LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]

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Offline Talps

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LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« on: October 24, 2020, 01:45:26 »
Click HERE to begin downloading your EXPERIENCE.

Egomassive's KS+ mod is required to play (available for download here - make sure you have the most up to date version).



Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls, people of the jury and distinguished members of the world press...

...Allow me to tell you a story.

It is the story of a man.

That man's name...
...was LPChip.

LPChip was a man who enjoyed many things, including...
Administrating an indie videogame forum...
...Making bodacious music...
...And licking other people's cats...

...But what he enjoyed most of all...
...was searching for new stars with his telescope.

Every clear night LPChip would search for new stars...
...Even when the sleep deprivation was really bad...

(which might possibly help to explain all that cat-licking)

...And then one day, he realised that he had discovered one hundred totally new stars.

And so, LPChip decided to travel the world, telling everyone he met of his amazing accomplishment.

This is the story of what happened next.
This is his story.

This is...

LPChip!
Hooray!
Fun Time!


'LPChip Hooray Fun Time' is a community built level made by myself, Fubaka, Firecat, IxMarcel, Ultigonio, StraightFlame, Vegetal Gibber and canteven, with contributions by sergiocornaga, egomassive, BloxMaster and SiamJai, to celebrate the occasion of LPChip receiving his one hundredth star (which happened... four, five years ago? Ahem, anyway...)

The level features glorious unique tilesets, COs and music entirely composed by LPChip himself apart from the bits that were composed by other people, besides extensive use of KS+ features, an extended dream sequence, unrealistic weather effects, a magic carpet, a world-ending slood-related crisis, and one really tastelessly coloured signpost.

We who are listed above hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed making it, and we are sure you will join us in thanking LPChip for all he has done in hosting and maintaining these forums for all these years.

Thank you, LPChip. Thank you, and goodnight.



Download not finished yet?

Why not pass the time by...



« Last Edit: October 24, 2020, 03:01:07 by Talps »

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Offline Fubaka

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2020, 06:22:20 »
Glad to see that this level finally got finished. Kind of ironic that the day I decide to check in the forums again after a long absence is the day this gets released. Now, in proper me fashion, I will conduct a review, as I have just completed the level. For my metric, I will be using the classic T-DAVE subjective rating system. For those unfamiliar, check out this old review thread.

Now, just a quick disclaimer before I get started. Some might consider it to be a conflict of interest for me to be reviewing a level that I myself took part in designing. However, since I completed my section nearly five years ago, I think enough time has passed that I can look back at my own work more objectively, and I do not plan on going easy on my own design choices wherever there are issues to be raised.

Trustworthiness: This level is described as a large challenge-based adventure, with the forum post including the unofficial designation of "scenic" (which from what I remember is used to denote that a lot of emphasis was placed on visual effects and/or tileset work without specifically using the "environmental" category). I think these designations are apt, as it will take a couple hours at least for your typical player to get through this level the first time, and a lot of work was indeed put into visual effects, mainly in the form of unique locales and cut-scenes.

While the preview and forum description give a good idea of what the story and scenario of the level will be about, it is not quite mentioned that this level is a largely linear affair, with relatively little backtracking. In addition, the level itself is listed as Normal difficulty, but I personally would have listed it as Hard instead. Keep in mind that I try to keep my metric based on the idea that Nifflas' original level The Machine is the benchmark for Normal (or Easy) difficulty, and this level is definitely harder than The Machine.

Overall, I judge this level's character to be Neutral Good.

Design: Given that this level was built by several different people with their own design philosophies, one cannot necessarily expect a seamless experience throughout. In order to help sell this notion of disjointed level design to the player, the level makes use of shifts through various dream sequences in order to connect the disparate areas together. Due to the inherent difficulty in making a level like this coherent and smooth, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the level actually does manage to flow smoothly from stage to stage, with the difficulty curve being very consistent as well. None of the stages veer too far away from the central challenge-focused gameplay of dodging enemies and obstacles, and the power-ups build upon each-other very organically from stage to stage. The unique designs of each stage also help to diversify the types of obstacles that LPChip will be traversing, keeping gameplay fresh.

Now, I wasn't necessarily looking for errors this time around, as I was just in for a casual playthrough. That said, I never got stuck in a wall nor accessed any voids, so from my perspective, the level is pretty rock-solid in design.

There are a few nit-picks I would make in places however when concerning platform and enemy placement. There are a good deal of areas that require leaps of faith off the edge of the screen in order to reach new platforms. This is not necessarily a fatal flaw, but it does become a minor source of frustration when working with limited access to powerups near the beginning of the level, creating a need for trial and error to get around some environmental hazards. A few areas also suffer from somewhat haphazard enemy placement, which makes it more luck-based to get past than I would like, which can sometimes be aggravated by a dearth of save points. Lastly, there are many places, particularly in the Dreamworld section, where ghostly enemies can blindside you in areas where they are hard to see coming.


Although the level is mostly straightforward, there are a few secrets that can be discovered here and there with a little determination. A lot of these I did not personally find until I peeked into the editor after I finished my playthrough.

Spoiler: One missed secret (click to show/hide)

Despite these little blips, I think the level does a really good job design-wise, and I never really thought any challenge was unfair, nor did I really get stuck anywhere. Overall, I think the level design is superb.

Agenda: This level is very heavily story-driven for a Knytt Stories level, with much of the game giving way to lengthy and often humorous dialogue exchanges between LPChip (our protagonist) and the various inhabitants of the world he traverses (whether they be based on other Nifforum users or not).

The story can be essentially broken down as follows. One starry evening, LPChip looks through his telescope and discovers his "100th star". To commemorate this achievement, he runs off to tell as many people as possible about his discovery (against Mi's wishes) and ends up in a heap of trouble as he trespasses into several dangerous realms.

Spoiler: More plot details (click to show/hide)

The story does a good job of justifying the nature of the level's design and is packed full of humorous moments and references to the community at large. It also feels appropriately celebratory (even if it came several years late :P ).

Overall, the agenda is met summa cum laude!

Vibe: Each area of this level has a distinctive look, art-style, and set of music, though a lot of the tracks you will hear come from LPChip's own repertoire of songs. (Speaking personally, if I had known about that particular factoid in advance, I would probably have used an LPChip song for the Dreamworld area as well.) As such, the vibe changes drastically from one area to the next, though given how the story operates, this is not really an issue. The credits of the level further enforce the patchwork nature of this level, by giving separate credits for each section.

Due to this design, it becomes easy to form opinions on your favorite areas. For me personally, I'd have to pick Vegetal Gibber's peanut butter desert as my favorite section.

The vibe overall feels like a box of assorted sweets.

Enjoyability: Due to the good design and the humorous nature of the story and dialogue, I found myself enjoying this level quite a lot. Its linear nature does make it a largely one-and-done experience, however, unless you want to go back and look for secrets you may have missed, or if it has been a while since your last playthrough.

Overall, it was quite entertaining.

Summation: After a while, I had resigned myself to the realistic possibility that this level would never see the light of day. After all, Knytt Stories is over 13 years old now, and it's rare for a community to remain engaged with relatively small games like this for an extended period of time, not to mention the now sluggish pace of the forums compared to how they once were. But it goes to show that, even if it takes much longer than initially promised, things like this can still be done. I suppose that's one thing I resonate with in particular, since I also have a long-standing promise to fulfill in this community that I intend to keep. (let's just say someone here's either gonna get a level or 20 dollars at some point in the future).

To see that not only was this level actually completed, but that it's also really good is a light of hope for me in these trying times. I'd like to give my thanks to everyone who contributed, and to Talps in particular for not letting this dream die. And of course, here's to LPChip and his 100th star, and any others in the future.
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

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Offline Talps

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2020, 14:07:11 »
Regarding the difficulty, the original plan was to make a Normal level so that was how I set it up when I created the first area, but as the project went on it very obviously become Hard. I think we all forgot to update the category.

Glad you enjoyed, and thanks for your help in making this happen. It did not feel real when I uploaded it last night.


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Offline Purple Ink

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2020, 07:50:14 »
This is exactly what I'd expect from assembling some of the greatest KS designers to collaborate on a level. What an awesome experience! The humour and references throughout were great and I actually laughed at a couple of them. Top notch stuff, guys. Really great to see a monumental level like this finally brought to fruition. I'm sure this will go down as a beloved level for a lot of people. :D

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Offline zhynna

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2020, 12:17:57 »
Very good level!

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Offline LPChip

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2020, 23:06:32 »
Small note from me.

Thank you everyone. I saw the news yesterday morning, got the level and started recording a video. I did get stuck in the level, but after a visit to discord and a few hours later, I knew where to go. Today I finished the level and recorded all footage.

But I want this to be more than just showing my play through, so there will be some extensive editing taking place and stuff.. This means it will be a bit before my video will be ready for everyone's viewing pleasure. Its probably going to be long. Luckily not 5 years long... But probably somewhere close to that... maybe... maybe not.

Anyway, I did want to reply so others know I have seen it. :) I just want my real reply with video to be something as special as this level is. :)

Anyway, LPChip signing out. See you in a bit. :)
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Offline GrayFace

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2020, 17:30:40 »
Amazing level!
Also, what a nice coincidence that this level came out just as egomassive has returned a mere month ago :)

The only problem is that text in time-based dialogs often switches insanely fast so you can't read it.
I also found one void accessed by a tricky jump, but seeing how useful these things sometimes are for speedrunning, I'm not even sure they're worth fixing.

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Offline LPChip

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2020, 23:27:43 »
Yeah, the text went really fast in the last dialogs, but given that I have recorded everything, one of the things I'll do is make that section play slower so one can actually read the dialogs just fine (me included)
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Offline Talps

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #8 on: October 28, 2020, 01:42:16 »
I deliberately made some of those dialogues play a bit too fast to make it feel like everyone was talking over each other. If I could show more than one text box on the screen at once, I would have made that section even quicker. I know it makes the text hard to catch, but it's hard to hear everyone in a crowd when they're all talking at once.

Though I admit, the word 'obsequiousness' is hard to read even when not at lightning speed.

GrayFace, can you tell me where you found the void?
« Last Edit: October 28, 2020, 01:43:59 by Talps »

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Offline GrayFace

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #9 on: October 28, 2020, 10:14:57 »
I deliberately made some of those dialogues play a bit too fast to make it feel like everyone was talking over each other.
Well, then you can make it pause when up is pressed, for example. That would require employing good old wallswim trick, e.g. https://www.dropbox.com/s/m7mvsjptsealhbu/GrayFace%20-%20Test%20Time%20Shift%20Pause.knytt.bin?dl=1
Ultimately, anything's better than not being able to read what they're saying.

GrayFace, can you tell me where you found the void?
x1057y1063. And I just checked - it doesn't seem to be useful for speedruns.

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Offline pfrangip

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2020, 00:40:20 »
Hello!

Congratulations to all involved... this really was a thrilling experience. The end scene in particular was incredibly entertaining! I had a lot of fun figuring out who did what section... Ultigonio, Vegetal Gibber, Straightflame, and Fubaka's sections were all very stylistically obvious. Talps successfully convinced me that his portions were actually designed by Sergio Cornaga, so well done there. ixMarcel and Firecats sections were less obvious to me... good job creating a cohesive seamless experience there!

I did not find any secrets the first time around, but I look forward to trying to find them.

And Congrats to LP Chip on your 134th star!

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Offline LPChip

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #11 on: October 29, 2020, 09:28:31 »
Technically 133... one star was stolen in a level or smth... :nuts: But thanks. :)
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Offline Vegetal Gibber

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2020, 21:34:30 »
Just chiming in to say it's been an honor for me to contribute to this project. It's been a long (and I mean loooong :P2 ) but exciting ride. Congratulations to everyone involved, especially to Talps who kept the project alive for all these years and led it to completion. You guys rock :hiddenstar:

It's not much, but here's some bonus stuff I wanted to share with you all to commemorate the occasion:

Some KS levels by me:

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Offline egomassive

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #13 on: November 11, 2020, 12:28:01 »
Now that this level is out and we can talk to LPChip about it, I have a question I've been wondering about since early development. The LPChip character in this level is based on the DJ from Knytt Underground seen in LPChip's current forum avatar. Do you identify with the DJ, LPChip? I felt like that was a big misunderstanding.

Also, congratulations on completing this level everyone! Vegetal's minigame was amazing. The cameo's were cute. The jokes were terrible. The ending was epic. Thanks for including me in the game even though I mostly just observed from a safe distance. After pounding Endless Winter into a finished product I was not enthusiastic to join a similar project. However, LPChip certainly deserves the honor and I'm glad you all (eventually) made such a fine level without me.

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Offline Talps

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Re: LPChip Hooray Fun Time [KS+][Large/Challenge/Scenic]
« Reply #14 on: November 11, 2020, 15:52:44 »
You can count it as your 200th star celebratory level as well. Glad you enjoyed.