[easy / small / environmental] A lovely day for a picnic

The past few days I've been thinking of ideas for a Knytt Story. I've never designed one before (only followed the tutorial and made a 3-screen test).
I made a list of things I want the level to be:
-Environmental, no enemies - in the vein of Rain or A Walk at Night, two of my favourite Knytt stories.
-easy gameplay based around jumping to get past obstacles
-Small - 2 to 3 'zones'
After deciding these parameters I had to think of a story to fit this. This afternoon I hit upon the idea (seeing as today's a lovely day for a picnic) of Juni being invited to a picnic. This gives a goal to move towards, and the potential for at least 2 zones (Juni's home - suburban or a village; and a rural area where the picnic is being held).
Once I have preliminary sketches I'll post them in this thread. It's a little daunting seeing as I've never designed a level for anything before, but it's something I really want to try.

Starting off small is typically the way to go. I commend your good judgement. The levels you're drawing inspiration from are some of my favorites as well, even without screenshots I will look forward to it.

Very basic sketch of the level layout: http://img222.imageshack.us/i/dscn1709.jpg/
More detailed drawing of the surfaces, backgrounds, etc.: http://img28.imageshack.us/i/dscn1710fn.jpg/
Drawing of a hill, an idea I had as I was falling asleep last night (and am glad I wrote down!): http://img190.imageshack.us/i/dscn1711z.jpg/

Hopefully you guys can read my annotations and get the idea of what I'm trying to do here. I hope to start work with the level editor later today or tomorrow.

Impressive to see such planning for one's first level. Definitely looking forward to see what you come up with!

At one side, Its great to see the planning, and at the other hand, it reminds me of Nifflas' video in game design where he teaches in front of a class. When he makes games, he says, over preparing can lead to not making the level at all. He recommends to do this kind of thing directly in the level editor.

But one thing is certain, the mountain idea you're having is much easier to draw on normal paper that way, than directly in the editor.

Some level of planning is a good thing, but you are getting carried away here. Knowing what types of areas you'll have, the basics of the story, and which areas the power-ups will be found in can help direct you when creating the individual screens. Concept drawings of each screen probably wont benefit you though. Why draw grass on paper when you could just tile it on an actual game screen?

That said, it will be interesting to see how the finished product compares to these early visions.

You could actually build a level that incorporates your sketches directly.

You could actually build a level that incorporates your sketches directly.

Maybe I'll try something like that in future, but for the time being I'd rather use existing tilesets.

Some level of planning is a good thing, but you are getting carried away here.

[Nifflas] recommends to do this kind of thing directly in the level editor.

As soon as I started working with the editor, I realised the folly of having been so specific on paper. For one thing, I can browse through tilesets and choose what to use, which alters the ideas completely.
Anyway, here's a look at the opening screen and the screen directly to the left (The best idea I could think of to force the player to go right was that Juni lived in a lakeside house (perhaps in part fed by the waterfall that will appear later?)). I'd welcome any criticism about backgrounds or colour combinations or anything like that.

This looks stunning! good job.

Work is going slower than anticipated, because a) I'm finding out the limitations of working with only 2 tilesets at once, and b) I've been going to actual picnics (all research, I swear!). Anyway, I've redesigned the opening screen slightly to accommodate a change I wanted on the next screen along, which is a transition to the other area you can see below. I've also slightly redesigned the general layout: rather than starting in a city, I've decided Juni lives just outside the city but must travel through it to get to the valley to meet her friend.

It looks nice. Perhaps add a little life?
And you know you could edit the tilesets, like merge 2 tilesets into 1. nifflas is cool with it I think. But I guess that requires a bit much work since you can do plenty with 2 tilesets.

It looks nice. Perhaps add a little life?

Thanks! For the minute, I'm just tiling - I'll take care of objects and sounds later.

It looks like you should be able to stand on all the green cliffs in your first screenshot, but this doesn't seem to be the case... that's a bit of an issue.

It looks like you should be able to stand on all the green cliffs in your first screenshot, but this doesn't seem to be the case... that's a bit of an issue.

That's interesting to know. Could you say what about them makes it seem that way, or is it just the impression they give? (To clarify: you mean the ones with white grass and trees, right?) Could it be a contrast issue, i.e. changing the gradient could help? I'm colourblind so what looks normal/good to me can sometimes look really, really wrong to others.

That's interesting to know. Could you say what about them makes it seem that way, or is it just the impression they give? (To clarify: you mean the ones with white grass and trees, right?) Could it be a contrast issue, i.e. changing the gradient could help? I'm colourblind so what looks normal/good to me can sometimes look really, really wrong to others.

Ah, no, I mean the one the house is sitting on mainly. It looks solid, but judging by Juni's position in the screenshot it isn't. The one's with the trees are perfect for the background.

You may be interested to know that Bernie is a colourblind game developer (though maybe not colourblind in the same way as you) who has used it to his advantage... the colours used in his games are quite strange, but most people agree that they are awesome too.