Story Crafter

During summer of 2010, I started working on a custom level editor for Knytt Stories, which I called Story Crafter, as a project to learn C#. I've worked on it now and then, and started over from scratch twice. My objectives were to combine all of my favorite features from the standard level editor, its various mods, KS Level Composer, and KS Manager in one powerful tool, to bring all the different parts of story development together in one piece of software, and to make tedious and time-consuming tasks easier and faster.

Now, Story Crafter is far from completion, and I am not currently working on it. Especially with ego's new mod and updates to GrayFace's, I'm not sure it is worth completing. However, if there is some interest in the community, I would be willing to finish it. To that end, I would like to show you what I have accomplished so far and what I had planned for the future. The editor is tab-based, so I will describe it tab by tab.






For the cutscenes tab, I was going to recreate the KS Manager interface but make it look nicer.



Music/ambiance tabs would be similar to the tilesets/gradients tabs.

The objects tab, which was never worked on in the slightest in any of the three iterations, was going to have something to do with custom objects.




That's it. Let me know if you think you would use it!

I don't know if I'd ever use it, but some of the features you mentioned, like instant custom objects and the map tab, look very interesting.

The map looks great! I think the map and Publish button would be my reasons to use it.

So that's where you've been all this time. This looks pretty nifty.

EDIT: I guess you have been semi-active lately. Oh well. Still nifty!

I'd use it.

Seems like a nice tool. Only thing I'd miss, is to see what the adjacent screens look like when you're in the screen area. So you can see where you need to place your tiles to prevent a wallswim.

This looks very interesting to me. I'm quite certain I'd find it useful!

It's so clean and beautiful. Makes my editor look like a cramped mess. If I had know you were making this I might not have embarked on my own editor mod journey.

That's enough reason for me. True to my word, I will finish it. (Although I might not do every feature I mentioned. At least not right away.)

So that's where you've been all this time. This looks pretty nifty.

EDIT: I guess you have been semi-active lately. Oh well. Still nifty!

I read the forum pretty regularly, I just don't post very often.

Only thing I'd miss, is to see what the adjacent screens look like when you're in the screen area. So you can see where you need to place your tiles to prevent a wallswim.

Right, that is a useful feature. I would have to expand the interface to fit it in, but it is probably worth it. Perhaps I will take GrayFace's approach and only show half a tile or so. By the way, I may contact you at some point about managing uploads to knyttlevels.com, especially with the new archive en route.

It's so clean and beautiful. Makes my editor look like a cramped mess. If I had know you were making this I might not have embarked on my own editor mod journey.

Don't be so hard on yourself! I actually admire what you've done with yours. It's very efficient with space, and keeps everything on one screen. It's also more intuitive to people used to the standard editor (i.e., everyone), and I'm not planning an interface like you have designed for editing shifts, signs, etc. or specific compatibility with any mod. I'm sure many people -- especially those working with your mod -- will use it.

Still, perhaps I should have revealed my project sooner. I was worried about creating anticipation without knowing I could finish it.

Still, perhaps I should have revealed my project sooner. I was worried about creating anticipation without knowing I could finish it.

I think this forum has seen this happen too many times, you did well

I really like the way it looks, can't say I would use this over other editors, I'm way too attached to the original layout.

Can layers be hidden on right click, like in original editor?

Can layers be hidden on right click, like in original editor?

Yes. All the features of the original editor are included.

Oh, now this seems interesting. I never really tried any of the other enhanced editors, but the map feature and the easy-access objects really pull me.
I would very much like to witness this project's completion.

I doubt I'm gonna extend functionality of my editor mod further than what I've done for the next version, but in case I will, it would make more sense to carry what I've done there into your editor rather than continue in MMF2. That is, if you release it open-source.

I would definatley use it. I especially like the tilesets and gradients tab. Makes it so much easier to find a certain tileset or gradient. I'm sure many people would use this.