Pekka Kana 2 Level Editor (0.91 beta) Manual

Piste Gamez 2003. Home page: http://www.pistegamez.net
Copyrighted by Janne Kivilahti 2001-2004

With this program you can create your own episodes and maps to Pekka Kana 2 game.

Like Pekka Kana 2, the editor is a full screen application. So you might want to print this
manual or make notes before running the program.

This is the manual for the editor's beta version. Both manual and editor are work in process.
Report bugs and improvement ideas to me (janne.kivilahti [ at ] mbnet.fi) or to Piste Gamez
forum at http://pistegamez.proboards.com

The forum should be the first place to look for solutions to problems. I hope some sort of a
community would form there. People helping each other and so on. You know how it goes :)

What's new in Version 0.91?

1. Automatic saving of settings.

You can continue now from where you left of last time.

2. Backup copies x 2

The editor makes to backp copies of you map automaticly. Everytime you exit the
editor, a file 'backup.mop' is written to the editor's folder. This file includes the
map as it was when you left the editor. This is for those 'ooops-moments',
when you left the editor and then remembered that you forgot to save. Just
rename the backup.mop to e.g. backup.map and copy it to your episode's folder
and load it in the editor.

The other copy is saved in your episode's folder in cases where another program
minimizes the editor window. This causes the editor to crash. Now, before crashing
the editor saves you work to 'backup.map' file. And thanks to the automatic
saving of settings, you can continue you work immediately when you start the
editor again. Since I'm such a crappy programmer, so I wasn't able to fix this bug,
but now the editor will just shut down when the window is minimized.

Now, I'm sure you are all wondering...

Where can I send my maps?

Well, don't send your maps to me, please. First of all, I have a 56k modem and my mailbox
will probably die a horrible death if you all start sending me your maps. Second,
I don't have the space to host your maps. I'd love to, but I can't.

So instead, use the forum Luke. Get your maps on some server and then post your
links there. It'll be much faster that way too. :)

Download installation program (pk2editor.exe) from Piste Gamez site.

Run the installation program and follow instructions. I recommend that you
install the editor to the same directory, where you have installed Pekka
Kana 2.

[IMPORTANT] When you run the editor for the first time, the editor tries to find the directory
where the game is installed. If you haven't installed the editor to the same directory
with the game, you need to use the Files Window (press F5 in the editor) to navigate
to that directory. You only need to do this once.

Creating a new episode is a easy as making a new folder in Pekka Kana 2's 'episodes' directory.

Open the directory (or folder as Windows people call it) where Pekka Kana 2 is installed.
E.g. C:\Games\Pekka Kana 2

Open 'episodes' directory.

Create a new directory. The name of the directory is the name of the episode. E.g. MyEpisode.

Done. Now that was easy, wasn't it boys and girls? :) Now the tough part: Creating levels for
our new episode. It's time to run the editor.

In editor you can make a window appear and disappear pressing it's shortcut key. For example pressing
F1 function key causes Help Window to come visible Pressing it again makes it go away. You can move the windows
by moving the mouse cursor on top of the heading and pressing the left mouse button while dragging the window.
An alternative method to close a window is to click the little cross at the right top corner.

Use ESC key to exit editor.

Tiles are the building blocks of levels. You can change the tile palette of your map by loading a new one in Files Window.

To select a tile, left click on it. Then you can use it in the edit mode.

Here is a brief explanation of what the different tiles do:

Tiles 1-40
Normal wall tiles.

Tiles 41-50
Special wall tiles.
41: Special floor that is not displayed in the game.
Player or any other sprite can't fall through it.
42: Horizontal elevator.
43: Vertical elevator.
44: Trap wall (moves up when blue switch is pressed)
45: Trap wall (moves right when green switch is pressed)
46: Trap wall (moves down when blue switch is pressed)
47: Trap wall (moves left when green switch is pressed)
48: Lock wall. Lock wall vanishes when a key touches it.
All lock walls in a map will disappear if player collects all the keys.
49: Skull Switch Wall (foreground). If player hits a Skull Switch sprite,
this wall will disappear.
50: Skull Switch Wall (background). If player hits a Skull Switch sprite,
a Skull Switch Wall (foreground) will appear in the foreground layer if this
wall is in the background layer.

Tiles 51-60
Hill tiles.

Tiles 61-80
Animated tiles. All these tiles work as walls, but tiles 61, 66, 71, and 76 are animated using the rest of the animated tiles.

Tiles 81-130
Normal background tiles.

Tiles 131-140
Water tiles. All these tiles work as backgrounds. They work as water only
if drawn to background layer.

Tiles 141-150
Special tiles
141: Wind to the left. Draw in foreground layer.
142: Wind to the right Draw in foreground layer.
143: Smoke tile
144: Hideout tile (some sprites duck behind this tile)
145: Fire tile (goes out when orange switch is pressed)
146: Orange switch. Draw in foreground layer.
147: Blue switch. Draw in foreground layer.
148: Green switch. Draw in foreground layer.
149: Start tile. Every map needs at least one. Draw in foreground layer.
150: Exit tile. Every map needs at least one. Draw in foreground layer.

Sprites are enemies, friendly characters, bonuses, doodles and eggs, info signs, and background objects that appear in the game. You can load new sprite types to your map using the Files Window. By default, a rooster sprite type is loaded and set to be the player character.

Click a sprite type to select it. After you have selected a sprite type, you can use it in edit mode.

You can delete a sprite type from your sprite list by moving the mouse cursor over the sprite and by pressing DELETE-key.

By default, the rooster sprite is set as the character that player will be controlling when he/she is playing the map. However, you can change the player character by pressing the "Set player" -button of some other sprite.

Use the arrows at the bottom to scroll the list up and down.

Left side of the window displays a list of files in a
directory. What files are displayed, depends on
what kind of files you are looking for (maps,
sprites, image files with tile palettes etc.).

Use Files Window to save your map and to load various objects to your map.

SAVE
A new window will appear asking you

MAPS
The editor remembers the last directory where it found maps.
All files of type .MAP are listed. Click a file on the list
to load a map.

TILES
If Pekka Kana 2 directory has been found, this button will
take you to game's gfx/tiles directory. All files of type
.BMP and .PCX are listed. Click a file on the list to load a
new tile palette.

SPRITES
If Pekka Kana 2 directory has been found, this button will
take you to game's sprites directory. All files of type
.SPR are listed. Click a file on the list to load a new sprite.

SCENERY
If Pekka Kana 2 directory has been found, this button will
take you to game's gfx/scenery directory. All files of type
.BMP and .PCX are listed. Click a file on the list to load a
new background image.

MUSIC
If Pekka Kana 2 directory has been found, this button will
take you to game's music directory. All files of type
.XM, .MOD, .IT, and .S3M are listed. Click a file on the list to load
new background music. You can't preview the song in the editor.

From Map Information Window you can see and edit various information about your map:

Version:
The version number of the map's file format.

Name:
The name of the map. This information is displayed at the game's map window.

File Name:
The file where this map is saved.

Creator:
The name of the map's creator. This information is not shown in the game (yet).

Tile Picture:
Image file (.bmp or .pcx) from which the map's tile palette is loaded.

Background Picture:
Image file (.bmp or .pcx) from which the map's background image is loaded.

Background Music:
Music (module) file (.xm, .mod, .it or .s3m) from which the map's background music is loaded.

Level:
1 means that level is the first level of the episode, 2 second etc.
0 means that the level isn't visible. I kinda planned that level
0 would work as a bonus level in future versions of the game.
So don't use value zero (yet).

Time:
Set it to something greater than 00:00 if you want to set a time limit
to your map.

Background Scrolling:
Click the button to toggle between different options.

Special:
Click the button to toggle between different weather conditions.
Note, that option SNOW is not yet supporter in 1.1 version of Pekka Kana 2.

Map Icon:
1 = Question mark
2 = Forest Hill
3 = Forest Hill at Night
4 = Deep Forest
5 = Deep Forest at Night
6 = Field
7 = Field at night
8 = Mountains
9 = Castle
10 = Red Castle
11 = Cave
12 = Boss Battle
13 = Factory

Map X and Map Y:
Map's coordinates on episode map. If left to zero,
default values will be used in game.

Edit view displays a 32x24 area of the map. The entire map is 256 tiles wide and 224 tiles high. You can scroll the visible area with arrow keys or moving the mouse cursor to any edge of the visible area.
The edit view also displays various information about the map.

Layers

The map is divided into three overlapping layers: Background layer, foreground layer, and sprite layer. You can toggle between the foreground and background layers using the right SHIFT key. The sprite layer is always visible. A layer is editable only if it is visible.

When drawing tiles to foreground layer, it's important to know if the tile is a wall or a background tile (see Tile Palette Window for more details). Wall tiles will work as obstacles only if they are drawn to foreground layer. When you draw tiles to background layer, it doesn't matter if the tile is a wall or not, because tiles in the background layer never work as obstacles. Also, background tiles are never obstacles.

When the mouse cursor is not on a window, edit mode is on.
In edit mode you can edit the map by adding tiles and sprites
to it. Use Tile Palette Window or Sprites Window to select a tile
or sprite you want to use as a drawing tool.

Here is a list of controls available in edit mode:

Left mouse button: Draw a tile or a sprite.
Right mouse button: Remove a tile or a sprite.

Right SHIFT: Toggle between visible layers.
A: Animate all moving tiles (elevators and switches).
U: Undo last change
Arrow keys: Scroll the map area.

It is also possible to cut, copy and paste areas of the map.
Note, that only visible layers change when you cut or paste.
Also, sprites can't be copied, pasted or cut. You need to add
or remove them one by one. Also, you can't paste anything
from foreground layer to background layer or vise versa.

Cut:

- Hold down right ALT and move mouse cursor to select an area.
- Press CTRL+X.

Copy:

- Hold down right ALT and move mouse cursor to select an area.
- Press CTRL+C.
Note, that both foreground and background layers are copied.

Pattern Paste:

In Pattern Paste you select an area and then press CTR+V. The
selected area will be filled with copied area. If the destination area is
bigger than the source area, the source area will be used as a
looping pattern to fill the destination area.

Simple Paste:

In Simple Paste you move the mouse cursor to that location
where you want to paste the area on the clipboard and
press CTRL+B.