Hi guys. This is a custom Knytt level that I have been working on for a few days. It isn't my first, I think my first I made 3 or 4 years ago and over the years when I was bored I dabbled around in the editor, but this is the farthest I've ever gone with a level so far.
The plot is that long ago, there was a beautiful continent inhabited by a variety of folk. Sadly, one night a storm ravaged the continent, tearing its very roots. The island sank deep beneath the sea. However, a barrier Bubble(capitalized because of how much the Knytts idolize this bubble) formed, protecting the continent from the harsh sea. This continent thrived once again, isolated and unknown by the outside world, but not at its former glory: due to being beneath the sea, it was always night. The people lived upon this continent beneath the sea for tens of thousands of years, knowing well that one day their great Bubble would pop, letting in the deathly sea from all sides. However, nobody really ever attempted to resurface the island. And then a Knytt named Junebug was born(I know the name is super similar to Juni, that's on purpose. It's sort of a reference/dedication to her, but I wanted a new character with a new tale). She lived in a town called Edgeville, exploring the surrounding meadows and hoping to one day resurface the continent. This is her story.
So yeah... the plot will hopefully slightly build throughout the game, however, the story will be "optional". By that I mean I will give the player the root of the story, hopefully piquing their interest, but the rest of the story will be scattered for the player to discover and assemble into a coherent tale. I'm just not a fan of a forced, in-depth story. Plus I want to keep a sort of magical, discover-the-world feel that The Machine/A Strange Dream has. I love the mystery and isolation those levels have.
As for the level style, I don't know what to call it. I guess challenge would be the most suitable, I'd compare it to The Machine or A Strange Dream: mostly just taking in the level(although I am pretty terrible at aesthetics), but their are challenge sections to test you, mostly athletic mazes in caves. Eh. And as for the level size, I want to try to go for a, once again Machine/Strange Dream(I'm trying to use the games as inspiration for the basics of my level, and using my own ideas for the actual areas and stuff) type size. I'd say I'm about 1/4 done, but who knows, the level could get much bigger if I end up... making the level bigger in some way or another.
For music, I plan to use custom music if I can find out how.
As for graphics, I unintentionally have thus far only used Nifflas style graphics. My goal is to only use default graphics and also my own hand drawn graphics. So far I have 2 complete tilesets with 1 in the works.
Here's the map... I've made this all in only a few days, I'm actually surprised:
Here's a legend:
Red: Sewer
Orange: Edgeville
Yellow: Night Lake Area, Trenchtown(starting area)
Light Green: Grey Caves
Dark Green: Lava Plains
Light Blue: Lava Lab Tunnels
Dark Blue: Woods
Those aren't official names, they just describe the gist of their areas. Most places in this level don't have names. I like the feel of not having names, it makes the world seem like a frontier to me.
Lastly, I need your help. As you can see, I'm not the best at aesthetics. I particularly struggle with backdrops(not the gradients, just things like far off hills and such). I find that a lot of the time you need to use a certain tileset with 1 certain gradient for the level to look good, and since I'm using mostly default tilesets this will obviously get boring since you've all seen the red poison woods with a red background and misty far-off trees and the like. So if any of you could throw me a tip or two about how to make decent backdrops to your levels that can apply in many areas of the game, or just aesthetic tips in general, that would be awesome. Thanks for reading my thread, I'll try to update it soon.
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