Zerker on 28/8/2011 at 12:17
So I just finished Night Sky, and before that Saira. I remember a fair bit of love for Nifflas's earlier games (Knytt & Knytt stories), but not a whole lot on the latest few. So I decided to start a thread.
As I posted in the monster thread, I loved Saira quite a bit. It just scratched the exploratory platformer itch, even though it is a bit more bite-sized and puzzle oriented. Many of the areas have display terminals which often contain stand alone puzzles, which I found a nice change of pace, but others might not. The platforming itself is top notch too.
Nightsky is quite a bit more straightforward than Saira, but I found it equally enjoyable. The game is broken up into puzzles of about three screens each, where you need to manoeuvre a ball past the obstacles either directly (with some combination of speed, slow and anti-gravity abilities), inside some sort of crazy vehicular contraption, or completely indirectly by controlling the environment (usually pinball, but not always).
Both these games, and Nifflas's earlier games, have a wonderful sense of atmosphere, with appropriate ambient sound effects and music. They always seem to have a bit of a calming effect on me when I play them.
All games (either complete or demos) can be downloaded from (
http://nifflas.ni2.se/) Nifflas's website.
I also need to go back and play more "Within a Deep Forest"; for some reason I stopped playing that.
demagogue on 28/8/2011 at 12:29
Within a Deep Forest was my first favorite; so much character.
You really ought to play the major fan maps for Knytt Stories as well. That bumps it up a few notches in rating just because 100s (1000s?) have been made, and they're consistently good (and it's easy to make your own).
Edit: Re: the calming effect, Nifflas games more than any demonstrate to me there's a whole category of what you might call zen or ritual gaming, where it's not so much about winning, but just getting into the game and playing through it for its own sake, and he's a master at making games good for that.
Pemptus on 28/8/2011 at 12:59
Knytt Stories is wonderful. As mentioned, downloading the major user maps (and playing the included ones as well, of course) is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a good atmosphere and is fairly dexterous. It's certainly not Super Meat Boy, but it requires some precision and patience.
Zerker on 28/8/2011 at 14:25
I tried a couple, but the ones I picked weren't very special. Any specific recommendations?
Al_B on 28/8/2011 at 14:39
Quote Posted by Zerker
I also need to go back and play more "Within a Deep Forest"; for some reason I stopped playing that.
As demagogue says, it's a game with a lot of character - and also a fair amount of variety in its environments. Well worth playing through to the end if you're even remotely interested in that type of game.
demagogue on 28/8/2011 at 20:22
Quote Posted by Zerker
I tried a couple, but the ones I picked weren't very special. Any specific recommendations?
It's been so long I hardly remember any names, though I remember specific ones I liked but not the names. Autumn to Summer sticks in my mind the best because I loved the soundtrack.
You'll have better luck asking on Niffla's KS forum. I do remember they have a ranking system somewhere, and lots of "best of..." threads, so take their advice or pick the highest ranked ones, then they're divided by category -- platformer, puzzle, environmental. I honestly tended to like the "environmental" ones -- the lighthouse, rainy night(?) -- and the gamey or "gimmick" ones the least (Don't eat the mushroom-like), for the same reason I mentioned above, I like the zen part of being in a cool world with great atmosphere.
