Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]

  • 24 Replies
  • 13304 Views
*

Offline egomassive

  • 1850
  • 250
    • View Profile
    • egomassive games
Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« on: February 13, 2016, 03:26:12 »
A pit stop between adventures becomes a bit of an adventure itself. Follow Juni as she traverses a swamp in search of refreshment.

A long time ago I made several tilesets for an aspiring level designer. Of these all were released except for the swamp based on Fredrik Andersson's Thin Forest. Through the Swamp was conceived as a nice way of releasing these graphics. And though it certainly is that, Through the Swamp has managed to become a charming level that can stand proudly among my best work.

Download Through the Swamp 15 MB

Download Through the Swamp Mono Edition 9.4 MB For people with low bandwidth.

It's a short level, so I give you the least interesting screen in the whole thing as enticement. It only gets better from here.

*

Offline Ultigonio

  • 325
  • 60
  • I'm sleepy!
    • View Profile
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2016, 04:00:15 »
Once again, excellent work.  Your use of OCOs was insanely clever - something I think I might refer to while working on my own levels.  It's good to see some of my text nitpicks made it into the final version, as well.  :P2
Indefinitely Held Off:
Pouring
Complete:
This Level Plays Itself!

My SoundCloud

*

Offline Fubaka

  • 641
  • 86
  • We are the music makers.
    • View Profile
    • My Music Page
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2016, 11:11:23 »
I am still in awe over your pixelling talents.

Excellent level!
Things to remember when writing figures of speech and sound:
The power of poetry comes from the ability to defy logic. Defy logic often.

Use a metaphor and tell us that your lover is the sky. Tell us that your lover is the sky. When you do that, we won't believe you. We won't believe you because saying so makes no sense, but we'll see a meaning. We'll see a meaning.

The other thing is the ability to be remembered. Love anything.

Love anything

*

Offline Talps

  • 1025
  • 142
  • ...especially in a life-or-death situation!
    • View Profile
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2016, 11:12:08 »
Cue stream-of-consciousness-style-commentary-pouring-out-as-I-played-through-the-level...

« Last Edit: February 13, 2016, 11:20:55 by Talps »

Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #4 on: February 13, 2016, 12:01:48 »
The tilesets and COs were amazing and all, but my favourite part was the dialogue. Especially the explanation for why Juni can't swim.

By the way, how exactly is that screen less interesting than this one?


*

Offline Vegetal Gibber

  • 780
  • 176
  • Sorry excuse for a game designer
    • View Profile
    • VG's Games Portfolio
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #5 on: February 13, 2016, 16:02:29 »
Not much left for me to say after the betatesting, except that this is one of the best short levels I've played, with tons and tons of detail. The animated COs are all done superbly, especially the creatures (love the turtle :D ). The dialogue was fun and I really liked the way the ambience sound was handled. A :hiddenstar: goes to you, sir!

Spoiler: @Talps (click to show/hide)
Some KS levels by me:

*

Offline egomassive

  • 1850
  • 250
    • View Profile
    • egomassive games
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #6 on: February 13, 2016, 23:29:35 »
Glad everyone is enjoying it.
Spoiler: @Talps (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: @StraightFlame (click to show/hide)

Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #7 on: February 14, 2016, 05:12:34 »
this is so nice. i like all the big sweeps of landscape in the foreground, it makes the world feel a lot bigger than it is. the dialogue is charming too!

*

Offline sergiocornaga

  • 1285
  • 131
    • View Profile
    • Sergio's Games
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #8 on: February 14, 2016, 14:33:05 »
I echo what everyone's posted already about the obvious strengths of this excellent level. Odd question maybe, but do you have any idea when it might show up on your website?

I do have one suggestion: it would be nice if the game acknowledged finding all the t***ts, since it keeps track of which ones you've seen, yet messages about seeking them out persist. Checking for four flags can be a bit of a pain, I think I'm just being demanding now.

@Talps: "truely" is indeed a typo of sorts, though I'd wager it's intentional since it's an archaic spelling of the word used in the context of a Middle English-style sentence. I truely feel it should stay.

*

Offline yohji

  • 664
  • 18
    • View Profile
    • Jashiin's Portfolio
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #9 on: February 14, 2016, 22:52:25 »
That's it, I'm stealing *everything* for my level!

A very beautiful and very engaging level. The bartender of the Knothole Public House reminded me of some Cave Story characters - which felt good.

Also, I totally forgot how to play KS levels and had to get the hint from the first bartender before I found most of the keys. Eh.


*

Offline egomassive

  • 1850
  • 250
    • View Profile
    • egomassive games
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #10 on: February 14, 2016, 23:47:45 »
@Sergio: Thanks for reminding me about the website. When I was finally ready to release the level I thought I'd get to that later. I guess it's later. Edit: Website Updated

@Talps/Sergio: "Truely" is just a typo. If something else crops up I'll fix it.

@Yohji: I'm glad to hear you missed stuff on the first trip. I tried to hide some things. Feel free to use whatever you like. If you use the swamp tilesets, I recommend you turn the background trees into gradients. As they are, these tilesets are hard to use.

@Dessgeega: Thanks, I didn't know you were still around.

Here's the inspiration/plagiarism collage I was talking about. It spoils some stuff in this level and other old levels and games from the WaDF/Knytt universe. It doesn't cover everything, but not every borrowed concept was visual or specific. See if you can name all the games!
Spoiler: collage (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: February 15, 2016, 01:02:14 by egomassive »

*

Offline SC

  • 141
  • 24
  • Ha-ha-ha! Videogames! *laugh track*
    • View Profile
    • My personal website!
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #11 on: February 15, 2016, 02:30:02 »
Really nice level! (For some reason, I got stuck trying to find the red key so I had to give up and check the level editor even though it was a relatively simple solution in the end, lmao.) I LOVE your use of custom objects. Makes me wish there was built-in proper on-top-of-Juni tiles in KS+. And having the ability to shift dialogues between two characters without having to use multiple screens would be nice too, as well.

But yeah, I was pretty impressed with this one. Keep it up, ego!

*

Offline Ultigonio

  • 325
  • 60
  • I'm sleepy!
    • View Profile
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #12 on: February 15, 2016, 03:34:51 »
Makes me wish there was built-in proper on-top-of-Juni tiles in KS+.
If you're referring to having a layer for tiles which overlap the player's position, KS+ does have that!  You can use the "Overlay" feature to make all layer 2 tiles stay on top of Juni and, well, everything else.
Indefinitely Held Off:
Pouring
Complete:
This Level Plays Itself!

My SoundCloud

*

Offline SC

  • 141
  • 24
  • Ha-ha-ha! Videogames! *laugh track*
    • View Profile
    • My personal website!
Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #13 on: February 15, 2016, 05:15:54 »
Hah, well, it seems I haven't used the editor to its full potential yet, then! :P Still cool, nonetheless.

Re: Through the Swamp [small/environmental/KS+]
« Reply #14 on: February 15, 2016, 06:00:01 »
@egomassive not really working with knytt stories any more, but i'm ALWAYS WATCHING