[Felix]

dess-

wonderful as always, though it took me about that long to remember (why) i don't like prince of persia.

i've played all of yours, plus all of nifflas' (except an underwater adventure, which i can't really make any headway in past the raising water levels), and the two others you recommended. can't get enough.

[dessgeega]

oh and hey someone told me that level has a pretty neat secret room
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[chevluh]

I was quite impressed with the walk at night, especially the fact that while I found an amusing secret area on the first play there's a second one I only stumbled upon on a subsequent playthrough and it was the best feeling ever.

[Max Cola]

dess: that was a tricky one! Not sure how I liked it. There was one bit - where you have to hop a set of spikes while not hitting spikes on the ceiling, and then fall down a shaft lined with spikes. I think you should've stuck a save point after that, it was annoying the first time and worse the thirtieth. But maybe that's the point and I'm missing it!

I really loved "Torchlight", very clever. The bit near the end where you seem trapped is fantastic.

Everyone needs to try "It Waits", if they haven't already. Creepy!
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Everybody hurts sometimes

[Dracko]

Torchlight, more like Zork.
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[Wall of Beef]

Dess, both of those are great. Really loved Under The Crack, really nice setting. I wish Nifflas would retrain his use of so many environments like you did.
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Tumblr

[psiga]

[wpham]

Dess, I love how Oubliette introduces and then builds upon themes. The sequence just after getting the hologram was especially well-paced.
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last.fm

[dessgeega]

don't eat the mushroom.
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[Brooks]

[Intentionally Wrong]

That's great.
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[Lick Meth]

Anyone using this gizmo? A quick flick around with it sees it as awfully useful for me.

[wpham]

[Menander]

[wpham]

[L]

Say, could anyone with an adequate familiarity with German provide a rough translation of "Die Flügenictidentifierbartobjektiert"?

(It's the name of the Secret Ending tune from the Nifflas stories.)

[Gin]

God dangit.

Guys where are the red and yellow keys in The Machine. (I found the other two really easily but these ones have eluded me)

Also the purple key in A Strange Dream.

Edit: found that red key.

Edit2: found the yellow!

Edit3: That was almost a let down.

[internisus]

A bump of encouragement to those who have works in progress -- don't forget to finish them!

[internisus]

[internisus]

I made Under the Crack my first level! (Yes, I only just now got around to Knytt Stories)

It was lovely! I loved the symmetry of your route and the simple two-color design of the landscape (sand and dark underground with black water). I'm quite pleased!

[wpham]

The old link's broken now, the level should be downloadable from here if you're still interested. I've started work on another level, but with the school year started, I have no idea if/when I'll ever finish it.
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last.fm

[professor_scissors]

[dessgeega]

you only now got around to playing knytt stories, internal section? when you posted your "doubled levels" thread this is the first thing i thought of.

(hint: play the machine.)
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[L]

[chevluh]

[Koji]

Maybe that's the whole point of the title, given the song that it's for.

[internisus]

They've started nominating levels for the next official expansion pack.

[Dracko]

Latest version is out.
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[wpham]

vision, if that's where your inspiration is coming from, I can't wait to play the results.
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last.fm

[internisus]

[Intentionally Wrong]

[dessgeega]

it's really just that i can't bring myself to classify my levels in terms of difficulty or category.
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[internisus]

Dess, I swear to god, if you don't wo-man the fuck up and do it, I'll categorize and post your levels for you. They're better than most of what's out there easily, as others have already said, and I want to see all of the people on Nifflas's forums say as much. They stand a damn good chance of being released in official third-party expansion packs, and that kind of recognition can only be good for you. I'm giving you a week to fix this.

Now, then.

I have played The Machine.

First, some thoughts about the Metroid approach to level design. I believe that the reason for its success is that it carefully controls the player's progress without damaging the impression of a world that simply exists on its own -- as opposed to having been created solely for the player to move through. I still think that this, in a game where the player gains new abilities, this is one of (if not the) best approaches to design and holds a great deal of untapped potential for games outside the 2D action/puzzle platforming genre. And even within that genre, I think it can still be pushed further with the aim of creating more organic-seeming worlds, as hinted at by the kind of visual language seen in Metroid games where doors are destroyed and larvae block passages only to shed their skins, move into small caverns, and evolve into bosses.

Now, The Machine is quite the excellent little nugget of Metroid level design. I played it on normal difficulty and found that to be just perfect for me. The distribution of power-ups and challenges was delightfully even yet felt transparent.

Knytt Stories's gameplay is a perfect marriage of Within a Deep Forest and Knytt. I've always preferred WaDF to Knytt. Knytt was broken in the same was that Shadow of the Colossus was. Both games are to some degree about aimless exploration, but they ask the player to seek particular locations and collect/fight goals. That's a little contrary, but I would probably be okay with it if not for the guiding light thing. That ability emphasizes the goal side of the game too much and undermines the open, non-linear environmental exploration.

So Knytt Stories returns to the Metroid design of WaDF but makes it less based upon physics (which many players found frustrating, though I liked it just fine) while retaining good old-fashioned abilities and challenges and action-puzzles.

It's a fine engine. The sense of speed when running and leaping about is just shy of breakneck, and little details like the sense of wind resistance while holding the umbrella make it even more solid, especially when coupled with the loud and well-timed sounds of Juni's foot-steps and scampering when she climbs walls. Strange, though, that these sounds do not move across the stereo field as they did in Knytt. But the ways in which The Machine challenges the player using what seems like a basic ability set are often surprisingly clever, although it never feels so much like a game as to undermine the beauty of its environment and music. It's Nifflas's most balanced game to date.

I am surprised that no one has yet pointed out that The Machine's ending offers a joyous comparison to Earthbound's. Edit: Wait, no, hyouko mentioned something about this. But not enough! I mean, this is basically the only game other than Earthbound that has you safely explore all of the now-friendly environments of the game after the final challenge as you travel back home, and with these visuals and music it's just....

If I were rich and had a big house and lots of money to spend decorating it, I would not purchase paintings to line my walls. Instead, I would embed framed monitors in my walls, each with an animated scene from from this game. I'm completely serious. I would do that.

You know, I somehow didn't realize what an appropriate leap it was when Nifflas moved to a widescreen aspect ratio in Knytt after the more square scenes of WaDF. I basically didn't notice, somehow. It's very, very clear to me here in Knytt Stories, however, that this was an important move. And his use of music has become increasingly diverse and lush, as well. Every game Nifflas has done has been a noticeable improvement in visual and sound design such that I have the same brand of pride at having watched him develop his talents as I get from listening to many albums by a much-changed band such as the Beatles or Radiohead in a single day, really seeing their growth. If you ask me, Nifflas is far more representative of an auteur view of videogames than someone like Kojima.

The Machine would be enough on its own. It is easily comparable in length and quality to Nifflas's past major releases, between which there have usually been 8 months or more. But for this to be a modular engine fitted with a level editor... I've already accumulated 21 pages of stories from browsing the forums. This includes some beta projects, but most are complete stories. And this is only a few months after Knytt Stories's initial release. For Nifflas to present an engine and editor freely to everyone in this manner -- an engine representative of his refined and distinctive visual and sound design -- is an act of unprecedented generosity. I think this may be one of the greatest things to happen for videogames in this entire decade.

And the new version released a few days ago is accompanied by a demo of sorts exhibiting its new features, which are strange and useful. So this wonderful gift just gets better and better. It's overwhelming.




oh i wanted to say how great it is to have that cyan glow near secret areas so i don't have to check every wall to see if it's false

but i didn't find the purple key goddamnit where is it

[internisus]

"You leave your shadow in your place and slip away."

Nice! Lovely line too. And the use of Toups piano bit, which fit nicely somehow, both at the beginning and when you escape was a good idea.

Not really my kind of thing overall, however. But I enjoyed it for what it is.

Torchlight is also good. I especially enjoyed the first appearance of a huge throng of red-eyes. That got a little gasp out of me. I experienced a little floor-swimming immediately after reaching the torch that turns light on after that stretch.

[dessgeega]

i'm a little disappointed that noone seems to have found the secret room in the oubliette yet.
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[internisus]

I didn't think there would be any. I poked around at first, but gave it up when I had to focus on the challenges.

wpham, just got done with yours. I only died twice or so outside of the one jump where you have to drop from the left side of a block over water and double-jump to the right underneath the two moving spike rectangles. That one took a few tries. Some of the jumps impressed me because they didn't look possible at a glance, and the long sequence of invisible blocks was well-placed. That section was perfectly intuitive to me; I don't know if every player instinctively jumps to the right as far as possible when there are no other options, but that's what I did.

If you're working on a new level that's less of a test for you with the editor, I hope you find time to keep going at it.

I also played It Waits, which was pretty awesome. It kind of glitched at the part where you fall down and the light moves with you... it pauses everytime the light shifts. Otherwise, yeah, great Lovecraftian material. I always like the way black/white environments look in Nifflas's games, and the shapes and silhouettes in this game make really good use of that. Good showcase of a different type of ambient noise, too, though it could have been subtler.

[L]

[Intentionally Wrong]

[L]

[Intentionally Wrong]

Well, um, yes. I wasn't really thinking about secret rooms, so. I'll edit the post.
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[internisus]

Jason, the thing is, you're absolutely right. As I mentioned, I really like metrovania design in principle because, ideally, obstructions to the player seem like natural growths within an organic world. However, it's true that the restrictive methods of a metrovania are cheap. A player who has been around the block a few times will immediately register what's going on and see the constructions of the designer.

This makes me sad, and I wonder if you would say that it's true for all metrovanias -- that their methods for immediate obstruction-until-you've-got-this-thing are cheap and that a really transparently-designed, organic world is not possible with this approach.

In any case. I felt that The Machine was of just the right size and that the distance between power-ups and obstacles -- as well as differently aestheticized areas -- was pretty much perfect.

I haven't played A Strange Dream yet, so I can't comment on the problems involving level size and having no map. If backtracking is involved -- I mean, if A Strange Dream is basically a metrovania -- then I imagine you're quite right.

About Knytt, once again, I agree with you in idea but not in reality. The thing is, I can't ignore the fact that there are goal-items to collect and a beam of guiding light to lead me to them. I just can't forget that it's in there. If someone were to hack Knytt to remove the items and the light ability, then I would absolutely fucking love it. Really. I badly want someone to do that. Hack Knytt, take out the items you can gather, take off the little mini-window that you can bring up to show what you've found so far, remove the light beam ability... take off the enemy-detecting red glow while you're at it. Now Knytt is perfect. Now it is a fantastic, unique, original delight and I love it.

But no one has done that for me yet.

Some of the points you made about Knytt hold over for Knytt Stories, though. Especially the transitions between environments. And, even if they didn't, they would in potential.

I've still played fairly few stories. Is it your suggestion that Knytt Stories, with its powerups, is necessarily an engine for metrovania-style design? Because if all stories were going to play like The Machine I would have a problem, certainly. But it seems clear to me that many things are possible here. There's no reason why Knytt itself couldn't be ported in.