[Environmental/Playground] [KS+] Exploring the Golden Land

Hiya, folks. I've been away from the community for a few months, experiencing levels of stress high enough to kill a small mammal. I recently started working on a new KS level as a way to cope with this situation, so I thought it'd be a good idea to come back to the forum and post a preview. Hope you guys like it.

This will be a rather short (small, maybe medium), very relaxing level focused mainly on atmosphere and aesthetics (hence the Environmental tag). It's intended to be a sequel of sorts to Journey to the Golden Land, where you'll have the chance to explore this beautiful place to your heart's content. There will be two special bonus areas that you'll be able to access by collecting all the golden coins and creatures scattered through the land.

This is also my very first try building a level using ego's KS+ exclusive features (mostly the collectables), so you'll need to use his mod to play this.

I'm also working on completing another project called "Next Gen Knytt" that I left unfinished a few months ago. Hopefully I'll be able to release one or both levels before the end of the year


Click on the following spoilers to see a few animated clips showing different parts of the level:

Looks really good! I was actually hoping you'd make a Golden Land level. Sorry to hear about your real life stress, I hope it eases up or that working on this helps you through it.

I too find both playing and creating KS levels to be quite... cathartic. Hope to see this level soon!

Thanks guys! Working on this level does indeed help improve my mood. After Curse of the Catacombs, my original plan was to make a challenge-based level next, because it's been a really long time since I did one of those. Unfortunately, I was having a really hard time getting focused and designing proper challenges due to me being so stressed and anxious... so I thought it'd be a much better idea to make something that could help myself feel more relaxed. I've also been wanting to expand on the idea of the "Golden Land" for quite a while, so I figured this would be a good chance

Here are a few animated clips taken from the current build. Click on the spoiler links if you want to see them (they might take some time to fully load):

Fabulous particles and effects!

Thanks! I have to say, KS+'s object override feature really comes in handy when making custom particle effects.

Sounds good. I expect this level won't be too over-the-top, unlike that other project you mentioned. 

Yes, this is going to be a relatively simple level, gameplay and story wise. No hot kung-fu fighting action in this one, I'm afraid  Basically, it's a pretty scenario where nervous wrecks like me can walk around and feel carefree for a while. However, I did throw in a few hidden areas as a reward to players who like to explore thoroughly, and some of them will be tricky to access. I'm also trying to include a decent amount of COs and effects to make the experience different from old-school environmental levels.

I've updated the screenshots in the first post to match the current version and added some new pics, showing the golden cave and an underwater area.

P.S: Happy new year!

Seems like I was too optimistic with the release date. I originally intended this to be a nice looking but relatively simple level... but I just can't stop the urge to go back to the already finished screens to add more and more stuff over them. I think I understand egomassive's internal struggle a bit better now   Still, the level should be completed and released before the end of this month.

In the meantime, here's another animation showing off the enhanced underwater effects:

[ Water effect preview ]

[ Water effect preview ]

Gorgeous!  Although I think those bubbles should be a bit slower.

Thanks for the feedback! I think you're right about the bubbles, I'm going to set their speed a tad lower. I didn't notice before, but when they rise too fast, it kinda makes the water look like it's boiling.

Finished the info screen (which I added to the first post). I can't believe I spent an entire day just on that.

As for the level itself, it's almost complete. Just a few secrets and one last area to go

Can't wait to play this! I really enjoyed playing your previous "Land" level, and this one looks really good so far! You're making good use of KS+'s processing power!

P.S. Also, uh, in that water test GIF, should the fish at the bottom be poking through the ground or is that a bug??

Thanks If I can continue working on this level at my current pace, it should be ready for release in about a week or two. I'll probably be asking around for some beta-testing help before the final release.

Some of the fish are intended to be foreground objects, that's why they look like they're going through parts of the mid-layer ground. I might change this if it looks too weird, though. Any feedback will be appreciated!