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Dr Lunatic

Don't worry! We're going to chop this up into bite-size chucks, some time. It's a bit big at the moment.

Allusionary

The following information needs to be added to this page:
It may be wise to split this article into several smaller articles.


Introduction[]

Welcome to the most exciting part of Dr. Lunatic Supreme With Cheese! The World Editor is actually the exact tool we used to create every one of the worlds included in the game - no tricks of any kind! If you've seen it in our worlds (not counting the SpisMall... that took tricks), you can do it in your own. And there's a whole galaxy of other surprises you could pull which we don't even know about ourselves!

But the editor is extremely powerful, so there's a lot to learn. If you just want to touch on the basics of the tools and what they can do, try out A Simple Tutorial below. Then you can investigate the in-depth features of each tool and menu by using the rest of this guide as a reference. Once you know the basics, the Tips section will include some eye-opening ideas, and some things to watch out for. Good luck, and don't forget to send in your creations to World Tester Guy at worlds@hamumu.com. If your world is approved, it'll even be added to the online high score tables!

World testing has changed since the official help was written. Worlds should instead be emailed to jamul@hamumu.com - for more information, see Testing Worlds.

One last thing - press F1 while on any screen or using any tool to get a little bit of help on using that tool or screen. It's not complete documentation, but it'll help you in a pinch.

A Simple Tutorial[]

The tutorial is large enough to deserve its own article: A Simple Tutorial

The Tools[]

Here's in-depth details on each of the 8 different Tools in the World Editor. You probably guessed that, but we had to fill this space with something.

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The Floor Tool[]

Tool floor

This tool is used for setting Floor Tiles - those are what sit in every tile of the map, underneath everything else (except Walls - a Wall replaces a Floor completely).

You have four Slots you can use to hold different floor tiles. There's two reasons for that: first, it lets you have four different ones on hand, without having to constantly be dipping into the palette of available tiles, and secondly, it's needed for several of the Plop Modes. Left click a slot to make it active, right click a slot to visit the Tile Select Screen and pick a tile to put in that slot.

Brush is short for Brush Size. Left click in the box to increase the brush size, right click to decrease it. The brush size is how many tiles square will be affected when you click in the level.

Plop is short for Plop Mode. There are 5 Plop Modes for Floor:

  • Normal - Simply plop the active floor.
  • Random - Plops a randomly chosen floor, from any of the four slots. If the brush size is bigger than 1 tile, each tile in the brush area is set to a different random floor.
  • Cycle - Plops the floor in the active slot, then moves the active slot to the next slot. If the brush size is bigger than one tile, this will cycle through active slots as it goes through the brush area, left to right, top to bottom. If the brush is 2x2 tiles big, and the active slot is the upper left one, this will plop exactly what is in the four slots onto the level.
  • BigRandom - Works the same as Random, but if the brush is bigger than 1 tile, all the tiles are set to the same random floor. When you drag the cursor or click again, a different random floor is chosen.
  • BigCycle - Works the same as Cycle, but if the brush is bigger than 1 tile, all the tiles are set to the same floor. When you drag the cursor or click again, the next slot's floor is chosen.
Tilepicker

This is the screen you see when you right click a Floor Slot. Simply click on any tile to choose it, or click Next Page to see more available tiles. You can also click "Exit Tile Picker" to not select a new tile. None of the other buttons are clickable, they simply provide information about the highlighted tile. See The Tile Menu for information about the other buttons.

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The Wall Tool[]

Tool wall

This tool is used for placing Walls. A wall occupies one tile, but rises up from the tile, obscuring the tile directly above it. They also cast a small shadow on the tile to their left. Walls are impassable, of course. Placing a wall replaces the Floor in that tile, and placing a Floor erases any Wall in that tile. Walls are made up of two separate images: a Wall (confusing, I know) and a Roof. The Wall is the front face of it, which rises up from the ground. The Roof is the top face of it. There is one special case for walls: You can't use the very first tile in your tile list as the Wall face of a wall.

Like most Tools, you get four Slots to hold different wall designs. Left click any slot to select it. Right click the top half of a slot to select a new Roof Tile for it, or right click the bottom half of a slot to select a new Wall Tile for it.

Brush is short for Brush Size. Left click in the box to increase the brush size, right click to decrease it. The brush size is how many tiles square will be affected when you click in the level.

Plop is short for Plop Mode. There are 5 Plop Modes for Wall:

  • Normal - Simply plop the active wall.
  • Random - Plops a randomly chosen wall, from any of the four slots. If the brush size is bigger than 1 tile, each tile in the brush area is set to a different random wall.
  • Cycle - Plops the wall in the active slot, then moves the active slot to the next slot. If the brush size is bigger than one tile, this will cycle through active slots as it goes through the brush area, left to right, top to bottom.
  • BigRandom - Works the same as Random, but if the brush is bigger than 1 tile, all the tiles are set to the same random wall. When you drag the cursor or click again, a different random wall is chosen.
  • BigCycle - Works the same as Cycle, but if the brush is bigger than 1 tile, all the tiles are set to the same wall. When you drag the cursor or click again, the next slot's wall is chosen.
Tilepicker

This is the screen you see when you right click a Wall Slot (whether it's the top or bottom half). Simply click on any tile to choose it, or click Next Page to see more available tiles. You can also click "Exit Tile Picker" to not select a new tile. None of the other buttons are clickable, they simply provide information about the highlighted tile. See The Tile Menu for information about the other buttons.

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The Item Tool[]

Tool item

This tool is used to place Items in the map. Items are immobile objects which can just look pretty, or be obstacles, or stop bullets, or be things for the player to pick up or push around. You can't place an impassable item on the same tile as a monster, and you can't place two items on the same tile at all. No matter how big an item looks, it always takes up exactly 1 tile of space.

Like most Tools, you get four Slots to hold different Items. Left click any slot to select it. Right click a slot to select a new Item for it.

Brush is short for Brush Size. Left click in the box to increase the brush size, right click to decrease it. The brush size is how many tiles square will be affected when you click in the level.

Plop is short for Plop Mode. There are 5 Plop Modes for Item:

  • Normal - Simply plop the active item.
  • Random - Plops a randomly chosen item, from any of the four slots. If the brush size is bigger than 1 tile, each tile in the brush area is set to a different random item.
  • Cycle - Plops the item in the active slot, then moves the active slot to the next slot. If the brush size is bigger than one tile, this will cycle through active slots as it goes through the brush area, left to right, top to bottom.
  • BigRandom - Works the same as Random, but if the brush is bigger than 1 tile, all the tiles are set to the same random item. When you drag the cursor or click again, a different random item is chosen.
  • BigCycle - Works the same as Cycle, but if the brush is bigger than 1 tile, all the tiles are set to the same item. When you drag the cursor or click again, the next slot's item is chosen.
Itemmenu

This is the screen you see when you right click an Item Slot. Though there are a lot of weird buttons on it, those are mostly just to tell you the properties of the item you have highlighted. To select an item, simply click a category at the top of the screen, then click on the item you want in the list on the left side of the screen. You can also click "Cancel Selection" to avoid picking an item at all. To learn how to create your own Items, and what all those other boxes and gizmos mean, check out The Item Menu.

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The Badguy Tool[]

Tool badguy

Use this tool to place Badguys (and goodguys!) on the map. A badguy, or monster, is just what you think it is. Some things you don't expect are also badguys though - the Mine Cart, You-Go, and Raft are Badguys. You can place a Badguy on any tile (unless there is an impassable item there), 1 per tile, but be aware that they take up varying amounts of space. For instance, you could paint a big block of Boneheads, and they'd work fine, because Boneheads are smaller than 1 tile in actual size. But if you tried to paint a big block of Baby SEALs, none of them would ever be able to move, because they would be overlapping and stuck on each other. Placed monsters can also end up stuck on walls or items, so this is something you need to check for when you place them.

There is a limit of 128 monsters placed in a level, so if you've placed a lot and your clicks stop producing monsters, it's because you can't add any more!

Pretty obvious, but you can only place one Bouapha in a level. Trying to place more just moves the original one.

The "Generator" monsters are special - to make them work right, place another monster on the tile immediately below the place you put the Generator itself. This extra monster will be removed before the level is played, and is used to determine which type of monster the Generator will generate.

Monsters have different names in the Editor than they do when playing (when you test from the editor, you see their editor names) - these differences are for clarity. For instance, "Roly Poly" and "Roly Poly Reverse" are both actually called "Roly Poly" in normal gameplay. Some monsters also look different in the editor - specifically, the Sneaky Sharks. That's so when you're editing you don't get too confused! When you're playing, they're supposed to confuse you. Like most Tools, you get four Slots to hold different Badguys. Left click any slot to select it. Right click a slot to select a new Badguy for it.

Brush is short for Brush Size. Left click in the box to increase the brush size, right click to decrease it. The brush size is how many tiles square will be affected when you click in the level. You don't often want a brush bigger than 1 tile for placing badguys, but you never know!

Plop is short for Plop Mode. There are 5 Plop Modes for Badguy:

  • Normal - Simply plop the active badguy.
  • Random - Plops a randomly chosen badguy, from any of the four slots. If the brush size is bigger than 1 tile, each tile in the brush area is set to a different random badguy.
  • Cycle - Plops the badguy in the active slot, then moves the active slot to the next slot. If the brush size is bigger than one tile, this will cycle through active slots as it goes through the brush area, left to right, top to bottom.
  • BigRandom - Works the same as Random, but if the brush is bigger than 1 tile, all the tiles are set to the same random badguy. When you drag the cursor or click again, a different random badguy is chosen.
  • BigCycle - Works the same as Cycle, but if the brush is bigger than 1 tile, all the tiles are set to the same badguy. When you drag the cursor or click again, the next slot's badguy is chosen.

Item is used to specify what type of item the badguys you place will drop when beaten. Left click to cycle between None, Random (represented by rapidly changing items), and Specific (represented by a single item that's not changing). Right click to select Specific, and be taken to the Item Select Screen to pick which specific item you want to have dropped. None makes the monster drop no item of course, Specific makes it drop the specific item you choose, and Random means it has a random chance (specified in The Level Menu) of dropping an item, which will be chosen at random based on the rarity values specified in The Item Menu. If you don't mess with those settings, then Random will do just what you're used to - a small chance of dropping random weapons, food, and coins. Important: a monster that creates other monsters (like a Magic Lamp, Mama Spider, Generator, or one of many others!) will create monsters that drop the same item (or None or Random) that it drops. This can really mess things up - if a Mama Spider is set to drop a Brain, be aware that the player will get a random number of brains, a very large random number, from it, because of all the Eensy Weensies it creates when beaten.

Monstermenu

This is the screen you see when you right click a Badguy Slot. To select a Badguy, just click a category at the top, then click on the name of the monster you want in the list on the left. If you've scanned that type of monster before, a description of it will show up in the middle of the screen. If the description begins with the rather cryptic note "(bby)", that means that this is a monster that creates other monsters, letting you know, so you can watch out for the problem mentioned above.

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The Light Tool[]

Tool light

This tool is used to brighten or darken the level. You can make sections of it that are lit up, or sections that are in darkness, or just paint the whole thing pitch black and let Bouapha have a torch to light it up as he goes.

Slide the Bright slider left or right to pick what brightness you want to be painting with. The Random slider isn't often that useful. It modifies the light you're painting randomly. For instance, if you have Bright set to 5, and Random set to 2, when you click, you'll be setting the light level to a random value between 3 and 7 (5-2 to 5+2). Bright can be positive or negative - 0 is normal, negative is darkened, and positive is brightened up. Right clicking with this tool sets the light level to 0.

Brush is short for Brush Size. Left click in the box to increase the brush size, right click to decrease it. The brush size is how many tiles square will be affected when you click in the level. You usually will want a brush bigger than 1 tile when using the Light tool.

Line Of Sight is a checkbox you can turn on or off. If it's on, then when you click, the light won't necessarily be applied to every tile in the rectangle of your brush - if it reaches a wall, it stops. It travels in Line Of Sight from the tile you click on outward, up to a maximum of the size of the brush you're using.

Plop is short for Plop Mode. There are 4 Plop Modes for Light:

  • Solid - Sets each tile you click on the the light level you choose exactly (modified by your Random setting).
  • Fade - Each click, or each time you move the cursor one tile with the button held down, this will fade the light level in the brush area by 1 notch closer to the brightness you have chosen.
  • Torch - This works only with positive Bright values. It splashes out a bright area centered on where you click - brightest at the center and fading outward. It won't affect anything outside of your brush size, but it may affect a smaller area than the brush, if it's not set bright enough to spread that far. Use this when you have a lamp in your level or something, and want to show what light shining from that object would be like. It can be very realistic if Line Of Sight is turned on.
  • Smooth - Ignores your Bright setting. This simply smooths differences in light level within the brush. For instance, if two tiles next to each other are brightness 9 and 5, clicking once on them would change them to 8 and 6, once more would make them 7 and 7, and further clicks would have no effect, since they're now equal. This is very useful for softening up harsh light edges. Each time you click or move the cursor by one tile it takes effect again.

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The Special Tool[]

Since the Special Tool description is so long, it has its own article.

The Select Tool[]

This tool is used for two purposes: to modify the effects of every other tool, or to copy and swap around parts of your level when editing. All of the other tools will only work on tiles that are selected. So if you find your tools don't seem to be working, that's why. By default, the entire map is selected. You'll almost always want to leave it that way. The only time you might do otherwise is to copy a section of the map elsewhere, or if you want to scribble like a madman, but still have your work constrained to a single room.

"Brush" is short for Brush Size, and does what it does with the other tools!

The Plop modes for Select are:

  • Toggle - If the spot you click on is selected, it will unselect. If it's unselected, it will select. Once you start dragging, though, it will remain in the same mode until you release the button. For instance, if you start by clicking on a selected tile (so you are now unselecting it), it will continue to unselect as you drag the mouse around, until you release the button.
  • Select - Clicking on the level will only select.
  • Unselect - Clicking on the level will only unselect.

You can click the "Select None" button to unselect everything at once. If everything is unselected, that button changes to "Select All". So when you are working with selection areas, you can simply click it twice to restore the normal layout.

The "Show" button toggles between "Outline" mode, which shows the selected areas by putting the dotted line around them, and "Mask" mode which shows selected areas by replacing all unselected areas with a plain checkerboard pattern. Mask mode is much easier to use to actually see what's selected, but Outline mode allows you to see what you're doing if you're trying to select areas that aren't selected! Use whichever you need.

The "Invert" button inverts your selection - anything that was selected is now unselected, anything that was unselected is now selected.

"Copy Selection" is one of the most useful buttons. It takes the area you selected and lets you pick a place to put a copy of it. The copy can't overlap the original in any way or it won't let you do it. This copies anything, including light and specials. Check your specials after they get copied - you may or may not approve of how it changed their trigger and effect coordinates. The shape of your selection doesn't matter, and it doesn't even have to be connected to itself - because of this, be careful when doing copies that you first "Select None" before selecting your source area, or you might have extraneous junk being copied you don't even realize.

"Swap Selection" is similar to Copy Selection, but of course it swaps the destination area with the source area. Again, your specials may not do what you want after the swap, so look at them carefully, or just give it a test.

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The Eraser Tool[]

This tool is the opposite of the other tools - it erases them! Very simple, and usually quite unnecessary, since all the other tools can erase themselves by right-clicking. But, it's here if you want it.

Brush size works the same way it does for the other tools. The other buttons are simply switches to specify what it will erase. Anything that has its box lit up will be erased when you click, things that aren't lit up will be ignored by the eraser. Simple!

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The Menus[]

And here is where we talk about the Menus, which go on the opposite side of the Control Box to the Tools. Read on! Back to top


The File Menu[]

Filemenu

This menu is how you load and save your work. It's all pretty self-explanatory, but let's explain anyway, since this instruction manual is clearly too short and unwordy. All the files in your worlds folder are listed, clicking one will copy its name into the current filename box. You can also type into that box yourself. Click More Files to page through the list of files. Click Save to save your world with the filename in the filename box, or Load to load the file by that name. Click Quit to get out of the file menu (or hit ESC). Clicking New will erase your work and start you over with a fresh slate.

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The World Menu[]

Worldmenu

This menu is used for organizing your levels, and adding new ones. The only way to add a new level to your world is with this menu! You can also specify your author name here. Click on any world in the list to select it. If you then exit the World Menu, that's the level you'll be working on. Here's what all the buttons do:

    • New - Adds a new level to the world, of size 20x20, the smallest possible size. To make it bigger, you'll need to visit the Level Menu.
    • Copy - Adds a new level to the world which is a duplicate of the currently selected level.
    • Rename - Changes the selected level's name to whatever is in the text box at the bottom. Any typing you do while this window is open goes into the text box.
    • Delete - Deletes the selected level.
    • Move Up/Down - Changes the order of the levels by sliding the selected level up or down in the list. Because of the rule that level #0 must be a hub level, any level that gets pushed into that position will immediately have its hub flag turned on. See the Level Menu for details on what that means. You can turn it off again if that level is no longer level #0, on the Level Menu.
    • More Levels - If your world has more levels than can fit on one page, this shows you the next page of them.
    • Author Name - Click this to type in your name as the author of your world.
    • Exit - Get back to editing!

Special note: Whatever you name your level #0, that's the name of your world. It will show up in the World Select Screen when the player clicks on Play.

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Test[]

Nothing much to hear about this... select it and you'll begin playing your world from whichever level you're currently editing. Otherwise, it works just like it does in game, although your progress is not permanently recorded anywhere, and you can't get high scores. Use it to test! Back to top


The Level Menu[]

Levelmenu

This menu is used to specify values that apply to your level as a whole. There's a ton of fun buttons on here! The "Prev" and "Next" buttons are just shortcuts to move to the previous and next levels in your world. The "Name" button allows you to type in a new name for the level (just like Prev and Next, it's also something you can do from the World Menu). Click "Song" to select a song that will play for this level from a list of all the songs available. The song you choose will only play if the player has "Official Music" turned on in the pause menu.

The big black box is a mini-map of your world. The arrow boxes around it can be used to scroll the level around. By this, I don't mean you just move through it, I mean you permanently modify the layout of the level! For example, clicking the left arrow slides every tile in the level one notch to the left, putting the leftmost column on the right edge (because it wraps around). Use this feature if you design a level smaller than the space you allotted for it - slide it into the upper left, then modify the level size to be just big enough to hold it. And to do that...

The "Width" and "Height" buttons are used to resize your level. The maximum width or height is 200 tiles, and the minimum is 20. If you try to resize your level to smaller than its existing size, you'll be warned that that will permanently erase stuff. It chops things off from the bottom and right edges, so move the stuff you want until it's lined up in the upper left. You can use the coordinates displayed by the View Menu to figure out how big you want your level. Remember though, that coordinates start at 0. So if the rightmost tile in your level is at coordinate 19, your level is 20 tiles wide, not 19. It's definitely a good idea to save your work before shrinking your level any.

The "Item Drop" button specifies how often a beaten enemy that is set to Random Item Drop will drop an item. A normal level is 5%, and the original Dr. Lunatic boss levels are 25%. Pick whatever is appropriate for your level! Enemies set to drop a specific item will always drop it - no random factors involved. Enemies set to drop no item will always drop no item.

At the bottom of the menu, there are "Brains" and "Candles" buttons, each with an "Auto" button. Click on "Brains" or "Candles" to set the number of that item needed in the level. If you click "Auto", the computer will scan the level and pick a value for you - it adds up all the brains laying on the ground, all the brains held by monsters (including the ones Zombies drop automatically), and any special that makes brains appear. But it doesn't truly understand the specials (it only counts for 1 for each special, so if your special makes 10 brains appear at once, your count will be off), or know if you have brains that are blocked behind a wall or something, so the auto count may not be correct. Always verify it and test the level yourself!

Main Article: Level Flags.

The remaining buttons are Level Flags. Each one can be on or off. Here's what they do:

  • Snowing - Makes snow fall all over the level.
  • Raining - Makes rain fall on the level!
  • Hub Level - This cannot be turned off for level #0 of your world. It means that this level can't be won (a WinLevel special will just act like a Goto Level special), is worth no percentage points, and doesn't count in specials that check for how many levels you've passed.
  • Secret Level - A secret level is exactly the same as a regular level, with one exception: it's not counted by specials that check for how many levels you've passed. Otherwise it is the same - it counts in your world percentage, and you can win it. The reason to mark secret levels is so that when you have, say, a boss level that you want the player to pass 10 levels to be able to enter, you don't want the fact that they did or didn't find your super secret hidden level to affect that count. It should be completely separate and optional. If it did count, they could get to the boss after passing only 9 levels!
  • Torch Lit - Makes a glow of light around Bouapha everywhere he goes in this level. It's not a very big glow. It doesn't make the level dark though - you have to do that yourself with the Light Tool.
  • Lantern Lit - The same as Torch Lit, but a much bigger light! This lights up just about the whole screen. So how does it differ from playing without darkness at all? Because it can't shine through walls. A lantern lit level is a well-lit level, but the player can only see what's in his line of sight, not around corners or in other rooms. Both kinds of light pass through items though - only walls can block them.
  • Star Background - Makes a pretty starry sky appear anywhere your tiles have color #0 (pure black) in them. There are 8 different pure blacks in the Dr. Lunatic palette, and only color #0 counts. You've seen this effect in various space levels.
  • Underwater - An underwater level. Makes the player have an oxygen meter which depletes over time, and turns the screen bluish and wavy. Also, bullets move at 3/4 speed underwater.
  • Underlava - An underlava level. Makes the player's life constantly drain, and turns the screen reddish and wavy.
  • Stealth - On a stealth level, whenever the player is in an area darker than -5, enemies will lose sight of him. This applies to the current light level, not just what you've placed in the level, so if for example the player fires a Missile Pack, the brightness the missiles create will expose him to the enemies. That's one of the many nasty things about Death Turrets!

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The View Menu[]

Viewmenu This menu is unlike all the others in that it shows up on the main editing screen and stays there until you get rid of it. It's got handy information, and can be used to toggle the display of various things to make it easier to see what you're working on. In the upper right of it are the coordinates of the tile your cursor is on. That information can be useful when resizing a world.

The other buttons do this:

    • Walls - If unchecked, walls are drawn simply as flat floor tiles, with just their roof visible. You'll notice that they still cast shadows (more than usual, in fact!). This flattening of walls is very helpful to see what you're doing behind them.
    • Lights - If unchecked, the entire level is drawn as if all the light was set to 0 - normal brightness. Any light or dark effects are not shown. This is necessary to edit a cave level after you've made it pitch black!
    • Monsters - If unchecked, monsters aren't shown. Don't forget you've got it unchecked and go nuts trying to place monsters.
    • Specials - If unchecked, the "SPCL" designation doesn't appear on tiles that have specials. Not really that useful, but it can show you how the level will look in play, I suppose.
    • Pick-Up Items - If unchecked, items the player can picked up aren't drawn. Not usually much reason to do this.
    • Other Items - If unchecked, all items that the player can't pick up aren't drawn. This is very useful to see all those goodies you've hidden away behind trees.
    • Song - Click it to hear the song assigned to this level, click again to stop it.
    • Exit - Click to get rid of the View Menu. ESC also does this.

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The Tiles Menu[]

Use this menu to set up all the nifty features you want your tiles to have, like animation, water, mud, or just plain impassable. Click on tiles at the top of the screen to select them. You can drag to select a bunch of tiles that are all in a row (or multiple rows). The "Next Page" button takes you to more tiles if you have any (you can have up to 4 pages full). Down the left side of the screen are the flags assigned to all the selected tiles - if a flag is 'half-checked' (alternating green lines instead of a solid block of green), that means that some of the tiles you have selected have that flag on and some don't. Here's what the flags do:

    • Impassable - The player and any other non-flying or non-ghostly monster can't move over it. It's just like a wall, but bullets and flying monsters can fly over it.
    • Icy - Bouapha slides around when he walks on this. It doesn't affect monsters.
    • Muddy - Bouapha moves slowly and kicks up dirt when he walks on this. Doesn't affect monsters.
    • Water - Instant death to Bouapha, certain monsters can only move on this or Lava (like Aquazoids - anything in the "Aquatic" monster theme). All other monsters (except flying ones) can't cross water at all and treat it as solid.
    • Lava - Very painful to step on. As far as monsters are concerned, it's the same as water - most can't cross it, but Aquatic monsters can only move on it or water.
    • Pushable - If this tile is used as a Roof, the wall it's the roof of can be pushed by Bouapha. You can also use it as a Floor for a slightly strange effect of a pushable floor. When a wall or floor is Pushed, it leaves behind the floor tile specified as its "Next Tile" (see below).
    • Can Push On - Pushable walls and items can only be pushed over "Can Push On" floors.
    • Animates To Next - This tile will change to its "Next Tile" after a short time (about 1/10 of a second).
    • Animates On Step - This tile will change to its "Next Tile" if Bouapha steps on it. No effect when monsters step on it.
    • Animates When Hit - If this tile is used as the roof of a wall, it will change to its "Next Tile" when that wall is shot by any type of bullet, friendly or enemy.
    • Transparent Roof - If you have a tile you're using for a roof, and it has color #0 (pure black) in it, this flag will make those pixels in it that are pure black not be drawn at all, so whatever is behind it can show through. This is how walls like the bumpy-topped ones in Cavernous Caves and the spikey grass in Spooky Forest are made.
    • Mine Cart Path - This marks the tile as the kind a Mine Cart, Autozoid or You-Go can drive on. It's simple to use for Autozoids and You-Gos, just make the road how you like. But for a Mine Cart, you have to design it carefully. A Mine Cart will always drive forward if that space is open and Mine Cart Path (no exceptions!), but if it can't, it will go any direction except back the way it came - if there are two choices, it will go whichever way Bouapha is facing. If the only direction available is back the way it came, it will stop and dump Bouapha off.
    • Bunny Path - This marks the tile as one a Buddy Bunny will walk on (Follow Bunnies will walk on any normal floor, as will Punk Bunnies). A Buddy Bunny: Determined uses pretty much the same steering mechanism as a Mine Cart (picking randomly if given two choices). A Buddy Bunny (normal variety) will pick any adjacent Bunny Path tile to walk to at any time (but won't move backwards if it can help it).
    • Ghost Proof - The only way to stop a ghostly monster from going somewhere is with tiles marked Ghost Proof! However, this won't actually stop a Spooky Ghost all the time - they teleport randomly. The other types of ghostly monsters will be quite stymied, however.
    • Enemy Proof - Sort of like Ghost Proof, an Enemy Proof tile is one no enemy can cross at all. Friendly monsters can.
    • Bouncy - Does just what it should - makes the player bounce when they step on it. This affects only the player and the You-Go. The speed you're going when you hit the bouncy tile is how fast you'll be moving when you bounce. Each time you land on a bouncy tile, you accelerate slightly in whichever direction you are facing. You can bounce over water or lava safely with this, but you can't jump over any impassable items or walls, no matter how small they appear.

Click the "Next Tile" box to be given an opportunity to pick any tile. That sets what the "Next Tile" is for all tiles you have currently selected. "Next Tile" is used for the three animating tile flags, as well as the Pushable flag. It's explained above what it's for in those cases. The "Make Tile Loop" and "Make Rvrs Loop" are shortcuts for commonly used arrangements of animated tiles. Select a group of tiles and click "Make Tile Loop" to set each of their "Next Tile"s to the tile following them (and the last one in the group will then point to the first one). This makes a loop, surprisingly! If you then set them to "Animates To Next", those tiles will continuously animate in a cycle. Be aware that tiles won't animate while you're editing, only during gameplay. "Make Rvrs Loop" just does "Make Tile Loop" backwards, in case you wanted them to go the other way.

Click "Delete Tiles" to instantly and permanently delete all the selected tiles from your world. Click "Move Tiles" and pick a destination to take the selected tiles and insert them into a different place in the list of tiles (it swaps out whatever was already there and moves it to where the selected tiles were). That's mostly just to help you organize, but another use is explained below. "Delete Unused Tiles" may take a moment - it scans through your entire world and figures out which tiles you aren't using anywhere and deletes them. This makes your DLW file smaller, saving valuable download time!

If you click "Load Tiles From BMP", you're given a list of all the BMP files in the tilegfx folder (put your own in there if you want to make your own tiles!). Select one and click "Load" to see it. Then you can simply click on it to grab tiles off of it, or drag to grab a group of tiles at once. The new tiles are added to the end of your list of tiles, so they probably won't show up on the first page. Hit ESC to quit grabbing tiles. You can get more than one copy of a tile, and there are some uses for doing so (for instance, making an animation run slower than normal, or having two floors that look the same, but one is impassable or can be pushed on or something). You can grab tiles from as many different BMPs as you want, but remember you are limited to 800 tiles total.

Click "Save Tiles To BMPs" to save all the tiles you have in BMP files in the tilegfx folder. 400 tiles fit on a single BMP, so if you have more than 2 pages of tiles (there are 200 on a page), this will create two BMPs, one named "myfile.bmp" and one named "myfile2.bmp" (where "myfile" is whatever name you pick).

"Auto-Repair On Move/Delete" is an important checkbox! Leave it on at all times, and make sure it's still on when you go to move or delete tiles! The only time you don't want it on is very specific. If you want to replace every occurrence of a certain tile in your world with a different tile (most commonly because you have updated how that tile should look, and grabbed the new version from a BMP already), then it's time to uncheck the box, briefly! Basically, what this checkbox does is, if you delete or move a tile, it updates all references to your tiles in the world to compensate. If it's off, and you delete tile #0, then suddenly everywhere that you had tile #0 in your world will show the former tile #1 (since it's now #0), and so on, all down the line. It messes everything up!!

But you can use this to your advantage as mentioned above. If you want to replace one tile with another, load the new tile, then turn off "Auto-Repair". Select the new tile, click on "Move Tiles" and move the new tile to where the old one was. Now they're swapped. Delete the old version of the tile, and turn auto-repair back on. There - now every occurrence of the old tile is replaced with the new tile. You can do this for entire groups of tiles at once as well. But if you make one little slip up, your whole world could end up out of whack. So save your work before doing anything with Auto-Repair turned off. Please!

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The Item Menu[]

Itemmenu2

This menu is a fun one. It gives you an opportunity to create your own items, or do weird things to the existing items. Watch out though - if you change an item, all copies of that item in your world are instantly changed as well.

Along the top are the different Item Categories. Items appear in more than one category - they're in whichever ones make sense (Hammer Ups can be found in both Pick-Ups and Power Ups). Click on a category, then you can click on specific items in the list down the left side. The buttons in the middle of the page are the specific settings for the selected item. Here's what they do:

  • Name - You only see this when using the editor, it's not shown to the player anywhere, so just put whatever is most helpful to you.
  • Shadow - If this is checked, the item will cast a shadow. You can see the difference in the green display box on the right of the screen.
  • Glowing - If this is checked, the item will be transparent and sort of, well, glowing. It doesn't actually create light, but it brightens what's underneath it.
  • Impassable - Bouapha and non-flying monsters can't pass through the item.
  • Bulletproof - Flying monsters and bullets can't pass through the item. Ghosts can pass through any item.
  • Can Pick Up - If Bouapha makes contact with it, it will disappear. This is pretty useless if you don't use the "Get" trigger below.
  • Loony Color - The item will cycle through all different colors and look wonky, like the Key Of Lunacy does. This overrides Glowing (can't do both at once).
  • Use Tile Image - If you want to draw your own items, you have to load them in as tiles in the Tile Menu (which also means they can't be more than 32x24 pixels in size, sorry!). Then click this box, and the item will be drawn as a tile instead of as a sprite (explained below). If this is checked, Shadow, Glowing, and Loony Color are all ignored. You can't do anything special with a Tile Image item's looks. Any pixels in the tile which are color #0 (pure black) will be transparent, so you don't have to make a perfectly rectangular item.
  • Triggers - Check any or all of these to specify what can cause the item to do something. What that something is, is specified later. But if you're just making a table or other inactive object, you can ignore the Triggers and Effects section.
    • Get - Triggered by being picked up by the player (can only happen if Can Pick Up is also checked).
    • Shoot - Triggers if shot by any bullet, good or evil. Doesn't work unless the item is Bulletproof.
    • Player Bump - Triggers if bumped into by the player. If it's not Impassable, it triggers when stepped on. Note that if the effect doesn't involve the item disappearing somehow, it will trigger nonstop when the player is on it, very obnoxious.
    • Badguy Bump - Same as player bump, but triggered by bumps from evil monsters.
    • Goodguy Bump - Same as player bump, but triggered by bumps from good monsters (including the player).
    • Machete Chop - Triggered only if hit by a machete slash.
    • Minecart Hit - Triggered if smashed by a minecart or You-Go or Autozoid.
    • Always - Triggers constantly, at the same rate that animated tiles animate. Best used for making, you guessed it, animated items!
  • Effect - Click this button to cycle through the list of possible effects for an item. There are very many! Right click to go backwards in the list. Most effects have a value for them which you can modify. It shows up right below the Effect button. Click it to modify it. Here are the effects:
    • No Effect - Guess what it does.
    • Explode Into Particles - Select a color with the value button, and when triggered, the item will disappear, shooting out a bunch of particles of the chosen color (this is how Machete Grass works).
    • Heal/Harm Target - Best used for making food, or poison. Specify an amount from -9999 to 9999, and the creature that triggered the item will be affected accordingly (negative values hurt, positive values heal).
    • Give Weapon - Equips the player with the weapon you choose, also filling up the ammo.
    • Give Hammers - Select a number from -5 to 5, and it gives the player that many hammers. Negative values of course will remove hammers from the player!
    • Give Pants - Same as Give Hammers, but -4 to 4 are possible values... and it gives you pants!
    • Give Yellow Keys - From -3 to 3.
    • Give Red/Blue/Green Key - These are 3 separate Effects, but you can figure it out. Since you can only carry one of each of these keys, you simply choose whether the Effect gives or takes away the key.
    • Give LoonyKey - Give or take away the Key Of Lunacy for the world the player is on. Yes, you can take them away! But you can only take away the one for that world.
    • Give Coins - Give the player some coins, or take them away - any amount from -9999 to 9999.
    • Give Candles - Give the player some candles, or take them, -9999 to 9999.
    • Give Oxygen - Refill or deplete the player's oxygen supply (no effect if they're not underwater). Values range from -128 to 128. 128 is the maximum oxygen the player can have.
    • Rage Up/Down - Refill or deplete the player's Rage Gauge, if they have one. Values from -128 to 128, and you guessed it - the maximum possible Rage is 128.
    • Radioactive Chinese - Gives you the 6 possible random effects plus messages that the Radioactive Chinese Food item gives. Not really useful... but it had to exist, or we couldn't have included Radioactive Chinese!
    • Become Different Item - Turns this item into another one. Can be used with the Always trigger to make an animated item (but since you only get 1 trigger and 1 effect per item, the item can't do anything interesting besides animate.
    • Summon Monster - Pick any monster, and that monster will appear right where the item was. The item vanishes.
    • Power Up Player - Allows you to give the player any of the different powerups. Choices are: Reverse Hammer, Reflect Hammer, Energy Shield, Garlic, Speed Up, Invisibility, Infinite Ammo, Reload Weapon, and Hammer Enhance (the Squeezy Cheese effect). They all have their standard time limits.
    • Chinese Food - Give the random health boost and message that chinese food does.
    • Give Brains - Give or remove brains from the player, from -9999 to 9999.
    • Give Keychain - Pick any of the four keychains to give. Sorry, you can't take them away!
    • Act As Door - Pick any of the four possible door colors, and this item will act the way a door does - blocking passage of anybody, unless bumped by a player who has the right key, at which point it vanishes. You need to use the Trigger "Player Bump" for this to work right. You also need to make it Impassable, or it won't be much of a door!
    • Give Orbiters - Give or remove up to 50 orbiters from the player. The fun is endless!
    • Give Orbit Bs - The same, but Orbit Bombers.
    • Get Pushed - Makes this item pushable - if triggered, it slides in the direction it was pushed by one tile. It can only slide over tiles that are marked "Can Be Pushed On" (see the Tile Menu). The nice thing is, it can be triggered by enemies as well as the player! You can even trigger it with bullets (the "Shoot" trigger), for rather fun items you might need to push from across a river or something.
    • Increment - Select any of the variables and this will add 1 to it when triggered. See Variables for details on why you would want to.
    • Decrement - Subtracts 1 from the chosen variable.
    • Move - This is exactly the same as Get Pushed (all the same rules), except that it moves in the direction you specify rather than the direction it was "pushed". You can make crates rolling down a conveyor belt by combining this with "Always" trigger.
  • Sound - Ah, remember, we were looking at what the different buttons do before we got sidetracked with a giant list of Effects! This button specifies which sound to play when the item is triggered.
  • Message - And this message will be shown when the item is triggered.
  • Rarity - If you leave Rarity at 0, the item will never be dropped by enemies set to drop random items. But if you give it a value above 0, there is a chance they'll drop it. Exactly what the odds are depends on how many other items are, and what their rarity values are. Luckily, this is calculated for you - type in a value and you'll see what percentage chance of getting this item you have. If you want it higher, set Rarity higher, or set it lower if you want a lower chance (I know, that's sort of backwards to the meaning of the word Rarity... think of it as Unrarity! Commonness?). This value is the chance that your item will be dropped if an item is dropped! Remember, in the Level Menu, you specify what the odds are of an item being dropped at all.
  • Change Sprite - Click this, many many times, to cycle through the hundreds of sprites (graphical images) available for items. Right click to go backwards in the list. If you've selected "Use Tile Image", this button will be replaced with a button to visit the Tile Select Screen and pick which tile's image you want. The Tile or Sprite you choose shows up in the Display Box below this button.
  • Replace Color With Color - Click on these boxes to select different colors. These allow you to create sort-of new items using existing sprites. For instance, if you set the first box to green, and the second box to red, your item will be drawn with all of its green parts replaced with red. The Reddishes you collect in the Spooky Forest world are done this way - they're the Bonsai Bush item with green replaced by red (and brightness turned up). This has no effect on Tile Image items. It also has no effect on Glowing or Loony Color items.
  • Bright - Likewise, you can adjust how bright is normal brightness for the item, so you can make very light colored items or very dark ones. Click the Bright button to center it back to zero, or click anywhere on the brightness meter to pick a different value.
  • Display Box - This is the big green box on the right of the screen which shows your item in the center. It has two uses. Click the vertical bar of color to the left of it to change the background color it uses (just an option to let you see your item more clearly). Seeing your item clearly is in fact one of the two uses! It's nice to see what you're working on. The other use is to center your item. Click anywhere in the Display Box to specify how your item will be offset from the tile it's placed in. The light green box represents the tile that your item will be placed in when used in the editor. So if for example, you click very high up in the display box, then you place an item in the level, you'll find that the item appears to be way up above where you wanted to place it. It's not - it still is taking up space on exactly the tile you clicked, it just has the appearance of being elsewhere. What's this for? To fine-tune the way your items look. If you draw a cute little mushroom in a 32x24 space, and load it as a tile, and create an item using that image, you don't want the base of your mushroom to be at the bottom of the tile. You want it centered in the middle of the tile, so the mushroom appears to be growing upward from there. So you move it up a few pixels with a click. I hope that makes sense. Experiment with it.
  • Add New Item - Creates a new item, in the Extras category, with the name "New Item". Tweak it to your heart's content, and you can add it to your levels!
  • Reset/Delete Item - If you have one of the original items selected, this button says "Reset Item". If you have one of your own homemade items selected, it says "Delete Item". That's because you're not allowed to delete any existing items. Click it to delete your own items, or reset an original item to its normal state, if you've made changes to it.
  • Copy Item - The most useful way to make a new item is to work from one of the existing ones. Select the one you want, then click Copy Item, and you'll be working on a new item, in the Extras category, called "Copy Of XXXXX", where XXXXX is the name of the item you copied.
  • Exit Item Editor - Phew, it's about time.

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The Sound Menu[]

Soundmenu

With this menu, you can import your own custom sound effects into the game, and assign them to specials or items (well, you do the assigning in the Special Edit Screen and the Item Menu). It's really quite simple. Click on categories on the left side of the screen, then you can right click on any sound you would like to hear on the right side of the screen. That's just for fun, though.

To add your own sound, you must click "Add New Sound". This gives you a list of all the WAV files in the User folder. Select the one you want and click Load. To put a WAV file (WAV is the standard windows sound format, any sound creating program should be able to save in it) into your world, it must be saved in the User folder. Now it prompts you to give your sound a name. This name is just for your own reference in the editor, it won't be seen by players of your world. Then your sound is added, under the "Custom Sounds" category. You can right click it to hear it, if you've forgotten how it sounds.

The other buttons are to manage your custom sounds, and none of them function on sounds outside of the "Custom Sounds" category, for obvious reasons. "Delete Sound" removes a custom sound from your world permanently (it doesn't delete the file from the user folder if it's there, so you can reload it if needed). "Rename Sound" lets you assign a new name to the sound without loading it from disk again. And "Reload Sound" lets you load a new copy of the sound from disk, if you've changed it (or load a totally different sound in its place), without changing the name of the sound.

Once you've added a sound to your world, it's permanently stored inside the DLW file, unless you delete it, or reload it with a different sound. So you don't need to share the WAV files themselves with people who want to play your world. Only sounds work this way - movies, pictures, and text that your world shows are separate files that must be sent along with your world to anyone who wants to play it. Be warned that WAV files are big, and adding a bunch of them can make the file size of your DLW grow dramatically, making it take a long time to download.

Your added sound can be assigned to a "Play Sound" special or an item just like any other sound once it's added, so enjoy!

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What The Heck Are Variables?[]

Ah, variables. They don't actually DO anything. A variable is sort of like a bucket that holds a number. It can hold any number you want, and you can look in the bucket to see what number is in there, or do math on the number to change it, or pour one bucket into another. The entire power of variables lies in the fact that you can do math on them and check their value. Variables really are an advanced feature, so if you don't understand them, don't worry about it. You can make extremely complex and interesting worlds without ever touching them. You can even do most of the things variables let you do without ever using variables. The variables just make it much easier, once you understand them.

All variables start with a value of 0. There are 2 kinds of variables - "G" and "V". G stands for Global variables. As the name implies, Global variables are kept for your entire world, and saved along with the player's progress, so they're permanent. V just stands for variables, but you can call them Local variables. They are reset to zero every time you start a new level, so they're just used for the current level you're on. There are 8 of each type of variable, named very simply: G0, G1, G2, etc... up to G7; and V0, V1, V2, etc... up to V7.

In addition to those normal variables, there are a whole pile of read-only variables (ones you can't control the contents of, but can include in your equations):

    • PX - The player's current X coordinate.
    • PY - The player's current Y coordinate.
    • PB - How many brains the player has collected in this level.
    • PC - How many coins the player has collected in the level.
    • PK - How many candles the player has collected in the level.
    • PL - The player's current health (128 is perfect).
    • PR - The player's current rage (128 is full).
    • PP - The player's current completion percentage for that world.
    • TL - The currently tagged monster's life. If no monster is tagged, it's 0.
    • TX - The X coordinate of the Tagged monster.
    • TY - The Y coordinate of the Tagged monster.
    • NM - You can't actually use this in equations. You may only use it printed in messages or text files. It is replaced by the player's profile name.

You're still shouting "why!?" First let's do a little more "how", then some examples will make "why" very clear. There are only a few things you can do with a variable, and here's how you do them:

    • Increment or Decrement with an Item Effect - You can have an item add or subtract 1 from a variable. Just create an item with the effect set to "Increment" or "Decrement", and pick the variable you want it to change.
    • Do Math - This is the most complicated thing. Set a special to have the effect "Set Variable". This gives you a text box you can type into. What you type in should be math, involving plain numbers and variables. The available math operations you can do are:
      *+ to add! *- to subtract!! ** to multiply!!! (just wanted to be sure you knew it was *, asterisk, not X) */ to divide!!!! *% to modulus. That returns the remainder of a division, for example 55%10 is 5 (the remainder after dividing 55 by 10). *R to get a random number. For example 5R10 will be randomly any number from 5 to 10. *Advanced operators - you will probably never need these, and they require some advanced math skills.
        *T to obtain the number of a tile on the map. For example 5T10 will return the floor tile at coordinates 5,10. This is a very advanced feature, see <A HREF="#advanced">Advanced Tricks</A>. *| to perform a logical OR. *& to perform a logical AND. *^ to perform a logical XOR. *< to perform a left-shift. *> to perform a right-shift.

    By the way, all variables are integers, which means they round down to the nearest whole number if you try to divide unevenly (like 5/3 is 1). You can include as much math as you can fit in 32 characters, and as many different variables as you want. The result of all the math is stored in whichever variable you specified in the effect. There is NO order of operations - it is purely processed from left to right. So "5+3*3" is 8*3 or 24. In normal math, multiplication would take precedence and it would be 5+9 or 14. To include a variable, just name it the way the game does, for example: "V0+G3*V2-G5" (you can have your V's and G's in upper or lowercase, but uppercase looks nicer). Most commonly you'd just put a number here instead of a lot of math, to set a variable to that value outright, like "Set Variable G2 to 10", or you might say "Set variable V1 to 'V1+1'", to make the variable increment. I haven't yet had a need for any math more complicated than addition, but there's probably some tricky stuff you could do!

    • Check The Value - Use a special with the trigger of "Variables", to check if a certain variable is less than, equal to, or greater than, some value you'd like to check. You can't compare it to other variables, unfortunately, only to specific numbers. If you need to check the value of one of the Read-Only Variables, you'll need to first copy it into a V variable.
    • Print it out - In any message displayed by a special (including when you show a text file via Show Picture), you can display the contents of a variable. Just include in your text "%%V0" or "%%PL" or whichever variable you want to show preceded by %%. This will be replaced by the chosen variable when the message is displayed. This is the only way to use the variable NM.

Okay, so that's what you do with variables. Now why would you do that? There are more uses than I can possibly imagine, but let's cover some simple ones with examples:

    • A trap room: Say you want a room's floor to change to lava if the player stays in there for 10 seconds. You can't do it with a timed special, because a timed special starts counting from the beginning of the level, not from whenever the player decides to enter that room. So you need three specials. The first one says "If Bouapha steps on X,Y (the room entrance), then set V0 to 1 (one use)". The second one says "If V0 is 1 or More, then set V0 to V0+1 (unlimited use)". Now as you can see, we have a counter - as soon as Bouapha steps in the room, the timer starts counting upward. The third special says "If V0 is 300 exactly, then Change All Touching Tiles at X,Y to Lava Tile, and set V0 to 0 (one use)". So after V0 has counted up to 300 (the game runs at 30 frames per second, so every time V0 goes up by 30, one second has passed), the floor becomes lava, and we turn off the timer.
    • An UberGoal. Say you want to have a really super special level that the player can only reach if they trigger 5 hidden switches in 5 different levels. That would be impossible in the old days - each level was its own thing (except that you could count how many were passed). You can do it with G variables. In each of the 5 levels, you have a switch that sets a G variable to 1 - one of them sets G0, then one sets G1, then G2, etc. They have to be separate variables, rather than incrementing a single variable, because otherwise, the player could just go to one of the 5 levels repeatedly and flip the switch 5 times. So now, once the player has flipped all 5 switches, the entrance to your super level just has a special that says "If G0 is 1 exactly and G1 is 1 exactly and G2 is 1 exactly... etc", then they can get in. Cool! By the way, if you want a special to have more than 5 triggers needed to pull it off, put 5 on one special (with no effects), then make another special that's got "Chain Off Other" as its first trigger, and up to 4 more triggers. You can't chain off of a chain though, so unless you use a variable to indicate success, you can't have more than 9 triggers total (another use for variables!).
    • A specific kill counter. You want to know when the player has beaten 5 Pygmies, but you have 23 of them in your level? A variable can do it. Two specials, one says "If kill one Pygmy, then Set V3 to V3+1 (unlimited use)", and the other says "If V3 is 5 or more, then do something exciting (one use)".
    • A difficulty modifier. Here's a fun one - track how often the player has died trying your level, and when it gets to be too many, make it easier. You'll need to use a G variable, since every time the player dies, all the V variables are reset to 0. So have a special, "If kill one Bouapha, then G5=G5+1", and another, "If G5 is 5 or more, destroy monster at X,Y" (or whatever you want to do to make it easier). Players would appreciate this! And then, you can add to your Winlevel special at the end of the level, "Set G5 to 0" - so if they play it again after winning it, the difficulty is reset to normal!

As you can see, those are all extremely different things. I just came up with that last one a minute ago, and had never even considered it before then. So there's surely an entire universe of possibilities you can explore with variables. Like with specials, what you should do is decide what you want to have happen in your world, then think "How can I accomplish it?", because it's pretty likely that there is a way! And variables could very well be the key. Check the Advanced Tricks section for some more examples of variables in action. Back to top


General Tips[]

  • There's a maximum of 64 levels in a world.
  • There's a limit of 128 monsters placed in a level. That number can grow as you play the level, with generators and such, but you can't place more than 128 to begin with.
  • There's a limit of 128 specials in a level. You're not likely to reach it!
  • The maximum size of a level is 200x200. Please don't make them that big... long levels are hard and tedious! Remember that a player has to repeat your entire level if they die at the end, so if you want to have big fatal surprises, put them at the beginning. It sounds backwards, but making a level that starts very hard and gets progressively easier is probably going to be more fun for the player!
  • If your level just has to be really long and difficult, why not break it into multiple levels? That way, the player gets to 'save their progress' at convenient checkpoints. Taking on big challenges is fun, but repeating things you've already succeeded at isn't.
  • Crazybones will drop the item they're set to drop each time they're beaten, if they get back up. So preferably don't use Crazybones to carry important items!
  • The game runs at 30 frames per second (on slower computers, it will skip frames visually in order to maintain this rate of internal action). Why do you need to know? For one, this explains why your fractional values for timed specials get rounded to strange amounts - they're being rounded to 30ths of a second. For two, if you're trying to use Variables to time something, be aware that a special will be checked for triggering 30 times per second.
  • Get used to the keyboard shortcuts... they'll save you lots of time! Especially the "G" key. It grabs whatever the cursor is on and puts it in the active slot of your current tool. For example, if you're using the Badguy tool and you push G with the cursor over Sven, it will make Sven the active monster.
  • Speaking of those, the TAB key can be used to toggle the menus on and off. I recommend using that, and keeping the View menu (press V) open at all times, because its info is so useful!
  • Whenever you load a world, what was in the editor right before you did is saved as a world called "backup_load.dlw". So if you accidently load a world and lose what you're working on, just load the file "backup_load.dlw" to get it back!
  • Similarly, a file called "backup_exit.dlw" is saved every time you exit the editor, so if you accidently exit without saving your work, it's stored right there.
  • When you click "New" in the file menu, it also saves your work as "backup_load.dlw" at that time.
  • To create your own tiles, open an existing tileset (a BMP file from the "tilegfx" subfolder of your Supreme folder) in your favorite paint program, scribble on it as you wish, then save it again with a new name, but still in the tilegfx folder. Make sure it's being saved in 256 color mode, and with the same palette it originally had - Dr. Lunatic can only use a single specific 256 color palette, and it's the one the existing tilesets already use!
  • In case you were hoping, the one thing you can't do with the Item Editor is make an item that blows bubbles like the Bubbles item does. That's hardcoded, sorry! But if you really want to, you can just modify the Bubbles item until it's completely different - whichever item is in exactly that spot blows bubbles!
  • You don't need to include WAV files with your world, because custom sounds are automatically included in the DLW file itself. But you do need to include any BMP, TXT, or FLC files (pictures, text, or movies) that your world uses. They are not built into the DLW.

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Advanced Tricks[]

Since these are advanced tricks, it's assumed you're pretty advanced when reading them, so I won't put a lot of details. If you want to discuss these and more, visit the official forums.

  • In several levels, I used a monster that you're not supposed to to give out candles. For example, in Spidery Madness (Spooky Forest), I made a Mama Spider drop candles. The trick to doing this well is a special: "(unlimited use) If player has N candles, then change item at 0,0 to candle; then change all same item candle to nothing" - so once the player gets enough candles to pass the level, all other candles vanish, and if there are still more Eensy Weensies left to squash, they'll appear to drop no item at all. And of course, the number of candles I required to pass the level was an amount that I knew the player would be certain to reach - you can't be sure exactly how many Eensy Weensies will come from one Mama Spider, so pick carefully (also, if your level is filled with tons of badguys at the time of her demise, there might be no room for any Eensies to show up! There is a monster limit!).
  • Variables can be used for enormous amounts of great things. When I first added them, I thought they might not be that useful, but once I started Supremizing worlds, I used them everywhere. One example: in the Dusty Desert, I added "Desert Keys". They're a made up item, and each of the four different colors of them sets a different G variable to 1. Then I put doors (more made-up items, made by recoloring normal doors) in front of each of the four keychains which are just impassable (they are set to just be obstacles, not doors). When the player bumps them, I check if the appropriate G variable is 1, and if it is, I make the door open sound, and erase the door item. Voila, a whole new set of keys!
  • Another good usage for Variables is as a timer. Here's a simple one: the player flips a switch and the walls start to close in on them. Do this by setting V0 to 1 when they flip the switch. Then a separate special just says "(unlimited use) If V0 is 1 or more, then set V0 to V0+1". That will constantly count up, after the switch has been flipped. Then a series of simple specials round it out - "(one use) if V0 is 30, then change tiles at X,Y to wall", and "if V0 is 60, then change tiles at otherX,otherY to wall", and so on. There are 30 frames of gameplay per second, so these specials would make a new wall appear every second, so the walls would be moving inward at a rate of 1 tile per second.
  • In the Icy Mountain, I used G variables to handle the transition from night to day. It turned out to be a lot of work (to make the X's show up for the proper level, I needed to swap the Go To Level specials around, so the ones you saw were the right ones - since the game puts Xes on any Go To Level special that goes to a finished level, regardless of whether it can be triggered right now or not), but the night and day timer was simple: a special that triggers once per second which makes G0 set to G0+1, then when G0 equals the amount of time needed (I used 30 seconds I think), do the flip from night to day or vice-versa (and reset G0 to 0). It's important that I used a G variable instead of V, because that way, if the player spends 10 seconds in the hub, then leaves, that is remembered on the next visit. Otherwise, the player would have to camp out for 30 seconds in the hub every time they wanted to visit the night levels.
  • Always keep good track of what you're using different variables for - it would be a big shame to mix up and have two different things trying to use the same variable and messing each other up. Try writing it down. Yes, on paper! With a pencil! Or a pen if you prefer. You can actually get things done in your world much more quickly and neatly if you do good planning on paper, overall, not just with variables!
  • Tile Memory - By using the "T" math operator (it reads tile numbers off the map. For example, 2T8 tells you which tile number is at 2,8), and the "Tile Var" special effect (which sets a tile of your choice to the contents of a given variable), you can use the tiles of your world as a memory bank to greatly increase your storage of temporary data. Like V variables, it will of course be wiped out when the player exits the level. Also note that although variables are integers (4 bytes, capable of holding numbers from -2billion to positive 2billion), tile numbers are words, (2 bytes, capable of holding numbers from 0 to 65535), so you must keep your numbers in that range or they'll be moved to that range against their will. You would probably want to use tiles that are out of the player's sight for this memory. It is perfectly okay to use a number that isn't a legal tile - it will just display as a bunch of question marks. Let me know if you ever find a use for this! I'm convinced it's possible to create simple arcade games with this, if you just work it out carefully.
  • World Merge! - A hidden feature (I would say undocumented, but here's the documentation!) in the editor is the ability to merge worlds together! In the editor, load one world, then press SHIFT-M to open the Merge Menu. Select another world, and click Merge. This will attach the second world's levels into the world after the first world's levels. It will fail if the combined total of Custom Items, Custom Sounds, Levels, or Tiles are too many to fit in one world. In that case you'll need to cut the numbers down before trying to merge. Here are other subtle issues to consider:
  • It will not intelligently detect identical tiles. It just appends the tiles of the second world after the first world's tiles.
  • When you merge, the second world's levels will not be accessible, since they'll connect only to the second world's hub (which is connected to nothing). You'll need to manually combine them however you wish. If you simply delete the second world's hub, you're off to a good start, you just need entrances to the levels then!
  • The numerical limits: 104 custom items, 800 tiles, 64 custom sounds, and 64 levels.
  • Watch out for global variables! If both worlds rely on the same global variable, they'll step on each others' toes, because nothing about variable usage is modified.
  • If you use Tile Var specials, be warned (or glad?) that it does not change them in any way. This should be what you want, if you're using them for data purposes. But if for some reason you're using them for the player to actually see them, their numbers will be wrong (in the second world, not in the first). If you use a special to check the value of a tile var result, that will pose a problem, because those specials do get updated.
  • If you have modified any of the original game items (as opposed to making a copy of them and modifying that), those changes won't carry over. Such changes made in the first world will apply to both worlds, and changes made in the second world will simply vanish.
  • Test the resulting merged world very thoroughly, because it's a very complex operation and there's lots of possible ways it can trip you up!
  • With the Floor, Wall, Badguy, and Item tools, if you left click one of the slots while you are holding down the right mouse button, it will set that slot to "NONE". This is useful if you want to do Random plops, but you don't want it to plop all the time.
  • Press SHIFT-I to create two text files in your Supreme folder that give you some really useful detailed information on the currently loaded level, and on variable usage throughout the entire world. If you're doing a lot of complicated stuff with variables and something goes wrong, the "var_scan.txt" file can really save you.

If you're just stuck because some special in your level is acting weird, the "level_scan.txt" file will let you know about every special, item, and badguy in your level. Back to top


Keyboard Shortcuts[]

ESC Exit/cancel.
TAB Toggle the display of the Control Box and View Menu (if it's open). Use this to view more of the level at once.
Arrow Keys Scroll the screen. Hold down CTRL or whichever key is configured to be the fire button to scroll at incredible speed.
1...8 Select the different Tools (same order they're in in the menu)
G Put whatever is under the cursor into the currently active box of the current tool (like an eyedropper tool in a paint program). G stands for Get.
B Increase the brush size.
Backspace Delete monsters, items, and specials directly under the cursor. No effect on walls, floors, or light.
Shift-C Immediately set the light level for the entire map to whatever is directly under the cursor. Good for making dark levels, or undoing a dark level. C stands for.... "Completely light the level"?
Shift-M Merge a second world onto the current world. Read detailed help <A HREF="#merge">above</A>.
Shift-Q Creates a file named "req_files.txt" in your Supreme folder. This file lists all the files that the currently loaded world relies on. It helps you know what to pack up when sharing your world with someone else.
Shift-I Creates two files in your Supreme folder. "level_scan.txt" gives you detailed information on the current level, telling you where every special, item, and badguy are. "var_scan.txt" gives you detailed information on all the variables used in the world. This can be very helpful for serious world debugging.
F Open the File Menu.
T Test your level.
W Open the World Menu.
L Open the Level Menu.
V Open the View Menu.
Y "Yes" in yes/no dialogs.
N "No" in yes/no dialogs.

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Glossary Of Terms[]

Badguy
In the list of monsters, this refers to any monster that is not on Bouapha's team. But in the editor Tools, the Badguy tool simply means the monster placing tool - use it for any monster, good, bad, or non-monstrous, like Bouapha!
Boolean Logic
A field of math entirely about the concepts of TRUE and FALSE, and how you work with them by having AND and OR shoved between them. Very computery.
Control Box
A term I made up when writing this documentation which refers to the grey box full of buttons and gizmos which occupies the lower right of the editor screen.
DLW File
Worlds are saved with the file extension ".dlw", for example "myworld.dlw". So a DLW file contains everything your world needs to function. Almost! If you used Show Pic/Movie specials, you'll have to includethe image, text, or movie files you show in the User folder. DLW files are kept in the Worlds folder.
Flag
A Flag is something you can toggle on or off by clicking on it. Examples are the Terrain Flags in the Terrain menu (for instance, a tile may have the Water Flag turned on, which makes Bouapha drown if he steps on it), and the Level Flags in the Level Menu (for instance, turn on the Stealth Flag to make a Stealth Level). Think of it like the flag on a mailbox - pop it up, or leave it down.
Hub
A special type of Level. Each World has one as its first Level. A Hub cannot be won (a Win Level special acts like a Go To Level special in a Hub), and therefore has no high scores and does not count towards a World's completion percentage. The reason it's called a Hub is that you're supposed to use it like the hub of a wheel or an airport hub - it connects to all your other Levels in the world (except maybe secret levels!). You can have more than one Hub Level in a world. Use one any time you want a level that isn't scored, can't be won, and doesn't count towards the player's percentage. To make a level a Hub, you simply turn on the Hub Flag in the Level Menu.
Item
Something you can put in a Level that isn't a Monster or a Tile. Items sit on tiles and can do a variety of things from just looking cute to getting in the way to getting picked up by the player as a power up. No matter how big or small an Item looks, it always takes up exactly one Tile's worth of space, in terms of other things bumping into it.
Level
There are any number of these in a World, up to a maximum of 64. The first one is always a Hub Level.
Pixel
A single dot on the screen. Your screen resolution is a measure of how many pixels across and down there are. Your desktop is probably at 1024x768 pixels or so, but Dr. Lunatic runs in 640x480 resolution. That means it's got 640 pixels across the screen, and 480 pixels going down the screen. Think of the screen as a grid of pixels, and each one can be any color (actually, that depends on the color mode of the screen! Dr. Lunatic runs in 256 color mode, so each pixel can be any of 256 different colors).
Plop
Most of the tools in the editor have different Plop Modes. That just means different ways for the tool to be applied to the level. It's considered "plopping" to put tiles, monsters, or anything else into a level. You plop them in!
Sprite
A graphical image that isn't a Tile! For instance, every item is a sprite. Each monster is a sprite (you can either think of a monster as a sprite, or think of it as a series of sprites - each frame of its animation being one sprite).
Tile
A block of graphics, 32x24 pixels in size. A Level is made up of a grid of Tiles. Tile can also refer to a position within this grid, for example "If Bouapha steps on the Tile at 2,3, a door opens". That means if he steps on the Tile that is 3rd from the left on the Level, and 4th from the top (coordinates start at 0, and count from the upper left, and are read in X,Y order, which is to say horizontal, then vertical). Walls are kind of special - they consist of a front surface (the Wall) one Tile tall, and a top surface (the Roof), one Tile wide.
User Folder
Not really a term so much, but important to know. This is a folder inside your Supreme folder, which is used to hold any files that worlds need to be played. This includes text files, pictures, and movies. You also must put sound effects in this folder to import them into your world, but once they're imported, they're stored inside the world file itself and don't need to be sent with your world for people to play it.
Wall
A special type of Tile that has height. Normally Tiles are flat on the ground, but Wall Tiles are 32 pixels tall - they have a front face (specifically called the Wall) which is one Tile tall, and then a top face (called the Roof) which is one Tile big. They cast little shadows to help make it clear that they are '3D' walls, and not just two Tiles that happen to be neighboring. Objects can be hidden behind Walls since they have height.
World
A self-contained set of playable Levels, including a Hub, and hopefully some Secret Levels! When you click Play on the title screen, you see a list of all the Worlds available. Worlds are stored in DLW files.
World Tester Guy
The mysterious shadowy figure at Hamumu (not Mike or Sol Hunt!) who tests your add-on worlds and gives you feedback. When WTG gives a world the thumbs-up, we put it up on the website for everyone to download!
WTG
Short for World Tester Guy.
Zyzzyva
The last word in the dictionary in my office - Any of various tropical American weevils of the genus Zyzzyva, often destructive to plants.
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