Noobs Tutorial #1 - Getting Started with the Editor

Discussion in 'LEVEL EDITOR' started by Teemu, Jun 17, 2015.

  1. Teemu

    Teemu Member Staff Member Frogmind

    Hi guys & welcome to first brief tutorial for making BADLAND levels. Awesome to have you here!

    Trying to keep these tutorials 1) fast to read, 2) clear with plenty of screen shots & 3) include tips that help you get things done quickly. Please do comment with anything you feel is missing, bad or what you would like to have more info on.

    Creating your first level

    [​IMG]

    When you start the Beta, you are here. The 'ONLINE LEVELS' selections opens the curated levels menus you would use when wanting to play community created levels. 'CREATE LEVELS' is where you make your own levels.

    [​IMG]

    After clicking 'CREATE LEVELS' you have a selection to
    1) Start making a 'NEW LEVEL'
    2) 'LOAD LEVEL' to load any of the official in-game levels, your earlier levels or tutorial levels.
    3) Had you started making any level, it would be visible on this page as well so you could continue it with a single tap

    [​IMG]

    Tapping 'NEW LEVEL' takes you here. Start by choosing the TIME OF THE DAY. This affects how your level will look like.

    [​IMG]

    Then you can select some premade BACKGROUND TEMPLATES. These contain ready made templates for the background graphics.

    [​IMG]

    Then you get to choose between a few FOREGROUND TEMPLATES or none as all. If you choose the empty template, you need to build your foreground. Choosing any template, you will still be able to fully edit it quickly deleting and adding rocks and shapes.

    [​IMG]

    Next select to make either:
    1) SINGLE PLAYER LEVEL
    2) CO-OP LEVEL or
    3) MULTIPLAYER VERSUS LEVEL

    [​IMG]

    Now you are actually starting to work on making the level.
    The QUESTION MARK on top toggles menu hints (such as the 'press to select objects') on / off.

    [​IMG]

    If you press the small plus in the left corner, you open the level building menu. It contains every object/item you can put into your level. Tap any of the titles to open all items in that group.

    [​IMG]

    You can test your level at any time by pressing the 'PLAY' button on top middle.
    This will start to play from the currently active CHECKPOINT (the green flag).
    - You activate a checkpoint by scrolling to it and tapping it.
    - You can scroll either by dragging the screen by sliding your finger on it or by touching the mini slider on the bottom. Pressing the left/right arrow around the slider steps to the previous/next checkpoint in the level.
    - Note the UNDO and REDO buttons on the right bottom corner. You'll be using these alot to undo any accidental mistakes.

    [​IMG]

    Any objects / items can simply be dragged from the menu into the level by pressing your finger down on the object and sliding it where you want to place it.

    [​IMG]

    You can add CHECKPOINTS similarly. Just drag and drop a new one into the level. This places the character to the closest surface above or below to show where the checkpoint will continue from. If you pass a checkpoint while playing, you will continue from the last passed checkpoint whenever you die.

    With checkpoints, you want to keep in mind what power-ups the player may have at that point in the level. Because when he dies and starts again from the checkpoint, he will have lost all collected power-ups. So if eg. the next part of the level requires two items that make you smaller, you should place them close to the checkpoint. It is easiest to make changes (with the power-ups, eg. grow, get smaller, get faster, get slower, etc.) within consequtive checkpoints and then negate those before the checkpoint ends. Of course, you don't need to negate e.g. collecting lots of Clones.

    [​IMG]

    BUILDING THE FOREGROUND (the black part)
    - Once you drag an object into the level and let go, you get a menu around the object
    - Use the trashcan icon to delete the object
    - Use the middle item to make a duplicate
    - Use the left icon with two arrows to flip the object horizontally
    - You can change the size with the slider
    - And move and rotate the object with the four-arrow circle
    - Move by dragging from the center
    - Rotate by dragging around the rim

    [​IMG]

    One of the coolest things are the CONTRAPTIONS and SAVED GROUPS.
    With contraptions, you can create fully functional, ready made systems such as this door that opens with a press of the button in front of it.

    Contraptions are groups of objects & items that you can edit in any way. Just tap the folder icon with three arrows to ungroup the items to make them all independently editable & movable. Otherwise you will be moving / editing the whole group.

    [​IMG]

    The other awesomely usefull tool is GROUPS. You can browse any of the official levels, tutorial levels & levels that you have previously created:
    - Use the LOAD LEVEL in the NEW LEVEL / LOAD LEVEL screen to open any level
    - Browse the level in the editor
    - Once you find something cool that you want to use in your level, open the 3 dots menu from the right side
    - Select the dotted rectangle. This is a selection tool
    - Drag a selection box (anything inside the selection starts blinking) around the contraption you want to use

    [​IMG]

    Press the GROUPING icon below the slider (here they are already grouped so that button has become 'ungroup' with the folder and the three arrows.

    [​IMG]

    Then tap the PROPERTIES icon from top left. And tap 'SAVE GROUP'. Now you have copied the contraption to be used later when making your own level.

    [​IMG]

    Now if you go to the bottom left (plus) and open the object & items menu, the last group is SAVED GROUPS. Open that and you see your just saved contraption in it. You have slots for 20 different contraptions in the SAVED GROUPS. Delete an existing one to free a slot by tapping the red trashcan circle next to it.

    The SAVED GROUPS makes it possible to copy any parts of existing levels and bring those into your own levels and edit there are you please. This is pretty super cool as using that you can quickly piece together cool systems without having to create them yourself.

    [​IMG]

    Do you save your work every now and then (often is recommended) by tapping the menu button in the top middle of the editor view (with 3 lines in the icon). Then you get here. Click SAVE to save your current progress.


    [​IMG]

    Change the name of your level by MY LEVEL on the top right. This will give you the keyboard for typing a name. There is currently no letter pointer to show its active or to show where you are in the text. These coming soon. But knowing this, its easy to type in the letters you want. They will show instantly there.

    Once you are ready to publish your level for everyone else to play, tap the PUBLISH- button.

    [​IMG]

    You will need to be able to PLAY THROUGH your own level before it can be published. This is there to make sure that you haven't made a level that is impossible to pass.

    Once you successfully played the level through, the level is pubslihed and you are done!
    Don't worry to publish too soon. You can always go back to editing a level you have published and update it further.

    Thanks for reading! That's the first 'getting started' tutorial. Do let us know what you would wish the next tutorials to be about.
     
  2. Vicvic91

    Vicvic91 Administrator Staff Member Frogmind

    Ping @Baksbrown.
    This could be the beggining of your Wiki, eheh ! :)
     
  3. Baksbrown

    Baksbrown Hypercloner Beta tester

    thank you, I will use some of the ideas here, but without the screenshots, they are no longer relevant.
     
  4. InterludeDude

    InterludeDude Elite Member Beta tester

    Will this be a technical guide, or a guide on polishing your level and making it stand out?
     
  5. Baksbrown

    Baksbrown Hypercloner Beta tester

    and this and other. At first technical guide, and then guide on polishing your level.
     
    InterludeDude likes this.
  6. Maggiecarpenter

    Maggiecarpenter New Member

    Thanks for your guidance, great.
     
    AKAI2002 likes this.

Share This Page