In honor of the Season 5 Game of Thrones premier today, I've decided to release my first level: a little homage called The Tower of Joy. This little tour probably won't mean a lot to you unless you're familiar with the source work, but you might enjoy the sights and challenges.
Criticism is welcome.
Download v2 here.
(http://knyttlevels.com/levels/pfrangip%20-%20The%20Tower%20of%20Joy%20v2.knytt.bin)
There is one secret ending, and it requires finding all the secrets.
Hint:
Left of the start screen to find detector.
EDIT: Version 2 has been released! Changes:
- Fixed two voids and a wallswim in the secret area
- Nerfed the invisible mazes!
- Modified the level's attributes to accurately reflect it: Challenge/Environmental/Hard
I found it ok. The first section was a little dull, though that might be because, as I said, I didn't get the text. And the invisible maze... well, they're always a mistake (C.F. the one in my level, 'Eurydice'). It was only a few screens long and not so hard which was a relief, but as I learned the hard way, it's a thing not to include in your games; it's always much harder, much less fun, than you think, if only because the player doesn't know how nasty or nice you've been and therefore can only worry about it.
But apart from that I enjoyed it. As the second half got more challenging, it was fun. I liked some of the challenges and traps you made, and the savepoints were nicely generous in the difficult areas, though some of the saves were a bit too close to the edges of new screens. There was a time I ran into an area (it was the first save after one on top of the fountain), ran over a save straight away, tried to double back to activate it and fell into a pit of spikes.
Scenery was pretty good with the style you were going for. Overall I felt I had fun playing it through.
And it was nice to see my tileset in there. :P
I found the detector only because I read your hint, but only found one other secret. I'm not into secret-hunting enough to go looking for the others.
@CVWolvie. I am glad you are enjoying it! I never considered my dark parts scary, but I suppose someone unfamiliar with them would see it so. Huh.
The girl in the intro is a stock image, so she is some random photography model. In game, she is Lyanna Stark. (http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Lyanna_Stark)
@Fubaka. Response to the review:
Trustworthiness: As you probably guessed, I completely forgot about setting the difficulty and type. I likely made it environmental when I first started playing with it over a year ago, and never changed it back. C)
Design: Interesting that you liked the castles more. For me, they were much quicker to do and I felt like I didn't do them as well as I did the outside areas.
Agenda: In retrospect, the obvious conclusion is that the narration is directed at the player! It's actually not! (except in the secret areas, obviously those are.) She's actually listening to a conversation happening outside the tower.
Vibe: Again, interesting that you liked the Secret Ending Path! It was almost an afterthought, how little effort I put in to those screens. I just did something simple that I thought was striking. But maybe minimalism is sometimes the key.
Enjoyability: Obviously I took your (and Talps) advice and nerfed the invisible paths. And I will NOT be putting any in my future levels!
Thank you again for taking the time to review the level. Its not only gratifying to read, but it's great constructive criticism. Don't hesitate to do more, I think it helps newbies like me out quite a bit!