Knytt Stories Level Editor
Nifflas is a brilliant level designer. While others have noted the influence he’s drawn from Metroid, the experience for me is far more reminiscent of Riven: the Sequel to Myst. While Within a Deep Forest depended more heavily on skill than anything in the Knytt collection, both offer intricate worlds to explore and learn, which start off unknowably vast and actually seem to shrink as new areas open up. The confusing collections of boundaries and obstacles steadily transform from distractions into landmarks as the player expands the arsenal of abilities and brings each image into perspective.
It’s because of this brilliance that I’m confused about the inclusion of a level editor in the release. The effort is, of course, appreciated, but I’m quite apprehensive. With no abilities available in the editor that do not already appear in the pack-in adventure, The Machine, there is little to do besides alter the audio-visual style and craft a new Knytt world; however, the custom worlds (even the official ones) come across as remixes of the original adventure more than anything else.
My concern, I feel, was justified when I began a search for community made levels. I found a few that had gone quite far in altering the style to decent effect, but even those were simply too close in gameplay to enjoy as a new experience.
Unfortunately, I can’t say I recommend utilizing this tool for anything other than passing time as the results probably won’t be that fantastic. Even the official expansions, a few collections of adventures created by those closest to the original game, demonstrate the limits of the editor. The only aspects of the game that can be altered, the audio-visual style and the world geometry, are the aspects of game design that Nifflas himself is best at creating. If, for example, some sort of generator were available for new abilities, clever and novel things could be done with the somewhat generic gameplay, but instead we are left with something that only allows us to re-ice an already beautiful cake.
I completely agree. When I opened up the editor, I thought there’d be a bit more to it, because you don’t really need an editor if all you can do is make the scenery different. I wish the editor was more in depth. If a simple ability modifier was included, it would be infinitely more useful.
jockmo42
March 26, 2008 at 5:55 am