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| Creating Lifelike Environments in Knytt Stories. Wednesday, July 21, 2010 2:14 am — Guide posted by Harumbai |
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Knytt Stories is a game with huge potential to create Puzzle levels, Story based levels, Exploration levels and Challenge levels. Even purely Atmospheric and Environmental levels. The base of all of these requires skilled use of the level editor and patience to end up with an effective final level. A Knytt Stories level is not to be made lightly as a rushed one will look and feel rushed. I can't tell you strongly enough how much better your level will look for the extra effort.
Quick Start;
-(On the right)
- Give your level a title/working title.
- Put your name/forum name in the corresponding box.
- Click "New Level"
The first step for a level ranges from creating a storyline to building some screens. As a storyline is pretty much entirely up to you I won't talk about that here.
No.1) Choose/make a tileset/s that you like to create your screens. Think about the water that you want with the tileset. Will it be hilly or basically flat landscape. If it is mechanical or in a cave; will there be open spaces or tight tunnels? Think about things from the decoration bank to use.
No.2) Choose/make a gradient/background that goes well with your tileset.
No.3) Create the land mass out of ground tiles. Try and make sure the steepness suits the level. A beach might be gradually inclined, a rocky land could be sharp and jagged. Peaceful levels should have some continuity in land. Remember to use the tiles on layer 3 to make them solid and if you want to have several different layers of ground that overlap as you walk on them, or to make cracked ground smooth for Juni to walk on, you may want to use invisible tiles (bank 16, object 14).
Here is an example from my level in the making;
No.4) Put in some background scenery. This can be hills, clouds or other faint objects. In my example I have used fog from the secondary tileset. As this is the farthest back you should put it on layer 0.
No.5) More Scenery: More hills, tall grass, houses, trees. In my case I have put a moon and some hills on top of the fog; this is layer 1. I also decorated the hills on this layer.
No.6) Close up scenery; grass, huts, rocks, moss, shrubs, vines, farming equipment... Layer 2.
Note: This is also a good time to touch up layer errors for example I added some grass underneath the moon on this layer so it is in front and we can have both.
No.7) Water and life. It is usually important to have some life in your levels to add interest to your screens. Put a few flies on and a lizard or a bird somewhere. Don't over do it though. A few dust motes can work well too. For water choose something that suits the level and consider a waterfall. We will put the water over the waterfall tiles on a higher level. At this point we can also add a weather effect such as rain or wind and put some falling leaves on the trees.
Note: more interesting waterfall colours can be made by putting two different colours together on separate layers. If you use the same colour twice it will be darker. Water can also be layered.
Warning: If you use a waterfall on layer 4 or 5 then Juni will be in front of it. If you then make it fall past the land then what is Juni standing on? Some pedants say this ruins realism.
No.8) Finishing touches. Extra water and waterfall layers; Wind, Rain and Leaves to start on screen. If you have wind and/waterfalls remember to add rushing sounds for ambience.
You have now created your environment. I hope you are inspired to use this game to its full potential and take time to create well made levels.
User Comments (3)
| FlashMarsh | ||
Age: 25 Karma: 99 Posts: 2727 Gender: Male Location: UK pm | email |
This is the best thing since sliced bread. | |
| Silver | ||
Karma: 121 Posts: 3581 Gender: Female pm | email |
This is the best thing since actual bread, I tell ya! I worship your Knytt Story skills, Harumbai. | |
| shos | ||
| ~Jack of all trades~ Age: 31 Karma: 389 Posts: 8273 Gender: Male Location: Israel pm | email |
This is pretty amazing, I have to admit that while trying to figure out the editor it seems like an extremely elaborate and complex work. However, this gave me motivation. On thursday I will make a level for the comp, even if it's the last thing I ever do! EVAR!! This game should be worshipped. I remember harumbai's levels; if I could, I'd give you an award for them myself. How comes it didn't win the olympics?  | |
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