Nifflas' Support Forum
Level Editing Support => Knytt Stories Level Previews => Topic started by: yohji on January 20, 2016, 20:03:10
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Hello everyone,
I haven't been active here for quite a while. Some of you may remember my levels such as Pestilence, etc. I haven't been knytting at all in these past few years, but last autumn I've started working on a new level. I've always wanted to build something as large as Gaia, only with more fleshed-out and realistic (as in, no chocolate cities) environments. That's what I'm doing now, but just as something to help me relax every now and again, because knytting has that effect on me these days.
I'm sorry to say that the level isn't very, um, new or modern? All tilesets are from a long time ago and most were used in at least a few levels, because I suck at pixel art, but want nice-looking graphics. There are no tricky shifts, challenges, or any handiwork of that sort - like I said, the level is very much like Gaia in concept, only hopefully a bit more pleasing to the eyes. And as much as I appreciate egomassive's work, my level doesn't use any KS+ capabilities.
It's really something of a private affair, just something for me to do, like a model ship or something. I never thought of releasing this to the public, but my website logs tell me that even in 2016 some people are looking for my levels - so strange to see KS is still alive today! - and so I've reuploaded those, and I'm putting this topic up in case anyone is interested in another level from me. Only if you liked Pestilence etc.,, this one is not experimental at all. Here are a few screenshots to give you some idea of the thing. They're all from the first continent. I hope to finish at least one continent eventually, and three if everything goes according to plan. I've no idea how many screens there are already, sorry.
(I like doing tiny changes to the tilesets I'm using, but those take a lot of time, because like I said, I suck at drawing in general and pixel art in particular. I also suck at doing interiors, so you can't go inside any of those houses. Oops! Sure wish this wasn't the case...)
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Nice. I hope you find the time to finish this.
I was just as surprised as you were to find people were still making KS levels with earnest. It inspired me to keep working on my own stuff.
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I remember your levels having a very unique style, so I was pretty surprised to see these realistic environments. The screen shots look good. I recognize some of my graphics. It always makes me happy to see them getting used. You should check out our Community Tileset Project (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=6262.0) for new sets that haven't seen much use yet.
There's no need to apologize for not using KS+, but I'm glad to hear you appreciate it. You can still use the KS+ editor for original KS levels. It makes some things easier; like lining up tiles with adjacent screens, writing sign messages, and getting large scale previews with the space bar. [/self promotion]
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I love how this is looking. Keep it up! I find myself without as much time as I'd like for actually playing Knytt Stories at the moment, so I'm getting a lot out of just hearing about your process and knowing there's a huge world growing on your hard drive... feel free to take your time with it.
I also advocate using KS+ for regular KS stuff if you're not already, and trying out the community tilesets. There's also a tileset I made (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=5192.0) that I'm quite happy with, but don't feel any pressure to actually use it. [/more self promotion]
I think there might be a few more interesting forum threads worth checking out since you last looked, too... but I'll let you discover them for yourself!
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Those screenshots look pretty good! I especially like the underground tree village and those white rounded buildings. Looks like this level is going to have a good number of different areas to explore :D
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Thank you all for comments!
@egomassive: I actually do use your editor mod, which is fantastic. In fact, I don't think I'd start knytting again if it weren't for the mod - the original editor is so cumbersome, and the other mods I tried were buggy and/or incomplete. You've done a great job. Same goes for your tilesets, too.
@sergiocornaga: I saw that tileset and loved it. Exactly the kind of detail I like in KS. I'll probably use at it in at least some form, somewhere.
@Vegetal Gibber: I don't know if I can beat Gaia in the number of areas... but I try to at least give every area some depth, different passages, its own critters, etc. , which in Gaia was only present in some areas, and not so much in some others.
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All those screens look fantastic C)p! I don't remember seeing any of those tilesets before, they seem very interesting.
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@ixMarcel: Thanks! If you're positive you never saw any of the tilesets, I definitely recommend playing at least Riku Island, one of the early (?) classic levels. It's really beautiful and has those round houses in a different color scheme and arrangement. Screen 1 has some of the houses from Hanseatic City, a tileset used in many places, e.g. in hmpf's Falling Water - sadly abandoned, but there's a part1/beta you can find. It's also a lovely level.
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Looks great! Keep at it for us fans!
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This looks great! I hope you can stick with it and finish this.
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Please, don't abandon this project, it looks fantastic. :)
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I've been working on this and added some environments and stuff. Started on a second continent, too. But this post is mainly just to show off the golden drill I shamelessly ripped from somewhere, and repainted/rescaled to make it less conspicuous. I wish it looked more forbidable and, you know, sharp. Oh well? (The drill's body is from a tileset that was once posted here... except that it wasn't meant to be a drill, methinks.)
Also shown in screen 2 is how I plan to creatively (sic!) cannibalize my older levels for this one - some of you may remember the same setting, but with a different gradient.
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I think I got carried away working on an area with a darker sort of mood. Here's a screen from that. Does anyone find it too disturbing? You might need to zoom the picture (as you would in the game) to see that there are three corpses... I wonder if this is a bit too dark for KS.
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You can do whatever you want in KS, thats one of it's strongest points. There's no need to worry about that in my opinion. But then I'm a big fan of dark themes and horror in general...
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Hmm, well, there are some dark areas in the level - see this screenshot, for instance. I'm worried specifically about the bloody stuff.
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Dark themes and such can work well in Knytt Stories. Just look at Curse of the Catacombs (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=6644.0). If the corpses aren't out of place for the area than they shouldn't be out of place for the level. Unless you're going for a shock effect. Then they should be out of place.
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Dark themes and such can work well in Knytt Stories. Just look at Curse of the Catacombs (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=6644.0). If the corpses aren't out of place for the area than they shouldn't be out of place for the level. Unless you're going for a shock effect. Then they should be out of place.
Hm, it's kind of a combination of both, since there are earlier screens with this kind of thing. But I get your meaning. Thanks!
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Also, this is at 261 screens currently.
I managed to write some little mythological stories that explain, in an indirect/magical/storytale way, some of the geographical features you see during your journey, such as lakes, mountains, waterfalls, etc., as well as some of the creatures, and the history of the world in general. What I want to do is to scatter these, line by line, in little manuscript bits here and there in the world - some will be easy to find, some a little harder. So that the player had an extra incentive to continue exploring. So, no coins, but mythical knowledge to gain.
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I thought I'd commented on this... Your screens look great; I love how you're using so many wonderful, largely forgotten tilesets. And a less chaotic 'Gaia' would be a great thing to play. I look forward to playing this.
I don't think the dark themes are a bad thing. the tiny art means the images can't be disturbingly graphic. I love how big, diverse and sad this world looks from the few glimpses you've afforded us. Your 'Screen Y' on the last page reminds me a little of the exterior of the bath house from 'Spirited Away', which is an area I've long thought would be gorgeous to explore in KS.
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Wow Talps, thank you so much for the feedback! It means a lot to me, coming from someone who designed such fantastic levels.
I'm happy and relieved that the sad part is coming across in the screenshots - I'm not making a gloom-fest, and the level will have enough whimsical humor, hopefully - but I am trying to give it a melancholic, fading beauty kind of sadness, seeping through from various circumstances that shaped that world.
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I've added a few dozen screens since last time. It's frustrating to look for tilesets that fit my purposes, and equally frustrating to draw my own adjustments to people's tilesets... Pixel art is hard! But things are slowly progressing.
One thing I really wanted to do, but definitely won't be able to, is a shipyard full of giant ships. My idea was to use something like the attached picture to make a tileset which would allow for giant decks, huge sails, etc., and these would just be docked somewhere... or perhaps even sailing on some sea... Naive as I was, I thought I'd just enlarge, fill in the details, and hurray, it's done. It took me just 30 minutes or so to realize this is far, far beyond my capabilities. and I don't want to make the area with those overused pirate-themed tilesets (by I forget who). It's a real pity. But it hopefully makes for a nice cautionary tale?
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I understand that frustration very well. Good luck with your efforts to find/make things.
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I'm still working on this, whenever time permits. It's a little frustrating because the level is expanding all the time. Most of the times I see the end of some area I think "well, there could be a passage here and another area right there...". And since I want most of my areas to be decently developed - unlike Gaia where a single screen would sometimes suffice - this means a lot more work.
At least this isn't a challenge level, so I don't have to plan that much.
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This is very cool man! While I did love your "modern" style, this is very exciting!
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Looks nice from the screens! Im Hoping I can try it soon, especially since i made the "hanseatic town" and "porcelain city" tilesets
Its a bit heartwarming actually to come back here and see that the tilesets i made years ago are still put to good use :)
This forum always felt like a friendly place, glad to see that it is still a bit active.
Cheers!
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I've added a few dozen screens since last time. It's frustrating to look for tilesets that fit my purposes, and equally frustrating to draw my own adjustments to people's tilesets... Pixel art is hard! But things are slowly progressing.
One thing I really wanted to do, but definitely won't be able to, is a shipyard full of giant ships. My idea was to use something like the attached picture to make a tileset which would allow for giant decks, huge sails, etc., and these would just be docked somewhere... or perhaps even sailing on some sea... Naive as I was, I thought I'd just enlarge, fill in the details, and hurray, it's done. It took me just 30 minutes or so to realize this is far, far beyond my capabilities. and I don't want to make the area with those overused pirate-themed tilesets (by I forget who). It's a real pity. But it hopefully makes for a nice cautionary tale?
I do think it is doable. You'd have to flatten out the deck though and get rid of the guide wires, which might ruin the whole look for you of course. The guide wires could be a second layer I suppose that could be stuck in for detail.
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Looks nice from the screens! Im Hoping I can try it soon, especially since i made the "hanseatic town" and "porcelain city" tilesets
Its a bit heartwarming actually to come back here and see that the tilesets i made years ago are still put to good use :)
This forum always felt like a friendly place, glad to see that it is still a bit active.
Cheers!
Your tilesets are amazing. I just hope I managed to put at least a somewhat new spin on them, since so many people were using them over the years :D
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I've added a few dozen screens since last time. It's frustrating to look for tilesets that fit my purposes, and equally frustrating to draw my own adjustments to people's tilesets... Pixel art is hard! But things are slowly progressing.
One thing I really wanted to do, but definitely won't be able to, is a shipyard full of giant ships. My idea was to use something like the attached picture to make a tileset which would allow for giant decks, huge sails, etc., and these would just be docked somewhere... or perhaps even sailing on some sea... Naive as I was, I thought I'd just enlarge, fill in the details, and hurray, it's done. It took me just 30 minutes or so to realize this is far, far beyond my capabilities. and I don't want to make the area with those overused pirate-themed tilesets (by I forget who). It's a real pity. But it hopefully makes for a nice cautionary tale?
I do think it is doable. You'd have to flatten out the deck though and get rid of the guide wires, which might ruin the whole look for you of course. The guide wires could be a second layer I suppose that could be stuck in for detail.
Eh, I'm just very bad at pixel art. Some small corrections and tileset merging I can do, but something this complex would require so much work, I'm fairly sure I don't have time for that sort of thing. And actually, right now I've edited that part of the world and I'm not sure if that giant ship area would even fit now.
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This is still going strong. The concept has grown so large now, though. Now I understand why Gaia required 4+ people to make and not just Drakkan!
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Great news, I'm looking forward to playing this!
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Still chipping away... although these days there's not much time I can dedicate to KS.
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Great news! Still really want to play this.
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Still chipping away... although these days there's not much time I can dedicate to KS.
Nice !))) *waiting....* :)