The Omegamatic

The Omegamatic

Developer(s)	Mink
Initial release	2010-07-17
Latest update	2011-03-15
Development status	Finished
Programming language	Euphoria 3.1.1
Platform	Windows XP, 7-10, (Linux via Wine)
Tool Type	Level Editor
Engine(s)	Keen:Galaxy, Keen:Dreams
Discussion(s)	K:M Discussion Thread
Download	Tom v.1.0 newest

The Omegamatic

The Omegamatic, often reffered to as "TOM", is a Windows-based level editor for Keen's 4-6 and Keen Dreams that was developed by Mink in 2010. It is heavily based on the source code from Mindbelt, a Keen's 1-3 editor by CKGuy as well as many features from The Photachyon Transceiver, a Keen's 4-6 editor also by CKGuy, and Keen:Next by z-1.

Setting Up

Run tom.exe and select the gamemaps.ck4 file. You will then need to select your tilesets which you exported modkeen: 4til0000 and 4til0001. After selecting these, if all goes well, the world map will open in TOM.

The Interface and Tools

Tom features two different level editing styles: TED5 and Keen:Next. I highly recommend Keen:Next Mode and will only cover it in this tutorial. To activate this go to settings and click "Keen:Next Mode". You will now see the tileset on the right side of the TOM window.

In the bottom left of the window you will see three different boxes. These boxes display the tile you pick from the tileset on the right of the window. Each box displays from one of the three layers used in Keen:Galaxy: background tiles, foreground tiles, and sprite icons. To change which tileset to work with, use the hotkeys 1, 2, and 3 to switch between the layers.

To place a tile simply select the tile from the tileset with the left mouse button and click on the level where you want to place it with the left mouse button. You can also right click a tile from the level to make it the active tile for placing, just like a water dropper tool. To erase a tile you will need to right click an empty space in the level, which makes an empty tile the active tile, and then left click what you want to erase.

If you want to select an area of tiles from within a level, press C and left click a corner of the area you want to select. You should then left click the opposite corner of the area you want to select. The selected area will have it's colors inverted until you select the size of the area. You can then press P to paste the area you selected.

If you want to select an area of tiles from the tileset, left click the top left tile of the area you want to select. Then, while holding shift, left click the bottom right tile of the area you want to select. Release shift and then you should be able to place the selected area in the level by left clicking.

You can scroll around the level with your mouse wheel or with the arrow keys. You can zoom in and out in the "View" tab. You can also toggle on and off which layers can be seen with the hotkeys 4, 5, and 6.

To change the level you are editing go to "Levels" and select the level you want to edit. You can rename levels by going to "File" and then "Rename This Level".

You can resize a level by going to "Tools" and selecting either: Insert Row, Delete Row, Insert Column, or Delete Column. After selecting on of these move your mouse around the level and you will see a highlighted area which will be affected by whichever option was chosen. To disable any of these level adjustments just go back to "Tools" and uncheck it.

When working on your world map, you'll want to use sprites to specify what levels your entrances will lead to. To do this, first press 3 to activate the sprite icon layer. Press enter once and a message box will come up with an infoplane number in hexideciaml. Remove the number indicate and type one of the following: C0xx makes a level entrance where xx is the level number in hexadecimal, not decimal), D0xx overlays blocking tiles that will be removed upon completion of the level (think the gates for border village and slug village), and F0xx is for the flag holder which corresponds to the level. After entering your chosen value, you can then place the level entrance, gate, or flag sprite by left clicking.

Sprites and Enemies

To place sprites and enemies in a level, press 3 to bring up the sprite tileset. You can place sprites like you would normally place a tile. Some enemies appear more than once in the sprite menu; this is for enemies that appear on easy, moderate, and hard. You can see little numbers that designate this, but a general rule is that the order they appear in on the menu matches the easy/medium/harder order. Sometimes there is a blank space before or after the order of sprites. For example, the blue bird from keen 4 doesn't have a sprite icon for easy mode, however, it does have a blank tile where the easy mode icon would normally go. This blank tile can be placed to place a blue bird on easy. This works similarly for other enemies in this situation.

Secret Passages

Some foreground tiles have properties that allow Keen to walk behind them; these are secret passages. To make these you will need to identify which tiles have the correct foreground but not blocking properties. I suggest examining some of the original levels and noting down which tiles are used for the secret passages. You can also identify them with the CKD456tli utility. When putting point items in a secret passage, you must use points from the sprite list rather than the foreground tile points.

Moving Platforms

A simple moving platform in Keen 4 can be placed by putting a moving platform sprite icon with a red arrow in the desired spot. To stop the platform moving off the edge of the screen however, you'll need to put some blocking tiles in its path: these icons look like a "B" in a square. Put one blocking tile to each side (for a horizontally-moving platform) or above and below (for a vertically-moving platform). A falling platform (the one with a yellow triangle below) only needs a single blocking tile beneath it. In Keen 5 and Keen 6, the platforms with green arrows (known as Goplats) need a path made of the yellow arrow icons to follow.

Switches for goplats

Often you want the player to have to turn a platform on with a switch. To do this you will need to place another blocking tile in the way of the platform between the other two. After placing the blocking tile, hold the mouse over it and press enter two times. This will give you the hexidecimal coordinates which you will place on the corresponding switch. The switch will now turn the blocking tile off thus activating the platform.

Switches for bridges

To create a switch for bridges, first build the bridge using the bridge tiles. Then hold your mouse over the top left tile of the bridge and press enter twice to get the hexidecimal sprite value. Place this sprite on the switch you want to activate the bridge with. If you want the bridge to begin already opened, you will need to locate the invisible bridge tiles and place these where the bridge will be located, otherwise no bridge will appear. To find these either locate them in existing levels with open bridges or use ckd456tli.

Key Gem Doors

To place a keygem holder, first place the foreground keygem holder tile somewhere on the map (it can be anywhere). Next place a door (these are also foreground tiles) somewhere (anywhere). When making the door, there are three door tiles: a bottom, middle, and top. If you're making a door more than three tiles high, use the middle door piece for additional height. Using your mouse, hold it over the top tile of the door and press enter twice. Place the sprite that this gives you on the gem holder.

Doors

To place doors that Keen can enter, first place two sets of door tiles on the map. Then hold the mouse over bottom left or right of the first door and press enter twice. This gives you a sprite which you should place on the bottom of the second door you want connected to the first door. After placing the sprites at the bottom of the second door, you will need to press enter twice at the bottom of this second door and place the sprites on the first door in the same way.

Scroll Blocks

Some Keen levels have separate areas that act like independent mini-levels (the Pyramid of the Forbidden is a good example of this). You can place scroll blocks from the sprite menu to mark horizontal and vertical edges between these areas. The scroll blocks look like horizontal and vertical blue lines with small white stripes; I suggest examining existing levels to see how they are used before placing them in your own levels.

Saving

To save your progress go to "File" and then "Save all Levels". This will immediately save all your levels.

Testing

After saving you can test your levels by adding this to your patch file:

%maphead maphead.ck4

Then run your batch file.