[Challenge/Maze, Lunatic] The Coming of the Dark

(EDIT: Difficulty level revised after writing this post)

Hello! 

Right, this is the first level I've ever made, and I've been working on it on and off for about nine months (on and off). It's long (takes me a over an hour and I know where I'm going) so that's cool! Um, it probably could be prettier... I've got a little bit of a minimalist thing going on But I have put a fair bit of effort into environment. Just not Picasso-level. And I only used the tilesets and music that come with the editor, but never mind! If'n'when I make another level, I'll think more about environment. This was more about what I could make than how I could make it look, and I think I've made a fun level to play. I've tried to make a challenge while cutting out the bits that can be frustrating (when success is based more on luck than skill).

It was the first level I ever made and the first eight panels or so was just me practising, then I made it a little bit longer, and before I knew it I had something long and growing on my hands.

The plot is a little similar to Nifflas' 'The Machine', in as far as there is a machine sucking life from the world that Juni has to stop (that wasn't actually intentional when I started, but I wasn't really thinking about storyline at all at the very beginning). It is rather different from 'The Machine' though, in as much as it takes place mostly inside the machine, looking for the 'off' switch, rather than just trying to find the machine itself.

Anyway, I hope it's fun. I would appreciate feedbacks, especially on how easy people found it to find their way through. I didn't want it to be too much of a maze, but there are multiple paths from time to time and I hope it didn't get too confusing.

http://knyttlevels.com/levels/Talps%20-%20The%20Coming%20of%20the%20Dark.knytt.bin

For those looking for the download link, Talps uploaded it to knyttlevels.

http://knyttlevels.com/levels/Talps%20-%20The%20Coming%20of%20the%20Dark.knytt.bin

I tried playing this yesterday...two different times. I'm sure for those who like really challenging hard to hard+ levels this will be just the ticket. As for me, it was more like a lunatic level in some areas. Also lots of dead ends and not being able to find the climb power up (maybe you intentionally have left that out) made it very frustrating and confusing.

I must say for working on the level off and on for nine months and the fact that it's your first level, you've come up with what looks like to me a fairly professional level. Not just something you tossed off in an hour. That is obvious.

For me though, I like sitting down and going through a level in less than an hour. I usually don't have the time to play any longer than that.

As for not much scenery, I think there's more than most and I never found any screen too boring. Any screen that was lacking in the looks department seemed to be followed by a screen with plenty to look at.

Good job even though I didn't finish!

I'm with lamarblake on this one, pretty much everything I wanted to say he already said  Also, congratulations on your first released level 

Died well into two-figures of times in the first screen. Not your fault, it's my incompetence; and there was nothing unfair. In the second screen, is that bouncing ball enemy a CO? I don't remember ever encountering something like that with such an unpredictable bounce-height  

I'll be plugging away at this because it's got a huge amount of promise, but I think I'm another one who's not as skilled as the target audience  

EDIT: Erm... I got through the second screen, lost confidence just after the transition, then came back to the second screen with a wallswim  

Oh yeah

The first two screens used to be much harder (two hedgehogs and two bouncy grey things); when I toned it down, I didn't really think about the fact that I'd practised it so much and so it was still really hard. Sorry about that :p The rest of the level doesn't continue in quite the same vain (but I'd change that first screen if I post a .2 version - also, I'd fix that wall-entering bit on the second screen. I made that bit ages ago and didn't think about it.)

Also, any version 2 will make it a little clearer where you need to go in the first stage of the game; for now, you need to climb to the very top of the mountain in the west. Once you've got the powerup from the top, you need to backtrack east to where there's a purple pipe standing in front of the water (instead of behind it). Hopefully you can work it out from that. It's amazing how much you realise is deficient just by hearing a couple of comments.

The grey bouncer isn't a custom object. There are no custom objects, sounds or tilesets in the level. I don't really have the technical abilities for any of that (Tried with a tileset but I don't know how to make them transparent). I've seen the grey bouncers on a couple of the other levels - I think there was one in Nifflas' 'This Level is Unfinished'.

And the climb powerup is there a little later on, after you get a certain key.

Thanks all you guys for trying it out already! It's encouraging, even if no one's gotten very far. If you want to mention any particularly 'lunatic-y' areas, I'd probably tone them down, as I didn't want too many points like that. As I say, the problem of practice...

Also, sorry for posting in the wrong place and thanks for moving it and such

It's not Lunatic, I would label it Very hard.

It's very nice for the 1st level. Graphics aren't stuning, but I can't find any wallswims and voids for now, which are the most common mistakes of new designers.

About advanced feautures and making pictures transparent - read KS Level Editing Support subforum. There's fresh topic about making pics transparent. Also program which does it was posted in Development Showcase subforum.

I'm kind of stuck.

On the bright side, it's easier than I first thought. I could do with a few more savepoints after hard challenges, and maybe less dead ends, but people who are into hard levels are better judges than me.

Glad you're enjoying it.

I hope that helps. Sorry about the confusingness  That's another thing I'll change for the version 2. At first I was a little cautious of the ghost women 'cus it took me a long time to work out how to pass them and didn't know if other people would, but in the end I got carried away and used them quite a lot. But they're easy to get past once you know how.

As for save points, my only defence is to say that I put in more than some people. But I guess the challenge-seems-easier-because-of-practice syndrome kicks in again.

That did help, thanks! I forgot all about the way to avoid the shadow woman and thought that passage was sealed. I got through to the part where you , at which point I had to kind of stop, because the difficulty was becoming too much for me - not that the challenges were too much, but simply the fact that you can spend a lot of time and effort on going somewhere only to find out it's a dead end... then spend a lot of time and effort going back, and then, well, you get the point.

Still, a lot of potential there, and very nice to see such variety and complex ideas in a first level. I hope you make another someday, maybe something smaller? 

I have another in the works. It's less of a maze, if nothing else Depends if I have enough motivation/ideas to bring it together. I'm being a bit more ambitious with this (technically and story-wise) but I won't say too much.

And if you want to know which order to visit the worlds in, this will get you started.

Yeah, I might provide some clues for that in the version 2.

where do I go after

You're doing really well!
*Talps is encouraged that someone is close to finishing his level*

I've gotten pretty far, but I'm afraid I may have messed up. I haven't found the red key yet, and I'm currently here:

I agree it should be qualified as Very Hard. Don't change difficulty of first screens. They are easier than many other screens.