The website that's been eating all my time recently is down today, so I finally found time to add the finishing touches to my newest level,
Petals of a Dying Flower v1.1. (http://knyttlevels.com/levels/Talps%20-%20Petals%20of%20a%20Dying%20Flower1.1.knytt.bin)
Thanks to my slowly learning to be good at this level design lark, the difficulty for this level is less suspect than my previous (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=4271.0) two levels (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=3556.0) (which are worth playing anyway!).
It's artistic, and whatever plot there is I can't describe without ruining it, which isn't to say there isn't a plot: you get to work it out for yourself.
There is one screenshot below, but to see more, all you have to do is click on the download link and wait! :P
Best played in fullscreen mode.
UPDATE
After more than a few years, Petals of a Dying Flower has been updated!
Please note that the level is now KS+ exclusive.
UNDERGROUND RIVER
- For better or worse, altered the upgrade room to look how I originally wanted, but couldn't make work back in the day.
FORGOTTEN PRISON
- Altered text in prison secret room so it makes a sentence now.
- Made lazy lever door in hologram screen less lazy.
- Removed the most annoying pop-out spikes in all of history.
SUBTERRANEAN FOREST
- Copywrited music has been removed and replaced (I'm a little older; I'm a little wiser...).
- Made this cave look more like a cave.
- Freed up pathfinding around the big cavern.
- Made it easier to leave the secret area without immediately dying.
OUTER RUINS
- Updated tileset to make this area more visually interesting.
- Changed the colour of daylight from sketchy yellow to curious blue.
- Added this area's secret area with none of the drama that put me off adding it back in the day, mostly because I know how flags work now.
- Set Vegetal Gibber on the case of making the final screen look awesome.
CREDITS
- Corrected link for 'October Air'.
- Replaced credit for copywrited music with credit for non-copywrited music.
- Replaced final screen image for one with a less wonky horizon.
OTHER
- Added Loaf.
- Added a huge reward for those who find all four secret areas.
- Removed the huge reward for those who find all four secret areas, as it will now be released as a separate level.
- Wrote a changelog that was hardly facetious at all!
- Edited rather needy first post of forum thread.
- Added Loaf.
For people who are allergic to updates or KS+ or gluten (http://knyttlevels.com/levels/Talps%20-%20Petals%20of%20a%20Dying%20Flower.knytt.bin)
until you actually get out at the end.
With the main character here struggling to recall vague memories, Loaf's appearance is cute and clever. He told her it was important and not to forget. Even though it was a dumb fact only important to Loaf himself, she really did remember. Great way to include your "RAWR" toast and have it work with the rest of the level.
In my search for secrets I think I found a bug:
What's the point of the lever near the final flower? The room below can be cleared in either state, and there doesn't seem to be a reason to go through the newly open gate to that earlier section of the level. In my quest for answers, I discarded basic logic and tried to find out if it had affected any other gates in the level. Turns out it had, just not in a way you probably intended. If you flip that lever and then backtrack via the upper path (past the three bouncing balls) to x1015y972, you can flip the lever there and it stops working, sending you to a version of the room (x1016y974) from which there is no escape, presumably because it was only supposed to be seen from the outside.
Glad you enjoyed. :D I loved Loaf in 'Through the Swamp' and couldn't resist giving him a cameo. I hid him so well because I didn't want him to break the immersion of anyone just cruising through the level, taking it as is. I'm glad he contributed to the atmosphere for you, rather than detracting.
That lever was originally just put there as set dressing; in the original it was inaccessible, but I always thought the fourth secret should be hidden up there; it was the difficulty of having the lever there too that made me not add the fourth secret in the original release.
For this, I decided I wanted to put it in. I considered having the lever broken and do nothing, but I figured with a simple flag I could make it safe to use. Typical a player immediately broke it... <_<