There are two types of content you can create and share with other Camera Obscura users:

• Level Packs - A set of one or more custom levels for others to attempt to conquer.
  
• Localizations: Translations of the game text into other Latin-based languages.

This guide will walk you through the process of submitting custom Level Packs or Localizations for Camera Obscura to the Steam Workshop.

This guide doesn't cover actually using the Level Editor to create levels. If you're trying to create some levels to share, see the Level Editor Manual.

In order to submit a Level Pack to the workshop, all the levels you want to share must be in the same folder. A good place to keep your level pack is %steamapps%/common/Camera Obscura/Levels/Custom/[yourfolder].

IMPORTANT Note: Test your levels in the game before uploading them!

Once you have created all your levels and saved them to the same folder, you can submit them to the Workshop. Navigate to File->Share a Package.



You'll be presented with this window:



Choose the folder you want to share from the 'Folder' dropdown. If you have your levels in an external folder, you can browse for it by pressing the '...' button.

Next, enter the rest of the information about your pack.

• Workshop Title: The displayed title of your level pack in the workshop. Maximum length: 128 characters
  
• In-Game Title: The displayed title of your level pack in Camera Obscura. Maximum length: 40 characters
  
• Description: The description of your level pack in the workshop. Maximum length: 8000 characters.
  
• Preview Image: Click the '...' button to browse for a .bmp, .gif, .jpg, or .png image. This will be the display image for your pack in Workshop lists. It should be square and at least 200x200px. The maximum file size is 1 MB.
  
• Steam ID: This is automatically generated, and should be 0 if you are uploading this pack for the first time. See the next section.

Finally, click the 'Publish' button. This will generate a file called manifest.dat in the submitted folder, which stores the In-Game Title and the Steam ID for your item. The content and metadata will be uploaded to the Steam Workshop.

You item will be set to Hidden visibility when it is first uploaded. To make it public, visit the item's Workshop Page and click the Change Visibility dropdown:



This option may not be available unless your Steam account has spent at least $5. See the Steam FAQ.

Your level pack is now available for people to download and play!

If you're fluent in English and another language, you can help make the game accessible to others who speak that language!

Camera Obscura's localizable text is stored in Camera Obscura/Photos. Each language has a subdirectory in this folder.

The majority of the game's text comes from the unlockable lore, tutorial, and story photos. The text for each of these is stored in a separate file from 00.txt up to 72.txt at time of writing. There are two other important files in this folder. strings.txt contains user interface strings and some story strings (*SPOILERS* in this file). levels.txt contains the names of the official zones and levels in the game. Additionally, a manifest.dat file will be generated by the tool when your submit your Localization.

To make a new localization, you can simply copy the English folder and rename it to something identifying your language. Then go through the files, translating and replacing their contents. You can also change the displayname in the manifest.dat file at this point.

IMPORTANT Note: Currently, the in-game font in Camera Obscura only supports Extended ASCII characters. You won't be able to localize for any languages that rely on non-Latin characters.

IMPORTANT Note: Test your language in-game before uploading! You should be able to change to it in the Options menu.

To upload your localization to the workshop, run the Level Editor and go to File->Share a Localization.


The steps from this point forward are substantially the same as in the Sharing Level Packs section.

You can update any Level Pack or Localization you have uploaded. To do so, simply run the Level Editor and go to File->Share a Package if you're updating a Level Pack, or File->Share a Localization if you're updating a Localization.

Then, select the Folder for the item you want to update. You should see the item's Workshop ID number in the 'Steam ID' field. This number is loaded from the manifest.dat file in the folder.

Finally, simply click Publish. Your item's content will be updated to the current contents of the folder, and its In-Game Title will also be updated.

If you want to edit the item's Workshop Title or Description, you can do so on the Workshop page.