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Level Design
As a part of my education, we were to make a level for the game;
Knytt Stories + by Nicklas Nygren, a 2D platformer which you can download Here.
Below I'll detail my design process in the making of my level for this assignment. If you wish to play it first, you can download it Here.
To play the level, Unzip the file & drop the folder in the game's "Worlds" folder, then launch the game & it should be visible in the game's level's menu!
Foreword
Before making the level, I first decided to learn the game & the level creator through playing with it. After having done so & getting comfortable with it, I felt that the most enjoyable part of the game for me was the platforming, which I decided to focus on with my level, which features no enemies.
I also felt that none of the provided sprite sheets were something I wished to use, so I created my own sprite sheet for the level, with every asset aside from the player being drawn by myself (Making use of Aseprite).
The entire level & all assets for it were made during a time period of one week.
Beginning section
The beginning section of my level was made with it in mind as being one of the first levels the player would've ever played in Knytt Stories +, so it serves to introduce a lot of the concepts like how the player can interact with the world.
The very first screen the player will see is a simple flat area, walled off to the left & with a slight increase in verticality to the right. This serves as a safe & simple area to learn the most basic way of interaction, movement. Which is done through the directional keys.
As the leftmost section of the screen is walled off & thus impassible, the player will move to the right until they reach the edge of the screen, transitioning them to the next.
Here, the player will fall into a slight dent in the ground. This dent is impossible to get out of without jumping, thus serving as the player's moment to learn how to jump if that wasn't achieved on the previous screen.
To help the player with what key to press to jump, I added the section seen to the right, which has a cutout in the background shaped like an "S" (The key you need to press to jump). This area also has some effects like sparkles on it & a powerup near the top of the "S" shape, thus helping call attention to it. This is done both as a means of helping to make it more apparent what needs to be done in the moment without being intrusive, but also as a means to indicate that the player will want to return here later to gain said powerup.
With no other means of further traversal, the player will move on to the next screen. Here, they'll encounter the first split in their path. However, they're as of currently unable to jump up to the platform seen to the left, so they'll instead traverse to the right, where they'll also see the first sign of danger in the level. Namely this black liquid. Touching this liquid will kill the player, respawning them at the latest checkpoint they touched.
These checkpoints (seen here from the level editor, labeled "SHIFT A") are something that I made invisible to the player as I wished to make liberal use of them (Such that the player's progress wouldn't be shot back too far due to mistakes), if they had some visual cue, I thought they'd be too intrusive on the gameplay, as a single screen could feature up to three checkpoints.
On the next screen, they'll be met with this sight. A jump too long to get over, forcing them to make a jump of faith to progress.
Middle section
Upon falling down, they'll be met with this screen, featuring a wall that is too high to jump over, with a larger pool of the liquid, signifying danger & increased challenge. With no means of making it over the wall, the player will go left.
Doing so will have them back at the second screen they saw, where they'll now do some quick & safe precision platforming to get to the powerup. This powerup lets the player climb walls, which will be apparent to the player as the only ways they can go would have them met with a wall that they'd sooner or later try to go against.
With their new ability, they'll easily scale the previously impassible wall, then having some more simple platforming using their new ability before moving on to the next screen to the right.
There, they'll be met with a platforming gauntlet .
Here's another example of an in-editor view of the level, showing my placement of checkpoints.
After clearing the gauntlet, they'll be met with a smaller gauntlet before reaching a small platform rising out of the sea of liquid, on top of which is another powerup. The player can ignore it & instead move upwards onto the next screen, but doing so will lead to a dead end as they can't progress there.
Jumping down to the platform, they won't be able to get back without it, as the jump back is too high, and there's an overhang which can't be climbed over.
The powerup is a double-jump, allowing the player some extra height to help clear tall walls & jumps.
Going up from there, the player will meet a split in the road. Going left takes them to an area with a jump that is too long to clear, even with their newly received double-jump, thus, the only path forward is to go up again.
Going up, there's another section of precision platforming ending with the player getting another powerup, the umbrella. The umbrella lets the player fall slower through the air, giving the ability to clear larger distances with jumps. The umbrella is a togglable item, which isn't automatically used upon being given to the player. To toggle it, the player needs to hit the "D" key, something I've again tried to convey through the background of the screen, namely near the top-right.
If the player tries to jump to the right to bypass parts of the stage by gliding over them, they'll be met with this wall preventing them from doing so & showing the path to take through the use of a sign.
Going where they should, they'll be met with this previously mentioned jump that's too long to clear with only their double-jump. With the umbrella though, it's a breeze.
Moving further to the left brings them back to this screen, which the player will hopefully recognize as where they previously took a jump of faith. If the player jumps down, they can make use of their new abilities to get back up again with relative ease. Though the intended path is to move on to the left, as indicated by the sign above the pool of liquid.
Doing so returns them to this screen, with the wall they previously couldn't reach or climb up.
Last section
Climbing up it, they'll be met with another section that they can clear making use of their umbrella.
Past that is another section of platforming to test the player's skills with the umbrella.
Moving on to the next screen reveals this platform looking over the sea of liquid. An arrow on the cliffside shows the player where to go next, and the umbrellas seen discarded in the sea below indicate to the player that they should make use of their own umbrella for the coming screen.
Gliding into the next screen reveals that the liquid sea stretches forward as long as can be seen, but the player will get caught in an updraft of air, shooting them upwards if equipped with their umbrella.
That draft brings them up to this screen, brining with it a tonal shift with new art assets & ambiance.
This section of the level is something I added as a last minute change, mainly because I wanted to play around with the mechanics of these drafts. Thus, this section lacks polish, and is something I'd want more time with or would have cut were this not for a school assignment.
I mainly played around with the idea of having the player save their double-jump until necessary, as seem in the above screen where they'll need to jump into the first draft, then glide out of it & use their double-jump to reach the next draft & platform.
The following screen is similar in that it makes the player have to use these drafts & get comfy with how they work, here in a more complicated manner than the previous screen. This screen, whilst not requiring it, makes it easier for the player to move on if they learn that the drafts push them higher & faster the longer they stay in them. Thus it's good to toggle off the player's umbrella to make the, fall until they're near the bottom of the draft, causing them to rise higher.
I want to note that stuff like the structures that make up these towers are made especially such that the player can't simply climb on top of it. I also have the "floor" of the screen covered such that the player will die upon touching it, instead of needing to fall until they hit the sea of liquid below.
Lastly, I have this screen, where the player does some more similar platforming using the drafts, before reaching this white sphere, acting as the end of the level upon being touched.
Finally, I'd like to show this full view of the level, a bit difficult to see due to the dimensions of it, but I think it does a good job at showing how it's all connected.
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