egomassive

Shipwrecked is a Knytt Stories level I made for a competition on the Nifflas Support Forum. The rules were simply that a certain tileset, A Beach and a Cave by Paul “Ripen” Noumowics, had to be used on every screen of the game. With 10 days left in the competition decided to take on the challenge and win it.

Shipwrecked is your basic survival-on-a-deserted-island story. Your focus is on the necessities of life and rescue. As the game progresses though, some mysteries start to develop. The island has a complex and dark history which is far more dangerous to our shipwrecked interloper than the initial struggle. In the end you’ll pit yourself against the evil that lurks on the island in an attempt to put things right.

The gameplay is in chapters which isn’t too common among Knytt Stories levels. Even less common, every cutscene happens in-game including full screen images with animation. In addition to this the game is filled with custom animations and graphics inspired by the A Beach and a Cave tileset. The ambiance is almost entirely original and really sets the level apart. Most of the game doesn’t have music because the ambiance fills the sound-scape so well. As music goes there is a memorable classical guitar track and an original tribal drum track. The simplicity of the instrumentation matches the simplicity of the environs and remoteness of our lonely survivor.

The level was originally released in May of 2010 as a beta. It won the competition it was made for, and has been hailed as one of the top Knytt Stories levels. Knytt Stories and the levels made for it are always free, so download and enjoy. If you like this level look for Harvest by Farik. It was a major inspiration for Shipwrecked. Finally, if you like the classical guitar track as much as I do, you can get a free high quality version at musopen.org.

Download Shipwrecked 8.6MB

This is a level I made for a competition at the Knytt Stories forums. The rules were quite extensive, but the jist of them was to create a level about the keys. There are 4 keys in Knytt Stories in 4 colors; yellow, blue, red, and purple. Each key was to have it’s own area based on it’s color. The areas were to be found in sequence, one area unlocking the next.

My level revolves around a new character, June. She awakes from a stasis chamber and is immediately summoned by a large machine which is losing power. It instructs June to find 4 other machines and turn them on, there by becoming a hero. That’s all there is to it. The main machine provides June a key to start with, and an additional key for each sub-machine she successfully activates.

The level is not finished yet. The due date for the competition arrived so I submitted it as a demo. You can find a link to the demo below, but I recommend waiting for the finished product. I have no estimate at this time of when the level will be completed. The graphics are originals by me, Tim McDowell. The graphics are an expansion of a collection I made for a request. They are very much a derivative work based on graphics by Nifflas, the creator of Knytt Stories. The finished level is planned to have an intro scene much like the one in my first level, A Knytt in Time. There will also be 2 endings. I also plan to use atmospheric 8-bit track for the music selections. These have been difficult to find.

Download The Dying Core (demo)