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Temporary => Knytt Stories Level Releases => Topic started by: Vegetal Gibber on January 27, 2016, 00:39:34

Title: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Vegetal Gibber on January 27, 2016, 00:39:34

(http://www.eb-creativos.com/hosted/vegetal/images/wip_goldenland2_infoscreen.jpg)

Type: Environmental/Playground
Size: Medium

[ Get the level here! (http://knyttlevels.com/levels/Vegetal%20Gibber%20-%20Exploring%20the%20Golden%20Land.knytt.bin) ]
[ Mirror (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47886996/knytt/Vegetal%20Gibber%20-%20Exploring%20the%20Golden%20Land.knytt.bin) ]

(Note: KS+ version 1.2.0 or later required)

Exploring the Golden Land is a medium-sized playground level focused mainly on atmosphere and aesthetics. It's intended to be a sequel of sorts to Journey to the Golden Land (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=6588.0), where you'll have the chance to explore this beautiful and relaxing place to your heart's content.

(http://vegetal.eb-creativos.com/ksstuff/sshot/goldenland2_shot1.jpg)

Although there's no ending nor a main goal in this level, there is a total of three special areas and a secret bonus that you'll be able to access by collecting all the coins and golden creatures scattered through the land. About half of the map is hidden at the start, waiting for you to discover it.

This scenario was designed to be played on egomassive's Knytt Stories Plus (http://egomassive.com/ks/) mod and uses some of its exclusive features. It won't work on vanilla KS.

(http://vegetal.eb-creativos.com/ksstuff/sshot/goldenland2_shot2.jpg)

Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)

Level design and custom graphics by Vegetal Gibber

Sound effects and ambience from Freesound.org

Music by Frozen Silence, Brandon Liew, Presence of Music and Kevin MacLeod

Knytt Stories Plus mod by egomassive

Special thanks to ixMarcel, Fubaka and Ultigonio for beta-testing and providing pre-release feedback

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Fubaka on January 27, 2016, 03:25:44

Very good level. This is the sort of thing that environmentals should strive to be.

Spoiler: Secrets (click to show/hide)

Failed to mention this earlier, but I was astonished at how much the Dark Caves reminded me of Knytt Underground. That's quite an achievement.

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Mitorun on January 27, 2016, 06:47:01

Excellent level, it was a pleasure to play. KS again surprising, thank you for that.

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

I found void - when flying on umbrella of bubbles up, turn to the left (or right) on one screen (in hell), and then return to the previous screen.

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: ixMarcel on January 27, 2016, 14:32:03

This is one of the most beautiful KS levels ever made. Fantastic use of Ego's KS+ mod and Custom Objects. Also, trying to find all the golden creatures and coins is very fun.

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Vegetal Gibber on January 27, 2016, 18:53:44

Thanks for the comments guys! Glad you enjoyed the level :D

@Fubaka, @ixMarcel:

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Dang, my work being reminiscent of Knytt Underground is quite an honor! :oops:

Hope you guys like the finished version of the Nightfall area. The beta I sent you only had two or three incomplete screens.

@Mitorun:

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Whoa! I really didn't expect people to reach that by normal means. I put that small area in the level as some sort of easter egg, just in case somebody got too curious and managed to go in a totally unexpected direction :P

Anyway, I fixed the void screen (forgot to set up the warps, my bad) and re-uploaded the file. Thanks for reporting the bug!

I've updated the level file with some minor edits:

Spoiler: 1.1 Changelog (click to show/hide)

• Fixed a void in a normally unreachable area.
• Changed the location of one of the golden creatures in the Marble Palace area.
• Removed a few empty/filler screens from the full map.

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Talps on January 27, 2016, 19:09:45

Someone call Quincent Cartographer and tell him he has to give his 'Prettiest KS Level Ever' trophy back.

That was brilliant; most fun I've had playing a new KS level in a very, very long time. Your use of KS+ features was incredible (I'll soon be trawling through your level to work out how you did some of that!)

Well done and thanks!

If I have one criticism...

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Warning, my one criticism is about...  :shifty: the secret. It's so top secret I'm actually going to nest spoiler tags!

Spoiler: It's that secret! (click to show/hide)

I don't think golden Juni looked that great with the muted blacks. Look at how ego did the golden creatures, leaving the black bits alone. But hey, you may disagree.

Spoiler: And if you don't see me around for a few days... (click to show/hide)

It's because I'm opening and closing my sparkly umbrella and making little splooshing noises jumping in and out of the water.

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Vegetal Gibber on January 28, 2016, 01:19:18

Whoa man, that is some praise right there :O  Thank you for the kind words, I'm happy you enjoyed the level so much!

My original plan was to use only the collectible items and the screen tints, but as I started trying out some of the other KS+ features while I was making the level, I decided to use this project to familiarize myself with as many of them as I could (although I tried my best to avoid being too greedy and adding stuff that would feel too tacked on).

Spoiler: Super spoily secret stuff! (click to show/hide)

I went with the current version of the Golden Juni sprite to make it look more "glowy", although this also makes it lose some contrast. Maybe I could even add multiple versions of the character for the player to choose from.

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: vdweller on January 28, 2016, 19:28:53

Yup, another top notch design! Great job!  :D

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: egomassive on January 29, 2016, 11:11:26

This was so good! I think this is the first level for KS+ that uses its features in ways I never imagined. I used to push the boundaries of what vanilla KS was capable of. It's such a delight to see someone doing the same with KS+. Playground is a genera I've never found appealing, but I think you've figured out how to make a playground as well as one can be made. *gives star*

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Vegetal Gibber on January 29, 2016, 18:47:17

Thanks a lot for the compliments! Glad you guys liked the level :D

@egomassive: I had a blast experimenting with the extra features you added to KS, there's a ton of useful stuff in there! I found the triggers and the screen tints particularly interesting, and the support for multiple blending modes is what made it possible to create a different atmosphere for each area while still using the same tileset.

Regarding the secondary category of this level... I suppose this couldn't be strictly called a "Playground". It has no ending and no real plot, but collecting the golden stuff could be considered a main goal. You can, of course, ignore the collectibles completely and just jump around enjoying the atmosphere, but getting them all is required in order to get access to a good portion of the level.

Then again, I really enjoyed Healy's A Day at the Beach (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=3315.0) precisely because it had a lot of optional/hidden stuff to reward the player's curiosity (even multiple endings). In fact, it's my favorite Playground level for that very reason :P

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: pfrangip on January 30, 2016, 05:49:28

Great level! Loved the use of foreground objects... perhaps the best use of them I've seen! Really added an extra layer of depth and immersion! Beautiful stuff!

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: egomassive on January 31, 2016, 15:56:09

Quote from: Vegetal Gibber on January 29, 2016, 18:47:17

... I suppose this couldn't be strictly called a "Playground". ...

Hmm. I suppose it did have 2 specific goals, and one relied on the other. That's probably why I liked it so much. I knew what I wanted to do and I knew when I was finished. So you're right, it's not a pure playground level. Still, it's a great variation on the concept. There are many fun things to see and I was free to wander in any direction as I pursued the goals.

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: millsmess on February 01, 2016, 04:30:43

Wonderful level! Playing this was extremely soothing!  :)

One idea:

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

I feel that making the hell area escapable would be more consistent with the theme of the rest of the level. Although, perhaps it is escapable and I just couldn't figure it out!

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Purple Ink on February 02, 2016, 05:04:19

Just wow! Simply amazing. Such a great level. A great showcase for KS+'s features too.

Can't really say anything that hasn't already been said. Loved the level! :)

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: sergiocornaga on February 02, 2016, 19:44:25

Brilliant level. I noticed some solid shadows at x1002y1002 Pos x2y2 and x1004y1001 Pos x16y6. The latter uses all four layers though, so maybe you just decided visuals were more important than a minor collision oddity there!

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Vegetal Gibber on February 02, 2016, 21:09:52

I feel I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but I really appreciate the feedback and discussion. Thanks! As pfrangip said before, I love how supportive this community is :)

@pfrangip: I got a lot of different opinions with this level. The foreground plants are an interesting case, because a friend mentioned them as a bad point (he thought they were too distracting and looked weird). Also, each player seems to have a different favorite area, with no definite consensus. Guess it's a good thing I included a little bit of everything :P2

@egomassive: I'm actually the same. I enjoy the free-roaming aspect of playground levels, but I quickly lose interest as soon as I stop finding new things to see and do (especially when the level has 100+ screens and the areas are not distinct enough from each other). Keeping the player interested is, perhaps, the most difficult part of designing a level of this kind, so I'm glad to hear I succeeded :)

@millsmess:

Spoiler: About that special area (click to show/hide)

The "hell" mini-area is just a little easter egg I added just for kicks, in case the player managed to get into a supposedly inaccesible area, either by exploiting some trick or using cheats (in fact, I'm still not sure it's possible to access this area by normal means... did you manage to escape the air current without using cheats?). It wasn't meant to be a real part of the level, but rather a "you shouldn't have done that" joke screen.

I could make it into a full-fledged explorable area, but I feel those screens would disrupt the happy/relaxing atmosphere of the rest of the map too much. Maybe as a secret quest, giving the player a chance to set things right...? We'll see :P2

@Purple Ink: Thank you! It's not as extensive an use of KS+ features as plural's A Climbing Alike made, but I'm glad I was able to do ego's work justice.

@sergiocornaga: Thanks for reporting these! I'll fix them before I submit the level to Knyttlevels.com :)  Yeah, the second solid shadow was intentional, but now that my evil plan has been expertly foiled (curses!), I think it doesn't make much sense to do this just to include a barely noticeable extra tile. I'll just edit the background a little bit to make room for the shadow.

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: StraightFlame on February 02, 2016, 22:39:15

Quote from: Vegetal Gibber on February 02, 2016, 21:09:52

Spoiler: About that special area (click to show/hide)

(in fact, I'm still not sure it's possible to access this area by normal means... did you manage to escape the air current without using cheats?)

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

On x1000y993, this tile is on layer 1 for some reason:
(http://i.imgur.com/59IqQ9t.png)
I'm not sure if that's how millsmess did it, but it's a thing.

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Vegetal Gibber on February 02, 2016, 23:06:36

Ouch! It is indeed a thing. I used non-solid layers for some blocks so I could put the shading tiles over them... which was pointless, since I'm using the overlay feature on that area and I could just have used layer 2 for shading :P  Force of habit, I guess.

Thanks for reporting this! I've already uploaded a fixed version (which also removes the solid shadows Sergio mentioned).

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: millsmess on February 03, 2016, 02:24:37

Spoiler: About that special area, again (click to show/hide)

@pfrangip, I'm a bit confused. To exit the air currents, I simply drifted off to the side - (the hell area came as quite a shock!). By trial and error, I found that the hell area was triggered by leaving any of the air current screens to the right or the left. I am using an older version of Knytt Stories Plus (1.1.7) so perhaps that could be causing some problems? At any rate, if that area is not ordinarily accessible, then my previous comment about that area is not really relevant.  :)

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Vegetal Gibber on February 03, 2016, 03:24:11

Spoiler: About the special area 3 - The Revengening (click to show/hide)

Ah, I think I see what happened. The special object I'm using to lock the player into the current (Obj #49 / Bank #0) is a relatively recent feature of KS+ that isn't present in the version you're using. That's why you could just drift away from the current and enter that area, even though it was supposed to be inaccesible. The sudden transition must have been quite confusing, to say the least.

I should probably add a warning in the first post and/or the info screen about this detail. Thank you for pointing this out! :)

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: cman on June 23, 2017, 21:23:08

Just finished this, I have enjoyed it a lot. The difficulty was perfectly adjusted (for me at least) I got stuck at times but then quickly found the way to go on. I hope to find some more great levels like this one.

Title: Re: [Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land
Post by: Vegetal Gibber on July 28, 2017, 20:22:55

Glad you enjoyed it! :D Since the only real challenge in this level comes from finding all collectibles and unlocking all the areas, it's good to hear that you were able to progress smoothly.