Quest contribution!

Basically, Knyttwaffle will most likely have a quest system, kind of like in some RPG's but on a much smaller scale. There will probably be a main quest, and then some smaller sidequests that unlocks new areas. I'm designing the game like I designed Knytt, I'm designing the entire world before I decide what the player should do in it. This means there's plenty of time to come up with quests for the game. They should be really, really simple. NPC's are limited to single locations like in Knytt Stories (well, they are be able to instant-travel to another area, as long as if it happens while the player isn't watching). The quests shouldn't have different outcomes either. They can be about locating items, delievering items or just messages, figuring out what happened to something or someone, racing to another location as fast as possible, and similar simple things.

Do you have any ideas for quests?

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I'm not much good at these sort of ideas but the first thing that came to mind was a sort of medium-/long-term quest involving either a single character or multiple linked characters (i.e. same family or species or similar). Possibly a moderately frequent string of letter deliveries similar to the moogles in Final Fantasy IX, so each would be in an out-of-the-way place or even slightly hidden and want a letter delivered to a specific character that described the area they're in or the journey they took to get there.

I'm not sure if you've got a mechanism that would suit for displaying letters in that way, though I suppose they could possibly show in standard speech/text boxes when they're handed to you.

Another thought was perhaps having a collector or inventor who would want a whole series of objects or parts from far-flung corners of the game world, one after another. Alternatively a similar sort of character who would be interested in a list or map you find that leads to him/her sending you off on a treasure hunt in their place.

Since the game comes with certain powerups, I would make one or two of these powerups as a quest. Basically, you face a problem and you are being told how to beat it without actually having the powerup. A few NPC's will tell you about this, and after you have talked to 2 or 3 NPC's, the next will give you a location of where to go, which at that point will become accessible (dunno if thats possible). I suppose that if one of the NPC's would give (read:learn) you how to climb or another powerup, and you are being sent to a quest to find another powerup it would greatly benefit the story I think.

Another quest could be a sidequest.

Basically when you head into a certain area where NPC's are, and you talk to them, you could create a storyline. For example you see an excavation and the NPC's around it talk about the discoveries that they have done there. You could use this to tell a bit of story about say... previous games.

Since the game comes with certain powerups, I would make one or two of these powerups as a quest. Basically, you face a problem and you are being told how to beat it without actually having the powerup. A few NPC's will tell you about this, and after you have talked to 2 or 3 NPC's, the next will give you a location of where to go, which at that point will become accessible (dunno if thats possible). I suppose that if one of the NPC's would give (read:learn) you how to climb or another powerup, and you are being sent to a quest to find another powerup it would greatly benefit the story I think.

That's a really good idea though instead of having it be a case of talking to the NPCs in a specified order it could possibly be an old story or a rumour that a number of the NPCs have fragmented parts of. That way it could be a little less linear and if a player can't find one of the clues they might be able to figure out the missing piece of information by exploring or trial-and-error.

EDIT: On the topic of which, an inventor or tinkerer type of character could possibly end up building (with enough parts fetched) a scene object that would open access to a new area, whether by opening a pasage (huge drill or hammer maybe?) or allowing the player to climb past an outcropping or onto a very high platform, either by simply being tall and climbable or by throwing or bouncing the player upward (a catapult the ball would fit into?). Probably very hard to find or create the objects for though.

I'd best try to occupy myself for a while so I stop spamming half-formed ideas up here 

It's actually mainly the quest stories I need ideas for more than from a game mechanic perspective, like who the NPC's are, what their stories are, and what they need the player to do.

How about this old unidentified man sitting in a cottage on a tall mountain, he would tell you of his long lost brother who one day wrote a letter to him. But the old man's legs were old and stiff, so he could never reach his brother to give the reply back. He then states that he requires you to deliver a letter to his older brother on the other side of the planet. Upon getting to the other mountain, in the other man's cottage, he reads the letter and says that it would be rude to not write back.

You then have to deliver that letter back to the original old man, and then HE wants to write back. After getting the last letter there, The older old man wants you to bring his brother to his cottage and while you're "Bringing" him to his older brother, he acts as a power up that makes your character a little slower, heavier and he's riding on the ball's back.

After traveling all the way across the world, when you bring him to his brother, he gets off the ball and goes to the cottage and they sit down on a log together. And as a reward for your hard work, the oldest man gives you a quarter, which you can use to buy a knytt power-up inside of a vending machine in some place wherever you feel the need of it to be put.

Quite tricky without an idea of density of population, cultural and racial traits, aptitude for tools or advancement of technology (if any). Also I'm useless at naming things.

Only things that spring to mind immediately are the obvious (i.e. highly derivative) things, like a young knytt at the top of a well/cliff down which he's dropped his toy UFO.

I'll keep this in mind while I'm replaying games, reading, watching films etc.

And some simpler ones with a quirk. "Deliver this egg!"

Only things that spring to mind immediately are the obvious (i.e. highly derivative) things, like a young knytt at the top of a well/cliff down which he's dropped his toy UFO.

Actually, that one is great! It's simple and work well as a mini quest. I might use it!

At the beginning of Second Act, there could be a guy who keeps saying random stuff about some ancient awesome legendary relic orb thing that is shattered into 3 to 8 crystal shards. Its purpose is unknown, but certainly something that will save the world. Each shard is hidden in an area you've seen before, and guarded by an awesome monster that's quite a challenge to beat. You give all of those to the guy, he fixes the ancient awesome legendary relic orb thing and says something about feng shui or something else that's completely anticlimatic, and he grants you access to the next area. [mod]removed tiny text[/mod]

Actually, that one is great! It's simple and work well as a mini quest. I might use it!

Oh! I thought it was inordinately cheeky to suggest references to your other games 
I guess, in that case, the other idea in a similar vein was a tiger that loves eating gumballs. It's a less elegant concept but I thought he might be found chewing away initially and comment that he really doesn't like the red ones and wishes he had a different flavour. My first thought was that a number of other gumballs (blue, pink, green etc.) could be hidden around the world, though it might be possible to extend the idea by having to collect a further item for each one that you could trade to a child in return for the one they own.

How about the idea that there's another knytt/wadf causing trouble in a town or with npcs, with the idea being it's a throwback at the beginning, due to something like a time distortion or imposter, where you had to complete another task.  Such as picking flowers or moving stuff around on the 1st quest, but later on you're tasked with fixing this problem because it keeps happening to the townspeople over and over again.

Haha, I like that too. I just need to know an explanation that's logical enough so the player will understand what happened and why.

Another form of quest could be that NPC's ask you a question you don't have the answer for. The question itself is rather meaningless. At a certain point in game, an NPC will actually give you the answer when you ask that question.

When you get back to the earlier NPC's (which isn't required) they'll say something like: oh wow, thanks.

Which would be an inside-joke.

A quest in which you find someone programming a video game in his house and who then asks you to find certain objects for him to photograph and use in the game. Take that gear you posted in the photo contribution topic as an example. The knytt/ball would pick it up as a tiny icon and perhaps later on find it as part of the scenery. Of course the guy would need to have a mighty beard.