First and foremost, thank you for you input! I haven't seen a whole lot of response for this stage yet, so it's defintiely a nice change to see some actual thoughts.

There are a few things to point out though, the most important one of which is the difficulty. The stage does feel a lot easier than I first expected it to be, so that's why I disabled the checkpoints (that was the original reason why I replaced the checkpoint collection sound with the drowing sound too, as a sort of trolly thing). However, I got sooo much pest from private testers for doing that, so I re-enabled them.

The result of this was something that made this entire thing feel not like the true final challenge it was supposed to be, but I wanted something that was bearable while also tough as hell. Just removing checkpoints would be a cheap-shot.

As for the recycling of Unreal Place, that was due to let's players complaining about the stage's difficulty far and wide already, so I wanted to have an argument along the lines of, "Oh, you think that version is tough already? You've seen nothing..."

Finally, the death counter thing was actually planned, but I kinda disregarded it when I realized the whole thing was just not worth it for the mood. I mean, unlike all the other stages you are thrown with absolutely no setup into an almost completely dark stage with disturbing music; HUD elements would've just taken effect of that in my opinion.

Thanks again for your input! As an added bonus, I got inspired to do something:

VERY SERIOUS BLACK CHALLENGE MONTAGE

:V

Originally posted by Selbi Inkille:

First and foremost, thank you for you input! I haven't seen a whole lot of response for this stage yet, so it's defintiely a nice change to see some actual thoughts.

Yeah, I posted this due to the lack of any real content being made about the Black Challenge, and if I hadn't seen the Sonic EraZor 2016 "trailer" I would never have even known there was an update.

Originally posted by Selbi Inkille:

There are a few things to point out though, the most important one of which is the difficulty. The stage does feel a lot easier than I first expected it to be, so that's why I disabled the checkpoints (that was the original reason why I replaced the checkpoint collection sound with the drowing sound too, as a sort of trolly thing). However, I got sooo much pest from private testers for doing that, so I re-enabled them.

You manadged to find a balance with Scar Night Zone 2, so I honestly beleive that you could find a balance here, just please for the love of god don't add in point targets, please.

So I guess that you could in theory have a limited number of lives/rings/time/checkpoints before you get reset to the start of the level, but that's just my personal opinion, hence why it's disapointing to see a lack of any others.

Originally posted by Selbi Inkille:

As for the recycling of Unreal Place, that was due to let's players complaining about the stage's difficulty far and wide already, so I wanted to have an argument along the lines of, "Oh, you think that version is tough already? You've seen nothing..."

Well, atleast now I'm able to say "You think that's hard? I've seen some ♥♥♥♥." to any of my friends who want to try this hack.

Originally posted by Selbi Inkille:

Finally, the death counter thing was actually planned, but I kinda disregarded it when I realized the whole thing was just not worth it for the mood. I mean, unlike all the other stages you are thrown with absolutely no setup into an almost completely dark stage with disturbing music; HUD elements would've just taken effect of that in my opinion.

dank full mlg 1337 pro: <1 deaths
lol ur not mlg xd: 1-5 deaths
Kinda decent, I guess: 5-10
Not bad[vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net]: 10-20
Slightly above average: 20-100
Average: 100-500
lol u suk xd: 500-1000
How did you even beat this?: 1000-5000
git gud[i.ytimg.com]: 5000-whatever

Basically I just think that some extra content for the overacheivers would be appreciated, I mean it's been 2 years :P

Originally posted by Selbi Inkille:

VERY SERIOUS BLACK CHALLENGE MONTAGE

:V

m8 u think u haf godlike dodging skils? i beat sans wifout taking damage, 1v1 me sonic erazor speedrun bro il rek u.