[Environmental][Small][KS+]Between the Seas

AKA, What I Did on My Summer Holiday. (Well, minus the boat. I don't have a boat.)

Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost "Bundesland" of Germany, a flat to moderately hilly, agrarian landscape sitting between the North Sea and the Baltic sea, has always been my favourite part of the country, and this year I spent a very rainy summer vacation there. Despite the rain (which is kind of par for the course) this fully reignited my love for the area and since I had rediscovered KS only weeks before, it inspired me to make a KS level about it. Here it is.

It's a very linear environmental; you can make the return trip in two different kinds of weather, though.

You can pet some cats. You can visit your friends. You can have cake. That's it.

It's very green and pretty rainy.

It has possibly the longest credits sequence in the history of short environmentals.

Archive link: https://knyttlevels.com/levels/Hmpf%20MacSlow%20-%20Between%20the%20Seas%20-%20v1.2.knytt.bin (Final version!!! I hope! Thoroughly tested after the latest bug fix, so I'm pretty sure that one didn't introduce new errors - unlike the previous one, whoops.)

Enjoy!

ETA: Replaced the screenshot at the request of the Campaign for Accuracy in Advertising. ;-) The old one had too friendly weather, anyway - though, don't holiday postcards and brochures always show these unnaturally bright blue skies, and then when you actually get there it's all grey and rainy? But anyway; here's one with one of the real skies from the level (and no missing tree corner). All the skies in this level are taken from my holiday photos, which are basically a collection of dramatic skies like that.


Re: KS+: There is only one thing in this, so far, that is making it a KS+ level: a recoloured water object that overrides Liquids bank object #19. The level is technically playable in vanilla KS, but the water will appear static.

Nice!
I haven't played the level yet, and I don't want to pass off as indelicate, but:

I remember fixing that tileset in the screenshot for you.
It's still the wrong one, for some reason?

Nice!
I haven't played the level yet, and I don't want to pass off as indelicate, but:

I remember fixing that tileset in the screenshot for you.
It's still the wrong one, for some reason?

No, it's an old screenshot.

Thank you for saying that.
Could you update the screenshot with the current version of those screens?
I'd appreciate it

(Previous post removed because I figured out how to do it.)

SGE: The tree's leaves are missing the bottom right corner.

Edit: Wait, I already reported this, actually.
I thought you fixed that two months ago

SGE: The tree's leaves are missing the bottom right corner.

Edit: Wait, I already reported this, actually.
I thought you fixed that two months ago

I did. It's an old screenshot I edited the floating line out of just now. But it's still the old screenshot.

Oh...
I see, that makes sense.
So we actually don't know what the level looks like, I guess
But it's OK, as I'm the "cartographer" here, apparently.
I'll stitch a screenshot when I have time

Oh...
I see, that makes sense.
So we actually don't know what the level looks like, I guess
But it's OK, as I'm the "cartographer" here, apparently.
I'll stitch a screenshot when I have time

Dude. It still looks like that, except with, yes, a slightly different shade of blue to the sky, and the missing corner fixed. I'm pretty sure 99% of viewers will be able to get a sufficiently accurate impression of the level from that screenshot. And i'm kinda busy today plus sick, so I couldn't be bothered to retake the screenshots and stitch them together. (It's ok, I'm not angry or anything. Just saying, it really does look 99% like that screenshot, still.)

(ETA: sorry if I sounded crotchety - I'm really not doing very well today.)

Yes, that's why I offered my help.
I assumed there was a reason if you couldn't take a new screenshot.
I'm sorry if you feel sick.
Get well soon

Yes, that's why I offered my help.
I assumed there was a reason if you couldn't take a new screenshot.
I'm sorry if you feel sick.
Get well soon

Nah, thanks, I replaced it with a grey-sky picture, which is more accurate to the level's main parts anyway (though there is some blue sky, too). And thanks for the well wishes. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be better. Today was pretty much a total loss, really.

Wow, it looks cool

I'm sorry to hear that, I also hope you feel better.

Edit: Also, I'm sorry about this whole conversation.
I just genuinely thought the bugs I reported were still there when I looked at the misleading screenshot.
I'm sure you can understand

Just make sure that won't happen again

Wow, it looks cool

I'm sorry to hear that, I also hope you feel better.

Edit: Also, I'm sorry about this whole conversation.
I just genuinely thought the bugs I reported were still there when I looked at the misleading screenshot.
I'm sure you can understand

Just make sure that won't happen again

It's ok, I'm also a person who cares too much about small details. :-)

 really enjoyed this. Short and sweet - a fun little experience.

If I had any criticisms, I'd say there was often a lack of water ambience in screens with water/rain which I found jarring. And I got a little confused when I left the friends' house (after spending the night). I hadn't realised I'd reached the island already, so I was a bit dismayed to find I couldn't go further left, thinking I'd cut off part of the level by sleeping.

But on the whole, I really enjoyed this. Cute and fun, and it made me think it'd be really nice to visit that corner of the world. Even if that farm kitty broke my heart. ;_;

really enjoyed this. Short and sweet - a fun little experience.

If I had any criticisms, I'd say there was often a lack of water ambience in screens with water/rain which I found jarring.

Most of the water is stuff like drainage ditches, swamps or small ponds, or leftover sea water from the receded tide - you don't tend to hear those. The little stream/waterfall in the forest does have ambiance. But you're right about the rain, I meant to do something about that and forgot. I even had a conversation in the Discord about it and someone offered me their recorded rain sound! I need to search for that, and check if it fits what I had in mind, and otherwise check freesound.org. The thing is simply, none of the "rain" sounds in KS sounds entirely like rain to my ear, so I didn't use those - but I did mean to add a custom rain sound! But then I was so focused on cows and sheep and the sea that I forgot, lol.

But you know what, now I think I should maybe ramp up the rain a little bit, too, in the last two screens or so before the forest - so it'll feel more like sheltering from the rain in the forest. Use the waterfall object as rain there, maybe... Hmmm.

nd I got a little confused when I left the friends' house (after spending the night). I hadn't realised I'd reached the island already, so I was a bit dismayed to find I couldn't go further left, thinking I'd cut off part of the level by sleeping.

I don't know if you went all the way to the left before going into the house, I noticed Kilicool64 didn't, in her youtube video, so there's definitely a source of confusion there and maybe I should, when I add more rain (sounds), also add a warp that makes it so you only get the suggestion to enter the house when you re-enter that screen from the left, after having been to the other coast of the island. I mean, there's nothing huge to miss there, just more sheep and a bit of Wadden Sea, but still. You can actually also leave the house again before you sleep, but I couldn't signal that because I'd run out of signs. But there's a shift on the door there.

And also, yes! The concept of the Wadden Sea is a confusing one! You can actually walk on the seafloor when the tide is low!
https://www.waddensea-worldheritage.org/

But on the whole, I really enjoyed this. Cute and fun, and it made me think it'd be really nice to visit that corner of the world. Even if that farm kitty broke my heart. ;_;

Feral farm kitties, man. :-(