Midnight Mansion Level Builder - More Tips

This document gives you several (quite useful) tips not mentioned in the main documentatio.



Preferences

When testing rooms, the editor uses the same preferences settings you set in the game: the same controls, the same music/sound settings, and the same "Family Friendly" setting.


Misc

Although vines/poles can be put in both layers 4 and 5, it is highly recommended that you put them in layer 5, since then Jack will draw behind them correctly when riding on a moving platform that goes across them.

NOTE: don't use combinations of layers 4 and 5 for the same vine, or Jack won't recognize parts in one of the layers, depending on what he latched onto when he first jumped onto the vine. This includes vines that start in one room, and go down/up into another room. BOTH PARTS should be in the same layer!


Map Item

- When the player picks this up, a new portion of the mansion will be revealed in their map. You specify the Room ID of the top-left room and bottom-right room that make up a rectangle of rooms to be revealed. You may use Room IDs of non-existing rooms if you wish. (To do this, create a room in the spot you want, to find out its Room ID using the Room Options menu, then delete the room once you know the Room's ID.)

TIP: If you have secret rooms you DON'T want revealed, and they are inside the rectangle the map item is set to reveal, you can ensure these rooms don't get revealed with the rest by checking the "Room is secret." checkbox in the Room Options menu.


Secrets

When a player beats a mansion, it shows them what % secrets they found. You must tell the game where the secrets are. You can do this by placing an invisible "Secret" sprite in areas where the player will hit it when they pick up secret items. This item is a blue "S" that shows up only in the editor. It's at the far right-hand of the scrolling list of sprites. Typically you would place one secret sprite in each secret area, in a place where Jack MUST collide with it if he enters that area. You can put it on top of an item Jack will pick up if you want.

Be careful if your mansion has multiple one paths to the exit. For instance, Nightmare Mansion has a left/right branch. Let's say the left branch has 15 secrets. You'd want to put 15 secrets in the right branch too, and then enter "15" as the total number of secrets in the mansion. That way, regardless of which branch the player takes, they are still able to get a 100% secrets found rating by finding all of the secrets in the branch they took. If you were to put 15 secrets in the left branch, and 17 in the right, and enter 17 as the total number of secrets in the mansion, then players who go through the left branch would never be able to get a 100% secrets rating.

NOTE: The "Room Options..." dialog has a "Room is secret" checkbox that has nothing to do with the secret calculations discussed above. The only thing checking this box does is to ensure that this room is NOT added to a player's map when they pick up a map item, even if this room is included in the grid of rooms that the map item is set to reveal.


Sprites

When you first start to use the editor, you might not know what all of the sprites are. Here is a list of each one, in the same order they are listed in the editor's scrolling list, from left to right. [TIP: open the editor while looking at the list below, otherwise this list won't be of much use to you.]

Jack Malone - put this in the starting room where you want to have Jack start. You can also put this in other rooms for testing purposes -- Jack will start in this location when you choose Test Room from the File menu.

Monsters -- next is a list of all of the monsters. Many have different options when you click on them with the red mouse tool, so experiment!

Levers -- use the red mouse tool to configure these.

Brick switches - erase some real bricks then put one of these in the hole that's left. Use the red mouse tool to configure these.

Zapper nodes -- simply make two of these face each other, and presto! You have yourself a zapper beam. Again, use the red mouse tool to configure these bad boys.

Money bags and coins, shield, backpack, lantern, map item - Give Jack some cool stuff!

Sign - Unfortunately you can't use these unless you have a resource editor such as ResEdit or Resourcerer. They were mainly intended for use in the Tutorial Mansion, but can make a fun addition to other levels if you have a resource editor. If you do, simply create a TEXT resource containing the text for the sign, then enter that resource number in the sign using the red mouse tool.

Keys - you can make these hover in the air (default) or falling by using the red mouse tool. Falling is useful for puzzles where the key rides on conveyor belts or falls through trap doors.

Doors - put a matching top and bottom door together to make a complete door. Use the red mouse tool to click on either half to make the door open to start, so a lever or brick switch can close it. (This is intended for gray doors only.) Only one half needs to be marked as open to start. 

Moving Platforms - Be sure to edit these using the red mouse tool. The default speed is too slow for most cases -- make these faster to satisfy impatient players! The wood platforms should be used in most cases, but there are also platforms that look like ordinary bricks that you can use in special cases. Usually, these would be cases where the platform is not moving to start, and a brick switch or lever turns it on. Since it's not wood, the player doesn't know it's there until it's turned on, which is sometimes a nice effect.
TIP: the gray block is a "moving platform blocker" sprite. Place these where you want moving platforms to stop and turn around in mid-air, if you want that type of behaviour. 

Falling Platforms -- here you have your choice of both falling platforms that re-appear after a delay, and those that don't reappear until Jack leaves the room and comes back.

Trap door - these guys are toggled by brick switches or levers, and can be used for all sorts of fun stuff.

Pedestals - most of these are just for decoration - try putting a statue of a gargoyle or knight on top. 

Save Pedestal - put a few of these in your mansion. A good rule of thumb is about one save pedestal every 20-25 rooms.

Background decorations - These statues, skeletons, cobwebs, paintings, vases, brick stubble, candles, and so on can lighten up an otherwise boring-looking room. Don't overuse decorations, or your levels will look crowded, but don't underuse them either, or they'll look bare. 

TIP: use the red mouse tool on most decorations to set where it's in front of or behind the bricks (this allows paintings to be placed in front of bricks and still be visible). Or, for other decorations, such as the vases and brick stubble, you can set whether it's in front of or behind Jack.

Treasure - save these for the very end of your mansion! The sparkling gold and treasure serves as a visual reward to the player for having found the end. Some designers like to put real coins in front of these decorations, so that Jack has something to pick up while walking across the gold. 

Ending Door - put these in the last room of your mansion, when the player has reached the end.

Blue "S" - this sprite turns invisible once the game begins. It keeps track of secret areas. Whenever you put a secret in your mansion, place only one of these "S" sprites somewhere in that area where Jack will *have* to run into it as he goes through the secret. As he runs into this S, a "secret counter" inside the game will be incremented. When you're done with your mansion, count the number of blue S's that are possible to pick up during a play through the mansion, and enter this value in the Mansion Options' "Total Number of Secrets" field. 
