StealthBastard - Editor Tutorial

Stealth Bastard: Level Editor Tutorial Page 1

LEVEL EDITOR TUTORIAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ..................................................................................................... 2

Level Editor Basics .......................................................................................... 3

Creating a New Level ........................................................................... 3

The Context Menu: Main Menu and Object Menus ....................... 3

Setting up the Level ....................................................................................... 4

Collision Blocks ................................................................................................ 4

Start Point and Exit Point ............................................................................... 6

Moving Platforms ........................................................................................... 6

Toggle Switches .............................................................................................. 7

Lights, Security Cameras and Lasers .......................................................... 8

Pressure Switches ........................................................................................... 9

Lasers and Invisible Moving Platforms Revisited ..................................... 12

Robots, Portals and Containment Fields ................................................. 13

Checkpoints .................................................................................................. 14

Secret Panels ................................................................................................. 14

Tiling ................................................................................................................. 15

Background Tiles ................................................................................... 15

Overlay Tiles ........................................................................................... 17

Objects Not Covered in the Tutorial ......................................................... 18

Trigger Areas .......................................................................................... 18

Camera Triggers .................................................................................... 18

NOT Gates .............................................................................................. 18

AND Gates ............................................................................................. 18

Sunlight .................................................................................................... 18


INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Stealth Bastard Level Editor Tutorial!

By now, you’ve probably played through a few levels of Stealth Bastard (but if you haven’t, you should go and do that right now!) and want to create some

fiendish, addictive levels of your own. This tutorial will introduce you to all the editor features you’ll need to recreate a simple example level – and hopefully

start your creative juices flowing!

The above screenshot shows an overview of the completed tutorial level – you may find it useful to refer back to this as you work.

Level Overview


LEVEL EDITOR BASICS Creating a New Level

Start by opening up the game and clicking Make Levels from the main

menu.

You’ll open up the Level Editor and be presented with a new, blank level.

To keep your workspace clutter-free, all the game objects, tiles and menu

options are contained in a context-sensitive menu, which you can bring up

with a right-click.

The Context Menu: Main Menu and Object Menus

When you right-click somewhere on the screen in the level editor, a menu

will appear. This menu is context-sensitive (meaning that it changes based

on what you have selected), and takes two basic forms: the main menu

and object menus.

When you right-click in a blank space in the editor, you’ll bring up the

“main menu”, which applies to the level as a whole. From here you can set

the properties for the level, create new objects and access the save/load

features of the editor.

To set properties for individual objects, you’ll need to first select them with a

left-click, then right-click over them to bring up their “object menu”.

Main Menu / Object Menu (for a Switch object)


SETTING UP THE LEVEL We’ll kick things off by setting the room width and height. The level we want

to make will be 800px wide by 360px high, so right-click to bring up the

main menu, then point to Set and click on Room Width. Type “800” in the

dialog box that appears and hit Enter. Open up the global menu a second

time, then go to Set Room Height and set the height to 360px.

Let’s save our level before we go any further. From the main menu, go to

File Save Level (or just press Ctrl + S) and the editor will request that you

give your level a name. Let’s call this level “Tutorial” (you can always

change this name later via Set Level Name).

COLLISION BLOCKS The simplest object in the editor, and the one we’ll create first, is the

Collision Block. Collision Blocks are the black rectangles that make up the

floor, walls and moving platforms in the game. Bring up the main menu and

click on New Collision Block to create your first block.

There are a few things worth noting here.

Firstly, you might notice that the Help panel, in the top-right corner,

has changed to reflect that you have an object selected. The

keyboard shortcuts listed here will come in handy for manipulating

your object! (If the Help panel gets in your way, you can hide it by

pressing H on your keyboard.)

Secondly, you’ll see that in addition to the Help panel, an Info panel

has appeared. This Info panel summarises the various properties of

your selected object – useful as a quick reference. (You can hide

the Info panel with I).


Lastly, the “Complexity” meter up the top of the screen is no longer

completely empty – a little bar of orange has appeared within it.

This meter gives an indication of how many objects you have in your

level – if the bar gets close to filling up, your level probably has too

many objects in it (meaning your framerate – or the framerate of

other players using slow computers – is likely to drop), so keep an

eye on it. Yellow in the bar represents non-shadow-casting lights,

orange represents collision blocks, red represents shadow-casting

lights and cyan represents tiles.

Make sure your first collision block is selected (it should be highlighted in red

– if it isn’t, left-click on it to select it), then set its width by right-clicking on it

and selecting Set Width. Type in “288” and hit enter. Similarly, set the

height to 144 through Set Height. Click and drag your resized block into

the lower left-hand corner of the level as shown in the picture below (note

that it protrudes beyond the bottom of the level a little bit, but the top, left

and right sides align with the grid).

Create the rest of the collision blocks as shown above, resizing them with

the mouse wheel (note the shortcuts listed in the Help panel) or by right-

clicking on them and selecting Set Width and Height. You may find it

useful to switch the grid on, which you can do by pressing G, and you can

also switch white outlines on by pressing O.

You’ll need to pan across your level to place all these blocks, which you

can do by holding down the spacebar and click-and-dragging with the left

mouse button, or just by click-and-dragging with the middle mouse button.

Note that the gap between the 128 x 48 block and the 560 x 16 block is 3

grid squares wide (48px) – this will be important later.


START POINT AND EXIT POINT Create a start point for your level by bringing up the global menu, then

selecting New Logic Object Start Point. Drag it into position as shown

below. Here, I’ve also set the light colour to blue, which you can do by

opening the start point’s object menu and selecting Set Light Colour.

Similarly, create the end point for the level through New Logic Object

End Point and set the colour to blue.

MOVING PLATFORMS Let’s create a moving platform for the player to ride down. Create a new

48 x 16 collision block in the area shown and choose Make Moving Platform

from its object menu.

You’ll see two yellow squares appear: these are the platform’s nodes.

IMPORTANT TIP: Note that this is the first time we’ve encountered an

instance of multiple objects (the platform and its nodes) overlapping

each other in the editor. If you find you’re not selecting the object

you intend when you try to click on it, you can hold down the Alt key

on your keyboard to “select through” objects. The Alt key also has

the effect of pausing moving platforms when pressed and held.


If you click on the leftmost node you’ll see that the info panel lists its

“Position in Path” as 1, indicating that this is the moving platform’s 1st node,

where the platform will start. (The right node has a Position in Path of 2,

indicating that it is the 2nd node.) We want the platform to start where it is

now, so we’ll grab the right (second) node and drag it down to the bottom

of the drop, making sure the platform has enough space to fit in this gap

(remember that both the gap and the platform should be 48px wide – go

back to the Collision Blocks section and adjust your collision block

placement if it doesn’t fit). Pull the first node across a little to the right so the

platform’s path is a perfectly straight line, and you should see the platform

moving smoothly up and down the path you’ve created.

TOGGLE SWITCHES Next we’ll set the platform up to respond to a switch. Right-click on the first

(top) node and select Set Off. This means that when the platform

reaches this node in its path, it will stop moving. Since this is the first node in

the path, the platform will start motionless.

Create a new switch via New Level Object Switch, and place it up near

your start point. Switches, by default, start off as “toggles” – meaning that

they will turn ON objects that are currently “off”, and turn OFF objects that

are currently “on”. In this case – for making a platform that moves up and

down in response to the switch – this is exactly what we want.

Right-click on your new switch and go to Link Object 1 to link it to the first

node. You’ll see a yellow link line appear, terminating in a yellow circle over

the linked object. The “1” in the circle indicates that the node is now linked

to the switch’s “Object 1” property.

Then, go to Link Object 2 and link the switch to the second node.

At this point you may want to test your level out – save it by pressing Ctrl + S

(you should be doing this regularly!) and test the level by pressing F1. Your

moving platform should start off at the top node, and move down to the

bottom node on the first flip of the switch. The second flip of the switch

should move it from the bottom node back to the first, and so on. Press F1

again to return to the editor.


LIGHTS, SECURITY CAMERAS AND LASERS Now we’ll set up a security camera, and a light to make the player visible.

Create a new camera (New Level Object Security Camera) and place it

on the wall (refer to the overview screenshot for a broader view of where

I’ve positioned objects in the level). You can adjust the rotation through Set

Rotation (or by pressing R on your keyboard), and the range through Set

Range (or by using the mouse wheel). Here I’ve set the range to 152.

The light used here is an “area light” (New Light Area Light), with a radius

of 128 (Set Radius). I’ve also made the light green through Set Colour.

When placing lights in the editor, it can be useful to check how effective

they are by right-clicking in an area and selecting Tools Check Player

Visibility. We want to make sure the player can’t sneak past this area

unseen, so ensure that the player is FULLY visible when they pass below the

light.

Security cameras on their own aren’t much of a threat to the player – they

need an object to trigger. Create a laser beam above the light (New

Hazard Laser Beam), Set its Rotation to point straight down (270) and

make it Start Off. Then right-click on the camera and choose Set Target

Object to set its target object as the new laser beam. The camera will now

trigger the laser if it sees the player.


PRESSURE SWITCHES If the area light we created before always remains on, the player will never

be able to get past the camera without being killed by the laser. So, we’ll

set up a pressure switch to control the light.

Create a pressure switch using New Level Object Pressure Switch, and

Link its Object 1 as the light. Now, as long as something (the player, a

moveable block or an enemy) is pressing the switch, the light will remain off.

I’ve also added a green “decorative light” (New Light Decorative Light)

below the pressure switch to make it stand out, and to hint to the player

that the switch affects the green area light. The easiest way to choose a

style for your decorative light is to first select it, then browse through the

different available styles using the scroll wheel.

MOVEABLE BLOCKS, DOORS AND ABSOLUTE SWITCHES Unfortunately for the player, he won’t be able to stand on the pressure

switch and walk past the camera at the same time – so let’s help him out

with a moveable block to hold the switch down.

Create a New Level Object Moveable Block and a New Level Object

Door, placing both above the pressure switch as shown below.

Set the door to Horizontal so the moveable block can sit neatly on top of it.

(You should create some new collision blocks around the moveable block,

too, to get your level to look like the overview screenshot – these are to

prevent the player from bypassing your moving platform.)


Create a new Switch and Link its Object 1 as the door. We want an

“absolute” switch here, rather than a toggle, so right-click on the switch

and choose Change to Absolute Switch. Note that Set Target Objects to is

set to “on” by default, which is what we want here – doors are considered

“on” when open and “off” when closed. Now, when the player uses the

switch, the door will open and the moveable block will drop straight onto

the pressure switch, turning off the light and allowing him to pass the

security camera unseen.

PATROLLERS AND INVISIBLE MOVING PLATFORMS Next we’re going to add a “patroller” enemy, starting by setting up a path

for it to move along.

(remember to refer to the overview screenshot if you’re not sure where to

place things)

In Stealth Bastard, every object that moves along a path is linked to an

invisible moving platform – so we’ll set up one of those now. Create a new

16x16 collision block and change it to a Moving Platform. Add two more

nodes to the path by selecting an existing node, then right-clicking on it

and choosing Add Node to Path. Drag the nodes into a rectangular shape

as illustrated in the screenshot below.


By default, the moving platform will follow this path linearly and backtrack

when it reaches the final node in the path. Since we want our patroller to

follow his path in a continuous loop, right-click on the moving platform and

select Set Looping. (Remember you can hold Alt to make the platform

stay still if you’re having trouble clicking on it.) We also don’t want the

platform itself to be visible, so go ahead and Set it to Invisible.

Now we can create our patroller (New Enemy Patroller). Attach him to

the moving platform (Link Moving Platform Position) and your patroller

should be looping around the path!

TERMINALS AND MOVING PLATFORMS REVISITED

Just below this patroller enemy, we’re going to place our first terminal for

the player to hack. Go to New Level Object Terminal and place some

lights around it so the patroller has a chance of spotting the player. Here

I’ve used both an Area Light and a Spotlight (pointing up). I turned shadow

casting off (Toggle Shadows) on the spotlight, since there are no collision

blocks in its path to cast shadows (so the player will see no difference) and I

want to keep my complexity bar as low as possible.

Terminals can do more than just open the level exit – they can trigger

objects, too. Create a Moving Platform as shown below (the top node

needs to be the first one – ensure that its “Position in path” is 1) and Set both

nodes to Off. Then, from the terminal’s object menu, choose Set Target

Object and select the first node. This means that when this terminal is

hacked, the linked platform will move from the first node to the second

(where it will stop).


LASERS AND INVISIBLE MOVING PLATFORMS REVISITED Now we’re going to create a laser attached to a moving platform – similar

to what we did for the patroller enemy – but instead of moving the laser

with the platform, we will simply have it point to the platform.

Create a new Laser Beam and set up an Invisible Moving Platform as shown

below, ensuring the node on the left is the first node (so the laser starts

pointing straight down). Leave both nodes on, but set the platform itself to

Start Off, and set the Pause Time on both nodes to 10 frames – so that

when the platform is turned on, the laser beam will pause briefly at each

node.

Next, set the laser to point in the direction of the invisible platform (Link

Moving Platform Direction). I’ve also added some pink decorative lights

to indicate to the player where the laser will be pointing when it pauses.

(This is an easy thing to check in the editor once the laser’s direction is

linked to the platform – just click on a node and the laser will swing to point

at it.)

INVISIBLE SWITCHES In addition to triggering the moving platform, we want our terminal to start

the laser beam swinging (so the player can slip past), but we have a

problem: terminals can only have one target object!

This is where invisible switches come into play – since switches can be linked

to up to four objects, we can use them to trigger multiple events in

response to a single player action (such as hacking a terminal). You can

even chain switches together for particularly complex designs.

Create a new Switch, then Set it to Invisible. Link it to the object the

terminal is currently linked to: the first node of the visible moving platform.

Next, link it to the invisible moving platform guiding the laser (be careful to

link to the invisible platform itself, and not to its nodes – take note of the

floating tooltip that appears when you’re placing the link).

Then, change the terminal’s Target Object to this new invisible switch.


ROBOTS, PORTALS AND CONTAINMENT FIELDS At this stage of the level, our player has almost reached the exit point! Let’s

create a robot enemy for him to get past.

Insert a robot by going to New Enemy Robot. I started off by placing

some 16x16 collision blocks for him to patrol between, and an Area Light to

give him a chance to spot the player.

Next we’ll create some portals, which are available from New Level Object

Portal. Set the Target Portal of the left-hand portal to the right-hand

portal, so the robot will be teleported back to the right when he reaches

the left portal.

Close off the portals to the player by creating some New Level Object

Containment Fields. These are similar to collision blocks, except that they

only affect the player; the robot will be able to walk through them without

a problem.

TIMERS AND BUZZSAWS A buzzsaw will be the final obstacle for the player to pass before reaching

the exit point. Create one using New Hazard Buzzsaw and Set its Radius

to the smallest possible size (16). Create a new Invisible Moving Platform,

with the top (first) node Off and the bottom (second) node On, and Set the

platform’s Speed to 2. Attach your saw to this platform via Link Moving

Platform.

We want to turn the first node on and off again at regular intervals, so we’ll

create a timer object via New Logic Object Timer. Set the timer to

Repeating, and Set its Timer Period to 160 frames. Then, Link it to the first

node of your moving platform. The buzzsaw should now bounce quickly

between the nodes a few times (five times, if you’ve left a gap of one grid

space between the nodes as I have), then pause at the top node for an

interval. Place another terminal just below the second node for the player

to quickly(!) hack during the buzzsaw’s pause interval.


CHECKPOINTS We’ve filled our level with some fairly threatening obstacles, so it seems only

fair to provide the player with a few checkpoints along the way (New Logic

Object Checkpoint).You can resize checkpoints with the mouse wheel

(like collision blocks), or through their object menus (Set Width and Set

Height).

Be careful when placing checkpoints – try not to put them in dangerous

areas, or the player may respawn at a point where death is unavoidable!

SECRET PANELS To add a little mystery to our level – as well as to make it less visually

overwhelming when the player first loads it up – let’s put a New Logic

Object Secret Panel over the robot section of the level.

I’ve also Linked my invisible switch to the panel, so that when the first

terminal is hacked, the panel will disappear, clearly indicating to the player

where to go next in the level.


TILING The level itself is now complete! Once you’ve tested it a few times and feel

happy that the gameplay is working solidly, you can get on to putting

down some background tiles to make the level a bit more visually

appealing.

Switch to Tile Mode by pressing Tab. There are two tilesets available to you:

background tiles, which you can use to create the level’s “backdrop”, in

various styles, and overlay tiles, which you can place more sparingly to add

atmosphere in the form of pipes, wires, vents, blood splatters and more.

Overlay tiles are designed to be layered on top of background tiles, so we’ll

look at those in a moment and start off by placing some background tiles.

Background Tiles

Once you’re in Tile Mode, you can press and hold T, or the right mouse

button, to bring up your currently selected tileset. (Background tiles should

be selected by default; you can switch between the two tilesets by pressing

A or Enter.)

Select individual 16x16 tiles by left-clicking on them, or multiple tiles by left-

clicking and dragging. You can then place these tiles on the background

of your level by left-clicking.


You’ll probably also find it helpful to switch off some of your level layers

while you tile (particularly the collision blocks). Press L to see the shortcuts for

toggling various layers.

I’ve made some simple background “panels” by using the tiles shown

below. (Refer to the overview screenshot to see an overview of the style

I’ve gone for.)

A finished “panel” should look something like this.

Left-click to place the corner tile.

Left-click and drag to place the top edge tiles.


If you make a mistake, you can delete individual tiles from your level by

hovering over them and pressing Delete on your keyboard. Similarly, you

can move tiles by clicking and dragging them with the Ctrl key held down,

and pick up / “eyedrop” tiles for duplication by clicking on them with the

Shift key held down.

Overlay Tiles

After filling the level with background tiles, I then switched to the overlay

tileset (switch by pressing A or Enter, or by scrolling the mouse wheel) and

added a few overlays around the moving platforms to give the

appearance of “runners”.

Once your tiling is done – that’s it! You’ve completed the Stealth Bastard

Level Editor Tutorial. Now that you’re familiar with the tools in the editor, you

can create some levels of your own design and upload them to the Stealth

Bastard level repository via File Upload Level, so that others can play and

rate them.


OBJECTS NOT COVERED IN THE TUTORIAL

There are a few “logic” objects and one light object not included in this

tutorial level that you may find useful in your own levels:

Trigger Areas

Trigger Areas can trigger a target object when the player steps into

them. Unlike Checkpoint Triggers, which are always One Shot (meaning

they can only activate once: the first time the player steps into them),

trigger areas can be Set to One Shot or Persistent (the latter meaning they

will trigger their target object every time the player steps into them, not just

the first time).

Camera Triggers

Camera Triggers are used to draw the player’s attention to areas

by moving the camera. Like trigger areas, they can be Set to One Shot or

Persistent, and will need to be given an X Offset and / or a Y Offset. When

the player enters a camera trigger area, the camera will move to centre

around the offset point you’ve specified for it.

NOT Gates

NOT Gates reverse the signal of a

switch, effectively changing an ON signal to

an OFF signal and vice versa. For example, you

might want an absolute switch to switch two laser beams OFF, but also to

switch a third one ON. The simplest way to achieve this would be to Link the

switch to the first two lasers and to a NOT Gate, then set the Target Object

of the NOT Gate to the third laser.

AND Gates

AND Gates are used to trigger a

single target object when a number of

conditions are fulfilled. For example, you

might want to create a door that only opens

after two separate switches have been triggered. To do this, you would

need to create an AND Gate, set its Target Object to the door, then Link

the two switches to the gate. Once both switches are pulled, the door will

open.

Sunlight

Sunlight is a shadow-casting light that affects an entire level. If you

place a sunlight object in your level, be warned that the game won’t cull

any offscreen collision blocks to aid framerate. This is because in levels with

sunlight, collision objects can cast their shadows infinitely across the screen,

and so turning them off when they are offscreen would potentially turn off

their onscreen shadows. Best practice is to only use the Sunlight object in

smaller levels, or to use collision objects sparingly in sunlit levels.

Note: If you experience framerate drops in your sunlit levels, you can force

a collision object to always be culled when offscreen by selecting

OffscreenAlways Deactivate from its context menu. However, for the

reasons described above, it is best to be cautious with this setting.

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StealthBastard - Editor Tutorial