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clyde

Knytt Stories (level editor)

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I'm having a surprisingly good time working on Knytt Story levels and I wanted to share my progress. I've used tile-sets a little bit while playing around with Construct 2 and RPG Maker 2003, but Knytt Stories is the first time I've spent enough time with one to finish anything small. Here's my first Knytt level for posterity.

 

Now I'm working on this one.

What I like about this level-editor is that I can sit down and make a screen in the time it would take me to do a Spelunky run. Each screen can then be copied and pasted next to any other to make a continuous grid of these screens for exploration.The potential for a low-commitment, patch-work type of work-flow  fits into my life really well. I think I'll make a video demonstrating the level-editor later, but the basic idea is that you choose two pre-made tilesets and start decorating the screen. The tiles can be layered and much of my enjoyment is just testing various tiles on top of others. I don't often think of the visual aesthetics of my games and I feel that making these levels is helping me form a sensibility for it. Here's the one I'm most proud of at the moment

fMZ84pW.gif

 

Typically, I don't really enjoy doing art for games as much as I enjoy tuning random numbers and implementing simple systems. But putting these tiles down is halfway between doing a jigsaw-puzzle and collaging and I just kinda zone out while I half-way watch the movie that my wife is watching in the same room. Then I end up with this quilt of beautiful (or at least visually interesting) platforming levels that my little pixel person can jump around in. Simple pleasures ya know?

 

If anyone else starts playing around with this level-editor, share them in this thread.

 

I already posted a bit about Knytt Stories in another thread, and for simplicity I want to paste the instructions for how to install custom levels in this thread too.

 

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I've attached a gif to show y'all how to install custom levels.

-Basically you want to download Knytt Stories from here.

-Then download a level.

-Then do this:

 

hKl5Rer.gif

 

 

If you end up wanting to try your own hand at making a level here is a good guide that can get you started. Make sure you tell me if you make one!

The thing I like about making Knytt games is that most of my time is spent just flipping through beautiful tile-sheets and trying out combinations of them. It's like trying to match wall-paper and curtains.

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I've been just doodling with screens and now adding a bit of audio and text just to test it.
I also decided to make a barrier screen that I could copy and paste around the borders of the game as it is. I decided that it would be more interesting than just falling through purple screens. It's not elegant.

 

I really like the idea of just tiling screens when I want to do something simple, adding text when I have a mood I want to voice, and adding musical motifs or something while I'm experimenting in music making. I'm tempted to start a new Knytt level, but there would be no reason too; I'm still very much just getting used to the tools, testing things out, and trying to come up with routine solutions (for when I'm too lazy to come up with elegant solutions.

It's whatever. I still feel that this is a good way for me to play with and develop a sensibility for level-design (in contrast to tuning random generation).

 

New build.

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