Click HERE to begin downloading your EXPERIENCE. (http://knyttlevels.com/levels/Nifforum%20-%20LPChip%20Hooray%20Fun%20Time.knytt.bin)
Egomassive's KS+ mod is required to play (available for download here (http://egomassive.com/ks/) - make sure you have the most up to date version).
Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls, people of the jury and distinguished members of the world press...
...Allow me to tell you a story.
It is the story of a man.
That man's name...
...was LPChip.
LPChip was a man who enjoyed many things, including...
Administrating an indie videogame forum...
...Making bodacious music...
...And licking other people's cats...
...But what he enjoyed most of all...
...was searching for new stars with his telescope.
Every clear night LPChip would search for new stars...
...Even when the sleep deprivation was really bad...
(which might possibly help to explain all that cat-licking)
...And then one day, he realised that he had discovered one hundred totally new stars.
And so, LPChip decided to travel the world, telling everyone he met of his amazing accomplishment.
This is the story of what happened next.
This is his story.
This is...
LPChip!
Hooray!
Fun Time!
'LPChip Hooray Fun Time' is a community built level made by myself, Fubaka, Firecat, IxMarcel, Ultigonio, StraightFlame, Vegetal Gibber and canteven, with contributions by sergiocornaga, egomassive, BloxMaster and SiamJai, to celebrate the occasion of LPChip receiving his one hundredth star (which happened... four, five years ago? Ahem, anyway...)
The level features glorious unique tilesets, COs and music entirely composed by LPChip himself apart from the bits that were composed by other people, besides extensive use of KS+ features, an extended dream sequence, unrealistic weather effects, a magic carpet, a world-ending slood-related crisis, and one really tastelessly coloured signpost.
We who are listed above hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed making it, and we are sure you will join us in thanking LPChip for all he has done in hosting and maintaining these forums for all these years.
Thank you, LPChip. Thank you, and goodnight.
Download not finished yet?
Why not pass the time by...
"An absolutely stirling level and a fitting tribute to a truly great man. Astounding, evocative and sensitive level design. Awe-inspiring graphics. Beautiful, tear-jerking music. Objectively, this is not only the best Knytt Stories level ever created, but one of the greatest cultural experiences of all time."
-Humphrey the Amazing Burping Frog
"Eventually there are screens without any spikes at all!"
-Dick Button, iceskating analyst
"Playing this level has been a profound, life-changing experience."
-The Dalai Lama, not an actual llama (of course, I know that now...)
"As a parable of fascism and freedom, 'LPChip Hooray Fun Time' so overplays its hand that it seriously dilutes its power to disturb. Much of the impact of Knytt Stories, like that of so many indie computer games, came from haunting, symbolic figures that players interpret on their own terms. 'LPChip Hooray Fun Time', on the other hand, wears its political heart as if it were a slogan button. This is true not only of the dialogue, but also of Mr. Moorrees's generically impassioned music, which has that to-the-barricades sound of the omninously underscored anthems of 'Les Misérables'. Though the level is festooned with cutely surreal humour, there's a rock-hard lecture beneath the preciousness. The creators reconcile the gap between form and content only in the funky but overused purple mine tileset."
-Ben Brantley, New York Times
"What a dreadful level."
-Jeremy Hunt, the UK's most hated man
"I still don't understand what this has to do with knitting."
-Sue (from catering)
Did you know...
- Scientists have built telescopes called 'The Very Large Telescope' and 'The Extremely Large Telescope'. There were plans (now cancelled) to build one called 'The Overwhelmingly Large Telescope'. Every word of this is true.
- After more than fifty years of studying sleep, researcher William Dement said that the only reason he knows for certain why we need sleep is 'because we get sleepy'. In conclusion, sleep is weird.
- The darkest part of a shadow is called the 'umbra', whilst the edge of a shadow is called the 'penumbra'. You will never, ever need to know this.
- Raindrops are not raindrop-shaped. They are spherical when they first form and then eventually get squashed into oblate spheroids as they fall. Liquids forming spheres as they fall has been used to manufacture musket balls and ballbearings. (There is no joke here but we hope you found it interesting.)
- The first holograms were invented in the 1940s by Dennis Gabor who did so by accident whilst trying to invent a more efficient electron microscope.
- Mario Mario (the Nintendo mascot) has a hat because - with only a few pixels to work with - his original designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, couldn't draw hair, a moustache because he couldn't draw faces, and wears dungarees to make his arms stand out from his body. Undoubtably, anyone who has ever tried to draw a knytt will sympathise.
- The word 'Sahara' derives from the Arabic word 'Sahra', which means 'Deserts'. So 'Sahara Desert' literally means 'Deserts Desert'. Aparently no one has ever realised what a cop-out this is.
- In the UK, judges don't use gavels. A lot of British people think they do but only because they've been watching American television. The only time a British judge would use a gavel is if he was conducting an auction at the same time as being a judge.
Clicky omigosh kittens! (https://www.boredpanda.com/cute-kittens/)
Glad to see that this level finally got finished. Kind of ironic that the day I decide to check in the forums again after a long absence is the day this gets released. Now, in proper me fashion, I will conduct a review, as I have just completed the level. For my metric, I will be using the classic T-DAVE subjective rating system. For those unfamiliar, check out this old review thread. (https://nifflas.lp1.nl/index.php?topic=6604.0)
Now, just a quick disclaimer before I get started. Some might consider it to be a conflict of interest for me to be reviewing a level that I myself took part in designing. However, since I completed my section nearly five years ago, I think enough time has passed that I can look back at my own work more objectively, and I do not plan on going easy on my own design choices wherever there are issues to be raised.
Trustworthiness: This level is described as a large challenge-based adventure, with the forum post including the unofficial designation of "scenic" (which from what I remember is used to denote that a lot of emphasis was placed on visual effects and/or tileset work without specifically using the "environmental" category). I think these designations are apt, as it will take a couple hours at least for your typical player to get through this level the first time, and a lot of work was indeed put into visual effects, mainly in the form of unique locales and cut-scenes.
While the preview and forum description give a good idea of what the story and scenario of the level will be about, it is not quite mentioned that this level is a largely linear affair, with relatively little backtracking. In addition, the level itself is listed as Normal difficulty, but I personally would have listed it as Hard instead. Keep in mind that I try to keep my metric based on the idea that Nifflas' original level The Machine is the benchmark for Normal (or Easy) difficulty, and this level is definitely harder than The Machine.
Overall, I judge this level's character to be Neutral Good.
Design: Given that this level was built by several different people with their own design philosophies, one cannot necessarily expect a seamless experience throughout. In order to help sell this notion of disjointed level design to the player, the level makes use of shifts through various dream sequences in order to connect the disparate areas together. Due to the inherent difficulty in making a level like this coherent and smooth, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the level actually does manage to flow smoothly from stage to stage, with the difficulty curve being very consistent as well. None of the stages veer too far away from the central challenge-focused gameplay of dodging enemies and obstacles, and the power-ups build upon each-other very organically from stage to stage. The unique designs of each stage also help to diversify the types of obstacles that LPChip will be traversing, keeping gameplay fresh.
Now, I wasn't necessarily looking for errors this time around, as I was just in for a casual playthrough. That said, I never got stuck in a wall nor accessed any voids, so from my perspective, the level is pretty rock-solid in design.
There are a few nit-picks I would make in places however when concerning platform and enemy placement. There are a good deal of areas that require leaps of faith off the edge of the screen in order to reach new platforms. This is not necessarily a fatal flaw, but it does become a minor source of frustration when working with limited access to powerups near the beginning of the level, creating a need for trial and error to get around some environmental hazards. A few areas also suffer from somewhat haphazard enemy placement, which makes it more luck-based to get past than I would like, which can sometimes be aggravated by a dearth of save points. Lastly, there are many places, particularly in the Dreamworld section, where ghostly enemies can blindside you in areas where they are hard to see coming.
One screen that really got my goat was x1099y1062. The ninjas there always seemed to be able to hit me no matter where I tried to stand. Perhaps it's just me, but I would have modified that screen in particular to make it more forgiving, or added more save points.
Although the level is mostly straightforward, there are a few secrets that can be discovered here and there with a little determination. A lot of these I did not personally find until I peeked into the editor after I finished my playthrough.
In particular, when I played through, I completely missed the conversation with BloxMaster, which made me kind of sad that I did not find it naturally.
Despite these little blips, I think the level does a really good job design-wise, and I never really thought any challenge was unfair, nor did I really get stuck anywhere. Overall, I think the level design is superb.
Agenda: This level is very heavily story-driven for a Knytt Stories level, with much of the game giving way to lengthy and often humorous dialogue exchanges between LPChip (our protagonist) and the various inhabitants of the world he traverses (whether they be based on other Nifforum users or not).
The story can be essentially broken down as follows. One starry evening, LPChip looks through his telescope and discovers his "100th star". To commemorate this achievement, he runs off to tell as many people as possible about his discovery (against Mi's wishes) and ends up in a heap of trouble as he trespasses into several dangerous realms.
While traveling through each area, LPChip gradually gains more powerups as the scenarios he runs into become increasingly absurd. Upon reaching Vegetal Gibber's peanut butter desert, LPChip actually ends up collecting his 100th star, which he proceeds to use as a substitute for the Umbrella powerup. Throughout the journey, there are several references to other levels (and other aspects of the community) thrown into the mix, including one particular cheeky reference to the Corrupt-a-wish forum game and a (much appreciated by me) scene involving Juni Jones - Ace Attorney.
Near the end, LPChip realizes that he does not have the time or the willpower to tell literally everyone on Earth about his discovery (as was apparently his original goal) so he decides to end his journey by climbing a tall mountain and telling sergiocornaga about his discovery. Upon entering sergio's observatory, however, LPChip gets captured as sergio demands LP hand over the star he collected. Many of the other people LP met then barge in demanding the star for themselves, but they are all interrupted when Egomassive shows up and berates everyone for being so obsessed with collecting and showing off stars. Egomassive then (hypocritically, but true to his username) proceeds to take the star for himself as everyone else chases after him, leaving LPChip behind.
From there, it is revealed that the entire adventure had been a dream sequence meant to teach LPChip humility, but this turns out to have failed miserably.
The story does a good job of justifying the nature of the level's design and is packed full of humorous moments and references to the community at large. It also feels appropriately celebratory (even if it came several years late :P ).
Overall, the agenda is met summa cum laude!
Vibe: Each area of this level has a distinctive look, art-style, and set of music, though a lot of the tracks you will hear come from LPChip's own repertoire of songs. (Speaking personally, if I had known about that particular factoid in advance, I would probably have used an LPChip song for the Dreamworld area as well.) As such, the vibe changes drastically from one area to the next, though given how the story operates, this is not really an issue. The credits of the level further enforce the patchwork nature of this level, by giving separate credits for each section.
Due to this design, it becomes easy to form opinions on your favorite areas. For me personally, I'd have to pick Vegetal Gibber's peanut butter desert as my favorite section.
The vibe overall feels like a box of assorted sweets.
Enjoyability: Due to the good design and the humorous nature of the story and dialogue, I found myself enjoying this level quite a lot. Its linear nature does make it a largely one-and-done experience, however, unless you want to go back and look for secrets you may have missed, or if it has been a while since your last playthrough.
Overall, it was quite entertaining.
Summation: After a while, I had resigned myself to the realistic possibility that this level would never see the light of day. After all, Knytt Stories is over 13 years old now, and it's rare for a community to remain engaged with relatively small games like this for an extended period of time, not to mention the now sluggish pace of the forums compared to how they once were. But it goes to show that, even if it takes much longer than initially promised, things like this can still be done. I suppose that's one thing I resonate with in particular, since I also have a long-standing promise to fulfill in this community that I intend to keep. (let's just say someone here's either gonna get a level or 20 dollars at some point in the future).
To see that not only was this level actually completed, but that it's also really good is a light of hope for me in these trying times. I'd like to give my thanks to everyone who contributed, and to Talps in particular for not letting this dream die. And of course, here's to LPChip and his 100th star, and any others in the future.
Just chiming in to say it's been an honor for me to contribute to this project. It's been a long (and I mean loooong :P2 ) but exciting ride. Congratulations to everyone involved, especially to Talps who kept the project alive for all these years and led it to completion. You guys rock :hiddenstar:
It's not much, but here's some bonus stuff I wanted to share with you all to commemorate the occasion:
(https://vegetal.eb-creativos.com/ksstuff/other/lpchip_title_screen_HQ.jpg)
High resolution version of the title screen (you might need to open it on a separate window/tab to see it at full size).
(https://vegetal.eb-creativos.com/ksstuff/other/lpchip_title_discarded_panel.png)
Alternate version of one of the mini-panels featured in the title screen.
(https://vegetal.eb-creativos.com/ksstuff/other/lpchip_title_temporary.jpg)
A badly drawn, temporary title screen I used for my section before it was integrated into the main level.
Just finished it, although I'm sure I wasn't everywhere. Ending was probably the most epic one I've ever encountered in a KS level.
And I was very pleasantly surprised by one of the cameos.