Possibilities of the Level Editor (Preview)

[Öhr]

First of all, you won't see the level editor itself in action here, as it just isn't polished enough to be released or shown to the public.

Though, since the functions are all here, I created a small level, showcasing the possibilities of the current level editor. So, without further ado, here is a short recording of a map entirely created in the soon-to-be-released level editor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-4zwhWzZdI (1080p recommended)

Yes, I simply replaced a map as I was to lazy to edit the main world (aka Nexus), so ignore that. Also, the map itself is a work in progress, so by no means the final version. Also keep in mind that I whipped this level together within three days or so.

The level editor is in a closed beta, so don't ask me or the Hitbox Team. It's finished when it's finished. There is no ETA yet!

But I can tell you a few good (and bad) things about the level editor:

Everything you saw in the game and the video above can be recreated in the leveleditor.
Creating both Single- and Multiplayer levels is possible.
Adding new textures, sprites, music and other data is not possible. Whether it will be possible in the future is unknown.
The editor is within the game, enabling you to switch back and forth testing and editing easily.


Look forward to the level editor update, it'll be worth it (and not just for the level editor) :cool:

[Edeslash]

I'm all sorts of jealous right now. Looks great. Can't wait.

[SolidFake]

I see dozens of issues with this map, mainly that the background doesn't differ from the walls much and that the camera is too far away which makes it hard to see stuff exactly.

[Öhr]

I see dozens of issues with this map, mainly that the background doesn't differ from the walls much and that the camera is too far away which makes it hard to see stuff exactly.which is why it is still a work in progress. No worries!
The camera is also a bit funky here and there as well. I will obviously polish it and release it once the editor is public.

Thanks for your feedback though!

[Tinker]

That looks really cool, and far beyond what I expected the level editor to be. Awesome!

[czulkii]

That looks great O_O. Really cant wait to see more.

[Paprika Killer]

love it, can't wait until it's out

[spiceman]

I've been waiting for something like this for so long. Thanks!! Keep up the hard work guys.

[Hyakitaki]

Did you guys sell 123,033,720 copies of the game??? If you did that is beyond awesome.

[Rairai51]

I know this thread is old but. I wonder if it's gonna be possible to well.. transition songs? Like how it does in the Nexus, go one area, the song fades, goes into another song. I'm curious if it can be done the same in an actual level.

[Öhr]

It is possible to change the volume of the music as well of the track whenever you want.

If you change the song, the currently playing song will fade out (speed can be defined) and the new song will start from the beginning (no fading). No crossfading possible though!

The center of the screen (camera) will trigger the events you can place all over the map and not the character you are playing. (except for text boxes, which will depend on the characters position)

The same is also possible with the color overlay for each layer and the background sounds such as birds and stuff. This will use crossfading though!

Unfortunately, I can't show you a screenshot of the editor just yet. Sorry!

In other news, my level has been approved by hitbox and will be included in the big fat update, to be available on your computer soon. That being said, here are a few screenshots:
http://storage.superconnected.org/img/df1.png
http://storage.superconnected.org/img/df2.png
http://storage.superconnected.org/img/df3.png

The level can be beat easily in under 1 minute and if you're good, you might be able to subtract another 10 seconds! It is an easy level, just like Downhill!

If you got anymore question, I'll try and answer them for you!

[Rairai51]

Thanks for answering! makes me even more excited. The only question is that will the update be coming next month or later? I don't expect that to be answered but it'll make me not get my hopes up a little more.

And nice, I really like how the level is going, by chance how did you even get to try out the beta level editor? Was there a certain form way back than that you got polled into?

Is that water I see under that bridge?? I never saw that element before in the game.

[Öhr]

Check out the park level and you'll notice that you'll be walking over a pond roughly in the middle of the level. :)

As for why I got my hands on that neaty little level editor:
I am not working for them, but I am currently working on a nice little project which will focus on Dustforce's soundtrack. In time, I and/or the Hitbox Team will officially announce my project. Since it isn't finished yet, I refuse to say anything else:p

as for when the update comes out exactly, even I don't know...
I'd say mid-april, though thats my date, not Hitboxes.

[cousinoer5]

I noticed in your video, in the red cave section, you attack what look to be the slime balls from the lab, but at the end, you attack garbage cans and the flying dust thingy from the city levels. So does this mean you have access to all the objects in all 5 environments without being limited to certain tile and sprite sets?

If there's no tile sets or sprite sets, can you use the different types of dust in the same level too? (leaves, goo, dust)

Also, is there a limit to the amount of dust / enemies you can place?

What about a map size limit?

Can you place people and give them dialog boxes?

Sorry for bombarding you with questions, but I'm really excited for the editor, and I want to know what sort of limits there are to making levels.

[Rairai51]

Oh by the way, the way you have the Volcano, it reminds me of Cave Story's area called "Final Cave". I'm really really excited to mess around with this level editor. I'm really excited for the other content coming in, I really hope they put in character filtering for the scoreboards, will give much more hopefulness for alot of players to get up in the scores and not be so harsh on players.

[Öhr]

cousinoer5:
yes, all tilesets are available for the leveleditor simultaneously. As seen in Nexus

I didn't notice a real limit, though if you place too many objects, tiles and so on in one area, you'll see some corruption due to the engines limitation. Here is a screenshot showcasing the issue in Nexus (in level editor mode):
http://storage.superconnected.org/img/dfcorruption.png

Same goes for dust and enemies... I didn't hit the limit.

There is a hidden map called "campaign" in the level folder which is pretty large and composed of three or four smaller levels. It does crash at a certain point, which might just be the engines limit. This might be the reason this huge map got scrapped and got replaced by ~4 smaller versions. You can check it out by replacing a playable one (eg downhill) with this level. The game WILL crash at some point though! There are also multiple unfinished and testing levels in the level folder. Make sure to make a backup of your savegame, as some levels might screw it up!

There seems to be a height and/or width limit of the level, at least for some layers, but there should be plenty of room to play with to get your own map ready! I doubt anyone would make a bigger playable level than Nexus. After all, that isn't really the purpose of this game. Shorter is better^^

You can place NPCs and those text boxes using triggers (those blue/yellow/etc circles in the screenshots above are triggers for color, sounds, music and text). As said, everything you saw in the game can be recreated using the leveleditor :)

Rairai51:
Cave Story is probably one of my favorite games of all time and I believe the Hitbox team listed cave story as one of their inspiration. I never planned to create a cave story like level or even thought about it, though my subconscious might have inspired me to do so.

When I was working on my level, I wanted to create something that wasn't in the game before, such as this lava and snow stuff. These elements are NOT new though, as I simply changed the color of the tiles and objects to suit the environment. Doing so worked pretty well apparently!

[cousinoer5]

That's awesome! Thanks for answering. :)

Now I'm even more excited for the editor! (I didn't even know it was possible to be more excited than I was!)

One last question from me (that I can think of now ;)), I noticed the leaderboard popped up at the end of your video, does this mean they're planning on adding leaderboard and replay support for custom levels?

[Öhr]

That, I do not know. The version I had to create the level is now an older developer build with some extra stuff such as a debug console for logging errors. As for the multiplayer portion that comes with the update, I know just as much as you do.

Since dustforce focuses on beating others, highscores and replays is a must in my opinion. whether or not this will be part of the update, i do not know, but by using some checksum (md5, crc, etc), the levels can be identified and the replay stored on their server for everyone to watch. It's not as simple as that (some cheat checks here and there and other stuff also needs to be implemented), but doable!

[Rairai51]

I'm kinda sad, I tried that campaign level, I replaced it over clocktower and just renamed the clocktower level's file temporarily. It looks like a fun level, too bad you can't see the rest of it..

[Öhr]

most of it got recycled, so we didnt loose it all. here is a complete overview of the map with all parallax layers (slower moving layers) removed and a black background:
http://storage.superconnected.org/img/campaignpanorama.jpg

this image is HUGE: 13862 x 5888 @ 5MB
you have been warned!

P.S. it isnt perfectly aligned but i really dont want to bother with that >_>

[Lifeformed]

There's no limit to the level sizes; that campaign level was abandoned for other reasons. I think it crashes because we put in entities in there that no long exist (it was a really old level).

But yeah, you can have a level 9999 miles long and high and won't have to worry about it lagging or taking a long time or load.

[Öhr]

i just completed my second level and the leveleditor became beta, so here is a preview:
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/2712/133538334193.png

Depicted is the help section, some triggers in the background and the overall overlay of the leveleditor. The map itself is my second level. It has a nice flow and is a bit more difficult than my previous level. It is also slightly longer.

The dustforce update will go live next month and will include multiple user created levels and this sweet sweet leveleditor.

Also a few more things about user created levels:
Once a level gets published, these levels are available on a work in progress website (preview: http://snag.gy/Uci2q.jpg )
It is possible to view highscores and ghosts of others of these levels.

[Jindrael]

Thanks to Hitbox, I'm finally able to lay my hands on the Editor aswell.

Here is my very first attempt at making a level:
Contrast (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUYSovD_FGg&list=UUHc9OQcIj8wmVfq5MEAyOnw&index=1&feature=plcp)

I'm not really used to the editor but I'm making progress and for everyone waiting to get their hands on it aswell: "IT IS AWESOME!"

Jin

[Thron]

I can't wait for the 1st. This all looks great.

[steeh]

hey =D I was streaming my first real session after I got kinda used to the editor so you guys can see how cool it is to work with =D

http://de.twitch.tv/steeh00/b/316236276

im working pretty slowly so feel free to skip the boring parts xD

also here's my first completed map

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVsrRjkYSVA&feature=youtu.be

[Jindrael]

Nice one steeh :D

Here is my second Level.
This time a REALLY easy bronze level, I wanted to get better a decorating that why I mostly concentrated on the looks not on the difficulty of the level.

I'm really happy with the outcome, looks pretty solid if I'm allowed to say so myself xD

Link:
Bridges (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ovdWqRSRGc&list=UUHc9OQcIj8wmVfq5MEAyOnw&index=1&feature=plcp)

Jin

[Öhr]

Nice going there guys!

Let's see some polished maps in the update, wohoo!

[GHM]

May 1st is the day this awesomeness comes out. Cannot wait!

[Jindrael]

Okay I updated my 1st map and made some improvments.

1. I extended the length of the Map
2. Raised the Difficulty of the End
3. One Apple more


Hope you like it:
Contrast (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL7kt0vaXZ8&list=UUHc9OQcIj8wmVfq5MEAyOnw&index=1&feature=plcp)

Jin

[Jindrael]

Sorry for the double post =/

Wanted to share my newest project.

Be terrified:
Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV8-q7GjLho&feature=youtu.be)

Jin

[Tinker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3uplKAac8w&feature=youtu.be

Highway, easy-going level

[Rairai51]

Downfall Blitz - Silver Difficulty atleast thats the way I can see it from my point of view since I made it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ujm0wNgC10&feature=youtu.be

[steeh]

wow tinker and rairai, very fancy and nicely decorated routes you have there =D

Im currently just trying to find my possibilities in order to make stages exactly how I want but this is what came out the last days of trying out ^^

http://de.twitch.tv/steeh00/b/316413398 very first tryout. I got back to this map to play with the background which looks kinda creepy with the mansion style combined :D

http://de.twitch.tv/steeh00/b/316413532 a short map I made,I like the contrast of black on white background even more than the other way around =D (thx jin for teaching me stuff :D)

http://de.twitch.tv/steeh00/b/316413719
This here I will definitely get back to when the real editor comes out. I enjoyed ghost parapets so much I decided to make a little hommage :D I even found an any% route which I had a lot of fun with already :D (http://de.twitch.tv/steeh00/b/316414351)

[Öhr]

http://www.reddit.com/r/dustforce/comments/swne8/dustforce_mappack_update_gateway_preview/

this is my second level. enjoy!

[Kenetec]

Looks like awesome ! :D

So May 1st is finally the release date for the Level Editor.

Cant' wait for it !

[Tinker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3uplKAac8w&feature=youtu.be

Highway, easy-going level

And here's the final (or at least, for now) version! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME-v5wAl1Bs

You guys are pretty amazing, I've seen a lot of really cool maps already.

[Tinker]

Meanwhile, the pinnacle of level creation has been reached, everyone can stop trying now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMijZ36VNiQ

[steeh]

Meanwhile, the pinnacle of level creation has been reached, everyone can stop trying now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMijZ36VNiQ

LOL :D

[Rairai51]

I just thought idea of using those stones as thwomps from mario haha, to make them just jump straight up put walls on both sides. Bam, mario.

[Jindrael]

Hey guys :)

Very nice design on your map Tinker, I wish I was this good at backgrounds =/

Well here is my finished?!?! Map:
Debugging (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn5OxHX2BLo&list=UUHc9OQcIj8wmVfq5MEAyOnw&index=1&feature=plcp)

Jin

[steeh]

Hey guys :)

Very nice design on your map Tinker, I wish I was this good at backgrounds =/

Well here is my finished?!?! Map:
Debugging (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn5OxHX2BLo&list=UUHc9OQcIj8wmVfq5MEAyOnw&index=1&feature=plcp)

Jin

hideout+giga in one stage *frightened* xD

[Rairai51]

I renamed my map from Downfall blitz to "Excavation Site"

I finished and completed it and will publish it when the update goes live.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWdNfuMkfjM&feature=youtu.be

[deetee]

These maps all look very cool. Does the update drop today at some point?

[Öhr]

the devs are on it and are ironing some leftover issues out. It should definitely come out very very soon, but as I am not the guy taking care of the bugs and free dlc, I dunno if itll be done today. It's ready when it's ready :)

EDIT: it should happen today and probably within the next few hours