Another Knytt Stories Collaboration Level

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sergiocornaga's picture
Tue, Aug 15 2017 06:00 PM
08/16/2017 - 01:00
02/28/2018 - 23:00
Etc/GMT

August 27th was Knytt Stories' 10th birthday! To celebrate, let's make a collaborative level for this "epic" level competition hosted by Fubaka, which has a final due date of February 28th 2018. The main requirement for this competition is that levels have at least 300 unique screens, which we've already exceeded. Huzzah!

We'll be using The Cursed Gallery as a framing device. Basically, Juni encounters a gallery filled with paintings of different participants' sections, and can travel inside them. Each section can be self-contained in terms of powers, but it will be cool to link all the different sections more directly once the level starts coming together! Vegetal Gibber has already designed a beautiful main hub area that's just waiting to be populated with portals!

The level will require Knytt Stories +, so participants should feel free to go wild with KS+ stuff if they want. In particular, we are hiding KS+ artifact collectibles in hard-to-reach areas for a currently undetermined purpose. You can keep track of that using this handy spreadsheet (and leave little notes to other participants if you want)!

Some discussion is going down in the #hot-jamz channel of the altgamez Discord server, so drop by there if you want to stay totally in the loop! I get the impression the most pertinent stuff has appeared in the comments of this very page, but perhaps that could change.

So, comment or "sign up" if you're interested in participating, or even just make something, upload it, and hope for the best! Feel free to ask questions (but given the loose, last-minute nature of this event you could also feel free to provide your own answers).


Games made for Another Knytt Stories Collaboration Level

Comments

Vegetal Gibber's picture

I have quite a lot of

I have quite a lot of projects on my hands right now, but I believe I'd be able to contribute with a short, Environmental-ish low-challenge area, if that's the type of level you're aiming for. Alternatively, I could take a stab at designing the gallery screens if you want me to.

sergiocornaga's picture

Whichever you'd prefer! I

Whichever you'd prefer! I suspect you'd do a fantastic job handling the proposed gallery level hub, but just make what you'd prefer to make. I have no stylistic restrictions in mind, so environmental-ish is fine, and ludicrously difficult would be fine as well.

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Neat, I'll give the gallery

Neat, I'll give the gallery hub a go first (should I blatantly disregard what you said about avoiding the x1000y1000 area, since this would probably be the starting section?). After that, if I see I'm on a roll, I'll try to start a small area too.

wibi's picture

Right now the only thing I'm

Right now the only thing I'm actively working on is a small stupid joke level. I can probably throw together a challenge for this.

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Progress!

Found myself with more time on my hands than expected today, so I was able to do some tilesetting. Still a work in progress, but here's a quick preview:

I'm still not too happy with some elements (the picture frame and the column base), but it's starting to look more or less like an art gallery of sorts. Except for the lamp-thingy, which looks slightly demonic, but since this is supposed to be a cursed gallery, it might not be entirely out of place. I'm also planning to add stairs and a chandelier. Any criticism will be welcome.

The idea is to build about 5-6 screens that have one or two large framed preview pictures of each area, plus a few nice-looking fillers.

wibi's picture

Damn that's good. You might

Damn that's good.

You might want to make a diagonal gradient for those slopes at the top part though.

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Agreed. In fact, I've

Agreed. In fact, I've already added those. They are a bit cumbersome to use, but they do make the ceiling shadows look much better.

This is going better than I expected. I might be able to finish the hub area (with placeholder pictures) in a couple days.

wibi's picture

Are custom objects/tilesets

Are custom objects/tilesets allowed or can we only use what's given to us?

sergiocornaga's picture

Custom assets of all kinds

Custom assets of all kinds are encouraged! Also, you probably won't be "given" anything and are free to start whenever you like.

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Gallery Hub v1 is ready

I uploaded the first version of the Gallery Hub. Hope you guys like it. It's currently 16 screens long (no duplicates), so we only have 284 more to go, which is a slightly less hopeless situation than before!

I didn't include any music nor ambience. I think the silence fits the atmosphere here, but if you want to suggest anything, please feel free to do so (or just make any edits you want when compiling the area into the final level).

clyde's picture

I will open the editor up

I will open the editor up and see what happens. No promises.

wibi's picture

7/30 screens done, where MAKING THIS HAPEN

Here's a preview (ft. my cursor):

This zone is probably going to be much harder than the rest of the level
But if it seems TOO hard just tell me

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Looks good. Nice combination

Looks good. Nice combination of tilesets there. The challenge in that screen seems a bit tricky, though, but maybe it's actually more doable than it looks at first sight (and the save point is very close). Can't wait to give it a try!

Danni's picture

Oh yeah, I suppose I might

Oh yeah, I suppose I might as well post my own progress. I'm also at seven screens so far. Here's the first one:

Danni's picture

Hey, so since I'm kinda

Hey, so since I'm kinda going for more of an exploratory vibe, is anyone interested in connecting their levels to mine? I'm going to have a few branching paths I'd like to be able to connect to _something_ and I don't know how I feel about just making them dead-ends.

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Connecting areas would be

Connecting areas would be neat, but I think it'd be problematic for this kind of level, since each area will probably be designed around a different set of abilities, plus they're all already connected in a way (via the gallery hub). Still, maybe this could work as a secret/bonus, so the player can reach an isolated screen/sub-area that's not accessible via normal means in the area where it's located. I have a blocked path in my upcoming area that could be used for this purpose.

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Nice! You made pretty good

Nice! You made pretty good use of those tilesets. I've seen way too many levels where that particular gradient ends up looking bad and/or really out of place, but in your case, it fits the scene perfectly.

Danni's picture

Level is ending up a bit

Level is ending up a bit larger than I had initially planned. Hope to get it done by some point tomorrow.

Up to 45 screens so far.

wibi's picture

How many signups/participants

How many signups/participants do we have so far? So far I can count:
myself
Gibber
Danni
Clyde (perhaps)
Sergio (likely)

Danni's picture

From atuun yesterday on

From atuun yesterday on Discord:

"Due to life being a thing, I'm just getting started on mine now. I have two ideas, so potentially two areas? We'll see!"

everythingstaken and ihavefivehat are a maybe.

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Some people at the Nifflas

Some people at the Nifflas Forums have also expressed interest in this, so maybe there'll be one or two more participants.

Also, I might be able to contribute with an additional area besides the main hub (which is only 16 screens long). I thought of a theme for a new area that I haven't yet tried in any of my previous levels.

SavourySnack's picture

Almost had my section ready...

I'm making something for this as well, though it didn't turn out as I'd hoped, so I'm gonna start again from scratch. I'm sort of going for Lego In Space, using an excellent gradient made very recently by Vegetal Gibber. I should have the new version done within the next 5 days or so (hopefully!!)

AttachmentSize
Lego in Space - Copy.png243.4 KB
Vegetal Gibber's picture

That's a cool concept. Also,

That's a cool concept. Also, seeing my graphics being used is always nice :D

Vegetal Gibber's picture

This may or may not become a

This may or may not become a new area. I'm still experimenting with this new set and gradient.

sergiocornaga's picture

Looking excellent! Just so

Looking excellent! Just so you're aware, it's pretty certain now that this level will be KS+, in case you want to use that for any features or visual embellishments.

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Good to know, I might take

Good to know, I might take advantage of tints and attached overlays then. I love these features.

zilard's picture

Oh crap!

I totally missed the beginning of this. I'll totally be working to get 30+ screens into this project. :D

zilard's picture

Theme

Is there a general difficulty/theme to go for? I want to do an environmental section but I see a lot of challenge levels. Does it matter?

sergiocornaga's picture

If you want to do an

If you want to do an environmental section, you should do an environmental section!

Vegetal Gibber's picture

About powers/abilities...

Are Juni's abilities going to be reset upon completing an area and returning to the hub? I'm assuming that flags/keys or KS+ collectibles will be used to keep track of the player's progress, so each area can be freely designed around any set of abilities without us having to worry about the order they are played.

zilard's picture

Deadline?

So, since Fubaka pushed back the deadline to December, will this level's deadline be changed? Unless this level is pretty independent from the contest, I think entering this level with several months of possible dev-time would be a bit of a waste.

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Personally, I think it'd be

Personally, I think it'd be interesting to try to meet the original deadline anyway just for the heck of it, although I agree that it doesn't make much sense to submit a level in a mad rush anymore. We could try and see how far we can go this week with the individual areas, then use the remaining months to finish whatever's still unfinished, assemble the complete level and polish it before entering it into the competition.

Danni's picture

This is my thinking as well.

This is my thinking as well. I'm challenging myself to get my portion done within the original timeframe. Since we're still not 100% on how we're getting everything integrated, we'll have a good chunk of time to decide on structure, connected areas, powerups, goals, etc. Before the extension, my big concern was doing all of that within the short time period. Now we don't have to worry about that, but of course we still need to make each portion of the level before we can put them together.

Question:

Is there gonna be enough time to complete this level before the deadline? I mean I'd _love_ it if that was the case, but I'm not exactly sure if we've fulfilled the screen count yet. If not, then I'd LOVE to join in the small five-day period before the original deadline.

EDIT: Just read the comments up above mine. I'll try to doodle a level with in the next few days or so. I haven't really finished a level at all, so this should be an interesting venture (if I can finish this one, at least).

everythingstaken's picture

Oh brother!

I didn't realize quite how little time I had for this! I'll just spend this full weekend on this and today. I didn't realize how much of a busy person I have become, but I do want to finish this.

sergiocornaga's picture

If you find you need more

If you find you need more time, the deadline for the competition has been extended to December! We're just trying to see how much we can do by August 27th anyway.

zilard's picture

Progress?

Dunno how to post images in my comment.
https://i.imgur.com/calxyjx.png
I'm adapting the tileset I created for my previous level, DLFoTD, to make a proper environmental level/section. Starts with Run & Double Jump. Working hard to get it ready on the 27th!

Also, quick question for anyone who can answer. How can I make this screen more interesting?
https://i.imgur.com/2s33jYs.png

sergiocornaga's picture

My standard way of making

My standard way of making cave interiors more interesting is glowing crystals. Those stray shadow tiles near the middle of the screen are pretty interesting though, what do they represent?

zilard's picture

The shadows in the middle of

The shadows in the middle of the screen are meant to be ledges- I had knytt standings on them in other screens! I've since removed them but I like both of yours and VG's suggestions so I'll definitely try to add them :) Unfortunately I am only 23/30 screens done... Progress is very fast! Detailing is NOT!

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Looking good! Besides what

Looking good! Besides what Sergio already suggested (Community Tileset #7 has a set of cave crystals, if you're interested), you could try making some holes in the background from where you can see another layer of darker walls or a hollow area. This adds a lot of depth to cave screens in my opinion. Also, I personally like adding small waterfalls coming out of the background walls in these cave areas, especially in screens that have bodies of water.

wibi's picture

Here's a google doc that

Here's a google doc that could potentially help with placing the collectible artifacts
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1P0-7ieBRCvqLzXFGLEqnmMFJr2EI4edjp0bLyNUtPQQ/edit#gid=0
BTW serg, you may want to extend the deadline

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Since everybody seems to be

Since everybody seems to be including at least two artifacts, I decided to go ahead and claim a second one. I'm adding a new secret room containing the 2nd blue artifact to my section. I'll upload the updated version later, hopefully in a few hours.

sergiocornaga's picture

Let's finish this month!

Fubaka has sent out the first round of feedback on this level, which reveals we have until the end of February to make any changes (that will be considered for the competition). Let's use that time to wrap this thing up! In particular, I'd love to get that final area included, along with an ending. Apparently any extra rooms we add will directly increase our score (maxing out at about 90 rooms) though I'm personally not fussed whether we strive towards that or not.

Anyone who's interested in seeing the full feedback/scoring should send me a PM, as Fubaka's asked for scores to not be posted publicly.

Vegetal Gibber's picture

Great! Since I'm almost

Great! Since I'm almost finished with my latest project, I should be able to help again with the last area and/or anything else this month.