(Another) wordy thank you for making Knytt Underground

There's so much I want to say in the way of thanking you for making this game.
 
 
I love the music!
 
I downloaded the soundtrack, and plan to add most of it to my playlist of songs that I play while I work.  Your soundtrack will fit right in with my soundtracks to Fantastic Planet, The Mentalist, and a bunch of music by John Barry, John Carpenter, and other guys named John, etc.
 
This might sound weird, but I was hesitant to listen to the soundtrack on its own until I had finished the game (twice now), because I didn't want to mentally separate it from the locations in the game.  (Does that make sense?)
 
 
I love the characters!
 
This is the first of your games I tried, and I think I'm spoiled.  Having Dora and Cilia with me on my adventure, having them speak for me, and talk to each other, was perfect, and a huge break from the potential "loneliness" of just exploring a big place alone.  I also loved the interactions with just about every other character I met.
 
I have gone back and tried some of your older games, but as I've said, you've spoiled me.  Whenever I see a person, I think "I wish I could talk to that guy!"
 
Other things that have spoiled me on KU are the auto-mapping and the ability to come back to life right where I died, so I can immediately try again.  I hope these are things you'll do going forward.
 
 
I love Cilia!
 
"I love Cilia."  The first time I actually said it out loud was when she told off that guy who was questioning why Mi was on the quest, rather than Do.  I said it many more times after that.
 
I quickly caught on that Cilia was my "attack dog," to sic on characters that seem like they'll deserve it.  But I realized she was more than that.  On my second play-through, I took a chance, letting her talk to people even when I was afraid she might hurt their feelings. 
 
My mouth dropped open at the advice she gave to Ji!  But I was pleased with how sweet she was to some of the other characters.
 
 
I (grudgingly) love Dora.
 
Of course I appreciate that she is good to people, but I really love her back story and how she came to be the person she is now.  I also love that she is so dead wrong about certain things -- her opinions on the ray gun, and the letter "O."
 
Cilia and Dora bantering throughout the quest for the diamond was the best!  Right up to Cilia's line at the very end.
 
 
PS3 vs. PC:
 
I read your post where you recommended "definitely the desktop version, it's the one where everything works as I intended."  But I really wanted to use my receiver & HDTV, so I stuck to the PS3 despite my character suiciding off walls, and my inability to control the bouncing ball.
 
When I finally tried the PC version, I felt like an Olympic gymnast, compared to the PS3. On the PC, I was happy to find out that I could solve certain puzzles in about 20 tries (which I think was your intention), rather than 200 or more.  (I'm not a young, agile game-player.)
 
Also, I realized I could hook my Lenovo Yoga to my receiver and play with a wireless keyboard.
 
In short: PC better!
 
 
So much more to say...
 
But this post is too long already.  Maybe I'll write a separate follow-up post where I talk about:
 

• a few of my favorite scenes / characters (Blerbloblah, Hannah, Professor Julie, Wi-Fi, the girl with the invisible friend...);
• an idea I had while stuck and frustrated on the PS3 (basically, once the player has tried the same puzzle 200 times, the fairies should somehow help, possibly at the cost of a stone);
• an idea I had for a kind of cool "plot twist" (for a future game, based on the "see the invisible" power from another Knytt game.  I guess I should PM this one);
• your story-telling is really good (despite Cilia's immediate complaints about how the game ended  :-)

 
In conclusion...

Thanks!
 
Please make another game like this.

--

Thank you! I'm super happy to hear you like it so much. I'd also like to point out that the Wii U version of the game is more or less identical to the desktop one, just so people who are considering that one knows.

Edit: It's interesting that you mention waiting with listening to the soundtrack to after playing the game. I guess with Knytt Underground the association for me comes automatically as I tend to compose the music specifically for the areas, or sometimes design areas specifically for the music. When I think about it, I often wait with listening to game soundtracks before I have played them through for the same reason.

About listening to soundtrack albums...

As kids, we listened to the "Live and Let Die" soundtrack all the time.  When I then re-watched the movie, some of the tracks stopped feeling like they were "responses" to what was happening on the screen. If anything, since I knew where the "sting" moments came in the music, I could tell that a "sting" was about to happen on the screen.

I remember re-watching and thinking "Oh! Bond doesn't burn the snake at the part of the 'Snakes Alive' track where I thought. He burns the snake earlier, and the real big sting in the music comes when he disarms Rosie Carver and flips her onto the bed!"  :-)

(Maybe not a perfect analogy.)


And a couple more questions...

Would this be the right place, maybe with a spoiler tag, to confirm that I didn't miss any story resolutions when I finished the game?  I'd like to confirm that we never meet this person, or that person, or that Dora never finishes explaining a certain thing to Cilia, etc.

Oh, and I'd also like to ask a little more about the Cilia ending of Ji & Udo story. It seems like there is a very specific piece of additional advice that Cilia should have given Ji -- and that would have sent us on a specific quest to help Ji execute the advice.

Should I just post questions in this thread, even with possible spoilers?

Thanks.

AG

or sometimes design areas specifically for the music.

That is so awesome. Music inspires like nothing else, and can make us imagine worlds and events we've never seen before. I keep envisioning entire games based on various songs and soundtracks but I'll never have the capability to actually make them