Super Adventure Festival 2020

[NovaanVerdiano.6174]

2-3 is probably my favorite as it has a good length, exploration and multiple ways of using shortcuts and such.2-1 would be my second pick, the raft section was a nice break and while I wasn't a fan of the waterfall section itself, the hidden pathway made for a good way around it.

[Maryth.9372]

Please revert the mechanism that was placed into the game that prevented runs from being purchased. There is an opportunity in this game to sell raids, dungeons, fractals, and portals to jps and everything else under the sun. Let the proficient players make a little gold off of this if they want to. It is a service to other players that is no different than anywhere else. Free it back up please!

[Jaidy.1824]

Super Adventure Festival is not my thing, so i won't be playing it. I enjoy all the other festival events, but this doesn't fit in the game IMHO.

[Frederic.6701]

Hello! Thank you for asking these questions!

What's your favorite level in Super Adventure Box? Is there anything in particular that sets it above the rest it for you?What I really appreciate in the Super Adventure Box is that we feel like it has been made by people who love video games as a whole and in its diversity. We can feel it from all the references, the little ideas, the design. It is something that can be felt everywhere, and it really makes the difference to me.

I really like all the hidden passages and rooms everywhere, it is really rewarding to find out that this little corner was hiding a nice area, this area was connected to this one, that there is a room full of owls there, a shop here.

Another thing I like is the humor of the Super Adventure Box. It is well balanced, absurd and I often smile when thinking about this and this element we can find. It is something I think makes the identity of the Super Adventure Box.

Seeing lots of ideas we do not see outside the box is really fun too: a fight in an endless falling platform, ice, moving platforms, foes we can use to move around in the level. All of this is really refreshing, and was even more when the super adventure box first came, and we were all like "wait, is gw2 really managing to do this?? :O".

Tribulation mode is really fun too. Lots of nice moments, I laughed a lot. Doing it with friends is not something easy, but discovering all the traps in vocal with guild members is a very nice memory.

The musics of the super adventure box are an huge part of its identity. I would love to hear more of them. Can we have more Lena Raine? Please please please please?

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Now for things I dislike, I would say that word 2, even though it has been fixed a bit with the second iteration, felt in the trap of "bigger! harder! longer!", and got way less fun because of its length, especially the last two levels. It's a succession of lots of little challenges that individually are nice, but having to do them each time I want to go to the end of the level make it more of a chore than something fun, and most of the time it get skipped. I think there is a balance to find here. In the same topic, collecting all the bauble for achievements is really a pain, especially in the case we have one left and the is no backtracking possible. These achievements could be improved in my opinion, and kept in mind if ever one of these two last door were about to be opened.

Another element I feel became really annoying is all the stun mechanics of the foes. I really feel like there is too much stun, and it's frustrating. I know it's a "rule" of the super adventure box, but to me, it is too much and too often, and this could be improved to make super adventure box nicer.

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Last year, Super Adventure Festival was the first festival to introduce a Weekly Vendor. What new items would you like to see on the Weekly Vendor?I am really sorry, but I never bought anything from a weekly vendor... Maybe if some skins or part of skin recipes could be bought there? (People are certainly hating me for proposing to timegate skins!). Just an idea like this, maybe glitchy variant of SAB skins could be interesting to do?

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What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?Another story like the one we got from back to school! I loved the mood of the story, and I would be particularly happy to read more.In general I really liked the "outside the box" parts of that release, and I'm a bit sad it got removed and not expanded. It was really fun, and had a looooot of potential!

[Jojo.6140]

Edited, please delete my post.

[ElderNewt.5840]

It would be nice to see checkpoints in the game so when we leave that level OR world we can go right back to where we was when we left /minus completed zones. Especially in Trib mode as they can take ages.

Also.. baubles as a currency would be lovely.

[Jen.6021]

The music on w2z3 tribulation is everything

[Guest]

Ahhhhhhhh~~~!

Even if it is just a long-term tease, thank you for giving us SAB fans hope for more worlds down the line!

• What's your favorite level in Super Adventure Box? Is there anything in particular that sets it above the rest it for you?

Thematically, W1Z1 is perfect. They got the music and the graphics just right, and it always gives me a jolt of happiness to load it up. The actual play is a bit spotty, with long stretches where you really don't do anything but run straight, and there's little reason to revisit a lot of the hidden areas once you've done them once (a few extra baubles aren't worth the time). But it's mostly perfect for a get-your-feet-wet zone.

W2 in general is a bit less enjoyable overall, mostly because the zones are a little too big.

• Last year, Super Adventure Festival was the first festival to introduce a Weekly Vendor. What new items would you like to see on the Weekly Vendor?

Maybe Crimson tokens? They are so severely gated that even people who did every daily every year still won't finish that collection any time soon.

• What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?

1. New worlds!

2. I'd say to continue to draw inspiration from innovative 8-bit games - what about a side-scrolling area, for a more Metroidvania feel? Something mount-based, with Gradius or 1942 style play? A Bubble-Bobble style puzzle level?

3. Although part of me likes the Zelda-style character progression of permanent upgrades, there's a downside of making a lot of things underwhelming. Grabbing individual baubles doesn't feel very impactful after you do the "find all the baubles" achievement because there's so many better ways to acquire them. The temporary powerups are often oddly placed and run out before you get any real benefit from their effects - there's little to no strategy with them. There's really nothing to buy at shops later on - you really only need to go in there to smash up some jars and heal. If you could find a way to make shops more useful, in-map powerups more impactful, and random baubles a good idea to pick up (maybe a stacking-sigil like effect where you gain a buff every 25 you pick up?)

4. Keep killing it with the music, and giving us ways to acquire and use it. Maybe look at stuff like Yuzo Koshiro's work on "Legacy of the Wizard," Nobuo Uematsu's various "Final Fantasy" scores, Naoki Kodaka's brilliant work on "Blaster Master," and of course Castlevania (Satoe Terashima & Kinuyo Yamashita).

5. New worlds!

Oh, and one more thing - I'd like an upgrade to the main weapon that makes it more powerful, at least on the small mobs. It's nice that chain sticks are a bit faster than the pointy stick, but it feels kinda underwhelming that the best weapon still takes 2 hits to clear the minor critters in W1Z1. Compare to Zelda, where each sword upgrade did 2x damage of the last, which felt very impactful and indicative of progress when you could 1-hit mobs that were very tough at first (e.g. blue octoroks). Granted, SAB doesn't have the same scope of enemy health to make it scalable, but something to consider for W3 and W4.

[BatelGeuce.3591]

What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?

Since I don't participate in this festival I'll only answer this question. It would be nice if there was an activity for the rest of us, who don't enjoy playing and exploring W1 and W2. I'd take anything really, just so I can get some of the skins and collections. Some kind of race or fighting arena-like activities (preferably PvE, stuff like Boss Blitz or Celestial Challenge which was a nice new feature, but maybe more engaging and rewarding).

[Elrey.5472]

I forgot to mention it earlier, but please turn the weapon unlocks into Masteries. I want to unlock a weapon and have it on all characters. It sucks being forced to play the same character every gear because that's where I unlocked them.

[reapex.8546]

@"Laevateinn.6289" said:

• What's your favorite level in Super Adventure Box? Is there anything in particular that sets it above the rest it for you?

World 2, Zone 1 riding the raft.The creativeness to have a rotating camera while the raft is suspended on a pseudo river was ingenious. It reminded of old TMNT games and some crazy things they came up with to create a unique experience.

• What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?Although, I'm only partially for it some type of fishing event minigame would be fun for Animal Crossing people.A super adventure box spvp mini game mode could be fun too OR TURN ON TEAM DAMAGE MODE for the main world campaign. Then it would be like New Super Mario Bros lol.

[Vova.2640]

A lil' sad to see SAB delayed I was hoping to see next week :( But Im excited for it nonetheless.

@"Laevateinn.6289" said:

• What's your favorite level in Super Adventure Box? Is there anything in particular that sets it above the rest it for you?

World 2 Zone 1 would probably be it for me. It just feels like it is the right length and difficulty.world 1 is easy which is fine its the first world it not supposed to be long/difficult.Word 2 zone 2 + 3 are just too long. And dont even get me started on tribulation for those 2.....

• Last year, Super Adventure Festival was the first festival to introduce a Weekly Vendor. What new items would you like to see on the Weekly Vendor?

No particular preference. Maybe stuff from wvw and pvp that are time-gated to speed things up a bit...

• What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?

Well besides the obvious new worlds.... I want to say more SAB weapon skin variations please.More colours!! Combinations of colours! colours changing every few sec and stuff idk..The SAB skins are hand down my favourite weapon skins in the game, and I would just love to have more of then, more colours, mix of colours, etc.

[Pink Pummy.2970]

I want a new World, only spend time on that!

[Goatjugsoup.8637]

It was really fun for me being able to grind out the first 3 weaponsets, the current method for the crimson and kaiser sets are boring in comparison (do a bunch of dailys or get lucky). It would be cool if maybe we could craft them via Tribulation mode tokens (maybe the 1-3 and the 2-3 plus some weapon schematics or maybe find a way to include all the trib tokens in the recipe) and it would make those worthwhile again.

In terms of content, really I would just LOVE more levels. It is fine for them to be harder but I think they need to strike a balance between the length of the w1 levels and the w2 levels and definitely not aim to be even longer. There is nothing more frustrating than spending half an hour on a trib level and getting DC'd and losing all progress.

In terms of the vendors, maybe LS4 currency if it isn't already on there. Also something else for our home instance would be pretty sweet, I enjoy collecting those and filling it up.

[fehyra.2764]

• What's your favorite level in Super Adventure Box? Is there anything in particular that sets it above the rest it for you?W2Z1. I like that it doesn't feel as much as "dangerous" as W1Z2 and W1Z3 which are before it, but is more challenging (with tons of more challenge hidden). I like how it has clear "right" path and good hints at side paths and hidden passages to many secret areas of the map. I also love the theme.

• What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?Maybe some kind of... strike? With more tiers (like choosing cms in Steel and FIre) for more rewards. For SAB weapons mode and regular mode. Also more open world random events - like random SAB bees attack or SAB monkey attack that leaves behind a portal to the hub. Or maybe just marching SAB animals around maps.

[Thundabolt.8541]

Hello Aenet! Thank you so much for addressing SAB ~ !

I am the player mentioned in this article and I can't express enough my gratitude for this discussion! It's very heartwarming to see you breathing new life into this event! Now, onto the feedback:

It's difficult for me to choose a favourite level, as I feel that every level has something exciting and different to offer. Believe me, I have so much love and passion for this event that it's almost painful for me to say that my favourite level is Sunny Glade due to its expert design techniques.I love the wide open space to freely run around in, so that the player isn't overwhelmed and can take their time getting used to the new physics and mechanics.Being able to see far into the distance lets you know what's coming, which is good for the starting level, as the later levels won't go quite so easy on you (but that's the point of increasing difficulty!)The song for this level is a nice chiptune remix of Logan's Journey, which is extremely catchy and energetic! It encourages the player to go forth and explore!I wish I could go into depth about more levels, since all of them seem to have been expertly designed, but I will respect what's been asked.

I would LOVE to see the weekly vendors offer some unique boxes that take into consideration what the player might be trying to do outside of SAB. Charged Quartz Crystals are not very fun to collect, neither are Amalgamated Gemstones. If you could spare some thought to the suggestion, I'd love to see SAB continue to be used for more than just the items you can receive inside the box. If it could also be used as a way of easing the strain of certain collections, I'm sure more people would warm up to the event.

I'm going to answer the last question in two parts, starting with:

Minigames. If we're taking the box's theme into consideration, I would LOVE to see something similar to Mario Party. A few multiplayer 4 vs 4 games that take place inside the box would be very warmly welcomed. For example, one game could see four players positioned on the Storm Wizard's platform, each player has the Glove of Wisdom and there's ice physics present. Each player must try to push one another off the platform using the Glove of Wisdom, and the last player remaining wins that round. Just a thought!

Gameplay Styles. 2D Sidescrolling, some kind of sidescrolling minigame - or stage - is probably THE best thing you could bring to the box that it doesn't yet have, which would still fit the theme. From Super Mario to Crash Bandicoot, sidescrolling is a very retro thing in games and it's still being used to this very day. I can't suggest anything above this, but if you were to ask me for more, I could definitely give more.

Sorry for such a long post, but this was my calling card and I am merely answering to it! I LOVE Super Adventure Box, and I strongly urge you to contact the original designer of it, as he would know what's good for the box better than anyone, of that I can guarantee!

[Colorian.5067]

Thank you for letting us know about the delay and I'm good with that, otherwise it would get too overwhelming with all the new content coming out at the same time. ;)

• What's your favorite level in Super Adventure Box? Is there anything in particular that sets it above the rest it for you?World 2 - Zone 1; I was amazed how open and explorable the whole level was, while at the same time kept you going forward! Exploring around for secrets and such was fun and exciting than just going in one direction(you can, but it's fun when you mess around and happen to come across something you didn't expect to and with great satisfaction after, and some platforming precision and skills involved, of course).

• Last year, Super Adventure Festival was the first festival to introduce a Weekly Vendor. What new items would you like to see on the Weekly Vendor?Additional Crimson Tokens & Legendary-based materials, such as, Mystic Clovers, Globs of Ectoplasms, Obsidian Shards & Amalgated Gemstones; anything that really makes it worth collecting and spending off those Baubles/Bauble Bubbles by really participating in the SAB levels.

• What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?Aside from wanting World 3 and 4 to be playable, I'd say a PVP-based activity that is SAB-related; using powerups and SAB-abilities to fight off your opponents.Also turn Baubles/Bauble Bubbles into currency so they don't take up too much space in inventory & bank.

[Rageassassin.6714]

I want the ability to stunbreak with weapon swap. Removing it was the worst change ever made to SAB. It forces people to waste time in the shop buying potions for a limited amount of stunbreaks with cooldown. This makes most of the water sections way slower and boring. Other than that I still look forward to one day getting w3.

[Kiyaira.4738]

I'm very sad it won't come on 31, I got my free days fixed around 31 and 8 only because of sab. :(

[Butters.2807]

Excellent! I've always been a fan of this system but . For those who were playing the original couple of releases, they obtained 95% of the achievments in one go. I imagine a lot of dedicate players have earnt all the Tribulation skins so when it comes to this festival - theres not a whole lot to do. Granted newcomers will have a ton to work on and its an issue i made for myself.I don't know how to articulate this but i love the festival but i literally log in for the daily Crimson coins. Which as a set will still take multiple years. That or you do the bosses with a super slim chance of getting the Kaiser snake skins. I want to play more of the festival i really do (and yeah it should just be for the fun of it). But even if there was a better way to grind the Crimsons or Kaiser collections, id go for it....

In terms of content, is there any chance youd look into the potential of a Strike or Raid mission , maybe a unique boss or variation of the current bosses we have? The Wintersday snowman raid was awesome and the recent Ryland stuff was great with Forging Steel as a co operative strike. Any chance we could get some similar group content yet the twist being its in the SAB World. Imagine this, everyone with their sticks wailing on the boss or firing from afar or up top with their slingshot firing baubles. Perhaps some people having to transform into the bee and delivery supplies.

[who want blood.8765]

@"Laevateinn.6289" said:

• What's your favorite level in Super Adventure Box? Is there anything in particular that sets it above the rest it for you?

My Favorite aspect of the world (not the whole level) was Shortcut Eagle, i love the music, and the way the level moves around the platform (Eagle) actually makes me feel like i'm flying. very immersive.

My Favorite level however has to be W1Z1 just because there are so many areas to explore, especially in Tribulation mode where you get to explore everything, underground caves/mazes, platforming, little shops, the original bouncing mushrooms.

• Last year, Super Adventure Festival was the first festival to introduce a Weekly Vendor. What new items would you like to see on the Weekly Vendor?

All the Festivals seem to have the same 4 items weekly, mystic coin, legendary shards container, transmutation charges, tyrian exchange voucher.

These are cool but not highly worth one to three of per week once a year (maybe mystic coin).Items i would love to have included:

• Guaranteed Wardrobe Unlock
• Crimson Assassin Token
• Tricolor Key (that chest needs more use plus its with all the festival skritt)
• Super Adventure Tonic (maybe a recipe for an infinite version)
• Super Adventure Box-o-Fun

Just a few off the top of my head

Outside of the vendor i would like an upgrade to the home instance node in a similar fashion to the candy corn node, with a rare chance to drop a Bauble Bubble (like the quartz and its charged drop version)

• What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?

A Super Adventure Strike Mission, The arena being the raft and if you fall you die with no respawn, and the boss being the Genie (where if you defeat him you unlock the additional achievement to talk to him) hehe.

Now you have the tech to move a players camera you could do a side-view platforming section which would be pretty awesome to see.I would also like the Pagoda section of W2Z2 to have more consistent jumps, running tribulation through that was a nightmare last year.

All-in-All i love the festival, i would like to see additional rewards through its merchants (not just the weekly one). Maybe even a Bauble gobbler (or it may as well be a festival one at this point where you can insert currently owned ones into a central device, similar to the Ley Energy Matter Converter).

Keep up the great festivals!

[GeoX.5046]

What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?

I know you want to expand on game play features, but now is not really the time for that. We just want to see new levels, worlds and bonuses. If you want to add variety, do it in the bonus section after you complete a world. Get back to basics, make some kick butt levels and add some rewards that are not just holographic re-skins.

[Shadowmoon.7986]

@"Laevateinn.6289" said:

• What's your favorite level in Super Adventure Box? Is there anything in particular that sets it above the rest it for you?

• Last year, Super Adventure Festival was the first festival to introduce a Weekly Vendor. What new items would you like to see on the Weekly Vendor?

• What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?Favorite level: w2z3, very pof like, a lot to explore and a lot to collect.What to add to the weekly vendor: super assassin coins, if you are adding another weapon set, allow use the ability to finish the red weapon set in less than 5 years.What new content: "I want a new World, only spend time on that!"

Added note, hopefully completing the red set will give a unstable bauble that is a different color than red, because we already have red and blue. Maybe instead of giving a red backpiece, can it JUST GIVE THE INFUSION.

[Poobah.6254]

What's your favorite level in Super Adventure Box? Is there anything in particular that sets it above the rest it for you?

Honestly I really like all the levels but I think I'll specifically call out

2-3 Normal I love how big it is with tons of secrets to find.

1-1 Tribulation - it has a high density of challenges to overcome and a good mix of trolling / things that will kill you arbitrarily for fun and actual high skill difficult jumping with frequent checkpoints.

Last year, Super Adventure Festival was the first festival to introduce a Weekly Vendor. What new items would you like to see on the Weekly Vendor?

The usual stuff is good, legendary shards, clovers, maybe add in t6 bags and lodestones?

What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?

So aside from new worlds which is the obvious answer one thing I'd really like to see an in-game speed run timer, maybe including an option to restart the level at the end of a run if you have it on.

[Kain Francois.4328]

@"Laevateinn.6289" said:

• What's your favorite level in Super Adventure Box? Is there anything in particular that sets it above the rest it for you?I liked W2Z1 Tribulation mode. I like how the design allows you to use all sorts of shortcuts and creative ways to skip obstacles. This especially shines in the Tribulation Mode because it makes the payofffs more satisfying. The level itself isn't too long (10 mins?), nor' is it frustrating. Even on Tribulation mode, it's really fair once you know the route.Special mention also goes to W2Z3 (Short version with the cloud). I really liked the beauty and atmosphere of it, and I felt the short version of the level was the perfect length.

• Last year, Super Adventure Festival was the first festival to introduce a Weekly Vendor. What new items would you like to see on the Weekly Vendor?Eternity. But make it cost 9,999,999 Bauble Bubbles. (It IS April Fools!)

• What sort of new Super Adventure Festival content would you like to see in the future? It's fine to respond "I want a new World, only spend time on that!" but are there other kinds of gameplay or minigames you'd enjoy in the meantime?(Dream: SAB Guild Hall. But we all know that's not happening, so...)

Minigame Proposal: Wario Ware: GW2 edition, where you can win baubles.

I must ask you to check this TF2 mod video:

Just imagine how fun Wario Ware like this would be in the GW2 engine.