(https://i.imgur.com/Gp8qJjr.png)
"Among Knytts and other creatures, many stories about Juni are being told."
Work on this level started in May 2018. This is a creative endeavor by me and Fubaka. In the end, I realized my original vision was not focused enough, and the level that emerged was not what either of us anticipated. Please enjoy and make of it what you will.
[ Download link ] (http://knyttlevels.com/levels/ixMarcel%20%26%20Fubaka%20-%20What%20happened%20next.knytt.bin)
You need egomassive's Knytt Stories+ mod in order to play this. [Get it here] (http://egomassive.com/ks/)
ixMarcel:
Original idea
Level design
Ending scenes
Fubaka:
Level design (area featured on screenshot and onward)
Music
Music:
Song21 - BGM 03 by Ludvig Forssell
Song22 - taken from Frozen Mountain 2 by unknown
Song23 - https://twitter.com/Aneninen
Song27 - Graham Plowman - HP Lovecraft Horror Music
Song30 - Dreaming on a Dark Place by Drackfreeee
Song33 - Fubaka - Simcilli
Wow, this level is... an experience.
I reached... an ending, I think?
I reached the bed using the blue key... which keeps you stuck indefinitely. As far as I can tell, there's no way for me to get a better ending (via more keys) without restarting the level.
This is probably the best arthouse/surreal level I've played. I love the visuals, I love the unique KS+ effects, I love the distortions of common Knytt themes (like the castle song with the record skip).
It seems like this is supposed to be the story of what happened to Juni's spirit/consciousness after she turned off the Machine. Maybe I'll find out if I ever get the "good" ending.
Also, not sure how I feel about having to look in the Worlds folder for the key... but it's definitely unique, I'll give you that.
That was an experience...
I was really impressed by the underwater attachment. I have no idea how you did that. Very strange. Very startling.
I really liked the function of going into the World folder. Again, very unexpected.
The sequence where the level is uninstalled was way too loud; I had my headphones on and had to whack the volume right down.
Thanks for the DNPUTK reference :p
I will admit, I cheated to give myself the purple key after reaching the bed ending, as it was the only one I'd missed. After the long pause under the tree I was not sure if the grave would shift to anything, but I gave up before the music ended. Actually after the freeze in the bed, I almost gave up at the tree. While this may have been intentional, I'd say that wasn't the strongest part of the level. To me it felt like an unkind way to treat your player, but I acknowledge that this is only my opinion.
The Ebert sequence was even more evil than making me walk straight past a blood rose (the red shooter flower). And I'm not sure the clue from his dad's vine was worth anything. So thanks for that! That section felt very out of tone with the rest of the level but, again, I assume that was intentional.
I won't undermine this by searching for any meaning therein. By my interpretation, it was meaningless.[/Existential_nihilist]
Not sure if they're meant to be there, but there are at least two reachable voids. One in the "bed" room if you climb the left wall, one above the yellow key.
Finally got second ending, and I stand with my interpretation. This is what happened to Juni's mind after she turned off the machine.
EDIT: After poking around in the editor, there seems to be an unreachable room with a bunch of gold creatures. Has anyone managed to reach this in-game?
EDIT2: Okay, I've been poking around in the Worlds Folder,
There are a lot of tidbits here. Almost every folder has an easter-egg image, text file, or hidden message. There's even a backwards soundbyte!
Okay, I actually played this when it first came out, but I've been procrastinating writing my thoughts for a few days now, so. Oops.
Long story short: I really liked this level. I can tell that it kind of lost focus about halfway through, but it's still definitely a level worth uploading.
My only major complaint is that neither of the endings make it very obvious that it's the end of the level, making you think either you or the level creator did something wrong. A simple 'A level by ixMarcel and Fubaka' subtitle would have been nice, but whatevs. It's not the end of the world.
Also, a way to easily reset the level as to get any keys you've been missing by the end would be nice.
Great work! The first half reminded me of david c's levels, as well as that Battle Cheese level Firecat made a while back. Nice use of KS+ assets! :>