RoomShaker Tutorial:
Creating A New Level

 

This Tutorial assumes that RoomShaker is setup correctly on your system See Tutorials: Setting up RoomShaker & POPLM.

In this tutorial we will create a small level from scatch which will cover many of RoomShaker's features. After we have created the level we will also save it as a level-set file using the Prince of Persia Levels Manager (POPLM).

Part 1: Placing rooms (Layout View)

For more information on moving rooms, see Tutorials: Moving rooms around.

Load up RoomShaker and load level 1, now go to the "Tools" menu and select "Send Level To Buffer". The entire level is removed from the grid and placed into the room buffer.

now, this level requires some rooms. Left-click and hold room 1 on the room buffer, room 1 has a blue number in the center because it currently has the player starting position. Drag this room down to the grid (anywhere on the grid, it dosen't matter where the room is placed) and release the left mouse button.

Room 1 is now part of the level, notice that it still contains its internal room information? This will be changed soon however we want a level that is made of more rooms than just this one so left-click and drag room 2 from the buffer down onto the grid and place it directly to the right of room 1.

These two rooms are now linked together, with some room modifications the player will now be able to move from room 1 to room 2 & vice-versa.

For the next two rooms that we will place into our new level we will use the "Insert" feature. This feature will allow us to pick the room from a dialog box. OK, right-click on the empty grid spot directly below room 1 then select "Insert Room" from the popup menu. In the dialog box, pick room 3 from the list and click OK.

Try this again except pick a grid spot that is not next to a room. Notice that "Insert Room" is grayed out on the popup menu?. This is because the insert feature requires a grid spot that connects to the level.

OK, using the insert feature once more we will place room 5 underneath room 2. right click the empty grid spot just below room 2, select insert room from the popup menu. In the dialog box, pick room 5 and click OK.

We now have some rooms to create our level in. In part 2 we will change these rooms into something more playable.

Part 2: Changing tiles (Room editing)

Before reading further please read the following tutorials:
Changing Multiple Tiles (Selection Modes)
Understanding the Tile-Indicator Bars
These will help you understand the next section a little better and allows me to skip over some of this stuff and focus on the new level.

OK we'll start the room edit tutorial by editing room 1's tile data. Right-click on room 1 and select "Edit Room". RoomShaker will now go to room edit mode with room 1 active.

Firslty, have a look at the arrows around the sides of the grid. Notice that the green arrows have the room numbers of the other rooms that connect to this room?. If you click on the green arrows, RoomShaker will move to the corresponding room. Try this now, click the arrow pointing right, RoomShaker is now editing room 2, now click the arrow pointing left to return to room 1. The red arrows indicate that there is no room connected to that edge. Notice that there are no Tile-Indicator bars along these edges?.

In room 1, right click the mouse and select "Clear Room" from the popup menu, in the warning box click OK.
NOTE: In RoomShaker 1.49 or higher, the clear room feature is also available in the layout view as well, right click a room and select "Clear Room" from the popup menu.

Now that we know how to navigate the rooms, using the arrows go to each room and clear them. This will make the whole level blank.

Time to start creating the new rooms. Edit room 3 by navigating to room 3 with the arrows or selecting "Edit Room" from the "Level" menu and entering 3 in the dialog box.

Using the selection modes, select the tiles as shown in the following diagram.

We are going to change these selected tiles into "Wall" tiles. To do this, select "Wall" from the "Tile" dropdown list box on the edit toolbar.
Tip: This can also be done by pressing the "Insert" key on your keyboard.

Your room 3 will now look like this:

Notice how RoomShaker keeps these tiles selected?. Unselect all selected tiles by clicking outside the grid, as covered in the Selection Modes tutorial.

Next we want a row of floor through the middle, row-select the center row and select "Floor" from the "Tile" dropdown list box on the edit toolbar.
Tip: With RoomShaker v1.49 or higher this can also be done by pressing the "F" key on your keyboard.

Your room 3 should now look like this: