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Knytt Stories +
Introduction: The Knytt stories + level editor is a very nice tool to create levels in. You have 255 pages of tile sets to use from although you can only use 2 per screen. Layer 0,1,2 are decoration layers and the third is the collision layer. You then chose from the tile by clicking to get one piece of the tile or dragging the mouse to select several to paint out.
You then have the layer 4-7 which are the technical layers where you choose from the systems "page". That's where you will find enemies, hazards, save points, invisible collision which is needed for certain areas, traps, etc etc. On the left side you can choose which music and ambience should be heard on this particular screen that you are on as well. And you can easily navigate with the map in the bottom left corner.
My level
This level is something I made for our Level design week in school. This was something made in less then 4 days. I wanted to try out a Metroidvania approach but without any combat aspect of it all. Just pure platforming. Since in Knytt you can acquire power ups much like other platformers. You can gain the ability to: Run, Jump higher, Double jump, climb walls,soar through the air with an umbrella pickup, see normally invisible things with an eye pickup. As well as a few more things, but none that are present in my level.
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I wanted to start out in a swamp with a spooky feeling, mostly just because that was the first tile set that really stood out to me and I really like the aesthetic.
Normally people always go to the right when playing these types of platformers but in my level you can start going left if you want to.
When you walk to the left you will spawn spikes behind you that prevents you you from going back. When you take a step further you will spawn a ghost that travels towards you as a bit of a jump scare. Then at the end of the screen there are a shimmering that is the only place you can go to. That is a signify-er that something is there. When you walk under it a portal spawns in the middle taking you back to the previous screen. If you are observant enough you can see that there is a ledge on the far left that you cannot jump up on just yet but you can do so later when you have got a new ability.
I apologize for the gifs. I don't know what happened with the colours /flickering but I cannot seem to fix it.
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When progressing you will see that the left sign lies so if you went to the right in the beginning instead you might have skipped that particular area. The next screen will give you your first piece of platforming by getting the ability to jump. And you get information that you can view the map if you would need that.
Here you get your first save point as well as the ability to run. The running is automatic and you will instead have to press and hold down the A button to walk slowly again.
At the top of the screen is a small title that says "Leap of faith". Since you have nowhere to go but right and you just got the ability to jump it's time to put it to the test. If you are not observant enough you might miss this text and I should probably be more clear with that sign. Here you can see the ghosts again as well. The ghost will spread medusa like tendrils and get glowing eyes as you face towards her.
This next section the aesthetics change a bit. The background changes color and loses it's trees, instead you get one big tree in the middle. This is suppose to be a sign of BRANCHING paths.
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The first obstacle here is to stop in time when you land in on this screen. Since most of the time you want to keep pressing the move button. But you will learn here that that is a bad idea. You jump over to the green upgrade which is a jump height increase if you hold the jump button down. The creature beneath the tree then tells you that the piece of candy aka power up over to the right will give you the ability to climb. So you have to jump and hold the up button.
If you do so you see that your climb works as it was promised by the creature. You can then proceed to the right or jump back. If you jump back you might end up at a place on the wall where there is a tiny entrance. This will let you collect one of the golden animals that are scattered through the entire world at a total of 13 of them. You require 10 of these to unlock an alternative ending to the game. But you won't know this unless you get to the end with 10 of these. So search for them and collect as many as you can find.
To achieve this I just used the same tiles for the ground but on a different layer then the collision layer. To give the illusion of it being solid as the rest
If you proceed to the right either after you've collected the golden animal or straight after you will come to this "challange" part. And don't miss the save on the ground.
The idea is that the crystals are telling you where it's safe to climb. The flat surfaces will spawn spikes when you get close which will kill you if you touch them.
If you walk to the next screen and climb up you will get a prompt that says you see a platform in the FAR DISTANCE. This is only there so that the player can remember the phrase far distance when picking up the umbrella which will help the player get across this gap.
You now have no choice but to go back. But if you noticed the different colored grey cube you can jump and trigger a bridge that spawns. The bridge will collapse after you touch it on the top however.
Now the only place to go is up from the branching path. And for some reason my GIF program is reversing the colours of the clouds and the blue light that the water gives off.
You can see a golden animal to collect as well as another far distanced platform.
The weather is also a lot clearer up here, you can see some wind coming from the right to indicate that something might be over there.
This is what it is supposed to look like.
Once again the only place for you to go at this point is to head up the left wall and see what is up there.
Your left wall has a shimmering effect and you try to climb it you will find out that you cannot. The thought behind that is that you should glide down into the little opening that lets you walk into the wall. I tried to make it clear that the white spot in the wall is the thing that you can walk on as well. Making you think that you can stand on the ones above you as well. But you will need the double jump for that particular thing.
When you see that you cannot get up you will have to jump to the right and make it to the next platform. You will notice the wind coming from the right again. As well as an upstream that leads upwards. But if you walk to the right you will find another save point as well as a bit of platforming.
Jumping and making it to the other side will get you inside a cave.
When inside the cave you'll see a block hanging in the air as well as a large pillar with an umbrella up top. If you went to the challenge area earlier and made it through and found the bridge you might recognise that it's the same type of block. So when you jump on it, it will crumble and fall so you will have to be quick and precise to claim your reward.
I emphasised the word FAR in the item description for players to make the connection in the southeast where you saw a platform in the FAR distance. And since you just broke the block in the middle you used as a platform you will have to use the umbrella immediately to get over the gap and get back. If you are very observant you can see that the wall on the right side does not go all the way up and leaves a small gap where you can jump inside and collect a golden animal and save your game.
When you come out of the cave you need to activate your umbrella at the peak of the jump in order to glide far enough to grab the platform to make your way back to the updraft.
Now that you have the umbrella you can ride this up-draft to get into the new section. But when you get there you will get a prompt that you need a certain item to progress and that is located in the southeast. Which makes sense since that is the place where you needed the umbrella to pass in the first place. I made this level for a school "project" so I couldn't make it too hard because then it would take forever to play through so I do a bit of hand holding with these prompts instead of letter the player figure everything out for themselves.
On your way there or back you might have seen the golden animal trapped and you can kind of figure out how to get there if you somehow ended up inside the wall that leads straight to it. However you will need the double jump first. You might also see that the up-draft goes further up as well. You can go there but it will only lead to a place not relevant for the level. It's a small gap to cross and you will enter a house where I have a person that is our Design teacher, and he says a couple of quotes that he have said during our time here.
When you've made it back to the point where first needed the umbrella you just have to jump off. One thing to take into consideration is that if you jump while having the umbrella unfolded your jump will not go as high or as far so it's much better to use it at the peak of the jump or you will not make it over.
When you have crossed the gap you will see a save spot that you probably want to use. As you go over it you spawn a power up above your head which is the double jump. Which is needed for you to get to the next screen. Here you will get the prompt that shimmering walls are not climbable. So you will need to use your new skill in order to proceed.
Once again you will see a gap. This time you will need both the umbrella and the double jump to cross it. I made it so that you at least know that it is possible to use both of them to cross big gaps which will something that you encounter later on as well. I added some snow falling to give the player a feeling of progression to see that something is changing.
The next screen will show you a little hut/house which you can "walk into". In the game I have to make a trigger which just transports the player in to a selected square on the map grid which I've then decorated as a small house. By blackening most of the screen and make the room off-center, I can give some sort of illusion that you are inside of a house/hut.
While inside the hut you will see another person there to greet you. But you will see pretty quickly that something seems kind of off. When approaching him, more ghosts appear and if you walk closer to the ghost, even more will spawn and flames will spawn in the house. There is a save point in the house as well. And your only way out is through the open door.
The place you have entered or been teleported to is some sort of hell. A trial of everything you have learned so far. And at the end is a reward. As you walk to left the guy in the house is watching you and laughs at you as you run away. If you instead try to get to him by climbing the wall you will instantly die. As you transition to the next screen you have to be careful since you don't have much ground before you. But as you make it over it's very obvious that there is a non collision wall since it has no black outline so that's very free.
Since you only have one way to go you need to make a blind jump here so be sure to use the umbrella so that you slow down the fall speed, giving you more time to react to what is happening. This hell place is more dangerous so beware not to die from spikes.
If you are more careful at this particular place, I've hidden a golden animal that you can collect before you make your way down.
If you dare venture into the dark and risk your life you will see another more easily found golden animal that you can collect. And here I once again make use of the collapsible blocks. But you will need to enter the black space to the very left side in order to land on top of it when you fall down. Otherwise they wont break if you only climb normally on them. So save the right side for climbing out after you've collected it.
The next few screens is just some transition screens with some ominous bloody faces carved into the walls before you come into the hardest section of the hell part and maybe the hardest part of the entire Level.
This is the beginning of some of the harder parts. You have to be precise and make the best of your jump and only use the double jump at the peak of the first jump etc. This is some trial and error to get through this.
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And if you are curious enough I've hidden another golden animal if you climb up the wall instead of trying to pass the first obstacle. You are able to jump through this obstacle with a perfectly timed and executed double jump but if you have played a bit you will notice that you can jump once after you have released from the wall if you are wall climbing which can make things easier. And use the umbrella for speed reduction and manoeuvrability.
And the dude from the house is watching you progress from this point and he will disappear as soon as you get close.
This next room is pretty straight forward. You can see the shimmering walls so you need to account for that you cannot climb on the walls. Use the umbrella to slow fall and make your little jump slower and then get to the finish line. All while the creepy dude is looking at you.
This section you can either use the umbrella at first to make it easier on yourself of just be very precis with your jump. You then need to jump as far as you can and then jump again without going forward to much or otherwise you cannot turn to the edge and climb up. And when you have made it up and found the next screen you need to hurry up and save.
If you don't save in time you will be sniped from fireballs coming at you. I just realised that I made a mistake when I see these shooting fires. I'm using these later as well but I'm using a different sprite for the fires that shoot something which I have not done here. Here you want to make it to the first platform and let the fires shoot at you. Jump over them since they take you location when they fire at you and the projectiles will travel in a straight line so you can easily dodge them. Then make a nice double jump and grab the wall to get up.
Once you are up you need to be careful, you will need to jump to scout the next room but if you are very unlucky or move to much in the air you might die from the spikes. So you will need to make some more precise jumps in order to get up. And hopefully I scared the player with the fireballs that comes flying at you from the left side. Even though they cannot touch you, they make sounds as they go so that might shift your focus for a brief second.
Next room you will need to scout out as well. And then race to the end, kind of. You need to wait out the fireballs as they have lock on you at all times even though you are "hidden". So you need to wait for them to shoot and then get to the next part. I've made safe spaces in this "maze" so you wont have to run at all times but you can take a breather before going again.
When climbing out of this you will find yourself in the very first area you first came into when going out of the house of the weird guy. But there is a trigger that spawns wall that you climb up in to the "heaven" Where you will find your reward for going through this hell. These are the "Eyes of truth" When picking these up you are able to see "ghostly things". There are ghost platforms and enemies and things that are only visible when you have acquired these. If you remembered you were required to obtain something in the southeast to progress when we were up in the skies. This was that particular something.
So for me to pull this off I had to use the same tile as the walking ground on a layer that is not the collision, use a 1-way tile on a technical layer which means that I can walk on it and jump through it as long as I come from underneath it. Inside the walking ground tile I set an invisible trigger that will spawn all the blue blocks. But I made it so the blocks are only visible when I am near them to give it a nice effect.
When entering the portal you will be teleported back to the "main land" and you can go back to the place where you could not previously enter. As you can see there are "ghostly" platforms where there previously were none. You also have the ability to double jump now so you can backtrack and find more secrets and go back to the start if you wish.
If you go back you choose to do 2 different things. Either go back to the start where everything began, since you now can go to the left and continue. Or you can reach a platform and collect more animals above the branching path. And you can enter the wall and double jump to get to the golden animal inside the wall.
If you jump to the right here you can collect 2 golden animals if you look hard enough and dare to explore a bit.
If you run all the way back to the start you will come across one more golden animal and find an alternative way.
Here you will find the golden animal, and by using the same strategy as many others you probably know by now how to get it. And if you continue on to the left you come to "?????" A ghostly place where the tone completely changes. You see the a full moon and some silhouettes of something that looks at you.
If you make a perfect double jump in conjunction with the umbrella you can reach the platform that is at the end of the screen and progress. As you run along you will see the silhouettes disappear one by one for each screen and more ghosts will appear, the moon will also change as you run along. And at the end of the run you will reach "The crypt"
The crypt is one of the endings of the game and if you enter the light and join the ghost the game ends. You are not able to alter the ending screen as much as you would want to so the ending just says "You Win" and some nice music plays. But I can see now that the GIF just shows a black screen instead of a white screen with a text on it..
But if you just forgot about those places or at least the ghost place you are fine if you continue on. When you do you will come to a soaring castle. I've hidden a golden animal on top of the entrance for those who like to explore each screen.
When entering the castle there is a save point right at the start so you don't have to go through all the jumps again. We then see a statue and some runes on the wall. The statue holds her hands in front of her but is not holding anything. You can also see a wall that is shimmering and with a red keyhole sprite, indicating that you need a key. Which fortunately is right in front of you. There are also some fires along the walls which will not harm you.
The first room is very straight forward, get the key and umbrella jump and float down the unclimbable wall as you press left. This will put you inside the wall when the key unlocks the locked part. In the GIF I try to jump on the runes which is not possible.
When entering the next room you are standing in the wall so once again don't rush out the first thing you do. This room also has a statue but she is holding an orb that is lit in the same color as the runes. And these runes are filled and they now have collision. I made it so that when the runes are filled they have collision. And the statues will also pair up with them by holding the orb.
Before you entered this next room you saw a blue keyhole which you did not have the key for. But now you see that key so you can do a semi-hard jump in order to get the key. You will also see where the blue key leads and that is to another golden animal. When you have collected the animal you can proceed to the blue door to the left. IF you want to collect it that is, and if you do it is wise to save in the previous room after you have. Otherwise you can just jump over to the blue door immediately.
The next room is very straight forward. You collect the next key and choose one of the doors to enter. Which door you choose does not really matter since they both lead to the same room but at different spots.
But in the previous room you had a yellow key that you could enter as well that you see leads upwards to something else. The room you'll get to is a trick room which will try to kill you. And here I use the sprite I talked about earlier. The torches or fires that shoots have a small fire dot beneath it.
So when we continue on there is another room with runes without collision, a save point and 2 "doors" to choose from.
But if you chose the red door you will be targeted by more shooting flames. So you will need to unlock the red door and then jump from the opening in the door to the blue one in order to progress
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This room is an empty room which leads upwards if you want to or progress to the left. If you walk to the left there is a challenge room which rewards you with a golden animal if you survive, as well as a save point. If you skip this and jump up straight away however you just progress further into the end part.
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The challenge is a lot of torches that you will have to dodge to then enter a small hole in the wall where the reward is. As you collect the golden animal you'll get a peek of the outside. The moon is not full and the stars are twinkling. But know you have to make it back through all the torches again. You can either escape from the top if you collected the key, or through the door from where you came.
Everything has led up to this moment. The door with the golden X symbolise that you should have collected 10 golden animals to enter the door. If you have not you can go through the purple key door. If you go into the golden door you will get access to the door with mystical swirls around it. It will then teleport you to a chamber with stars and water running down the sides with a open door that will take you to the you win screen. It hopefully will give the player a feeling of wonder or something special and unknown as they enter the door that there might be a second game coming or something.
If you have not collected enough golden animals and have to go through the purple door. You will continue on and drop from the castle and end up in the ghost place and have to end the game in the crypt.
This was a level that I created in 4 days with kind of a steep learning curve to the editor. If I could change one thing I would want it so that if you drop from the castle in the end you would still end up at the crypt. But an exact copy of it. So you are not able to to walk back to the start of the game. Since it can be confusing when you drop down and you might think you should go right instead if you have not previously visited the crypt area.
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Overall I'm very happy with this level and it was really fun to make it.