Astronot: How to Use the Editor

For those who have played through Astronot and want to try their hand at making their own worlds, I'm starting a tutorial thread on how to use the Editor. The Editor is included with only the PC & Mac versions of this game, but eventually the iOS version will be able to load levels created by others. Here I will share everything I've figured out so far.

 

Editor Overview

The Editor is included with the PC & Mac versions of Astronot. You can buy either version here, directly from the developer's website:

http://wademcgillis.com/games/2012-games/astronot/

Once you load up the Editor from the game's main menu, this is what you are greeted with:



The top has all the editing tools, while the bottom is your view of the game world, showing 9 screens at a time. To move around your game world, use the arrow keys. The view always starts at the top-left corner of the game world. You may be wondering what those 255's are; the numbers' purpose is to divide the game world into rooms & corridors; I will go over how this works later.




These icons are used to start a new project, load an existing project, save the current project, and save the current project under a new name.




This icon is used to play-test your level. When you want to return to the Editor, press the Esc key, click SAVE+EXIT, then click EDITOR to return to your session.




This icon is used to undo your previous addition to the game world. Multiple levels of Undo are supported.




These are the editing tools; I will be going over these individually later in the tutorial.




This is where your tiles, enemies, pickups and other game elements are available for immediate access. To see everything that is available, right-click in any square and you can pick a new item to put in that square:



Some of these do special functions; I will go over them individually later in the tutorial.

In the next section I go through basic editing. Hope you enjoy this tutorial!

 

Basic Building

Building worlds is a pretty straightforward process. You have a couple basic tools available:



The Draw Tool plots tiles and places enemies, pickups and other elements one at a time. First, make sure the Draw Tool is selected by clicking on it (there should be a gray box around it), select the tile or item you want to use, then click the left mouse button anywhere in the game world to place it there. When you want to draw terrain and structures, hold down the left mouse button to leave a trail wherever you move your cursor. If you make a mistake and need to erase something, right-click on it, or hold the right mouse button and drag over it to erase it.



If you want to change the color of a tile, click this icon:



You can then pick what color you want all future instances of that tile to be drawn with:






Also available is the Fill Tool, which fills an enclosed area with the selected tile or element. Useful for making large walls or filling in terrain. Just select the tool, select what tile you want to fill an area with, then click in an enclosed area. The area will be filled completely with your chosen tile.



If you mess up and accidentally fill an unintended area, simply click the Undo Button:




As you build up your world, you'll want to play-test many times along the way. Before you do so, the game needs to know where the player should start. To do this, make sure the Draw Tool is selected, then select the Player Start icon:



Click in the game world where you want to start. Only one Player Start is allowed in each project.



To play-test the level, click the Play-test icon:



The game will run as if you were actually playing the completed level:



When finished play-testing, click the game's close button and you will return to the Editor.


In the next section I show how to set up rooms, as well as implement switches, doors and portals.

 

Rooms, Doors & Portals

By now you've probably been wondering why those 255's have been flashing in your face. Their purpose is to help you divide your game world into rooms, corridors and vertically scrolling towers. 255 is the default value, so right now the game world scrolls in all directions. They flash so you're able to see them no matter what colors you've used in your tiles. To divvy up your game world, use the Set View ID Button:



Hit Backspace to delete the 255, type in a new number and press Enter, and this screen will become its own room. You can use any number up to 255. Give horizontally adjacent screens the same number to create a horizontally scrolling corridor. Give vertically adjoining screens the same number to create a vertically scrolling tower. A large block of rooms with the same number will scroll in all directions. Scrolling stops when the edge of the screen "bumps" into a room with a different number.



In the above figure, the screens labeled "1" will scroll horizontally, "2" will scroll vertically, "3" will be a single-screen room, and "4" will be a bigger room that scrolls in all directions.

The numbers also determine what music plays in each room. Starting with 0, each 10-number group corresponds to a music track in the game:

0-9............bgm_another
10-19........bgm_magma
20-29........bgm_jungle
30-39........bgm_egypt
40-49........bgm_crap
50-59........bgm_slimey
60-69........bgm_stuff
70-79........bgm_desert
80-89........bgm_water
90-99........bgm_ruins
100-109.....bgm_thing
110-119.....bgm_moar
120-129.....bgm_special
130-199.....silence*
200-209.....bgm_boss
210-219.....bgm_boss2
220-229.....bgm_credits
230-249.....silence*
250-255.....bgm_255
*space for possibly adding new tracks in a future version?

For instance, if you want the Jungle music to play, give the room a number from 20 to 29.


When your game world gets particularly big, you may want a map to help you navigate around as you're editing. To create a screen shot of your entire world, click this icon:



Enter a name to save the file as, and the game will render a picture of your entire map and save it in your custom levels folder. NOTE: This feature does not work with all computers, as it uses FBO's which aren't supported by all graphics cards. Many integrated graphics like Intel GMA do not support FBO's, and trying to render a map might crash the Editor.

Also, you'll want to add Save Points for the player to recharge at and continue from if they die. To do this, use the Save Tile:



You will also need to name each Save Point so the game knows which one was last used. You can do so by clicking this icon:



Then click on the Save Point, type a name for it and press Enter.




Doors are used to add a puzzle element to your game world. They can be set to closed or open by default.



Doors are activated by switches, which can be set to on or off by default.

Now, how do you tell the game what switch activates what door? That's where the Linker Tool comes in:



The Linker Tool performs a couple of different functions depending on what it's used with. To link a switch to a door, make sure the Linker Tool is selected, click on the switch, then click on the door. A green box will appear around the switch, and a red one around the door, connected by a line. This indicates this switch now activates this door:



If you accidentally link the wrong objects, you can unlink them by simply right-clicking in either box.




Portals are used to teleport from one area of the world to another. The Linker Tool is used to link one portal to another. With the Linker Tool selected, click on a portal, then click on the portal you want to link it to. A box will appear around each portal connected by a line. Now the player can teleport between these two portals either way:



A portal may also be used by itself to create a one-way teleport. With the Linker Tool selected, first click on the portal, then click on an empty spot where you want it to teleport to. The player will teleport to wherever the red box is located:




In the next section I show how to create hidden blocks and secret passages with X-Ray Blocks!

 

Now I show how to use one of the coolest features in the game...X-Ray Blocks! These special blocks can really add twists and turns to the game when the player uses the X-Ray Goggles. To place blocks that show only when the goggles are used, simply use this special tile:



The map shows where these hidden blocks will appear when the goggles are activated:







That was easy enough, but how do you create secret passages that appear when the goggles are used? How to do it is not obvious, since there isn't a special tile to do it with. What you need to do is hold down Shift while clicking on an existing tile. This will cause the tile to blink, indicating that it will disappear when the goggles are activated:









If you want to change a disappearing block back to a normal tile, hold down Shift while right-clicking it.

Well, this is everything I know about the Editor thus far (I'll add to this tutorial as I learn more), but this should give you enough knowledge to start building your own worlds. So if you haven't already, download the PC or Mac version at the top of this thread and have fun creating!

 

Thank you for your input, Mr. McGillis! I will update the tutorial with the new info and corrections. And yes, feel free to use my tut for your Editor docs - it would make me feel proud to have contributed to it!

 

I noticed that the Mummy boss doesn't appear to be available in the Editor. I'd like to make an Egyptian Pyramid level and the Mummy would be a natural fit for a boss.