A Tale of Two Eryrs

eryr2 is a bad sequel.
It's not a bad map, but it just really isn't eryr: the second.

eryr started out with bonus 1. Originally attempting to create a handful of fun stages to be sent to some other mapper if asked for one. But, it was love. Everything was smooth, tight, clean. Detailing came next, the part that wasn't intended to happen at the start, but, it was love. And it grew. It grew into something to be proud of, maybe the head checks were a bit too tight, maybe the last angle is a bit stupid; nothing is perfect. But it lead to a great map. After b1 came s1, and it too was just magic. There are times where some divine being is controlling the mouse and keyboard. And this was one of those times. Only 2 maps have been blessed with this: jump_phobos, surf_eryr.

phobos came from a desire; make something gorgeous, fun, not too hard. And so it was, and so it is. Much like eryr, phobos has a brother, named deimos. phobos was a soldier map, deimos demo. There is a pattern of attempting to replicate past creations, and so far the record is 0-5 (the others aren't worth mentioning). It's been interesting to improve, it's been slow, difficult, annoying, fun. But progress only comes from leaving the past where it is. Looking at it fondly is fine, but replication leads to dissatisfaction. Some may disagree, and that's fine, differing paths lead to great things.

After s1 the order was fairly normal; s2-4, b2, then when it came to b3 an idea struck. What's hard for some is a walk in the park for others. This was nearly impossible at inception, but improvement is a never ending force, if sought. The end was pushed back, the impossible became harder. In the end, as the video shows, that end could've been pushed back more. But nothing spoils a good cookie faster than making it harder, just accept what comes out of the oven as is, save it for later if needed. Another attempt to make stages or bonuses taught this.

A good idea will strike and it will be made, but milk can only be in the fridge for so long before it spoils. 3 stages were made, none too hard, but all a bit gimmicky or awkward, and then all were ruined. Difficulty should only ever be a driving force in design from the beginning. Whether this is a large issue is unknown, but it has ruined 3 good stages. However, playing one stage the wrong way can still be fun. Doing things wrong is what made mudkip so right after all. b1-4 all started with a silly idea. This spawned some great bonuses around a neat largely unused idea. b5 took that idea to 11, and then threw it through a wall. b5 is taking something right, making a way to do it wrong, and then doing the wrong version wrong. It seems that doing something wrong twice is the limit at which opinions begin to differ. And the result of doing something wrong 3 times over is horrifying.

eryr2 started with s3, and it is the best on the map for that reason. The only stage to come close to replicating the feel of eryr1. Each stage in eryr2 was intended to be as hard as b3 from eryr1. Difficulty is a difficult thing to quantify, but overall eryr2 came close. The stage order was very sporadic: s3, b1, s1-2, b2, b3, s4. Bonus 1 was a stage to be deleted, but it was saved by being completed wrong. And by doing something wrong, something right came out. Luck is what it was, most of eryr2 was that actually. There was no divine spirit puppeteer.

It all started with jump_geoff. Named after an episode of Top Gear UK where the hosts built their own car from scratch. With a simple goal of making something enjoyable and fun. But like most, it failed to do so in the eyes of almost everyone. Finding your feet is not a simple task. Made harder when learning a brand new ecosystem and thought process. The map underwent a name change prior to release to something seemingly unimportant but would one day be regretted. To name anything after anyone is a big deal, staining such an important thing is best avoided, but sometimes it happens anyway. After a very extensive re-tool that borders on being a complete remake it definitely improved, but had the name been used elsewhere things would likely be different. To make mistakes and learn is the only way to achieve understanding; gaining knowledge will help, but that shouldn't be the goal, understanding and intuition top all.

Bonus 3 for eryr2 was not a mistake. Like the b3 before it, near impossibility was the goal. It was made late 2017, the whole map finished early 2018, release was not to be until b3 had been beaten, and so it came late 2018. 12 or so hours of attempts in early 2018 very soon after hammer was closed. Then darkness. No progress, no attempts, no motivation. Late 2018 after 2 more hours it happened. A gap filled. The video finished. The map released. This video sat unfinished for too long. Watching it through the whole map would play, then b1 and b2, then nothing. A gap. Nothing compares to waiting months to have that gap close. Completing a difficult task, one known to be possible but just out of reach.

Mapping has been a journey. A largely aimless journey that has lead to some great creations and some bad ones. Hell, just writing this post has been a journey, and this too feels aimless just on writing style. There are no plans to stop, and if there were only one person would know. There is a saying "If you love something, let it go." This has been done with one discipline, and probably many more as time goes on. Whether they are returned to is unknowable. These disciplines aren't even known about yet and saying anything about their future is foolish, but mistakes are the key to learning.

There are several aspects of eryr1 that are simply beautiful and almost none transferred to eryr2. For this the new map feels inferior. What defines a style has always been confusing and illusory. But these 2 maps may be the definition sought after. What made eryr1 the difficulty it is seems unknown, for eryr2 the difficulty is written on the wall. What made eryr1 fun is for all to see, eryr2... For this reason eryr2 is a name that should have been reserved.












P.S.
I don't know why but writing this entire thing without referencing myself felt like the right thing to do, and reading back through it I'm happy with my choice.

This isn't an apology or anything I just decided to watch my showcase for eryr again and it got me thinking, then I spent 1.5 hours writing this up.

If you read through all of this and were wondering about the divine intervention thing, I am not a religious person at all, but there are times where what I create is better than what I think is possible at the time and I can't explain that. It could be that I'm too modest or just better than it seems but I'm sticking with this excuse and will continue to exploit it as much as possible.