My First Level Tutorial¶
The fastest way to learn a new tool is to get your hands dirty and try out yourself. In this chapter we will dive headfirst into Formabble, applying everything the guide has taught you thus far and create your own playable platformer level. Lets get to it!
Step 1 - Creating Your Domain¶
To create your domain, from the Main Menu, click on New Domain.
After a few seconds, you should be greeted by a fresh empty domain. Congratulations you have created your first domain!
Step 2 - Importing Assets¶
Assets are the pieces to the jigsaw that is a level. Thus before we start creating our level, we have to get our pieces ready. You can find all the assets that will be required and are to be imported here. The first asset we will import is the “main-brain”. This asset will act as the control center for our level, coordinating and linking all the other pieces. To import the "main-brain", first, drag your asset from your file explorer into your Domain Inventory window. The Import Asset window will appear. Next, click on Import.
Change the Domain Inventory category to Scripts.
You should see the “main-brain.shs” inside your Domain Inventory now.
Next, formalize the main-brain by clicking on the Formalize Button.
Some in-game UI will appear on your screen. This is because main-brain is a form that has some ui-behavior. You should also see the main-brain form on your Domain Forms list.
Well done! You have just inserted your first piece. The next step is to import all the other assets that we will need for our level.
Step 3 - Adding Assets with References¶
The next pieces to import would be the floor tiles which will act as platforms for our game. Let’s start with floor-tile-1-START.
Similar to how we imported the main-brain , click on import and import floor-tile-1-START from the folder.
Once you have imported floor-tile-1-START and try to formalize it, you will realize that something is wrong.
Notice that it is formalized as a failed form. This means that there is something wrong with the asset’s script and it did not formalize properly. Specifically for this case, floor-tile-1-START has a reference that we have not added yet.
In floor-tile-1-START, we are accessing the global variables set by main-brain. To access these global variables , we need to ensure that the floor-tile-1-START asset is referencing the main-brain asset properly. To fix this, we have to add main-brain as a reference.
First click on floor-tile-1-START in the Domain Inventory Window and then click on Edit.
Upon clicking on Edit, you will be greeted with the Edit Asset window.
From floor-tile-1-START ’s Edit Asset window, click on the References toggle to see all the assets that floor-tile-1-START ‘s references.
Currently, the References list is empty. To populate it, drag the main-brain asset from the Domain Inventory into the References list.
You should see that floor-tile-1-START asset is now referencing main-brain.
Lastly, click on the Save button, to save your changes.
Now try to Formalize floor-tile-1-START again. You should see a green tile!.
The next asset that we are going to import is floor-tile-2-END. First click on Import.
Next from the File Manager window, navigate to where your assets were downloaded and click on Open.
floor-tile-2-END is similar to floor-tile-1-START, in that floor-tile-2-END too also has to be fixed before it can be formalized properly. Like floor-tile-1-START, it also references main-brain. We can also add references to scripts from the Import Asset window which should have popped up on the screen.
From this window, we can drag assets into the References list to add references. Drag the main-brain asset into the floor-tile-2-END reference list and click on Import.
Click on Formalize and you should see red tile!
The rest of the pieces need to have their references added similar to how floor-tile-1-START and floor-tile-2-END were fixed (with minor variations). Try to fix them yourself, or if you need help, click on the appropriate toggles below to view the proper steps for each asset.
floor-tile-3-DESTROYABLE
floor-tile-3-DESTROYABLE also references main-brain and needs its short ids fixed.
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From the Domain Inventory window click on import and import in floor-tile-3-DESTROYABLE
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From the Import Assets window, add main-brain into the reference list and click on Import.
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Click on Save.
floor-tile-4-UNDESTROYABLE
floor-tile-4-UNDESTROYABLE does not reference main-brain, however it still dispatches information to tiself and thus needs its short-Ids fixed.
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From the Domain Inventory window click on import and import in floor-tile-4-UNDESTROYABLE
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From the Import Assets window, click on Import.
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Click on Save.
cubeFace1
cubeFace1 is a glb mesh that will be referenced in player-1
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From the Domain Inventory window click on import and import in cubeFace1
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From the Import Assets window, click on Import.
cubeFace2
cubeFace2 is a glb mesh that will be referenced in player-2
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From the Domain Inventory window click on Import and import in cubeFace2.glb
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From the Import Assets window, click on Import.
player-1
player-1 references cubeFace1.
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From the Domain Inventory window click on Import and import in player-1
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From the Import Assets window, add cubeFace1 into the reference list and click on Import.
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Click on Save.
player-2
player-2 references cubeFace2 and also dispatches information to the different behaviors in itself.
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From the Domain Inventory window click on import and import in player-2
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From the Import Assets window, add cubeFace2 into the reference list and click on import.
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Click on Save.
Congratulations! You have successfully imported all your assets!
Step 4 - Making your level.¶
Now that you have all your pieces, we can start designing our level. Before we start creating our architectural masterpieces, lets start small first, to see how the different pieces work. main-brain should have already been formalized, if it is not formalized, formalize main-brain first.
1- First formalize floor-tile-4-UNDESTROYABLE.
2- Next click on the freshly formalized form to bring up its Form Details window.
3- From the Form Details window, you can manipulate the form’s transformations and also its exposed variables. Change the form’s X translation to 2. You can do this either through the Form Details window or through the form’s Translation Gizmo.
4- From the Form Gizmo, click on the Duplicate Icon to duplicate the form.
5- Give the duplicated form a -2 X-axis translation. These two platforms will serve as the starting point for our player-1 and player-2 cubes.
6- Now formalize floor-tile-1-START.
7- Give this formalize floor-tile-1-START an xyz translation of (2 0 -2).
8- Duplicate floor-tile-1-START and give it a xyz translation of (-2 0 -2)
9- Next, formalize floor-tile-3-DESTROYABLE and give it an xyz translation (2 0 -4)
10- Duplicate floor-tile-3-DESTROYABLE and give it an xyz translation of (-2 0 -4)
11- Next formalize floor-tile-4-END and give it a translation of (-2 0 -6)
12- Next duplicate floor-tile-4-END and give it a translation of (-2 0 -6)
13- Under Physics Subsystem on the Form Details window, edit the mode of all the tiles on the left to 2. (The way the tiles are coded is that their modes dictate whether they will register collisions from player-1 or player-2. Thus the tiles on the left will be for player-2.)
14- Click Play (the button on the top right) and you will see both player-1 and player-2 spawn.
15- player-1 is controlled by using the arrow keys while player-2 can be controlled by using WASD keys. Move player-1 and player-2 onto the green floor-tile-1-START tile. Upon collision with the floor-tile-1-START tile, the timer will start counting.
16- Now move player-1 and player-2 to the floor-tile-2-END tiles. You will see firstly, the time counter will stop counting. Secondly, there will be a High Score listed on the High Score window. And lastly, you will see the two floor-tile-3-DESTROYABLE tiles slowly disappear.
17- Now click reset to reset the player’s positions, the tiles, the time and the high score.
Great! Now that we know what all the pieces do, you can start making the level!
Step 5- Making your level¶
With the basic pieces in place, you can manipulate and duplicate these pieces to create your very own level! Unleash your creativity and go wild! Below you will see how we have decided to design our level. The way it is to be played is for one player to control both player-1 and player-2 and try to get them from the start tiles to the end tiles in the shortest amount of time possible.
