Okay, where am I now? It looks like some kind of dream world. Everything is purple, there are stars and sleepy clouds in the sky and the background music feels as calm as the last world's background music. Speaking of, this one is the biggest offender in terms of the beat count. You thought the 7 measure loop was bad? The following numbers are my best guess as to what the number of beats in each measure are: 2,4,4,2,4,3,4. That is a total of 23 beats over 7 measures. My head is hurting just listening to this song. Please, make it stop.
It's a long way down, so watch your step. The man eating houses are back, so that's fun. On the one horizontally moving platform, you can make it to the right wall using a momentum jump when the platform is moving right. There is a lot of space to move around here, so try and not to get lost.
Sad Cat
A sad cat that roams around being sad. If you touch it, it will meow and scratch you for 10 damage, given that this is world 10.
I actually cannot believe this. I checked every part of this level multiple times over. I think the developers straight up forgot to add a coin here. There is only one coin in this level as far as I know. I have no idea where the two coin exit takes me. Of course the game doesn't let me have the satisfaction of knowing every route in the game, but I guess if the second coin was never programmed in, then it's technically not even a route. How infuriating.
LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING ABOUT THIS LEVEL. As I just from this one platform to another, all of a sudden a star appears from the top of my screen, smashes down into me, and before I could even process what happened, I died. It killed me instantly. I had to go back and check what in the world happened at that moment. THE ENEMY IS PART OF THE BACKGROUND. PART OF THE BACKGROUND OF HUNDREDS OF OTHER STARS IN THE SKY. It's teaming up with the yellow house and trying to assassinate my progress. Go on. Collect that marker. It's totally not bait. The sound of collecting the marker is also totally not going to take priority over the sound of the star falling completely. Stupid dumb falling star level.
Alright, I feel better now.
Falling Star
These will destroy you. 10 damage per frame, and can seemingly fall from the sky at any time, there is little indication for when one is coming. They are differentiated from the rest of the stars in the background from its frown, and from its occasional blinking. If you hear a stock falling sound effect then that means you better take cover immediately because it's coming to smash your head in. They disappear after a bit.
That's not even the worst part. The worst part is in order to know when they're coming, I have to have the sound on and listen for the falling cue. And that means listening to the horrid background music.
This level is pretty fun to speed run. Just watch out for the stars, as they hang lower to the ground in this one. Go over the holes and enter the hallway where the coin is from the right side to avoid all the spikes.
This one, on the other hand, is not fun to speed run. Almost half of the length of the level involves just running right. Then you have to deal with the mess that is everything above you. Too little to do, followed by too much to do.
One of the stars will happily greet you after you climb up a wall. At this point you have two options. Either run backwards and have a line placed where you will land so you won't take possible fall damage, or quickly draw a line above you so that the star bounces off your head. I'd assume the star would bounce off the line and not kill you. I didn't try it. Just saying, in case you're the one person in the world who has the game and is going through this guide. Oh, that person is me? Great.
Hey it worked. Just thought I'd say that. Okay, moving on.
Raccoons are falling from the sky! The biggest danger is falling enemies. Otherwise, it's a pretty mild level overall. Go left on spawn to get the coin first.
I have a pro tip for myself. The timer that determines when the star disappears continues on pause! This means that you can avoid harm from a star once it jumps out by pausing for about 5 seconds. It will disappear on unpause.
This poor raccoon keeps walking to the right, and the bouncy wall keeps pushing it away. Stop doing that, wall. It's trying to get to work. I was worried that the one exit that is impossible to get to leads to the bonus level, but this one has the exit to the bonus level. It seems like I am able to access every level so far. Maybe that impossible exit goes to a level I already visited. Maybe it doesn't go anywhere! I guess it doesn't matter now.
Bouncy Wall
Even though it looks like this will kill you because it has ridges around all the edges, it's harmless. It's a moving wall that has high restitution. Anything it touches will be bounced away.
I think this is a strong contender for the worst marker man level so far. The majority of the level is simple platforming, and the only enemy type is the spiky wall. The middle section of the level is ridiculous. You have to jump from one moving platform to another moving platform, and the platforms change directions in different frequencies. This means there are times where you can make the jump and there are times where you cannot, and you have to be able to tell the difference, often while the platform to jump to is out of view. The first time this happens is at least systematically manageable, but the second time there is a spiky wall column introduced! That wall has its own movement pattern and can stop marker man from making the jump to the other platform. That specific jump is almost impossible unless you do what I did.
On the stationary platform before the twin moving platforms with the spiky wall in between, pan the camera to the far right until you see the spiky wall. If you place a line just above the ceiling and when the spiky walls are at its highest point, then you can barely get the shape to be sandwiched between the walls and the ceiling, preventing the walls from coming back down for a little while. You have a ten second time frame at this point to make the jump from one moving platform to the other. The last jump in this set is to the stationary platform, which can be blocked yet again by the spiky wall that gets in the way. You have to time your jump so you can land on that safe area before your line disappears, or else you have a good chance of getting hit by the spiky wall that was trapped from earlier. Absolutely insane. Hope that extra life was worth it.
Search. Find. Collect. Dodge. Jump. Exit.
These coins are getting pretty tough to find. However, if you're insane like I am, you can try using the cool shortcut to get the coin instantly. Get on top of the structure you spawn in, and just jump off to the left. You'll have to try to not hit the falling star or miss the platform, and draw something under you so that you won't die from fall damage. It's pretty risky, but it's so much fun. These stars are always inconveniently placed everywhere, and they still scare me when they jump out.
This has been the most difficult world for mapping yet. The platforms are scattered around so there are a ton of paths one can take. I often mess up the scaling of a path when it finally joins with an earlier visited segment. It sucks. Also help me: I'm running out of ideas for level titles.
I can feel my soul draining.
No enemies, and basically no pickups? How many of these levels have even been reviewed? I didn't play this game to appreciate the architecture of the levels. I expect an actual game to be here.
Yep. My soul's gone now.
Beware of the large amount of stars in the beginning segment. Just watch out for stars no matter where you are. Except for this bonus level, of course. Wait, what? Another bonus level? This is the same world, right? Please don't be as bad as the previous bonus level...
I am so relieved. The ending part is slightly tricky because you cannot ramp over the cake because the line you create will just slide off. Just build from the last platform in the air so that the slope is shallow enough not to slip.
Another really annoying level to map out. The middle area has 4 to 5 different layers of platforms, all pretty separate from each other. Just... one more... level... to go.... Get me off this wild ride.
Oh no..... oh noooo..... THERE ARE INVISIBLE WALLS IN THIS LEVEL. THEY ACTUALLY MADE INVISIBLE WALLS A THING. I'M SO SCREWED.
The grey lines indicate invisible walls. As you can imagine, they are SO MUCH HARDER to draw than regular walls because I have to make a ton of checks just to accurately figure out the length of one platform. And that's assuming I can find them. Just imagine a regular player trying to beat this level! First, they have to find the second coin. The only way to find it without blindly jumping to your death is to hold the camera down control while on the moving platform. The coin will be barely visible for a moment. Then they have to get down there to realize that there is an invisible wall in the way. THEN after they figured out that theres a hole in the top that also leads to a spike pit they have to build their way out. Building your way out of that tiny hole is not easy, even if it was all visible.
So how do you build out of the coin hole? You cannot build a line up hugging the wall because it will either fall through the hole or it will be too steep for marker man to not hit the ceiling while climbing up it. You have to build a perfect rectangle. A perfect rectangle is pushed all the way to the left of the hole and has a height that will barely get it touching the ceiling. This makes it so that the rectangle will not move once the line gets built underneath it. A circle is not ideal, but is possible to use as well. There is a huge chance you will accidentally give marker man a power. Honestly, if you have the markers to give marker man a power up, just give it super jump and bounce out of there. Build to the moving platform, minding the invisible ceiling, and escape this monster of a level.
There is a good chance that the next world is the last one. There is also a good chance that this might be the world that breaks me. I have no idea what it has in store, but if this level is any indication then I am in trouble. Wish me luck.
This world is so massive that the developers felt the need to add two bonus levels. Probably. I don't know what they're thinking. I can guess that they were not thinking about how much they enjoy making levels for this game.
Alright! Time to branch out here and see where all this goes.
Not much to say here, other than this was a pain to draw all out. I recommend just taking the low path to the coin and then taking the high path on the way back to the exit.
Holy heck this level is big. It is in fact so wide, that I had to increase my canvas size to 1600 from the usual 1200 px. I'm honestly not sure what kind of message the developer is sending by creating a stupidly deep hole with no escape, yet part of the ground is walkable and there's a marker down there. The marker is clearly useless because you're going to be dead, so maybe it's some kind of additional insult to the player for managing to fall down there and live. Then again, the player should definitely die due to fall damage, so maybe it's for players intentionally trying to get down there? I don't know. Someone else can figure it out.
This game really likes two-coin exits that take you backwards in the game. Whatever. You are basically required to use the jump power here, as the game is a very vertical level. Expect lots of waiting around to try and get your jump height high enough to reach another bouncy platform. Because of all of the bouncy platforms, if you manage to land on the corner of one on the way down, you'll start flying sideways hilariously. It will be funny for a moment until you realize you're probably going to die from the fall damage. I hope I never have to see this level again.
It's just been shoe boys and rabbits for all of these levels. They're hardly even different: one bounces and one doesn't. Also, there's so much space between everything here. It is very difficult to map everything out correctly. I see the trend of spending two coins to take you back to level 15 continues here. Not much else to say. The only strange thing is that the spawn is in the middle of the map. Ooooh how rule-breaking.
You know what's funny? I thought shoe boy only did one hit point of damage this whole time. It actually deals two hit points of damage! Funny, isn't it? ......I'm so bored. It seems no matter what, every path will take you to level 20. I'm having high expectations for this level 20. I probably shouldn't, but I do. Hey, let's check out the bonus level!
Can you believe that this level lags? This level lags a LOT. In fact, some of the earlier levels start lagging if you even put down a few shapes. Is the physics in this game really that complicated or just unoptimized? I guess the 10 moving platforms in this level were just too much for the poor system to handle. What's funny is in the top right platform with the two chocolate bullies if you get them moving towards each other, which you can do by touching them from a certain side, then they will collide together and never separate. Now that's true love.
The coin is guarded in some sense because you can drop down to get it but not really come back the way you came, which means going to the left and having to face the bully on the small platform. You'll just have to pro jump over the thing. And OH WHAT DO YOU KNOW, IT TAKES YOU TO LEVEL 20.
Chocolate Bully
Similar to the buff triangle, in that it deals no damage, but just pushes you around.
Oh, uh okay. This level is very short, and very simple, save for the slide of doom on the right side of the map. Other than that, you can't really die unless you try. It's a nice break level, as you get plenty of markers in the room at the bottom for free. I'll take what I can get. It's also pretty difficult sometimes to determine the enemy spawns because the stupid rabbits like the jump off the ledges. I found one of them stuck in the corner of a couple boxes at the bottom of this level. Poor thing.
In case you didn't know, everything interactive has a hitbox, including the markers and the coins, despite being pick ups. This means that you can accidentally slide off the platform the coin is sitting on in this level because the coin is round and will slide the character off.
I should probably stop putting those beehives on the map. They really don't do anything. These ones don't even have bees!
I'm also noticing a trend here! Just like with the last world, this world started off with a linear path, diverged into multiple paths, one of which had a bonus level, and then eventually all converged back to linear levels, the last section being easier and giving more markers. I wonder if this pattern will continue in future worlds.
WHAT. The bunnies here do two damage! What is going on here? I swear they did one damage in the previous world. Maybe their damage increased in world 2? Interesting. Also, I wasn't really paying attention to my lives, but I died on this level due to curiosity and had 3 lives when I respawned. Did I gain a life at some point? I thought that was impossible. I have so many questions right now.
As for the double spikes on the far left, you can just barely scrape by them if you place a long line on top of the bottom layer of spikes.
Uhh there's trees.
The second dog level! This one is interesting because it is timed! A giant boulder starts rolling at the top of the screen, and you have to race it to the bottom. Fortunately, you don't even need the super speed power up, as there is enough time to just walk to the exit; just watch out for the spikes. The boulder eventually lands on the yellow platform and gets stuck there if you don't make it in time. But, if you step on the platform, it will disappear and the boulder will hit the blue platform instead (seesaw platform) and push it into the water. You can choose to follow the boulder but it's a one way trip to a water section and you're not going to escape it. I have no idea what the purpose of the other yellow platforms is.
Well what's with the other route? There's a tall section upwards that you cannot really climb and a blue platform that starts at the bottom. Once the boulder lands in the hole, it will push that blue seesaw platform which causes the one in the far left to climb up, so you have to make it all the way to that platform, destroying the yellow platform, before the boulder falls in order to beat the level. And that's world 2!
Boulder
Big Rolly Boy.
I have a feeling world 3 is going to be relatively exciting. World 2 was pretty boring. Anyways, here's the world map. Notice that you cannot play every level in this one.
Welcome. This is the final post. What left is there to do since I already beat the game? Well, beat it again... and record it.
First of all, I need to find the fastest way to beat the game. A good approximation for that is figuring out the shortest number of levels to get to the end. Gee, if only I had some sort of mapping of all the worlds to figure that out...
Cool. The yellow squares are the levels that will lead to the smallest number of levels needed to complete the game, which is 102. There are 173 levels in total. I only need to play about 60% of all levels to beat the game. The red squares are also levels that could be played that will keep the total level count at 102, but were not played for whatever reason I had.
Now I never really speedran a game before, so managing to beat the entire game like this is an incredible achievement for me. This is the most fun I've ever had with the game. I wouldn't have been able to find the fastest routes without mapping them, and being able to look at all 102 maps (RIP my computer's memory) were a huge help to the run.
Here's the footage. Yes, it's a long video. It's a long game.
This is it. This is the world that will truly test my abilities as a map maker. It's as if the game is taking my map making as the actual point of the game and is upping the difficulty to maximum. I will do what I have done since the very beginning when faced with a challenge: adapt and invent new techniques in order to get to my goal.
The soundtrack sounds mischievous and is 6 measures even.
I do not show it on the map, but the parts where the black platforms turn gray is a gradual effect. What that means is that in the game the visible platforms slowly fade away to invisible ones, and then the completely invisible ones are indicated on the map by the gray color. So, basically the entire level is invisible. Not exactly ideal when you're trying to figure out where the platforms are. Not to mention there is ZERO background art. It just looks like I'm walking on air and there are also items that are on air. I mean, I get it that you cannot have background elements or else this invisible theme wouldn't work but I feel like this is just a cheap way for the level designers to not have to care about making the levels pretty.
Fortunately that dumb grid that has existed since the very beginning of the game is still there, so I can use the squares on the grid as a reference of distance traveled. Basically, I'm drawing circles and pushing them to see how they respond to the environment in front of me. It's probably a good idea to do that even if I wasn't mapping the levels out because it will help find potential traps for me. Let's face it: the developers are cheap enough to do that. They did it in the last level of the previous world. Of course I'm going to check for traps.
The part with the bouncy walls is annoying because you have to build around it to climb up. Either use a super jump power up or figure out the reach of the bouncy blocks to make the appropriate bridge.
These levels take no time at all to load. GEE I WONDER WHY. Also, do not try to force shut the game when you lose your last life. Just like with that water world, you will lose all of your progress. The only difference is your save file is just straight up gone instead of glitchy. Perfect. Watch out for long falls, and always check where the edge of a platform is before building or making a jump.
It's like a combination of the previous two levels, only simpler.
You sort of don't know which pits are places you can go to or places that will kill you. It's a safe assumption that if a shape you draw in it falls outside your view then it will probably kill you. Another really dumb thing is that sometimes you can draw shapes inside walls. If you're just making random guesses it's not entirely clear whether the successful shape is placed in an area you can walk to or if it's inside a wall.
You doubt my ability to try and make every level's title some kind of pun or reference? Just watch me.
These levels got homogenized really quickly. I had to replay this level and I had no memory of its existence.
Markers are cool. I like markers. Please give me more markers.
So, the first spiky wall area has a little bump before you fully pass the obstacle. If you're me, this means you'll get stuck under the wall, and before you can register that you need to jump, the spike wall crushes you. Note that when you game over, you only gain one life back. So every time this game decides to pull a stupidly cheap trick on me I have to redo the whole world over.
Wow. We have a new contender for the most basic level in the game. Congratulations.
One strange thing is the area under the exit. You can draw shapes under your platform and watch them disappear after falling a bit. No need to worry about crashing your game, because the developers placed triggers under the map that will delete shapes drawn out of bounds. They did at least one thing right there.
It's a level with invisible blocks and things and stuff.
Snoop around enough and you may find the coin. Or a spike pit. Same thing, eh?
I should be more upset at how hard they're trying to hide the coin and exit, but I think I'm too desensitized at this point to care.
Oh... I figured it would take until level 150 or something before the game was over, but maybe it's ending early! If you manage to die here, just remember the trick with the water world when the game over glitch happened: let the game over screen appear, continue, reset, and load to be at the level where you died. Isn't it fun when you apply what you learn?
Oh yeah, the point of the level. The giant ball is back for another rematch, and you have to scale down the level pretty fast in order to beat it (unless you're using power-ups). It took me a few tries before I was able to beat it. Be careful with some of the drops, as they are enough to damage you. After making it to the bottom, stand on the blue platform and let the ball push the other one down, flinging you upward.
Do I... really need a world map for this one? Yes? Ugh fine.
No no no no no. Nope. I'm not waiting any longer. This game is going to be finished in this post whether I like it or not. It's time to end this.
The cutscene showed the dog and marker man jump into some kind of teleporter. The result is that we are now on some space rock or something. It looks like they stuck with the themes of space too, such as making the level vast, yet empty. Hmm, not really a theme specific to this world, but oh well.
Long Boy
WHAT DID THEY DO TO SHOE BOY? It now has an oval head. I guess it's supposed to be an alien. It's really funny how they attack because they rotate their elongated head when they kick, and it just looks funny.
Ugh, these types of levels are the worst. Huge open spaces with lots of emptiness and lack of features between the platforms. It makes the game boring and frustrating to map and play, so why do it? Especially the road to that two-coin exit. Why make the player walk so far to get there? The developers could've easily added a path down from the coin to the hallway.
Alien
A projectile-based enemy, just like all the other projectile-based enemies. This one has a scarily fast firing rate, making it a very dangerous long-ranged enemy. Its barrage of bullets can also make quick work of drawn shapes. Be careful. When trying to block its bullets, don't just put a single line over it, as the place the bullet spawns can bypass the line. Place like, 2 lines. I don't know. What's interesting is the developers actually managed to make the bullet spawn from the gun's barrel instead of the top left of the sprite. Good job. You're learning! It's a little late for that, but whatever. This does mean you may need to place lines completely covering the alien before the projectiles are stopped.
Same glitch as last world. Do not force stop the game on gaming over. Let it happen, continue, exit, then get back to the level you died on.
The spike walls move at different frequencies. I recommend activating super speed and just focusing on the bottom one moving out of the way. Seriously, you better have some markers coming into this world or you're in big trouble. Actually, there's an easier way to get past this part. When the bottom spike wall is hiding under the floor, lodge a line between the floor and the wall and it will get stuck there, allowing you to pass without doing anything ridiculous.
Pleeeeeease give me more markers. I actually have to conserve resources in this world and it's annoying. There's simply too much terrain that needs to be covered that will inevitably use up all my markers. This is different from the lava world because in the lava world there were at least interesting elements in the levels that made you think on how to approach the problem. In this world it's just a battle of attrition.
Speed Cheese
It's cheese on.. wheels? This is probably a reference to moon cheese. It quickly moves back and forth, simply knocking anything that touches it out of the way. It deals no damage.
I think I know why there are so many dead ends here. The game just really doesn't want the player to have any markers in this world. How rude. This is why people like me have to come in and bright light to the correct pathway to victory.
Oh yaaay. Another level where you just have to look everywhere to find the coin and exit. The part of the map where it says SLIDING has no friction. Marker man will not stop moving on that platform until a wall is hit. The exit is kind of dumb to get to. In order to even see it you have to either stand on the platform with the alien (which noone is going to do) or build up and then look up. I recommend just making a giant rectangle on the corner of the map and then building off of that to the exit.
This is the realm of the shoe boys. Their final congregation is at this location. They are planning big things. They already have presence in just about every world. Their plans to finally take over the world of marker man have started to unfold in this meeting area, and you are in the middle of it all.
This is pretty straightforward, isn't it?
Beware of the many dead ends in this level. You get one marker in here. Well, there is a second one, but it's in a trap so I'm not counting that one.
What. Why is the map so linear? Why is there a pointless dead end to the right with a moving platform? Why is the map small? Why is there large stretches of nothingness? I don't understaaaaaaaaand. Maybe the devs want this game to end as bad as I do. Fair enough.
We all want this to be over! Just walk down this straight pathway, hug the left, and you'll get your coin, and you'll get your exit right above the coin. It's that simple. We even went ahead and put the useless parts of the map all on the right side so you don't even need to travel there. I'm doing you a favor, but don't tell my boss I'm doing this. These are supposed to be the hardest levels in the game. Go forth!
Uhm. What. WHAT.
This is the final level. There is no indication that this is the final level. There is no dog seen anywhere, and the level number didn't jump to the range where the dog levels appeared. I simply walked into the exit, my level got reset to one, a cutscene played, and the game is over. I think it's really fitting that the background track that plays throughout the cutscene and the credit rolls is the game over music, because did I really win by beating the game? Everyone's a loser for trying.
But hey. I get a star next to my save file now. I guess any recognition of me going through this torture is better than nothing. I was curious to see if this star meant some sort of change in the game, like a new game plus, but it doesn't seem like it. My markers and lives left carried over from the previous game to this one, but that's about it.
And.... that's it. The game is done. I mapped every level. Here is the final world map.
Thanks for reading. However, there is still one final post to make...
