If you ever wanted to make NiGHTS levels like the special stages, now you can have a video series to help explain the process to you!
The NiGHTS system may be tricky to understand, but it's completely learnable. NiGHTS is a series of axis circles and transfers that guide the player as they move on the 2D track in 3D space. Perhaps they're just a little different from the typical Sonic level; the NiGHTS system may seem straightforward once you learn it.
Full Playlist
See individual videos for skip times and main point summaries.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVIEmOPX_YO2IhFaUJapT4zAsGdUkJK8Q
- Axis Track Basic Concepts
- Axis Track map-along in Zone Builder
- Straight Lines
- Advanced Track Tricks
- Hoops and Pickups Item Placement
NiGHTS Level Design 101 includes very helpful best practices on how to arrange your NiGHTS levels, gameplay-wise.
NiGHTS Tutorial is a technical explanation on how the axis track system works. Refer to this if the video does not explain something clearly.
Example WAD and EXE Download
This download includes a cheatsheet of item arrangements that you can copy-paste into your levels, as well as a NiGHTS Objectplace EXE to add a couple features and fix a Bumper bug. See Readme for details.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nw20bvxsvxl0azi/NightsTutorial.zip?dl=0
Conclusion
While the few NiGHTS mods over the years have been fantastic, there has just been too little of them. Maybe the wiki articles are hard to read (good resources as they are,) so I hope these videos make things feel a little simpler.
Feel free to reply below to get assistance on making a NiGHTS level. Or, if you'd like to chip in on the difficulties of learning NiGHTS levels, I'd like to hear those as well.
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