Print Page - Orientation [Environmental/Misc]

Temporary => Knytt Stories Level Releases => Topic started by: plural on July 12, 2012, 19:39:32

Title: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: plural on July 12, 2012, 19:39:32

Orientation

download:

1.3 Mediafire (http://www.mediafire.com/?ghdl5s56d2bi8c0) 63.96MB

unfinished/brokenish

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

old downloads

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

screenshots:
(http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k274/Fplusone/knytt/orientation1.png)
(http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k274/Fplusone/knytt/orientation2.png)

info:
This is a tutorial/prologue to my level The Empty Planet (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=5005.0). It is almost strictly environmental but is more akin to a linear story. If you don't like to read text in a game I'd avoid it. Basically it's just something that tells you to press down on things over and over again.

All the tilesets and gradients are custom (except gradient 14, the black one). I lost count of custom objects but there are a lot, over 100. There's some custom sound by me and all the music is by brokenkites (http://www.jamendo.com/en/list/a5747/dynamics-ep).

There are two regular endings and it's nearly random as to which one you get.

There are also two secret endings. If you're having trouble finding them (and you will for one) there's a help section at the bottom of this post in case you don't want to have to find them. They are each spoilered inside the spoiler with vague names.

Thanks to the people that beta tested, if there are still problems/bugs/typos, it's my fault, and I must have missed it. Tell me about it and I'll correct it.

~~Sometimes you get stuck and pressing left or right will fix that (a shift can be missed or just not trigger on touch, this is random). This can happen at the red/green light part.~~

Also, anyone who wants to use any of the tilesets or custom objects or gradients, feel free to do so.

I'd be curious as to what ending each of you got/found if you like to share. And if anyone wants to just say how they got it, I don't mind I just don't want to give it all up right now because I know how some people just can't help spoiling things for themselves.

ending help:

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: lamarblake on July 12, 2012, 22:26:34

Hey, loved it. Lot of text yes but well written. I got the normal ending of course and one secret ending:

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: egomassive on July 12, 2012, 23:24:01

Nice level, but I couldn't fully enjoy it. The animations are too much for the old computer I play KS on. The graphics are gorgeous! I got all the endings, but I don't remember seeing that last screen shot. Did you make changes since version 1.1? This is just a guess but I think you could fix many of the missed shifts by using floor and square shaped shifts.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: plural on July 12, 2012, 23:34:23

Quote from: egomassive on July 12, 2012, 23:24:01

Nice level, but I couldn't fully enjoy it. The animations are too much for the old computer I play KS on. The graphics are gorgeous! I got all the endings, but I don't remember seeing that last screen shot. Did you make changes since version 1.1? This is just a guess but I think you could fix many of the missed shifts by using floor and square shaped shifts.

OH MY GOD!
I want to keep using caps lock but I won't but I had no idea that it altered the shape of how you contact the shift. I just thought it was cosmetic only. I feel like throwing myself down some stairs for not knowing/wasting so much time about this.

Also, I made quite a few changes for the path you take to get to the secreter ending because I felt it was a little bland.

Anyway... I'm going to have to go cry for a while then go through and edit a ton of shifts. It still should be functional now but it would function better and without any hitches once I change them all.

*edit: sadly this doesn't fix the problem I'd hoped it would with the hitching at the lights (shifting into a shift, I'll fix it with a wallswim), just the points where you can fall between the shifts and only trigger them after you move.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: Raicuparta on July 12, 2012, 23:51:56

Well I was excited about this but I'll wait until you update it.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: plural on July 13, 2012, 00:03:17

There's an update in case you already downloaded it and don't want to press left/right half the time at the ending. Just overwrite the original game. The original upload should function fine aside from that, it's not broken at all, but anyway. I'm editing in the fix to the original post now and I'll edit in the newest full version with the fix once that's finished uploading in a minute or so.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: Fubaka on July 13, 2012, 04:08:09

Oh my word.

I don't think I have ever seen more masterful use of COs in a level than this. You better believe I am pumped for your upcoming level now!

As always, I have created a review for new levels that show up (that I can actually beat and are finished). Follow this link to read it:
http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=5404.msg58151#msg58151 (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=5404.msg58151#msg58151)

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: yohji on July 14, 2012, 22:12:16

This was absolutely exhilarating. Best dialogue I've seen in a KS level, I think. All the extra dialogue, too. Incredible. The preview thread for The Empty Planet makes the story even more intriguing. I can't wait to play the finished level!

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: sergiocornaga on July 24, 2012, 15:40:46

This is a brilliant level. I just got around to playing version 1.3 and I was amazed by how much had been added since the beta I played. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though, that extra 7 MB had to come from somewhere.

Spoiler: If you're still willing to update this, I noticed a few more trivial errors... (click to show/hide)

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: BackwardsO on August 15, 2012, 05:00:36

I barely ever post, but I have to for this level because wow this is such an amazing level. You used COs so well and I can't believe you got shifting to work so well. It reminds me of fariks levels (which are my favorite levels) but you do it even better. I can't wait to see your next level!

I got all of the endings (found one by myself and used your hints for the others) and they were all great. Keep it up!

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: GrayFace on August 20, 2012, 00:33:37

Very nice.

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: oskop on December 29, 2012, 05:33:52

Really great level, by far the best of recent ones - even if it's only an intro of sorts. I love the way it looks; when it comes to doing something more complex/realistic with Knytt Stories it gets the balance right between doing that and still making sense with Juni's style and KS's style more generally. Trying to post and I get an automatic message telling me it's been over "120 days"; it's a shame the place is empty/slow and you got so few responses, this is really good stuff, congrats and thank you.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: LuminousColours on January 22, 2013, 21:33:23

.. Just looking at the screenshots made me want to play this so bad. Great work. :)

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: Chrysophylax on February 19, 2013, 18:53:58

This was beautiful. It had one of the most moving, well-written and uplifting stories I've encountered in KS. I'm not sure I understand what happened in the different endings, however.

Spoilers for all endings:

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: plural on February 21, 2013, 07:48:09

Quote from: Chrysophylax on February 19, 2013, 18:53:58

This was beautiful. It had one of the most moving, well-written and uplifting stories I've encountered in KS. I'm not sure I understand what happened in the different endings, however.

Spoilers for all endings:
Spoiler: (click to show/hide)
I really liked the plot during my first playthrough (I got the good ending). I'm less happy about the other endings. I don't understand why the good ending is predicated on reading the last message in full, I couldn't read the messages displayed when Mother13 noticed I was in the wrong place (please make them go much slower and/or stay on screen), I see no reason why Juni would switch off MO13 and I don't understand what happened in the last one.

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

The Too-Fast Scrolling: I know that CO goes by too fast but I'm much too far away from this level at this point to fix it. If I run it any slower the flicker looks way bad. If I make it static, well it really doesn't have the same effect to me. Basically, in my mind, it's a tradeoff. I know most people can't read that fast but on the other side it's not necessary that they do. What they're missing isn't integral information and the fact that it can be missed makes things seem more functional and alive. To me the tradeoff of having the screen display changes trumps the reader missing descriptions of what they've just done. i.e. "subject is deviating from course. subject is reading log notes." or whatever the things that scroll by are.

The Bad Ending: The "white"/bad ending is the character being reintroduced into the pool of matter/goop they use to grow/make another clone. It's basically death. I realize it's not very overt but interpretation is always fun too. I think that something being more obtuse is better than beating someone over the head with it. I confess that I did rush the end and it could have been more overt but the only canon ending is the stars/good one so I don't really feel that obliged to tinker with anything. It also isn't necessary to read all the messages to get the good ending. It alternates between messages and I think it resets if you keep reading the last message again after the terminal closes. I could have made it more random probably and I would've preferred to just use a random variable to decide it but it is the way that it is now and I feel that it is in a "random enough" state to fulfill my needs for the story. It isn't supposed to be fair, even if I had the ability to program in a way for it to determine if you followed all the orders exactly and did them extremely quickly and without any failures or deviations, the point is that it's not fair. It's dissatisfying but I kind of want it to be. The ending and the aww-shucks futility of survival is basically a preamble to what The Empty Planet is going to be. This is a story about hopeful, possible purpose and all that shines through there but beneath that is this factory of life that arbitrarily decides the rules for your entire existence and even if you're fit to exist at all. It might be heavy handed but I tried to hide all of that through Mother's cheerful and hopeful demeanor but once you're out in the real world it becomes very apparent how dark the trappings are and were from the beginning.

The Mother13 Ending: The thing about switching off Mother is that it is wrong. It's clearly a bad thing to do, but it isn't necessary. I think it should be clear that this isn't Nifflas' Juni and even though it's not canon for her to switch Mother off, I'm of the mind that the choice about who this Juni is should be left up to the player. If it wasn't clear a lot of inspiration for this level came from the movie Moon and the AI Gerty. Gerty subverts the trope of the evil by design or moral-less computer, such as HAL 9000 in 2001. Gerty is honestly just doing exactly what he's programmed to do, help the main character in any way he can and it's really interesting especially after there have been so many evil AIs in the media. Mother, not to be confused with the Mother AI from Alien, just another nod, Mother13 is programmed to love each new clone that comes off that assembly line to her orientation. She literally has no choice in the matter. From the perspective of the character, I would hope it would be clear that along with her love and help she is also programmed to herd them to a fate that could very well be death. It's not her fault in any way but she's programmed to do it and by that token cannot help herself. Taking that into account, it may not be good or righteous to pull the plug on her but survival trumps that to some people. I think it's much more of a moral gray area overall but I also know that it's much harder to show that in a level where I can't really effectively have the character communicate wishes/behavior and still keep the element of choice in the level. And I really like that there is a choice. What it comes down to is accepting your lot in life or struggling to escape it. I didn't want to make it justifiable moral to do either in this case. I also had planned an escape sequence after that that eventually leads to the entire space station they're on blowing up but I realized that brevity is the soul of wit. And also that I'm lazy.

The Really Hidden Ending: Basically just breaking the Matrix inside her own brain leading to crazy dream-like sequences and ultimately death. Basically breaking the program by pushing it too far. Not really that exciting but I like the idea of manipulating a virtual reality world and compounding that with the chaos of a dream.

There is a lot I would do to fix this level if I had the inclination but I've moved on to the next level and I'm far too deep in it to come back here. Maybe when I'm done with it I'll come back to this for an extra coat of paint, but I won't promise that. I'm sorry if certain parts bug you... you can look at the CO with the scrolling text to see what is said if it's that important it is co116.png in the custom object folder.

All things considered though, thanks for playing the level. All criticism is welcome.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: pfrangip on February 23, 2013, 15:57:49

Played it like a good little kid (the thought of immortality among the Collective was appealing to me) and got the White Ending, which is apparently bad. :sad:

Next time I'll have to try and break mother.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: Pumpkinbot on August 11, 2013, 23:59:30

I hate to necro-bump a dead thread, but the download link isn't working, says it's a deleted file. But the level looks amazing, and I really do wanna play this. :v

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: plural on August 12, 2013, 04:09:10

I updated the first post with a new download link... I'm not sure why Mediafire deleted the old one, though it was made before I had to make an account to use mediafire. Maybe it just didn't get enough downloads and got deleted.

Anyway, there's a large broken section hidden in this version because I don't have the old version to post and I stopped in the middle of expanding this level. You're not likely to encounter it but if you do notice the door open to the orb/sphere room, don't go inside if you want to finish the level because you get stuck. But it's likely no one will ever get in there anyway.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: sergiocornaga on August 13, 2013, 04:29:38

Fascinating! Have you abandoned plans for expansion of this level, or do you think you still might complete this area in the future?

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: plural on August 13, 2013, 09:57:55

It started out as a menu test but that led to me making destinations where the menu would take you. I suppose it shouldn't take that much effort to finish it but it's not a high priority given that you have to go out of your way to get into the area. How to get into the "secret" area:

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

See, I really wanted a menu for something in the other level and messing around in this one gave me a way to do it. First you use the same technique that says [hold up for yes, press down for no] except down changes the selection in the menu and you simply have an exit option.

So, it's Shifts in a line where the one at the top shifts you down a few spaces on touch and those spaces have a separate shift that can be activated by pressing down and holding up wallswims you down into a shift at the bottom of the line that is another shift on touch that "selects" something. Of course this is all behind a hide block, 6/7 custom object. I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner. Then you just put up arrow with EXECUTE SELECTION and down arrow with CHANGE SELECTION in the corner as directions.

Anyway, I'll probably finish it when I finish the other level, so in Kickstarter terms my estimated delivery date: June 2013. Or whenever eventually gets here. I also want to clean up a few things in this level that aren't quite in line with the Empty Planet but that's very minor stuff nobody but me will notice as well. I should stop rambling.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: Pumpkinbot on August 13, 2013, 20:42:48

Oh my gooooood, this is amazing. <3
Take a star. Take it. Please.

This is the kind of thing I've been wanting to make for a while, now. And it's not even modded! It's just fascinating that you can do all this with just simple base Knytt Stories!

EDIT: Found a few bugs!

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Still one of the best levels ever. Right up there with Teenhmifnoeafgil. :3

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: Talps on August 14, 2013, 14:13:35

Quote from: plural on August 13, 2013, 09:57:55

How to get into the "secret" area:
Spoiler: (click to show/hide)
Reverse the matter polarity or whatever and warp across the white liquid area where you'll be near the orb/sphere room's closed door. Then reverse the polarity whatsits again so you can warp back across the white liquid but instead go back to the orb/sphere room. It will close on you and there's a terminal there that lets you select different tests/games to run in the "VR Sphere." And then you can do one of the tests in it and I believe the rest of it is broken. And you also can't exit the room once the door closes. Why it closes, I now have no idea. Deems pointlessly herding to the player like invisible walls, I should just get rid of that and not worry about it.

Ohh, I walked into that and got stuck; the brokenness got too much for me at that point and I quit in a bad mood.
I found a couple of other gglitchy areas; walking back out of the screen with the three drops, two of which teleport you back, sent you to the wrong screen. With that and the broken sphere screen where I expected a secret ending, I gave up. Plus having to start from the beginning after ending is a bit of a pain, though it makes sense. Still, I'll give this another go when I get home from work.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: egomassive on August 15, 2013, 00:46:41

Due to the complaints about glitchy brokeness, I'm uploading the last official version which is entirely solid as far as I know. It'll be available in about 20 minutes.

Download Orientation by plural (http://egomassive.com/temp/plural-Orientation.knytt.bin) 65.5 MB
Warning! This is an older but more stable version.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: plural on August 15, 2013, 11:32:37

Thank you, egomassive. I'll update the first post with that and hide the "beta" version. I didn't mean to imply that the secret area was playable and sorry if anyone went into it thinking that. But still, thanks Pumpkinbot for the bugs on that section, they were helpful.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: Pumpkinbot on August 18, 2013, 01:42:03

Quote from: plural on August 15, 2013, 11:32:37

Thank you, egomassive. I'll update the first post with that and hide the "beta" version. I didn't mean to imply that the secret area was playable and sorry if anyone went into it thinking that. But still, thanks Pumpkinbot for the bugs on that section, they were helpful.

No problem! :3 I still say that this is one of the best levels ever. It's amazing that all this can be done without modding Knytt Stories.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: Headgrinder on August 18, 2013, 02:35:25

Oh wow how did I miss this level before??? I want to play it, but mediafire is hating on me still. Anychance of a mirror link please please?

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: plural on August 18, 2013, 05:46:04

Quote from: Headgrinder on August 18, 2013, 02:35:25

Oh wow how did I miss this level before??? I want to play it, but mediafire is hating on me still. Anychance of a mirror link please please?

egomassive has a download link from his site a few posts up.

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: Headgrinder on August 18, 2013, 22:20:28

OH! Derp. Thanks. -_-

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: Headgrinder on August 19, 2013, 16:08:33

Wow, this really is one of the best stories I've ever played! Fantastic job! Very well thought out, planned and executed! Super excited to see what you do next!!! Man, the COs!!!!!!!! You totally transformed KS into your own world!

Title: Re: Orientation [Environmental/Misc]
Post by: egomassive on August 20, 2013, 00:15:42

I think the new additions are pretty neat. It would be great to see the other programs, but I'm far more interested in seeing The Empty Planet completed.

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Temporary => Knytt Stories Level Releases => Topic started by: plural on July 12, 2012, 19:39:32