Docs / User guide

Building levels

Place and arrange models in a level, shape the ground, add zones and sky, and join levels into worlds.

A level is one place you build in: its tiles, objects, zones, sky and music. What you build in the World tab (F1) is exactly what you walk around in after you press Play.

#Moving the camera

• Hold the right mouse button to look around.
• WASD flies, Q / E go down and up, and Shift goes faster.
• The mouse wheel moves forward and back, and F frames the selection.
• Press G to walk while editing: the game character appears in the level and you can walk around while still building with the left mouse. Press Esc or G to stop.

#The tools

Other keys you'll use a lot:

• T toggles the rectangle brush.
• R rotates the selection or the brush.
• PageUp / PageDown change the height level you're working on.
• Arrow keys nudge the selection one tile.
• Ctrl+D duplicates and Delete removes.

#Placing models

Click a model in the Models panel at the bottom to pick it, then use the Place tool (2) to put copies down. You can also drag a model straight from the panel into the world. Press Esc to stop placing.

• Placing on top of an object stacks on it, so you can put a crate on a crate.
• A tree placed on grass keeps the grass underneath.
• Clicking the same spot again selects the next object there, such as a path tile laid over grass.
• Fill (7) replaces every touching tile of one kind with the brush, or fills a gap in empty ground.
• Scatter (9) drops random, randomly turned copies around the cursor. It can use every model with a tag, such as #plant.

The world is a grid. Each model is anchored to a tile and a height level, and turns in 90° steps with Rotate.

#Selecting and moving

• Drag a box over empty ground, or Ctrl / Shift+click, to select several objects.
• Ctrl+A selects every object. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V copy and paste at the tile under the mouse.
• Ctrl+G groups the selection so it moves as one; Ctrl+Shift+G ungroups.
• Right-click an object for its menu: Edit model, Replace with…, Add behavior, Duplicate, Save as prefab, Delete and more.

#Handles

Z, X and C show Move, Rotate and Scale handles on the selection, colored X red, Y green and Z blue. Moves snap to whole tiles, turns to 15° and sizes to ×0.25. Hold Shift for one voxel, 1° and ×0.05. Each drag is one undo step.

#Exact positions

In Properties, Tile X, Tile Z and Level accept fractions, such as 1.1 or 0.5. Alt+arrows and Alt+PageUp / Alt+PageDown nudge by one voxel. Objects can go down to level -1 to sink into the ground. Snap to grid clears the fine offset.

#World size and terrain

Tools ▸ World Size… sets how many tiles wide and deep the world is and how many height levels it has, up to 1024 × 1024 tiles and 128 levels. You choose which side it grows or shrinks on, and it tells you before applying how many objects a shrink would remove.

Tools ▸ Generate Terrain… builds Minecraft-style ground with hills, lakes and caves. Pick a biome (Meadow, Desert or Snowy), how much grows on top, the depth, hill height, seed and number of caves. View ▸ Cut Away Above Level (Alt+9) hides everything above the level you're editing, so you can see into caves.

With Raise / lower terrain (8), click or drag to stack ground one level higher; hold Shift to lower it.

#Prefabs

A prefab is a reusable object, or a whole set of objects such as a camp or a furnished house, with all their behaviors. Select them and use Save selected as prefab… in the Prefabs panel. Drag a prefab into the world to drop a copy. If you change one copy, Apply to every copy updates them all.

Prefabs are also saved to a library on your computer, so they show up in every project.

#Zones

Use the Zone tool (V) and drag on the ground to make a named area: a town, a forest, a boss arena. In the game, walking into a zone can show its name as a banner, change the music while you're inside, and run actions on the way in and out.

#Sky and light

Select a world in the Explorer to set its look under Sky & light: sky color, sun, ambient light, fog and ground mist. Presets include Day, Sunset, Night, Overcast, Misty and Cave.

• Glow & look sets bloom, tone, brightness, contrast and saturation.
• Weather adds rain, snow, fireflies, dust motes or falling leaves.
• Day & night sets the day length in minutes and the starting time of day.
• Surroundings fills the view past the edge of the map with scenery, such as Meadow, Mountains, Ocean & islands or City skyline. It's only scenery; you can't walk there.
• Map edge is either Open (walk off and fall) or Walls (invisible walls keep the player in).

To set a world's music, drag a song from the Music panel onto the ground.

#Worlds of levels

A world is a group of levels in order, like World 1: Grass Land. The Explorer shows Worlds ▸ World 1 ▸ its levels. Right-click a world for + New level, Rename…, Make start world and Goal…. Right-click a level to open it, make it the start level, duplicate it, or move it to another world.

#Joining levels

A level's Properties ▸ Joined levels joins its north, south, east or west edge to another level. In the game, walking off that edge takes you into the next level at the same spot.

The World Map (Tools ▸ World Map, Ctrl+M) shows a world's levels as cards laid out by their joins. Pick a level and click + on a free side to make a new level there, already joined both ways. The game's start level has an orange outline and a START tag.

#Goals

Each level can have a goal: a chain of objectives done in order, such as Talk to a character, Collect items, Reach a zone or Defeat enemies. Open it from Explorer ▸ level ▸ Goal. Under the objectives, When this level's goal is complete runs actions such as showing a message, opening a door or winning the game. A world is complete once every level in it that has a goal is complete.

To decide how the whole game is won, see Game settings.

Next: Behaviors and items.