every tile with a random ID. I wanted to make something that was a little more sophisticated this time, while trying to shoot for a glitchy, corrupted aesthetic similar to another old level I made... and ended up going completely overboard, writing over 1500 lines of code!
The result doesn't play a whole lot like Mario; it's more like a maze that you have to get through. Is there another way around these enemies? Which tiles are safe and which are not? How do you get past this seemingly impossible barrier using portals? (The portal gun is very much required in this mappack.) Luckily, you're given infinite time and lives to figure it out; the only limit is your patience.
Screenshots
Details
The generator starts by creating a bunch of randomly sized and positioned "structures," selecting several of them to place on the map in a random order. Sometimes this means hills are placed behind the ground, and other times the hills are placed in front of the ground, creating a giant hole. Enemies are randomly placed in the resulting level wherever there is ground to stand on, with more appearing in later levels. Finally, a ton of "distortions" are applied, placing random tiles all over the map to make it even more of a glitchy, corrupted mess.
The difficulty curve and obstacle frequency have been hand-tuned so that, in most cases, the generated levels are completable. However, I was not able to find a good way to ensure that every generated level can be completed; portals open up tons of possibilities for traversing the map, and accounting for every case is nigh impossible. That said, I did personally verify that all of the levels generated by the default seed can be completed, without using glitches or editing the levels by hand.
Verifying whether they're actually fun is left as an exercise for the reader.
Available for download are some precompiled mappacks with various seeds, along with source files that you can run yourself to generate more mappacks. It isn't really user-friendly, though; you'll have to be familiar with running Lua from the command line, like this:
Code: Select all
$ cd source
$ lua main.lua .. --AE -s "My Random Seed"If you're the kind of person who knows what any of that meant, you might be interested in checking out the project's Github page. It uses the MIT license, so you're free to remix it or even build your own generators!
FAQ
Q: Can you mod the generator into the game so you don't have to use the command line?
A: Personally, I don't think this is worth that level of effort, especially since I can't verify that every level can be completed. You're more than welcome to try modding it in yourself, though.
Q: Why doesn't it support SE/CE?
A: The level format is quite different from 1.6/AE, and would take more effort to get working than the others. It's far from impossible, but literally who is going to use it? (Sorry to all three SE/CE holdouts in the audience.)
Q: Could this code be used to make traditional SMB levels?
A: Not by itself, but I would say there's a foundation here for that. The structures used to generate mappacks are all based on ones that can be found in SMB; all it would take is a more sophisticated generator to use them – one that actually attaches pipes to the ground, for instance. The current generator literally just places random structures at random locations in a random order.
Downloads
Here are some pre-compiled seeds that you can download and play now:
"Cartridge Tilt" (default seed) — 1.6 AE
"stabyourself.net" — 1.6 AE
For AE players, here are some more seeds with special options applied:
"shameless-chamber" - no enemies
"derpshroom" - no distortions
"balloon goomba" - larger levels
As a bonus, here's a seed that I got during development that was so good I had to keep it... think of it like hard mode:
"Cartridge Tilt EX"
Finally, if you can run Lua scripts and you'd like to generate levels yourself, the script is available on Github!
Cartridge Tilt releases page
Thanks for checking out this wild project, I hope you have as much fun messing with it as I did making it!
