The return of King's Story

Yes, that's right. I'm bringing it back.

It's been a long time since I worked on King's Story, so long that the original ideas of KSS are mere silhouettes in the back of my mind. I played Rave Story a few weeks ago, and I wasn't just impressed with how well it was made - I was embarrassed. Here I am, sitting in my iron throne looking on a kingdom I had thought to be dead and gone, when this young upstart rises from the muck to drop a mod that manages to be both fun and creative.

I started modding to prove to myself what I could do, and to learn things I'd never imagined I could do. Well, I've honed my skills and built up my tools to the point where the only thing getting in the way is my own attitude. No negativity, no self-depreciation, this is my tribute to Cave Story and the forums that have brought me where I am today.

King's Story will still use the mostly-formed CSEngine, and I'll still be using Booster's Lab for editing. It will still be months of work, but progress will be made.

As far as the content of the mod, I plan to largely gut it from the ground up. I don't want to be held back by the limitations or mistakes of what I started out with all those years ago. What I'd like to hear from you now is, what are your thoughts on KSS? If you haven't played it, I think the most recent download is still working at http://www.cavestory.org/forums/threads/1872/

I will still maintain the final say of what will happen in the mod/fangame, but are there any things about the old one that you think should carry over? Any things you think should absolutely be scrapped? Should there be ALOT LESS BLOOD AND GORE?
Right now, I'm just planning it out - something I never really did in the first place. So, your thoughts are welcomed.

It's time for migma justice.

 

Just keep doing what you were doing. I really enjoyed old KSS. I guess... I guess you should just do what you think is right to do... because you'll never please everyone.
Just... please do this. Please do.

 

Man, a high-profile mod coming back from the ashes to make a big comeback? This is great Noxid, but words are cheap (not that I doubt you'll be able to get it done), so I do hope to see some content before all the hype dies down. It has been quite a while since I played KSS, but one of the aspects that I did like about it was the more mature theme (the blood was really cool for CS). I may play it again to let you know my thoughts, but good luck until then.

 

Hey, that's cool that an old mod is coming back. I really liked KSS (even though I could never get past the Crystal Caves because of those rolling things) and I hope to see some new content in the mod.

 

Great to see something new from you. You're probably one of the greatest inspirations to all of us shitty and great modders alike.
Can't wait to see this.

 

Man, a high-profile mod coming back from the ashes to make a big comeback? This is great Noxid, but words are cheap (not that I doubt you'll be able to get it done), so I do hope to see some content before all the hype dies down. It has been quite a while since I played KSS, but one of the aspects that I did like about it was the more mature theme (the blood was really cool for CS). I may play it again to let you know my thoughts, but good luck until then.

I understand. And I know how easily big ideas get thrown around here, so for the moment the best I can say is that I wouldn't make this announcement if I wasn't dead serious about making it happen. I can't live with four more years of failed expectations.

 

Can't wait. I really want to see how the story continue and how masterfully booster lab will be used. I played the demo and I was amazed by what the CS engine was possible of. I expect only the best of Noxid. Keep doing just what you are doing and believe me it will be amazing.

 

I liked the blood, but it may seem a bit extreme to other players, so I'm honestly not sure whether or not it's a good idea to tone it down a bit. I didn't really like the math involved, it seemed like little more than an annoyance to a lot of people who couldn't figure it out, but that may just be my opinion.

I really wanted to do my best to put ama at the top. I really respect your skills and experience though, so I'll at least try for second. Work hard; this can become something incredible.

 

I...
Honestly have never played it.
I've been thinking of doing so, but, as of now, i'm grounded for 55 more days, so...
I will when im a bit less restricted. Though, I'm glad you're working on it once more.
I must say that i was planning on downloading it before 'shit hit the fan', to put it nicely around here.

 

Hallelujah, KSS's coming back.
Way back when I played it (and joined the forums to post about it), I liked its more serious vibe. The blood n' guts seemed a bit... excessive at times, if I recall correctly, though, if you think about it, that's what would happen if you mixed living things with heavily armed, (sometimes) exploding killer robots. I can't remember if I had much trouble with the math puzzle, though I still say keep it in because of the amusing solution. I think the only time I got stuck during KSS was when I had to interact with a generator to turn some elevators back on. I ended up trying to interact with it and failed, only to realize later that I searched the wrong spot on it.

 

Well Golly Jee Dwinkers...

*a minute of speechless-ness later.


I might have to jump back into the modding race now. (I will shamelessly take second place)


The blood didn't annoy me much, but yeah it might be do much for some like Doors said.

 

To be honest, this is probably the last thing as I was expecting to read today. To think, the mod I made not only wasn't supposed to happen, but wasn't supposed to be on nearly as "grand" of a scale as I made it. And that it's apparently helped you decide to revive King's Story. And that you liked the mod at all. That last bit was definitely the most surprising.

No, but seriously, I'm super excited to hear that you're remaking King's Story. I'll be honest, I didn't make it very far when I played it...so and so years ago. But it was quality stuff. The Crystal Caves may have been where I got stuck, if memory serves, (and I'd probably get farther now), but it was really nice looking (if memory serves) and it just oozed a certain quality that anything involving you seems to have. Because you care enough about this stuff to make it as best as you can. That's always shown.

So many years later, to hear you decide to make something now...that's fantastic news! And surprising, although I've already expressed how surprising it was. But it's still surprising, so I'm going to reiterate; It's kind of amazing that it's even happening at all, given how dead the community appears to be. And I imagine you've grown in terms of what you could possibly create, since then, so my expectations are that atleast it'll have the same quality as before...and I know you'll exceed them. If only because of the new engine. That'll certainly shake things up.

As for specific criticisms and things worth noting about the original...it's been too long. Maybe replaying the mod would be in order. I do vividly remember the copious amount of gore, but it's probably best if it stays. Maybe toned down? Although I don't think you should necessarily neuter the mod for no reason either. So I guess it's up to you. It certainly set a mood, though.

 

KSS is-

Oh...

OH...

Man, I enjoyed the original KSS, although I have to agree, the blood WAS a bit much. Best of luck to you, Noxid.

 

I was okay with the blood in the mod. To me, it looks more tame, probably because it's in Cave Story. I mean, Kuoto no Fukushu also has blood and gore, but I see the blood in both mods to be rather dull, especially since it's how the blood splatters look due to Cave Story's limitations.

 

I was like ten when I played KSS and math was hard

 

RIP Kitten Battle Dungeon

 

RIP Kitten Battle Dungeon

certain circumstances regarding that project are beyond my control at this point.
KSS however, is solely my responsibility.
And besides that, kbd is actually just a KSS mod really.

 

The Crystal Caves may have been where I got stuck, if memory serves, (and I'd probably get farther now),

There were no areas after that so you probably didn't miss much.

One minor thing that I think could be improved from the last release in the tone vs pacing balance. The extended intro was nice, but it still moved rather quickly from shock and despair to running around doing science. Any reaction is going to be a tough sell when inflicting that much trauma on King in the first fifteen minutes. 'Course, it's hard to say without knowing what comes later.

 

I've said all this before (when you were last working on K:SS) but I might as well post them here again:

The the only problem I have with the math section in K:SS is that I found myself trying to work out everything by hand based on the beaker experiment when the game literally gives you 2/3 of the answers upfront if it occurs to you to check everything in the room all over again. Some sort of hint that the result-spewing interactibles on the bottom floor are now useful would go far, because they are easy to overlook.

Secondly, the idea of a multi-select box is preferable to typing out the material name each time.

Thirdly, I still think that the password input should be usable without touching the keyboard by operating a character cycling system (left = delete character and move cursor backwards, right = commit character and move cursor forwards, down/up = cycle forwards or backwards through available input characters).

 

Both good points. In my mind the transition between the first and second areas was really weak, along with the direction of the second section in general.

The puzzle made for a pretty cool tech demo as far as interesting uses of some of my new asm hacks at the time, but it didn't really add to the game. It isn't a puzzle game, so I'll cut back on that kind of stuff. Maybe solving puzzles via minigame would be more fitting, since that is something I couldn't do before.