PolyMap tutorial for version Pre-Alpha 0.3.0
Yes, I know, an in-game tutorial would be a lot nicer. That’s coming in the next update. But for now, this will have to do.
This tutorial will run you through the steps that you need to take to create your very first (very basic) map.
Setup
Click the “Map Editor“ button on the title screen, and select “Create New” in the bottom right corner of the window that just popped up. After entering a name for your new amazing map, press enter, or click the arrow in the input field.
UI
Let’s go through the UI. All the important controls are on the left of the screen.
Selectors
You can use these selectors to select what types of items and shapes you want to add to the current room.
Dock
Here are all the dock icons, from left to right.
Open - Open existing rooms.
Save - Save the current room.
Clear - Clears the room of all shapes and items. Doesn’t delete any saved rooms.
Switch - Switches between shape and item mode.
Wrench - Opens the room preferences.
Plus - Adds a new shape in shape editing mode.
At the top left, you can see the name of the map, and below that you can enter a name for the current room. You can edit the map preferences by pressing the cog icon next to the map name.
Creating and manipulating shapes
Move your mouse over to the selectors, click “Floor and Walls”, and then click the plus button in the dock. This creates a new shape that has a floor and walls surrounding it. Click the shape in the editor to activate editing on it.
You can manipulate the shape by dragging the points around. Holding down control while dragging a point locks the movement of the point to a grid. You can add new points by right clicking between two points. You can delete points by shift-right clicking a point. (All shapes must have at least 3 points.)
Try making the shape you just created a square.
You can also move the entire shape. Make sure the shape is selected, and move it with your mouse, just like you would a point. Control + drag locks to grid. Pressing backspace when the shape is selected (the points are visible) deletes the shape.
Creating and editing items
Press Tab or the switch icon in the dock to toggle between the shape and item modes.
When in item mode, use the selectors to select the spawnpoint. It looks like the letter S.
Click anywhere on the map to create the spawnpoint. You can move it just like a point.
Put the spawnpoint inside the room you created. Then, while holding down the mouse button over it, press E. This opens the item editor on the left.
You can edit the settings of the spawnpoint here. You can rotate it, and set the name of it.
Let’s set the name to “spawn“.
After setting the name, click outside the spawn point name text box (to make sure that you won’t keep writing to it) and press E again to close the editor.
Some other items also have special data that you can edit:
Doors
You can set the room it should load, the name of the spawnpoint it should go in the next room. Or should the door just end the map.
The key amount slider does not work yet, as the game does not have any keys implemented yet.
Loot Chests
What loot should the chest spawn when opened and how many.
Powerups
What powerup should be given to the player when they pick it up.
Text
What text should the text box display?
All items can be rotated. You can delete an item by right clicking it.
Room preferences (optional)
To edit the preferences of the room that you can currently in, just press the wrench icon in the dock.
Here you can control the camera mode, zoom, and position lock coordinates.
For your first room, I’d suggest leaving these settings untouched.
Finishing up
Click the room name input field and enter “start“ in it.
Save the room by clicking the save button in the dock.
All maps that you make should have a starting room and a starting spawnpoint set in the map preferences. Otherwise it fails to load. Let’s set those.
Click the cog icon next to the map name.
Put “start“ in the “Starting room name“ field, and “spawn” in the “Starting spawnpoint name” field.
Press X on the top right corner to close the preference editor, and save the room again using the save button in the dock.
Playing your new map
Close the map editor by clicking the X in the top right corner, and then close the Select map view. Click Start Game and choose the map you just created.
If you followed the instructions correctly, the game should load the map you just created.
If you run into any problems, feel free to send an email to support [at] lastquarterstudios [dot] com.
