Marker Man Misadventures 6

This is the desert zone. The background music plays for 7 measures before it repeats and it makes me irrationally upset that it's a prime number. It sounds WRONG. Whatever. Desert things!

I regret drawing the map larger than usual. Anyways, there's lots of new enemies! Well, I guess it depends on what your definition of "new" is. There are reskinned enemies. You will benefit a lot from using the speed and jump powerups. In particular, the choke point where the cactus walls hang out is almost impossible to get through without getting hurt unless you use the speed power.

Cactus

A stationary (wow what a surprise) cactus that will deal 5 damage when touched. The damage isn't on every frame, so it's more like 10 damage per second when touching the thing.

Antlion

These enemies are VERY difficult to see, because their sprite is almost completely hidden in the ground. Combine that with background textures and you'll inevitably run into one of these. They do the same damage output as the cactus.

Shoe Cowboy

Reskin of shoe boy. Since this is world 5 it deals 5 damage, just like everything else so far.

Cactus Wall

Reskin of spiky wall, only much sadder.

The platforming segment to get to the coin is particularly nasty, so my recommended strategy is to go left as early as possible and jump off the cliff on the left side and approach the coin that way. Afterwards, just swim to the right side and climb back up.

There's also a really weird platform, noted on the map as "slippy". You cannot wall climb that ledge, and the edge of that ground is slippery, as in if you run and stop at the edge you will just slide right off. I have no idea how this happened, but this concerns me for the future because this game is capable of adding slippery terrain. Here's hoping it's just a bug!

Cactus Snowman

Two questions: why make another cactus enemy and why make this one deal 5 damage per frame ? I know not the answers. I just know that this thing hurts.

Despite trying really hard to be symmetrical, there are only 3 exits. I wonder if there's some technical limitation as to why there are never 4 exits. Also, I learned something new about this game, which I am very surprised that there is anything new to learn at this point. There are different types of triangles you can make! I've been making the isosceles triangles, but you can actually make right triangles as well. The right triangles are very…. strange. Sometimes when a right triangle is drawn, it cannot receive torque, or angular momentum. This means the triangle cannot be rotated. Here is a photo demonstrating this anomaly. A shape with the inability to rotate could prove to be very useful…

Mini Cactus

Okay, seriously? Another cactus? It is functionally the same as the cactus snowman. If there's enough background noise you might run into it on accident and die before realizing what happened.

The only nice thing I have to say is that there are a lot of markers. I messed up so many times trying to get the proportions correct and aligning all the platforms together. It's dumb.

There are some scary spikes underneath the moving platforms. The second one in particular is bad because you cannot actually see a non-spiked ground from that rotating platform circle. My recommendation is to place a line over the spikes and jump down from there, because the shoe cow boy at the bottom might mess up your line if you place it there instead.

I guess this level tried to be like a desert as much as possible, because there's a lot of empty space, pointless paths, and a cactus in the shape of a snowman hanging out in the sky. Imagine being me for a moment. I understand the pain may be too unbearable for your mortal body to handle, but just try your best. The reason why I am able to map the levels so well is because I use a lot of relative positioning. I see how far objects are compared to other objects, and if I can find multiple objects nearby that allows me to accurately determine how far away all those objects should be drawn. When you have a split such as in the middle of this level where you cannot see the other path at all, and when that path lasts for over half of the level, and the level is really long, then all those small assumptions about how long the ground is add up to an enormous error. That error is two-fold, because distances are off length-wise and height-wise. Once the path ends and merges back to the other path, I now have to draw the other path, and see how far I was off. Multiple adjustments have to be made before the map layouts are "synchronized". The only way to check if the path is correct relative to the other is by taking the bottom path, drawing a long rectangle, and then super jumping off that rectangle to see the upper path. I hate this level.

Welp. This has to be the shortest level in the game. I refuse to believe there is actually a level that takes less time than this one, excluding ridiculous speed running strategies.

There are cacti that are hidden fairly well in the bottom half of the level, so be aware of that. Otherwise, it's a stupidly simple level just rewards you for making it here before sending you off to the bonus level.

There's a pit and some sad cakes. Nothing else worth mentioning.

Avoid this level. Do not play it. It will end in tears. All of the places where the maps says "you can't" mean that it is very difficult to maneuver in this area, which is basically half of the level. It will take a lot of shuffling, multi-platform building, and jump timing to successfully go through the area. My recommendation is to jump into the water for the coin, then build up to the spinning platforms near the exit. Use a jump power up if possible.

I guess this world is over now! Be careful when trying to get the coin. Trying to drop down to it will land you in the spikes, so make sure to put a cover over them. A cool tactic for pressing the button is to delete the shape on the button as the platform is out of the way so that it stays out of the way. Some of the switches will not work with certain shapes because that shape cannot be drawn large enough to make the weight high enough to trigger the button, so use rectangles.

The other thing is that the other switch is hidden, and you cannot find or activate it without using the camera controls. Seriously, you should have learned this by now. The REAL mean part of the level is where you have to pick one of six different paths to fall down and pray they don't lead to death. It's the second one from the left. After that, the world is basically over! I'm totally fine with short worlds, because they keep the setting and enemy variation interesting.

Wow. Five worlds completed already. Well, no sense stopping now. Come back for world 6 soon. Maybe there's still more to learn from this game.