The Tree of Knowledge [challenge/normal/large]

You guys are too nice.

How goes this not that your editor is finished?

Though I have worked on it recently, by no means will this be done by February for the epic level competition. I have been game making everyday. This can include anything from drawing KS tilesets to building an isometric engine in C++. Lately the engine is winning most of my attention. Before that, Endless Winter stole a good portion of TToK's time. Rest assured, just like Endless Winter, KS+, and KS Level Editor + this project will be finished and it will be worth the wait.

I put in some hours on TToK this week. The work has been somewhat unproductive though. Way back when I started TToK I used an anti-aliased approach to the graphics. Later the graphics became more and more hard pixeled. I have now been going over the old graphics and hardening them. It's going quickly, but I feel like I'm backtracking when I should be pushing ahead. I really need to stop being such a perfectionist.

I'd suggest not beating yourself up over "backtracking" with your level. Your attention to detail always pays off in a big way and, if it means the wait is longer, then so be it. Don't try to fight your style or force yourself to work at "maximum efficiency" on your projects; it'd be a real shame if it became too much of a chore due to your efforts to make the most of what time you can spare for it.

I'm seriously unsure there is enough of a difference between those two to justify any work whatsoever.  The 2nd looks a bit better, less fuzzed, but in the grand scheme of things I think you could either ignore that completely, or push ahead and then look at details like that in beta testing. 

It wasn't being reworked to improve the look (well, not only or even mainly for that reason). It was to bring it into line with the style of the newer graphics.

The example image only shows some of the ridiculously fine details I'm agonizing over. I plan to do the tree trunks in a completely different way which means the more screens I make beforehand, then the more screens I'll be redoing later. Either way, I'll be tweaking tilesets and adjusting screens up till the end. That's inevitable.

Also, now that I've made KS+ I can free up a ton of space on the dirt tunnels sets. That will allow me to do a lot more with those screens.

Time for a long overdue progress report on some long overdue progress: I was inspired long ago to make my temples with a look inspired by Dungeon by Evangelos. I started making them, and things were humming along nicely until I realized I couldn't use most of the enemies in the game with it. The collision areas don't line up with the tile grid, so any thing that walks on the ground or walls will be in them. If I go this way I'll be limited to fliers and bouncers and little else. On the other hand, I could have some interesting jumping and climbing challenges with the non-standard tile sizes. I'm not sure what to do yet.

I'd say do the latter, and save the walking enemies for another segment of the level.  We likes interesting parkour, yes we do! 

I've discovered I can have the best of both worlds in my temple tilesets. By sliding everything down a bit I can have enemies that walk on the ground without losing the look and feel I want.

Before KS+ was conceived, I was going to have temples that required you to find 7 items within. Once these items were brought back to the entrance the temple would activate allowing access to the boss room. So, each temple would have two states, first to explore in relative safety, second to navigate dangerous enemies and face a boss. Though the rooms would be the same, the paths through the temple would change dramatically. Now that I've made KS+, the idea remains the same except I'll use artifacts for the 7 objects instead of complex flag usage. I still haven't got a clue how I'm going to make the bosses.

I'm glad you were able to find such a smart, simple solution.

Also, I wasn't digging the lack of detail in the previous screenshot, but I really like the changes you've made for the next one.

Thanks, the last two images are both works in progress. So far I've only shown the foundations and the shading. These things occupy about 2/3 of the tileset, so they're not as simple as they look. Each temple will reuse these in their own flavor helping to unify them visually. Now, I'm adding decorations and objects. These are the graphical jewels of the temples and will really set them apart from each other.

The hardened versions look unbelievably better.
I remember initially thinking that while the graphics were great, they were a little non-knytt-esque. It's looking great now

Looking forward