Nicklas "Nifflas" Nygren is an independent game developer based in Sweden. He is mostly known for his games Within a Deep Forest, Knytt, Knytt Stories, Saira and Nightsky. All of his games relies on exploration, and with Knytt Stories he moved into the Metroidvania style of game design, with power-ups that increases the main characters ability to traverse the world and find secrets. Knytt Stories also introduced a simple level editor that allowed players to build their own adventures.
One of the environments in Knytt stories. This area is one of the few with actual music playing in the backgroundThe three games are set in the same universe, and much of the joy of playing the games comes from walking around in the environments and taking in the sights and sounds. Even though there is some music, you'll mostly hear ambient sounds that add to the experience of exploration.
The player commonly encounters tiny, vaguely Smurf-like creatures walking around some areas. These small creatures live in small villages with buildings no larger than half the size of the player character. The Swedish word "knytt" itself refers to a small living creature, essentially an analogue to "critter".
Erik Svedäng, developer of Blueberry Garden, has said that Nifflas is one of the few developer who, in contrast to most Scandinavian-based developers, actually make games that "feel Scandinavian", whatever that means.
At the time of writing, Nicklas Nygren is working on Knytt Underground for Windows, Mac and Linux as well as the Ps3 and the PS vita.
His latest game is called Saira, and a demo is available at his website!
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