Scribblenauts Level Editor Guide
_______________________________________________
|Scribblenauts Level Editor Guide v 0.90 |
|-----------------------------------------------|
| Guide Started: November 13th, 2009 |
| Compiled By: jimmythesnowman |
| Original Version finished: August 12th, 2009 |
| Email:
[email protected] |
| Current Version: 1.00 |
|-----------------------------------------------|
'-----------------------------------------------
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[I] Introduction
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Hehe. Welcome to the world of Scribblenauts, in which you scribble a word, and
it magically pops up on the screen. Need to kill a BEE? Try a BUGSWATTER! How
about a BEEKEEPER? Or, if you really want to be violent, get yourself a CHAISAW
and rip the BEE to shreds!
Such is the crazy world of Scribblenauts, where you run around as Maxwell,
creating anything you want. Thankfully, in addition to creating any object in a
library of 10,000, you can create your own levels, no strings attached!
This is a guide to creating your own levels in Scribblenauts. Although hectic,
this part of the game suffers for a setback: you can't create your own terrain
(you have to choose from a template), which is a real bummer. Still, not
many people get into using this mode until they've cleared most of the rest of
this game, so let's get started! :)
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[II] Table of Contents
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------------------------------
<X> Alma Matter
------------------------------
[I] Introduction
[II] Table of Contents
[III] version History
[IV] Contact Information
------------------------------
[1] The Basics
------------------------------
[1.01] Where to Find It
[1.02] Why You Need It
[1.03] How To Work It
[1.04] Testing and Saving It
[1.05] Sharing
[1.06] Limitations
------------------------------
[2] More Stuff
------------------------------
[2.01] Scripts
[2.02] Enemies
[2.03] Stage Items
[2.04] Music
[2.04] Map Templates
------------------------------
<X> End Matter
------------------------------
[V] FAQ
[VI] Copyright
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[III] Version History
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_________________________________
|Level Editor Guide v 0.90 |
|---------------------------------|
| finished November 19th, 2009 |
| The First Version, done after |
| playing through Level Editor. |
| It's mostly finished, all the |
| Basics and introductory stuff |
| is down, but there's a lot of |
| room for improvement. |
|---------------------------------|
'---------------------------------'
_________________________________
| Minor Update v 1.00 |
|---------------------------------|
| Simply adding a few more beasts |
| to the level 6 category. |
| Don't really plan to add any |
| more so might as well 1.00 it. |
|---------------------------------|
'---------------------------------'
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[IV] Contact Information
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a [underscore] bilogur [at] yahoo [dot] com. Replace the []s with their
respective items. PLEASE DON'T SPAM MY ACCOUNT with chain "Hello yadayadayada
it would be a great honor for you for your guide to appear on our site" emails.
I know it's an impossible request but might as well put it out there. Contact
me if you have some improvement that needs to be made, or if I am wrong/missing
on something. Ordinarily I would help poor old souls stuck on something in the
game, but this is a level editor guide, NOT A WALKTHROUGH, so yeah call on them
instead.
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[1] The Basics
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[1.01] Where to Find It
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The reason this section is here is because some of us are less the affluent in
finding things *points to self*. But honestly this isn't that hidden. It's
right there on the main menu, the lower-left block!
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[1.02] Why you Need It
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To eke out more fun from this awesome game, duh! oO
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[1.03] How to Work It
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As soon as you enter you will see a set of 4 save slots. There are 3 pages of
them, so that makes for 12 possible savegames-excellent! Choose one and press
it.
After that it will take you to the World Select. Here, you can choose from any
one of the 10 different themes of the game. Let's take The Gardens, for an
example.
Next it takes you to the Template select. You can actually use any one of the
game's 120 Adventure and 120 Puzzle levels. As you can imagine, that's a lot of
levels to choose from! You can only use, however, levels that you have already
cleared. The rest will be locked until you clear them. Let's take 1-1 Puzzle
for now.
the first time you open Level Editor, it will give you a quickie tutorial, just
like with the main game, on how to do the most basic of functions-creating
objects, the toolbar, moving objects, setting their script. In fact, frozen
permenently in the top screen are the following words: "Create objects with
writepad, then place. Tap objects to script. Tap arrow for toolbar."
We'll get to what all of this means shortly. Firstly, let's examine our map.
It's quite small, actually; in fact, there's nothing really to it besides a
tiny overhang to the left. Perfect for our means.
The first thing you'll notice is that you can't walk Maxwell around. If you
want to move him (he represents the starting point), you'll have to drag him to
a new location. He also won't drop out of the sky if you place him in open air,
something that also affects all the other items in the editor, and he won't
fall down until you test the level.
There are only two objects on the screen-a arrow button to the left, and a
writepad to the right. I'm hoping you know what to do with the writepad, right?
You use it to write things. Gasp, yes!
You still have a maximum items amount. So be careful not to go over the limit.
Hmmm, what is our example going to be like? Well, at the moment I was feeling
pretty spikey atm, so I came to using STEELSPIKES. Try it on your own. I
arranged 4 STEELSPIKES around a spot. For scenery, I used a TRAFFIC SIGN
atached to a tree, and a STOP SIGN on the other side.
Of course, it will become immediatly apparent that we're missing something.
Where's the starite? Interestingly enough, they have a Starite specially for
Level Editor, only accesible in Level Editor. Go to the Wordpad and type in
STARITE. Choose (Level Editor) and place the Starite in the middle of the
spikes.
Before you continue or are allowed to do this, you must create a STARITE.
So now we (sorta) have a level.
One more thing. If you open the menu, you will see that "Retry" has been
replaced with "Reset." Use reset to return the stage to its original save-file
self. Remember however that all unsaved progress will be lost; when reverting,
the game asks you if you're sure. this is quite useful if you mess up or such.
On to the next step!
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[1.04] Testing and Saving
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Before you save your level and bask in its glory, you have to test it to see
how it works. Tap on the icon in the top-left corner to open the Toolbar. Tap
on the Green arrow to test your level!
For our prediciment, Wings would be best. Write them and attach them, and then
fly down to the Satirite to win! If you ever need to leave the level early, you
can press on the big red square that appears in place of the arrow (stop-duh).
Remember that in testing you can die, just like in the real thing. Also, if you
die, finish the level, or quit, things will revert to the main editing screen.
Just so you know.
I'm not quite happy with my level-the sign keeps falling down and the spikes
can be moved-but it's enough for me to "keep" it. So the next step is to save
it. But before you can save it, we need to assign it some properties. You can
do this by pressing on the Gear icon in the toolbar, the one in the middle.
This takes you to the Level Settings screen. Here, you can modifiy specific
settings for the level.
First up is the par. The par is the "mean" number of itens that should be used
to solve the puzzle. In standard gameplay, the par is usually set to one above
the amount of items you need. Here, we only need WINGS, so we can set the par
to 2, so that you get a nice -1 Par bonus when you complete the level.
Next up is the Level Hint. At the beginning of each level the game displays a
hint in a small box that appears in the center; though usually vauge, they
either hint to how to solve it, or explain the situation. Your level is no
exception to the rule, and you must create one for your level as well. There's
a 60-charecter limit, so space shouldn't be a problem. Press on the
pencil/paper icon to write it. I wrote "Spikes all around!"
The next section is Music. You start out with only one track, Track 1. This is
the standard track for World 1-The Gardens. You can unlock more songs at the
Ollar Store. I'll cover that in a later section, so sit tight with Track 1 for
now.
The last thing on the screen is the name of the level. The standard is "My
Level 1", but of course that's a very dull name, so press on the icon and
modify it to something with more splunk. I wrote "Spikes n' Me. This is
actually as long as the game allows-the charecter limit, unlike that of the
hints, is a paltry 12 charecters.
Once you're happy with your settings, exit, and go back to the main screen.
Tap on the Save icon on the toolbar, and select a slot.
And so our first demo is comeplete! Try playing it a few different times.
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[1.05] Sharing
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Gah! How do you share levels? Where is that elusive option? Well, I'll tell
you.
First you have to get your buddy's Friend Code. Even though its a pretty basic
option you still need the codes. Then, go to the title screen, where you select
the save slot, and press on the radar icon, the one to the bottom-right. Your
friend has to do that too. If the two DSs connect, you get to share levels!
I've never actually done this before because I never have found someone else
with this game before, so have fun for me too ^^.
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[1.06] Limitations
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Level Editor has its limitations-which are pretty severe.
While you can create just about anything, you're still very limited in just how
much you can summon, which is unfair since some of the levels contain as many
as a dozen different items, wheras you can only manage less.
In standard gameplay, you have switches and tripwires and doors; while you can
still place these in your own levels, you CAN'T tie a switch to a door, or a
tripwire to a door, or anything actually. And since all the non-terrain pieces
dissapear, you basically can't use switchs as all.
In fact, you can't tie togethor two things AT ALL. We see vertical things and
attached stuff in the real thing, but you can't do that in the Level Editor, it
will all fall off.
You can't rotate stuff so no special placings.
Yeah...you have to be creative if you want to get around all that bad stuff.
Obviously Level Editor was a bit of an afterthought to the game designers,
which is dissapointing considering how great people become at designing their
own things.
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[2] More Advanced Stuff
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[2.01] Script
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You may have noticed that in the game, certain monsters, creatures, people,
etc. respond differently to different objects. For example, in one of the
levels (I forget which, one of The Peaks levels), you have to make an omlet
from a dinosaur egg, but it is jelously guarded by its mother, so that if you
even come close, it will attack. Well, you can do that too!
For an example, let's type VAMPIRE and place him on the map. Next let's type in
MAIDEN and place her on the map, too. Tap on the Vampire again. This will open
the Script!
The script appears as a bubble above the charecter. Use the arrows to cycle
through the possible emotions-Protects, Attacks, Scared Of, Consumes, Follows,
Guards, Uses, Mounts, and Steals.
o________________________________________________________________________o
|Script Box |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Protects - This is the fist emotion, and is the standard emotion of |
| Friendly units in the game, like GOD and KNIGHT. A unit that protects |
| something (or you) will, well, protect them. Protect is not as strong |
| as Guard, because the unit will only attack if what it is protecting |
| is attacked. that means if you tell a VAMPIRE to protect a MAIDEN, |
| even though the VAMPIRE is an enemy unit (and a very strong one at |
| that), it will hot attack until the MAIDEN is attacked. |
| Protect is represented by a shining Shield. |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Attacks - This is the second emotion, and probably the most common one |
| in the game. All enemy units are in this state standardly. If anything |
| approaches the unit it will attack; for example if a MINOTAUR |
| approaches a DRAGON the two will fight. However it does extend to |
| members of the same species; if another DRAGON approaches the DRAGON |
| they will both be aggresive, but will not attack each other. |
| Attack is represented a very angry emoticon. |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Is Scared Of - Some things are scared of other things; ANTS of |
| ANTEATERs, MICE of CATS, and CATS of DOGS. This can be key to how you |
| finish a level-if one thing is scared of another, it will not attack |
| it and will instead flee. So you can set a DOG loose on a bunch of |
| CATS! |
| Is Scared Of is represented by a gasping emoticon. |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Consumes - aka will eat. For example, a ROC will standardly eat MEAT |
| if it sees it, as will a TREX, DRAGON, HYDRA, LION, etc. You can force |
| this as well through this emotion. For example a VAMPIRE would want to |
| eat a PRINCESS (hehe). |
| Consumes is represented by a dwindiling chicken leg. |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Follows - Like protects, but weaker. A unit ordered to follow another |
| unit will simply follow it at a distance. This has the added benefit |
| to the unit being followed of that the follower will not attack it. |
| However, it doesn't mean that the following unit will attack something |
| attacking the leader-or, in fact, that it will defend itself! |
| Follows is represented by a green waving flag. |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Guards - The strongest form of Protection (the order being Follows, |
| Protects, Guards). The follower ordered to guard the leader will |
| defend the leader with their life. As in, if anything living (or in |
| some cases, nonliving approaches, the unit will fearlessly attack to |
| keep them away. That even means that yes, a KNIGHT will impale himself |
| against a DRAGON if he is ordered to protect a PRINCESS. (tehe) |
| Guards is represented by a spinning sword. |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Uses - This is a script that very few units have standardly. One being |
| the ENGINEER, who will flip any switches he is placed next to, |
| massively useful when you need to bypass a few switches. For example, |
| if we assign our VAMPIRE to Use a SWITCH, they will run over and flip |
| it. Forced usage is temporary; after he flips it, he will go right |
| back to attacking you. |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Mounts - The pentultimate command is to mount something-for example, |
| you can command a KNIGHT to mount a HORSE. Or a TRUCKER to MOUNT A |
| TRUCK. They're both standard actions, but more radical would be to |
| make a CAVEMAN mount a CAR! |
| It's represented by an openning and closing car icon. |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Steals - The last emotion. A THEIF for example will steal COIN, MONEY, |
| JEWELRY, etc. You can make a VAMPIRE steal some BREAD. |
| Steals is represented by a Theif icon. |
'------------------------------------------------------------------------'
After you select a script, you tap on what unit is affected. For example, make
a VAMPIRE attack, and select MAIDEN as the target. If you go to the demo mode,
you will see the effects of your handiwork-the MAIDEN, scared of the VAMPIRE,
will run, but the VAMPIRE will attach her and kill her!
There's a lot of things you can do using scripts. Remember the dinosaur egg?
How about a VAMPIRE following a PRINCESS? The possibilities are endless! Think
about it; 10,000 (number of writable things) x 9,999 (number of OTHER writable
things) x 9 (number of scripts) = 899,910,000 possible relationships!
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[2.02] Monsters
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I've alluded to monsters a lot so far, but haven't yet actually talked about
how you can use them. Monsters are very useful, because they present,
obviously, a challenge to the player-or at least the need for something
stronger. This section is nothing more then a few classes of monsters, rated by
how long they last in lava/against other monsters. For example, a BEE is too
easy, a GHOUL is a challenge, and a DRAGON is impossible to defeat by your own.
Use the list to see what beats what.
Class 1: The weakest of the weak, they can survive 2 hits from the lava.
Includes BEE, VERMIN, HORNET.
Class 2: Stronger but still pretty weak. Can survive 5 hits from lava. Includes
HYENA, JACKAL, MUTANT, THEIF, NINJA
Class 3: Median, better. A match for a well-armed MAXWELL. 8 hits. Includes
LION, PANTHER, MONSTER, SEA WITCH
Class 4: This is the median for true monsters. Includes BEHEMOTH, MEGALODON,
TREX. These monsters surpass Maxwell unless he's sporting EXCALIBUR or an RPG
or something like that.
Class 5: VERY strong; inpassable by Maxwell himself. Can survive around 20
hits from lava, and includes DRAGON, HYDRA, REAPER, DEATH; also WITCH but she
turns things into frogs so she's special.
Class 6: Cannot die, period. I only know of a few things in this category-OOZE,
VAMPIRE, GHOST.
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[2.03] Stage Items
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In playing through the game you will notice a few recurring items. They
typically have really long names, like LARGE WOODEN GATE and STEEL DOOR RED.
You can create these in-game and in level editor, too. Here's a list of the
most common ones, sorted in sets.
ROCK
BOULDER
HUGE BOULDER
STEEL DOOR RED
STEEL DOOR GREEN
STEEL DOOR BLUE
RED BUTTON
GREEN BUTTON
BLUE BUTTON
RED SWITCH
GREEN SWITCH
BLUE SWITCH
TREE
FIR
ORCHARD
STEEL
(BIG) STEEL BOX
CRATE
WOODEN CAGE
CAGE
WOOD
LARGE CRACKED WOOD PLATFORM
LARGE CRACKED ROCK PLATFORM
LARGE CRACKED ROCK COLUMN
ROPE
VINE
TRIPWIRE
ICE BLOCK
ICE BLOCK BIG
ICE BLOCK HUGE
STEEL SPIKE
LARGE STEEL SPIKE
COG
GIANT COG
PEDESTAL
STAND
CONVEYER BELT
MINE
EXPLODING BARREL
TNT
GAS TANK
BOMB
PIPE CHUNK
LARGE PIPE CHUNK
LARGE PIPE CHUNK
ICE SPIKE
LARGE ICE SPIKE
SPIKED STEEL BALL
LARGE SPIKED STEEL BALL
AIR VENT
LARGE AIR VENT
FIRE VENT
LARGE FIRE VENT
SKELATON
SKULL
STEEL GATE
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[2.04] Music
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You only start out with one track, but you can purchase more from the Ollar
Store as you go. There are 38 purchasable tracks ranging in price from 100 to
900 Ollars.
Compared to the rest of the game, Music is a pretty cheap cash-in, as you
average around 500-800 per level. The total cost for the aquisition of all of
the tracks is 16,300 Ollars. Music is great for setting the mood, so take
advantage of its cheapness to buy all the tracks so you have the best for every
occasion.
_______________________
| THE OLLAR STORE-MUSIC |
|-----------------------|
|TRACK 1 | 100 |
|TRACK 2 | 100 |
|TRACK 3 | 100 |
|TRACK 4 | 100 |
|TRACK 5 | 100 |
|TRACK 6 | 100 |
|TRACK 7 | 100 |
|TRACK 8 | 100 |
|TRACK 9 | 300 |
|TRACK 10 | 300 |
|TRACK 11 | 300 |
|TRACK 12 | 300 |
|TRACK 13 | 300 |
|TRACK 14 | 300 |
|TRACK 15 | 300 |
|TRACK 16 | 300 |
|TRACK 17 | 500 |
|TRACK 18 | 500 |
|TRACK 19 | 500 |
|TRACK 20 | 500 |
|TRACK 21 | 500 |
|TRACK 22 | 500 |
|TRACK 23 | 500 |
|TRACK 24 | 500 |
|TRACK 25 | 500 |
|TRACK 26 | 500 |
|TRACK 27 | 500 |
|TRACK 28 | 900 |
|TRACK 29 | 900 |
|TRACK 30 | 900 |
|TRACK 31 | 900 |
|TRACK 32 | 900 |
|TRACK 34 | 900 |
|TRACK 35 | 900 |
|TRACK 36 | 900 |
|TRACK 37 | 900 |
|TRACK 38 | 900 |
|-----------------------|
| -total cost: 16,300 Ø |
'-----------------------'
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[2.04] Map Templates
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Templates are not unlocked for use until the area is unlocked, and the
level is completed succesfuly at least once. So before you have access to all
of the maps, you have to basically beat the game. Yes, this isn't something you
can do having just grabbed the game off the shelf.
Generally speaking, Action levels are preferable over Puzzle levels, mostly
because they are almost invariably larger. This is because in Puzzle mode you
just set the stage and solve the puzzle, but in Action mode you have to go-get
the Starite from wherever it is. You can't crate Puzzle-style levels, so action
levels will provide the space you need.
Because all of these stages are pre-fabricated, they are generally designed for
a single role. However a few are open-ended enough towards ome thing or another
to let you roam free with them. Now if only the Sandbox levels were usable...
The one thing I hate about selecting templates, besides not being able to make
your own terrain (see Limitations-[1.05])
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[V] FAQ
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I don't know exactly what questions people have about this, so once I do get
some inquisitive souls and roll 'em flat, I'll write this up.
If you have a [frequently asked] question e-mail me and I'll get to you, then
add it to here.
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[VI] Copyright
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Oh yes, the dull part.
This guide is (C) 2009 jimmythesnowman. This may be not be reproduced
under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not
be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without
advance written permission.
Saying that if you've paid to read this here you're a damned fool isn't all
that useful because it'll be erased in the illegal copies :< But still, don't
copy our work! >:( It makes us people here at gamefaqs sad :< and angry >:(
