Vectronom

Vectronom

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Official Level Editor Guide
By The Bicycle Repairman and 2 collaborators
This is a comprehensive guide explaining how the Vectronom level editor works. How to access it, use it and share creations. As the editor is work in progress, this guide will be updated to reflect the changes.
   
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Welcome
Are you tired of the regular old Vectronom levels? Did you master the game so much that you can beat it with your eyes closed?
Don't worry help is at hand! Vectronom actually has a level editor now, so you can make and play all kinds of weird stuff.

This guide will get you started, and explain pretty much everything there is to know about the editor.
It is written by us, Ludopium[www.ludopium.com], the developers of Vectronom.

To follow the development closely, to participate in discussions about the editor, other updates, speedrunning and more, join us on our discord server[discord.gg]

If you want to jump in the editor and figure it out on your own, feel free to. We recommend that you read the next chapter first at least.
Logic of Vectronom
Space
The world of Vectronom exists on a 3D grid. Each game object (block, spike, jump pad etc.) occupies a single unit of space. The players are moving on this grid, from field to field.

Movement
Vectronom works similarly to traditional animation. It consists of a timeline with a certain amount of frames. Each frame is drawn individually. When the game is playing, the animation advances one frame on each beat. This can create the illusion of movement.




As in the example above, a moving platform is just a series of independent frames with blocks appearing on each frame. If done correctly, this can look like a block moving between two platforms for example.

Music
The possible length of the timeline depends on the soundtrack. Each soundtrack consists of a loop with a certain amount of beats. At the bottom of the editor screen you can see a beat map which represents visually what happens in the music in a specific beat/ frame.

Basics
Editor
In the editor you can move your cursor around horizontally with arrow keys and vertically with the W and S keys.

You can place objects using Space. By keeping the button pressed and moving the cursor, you can draw shapes. By pressing X you can delete objects.

By pressing E or Q you can cycle forwards and backwards through different game objects.



Frames
By pressing D you can switch to the next frame of the timeline. You can go back to the previous frame by pressing A. All objects from the previously shown frame disappear, and the new frame is shown to you. Just as in the game, if you reach the last frame, the timeline loops around and the first frame of the timeline is shown.



You can toggle between Dynamic and Static mode by pressing TAB.
In static mode you cannot change the frame. What you draw here will be stationary and visible on each frame of the animation. This is useful if a part of the architecture of your level never changes so you don’t have to redraw it on each frame.















Advanced
Sampling
By pressing and holding Left Shift you can select a part of the level and sample it. When you release the button, the selected area gets copied. When an area is sampled, by pressing space you can place a copy of the sampled shape. This is useful for example to quickly copy a shape over to another frame.



To erase the sample simply press S without selecting an area.

You can use the rotate tool by pressing R to rotate the sampled area. If no section is currently sampled, the rotate tool can be used to rotate the level itself.



To undo or redo actions you can press Z and Y respectively.

Start and End block
There can only be 1 start and 1 exit object in a level stage. They can only be placed in static mode.

Toolbar
By pressing Backspace you can open the toolbar. There you can set many different parameters for your level.

Stages
Stages are a part of the level in Vectronom. A stage has one start and one exit block. When the exit block is reached, the player is taken to the start block of the next stage. If there are no more stage, the level ends. All levels in the Vectronom campaign have 3 stages, however using the level editor you can create as many stages as you like.

Stages are separate entities from one another. You can think of them as separate levels chained together. All other settings in the toolbar - such as setting the colors or music - are specific to the stage you selected.


Music settings
You can set the song of the current stage. All original Vectronom tracks are included in the level editor as well as a bunch of new songs. Each song has 3 track variations you can choose from. You can also modify the tempo of the songs.

You can set the timeline length (how many frames you have in the editor) in the toolbar. The available lengths depend on the currently selected song. The length can be the length of the loop or the multiple of it. A 4 beat long music piece for instance can have the timeline length set to 4,8,12,16.

While the actual song loop is much longer with many variations appearing later in the track, the signitial beats are repeating fairly quickly.

To change the colors of your stage use the Visuals settings in the toolbar. All the colors from the campaign are included here.

Closing words
We'd love to hear your feedback and questions! Feel free to ask away in the comments here, or over on discord [discord.gg].
5 Comments
looper315 31 May, 2023 @ 9:40am 
:luv::luv:
aj2baker2009 20 Nov, 2022 @ 10:43am 
how can i subdivide the beats?
context: i found a neat pattern in tower jump (whatever it's name is, first stage has you go right, right, down, up. you know the one.) which involves the offbeats, but i would rather not have tower jump be playing at 2x speed. how do i have the frames include the offbeats?
Wolfether 27 Oct, 2020 @ 6:23pm 
is there a way to change the music to something that isnt the pre-made songs?

The Bicycle Repairman  [author] 2 Jul, 2020 @ 11:29am 
Hey @BurnieFree1105

Sorry for the late answer.
Actually it wasn't possible until now, but we are about to release the final version, which (of course) has that in there
BurnieFree1105 9 Jun, 2020 @ 10:58pm 
How do you delete a level?