Lava Tumble Custom Level Importing

Lava Tumble is a game on ROBLOX. This repository provides documentation and samples that describe how to create and import your own custom levels.

Quickstart Video Tutorial

A video tutorial is available describing just the basics of making and importing your own custom levels.

Prerequisites

Importing custom levels is permitted exclusively within Lava Tumble VIP Servers so it is necessary to purchase a VIP Server subscription. The reason for this requirement is that it is possible to generate custom levels that simply do not work or are otherwise detrimental to the Lava Tumble experience. Restricting custom levels to VIP Servers ensures that the damage caused by malignant or incorrect levels is contained. Don't worry. If you accidentally upload a malformed level, simply restart your VIP server to clear all custom levels.

Importing

The remainder of this document will describe how to create and format your custom level.

Using pastebin.com

Once your level has been created, make it available online by creating a new paste at pastebin.com. When you have saved your level there, copy the 8 character identifier from the pastebin url for your level. Enter your Lava Tumble VIP Server and enter the following in chat: /load xxxxxxxx where xxxxxxxx is the 8 character identifier you copied from the url. If your level is properly formatted and loaded by the system, you'll hear a chime and see a message that your level has been accepted. Your level will then appear on the Custom tab of the level selection UI. This will generally be the last of the tabs.

Elsewhere on the web (including github.com)

You can simply enter /load <YOUR URL HERE> into chat to load your level from anywhere on the web including github. Note that the url must return text, not html. Use this command to load Mirror's Edge from the samples in this repository:

/load https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AxeOfMen/LavaTumbleCustomLevelImporting/master/samples/42%20-%20Mirror's%20Edge.json

The Single Player Levels

The single player levels have been included in this repository to serve as examples of how to format your custom levels. They may also serve as a starting point for your custom level. You could take the Tangent level, for instance, and modify its properties to increase the time the player must stay alive.

An Example

As an introduction to the level format, we'll use the level Stayin' Alive as an example. Here is the level:

{
    "name": "Stayin' Alive",
    "instructions": "Stay alive for 15 seconds",
    "entry": [6, 1, 6],
    "awaitOutcome": "keepAlive",
    "gameModes": ["randomBlocksDrop"],
    "gameplayOptions": {
        "requiredDuration": 15,
        "blockFallInterval": 0.5
    },
    "map": [
        [
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
            [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
        ]
    ]
}

We'll now examine the properties of this level and what they do.

name (required)

Each level has a name. It is a string that identifies the level to the user. It is displayed in the level selection window as well as the Now Playing UI. It can be anything you want, but keep in mind that long names may overflow their UI containers and look silly.

instructions (required)

A short description of what the player must do to pass the level. This is displayed to the player shortly before the level begins and in the Now Playing UI.

entry (required)

This describes the location on the level that the player will be placed initially. The 1st number (6) represents the column in the map. The 2nd number represents the layer (our example has only one layer, so the only option is 1 in this case). The 3rd number (6) represents the row in the map. Using the map property from our example, we count six columns over on the first row. This is the column the player will start on. Some maps have multiple layers (like Deadfall), up to 6. But our example has only one layer so the entry point specifies layer 1 as the entry layer. Now count down six rows on the map and you will come to the very center of the map. The entry point [6, 1, 6] is the center of the map on the first layer. See the documentation of the map property below for more information.

awaitOutcome (required)

This describes the win conditions for the level. There are a handful of predefined win conditions that you can choose from and they are documented later in this document. You must specify a single awaitOutcome value for your custom level. The value in our example is keepAlive which describes a win condition by which the player must remain alive for a specified amount of time.

gameModes

This describes a set of behaviors for your level. Like awaitOutcome, there is a predefined set of these available to you. For gameModes however, you can combine multiple values or use none at all. In our example, there is a single gameMode value specified, randomBlocksDrop. This game mode causes random blocks to fall from the map at a specified interval.

gameplayOptions

Some values for awaitOutcome and gameModes permit customization. When they do, you can include gameplayOptions to specify the values you want to customize. In our example, we are using the awaitOutcome value of keepAlive. This awaitOutcome expects a gameplayOption called requiredDuration which specifies how long the player must remain alive to pass the level. We are also using the gameModes value of randomBlocksDrop which expects a gameplayOption of blockFallInterval which configures how many seconds will elapse between blocks falling. The value specified is 0.5 which means that half a second will elapse between each block falling.

map (required)

The map is a 3 dimensional array describing the physical presence of blocks in your level. The maximum dimensions of the map array is 11 x 6 x 11. 11 on the x and z axes and 6 on the y axis. Wherever a 1 appears in the map, a block will be present. A 0 represents the absence of a block - no block will be placed where there is a zero in the map. To visualize how the map property is used, imagine that you are looking from the top down onto your level. Where you see a 1 is where a block will be on your map. In our example, the entire top layer is full of blocks. As another example, here is the map for Diagonals:

"map": [
    [
        [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0],
        [1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0],
        [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0],
        [0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1],
        [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0],
        [1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0],
        [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0],
        [0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1],
        [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0],
        [1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0],
        [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
    ],
    [
        [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1],
        [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0],
        [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0],
        [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0],
        [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0],
        [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
        [0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
        [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
        [0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
        [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
        [1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
    ]
]

In Diagonals, you can see that there are two layers. The first layer is the top layer of the map. The second layer is the second layer of your custom level and so on, up to six layers.

blockPropertyOverrides

Our example does not use this property, but you will see this property in some of the other examples in this repository. Most commonly, you will see this property used in levels where the objective is to touch all the green blocks. The property is used to override the default properties of a block, like changing the color of the block. Here is an example of its use from the level Punchline:

    "blockPropertyOverrides": [{
            "blockPositions": [[6, 1, 11]],
            "overrides": {
                "BrickColor": "Bright green"
            }
        }
    ]

This usage of blockPropertyOverrides tells the level engine to change the color of the block located at [6, 1, 11] to Bright green. You can change the properties of blocks that are represented by native types (boolean, number, string) and you can also set the BrickColor using any of the BrickColor names. Some colors have special meaning in some gameModes like the multi-touch blocks found in many of the levels in the Preview pack and the gray blocks in the level ...Now you Don't. Those will be decribed later in the documentation.

Reference

In this section you will find documentation on the permitted values for the awaitOutcome and gameModes properties along with the gameplayOptions that apply to each value.

awaitOutcome

allBlocksTouched
- All blocks must be touched.
- Example levels: Between the Lines, The Complex
- There are no gameplayOptions associated with this awaitOutcome value
allSpecifiedBlocksTouched
- The specified blocks must be touched.
- Example levels: Punchline, First Aid
- gameplayOptions
  - blocksToRemove: Blocks with the specified value for the specified property represent the blocks that must be touched.
    - property: The name of the block property
    - value: The value of the block property
- blockPropertyOverrides Give specific blocks the properties that mark them as needing to be touched
  - blockPositions: An array of coordinates specifying which blocks will have properties overridden.
  - overrides: An object containing name/value pairs where the name is the block property name and the value is the value to be assigned to that block property.
keepAlive
- The player must stay alive for a specified duration.
- Example levels: Stayin' Alive, Still Alive, Tangent
- gameplayOptions
  - requiredDuration: The number of seconds the player must stay alive.
starredIsLastTouched
- The player must touch the starred block last.
- Example level: Final Lap (in the preview levels)
- gameplayOptions
  - lastBlock: An array of x,y,z coordinates describing the position of the last block, the block that will have a star on it.

gameModes

randomBlocksDrop
- Randomly selected blocks fall from the map at a specified interval
- Example levels: Stayin' Alive, Still Alive
- gameplayOptions
  - blockFallInterval: A number representing the number of seconds between blocks falling
mysteryPath
- Blocks are generated over time
- Example levels: Tangent, The Runaround
- gameplayOptions
  - head: An array of x,y,z coordinates describing the position of an existing block in your map which will serve as the location from which the blocks will begin to appear
  - blockInterval: The number of seconds to wait between block generations
portals
- Touching a blue block teleports the player to a corresponding orange block
- Example levels: Separation Anxiety, Here and There
- gameplayOptions
  - portalSets: An array of objects, each with a blue and an orange property. In both cases, the value of blue and orange is an array of x,y,z coordinates describing the position of the block
- blockPropertyOverrides If you want the blocks to be colored before the player starts, add overrides to color them here. Otherwise, the blocks will be colored after the countdown (this can result in some intentional apprehension for the player)
  - blockPositions: An array of coordinates specifying which blocks will have properties overridden.
  - overrides: An object containing name/value pairs where the name is the block property name and the value is the value to be assigned to that block property.
    - The colors used are Bright bluish green and Deep orange
horizontalMirrorMode
- Players must wend a path through explosive blocks that are identified by means of a mirrored level on the opposite side of the map
- Example levels: Mirror's Edge, Reflections
- blockPropertyOverrides
  - blockPositions: An array of coordinates specifying which blocks will have properties overridden.
  - overrides: An object containing name/value pairs where the name is the block property name and the value is the value to be assigned to that block property.
    - Blocks that are colored Bright red in the mirrored map cause the player to die in a horrible explosion.
hiddenBlocks
- Specified blocks become transparent and difficult to see
- Example level: ...Now You Don't
- blockPropertyOverrides
  - blockPositions: An array of coordinates specifying which blocks will have properties overridden.
  - overrides: An object containing name/value pairs where the name is the block property name and the value is the value to be assigned to that block property.
    - Blocks that are colored Mid gray become transparent
multiStepBlocks
- Blocks must be touched more than once (but not in succession - they turn red and explosive until a different block is touched) before they fall
- Example level: Final Lap
- blockPropertyOverrides If you want the blocks to be colored before the player starts, add overrides to color them here. Otherwise, the blocks will be colored after the countdown (this can result in some intentional apprehension for the player)
  - blockPositions: An array of coordinates specifying which blocks will have properties overridden.
  - overrides: An object containing name/value pairs where the name is the block property name and the value is the value to be assigned to that block property.
    - The following colors describe how many times the block must be touched before it falls:
      `Wheat` - 1 jump `Brick yellow` - 2 jumps `Cashmere` - 3 jumps `Burlap` - 4 jumps `Cork` - 5 jumps