[Environmental] Falling Water

So... this is my very first level, and it's going to be 99% environmental, although the section I'm posting here today as a preview is mildly - very mildly - challenge-like. It's also, hopefully, going to be huge. I currently have about 60 'walkable' screens built - not all of them included in the preview - and I've hardly scratched the surface of what I want to do with this level.

There may or may not be plot, but I do have a story in mind to explain the world I'm building. How much of that background story is actually going to show up in the level is still undecided, though.

This is going to be a homage to Knytt Stories as a rain and waterfall simulator ;-), as well as to all the wonderful public tilesets (and their makers, of course.) Incidentally, tileset makers aren't properly credited yet - it won't be possible to fit all of the names on the info image, so I've decided to make a proper credit sequence, but I will only tackle that later, when I've made more of the level itself.

There's no cutscenes yet, and some screens aren't quite what I want to make them. Also, there's a colour issue - I made what I have of the level so far on my notebook, and as of today I'm back on my desktop computer which, as I've just found out, makes a *big* difference in terms of some of the colours - everything that seemed blue and grey on my notebook seems a bit - and in some cases, a lot - off on the desktop. So I may have to rethink some screens, and especially some backgrounds.

The screenshots and the preview version are not very spectacular; the concept for the level is that it begins in a fairly 'mundane' place and gets more visually interesting the further away from home Juni gets. So far I've mostly built a city and its sewers, but we'll leave the sewers soon - and, in fact, even some later parts of the city are going to be quite a bit more interesting than what you can see so far. But I have only sketches of those parts, so far.

I would welcome tips for sources for sound effects and cc-licenced music... I'm going to need both, and don't know how to start searching for them - especially music.

Screenshots are attached.

Edited to remove link: Whoops, I just saw that it's not allowed to post demos here. Apologies.

Sounds great.

2nd screen uber pretty

Thank you. :-)

I like these screens. Lots.

2nd screen uber pretty

I concur. Sounds like awesmoe. That's right, not just awesome, but awesmoe.

Just a few more screenshots. I've been playing around with a different sky for the city; and I'm close to finishing the blue brick section of the sewers. Then there's the grey brick section to do (the red brick section is already finished - yes, I'm trying to get as many different types of brick in here as possible ;-)), and then we get to the Lower City, which is going to be... interesting. I hope. And after that, it's the caves, and the inside slopes... (the world's kind of funnel-shaped).

And, just because all the brick stuff is getting a bit dreary, two screens from a later part of the level.

Looks very nice.

This is turning out extremely well.

I like the last two screenies the best because they use a normal tileset in a way that hasn't been done before.
Looks great! keep it up! 

Improvement of a screen already posted (see attachment). This is why I really shouldn't post early drafts...

@ bunnrey: I like using tilesets in a way that goes a bit against the grain, so yeah, expect more of that - I hope - later on in the level. That's one thing I meant when I said that the farther away from the starting point we get, the more visually interesting the level is going to become. Although I have something interesting in mind for some later parts of the city, as well. Or something that I hope will be interesting anyway; not sure yet how practical it will be - I may have to work with shifts there, which will be a bit more boring, although at the moment I'm still aiming for an at least partly climbable structure.)

Question to the experienced, i.e., basically anyone here:

In that new screenshot, the darker columns in the foreground are solid (except for the bits immediately below the grass, as I had to put those on layer 2 so I could put the grass on layer 3 - but they're sloped, so you wouldn't be able to climb them anyway, so the worst that can happen there is someone jumping 'into' them a bit; and I've put invisible blocks in the 'complete' squares of the interior, so the only part that you can jump 'into' are the tips).
The lighter columns in the background are, well, in the background, except for the layer of grass on top, on which you can jump and walk. Do you think that that is confusing?

As for those pesky 'immaterial' tips of the darker columns - I suppose I could try to make an invisible custom object to cover them... another new skill to learn...

Or I could make all the columns, except for the tops, immaterial.

What do you think?

A custom object wouldn't be invisible, as their sole purpose is decoration.

Wow, this looks nice! First levels are often disasters, but this looks great!

I'm aspiring to the bunnrey type of first level. (Caverns was a first level, wasn't it?)

Hey, nothing wrong with aiming high, eh? ;-)

I just hope my perfectionism and my ambition to make a *big* level won't mean that it will never be finished. I am fairly persistent, which means this will probably not be given up on, even if it takes a while - but on the downside, 'a while' is occasionally measured in years in Hmpfland.