Trivia / Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: Prior to a July 2019 tweet from the game director behind Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha, most of the Robot Masters from that game, including recurring devkit boss Komuso Man, had only ever appeared in black and white and had no official color scheme^* Aside from some magazine art of Dangan Man and Rockman Shadow, and a cameo by Konro Man in Mega Man ZX Advent, so their colors in MaGMML2 were mostly based off of fan conjecture. While some of the color schemes used were widely off the mark, Komuso Man's purple and tan colors wound up being surprisingly accurate to his concept art.
• Christmas Rushed: The second game did get released in a playable state a few months before the anniversary ended, but suffered from slowdown and noticeable bugs (which both got fixed later on).
• Creator Backlash: The judges eventually came to agree with fans about the fourth Wily level in MaGMML2, Inner Sanctum, being one of the weakest judge-made levels.
• Creator Breakdown: ACESpark went through a minor one following the completion of MaGMML2, leaving him burned-out and wanting to take a break from Mega Man-related projects (including Mega Man Revolution Remix and Quint's Revenge 2, though he ultimately became an advisor for the former).
• Creator In-Joke: One of the tracks in 48 Hour, used when the Box Cartel's eyes light up in the darkness, is titled "Eyeball Awesome Moments". This is a reference to series' creator SnoruntPyro's then-recent affiliation with Faceless Eyes.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Levels that judges particularly liked will get a special emoticon near the levels.
  • SnoruntPyro liked "Mega Man World" in the first game, and "The Stage Nobody Asked For" in the second game, but later rescinded the latter after going back and finding major problems with the level (especially its Optional Boss), and stated "Neapolitan Man" became her favorite instead.
• Development Gag: The reason for the Mega Arena's boss being a Hive Mind of Volt Men was because Volt Man is the default NPC in the editor.
• Follow the Leader: The first game was clearly intended to evoke Make a Good Level X (by SnoruntPyro's own admission). That said, it did go on to achieve its own notoriety among fans.
• He Also Did: The MaGMML2 level "Launch Man and Shuttle Man" was designed by Strife, better known for being the creator of Freedom Planet.
• Milestone Celebration: The second game was made during the Mega Man franchise's 30th anniversary, with the in-game festival celebrating the 30th anniversary in-universe of Mega Man's first victory over Wily.
• Production Throwback: The alternate costume for Quint in MaGMML2 changes his slide into a dash, referencing his playable incarnation in one of ACESpark's previous games, Quint's Revenge.
• Prop Recycling: Among other things, several elements from the cancelled fangame Mega Man Infamous Intent are used in MaGMML2, including the civilians, the Genesis Unit, Quake Woman and a few songs. Duo's sprites in Episode Zero are also taken from the yet to be released Mega Man Revolution Remix.
• Schedule Slip: The submission period for the second game lasted from early January 2017 until the end of Feburary. It wouldn't be until May when the results would be announced by Flashman85, and since then, several months had gone by without much word on any release date. The game was finally released to the public on October 1st, over 5 months since the results streams.
• Throw It In!: Both for MaGMML2:
  • The entire reason "Twilight Lodge" was included as a bonus level was this, according to a conversation log at the start of the level:
  ACE Spark: let me know if want to shove Wishing Star from Mega Man's Christmas Thingy in there somewhere
  SnoruntPyro: tbh i almost want to have mega mans christmas thingy in the final game just because we can.
  • The Singing Gordon Freeman Easter Egg was added because all the judges had gotten sick hearing Galaxy Man's theme (the default level music) during the judging phase, so when someone pranked them by switching it to a Voice Clip Song instead, they got enough of a kick out of it that ACE decided to include the song itself in the final game.
• Troubled Production: MaGMML Remastered started development in December 2017, taking about a year and a half to complete. Reasons for the delay included the project being lower priority than other MaGMML projects and the fact that the game used a much older and buggier version of the Megamix Engine than what would be used for MaGMML3 and 48 Hour. This led to a planned "Episode Zero" side game being split off from the remake.
• What Could Have Been:
  • For MaGMML:
    • The level "Citadel Basement" was originally going to have a boss called Rail Hunter, which would have been fought on a Guts Lift that would change tracks and height periodically. It was ultimately scrapped due to time constraints.
  • For MaGMML Remastered:
    • The game was originally going to have an "Episode Zero", serving as an Interquel set between the first and second game with Zero as the main character. Due to the Troubled Production of the remake, Episode Zero was split off into a seperate project.
  • For MaGMML2:
    • In the Tier 4 boss fight with the Scorching Duo, the Scorch Man from Zook Hero Z was originally the Scorch Man from Mega Man Eternal, but the fan-game's creator objected to his inclusion, and the inclusion of Eternal II boss music, and thus both were replaced. Illusion Man and Jolt Man from the same game also had their NPC roles removed for the same reason (though Jolt Man still has a background cameo in Tier 4).
    • The Tier 7 boss, Pepsiman, who is subject to a Bait-and-Switch Boss, was originally an unrelated Robot Master named Pepsi Man from Mega Man FU, but the creator requested his removal due to the character's depiction, before the in-progress fan-game he originated from was ultimately cancelled.
    • The alternative weapon set and the Alter Man skin that comes with it went through this twice. Originally, a scrapped post-game level had you playing as Alter Man (the optional boss from the end of Identity Crisis), traversing ruined versions of select entry levels and obtaining the alternative weapons that were based on the custom Robot Masters of those levels one by one, and once the level is finished you would be able to use said weapons everywhere else. When the level was scrapped, the rewards were moved to the end of the Pit of Pits, but once the devs realised that only a few people would be able to reach the end of the pit (if you died, you would have to start over from square one), the rewards were finally cemented as Knight Man's reward for collecting 170 Noble Nickels.
    • At one point in development, the length of ACESpark's Yggdrasil comment caused severe problems with the game, which meant an alternative was going to be in place - another Comment Comic, but this one pointing you to a pastebin of the full review. Ultimately a solution was found, and it was deemed funnier to leave the full "essay" comment that is in the final game.
    • Several Judge comments were toned down before release, not changing the content but rather given less harsh language, following a bad reception on a live-stream done by Flashman85.
    • If he didn't start working on it during the week of the deadline, RedBlupi's Cyber Man level would have gotten more polish and additional elements, including the psychedelic bonus stage from Mega Man Final 3 and a giant form that Cyber Man would turn into upon running low on health.
    • The game was planned to include a "Classic" mode, where you play through eight select stages and then the Wily Castle like in a traditional Mega Man game as an unlockable bonus, but was cut towards the end of the dev period.
    • The aforementioned Rail Hunter was first going to appear in this contest as an alternate boss in Entity1037's entry "The Stage Nobody Asked For", then as a mini-boss in Null and Void, and then as an Optional Boss alongside the statue bosses in Tier 10. However, it was again scrapped due to time constraints.
    • The Wily 3 stage, Lever Oriental Enchanted, was originally going to have Nosferatu as its boss, but was removed for unknown reasons.
    • The bonus level "Twilight Lodge" is comprised of unused assets intended for Mega Man's Christmas Carol 3, a planned sequel project that was quietly delayed until 2019.
  • For MaGMML3:
    • Thirteen levels were excluded from the contest for various reasons. Flashman85 would play some of these levels on his channel and reveal what they would have included.

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