[Challenge - Very Hard] - Doden Vantar: Chapter One: A Harsh Winter's Night

  like the use of one very plain tileset through most of the level, random 'no climb' blocks, and the story is interesting and the acting is good, but the gameplay doesn't seem to compliment or tie into the story very much. then, the part where you get the umbrella, i never found where the code was, if there is one, so i just guessed until i got it. that was annoying. the part with the lava where you use the umbrella to float above it, just looks and plays weird, it wasn't a rewarding challenge i guess? and i found the keys and went though all the weird stuff, but didn't really 'get' any of it. i see that she's supposed to be crazy, but the level doesn't really reinforce whats happening on its own. its like the cutscenes were one thing and the level was another. but i went throught that area and all the tricks were cool, like the bouncing projectiles and all that. i thought it was the end, but then i popped back into the level. so i found some switches and flipped them, hit a red '!' mark and then couldn't figure out what to do. and since none of things i was doing really made sense with the story, i gave it up for now.

Indeed, it was meant to feel bare.  The first area is more of a Saddness area, and when you are sad, bare is what you feel inside.  Not much is known now, that is true, but that is how it is supposed to be, if you know too much now, you wont need to play the future Chapters.  If you notice, the only things that are non climb are the pillar things that are only 1 tile wide, the only things that are sticky, are just the blocks.  I thought maybe the first few pillars in the beginning of the area might enforce this.  I didn't want to do what I did in Scarlet Tears and just announce what everything was, I wanted the player to get a feel for it, to know what to look for when playing throughout, to notice little tidbits.  The password, the old man gives you a hint, he tells you that one times one is indeed, one.  therefore, one times one is one, you would leave the first button on one, what comes after one?  Two, so two times two would be... so on and so forth.

red key and I could not get out

I thought the music fit well indeed. The first part of the level starts out serene/ or sad as you say with complimentary music. That jarring stuff I was hearing before I copied the data file was in the secret area. By that time I was really into playing at it seemed to fit. I loved the layered snow where Aden seems to "plow" through it. Moving clouds were great. In the lava pits, which I liked by the way, could the clouds down there be pinkish instead? I think you meant the clouds to be fumes or smoke form the lava right? Although most of the cutscenes were longish that didn't bother me. It seems these days people want to zip right through stuff without soaking up nuances. Loved the cut scene with the wizard or cloaked guy that Aden descends to. Loved that "flashlight" effect. With that cut scene and several others my problem there is dialogue volume level. Many times the music over powers the dialogue and it's hard to hear it all. In the case of the wizard/cloaked guy isn't that where you get the clues for the umbrella codes? If I"m right that part of the dialogue is difficult to hear. Liked the newly designed save points. Many times folks put them in white areas or places where they're almost impossible to see. Like the kill spots when Aden falls to far with out climbing or floating down (once you get the umbrella). That's something that I always thought was needed as Juni could fall for a long time and land so safely. This is more realistic. There was at least one humorous moment and it got a big laugh outta me. When your'e in the secret area and find Juni hanging!  C)p

You'll have to manually kill yourself to get out (Ctrl+R), and look for the other key. That is what I did.

Well, I still wish I could move faster, but whatever. Speaking of which, though, you should regain your ability to run if you go back to the first area (or you should block off entry to the first area altogether--I found a void/wall swim by going back).
The part with the umbrella password I did not like at all. When I first heard the hint, I thought you were supposed to somehow recreate the equation with the symbols. Only when you gave that extra hint a few posts ago did I kind of get what you meant, and even then I had to try again after doing it wrong--since I don't think of the first symbol being "1", but rather "0". To make things worse, that thing chases you around and it's just annoying in general.

All that aside, I liked the atmosphere of the level. I really don't think it needed to be as hard as it was, but it was nice.
I found the secret area legitimately and I found it particularly amusing--although navigating the secret secret was a bit bothersome.

Edit: Oh. Also, why did you have the voice-overs as ambiance files? Is that necessary in this new Knytt Stories thing?

I'm stuck in the lava waterfall umbrella lake, what am I supposed to do other than fly into the lava? I can only doublejump once.

After the first double jump, you dont need a second, just move out of the lava's steam and fall a bit and go back into the steam while hold s, you will have more than enough height then.

The only voice overs that were actually ambiance was the secret area ones.  I could have put them in with the music, but I wanted certain screens to have certain messages, therefore, I made them into ambiance.  The others are in their respective cutscene folder along with an INI to help aid them along.

I always think of the first being one, the same went in Scarlet Tears, the first one didn't need to be hit, because it was one.  That and the word first makes me automatically think of one XD .

Also, I fixed that, I will upload the new one and all that good stuff probably sometime tomorrow, but for now, I must get to bed!

metaphor for sadness right?