[Challenge][Normal] The Forgotten Tower SE (Standalone Edition)

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If any of you have played Johnny Chthonic's level Paradise Last, then you have already played the section I made for it called The Forgotten Tower.  I've just gone and polished up a Standalone Edition of that section.

I've thought about doing this from time to time (this section/level was actually created about 2.5 years ago) partly because Johnny disappeared before ever officially finishing and releasing Paradise Last, and the last beta version he released had various graphical bugs in the Forgotten Tower (this was due to the fact that after we pasted the Tower into the main level, Johnny tweaked various things in it, and due to the complicated nature of the tilesets that created several SGEs.  I was going to go through and correct these when Johnny finished the level, but since he never did, I never got the chance.)

So basically, I've wanted to release this standalone version with the SGEs and other bugs fixed, and now I've finally gotten around to doing so.

Download:  The Forgotten Tower SE v1.1
« Last Edit: April 07, 2010, 00:52:37 by back seat astronaut »

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Offline pumpkin

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Re: [Challenge][Normal] The Forgotten Tower SE (Standalone Edition)
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2010, 20:40:32 »
This all looks very nice. Who made the tilesets?
Many a hand has scaled the grand old face of the plateau,
Some belong to strangers and some to folks you know,
Holy ghosts and talk show hosts are planted in the sand,
To beautify the foothills and shake the many hands.
-The Meat Puppets

Re: [Challenge][Normal] The Forgotten Tower SE (Standalone Edition)
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2010, 01:07:38 »
I made the tilesets.  Some of the content of them was based on what Johnny requested to be in them, though the major concepts of the level design (e.g. the elevator shaft element) were my ideas.

Basically, whenever I get an idea for a KS level, I start making original tilesets, and I spend so long on them that I never get around to making the level itself.  When Johnny was making Paradise Last and asked for collaborators, I saw an opportunity to rein myself in by making tilesets based on someone else's requests.  But once I got started my ideas got ambitious (as always) and I ended up making tilesets so complicated that I had to do the level design as well!  C)p

So, aside from the originating idea for it to be set in an old abandoned building (which was Johnny's request), everything in the level is by me, with these minor exceptions:

-the intro screens which use screenshots from Paradise Last
-the creatures at the end which were made by Johnny.
-a few tiles on the very first screen (the street and streetlight) which were from Johnny's tileset for the Lost Vegas section of Paradise Last.
-level-design-wise, Johnny also did some minor tweaking of what I created.

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Offline pumpkin

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Re: [Challenge][Normal] The Forgotten Tower SE (Standalone Edition)
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2010, 19:28:35 »
This is quite nicely done, and I am a big fan of Johnny C. Now I'm a fan of you as well! :hiddenstar: for you good sir! (Split it with Johnny!)
Many a hand has scaled the grand old face of the plateau,
Some belong to strangers and some to folks you know,
Holy ghosts and talk show hosts are planted in the sand,
To beautify the foothills and shake the many hands.
-The Meat Puppets

Re: [Challenge][Normal] The Forgotten Tower SE (Standalone Edition)
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2010, 19:35:34 »
Thanks!

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Offline yohji

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Re: [Challenge][Normal] The Forgotten Tower SE (Standalone Edition)
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2010, 15:45:44 »
I so wanted to like this level: there's a lot of detail, obviously a lot of work put into it, and so on. And I really like what I see, problem is, it is so inconsistent! :/ There's no way to determine whether it is possible to open a particular door or not. Some doors marked "EXIT" work, some do not. Some elevator doors open, others do not (well, maybe there's logic there, but I can' t understand why a single shaft would have what seems to be multiple cabins). Some apartment doors open, others do not. So irritating, completely breaks the immersion for me :(

But still, like I said, exceptional look and feel here. I wish I could get higher than floor 03 :D

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Offline lamarblake

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Re: [Challenge][Normal] The Forgotten Tower SE (Standalone Edition)
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2010, 16:45:10 »
I so wanted to like this level: there's a lot of detail, obviously a lot of work put into it, and so on. And I really like what I see, problem is, it is so inconsistent! :/ There's no way to determine whether it is possible to open a particular door or not. Some doors marked "EXIT" work, some do not. Some elevator doors open, others do not (well, maybe there's logic there, but I can' t understand why a single shaft would have what seems to be multiple cabins). Some apartment doors open, others do not. So irritating, completely breaks the immersion for me :(

But still, like I said, exceptional look and feel here. I wish I could get higher than floor 03 :D

Sometimes in Knytt levels it's impossible to determine if a particular path will lead somewhere and indeed sometimes they are dead ends and Juni must try a different way. So it is here only this time it's different doors or elevetor shafts you must try. Hey, if I can get to the end of this level you can certainly get higher than the third floor! :)


Re: [Challenge][Normal] The Forgotten Tower SE (Standalone Edition)
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2010, 19:43:09 »
Hmm.. I'm stuck on lvl.5
I really like the way this is organized, how on each floor you have to get to the next in a different way.
Lurk more.

Thanks everyone for the comments.  (I've been so distracted by the FiNCK beta test that I forgot to check this topic.)

I admit that the level might be a little too confusing, though lamarblake also makes a correct point that the "inconsistency" of having to try different routes is an essential characteristic of KS levels.  I think in this level it's a little of both:  the aspect of having to figure out how to get past each floor is intentional, but I might have gone too far and made it overly confusing as well.