I'm quite happy with the level compression, now. Things are nice and trim, and everything's fitting into a small enough area.
So, today I'm thinking about how the server should work.. Note, I've not added the server yet, but I'm definitely getting prepared! What I've decided to do is implement an Author name and Level name directly into the checksum.
This way, when the server checks your game for new levels, it can automatically dig out the new stuff, and it'll know what it's meant to be doing. You also won't be able to rename a filename, and have your own silly highscore, because you renamed someone elses level to "My Copy for My Highscore.lev!" or something.. The original name's kept at all times, so everything should be good.

As with AD1, whenever the game does find a new level, it'll nick it from you, and pop it onto the server. AD1 would send you two new levels every time you've played every other level, so long as there's any levels left on the server.
It'd be a bit quiet about this, though, so this time I'll make a bit more of a song and dance about it.
It'll tell you when it's stealing your levels. It'll stuff it into a great big bag of random levels, and then .. perhaps daily, it'd send you a new one. I'll get the server to pick a level at random, each day, and then send that out to everyone that plays. The level will of course be saved to your system, but it'll only ever be sent out once. If you miss it, you've missed it.... No going back!
My hope is, that if everyone gets the same level on a certain day, it'll lead to more competitive highscores. Whether or not that'll work, we'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, it'll keep track of the random bag of levels, and probably let you know how many are left.
I'm thinking that, maybe, if the bag gets below about 14 or so levels, that it could switch to a weekly level instead.. That way the game would last a little longer, depending on how many people are building and uploading their levels. Keep the flow going!

*sigh*
And that's a lot of work that still needs to be done.

Still, it's good to get these things written down, and the thought processes churning on.

Meanwhile, I have to come up with a nice menu system that's not as "Obviously just a big menu" as the last one. I say that, but there's still a whole lot of stuff to show onscreen, anyway!! If there's lots of levels, it'd probably be a good idea to shrink the text size down a bit so I can fit more onscreen. And then there's the achievements to fit in, and the online highscores, and message of the day, and a whole big bunch of other stuff, too. Whew!


I might nick the NXE idea of having levels above one another, highscores if you scroll right..
That'd be nice.. And since the PC doesn't have a really really really shit DPad, it'd mean you could scroll left and right without accidentally ending up in a completely different section, because you accidentally hit up.. .. Oops, seem to have whinged about the Xbox a wee bit there.. Still, this whole game's appearing because GW2's so damn blurry, so I might as well moan about other things, too

More to come.. (game making, and possibly whinging, too!)