(O) Building a Competative Stage

(1-O) Stage Size: When you open Stage Builder, there is a ghost image of a stage, along with a ghost image of Mario, to give you a good idea of an appropriate size to start with. This ghost image is the same size regardless of the size of the map you’re building on. It’s always 30 blocks across, and the top runs along the horizontal center line of the building space. This is indeed a good sized stage, as you would probably expect. If you want to build a more intimate stage, you may want to shave 2-4 grid blocks off of both sides. Building any larger than the ghost stage depends on the size of your map. I recommend not building any longer on a small map though.

It’s not a good idea to build much higher, or any lower on a small map. Building too high gives certain characters an advantage over others. It’s okay to build a little high, say 1, maybe 2 grid blocks above center, just to create different ranges to the upper Blast Zone, but I personally stick to center on small maps. Building any lower will cause specific hardships for specific characters. For instance Greninja’s Neutral Air (N-air) has a tremendous amount of lag while airborne. There is almost no landing lag, but performing this move in the air leaves you with no way to act for some time after performing it. I recommend taking Greninja into your stage and see if you can do a walk off N-air, and still recover before you hit the lower Blast Zone. If not, your stage might be too low.

If you are building on a medium sized map, there is a little more freedom to move up and down, but not a ton. And of course, there is even more range when building on a large map.

Each size map has the same length of ghost platform (30 blocks), the same distance from the side green lines (the lines that represent the edge of what can be seen during a match, I call these sight lines) to the side Blast Zone, which is 16 blocks, and the same distance from the bottom sight line to the bottom Blast Zone, which is 12 blocks. The differences in size come in the distance from the top of the platform to the top Blast Zone, the edge of the platform to the side green line, and the top of the platform to the bottom green line. The distance for each size is as follows. From platform to top: Small = 16 blocks, Medium = 22, and Large = 32. From edge to side green line: Small = 15, Medium = 21, and Large = 31. From platform to bottom green line: Small = 14, Medium = 18, and Large = 24.

So let’s say that you feel the distance to the Blast Zone is the most important variable in your stage building, and you think that the distance on the small maps ghost stage is perfect. In that case, if you were building on a medium stage you’d want to raise the top of the stage by 6 blocks, and extend each edge by 6. The distance to bottom has the least affect on a match, as long as it’s not too low, so I’ll ignore that for this scenario. If you were building on a large stage you’d want to build 16 blocks higher than the ghost stage, and extend each edge by 16. As you can see the number for each size map is the same for height as it is for width, so it should be pretty easy to remember. For medium the number is 6, and for large the number is 16. If you can just remember the number 6, then you can just add 10 to the medium stages number (6) to get the large stage number (16).

(2-O) Starting Positions: It is imperative that both player 1 and 2 start at equal distance from center stage. If you have a stage built normally, player 1 will start at center stage, giving them the advantage. In order to cause both players to start an equal distance from center, you’ll need to place an object under the center stage, very close to the topside, but just beneath the surface. This will keep anyone from starting a match there. I tend to use the small moving platforms because I like the distance. I originally used soft platforms, but I don’t like the way they stick out from beveled top stages. If you have a flat top (and in some situations even on a beveled top), a soft platform can be a nice decoration. Here’s an example of a normal platform being used for this. If you use this method, the platform will need to be drawn with the grid off.

If you use the small mover, you will need to place it at center with the grid on, then turn the grid off and starting with the lower part of the mover, nudge each part of the platform down by 1 pixel (the smallest amount possible with the grid off). If the mover is too high, the platform will be visible during game play, which is usually not desirable, although again, sometimes it can look nice. And if it’s too low, it won’t push player 1 away from center. Here’s how it should look when you’re done.

If you want a little more distance between the players, you can place it horizontally, but this might mean you need to accommodate for players 3 & 4 starting positions.

(3-O) Platforms: Some people mistakenly think that competitive stages need to be flat, with no platforms. But anyone who has played a tournament, or at least seen competition footage will know that several stages with platforms are common picks. In fact, some characters thrive with platforms, and others can do cool tricks with them. Also, doing a move with low knockback, that sends an opponent backwards off of a platform will cause them to fall to the ground without the ability to tech, making an opportunity for a reset, which is a common tactic in high level play.

The trick is to try new things with the size, slope and placement of your plats, without creating a stage that’s too busy. This is where your own creativity should be unfettered by my suggestions, so I won’t give you examples, but I will show you one important thing to note.

In competitive play, using your double jump just to reach a platform makes you vulnerable, because if you happen to get hit while airborne, and you are launched far off stage after using your double jump to try and reach a platform, then you are at a severe disadvantage for recovering back to stage. You also don’t want to place it so low that people can’t do short hop aerial attacks underneath it, without landing on it, as this is a major approach option in high level play. Not too high, not too low. There actually is an optimal height, and I’ll show you what that is, but I don’t want you to think that every single platform has to be that exact height all the time. I found a youtube video by Smash Highlights that showcased the jump height for each character, for both hop and jump. Essentially, Greninja had the highest hop, and Ganon had the lowest jump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwUNxwj2UkU&t=52s

FYI: technically Jigglypuff and Kirby have the shortest full hops in the game, but they also have several jumps, so using 2 jumps to get up to a platform isn’t a huge disadvantage for them. Next to them, the shortest jump in the game is Ganon. He can jump up to a platform that is 5 blocks above him. Fortunately, this is high enough to keep the highest hop in the game (Greninja) from landing on the platform during his short hop approaches.

When a platform is 5 blocks above the stage, every character in the game can get to it by jumping but not hopping. Technically Shulk with his Jump Monado activated is the highest hop, and he WILL land on a platform of this height, but raising it up enough to keep him from landing on it after a hop, also means raising it too much for Ganon to reach it with a jump. And, since Shulk only hops that high when one of his Arts are triggered, I’ll give the advantage to Ganon, he needs it anyway.

So it would be a good idea to make the majority of your platforms 5 grid blocks above your stages, and 5 blocks higher than one another. It’s one of those things that isn’t exactly necessary, you could make some platforms a little extra high, but if you want the stage to be fair ground for all fighters, you’ll want to keep to this formula, at least most of the time. Maybe if you have high platforms you could also incorporate an elevator by way of moving platforms, to help out the low jumpers.

One more thing to note: if a platform has even a 1 grid block high slope, it will eat Megaman’s Buster Shot (His Side Smash). You might think so what, but this important kill move is a smash, so it can’t be performed in the air, meaning he can’t hop and release it, to clear the slope, he has to be grounded to use it.

If you want to create a slope that does not eat this move, simply drop the high end down by a pixel (or raise the low end up by the same). If you want to keep Greninja’s fully charged water shuriken from being eaten, better make it 2 pixels. To learn more about this, see section (1-X) in the next portion of the guide. Below is an angle that I feel is optimal, but don’t be unwilling to try other angles. The length doesn’t matter too much.

(4-O) Combos: I want to show you how to create a stage that makes use of two (or more) different Skins to make one structure.

First I want to do a quick refresher on the 3 main types of Skins. There are (A) Bevels, which have beveled edges along all sides, there are (B) Flat Tops, which only have bevels along the sides and bottom, and there are (C) Squares, which have flat edges on all sides.

Let’s say that I want a stage comprised of the masonry skin, but I want it to have a grassy top. I want the masonry to overlap the grass, so I need to draw the masonry second, since each new piece (usually) overlaps the previous piece. I call this a Combo, since it uses a combination of parts. So, start by drawing the grass. Since this is the highest and smallest part of the Combo, we’ll call it the Head. So of course, the main portion of the Combo will be called the Body.

The angle on the sides of the Head is actually fairly important. If you do a 45 degree angle then some characters will hit their head when recovering, even though the angle is concealed within the Body portion of the Combo. So I use an angle that is 1 block down and 2 blocks in.

One quick side note on the top of your stage, I highly recommend keeping the vast majority of your stages flat. Slopes on the main stage can cause a variety of issues for many characters, but in particular, Greninja suffers greatly. His Up-B can be aimed to the side to escape his opponent, and if he wants to he can then aim it back again, allowing him to dart away and back.

But if the ground he is standing on has even the slightest angle whatsoever, the move will be negated, and he will practically go nowhere. In the picture below, he was standing at the far right edge, and he did his Side-B toward center stage. As you can see, he didn’t travel very far. I’ve also included a close up of just how slight the angle is in the editor.

Back to making the combo. Now, if we were to just draw the Body over the Head with the grid on, the Body would be shifted, causing ledge problems, and hiding the grass. Note in the picture below how the right ledge grab icon is slightly high and to the right of the grid point that it is nearest.

This is because these two pieces share a boarder (their top plane in this example), so we need to eliminate that shared boarder. Let’s start by drawing a temporary platform to the right of the rightmost ledge. This will eliminate the ledge grab icon, allowing us to tap that grid point, which we’ll need to do. Be sure that the temporary platform is not touching the space that the Body will occupy, or else it will cause shifting. Now start as seen below with the left side of the green line. Draw upward into the left edge without picking up the stylus, then turn the grid off, and tap a point directly on the vertical center line of the grid (the one that runs from Ghost Mario’s head to his feet), but make sure that it is just below the horizontal center line (the one that runs from left to right). Then turn the grid on and finish the piece.

Now these two pieces no longer share that boarder! This is actually a poor construction, but I want to show you something that you will need to look out for. If you try to test the stage as it is, you will get a message that says “There is not enough ground for fighters to stand on. Create more platform space inside the green box”. This is because the top plane of the Body is too close to the top plane of the Head. The issue is that players cannot start on a surface that has another surface, or an item, like a spring or moving platform, just underneath it. If the Head of your Combo extends to the edges of the Ghost stage, then you will need to drop that central point of the top plane on the Body down to a certain point in order to make room for 4 starting points. The smaller your stage, the lower you will have to drop that central point, in order to accommodate 4 starting positions. The larger your stage, the higher that middle point can be. Another way around this, if you really want that central point as high as it can be without sharing that boarder, is to add a platform(s) for players to start on.

But let’s assume that you’re trying to make an Omega style stage with no platforms, in which case you will need to drop that center line to a position that will allow 4 starting positions. Let’s start by placing the small moving platform that we talked about in (2-O) that we’ll be using to push Players 1 & 2 equal distance from center. Once we do that, now we have a visual guide for where to place that central point. It should be at the very bottom of the platform. Placing it here will allow room for all 4 players to start. The placement of this lowered center point of the Body will depend on the length of your stage; I’m showing you what is needed for a stage that is exactly as long as the ghost stage. Anyway, here’s what it should look like.

Now the finished stage should look like this.

And here’s what it looks like in game.

Hmmm. I don’t like the way that dirt shows up between the grass and the masonry trim. It looks this way because when drawing certain sizes and shapes, even beveled pieces have flat tops. I want to restore that bevel, so I’ll try this.

Now our bevel is present, let’s finish the rest and see how it looks.

Oh yes, that’s much better. But how does the entire topside look?

Well now I don’t like the way the masonry topside is so prominent on the edges. I’m going to show you how to get a bevel in the middle, and flat tops on both sides.

You’re going to want to draw the exact same shape as before, but instead of starting the drawing with an edge, you start in the center, and move to an edge, then finish the piece. After you’re done, it should look like this.

But that’s kind of a shallow bevel. I want it to be a little deeper, or else some of that dirt is still going to show up. Let’s try this.

Now we have a deep bevel in the middle, and flat tops on both sides. Keep these things in mind, because in some cases you may want a flat top on a beveled piece, or you might want a shallow bevel in the middle, with flat tops on the sides. I generally go with the deep bevel, but I want you to be aware of the varied options. And here’s how it looks in game.

I want to show you a specific problem to avoid if your Head has edges that are too thin and pointy, like the one below.

Even though the ledge grab icons are present in the editor, fighters still won’t grab the ledge, not at all.

(5-O) Underside Slope Angle: Now I want to talk about the underside angle of your stages. Unless you are building a block shaped stage, you need to be aware of certain properties of the slopes under your stage. When most characters hit a sloped ceiling with their Up-B, they should skim along the slope, right to the ledge of the stage. Below you can see Greninja hit the bottom of a slope with his Up-B.

If you’re holding directly up on the control stick, he should travel right to the ledge.

If the slope is too shallow, he will hit his head. You could do a variety of slope angles, but I want to show you the shallowest slope that functions properly. Anything steeper than this should also work just fine, but I highly recommend never creating a slope that is shallower than this. This is the same slope that’s been seen on all of the pics in this section so far. It is 2 grid blocks down, and 3 blocks over. As shallow as this slope is, it still allows for wall jumps too, which is very helpful for about half of the cast. I do this because I personally don’t like the look of a 45 degree angle on the bottom of a stage, to me it looks too bulky, and not nearly sleek enough. There is an example of a 45 degree angle below; it’s an angle that dissects a grid block diagonally.

There are a few things to consider for certain characters. The following is in regards to a fighter being very low on a stage that has the down 2 and over 3 angled slope. Some will be able to recover from lower if they do their Up-B while facing the center of the stage; others will be able to recover from lower if they face away from center. This is assuming that they are right up against a low point of a sloped ceiling, under the stage, as seen in the image below. Pac-Man’s trampoline shows where he started his Up-B.

It’s this low and close position that the following information pertains to. The fighters not mentioned shouldn’t have too much trouble in any situation. Those that need to face center when recovering low on this angle are: Ike, Roy and Sonic. And those that need to face away from center are: Robin, Palutena, Meta-Knight (if he’s really low), Charizard, Corrin and Cloud. Fox, Falco and Lucario should aim their Up-B toward the ledge to get the most out of their recovery. There are two special cases to mention, Pikachu and Pac-Man. Pika only moves a certain amount during his Up-B, but can move twice as far, if you input another directional input at the right moment. He should aim his Up-B up and away from the center (angled up a bit more than 45 is best, but 45 works), and then immediately directly toward the ledge. Pac-Man needs to initiate his Up-B and immediately press and hold toward the center of the stage. This will cause him to hug the slope on the way down, allowing him to hit his trampoline for the second and third jump if necessary.

(6-O) Wall Cling: And just in case you want to have a sloped bottom that also allows for a wall cling, you will need it to be 1 block over, and 3 blocks down. This angle won’t hinder Up-B recoveries, and wall jumps will also still work. And if you really want a slightly shallower angle that allows for wall cling, then you can do 4 blocks over, and 11 down.

(7-O) Bells and Whistles: As for the aesthetic details of a Combo stage, you’re going to run into a unique situation. Earlier I said that usually the newest piece appears on top of the previous piece. Well the combo works a little differently, depending on where your detail pieces end up. If your detail piece only overlaps the body, and not the head, then it will end up behind the stage. If it overlaps both pieces, it will end up on top of both. The image below illustrates both scenarios.

If you want a particular detail to be seen in front of the body, but it doesn’t end up overlapping the Head (meaning it will be hidden behind everything else), you can simply draw a temporary piece first (like the one on the right side of the picture above), then draw the detail piece, and it will now be on top. The temporary piece should occupy some of the space of the body, and some of the space where the detail piece will soon be added, but it shouldn’t overlap the head, and it should not share a boarder with the detail piece, or else the detail will be shifted. Now draw your details, then delete the temporary piece. Another thing you might want to try is to give your Head a little more size, so that the details will be more likely to come into contact with both the Head and the Body. If you do this, you may run into problems if your Head happens to share a boarder with your details.

In the image below, the detail piece on the right appears in front of the Body, because the temporary piece occupied some of the space of the Body and of the detail, but not of the Head. The same detail piece was added on the left side to show how a temporary piece that overlaps both parts of the Combo affects details.

Just so you’re aware, there will be some instances where you will want your details to end up behind the Body, so that the only thing that shows up during game play is the trim edge of the detail piece. In the picture below, the piece on the left is behind the Body, so only the trim appears, and the detail on the right is on top of the body. There will be a time for using each of these techniques, so experiment with them often.

One issue that can occur when adding details to your stage, can negatively affect fighters recovery. Take the image below.

Even though the detail piece doesn’t technically stick out from the side of the slope, Greninja’s head still hits it, which cancels his Up-B. If this happens close enough to the top, some fighters can still auto snap to the ledge, but each fighter’s snap range is different, so don’t think that just because one character isn’t hindered by this, that no one will be. I HIGHLY recommend keeping detail pieces at least 2 grid blocks inside, away from the edges of any slope on your stage.

Finally, I’d like to show you a very specific problem that I ran into while making my stage called Bug Back. First I’ll show you the general construction I tried.

The problem is essentially the same as having detail pieces too close to an angled edge. Characters hit their head, and their recoveries are gimped. This is because of the flat underside of the first portion of the Body. Even though it’s buried within the new, second portion, the characters clip into the stage just a bit, and their heads hit the flat bottom, stopping their movement dead in its tracks.

To fix this I simply carried the angle of the 1st segment of the body down a little further than it was previously. See below.

Now there are no troubles.

The construction above doesn’t look all that great, but it illustrates my point.