Overview

Welcome to the Level Editor Documentation! The documentation is here to give you tips on how to make levels, limitations, and help with using the level editor.

If you need additional help that this documentation doesn't explain, join the discord and ask your question there! Either I'll respond or someone with experience will respond to your question. I will add Frequently asked questions from discord here in the FAQ section.

Getting Started

Here are some tips on how to start creating your first level and overcome white page syndrome.

1. Create a Level

   Navigate to the Create Level option in the Main Menu. When you create a level, it will prompt you to enter a name for the map. This name can be changed anytime and your local name can be different from your published map on the Steam Workshop.

2. Starting a Level

   Once the editor is open, you will have an empty field. In order to configure modes, navigate to the Level Options and select either PvE or PvP. A level is one or the other and cannot be both.

3. Game Mode Requirements

   PvE only has one mode. You start at a PvE starting checkpoint, and reach a PvE finish line.

   PvP modes each have requirements for every mode. You can hover over each mode to see what the requirements are for each mode. Adding spawns is enough for most modes. Some modes like Soccer need ball spawns and other mode specific actors. Depending on the mode, it can override other modes from working. For example, making a map for Soccer, will make the map no longer work in Team Deathmatch.

4. Save Your Level

   Press Save to save your level. Levels are stored locally and are synced with the Steam Cloud. Congratulations, you've officially started your first level!

5. Uploading your Level

   Navigate to the main menu Create Level option. All of your created maps will be listed. Hit the Upload on a map to open the upload screen. You cannot manually change the supported game modes, as you can only upload maps with game modes that are verified during the save process. The thumbnail is auto-generated from the Thumbnail Camera in Creative. While uploading, you can define the level difficulty.

   Here is a general definition for difficulties in each mode:

   PvE

   • Easy - The level is easy to navigate with no hazards or enemies.
   • Medium - The level has some hazards and enemies
   • Hard - The level has lots of hazards and enemies. You will most likely over and over without a good knowledge of the game.
   • Impossible - The level took an experienced player multiple hours to verify and is only meant for pros of the game.

   PvP

   • Easy - The level is easy to navigate with no hazards
   • Medium - The level has some hazards
   • Hard - The level has lots of hazards and requires skill to navigate
   • Impossible - The level requires a lot of skill to navigate and has lots of hazards. Playing it, your almost more worried about the level than the players.

Interface

The Level Editor interface is composed of several key panels:

• Adjust the Location Snapping.
• Adjust the Rotation Snapping.
• Adjust the scale Snapping.
• Use Global Alignment.
• Use Local Alignment.
• Toggle Ghost Mode. When Ghost Mode is enabled you can move through walls.
• Toggle Trigger Selection. When enabled you can select triggers. When disabled, selection ignores triggers.
• Basic Blockout shapes like cubes and cylinders. Can have custom materials applied to them.
• Models used in games like Rocks, Trees, and Landscapes.
• All assets that can affect the players movement like Jetpacks and Trampolines.
• Special Assets that affect gameplay like player starts, checkpoints, etc.
• A list of custom models you've imported.
• Change an actors transform and settings. Most settings have descriptions for what they affect. If something is confusing, message on Discord.
• Change level settings like whether the map is PvE/PvP, adjust loadouts, and see what PvP Game Modes are supported.
• Open a menu to create custom assets like materials, textures, and models.
• Save your level. There is NO autosave so you must do it manually. This can take some time depending on how many actors are in your level.
• Exit the level editor. You can hit Escape to open the pause menu and exit there as well.

Custom Materials & Textures

To create custom materials and textures, open the Custom Assets menu. Materials can only be applied to specific objects. To create a new material, hit add. Once creating a material, you have multiple options, here's a description of what some of the parameters do:

Here are some tips for making materials:

• Ensure your textures are squares: Your textures should be a square, meaning they're the same resolution in X and Y. Some common texture sizes are: 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048. You can go higher than 2048x2048 but its not recommended since the bigger your texture, the more memory it takes up.
• Use Nice and not painful colors: Don't use bright purples and whites to blind the player, darken your color a little bit. All materials are brightened in The Stickman by default to make the game look flatter and more cartoonish.

If you want to use materials or textures from a previous map you created into a new map, that's totally possible! You just have to do some extra work. Navigate to the save files for the game, this should be in C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Local\Stickman\Saved\Levels. Here you will see every created map separated as a folder.

Open the folder you want to copy the material from. In the folder you will see a Materials folder. In the folder you will see .txt files which define the material instructions, along with a .png under the same name which is the thumbnail for the material. It's important you copy BOTH the .txt and .png file. Copy them, navigate to the new map and paste them in the Materials folder there. If your material references textures, you MUST copy those as well or you risk crashing the game or causing a fatal error.

Open the folder you want to copy the texture from. Open the Materials and navigate to Textures. In the textures folder you will see all imported textures. Simply copy the ones you want to migrate from this folder into the new maps Textures folder.

Custom Thumbnail

You can add custom thumbnails to your map to make it look more professional instead of using the in-game captured screenshot. It's really easy to add your own thumbnail and must be done in game if you want the thumbnail to be persistent between saves.

1. Open the Level Options menu and scroll down.
2. Find the custom thumbnail option and select the text.
3. Select an image on your computer to use as a thumbnail.

Custom Models

To create custom models, open the Custom Assets menu. Custom Models allow for even more control over the assets you want to use in your level. Here is how you can import your own models along with some tips:

1. Open the custom assets menu.
2. Click on the custom models tab.
3. Hit add and select your model.

It's that easy! Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Be mindful of your poly count. It adds up! For reference, most weapons (hero objects) are ~4000 vertices maximum. Trees and rocks are all less than 1000 vertices each.
• Models only support a single material slot. If you need to apply multiple materials, you'll have to separate the model by material.
• Tangents will be recalculated by default when importing a model. This will be added as an option in the future.

Setting up Soccer

For creating a soccer map, the goals should be at certain locations.

1. Team 1 goal should be -X.
2. Team 2 goal should be +X.

You can place the goals wherever you like on the Y and Z, just the X has to be configured to these parameters.

Official Level Process

Building a level takes a lot of time for The Stickman because of how advanced the movement is. It can take lots of iterative time to make sure its completable at different speeds, jumps are doable, the path is clear, and making sure the encounter isn't too slow. Some of this can be applicable to the Level Editor but here is my full level creation process:

1. Encounters and Movement: First thing I do is think of a movement mechanic, and an encounter that can work well with it. Typically I draw this out in a notebook and think about everything that can be exploited and can go wrong. Players will want to do everything they're not supposed to naturally so keep that in mind.
2. Movement Mechanic: I tend to create the movement mechanic before doing any blockout. I program it and test it multiplayer before moving on.
3. Draw the Level: Drawing the level in a notebook is very advantageous. None of my final levels were 1:1 with my drawings, but it helps overcome white page syndrome.
4. Blockout: After the Movement Mechanic and level has been drawn, I blockout the level with basic shapes like Cubes and Cylinders. Typically I don't have the assets made yet so I just use basic shapes. It's also easier to move a single asset, rather than the base platform and all models on top of it.
5. Final Theming: After blocking out the level and testing, I go through and add all modular themed assets and models to the level to make it look pretty instead of some grid patterns.

Tips & Best Practices

• Use a Consistent Grid: Use a consistent grid for all assets so they fit together, I typically use a 50 location snap while making levels.
• Be Mindful of Performance: Pay attention to how many models you are adding to a level. While the game is pretty low-poly to help with performance, lots of assets can slow the game down.
• Test Frequently: Regularly Play your level to see if your level is completable and it saves you from a lot of hassle down the road.

FAQ