A brief description of the Blast Works editors, with some helpful tips from someone who has already learned a few things the hard way...A big part of the fun and reward of Blast Works is figuring out how to create things in the surprisingly deep editor, but everyone can use a little help getting started, right? Here is an overview and some tips that should be helpful. Remember, there are more options than anyone can list in a single tutorial, so play around and explore the editor to see what it can do. There's a helpful "undo" button in there that can save you in a pinch!
The Blast Works editor is actually five editors that interact as you build levels. I'll go through the editors in the order they appear, pointing out specific tools along the way. Blast Works uses a simple folder system for saving items; folder titles appear at the top of the screen and can be scrolled through using the arrow buttons on either side, while the editor categories are shown below. You can create a new folder if you're planning on a big new project, which can help keep things organized and save you a lot of scrolling through old objects.
*SHAPE EDITOR:
This is the basic drawing tool with a few useful options. Basically, just drag a block from the block tab into the workspace, adjust its size and color, rotate it as necessary, and continue drawing. You get a maximum of 256 blocks per shape, and 8 and 12-sided blocks count as more than one block. A small tab on the left of the screen will keep track of how many blocks you've used. You can look at your shape from all sides by choosing from the "View" tab, or cycle through the views with the 1 button. Under the "Tools" tab you will find the Grid Snap tool, which is helpful for drawing sprites, but can be turned off for more precise freehand adjustments.
There are also some useful shortcuts built into the Wii remote. You can change the size of a block by selecting it, then holding down B and using the + and - buttons. You can select multiple blocks in a couple ways: first, you can select a block, hold down B, and continue selecting blocks, or you can hold down A and drag a square around the blocks you want to select and they will be highlighted. As long as you hold down B, any size adjustments you make will affect all the blocks you've selected. With multiple blocks selected, you can also pick them up and move them around the grid as a unit.
At the bottom of the screen is a "Library" tab. This is where you will find any available shapes either included in the game or that you've made yourself. You can grab these shapes, drag them into the workspace and edit them; the shape saved in the library will not be affected! The "Library" tab appears in several of the other editors, which brings us to...
***MML's BLAST WORKS RULE #1: Always make it as a shape first! Having a large library of shapes will make all your ship, enemy, and level creations much faster, and can save you the trouble of having to re-create something from scratch in another editor... this is a lesson a lot of people had to learn the hard way...
The Library can also be helpful in keeping your creations to scale with each other. It's easy to pull in your bowling ball shape from the library to make sure your bowling pins will be the right size... and then just erase the ball from the bowling pin shape!
*BULLET EDITOR:
This is where you will design your ship's weapon and all the enemy weapons for your creations. Bullets can be simple or complicated, and there are a ton of options to work with. This editor shows the bullet path in stages on the left. Each stage is a pattern chosen from a list, and each stage can have its own settings for color, block shape, and sound effects. The "Parameters" tab for each stage includes Stage Delay, Speed, Rank, and Size. The Rate of Fire affects the whole weapon.
The tricky parts of the bullet editor are Rank and Stage Delay. Rank does different things depending on the pattern it's affecting. As an example, using the "Tri-shot" pattern, a high rank makes a wide spread of bullets, while a low rank makes a much more focused shot. Stage Delay determines how long the current stage will wait before beginning, which can sometimes be tricky to keep track of. Often, the previous stage will seem to disappear until you manually set the current stage's Stage Delay to more than 0%.
Blast Works doesn't include any preset explosions or special effects, but the bullet editor can be used to create a staggering variety of effects, from exploding enemies to electrical barriers to jet engines and even text! Play around a little and you'll be surprised by what you can create.
*SHIP EDITOR:
Making ships is fairly simple: use a shape, add a weapon, and go blow some stuff up! Still, there are a couple of things worth mentioning. First, always make your ship with the business end facing to the right, even if you plan to use the ship in a vertical level. The tools in the level editor will make the ship face in the correct direction; Blast Works expects ships to face the right. (If you plan to fly from right to left, build your ship facing right but upside down.) Second...
***MML's BLAST WORKS RULE #2: Always check the position of the hitbox and weapon before posting your ship! Hidden at the far right of the Tools tab is a toggle to "Show Hitbox." Hitting this toggle will show you a small yellow square in the center of the screen. This hitbox is the pivot point of your ship, and also the only weak point. If your ship is based on a famous plumber, and the hitbox is in his foot, then bullets and enemies will pass right through his body, but if his foot touches anything, you'll crash. In the editor, you can't move the hitbox itself, but you can select the whole ship and then place it over the hitbox in a way that will make sense when playing a level. After positioning the hitbox, don't forget to try out the ship and make sure the weapon still fires from the proper place.
*ENEMY EDITOR:
Here's where things can start to get overwhelming... but go ahead and turn on the Advanced Editor setting from the main menu. It's the only way to make enemies with multiple parts, and those are the most interesting kind!
Enemies are divided into parts which can be organized into groups. Each part can be given its own point value, HP, weapon, movement, and sound effects from the "Part" tab at the top of the screen. Each part can also be set to stick to your ship when destroyed (like the Campaign and Arcade levels) or to simply fall off the screen.
Here is a good place to point out that when you hover over a toggle switch in the editors, it tells you the effect flipping that switch will have, NOT what it is currently set to do. In the case of the "Splinter/Fragment" switch, an arrow pointing up will create sticky enemies, while an arrow pointing down will create non-sticky enemies.
Parts can be added to an enemy by either choosing "New Part" from the left side of the screen, or by dragging shapes in from the Library at the bottom. Parts can then be duplicated or edited in a version of the Shape editor until your enemy looks the way you want.
Enemies will start out with only one group, so if you plan to have an enemy with different stages, you'll need to add some groups. From the "Group 1" tab on the bottom of the screen, click on the + to create Group #2. Now you will only be able to select parts that are in the selected group; if Group 2 is selected, anything in Group 1 will be greyed out. The "Settings" tab will let you set the behavior of whichever group is currently selected. "Activate After Preceding Groups/Always Active" determines whether the Parts in that Group will wait until the previous Group is destroyed before moving or firing, or if they will move and fire as soon as the enemy enters the screen. "All Parts Function As One/Each Part Function Separately" determines whether all Parts in the Group share a combined HP and move together, or if they can be destroyed individually. Finally, "Destroy With Preceding Groups" means that if Group 2 is destroyed before all parts of Group 1, it will take the rest of Group 1 out with it. Make sense?
A basic formula for a "powerup" using these settings is to make an enemy with 3 groups. Group 1 can be empty. Group 2 is the weapon that will attach to your ship, set to "Activate After Preceding" and "Destroy With Preceding Groups" (just in case you choose to have something in Group 1 for some reason...) and it should be "sticky." Parts in Group 2 should either be indestructible or have a very high HP, and usually are completely hidden behind the Part in Group 3. Group 3 is the container for the powerup, and is set to "Destroy With Preceding" and "non-sticky." Now when this Enemy appears in a level, it won't shoot at you. When you destroy the container, the powerup is released and will begin firing as soon as it attaches to your ship. (Thanks to Gryzor for explaining this months ago in the forums!)
Each part can be assigned a movement from the Part tab at the top of the screen. Additionally, the entire Enemy can be assigned a movement from the Movement tab at the top of the screen. It's important to remember which you are doing, because the Part movements and Enemy movements can combine in unexpected ways. Another opportunity to experiment!
Extra lives can be added to a level by making enemies worth 10,000 (Rookie), 12,000 (Pilot), and 15,000 (Ace) points. The max point value for a single Part is 9,999 pts., so to add extra lives to higher difficulties, you'll need to use two or more Parts. Also, Groups set to "All Parts Function As One" award no points at all. Glitch? Maybe.
*LEVEL EDITOR
The Blast Works Level Editor is the main event, and just too complicated to try to explain in what's intended to be a brief tutorial. You can customize just about every aspect of a level, and starting with a blank canvas is definitely intimidating. I'll offer some specific pointers that I hope will help people out, but really the best way to learn how the Level Editor works is to play around and try it out yourself.
-you can set the camera zoom of your working view in the "Tools" editor, and the camera in the "Preview" tab will start at that position as well, but the actual level always starts at zoom 30. Remember to manually set the camera back to 30 before watching a preview, or the level will probably not work the way you want it to.
-Shapes in your Library are where you will get your backgrounds for scenery; after dragging in a Shape, you can select it and change its size with + and -, or its depth with the d-pad. Experiment!
-Levels will end (ship flies off screen, message says "Level Completed" and shows score) when the following conditions are met: no more enemies are on-screen, a "level end" trigger has been triggered. Most levels end with the scroll speed set to 0% and a "boss" enemy placed over a "level end" trigger.
-Triggers are activated before they are actually in the camera's frame. Enemies you place in a level are actually triggers, too. Keep this in mind to avoid having a boss that never actually appears; the "level end" trigger needs to be just beyond the boss...
-The "ship start" trigger determines where your ship will start the level, and also where on the screen it will respawn after you crash. This trigger works in relation to the area of your level you see when you first open it in the level editor. Confused? I'll try to explain... Regardless of where your level actually starts (the "level start" trigger), the editor will always open in what it thinks is the lower left-hand corner. If you place a "ship start" trigger at the start of your level, you may be frustrated when the ship doesn't actually start at the trigger. The most consistent and reliable way to get your ship to start where you want is to build your level, save it, exit, and then open it again in the editor. Now imagine you're looking at the actual level start (even though you probably aren't) and place the "ship start" trigger where you want it. Try a preview and you should have a much better result.
-Sound is an important part of a good level, and there are lots of ways to add sounds to your level. There are sound triggers to provide music or warn of approaching enemies, or provide background effects like engine noises or explosions. Enemies themselves can make noises as they shoot, move, or take damage. Sound effects can really make a level come alive, so be creative and use every opportunity to make your level react to what's going on with some kind of sound!
-The biggest single piece of advice I can give any Blast Worker is to download and dissect other levels, enemies, and bullets from the Blast Works Depot. If you find something you like, open it up in the editors and see if you can figure out how it was made. If you're still stumped, send the artist a message in the Depot or ask on a forum.
This is pretty general for a tutorial, but hopefully it will be helpful for Blast Works beginners and vets alike. Thanks for reading this far!!!
