Adventure Construction Kit | Help



GENERAL

The Adventure Construction Kit (ACK) is an in-game editor that allows players to design, play and share entire adventures.

This help page covers most of the basic use of the ACK and includes written help and links to video examples.

We can't wait to see what you all create!

ACK CAMERA CONTROLS

PAN CAMERA RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON
ROTATE CAMERA SHIFT + RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON or MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON
ZOOM CAMERA SCROLL WHEEL

SCULPTING

To sculpt, select DESIGN on the top menu. From here, you have 4 choices:

    SCULPT
    • Sculpting allows you to create, remove and modify tiles. Move your indicator to an empty space and press LMB/A to place a new tile. You can also grow, shrink, raise, lower and remove existing tiles via the button combinations displayed at the bottom of the screen. You can open the Palette to select a different material to sculpt with.

    WATER
    • Water is added and removed like regular tiles, however water tiles cannot be raised, lowered, grown or shrunk, and can only ever be at ground level. Water tiles are lowered during the game based on how far away they are from the nearest land, allowing you to create deep water. Players take damage while walking through deep water.

    LAVA
    • Lava functions identically to Water but does not go deep. Players are set on fire and take damage over time from touching it.
    POISON
    • Poison functions identically to Lava, however Players take poison damage over time from touching it.
    MUD
    • Mud functions identically to Lava, however a players movement is slowed down when touching it.

    PAINT
    • Paint allows you to change the material on already placed tiles. Use the palette to change which material you’ll be painting with. You can’t paint Water or Lava tiles.

    TIPS
    • You can highlight areas of tile by holding down E/RT. Any changes you make to a tile that is highlighted will also be applied to all other highlighted tiles. You can a tile by tapping Q/LT or deselect everything by double tapping Q or holding down LT.
    • Use the Context Menu (RMB/BACK) to quickly switch between Sculpt/Paint to quickly fix mistakes.
    • The Context Menu can also be used to Copy and Paste chunks of your Adventure. Simply highlight a section of the level, use Copy and then use Paste to display an approximation of the area you selected. Press LMB/A to place it.
    • Use the eyedropper from the Context menu to quickly switch between modes and change your selection without having to open the palette.

PROPS

Props are used to add detail to your adventure. You can use static props to decorate and light your level, or use interactive props to make dynamic elements like doors, levers, switches and traps. Most props will require a certain amount of space to be placed, the indicator displayed while placing props will change colour to red if the space is being blocked by something. Most props can be rotated and some wall-mounted props can be raised and lowered.

    INTERACTIVE
    • Interactive props allows you to create basic puzzles and logic sequences. You can use the Palette to select between several different types of interactive prop:
      • Doors are automatically opened by the player as they walk nearby, however they can be locked via keys. Gates can be hooked up to other interactive elements and will open when these elements meet a criteria.
      • Moveable Props are special Props that Players can pick up and move. They can be used in conjunction with Pressure Plates.
      • Switches are special Props that can be connected to Gates and some Traps to modify their behaviour. To connect a switch to a Prop, select the switch, select a + symbol and then select a prop to connect it to. If successful, an indicator will be display the two objects as connected.
      • Traps are Props that do damage to nearby Players.
      • Traversable Props currently contain the ladder, which allows Players to climb from the bottom of a tile to the top, and vice versa. They are automatically sized based on their placement.
    DESTRUCTIBLE
    • Destructible objects are special props that can take damage and be destroyed by players.
    CHESTS
    • Chests are special Props that can be opened by players. Chests can either drop loot, potions, or keys.
    STATIC
    • Static props are non-interactive and can be used to decorate and light your Adventure.
    BRIDGES
    • Bridges are wall-mounted Props that can be used to connect two tiles. Bridges automatically adjust their length based on their location and rotation.
    STEPS
    • Similar to Bridges, Steps are wall-mounted Props that automatically generate a set of stairs to an appropriate height.
    DECALS
    • Decals are flat Props that are attached to the Ground or Wall.
    TIPS
    • Props that are marked as having VARIATIONS allow you to keep clicking on the tile once the prop is down to cycle through each of the variations.
    • Use the Context Menu Eyedropper option to quickly switch between Prop categories.
    • Some Chest types contribute to the Difficulty. Players dying too quickly? Place a few Potion chests to even the odds.

ENTITIES

Entities are special objects that Players interact with. Some of these are required in order to Publish your Adventure.

    SPAWN
    • Spawn Points are where Players will start your Adventure. There can only be one spawn point for an Adventure. To move your spawn point from it’s starting location, simply select a new location and the Spawn Point will be moved.
    ENEMIES
    • Enemies are the AI driven hostiles that Players will fight. You can pick from a variety of enemies via the Palette. Once an enemy is placed, you can modify several attributes by selecting it. The basic behaviour can be changed, allowing you to make enemies act in certain ways. If a Patrolling enemy is created, you can modify it’s path via the “Modify Path” button. This puts you into a special mode where you can add or remove path points.
    NPC
    • NPC’s are special entities that Players can talk to while Adventuring. Each NPC can be given a series of dialogue stages (there is currently no limit on the number of stages) where each stage is a 140 character message that is displayed to the Player. To modify these stages, select an existing NPC to open it’s Dialogue Manager. From here you can add or Remove stages with the + and X buttons, or edit the currently selected stage with the “EDIT” button. Text is filtered for profanity and if your text contains illegal characters you will not be able to save it.
    SIGN POST
    • A SIGN POST is like an NPC, but it can only have 1 stage of dialogue, and looks like a sign post.
    CHECKPOINTS
    • Checkpoints are locations that Players can reach to earn an extra life and heal themselves. Checkpoints are critical to the difficulty of the Adventure, as each one will award every Player in the game a new life, as well as let them heal completely until the HP resources for that checkpoint are exhausted
    FINISH
    • The Finish point is where every player must stand in order to complete the Adventure. There can only be one Finish Point and your Adventure must have one in order to be publishable.
    TRIGGERS
    • Triggers are volumes that can be placed that can set off changes and events as players walk into or out of them. Triggers can adjust the time of day, change environment effects and most importantly, can be hooked into interactive props and enemies to fire events.
    TIPS
    • Every category of Enemy contains a Random option, which will spawn a random enemy from that category every play-through.

VFX

The VFX menu allows you to customise the look of your Adventure.

    TIME OF DAY
    • Time Of Day allows you to change the time your level takes place in, which modifies the position and colour of the sun/moon. Move the slider to preview your Time Of Day in real-time.
    ENVIRONMENT FX
    • Environment FX is a series of effects that you can choose from. Each effect is applied and previewed in real-time, with a customizable intensity that lets you tweak the effect to your liking. Effects are previewed while in this mode, but are turned off during general editing.

MODIFIERS

Not currently implemented.

MUSIC

Not currently implemented.

PLAYTEST

This lets you drop into your adventure and try it out! Use this a lot, since you’ll often find problems that might not be obvious while editing.

DASHBOARD

The Dashboard displays statistics for your published adventures. Use this to keep up to date with how Players are faring in your adventures.

ADVENTURES

The ADVENTURES menu is where you access your FILE option to load, save and create nee Adventures.

CAMPAIGNS

Not currently Implemented - The CAMPAIGNS system will allow creators to string a set of up to 5 unpublished adventures together into a larger campaign to tell a longer store. More info will be available on this when the feature ships.

VIDEOS


Environment Sculpting


Working with Props


Working with Enemies


Advanced Features


VFX & Time of Day

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