TRLE editor

Introduction

It's been a while since Miss Croft wrote a tutorial for the TRLE editor. This one is (was) placed on the page www.trle.unas.cz. With her consent, I am placing this guide here as well. After all, the two instructions overlap a lot and some tools are common to both. This tutorial for TRLE is not that detailed, more like a guide, but I still believe it will be useful. Again, the rule here is that anyone can contribute and supplement or modify the instructions. And I'll point out right away that I don't work in this editor, so don't expect any updates and improvements from me. This time it's entirely up to you whether this guide will be complete and detailed. That's why it's also only as a side dish, but who knows?

A bit of theory :

Before we get into this editor, it will probably be appropriate to talk about things related to the creation itself. I definitely recommend reading it, because there is a lot of interesting information that will come in handy during the next creation.

How to make Tomb Raider :
When working with the Editor and creating their own levels, every author gets a lot of questions and not one idyll hurts him it goes out of mind. When you start playing TR, you find TR beautiful as a game. He entertains you, he won't leave you alone, you're worried about Lara, when she walks into some mysterious room, you are startled when something jumps out at her, you admire the beauty of the environment you are walking through, you get angry at the ingenuity of the authors. These are the things that the game spontaneously awakens in you. You don't realize the other side of things which only those who have really experienced creating TR can feel. I'm talking about the difficulty of producing a level of such qualities for you. As such, the game works on very simple principles and that is what makes it so beautiful on the one hand and on the other so complex to manufacture. And the longer you deal with this thing, the more your perspective on this game changes. It's a shame in my opinion because you will lose one of the magic of the game. You play TR and you don't look at the ruins as a real environment, but you see in it already just cubes covered in textures with objects that are connected via commands etc etc. On the other hand you start the game even more admire. You will find out what kind of geniuses are working in Core and at each level you will just say - perfect. They will seem wonderfully crafted down to the last detail. A perfect game of lights and shadows, a complex level made for several hours on a small piece of territory. You start to understand where they get it, where they get so much imagination, when they still use the same system for five episodes. The feeling that you would never do such a level, you simply would not have thought of this. This is how to do everything economically. Your levels are spread out and you need a lot of space for one puzzle and it's still not that good. Creating TR is simply an art, for which you need a good dose of talent and imagination. This is how you start to look at the game and admire it and take a huge role model and inspiration from her.
And now I finally get to the topic that can be read from the title of this article. No. I don't want to describe the editor here, principles or anything like that. I want to show you another point of view, very important for creation, and that is the point of view of authors. On their thoughts, questions and pitfalls. What accompanies such an author? The most important question which the author deals with all the time is :
What makes Tomb Raider so much fun? Or also What must have a "perfect" level?
Philip Campbell dealt with this question and wrote an article for us, the future authors, where he put his findings on paper. He is a man who created 15 levels for the TR Gold series almost single-handedly and is a huge role model for me. The truth is that who on this the question comes, he won. You can tell that he figured it out, but even if he writes it all down, everyone has to figure it out for themselves, understand it, get it inside and create levels with it. From the beginning, you drive purely according to yourself. You are full of ideas and you know what exactly your level will look like. Although you have minor difficulties with how to implement your plans, you will figure out that Tomb Raider is simply like programming. It depends on how you can logically stack the commands, to make it exactly how you want it to be and do what you want it to do. The possibilities are endless. At first, you will be annoyed by the blandness of the available ones shapes and Lara's possibilities, but if you know how to put them together correctly, you can do anything. Either the impression of a perfect jungle or a sacrificial hall. And that goes hand in hand with the term "perfect level". Over time, something breaks inside you. You will no longer want to do levels like as you like, but you will be mainly interested in the surroundings. You go from player to player and ask. Of course, every player is different and everyone likes something different. Over time, you will come to understand the essence of the game and what actually makes the game so great. I will leave this article slip into some kind of guidebook, where I'll reveal some of my current knowledge and remind you of what you might know, but haven't noticed.

Environment
Choosing the environment where the level will take place is not as important as it seems. It's up to you if you show your capabilities in the snow, in the desert, in offices or caves. The truth is that every creator it has a relationship with some environment and therefore mainly or only creates levels in it. I personally adore tombs of the Egyptian environment, to which I am very inspired by the fourth part. If you are creating an entire part, i.e. several levels in a row, diversity, i.e. a different environment at each level, is very important. It keeps you excited and curious. just remember how after going through the jungle in the third volume, you were happy to get rid of those monkeys, tigers and guards. Then again, that you will no longer meet annoying emps and always run away from something. It is something that arouses people's interest, interested to see what happens next. If we go back to one level, there is rather a different problem here. According to the players around me, some like large rooms, halls, outdoor areas, and others like narrow streets, corridors and tunnels. There is a certain beauty and sense of freedom in the vast environment, the ability to explore, to dodge the enemy. It also supports a hunch. A hunch that such a large space will not be there just like that. Mostly they expect some big monster or some other kind of big battle. But I'll come back to the enemies later. Tunnels and corridors offer the opposite feeling, a sense of security. You know you've been behind there is a wall on the sides, so the enemy can only come out from the front. In fact, the game with tunnels is very psychologically simple and delivers rest for players. A good level should combine both options and alternate continuously so that players do not get bored of the tunnels, because it's a very monotonous style and you can't diversify it much. Although...but more on that later. The most important thing about the environment is realism. It is not good to think too much about the environment and combine what cannot be combined in practice. Trips to the realm of fantasy with I personally think Lara is not a very good idea. The player must always have some idea of ​​what awaits him. So choose an environment with realistic backgrounds and create it as believably as possible. The magic of this is that even though they are still the same shapes, the player must feel as if he is really walking through a jungle, a warehouse, or an ice cave. Very colorful and confused texturing can destroy the entire level and deprive the player of the experience. Also, avoid physics nonsense, although there is some in itself basically enough of the game, but maybe keep the same level of water in the connected tanks. If you have already indicated somewhere where the earth's surface is, so that Lara does not go to the center of the planet, etc.

Options
The so-called "single-use rooms" tend to be a big mistake of creators. It goes without saying that many, such must be but players like to return to familiar places over and over again, and when they open something, they're happy to know where it is. The art lies in the placement of the puzzles so that the player explores the entire environment before solving anything. Complete stupidity is a level that has a path exactly given and you can't really go anywhere else. So you have one option, with that you open the door, so you have somewhere to go again and nowhere else. The solution to the level is always given, but it should not be fixed given also the order where the player will go. This means creating several puzzles that are not directly dependent on each other, but all of them will be important to complete the game. Create pairs or trios in which Lara will have to commute back and forth and when he half solves it, he will need to run away to a completely different one. This way you ensure that the player is directly immersed in the environment. In the same way, you should use all of Lara's abilities to solve them - rope, ladder, somersaults, climbing on all fours, holding hands... This makes the level perfect - lots of options.

Suspense, action, enemies
There are many players who are very afraid while playing Tomb Raider. It makes the tension of anticipation of what is to come. It's hard to tell if they're worried about Lara or being scared, but they are. Some players love and demand this in games. How to create tension? It's always the situation. As he walks down a long dark corridor, he is in some large environment, as I wrote earlier. It makes it possible that something might come. But follow one rule. Never let the player down. Are they expecting a monster? So put her there. Does that spoil the surprise? But not at all! Timing is important. If you don't put the monster there, the players will be disappointed because they will find that they were nervous for nothing. They know that something will happen, but they don't know when. And this is the point that the creators have to grasp. In this direction, the game must be unpredictable. Remember when in the game you are with they have encountered these things, so you have to do it differently. And next time it will be different. And the players? You'll be scared again :). And believe me, it's a nice feeling when you watch someone playing your level get scared and then start throwing slippers at you for it, because you laugh at him. Suspense is always the essence of the game, and the climax must come unexpectedly. Make it work on the first try, because the player is only startled once in the same situation. Then of course after dusting the F6 keyboard it loses its effect. Unexpected death by bayonets, waiting enemies at an unexpected moment... even just an unexpected opening of a door, or a noisy closing when Lara enters. This brings up the theme of accompanying tension, and that is music. Danger music should be at the same time as the enemy, not before, not after. To release the tension, play some nice music after completing the puzzle. Then surprise them with a nice cookie as a finishing touch :o). As another accompaniment to the tension, there is also a perfect play of lights and shadows and more...
Therefore, tension must not be forgotten. The game is boring without him.

Originality
The player is always only human, so he expects to see something new from the game. Which is very difficult because amateur creators they are mostly die-hard fans and tend to gravitate towards the original, i.e. what they have already seen. I've played enough amateur creations, and I can truly confirm that the new puzzle, which does not remind me of anything from any work, always brings joy to my soul. Playfulness is also curiosity, and curiosity is the desire to know, to know something new. That's why you always have to be able to offer those players something. And that is the stumbling block of most levels. Unfortunately, fantasy is a gift and that makes for a talent for creating levels. A talent that not everyone has. And so all levels are divided by quality and then people have to decide whether they will create for their own pleasure or for the players. Those with imagination and possibility become obsessed with originality and begin gradually redoing everything that goes wrong with Tomb Raider. From the name, key description, logo, to Lara, enemies, equipment, textures and to the system itself. Because there are already many other editors just for creating levels for Tomb Raider. It is a kind of desire to disconnect from other creators and to be something typical and exceptional. This is good on the one hand, but sometimes it spoils the whole game. For example, when I saw a vampire, a skeleton, or characters from other games instead of Lara. That already seems excessive to me.
After all those hours, days and months spent on this topic, one still comes to one thing. No matter what the amateur does, it will never compare to the original. People who do this for a living have great art in them entertain us and it should stay that way. If we could make levels like them, we would stop appreciating and admiring it. Whenever I sit down to the first part of Tomb Raider, for example, I always have more fun than with any amateur level. And that's how it should be. Let's not try to match them because we'll never be able to anyway. Let's admire them, appreciate their work and let's enjoy every play because this will never come back and even if the end is behind us, we will take amateur levels as memories. As a legacy of those who can no longer give us this pleasure and the acceptance of those who do not intend to give up their love yet. To all of them - GOOD LUCK!