Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]

Hmm, I think the detail on the upper boat is a bit too faded out.

Oh yeah, just had to trump my fishing rod, didn't you!

That lizard in the water is even better than the subtle reference to 'Shipwrecked'! (Also, spotted some 'Knytt' references. You're just raking in the geek-cred, aren't you?)

Mahoosive bird would, I think, be better on a layer in front of Juni since you can walk across its feet. (But it looks very cool! In my weird mind I think it'd be cool if it squawked when you passed it by.) - In retrospect, it would make its secret look weird. Hmm... difficult to find a solution for that one. It's the only ugly bit of layering I noticed in the level. Still would have been nice if it had said 'Squawk'...

The reactive flower COs are fun and really well-drawn. (For some reason I actually wrote 'dwarf' there instead of 'drawn'. Too much D&D for Talps...)

Turtle rock ditto. The little shiver of terror as it turns around is beautifully done.

'Truly' doesn't have an 'e' in it. (At least it doesn't my side of the pond. Is it one of the words that Americans spell incorrectly differently?)

I love the toasts. There needs to be a third ending where Juni falls in love with and marries Loaf! Trees are great!

I loved the endings; had lots of fun reading the small print in the credits.

Tilesets are lovely, graphics are great. May make use of some of your lovely work in the future.

All in all a rocking level. Thanks very much! (And that's a fact!)

One lost opportunity (to my mind): From when I saw the screenshot in this thread I was imagining Juni revisiting that screen but walking on the foreground rocks with the midground in the background. Seeing the fisherman and house and cave mouth in the foreground reinforced this expectation. I was a bit disappointed that it never came through. Maybe its something you never thought of... but I think it would have added a lovely bit of depth to the 2D world.

Funny thing you mentioned that foreground path. The first time I played, I became absolutely convinced that the red key was hidden in the fisherman's house, and that there had to be some way to access that area through the caves. Spent about 30 minutes trying, until I finally gave up and went looking elsewhere

That area in the foreground of the fishing village was originally meant to be unreachable scenery. Once I started adding secrets, I intended to take the player there. Then, I reached the screen with the piano music and decided I'd gone far enough. I'm at odds with myself in game design. If the player can't get everywhere then the world feels larger, but the exploration feels incomplete. If the player can get everywhere then they feel more accomplished, but the world feels smaller. Someday, I'll have it all figured out.

That shiver the turtle makes is unintentional. It really shouldn't be shivering and it doesn't happen every time. It's a weakness in the game engine. Fortunately, it actually makes the creature more interesting.

As far as Geek-cred goes this little level is packed with inspiration from other games and levels in the WaDF/Knytt universe. I want to put together a collage of everything I'm referencing. I'm not a fan of inside jokes. Obscure references are a close cousin, so I want to let everyone in on the joke.

I think that screen is more interesting because of what it promises. You're about to drop into a new area.