===================================================================== #### ### ## ## ###### ### ## ## ##### #### @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ %% %% %%%% %% %% %% %% % %% %%% %%%% :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::: ::: :: :: :: '''' ''' ''' '' ''' '' '' ''''' '' '' I C Y T O W E R ===================================================================== CUSTOM CHARACTERS ===================================================================== INTRODUCTION In Icy Tower you can make your own characters, complete with their own sound effects and background music. It's not altogether easy, but if you set your mind to it, you will succeed. HOW TO ADD A FINISHED CHARACTER This is the easy part. If you have downloaded a new character or received one from a friend, here's how to install it: Simply copy the directory containing the new character into the characters/ directory and you're done! The directory tree should look like this when you're done: icytower/ characters/ harold_the_homeboy/ files... disco_dave/ files... new_character/ files... (new_character is the directory of your new character (ie. it is named whatever the character is named)). If you managed to install the new character correctly, it will now show up under GAME OPTIONS in the game. HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN CHARACTER To make your own character you need three things: Frames (images of the moves that the character can do), sounds (what the character can say (and music)) and finally a script that tells the game what is what. The sounds and music are optional, and don't have to be created. CUSTOM CHARACTER CREATION GUIDE Start by coming up with an idea for your character. It might take some time to come up with a good one, but that's how it is. The whole process will be a lot easier if you have planned what to do in before hand. Now, first make a copy of the directory named 'template', but name it what you call your character instead. Enter the directory and rename the file 'template.txt' to whatever you call your character as well. Example: if you renamed the directory to 'jolly_joe', the new name of the text file should be 'jolly_joe.txt'. This is very important, if the directory and the text file don't have the same name, it wont work. (Make sure you can see the file extensions on the files, or you might do something wrong.) CHARACTER GRAPHICS Let's start with the graphics. Pick a paint program of your choice. Once you have started your paint program, locate the directory you created above and open the 'template.bmp' file that is in there. You will see 15 frames containing outlines of Harold. Below each frame is a short description. Here's a more informative description of the frames: IDLE1 - 3 These frames are the animation that Harold performs when the player isn't moving him. The sequence for one cycle is 1-2-1-3. Then it restarts. WALK1 - 4 This is Harold's walk animation. You have four frames to play with, they will be flipped in the game when Harold changes direction. JUMP1 - 3 These are the frames used when Harold makes a medium jump. They show his way up, hanging in air and down. They will also be flipped if needed. JUMP The frame for the normal straight up jump. CHOCK The frame shown when Harold is close to scroll off the screen. ROTATE The frame used for Harold's cartwheel jump. EDGE1 - 2 The animation Harold performs when standing on an edge. There you go, now you know how the frames will be used. Start overdrawing the frames of Harold with your own character. Don't forget to save! Now, let's talk about colors. Make sure you keep the green borders around the frames intact. If you mess with them, the game wont be able to find your frames and your character wont be loaded. Also, for transparency, make sure you use the pink color that is already there. It's RGB value is 255,0,255 (or FF00FF), if you need to look it up later. CHARACTER SOUNDS This is not as hard as the graphics. Icy Tower characters use simple wav samples. You can also use ogg samples if you want to save disk space. Also, for the music, you can use midi. How convenient! You'll need eight samples for full customization, but you can skip the ones you don't want. Here's a list of the sounds you can make. greeting played at the beginning of a new game jumplo played at a small jump jumpmed played at a medium jump jumphi played at a high (cartwheel) jump edge played when standing on an edge death played when the character falls off screen pause played when the game is paused bgmusic played as background music (looped) Create the sounds using the sound recorder/editor of your choice and save them as wav or ogg. You can name them whatever you want, but the names above are easy to remember. Put them all in the directory of your character. CHARACTER SCRIPT Finally you need to create a small text file that describes how the resources you have created are to be used. Open up the text file previously named template.txt. (Now it's named 'the_name_of_the_character.txt', remember? :) ) Most of the information is already filled in, but here's how it works: The game will look for keywords, and then load whatever that is written after the keyword. For instance, the line [frames] harold.pcx will tell the game to use the file harold.pcx when it looks for what frames to use. The other keywords are: [jumplo], [jumpmed], [jumphi], [edge], [greeting], [death], [pause] and [bgmusic] A sample script file could look like this: # graphics [frames] template.pcx # sound [jumplo] jump_lo.wav [jumpmed] jump_mid.wav [jumphi] jump_hi.wav [pause] wazup.wav [death] falling.wav [greeting] yo.wav [edge] edge.wav [bgmusic] bg_menu.wav As you see, [frames] is the only keyword that has to do with graphics, all the others has to do with sound. See the section above on which sound is played where. After each sound keyword, the name of the sound that should be played should be written. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Now you should have a created a directory named 'my_character' (or whatever you called it) in the characters directory. In it there should be an image with the frames, the sounds you want to use and a text file with the same name as the directory (plus the extension .txt). If you think you're all set to go, start up Icy Tower and select your character from the game options. If something is wrong with it, you will get messages during start up. Good luck! (If it doesn't work as planned, check the file log.txt that is created when you run Icy Tower, you might find clues there.) HAVING TROUBLES? If there's something you don't understand, or if you have a problem with getting your character to work properly, go to the forums at Free Lunch Design and ask. http://www.freelunchdesign.com IN CLOSING If you make any good characters that you think other people would enjoy, go to the forums at Free Lunch Design and show it to us! http://www.freelunchdesign.com For more information on Icy Tower, please refer to the original manual in readme.txt. - THE END -
Johncena2