A Knytt Stories Level Database

Hey there, first time posting here (as far as I remember? if not it's been a while).

Anyway, I'd like to ask about places to find KS levels and upload your own. I'm aware of knyttlevels.com, but it's... well, to be charitable, it does not fulfill its complete potential. What with no search or rating function and therefore no way of telling what's going to be in a level before downloading it, or even if the level is finished half the time.

As far as I can tell, it's the only place to put Knytt Levels (besides this forum, I suppose, although a forum may not be the best format for a level archive site). I'd actually like to initiate a project to make a better knytt levels site, complete with a rating system and a good search feature, but there's a few things I'd like to know before going any further with the project.

1. Is there already a site like that that I'm not aware of? I know there's the levels board on this forum, which is a little better than knyttlevels.com, but the forum search feature still isn't completely adapted to searching for KS levels; plus, there's no rating system for the levels. So even if you can tell at a glance what the level's about, you can't easily tell how good it is and which ones are worth downloading.

2. If there isn't one, is someone already in the process of making one? No point starting a new project if one already exists.

3. How active is the KS community today? Ie, how useful would this site be? No point making it and paying for hosting if it's only going to end up hosting a couple of dozen levels and being used by ten people.

4. Finally, could anyone pay for hosting? I can code the site and already have to a large degree (visual design, upload and rating systems are done; just need to code the search function and then do quality testing... I've had a lot of time on my hands lately), but I don't have the money to host it.

So, there we go. If anyone who knows the current KS community better than I do thinks this is a good idea they're obviously welcome to join the project in any way, or set me straight if they think it's a bad idea.

there is a sort-of-dead project to give the knyttlevels archive a make-over. LPChip started on it, then handed it over to J and Looki, if I remember correctly. but it has been in development for very long and is currently "sleeping" I think. I bet it would be greatly appreciated if you would like to take over.
Hosting would be handled by LPC or J, if I recall, either way that wouldn't really be a problem. it just has to be finished up.
and yeah, I also think getting it finished at all would be great, might even put some life back into the level makers-which is not to say that there is none left at all.
so I'd suggest contacting J or LPC and sort something out with them.

Hosting is done by J, and we have most of the code already finished.

We were working on a rating system that is better than just give a number or a vote. Development stopped there because me and Looki don't have time anymore.

Contact me if you are interested in continuing to work on this. I'm sure you'll find that what we already have is pretty easy to expand from and might actually not requiring that much work anymore.

Hosting is done by J, and we have most of the code already finished.

We were working on a rating system that is better than just give a number or a vote. Development stopped there because me and Looki don't have time anymore.

Contact me if you are interested in continuing to work on this. I'm sure you'll find that what we already have is pretty easy to expand from and might actually not requiring that much work anymore.

It is kind of sad to see this die out...
We still have the KS Level Releases forums...

I actually prefer posting on the forums. You can get a lot more information about a level, and people can discuss it.

I actually prefer posting on the forums. You can get a lot more information about a level, and people can discuss it.

Your opinion, really...
The only thing i don't like about it is the fact that you have to post pictures in a certain website to preview them on the forums...

The only thing i don't like about it is the fact that you have to post pictures in a certain website to preview them on the forums...

I don't like doing that either.

Maybe the new site could be kind of like a forum, you have an account, you manage your levels, remove them, update them, people can comment on levels and share levels. That could work... but wouldn't it be better if this was done for KnyttWaDF? It has an editor too, right? I guess it could be the same site just with a page for KS and for KnyttWaDF. But I don't know how that works, so....

I do agree that being able to comment on and discuss a level is great, but it's not enough by itself. A forum is just too complex and unwieldy a beast when you want to just quickly rate or search for a level. I think the best option would simply be to make a thread here for your level when you upload it to the database, and the database links to the thread.

I definitely don't like the idea of having to make an account. It's just adding an unnecessary two minutes of nuisance when someone new wants to upload their first level.

If there is a project like this already in existence, then I'd be happy to take a look. Like I said, I have a lot of free time. Is J (whoever that is?) still able/willing to host?

Lets put some dreams into reality then.

The current system (if ever finished) has the following: Account information is synchronized with the forum. That means, your login info on the forum also works on this system. You can make comments without giving a rating (already working) or you can make a review with score (This is still being worked on). You can search for levels, apply filters, and lots of other fancy stuff. A level submission is only uploading the knytt.bin file. The rest is exported directly from the knytt.bin file, including the screenshot that is automatically added.

The other thing that still needs to be done is proper admin functions.

That sounds very interesting, but I'm really curious about something, how does the screenshot thing work? Does it take a screen from the first screen of the level?

How/where is the screnshot taken? Can you make your own?

Oh, ninja'd...

Its the screen of level-start.

Lets put some dreams into reality then.

The current system (if ever finished) has the following: Account information is synchronized with the forum. That means, your login info on the forum also works on this system. You can make comments without giving a rating (already working) or you can make a review with score (This is still being worked on). You can search for levels, apply filters, and lots of other fancy stuff. A level submission is only uploading the knytt.bin file. The rest is exported directly from the knytt.bin file, including the screenshot that is automatically added.

The other thing that still needs to be done is proper admin functions.

Is a comment and review system really necessary? I think a link to a forum would be more efficient.

One important feature to think long and hard about is the search function. The idea I have is to have each level have a fairly in-depth poll that people can rate it by, and then users can search for levels by their results in the poll. It's not a rating system, more of a democratic description system. The poll is as follows:

Platforming difficulty: None, Mild, Normal, High, Frustrating
Exploration: Linear, Mostly Linear, Normal, Exploration-oriented, Labyrinthine
Plot: No plot, Backstory, Normal, Plot-oriented, Complex Plot

Then a rating system, with 1-5 ratings for Gameplay, Atmosphere and Graphics, Plot, and an Overall rating.

Finally, the uploader can classify the level as either Challenge, Atmosphere, Exploration, Adventure, or Story-driven.

Hovering the mouse over these options brings up a box with more information and examples of popular levels that fall into those categories. The Machine by nifflas would be Normal/Normal/Normal/Adventure, for instance.

And finally, this is my visual design. How does it compare to the current one? The small vertical white line off to the left side is due to bad cropping of the screenshot on my part.

Here's a topic telling everyone what we have so far:
http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=2877.0

Okay so before we go any further I just want to lay my programming cards on the table.

I have no prior experience designing and programming anything this complex. In fact this would be my first PHP project. I have plenty of what you might call theoretical programming knowledge but little experience programming complex apps.

That said, I have managed to make a functional upload script that stores it all in a SQL database, and a rating system for the uploaded files.

Anyway, how do we move forward? Do you just email me the files and I start going through them? I have a server, obviously, running locally. And PHP and SQL engines for it. One thing, I assume you have a bunch of tables set up in an SQL database, and I have no idea how to "transfer" tables. Will I have to manually set up the tables on my end, or can you email me the database tables? SQL stores those in files, right?