[Small] [Vanilla] [Challenge/Misc] [Hard/Very Hard] Cutuplevels

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Offline Wibi

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The intent of these levels was to flood the knyttlevels archive with vaguely playable anonymous levels, in mockery of the right-wing transphobic bullshit levels that some parts of the community really seem to like. The internet right wing really likes influencing politically neutral hobby communities.
These are named "cutuplevels" because the original tactic was to choose the tilesets, gradient, and music of each area of each level randomly, include non-sequitur signs lifted from random sources, and have the level metadata, info screens, and cutscenes be similarly arbitrary. This juxtaposition of random sources is similar to the "cut-up technique" used in the Dada movement and rediscovered by avant-garde satirist William S. Burroughs. This tactic got less prevalent when the levels highlighted below were made, but it's still there, and it's most notable in Avoid the Evil.
Here's a selection of 4 of the 13 total levels that came out the most sensible (and also have a continous plot). These levels are ordered chronologically and by size (roughly). They tend toward being challenge levels, probably Hard-Very Hard. Each level was made in roughly a day's time, and are somewhat short resultingly. "Spider" was largely salvaged from an unfinished 2021 level from deep in the canteven/ncrecc/cantevenfinishalevelexceptonaprilfools vaults.


All levels are for vanilla KS.
I've Got a Fang is the most digestible out of these. (6:04 unpolished run)
A Self Called Nowhere contains (hammy, over-the-top) descriptions of violence and a close-up picture of a spider. Apollo 18 - Spider contains NSFW dialogue.

On one hand, if you feel disgusted by the amount of "SJW crap" that some of these levels contain, and either A. have years sucked out of your life by how bad they are, or B. feel very disappointed because these levels could have been better if the author's views were more "normal," I hope those emotions persist.
On the other hand, I hope you enjoy these levels, as they have the same kind of zaniness and weird humor as Reduction, and they feature what I think is some neat tech and aesthetic for vanilla KS.

(Bonus: skilled, wacky - particularly liked)
« Last Edit: October 01, 2022, 15:28:03 by canteven / ncrecc »

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Offline egomassive

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Re: [Small] [Vanilla] [Challenge/Misc] [Hard/Very Hard] Cutuplevels
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2022, 06:40:59 »
I've played two so far, Avoid the Evil and Spider. They're harsh, the visuals, the audio, the gameplay, the rhetoric. It's like playing with a cactus. AtE evolved in the latter half into something much more playable and the quiz was neat. I'll certainly give the other levels a go.