BB2 Board Editor

So now it's time to try making your own challenging levels (because you beat all those other levels no problem!) and board sets for Break Ball 2 (BB2).  The Board Editor (BE) is rather easy to use, but there is a few tricks that will come in handy to help you make great levels instead of good levels. 

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The first part of the BE gives you the opportunity to choose the board set you will edit.  BB2 allows you to have 30 individual board sets at one time, 8 of which come with the game.  This is why the first board set you can edit is the 9th board slot, rather than the first.  Press up or down on this screen to choose the level that you want to edit (00 levels mean there's no current levels in this board set slot to edit; you're going to be doing everything from scratch).  Press enter to select a slot. 

Now you get to name your board set.  It is recommended that you use less than 12 characters for a name, or it won't look as pretty on the level select screen; but it's up to you.  You can use only upper case letters for this, or numbers.  Once you have entered a name, press enter to move on.

Next you choose the number of levels you want in your board set.  If there is no previous levels in this board slot, than 00 will be displayed.  But, (here's the tricky part) if you are editing a board set you previously had created (if there is already a board set in this slot) the number of levels in that board set will be displayed.  If you enter a number less than the number being displayed, the levels after the level being displayed will be deleted, and this is permanent.  Once you hit enter, those levels will not be recoverable using the board editor.  So use the numbers on the top of the keyboard to choose the number of levels on this board set and press enter to get started.

Now you're going to create a level.  This is the background selection screen.  Each new level you create you get to choose a background for.  There are 50 unique backgrounds to choose from in BB2, with several different themes simply press up or down to scroll through them, and enter to choose your background for this level. 

Time to put some bricks on the board.  You'll notice several options listed on this screen.  Most are self explanatory (if you don't think so email bcsoftgames@hotmail.com and we'll include a more detailed explanation of that option into the manual).  Simply move the mouse, which will move the current brick. 

To change which brick you have selected, press the up or down arrows to scroll through them.  If you press the right or left arrows, it will scroll through the bricks more quickly.

When it's in the location you want to place the brick, there are a few different options you can use to place it.  The basic way to do it is using the left mouse button.  This will simply place a brick in a spot, and the brick will have no velocity (it will not move when you play the game). 

If you don't like where you placed the brick, press the right mouse button to remove it and moving the mouse will now move the previous brick you placed (notice the brick count on the bottom left of this screen, you can have up to 350 bricks on any one level). 

Another way to place a brick is using the space key on the keyboard.  The difference here is you will also be able to enter a velocity.  Positive x velocity is moving to the right, negative to the left.  A positive y velocity will start the brick moving down, a negative y velocity will start the brick moving up.  (It may seem a little backwards, and I guess it is unless you program video games) 

Both ways of placing a brick use a thing called collision testing.  What this does is test if you're trying to place a brick where there'll be any overlap with previous bricks.  You can turn this collision testing on or off using f12 (look for a line on the screen that says f12 and collision, here it will tell you if you currently have collision on or off).  If it's on and you try to place a brick in a location that will overlap a previous brick, than you will not be allowed to place the brick in that location.  If it's off, you can overlap the bricks as much as you want.  Collision testing does not occur for the 3rd way to place a brick. 

The third method of placing bricks is called the duplication method.  To place a brick this way, press f11.  You will then be asked to give the bricks x and y velocities (pressing up and down, enter to choose a velocity similar to when you press the space key).  Once you enter the velocities, you will be able to place a duplicate of that brick, in a tiled fashion, using the arrow keys.  Each time you press a direction, another brick just like your current brick (meaning it will copy the brick type and the brick velocity) will be placed in the direction you press.  This will occur as long as you want, and you can go back over bricks placing multiple bricks in the same location.  To exit this option, simply press the left mouse button.  Once you have duplicated a brick on a level, you cannot use the left mouse button to place bricks.  You must use the space key, or the f11 key to start another duplication row. 

Assuming we got all that, the only other option that seems to need explaining is selecting a brick.  If you place a brick, and later on (after placing several bricks even) you want to change that brick, press the f12 key.  This will pop up a mouse cursor.  Using your mouse cursor select the brick you want to modify, and you will then be able to move it using the mouse, or change what it looks like the same way you previously did (left/right or up/down buttons on your keyboard). 

Once you have all your bricks in all the right places (making the coolest level ever!) press the enter key on the keyboard to save the level, and you will than go back to the background select screen to choose a background for your next level (you can keep track of what level you are currently designing on the bottom left of the screen). 

So you've made all your levels, now the BE is asking for your name.  Make sure to enter what you want to be known as.  Who made the level will appear at the bottom of the credits when your board set is beaten playing BB2.  Not only will this give you instant fame and fortune, but if you post your board set on the BB2 website, and someone likes it, they'll probably look for other board sets by the same person: you.  Now go on, make some cool board sets!