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| Knytt Stories - Level Editor Basics Saturday, December 4, 2010 11:25 pm — Guide posted by Silver |
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Hi! Silver here. People have a lot of trouble with the Knytt Stories (KS) Level Editor. While it is very complicated at first, it gets very simple when you get used to it! I will show you how the basics of using the level-editor. I won't go into custom stuff, though.
First off, download KS if you haven't already, and be sure it's the latest version. Here is the game's info.
Starting Off!
Anyway, after you've downloaded, go into your Documents and click the Level Editor - the red box, as shown below.
Now, here's the Level Editor window:
REMEMBER THE READ THE LICENSE! IT IS VERY IMPORTANT! Anyway, we want to focus on creating a new level, so fill in the name of your level and your name/forum name and click New Level.
Here is the Level-Creating part of the Editor:
FIRST OFF! Circled in cobalt blue is your map, where everything happens (sort of). Place everything here on your map. Some things placed on the map though will be invisible ingame.
Maps & Layers
Circled in lime green is the map area. The block surrounded by a white border is the map you're currently on. Light blue blocks are existing maps - normal blue blocks are non-existant maps. Click EXPAND MAP to get a larger "map screen".
Circled in red is the LAYERS section. 0, 1 and 2 are background scenery layers. Anything in the background should be put in these layers. 3 is solid ground - basically your main terrain and such. 4 and 5 are background objects, like scenery (sort of), and 6 and 7 are foreground objects, which go in front of Juni. Finally, the + is just a helper for you to accurately place your tiles.
A better explanation of layering by Harumbai
Tilesets & Backgrounds
Circled in yellow is the tilesets. That big picture of the "underwater lab" is a tileset. Click a part of the tileset and then click somewhere on the map (be sure you know what your layer is!) to apply it. The top left-hand corner of the tileset (highlighted in the picture) is a blank space. If you select that and drag it over an applied part of the map, the applied part will be removed - provided you matched layers.
The number next to "BG" is the number corresponding to the background - the gradient. You can't mess with them at all except for changing them with this number.
The number next to "Tileset A" and "Tileset B" correspond to the tilesets. You can have two up at a time for a single map, so you can mix and match tilesets to your perfection. Have a look through the Data folder for the tilesets and backgrounds you need.
The colors next to the tileset just change the transparent background - handy to see something clearer on a tileset.
Anyway, to change tilesets/backgrounds, click the number once to make it go up one. Likewise, right-click the number once to make it go down one. Use your mouse-wheel to continously scroll through. There is a total of 255 backgrounds and tilesets to choose from - sheesh!
Objects
[Warning: tl;dr coming up]
Circled in turquoise is the objects menu! The Bank is a group of certain objects - there are 19 banks. 1 is System - stuff like power-ups, shifts and signs, 2 is Liquids - water, waterfalls, and bubbles, 3 is Knytt & Fluff - Knytt, animals - 4 is Meanies - monsters - 5 is Shadow People - one of them is deadly, the rest walk in the background, 6 is Traps, 7 is Nature Effects - rain, leaves, rays of sunlight - 8 is Decoration, 9 is DEADLY FLOWERS OF DOOM, 10 is SPIKY BOUNCERS OF DOOM, 11 is Disks - cute little disk creatures that look like UFOs (only a couple are deadly), 12 is Ghosts - stuff only seen with the Eye power-up, 13 is Robots - you know, robot stuff - 14 is Earth Beings, 15 is Objects & Areas, 16 is Invisible stuff - deadly areas, solid invisible areas (the one without lines through it can be passed through by over objects, but you can't pass through it - the one with lines is the same as layer 3), 17 is Creepy stuff, 18 is Water Creatures (fish and this one creature that comes out and shoots stuff at you) and 255 is Custom Objects.
♫♪Music♪♫
Circled in purple is the music and ambience - ambience does a continous loop, while music only loops once until you travel to a map with a different track. You can only have one music track on and up to two ambience tracks on. "Play All" will play all the tracks at once, so you can test them. The default data has 20 music tracks and 21 ambience tracks - the 21st ambience track is an awesome and funny track (almost all levels by Nifflas has a variation on this. You're supposed to play it in a secret part of your level).
Testing... testing...
Circled in pink is the "Test Level" and "Set Starting Position" buttons. The former allows you to test any part of the level, and the latter is your actual starting position. If you click these buttons, a box of the power-ups will come up. Highlight the power-ups by clicking them to make them avaliable to Juni when you put her down on the map.
Menus
Now to explain the menus.
File > Save/Ctrl+S (you must save before testing a level), Reset (reset to the level selection menu [2nd image]), Quit
Screen > Copy/Ctrl+C (this goes on a clipboard shared by all level editors open at the time - great for "merging" levels!), Paste/Ctrl+V, Delete/Ctrl+Delete
Level > Settings/Ctrl+E (takes you to a Notepad file of your level), Folder/Ctrl+F (takes you to your level's folder), Compress (turns your entire level into a .knytt.bin file for uploading)
Go to > Last save position, start position, x1000y1000
3rd Party Tools > Knytt Stories Manager (current screen) (manage your shifts, signs, warps and flags), Knytt Stories Manager (world properties) (your level's building block business outside of mapping)
THE EPiC CONCLUSION (not)
And that should be enough to get you started! The best way to learn is to do, so go on, play KS, and make your levels!
If you have any questions, ask me or Harumbai, or if we can't answer it, try the Nifflas Support Forum. =)
Credits
Nifflas - the game
Silver (me) - this guide
Harumbai - the other guide linked in here
Livio - the Interguild
Jebby - the idea of the Interguild
User Comments (4)
| Isa | ||
| No. I'm an octopus. Age: 31 Karma: 686 Posts: 7833 Gender: Male Location: Uppsala, Sweden - GMT +1 pm | email |
Pretty solid, but your tl;dr section really could do with some headlines and pictures. In fact, the whole guide could do with some headlines. | |
| Silver | ||
Karma: 121 Posts: 3581 Gender: Female pm | email |
Thanks for the advice, Isa. I'll keep that in mind. Did anyone notice the censors on the names of my levels? | |
| Silver | ||
Karma: 121 Posts: 3581 Gender: Female pm | email |
Added headers to the guide. (No one noticed the censors! :O) | |
| Bmwsu | ||
Age: 28 Karma: 175 Posts: 2557 Gender: Male pm | email |
I noticed them, but I was completely uninterested.      | |
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