[Scenic/Challenge, Normal, Medium] Shipwrecked

This level has been released see this topic, but its a beta release. Taking beta testers for the full release here. It is the full release.

I have some huge projects cooking, but I've been wanting to whip up some smaller dishes in the meantime. So, I decided to join the current level competition. I've been making Shipwrecked for less than a week and it'll be out by the 5th of May, but don't lower your expectations because of the short time frame. This level has consumed me and I expect you will eat it up.

As the title suggests, our heroine finds herself shipwrecked on a tropical island. You can follow Juni through her day to day struggle to survive, be rescued, and solve the mystery behind the disaster that cast her away.

The game plays in episodes much like Farik's Harvest. I was originally going for an environmental level, but I decided there were too many objectives for the environment label. So, I added some tricky jumps and monsters.

Features Include:
All custom tilesets
All custom music (I'm mostly just using ambiance though)
Custom ambiance
Animated custom objects (e.g. In screen shots below; Juni, crab, and fire are animated.)
In game cutscenes including animations
An intriguing story line
As many as 5 endings (I may run out of time for the competition.)

Woah! A new egomassive level! Can't wait. The screenshots look delicious.

Looks epic!

If epics can be medium sized, then I suppose. I've been cutting some corners to get it done by the competition's deadline, but I'm not cutting them very much. If you look at the 1st and 3rd screen shots you'll notice the clouds in the upper-right corner are identical. Instead of redoing the clouds completely each day. I've just been redoing the middles of the screens.

I'm making the ambiance tracks right now. It's going very well.

Can't wait.

This is looking amazing!

I'm a big fan of your level "a knytt in time" so this is probably the level I look forward to the most at this time

I support this. I highly support this.

Thanks guys. You won't have to anticipate it for long. It's due in 6 days.

On a development note, I've figured out a way to produce cutscenes much faster. Before, I would draw the scene on paper. Scan it. Trace the lines in Gimp (which is a pretty lousy tool for drawing in my opinion.) Color it. Add dialogue. All in about 4 hours per screen. Now, I'm tracing with a marker before scanning. Even with animations the process takes half as long.

I'm loving Audacity for turning field recordings into ambiance loops. Never really delved into it before. Even a n00b like me can make good stuff with it. I plan to make the tracks available for public Knytt Stories use when I release the level.

'Knytt in Time' was outstandingly epic, and this looks very pretty, so I look forward to it. I can't believe you could make a level like that in such a short time!

looks like a fly mamacita right derr

Gracias. Incidentally the competition due date coincides with Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday. This is partially responsible for the tropical setting. As such, I, living in the West, will attempt to have this ready for download sometime on the 4th of May. Then, we can all enjoy it on the 5th regardless of our timezones. That means I have 3 days left.

Development-wise, today I'm working on the final episode. There are so many cutscenes and animations related to this episode that I'm a little overwhelmed right now. I'm considering cutting a section of the episode because it's very demanding on the design side.

I ended up making a music track, because I couldn't find any good tribal drum tracks available. I took a sample under a creative commons non-profit sampling+ liscense. Then, I diced it up and pieced it back together in Audacity. I'm not sure if this is a good approach, but I'm still learning the software.

I'm resurrecting this thread to gather beta testers for the full version of the game. It's nearly finished. I need to finish 1 custom object and 4 gradients (The gradients are cutscene images.) I also need to make a win screen. (After winning you get the choice to return to the game or quit.)

If you are interested in testing the full version please notify me here or in a private message (PM). I'll respond here and in PM form. Those who test and submit their findings will be credited in the public release.

Here's some preview info. I've added a challenging bonus dungeon (very hard) leading to a bonus ending. Two of the original scenes, including the standard ending, have been extended. Another hidden scene has been added as well.

Picture below is from the new dungeon.

I'd love to betatest

I'd love to test, loved the version you released

RunMan and Yonowaaru, welcome aboard. I'll PM you both as soon as I've finished the full beta. I said I had one CO, four gradients, and a win screens to make. I made 3 COs, 1 gradient, the win screens, expanded from 2 to 3 custom tilesets, and tweaked the entire level with the new tiles.

However, now I plan to make 3 gradients, another CO, and I remembered I wanted to add a few sound effects. I will likely start the beta testing without the new sounds.

Preview time: There are currently 46 original CO images of which 30 are animated. These are used to make 75 COs for the game.

Edit: It's finished. Beta testing is all that stands between this level and it's full-version public release. Another tester or 2 is still desired as this level has a complex design.