Thanks for your feedback, all. I can see that this level is proving a bit divisive, with some who loved it and others, less so. I took some risks with the design and tried to evoke certain feelings for the player; it sounds like that for some people I really hit the mark, and for others I missed it wildly. but I appreciate all of you playing my level and taking the time to let me know your thoughts!
I wasn't sure if I should rank this as Hard or Very Hard. I probably ought to have gone with the latter; this was originally designed to be hidden content in PoaDF so when I started planning and working on it, I was happy to set the difficulty bar a bit higher than is usual for me.
A couple of lessons I will take forward:
- I often find it frustrating in games when you are struggling to find the correct way forward and end up stumbling into a secret area (or even a glitch) instead. In particular the way the Ruins were based on PoaDF, but explored in a different way, caused this problem for people, and I recognise I got the balance a bit wrong at times.
- In retrospect the final area seems to confuse people, maybe just because it's a bit out of character with the rest of the level. Having made it from a map, I can safely say it is much easier with a map! One of those designer-knowledge-versus-player-knowledge things.
- After Eurydice I did promise no more invisible mazes. I don't think I quite broke that promise.
I wanted to create an atmosphere of tension in the Hive, to try and create an actual sense of threat and maybe even some fear. It was an experiment, and a risky one. And a bit of a genre-skip from the usual KS fare.
I agree that the atmosphere drifted a long way from that of PoaDF. And this probably does stand better when not considered from the shadow of the original. The arty minimalism was a big part of the original, letting the player project their own imagination into the level. Petals II is more defined and grounded. Playing the original, I get a feeling of things... opening out as you explore each area, like a cone starting narrow at the bottom and getting wider as you come closer to the surface. I don't get the same sensation from this, maybe due in part to the stronger difficulty curve.
I only had the idea to add golden creatures and the secret ending as I was working on the Ruins area. When making a level, I will usually have the frame of the entire story clear in my mind (if not actually written down) before I even touch the editor, so adding such a huge branch to the plot mid-production was a scary move for me.
The content of the secret ending was redeveloped over and over as I worked on the main path, starting off as just a plotless director's-commentary area, then becoming a vague, nebulous thing like the ending of Eurydice, left to the player to make sense of for themselves. I finally challenged myself to answer the question, 'Why would she head back down into the dark after coming within sight of what she was searching for?' with the proviso that I couldn't make the answer miserable, since it was going to take a lot of work for the player to get here and they deserved to feel good from that.
After I made both endings I found that the secret one had become, at least in my opinion, the stronger ending that caps off the level better, that completes the journey better. I think it reflects something of how I've changed over the last ten years - the journey I've taken and the way I've learned to understand my not inconsiderable anxieties. It's harder to turn around and face your fears, than it is to constantly fantasize about escaping.
And 'cus some people have asked, here are some hints about secrets. I'd recommend not looking at these unless you're really stuck (or really can't be bothered to figure it all out).
There is one golden creature and one artefact in each area.
Once you have all ten secrets, your next step is to head back down to the Garden...
Greyface, given you've found the secret end, you probably realise now why exploration was limited in places.
Pfrangip, fact of debatable interest: I can actually tell you precisely when my design style became much busier; it was after crossing the bridge and going through the small cave in
I Chased the Moon. The screens beyond that cave are a lot more kinetic than the screens before it, and that's been my pattern ever since. Also, I can usually get past the dark dragon in the Hive in one or two attempts. If it had killed me more I probably would have removed it; one of us got extremes of luck.
Polana, naah, just sounded like you were making a joke.
Mitorun, eugh, there's always one you miss! That'll be fixed if I release another version. Glad you enjoyed.
Congrats to everyone who uncovered all the secrets (even if you did have to do some dirty rotten cheatin'
). This community is brilliant and wonderful, and I hope I can keep sharing brilliant and wonderful creations with you all.
