llamamod/docs/manual/tutorial-parkour.md

Tutorial: Make a parkour

In this tutorial you build a short jump-and-run course: a start platform, platforms over a deadly pit, a ramp, stairs, a round platform, a checkpoint, a line of coins and a goal with a working exit. It takes about 20 minutes. You should know how to move the camera (see Navigation); everything else is explained on the way.

1. Create the level

1. File → New level… (Ctrl+N).
2. Level name: My Parkour. Keep the Base level (Village chapter 1 – it provides grass, stone and wood textures, coins and checkpoint posts) and the suggested TestLevel chapter.
3. Start with: Flat floor. You get a 16×14 grass floor with a player start and an exit.
4. Click Create and File → Save (Ctrl+S) once, so the project has a file.

The flat floor will be your start area. The course will lead away from it over a pit.

2. Make the pit deadly

Anything the llama falls into must kill it, otherwise it lands on nothing and falls forever.

1. Press B for the Brush tool and choose Death plane.
2. Drag a large area next to the floor where the course will be – generously, it costs nothing. The plane is invisible in the game; in the editor it is outlined.

Alternatively, Geometry → Death plane height… with Add a death plane over the whole grid puts one under the whole level at once. Its height should be well below your platforms (default −1.5).

3. Platforms over the pit

1. In the Brush tool choose Platform.
2. In the Inspector set Top to stone and Sides to stone2 with the swatch buttons (optional).
3. Drag a 2×2 footprint a little away from the floor's edge, release, move the mouse until the top is at about 0.5 and click.
4. Draw two or three more platforms, each a bit further away and a bit higher.

Gaps of 1–2 cells are comfortable jumps; 3 cells needs a run-up. Keep height differences under about 1 cell at first.

Tip: Draw one platform, then use Geometry → Array duplicate… (Ctrl+Shift+D): 4 copies, Offset X 3, Offset Y 0.25 makes a rising row in one step.

4. Ramp, stairs and a round platform

• Ramp: drag the footprint in the direction it should rise, release, move the mouse to the height of the high end, click.
• Stairs: the same; keep Walkable (invisible slope) on, otherwise the llama cannot climb them.
• Round: drag the diameter, then the height – a round platform. Segments sets how round it is.

Select a brush and drag its orange (sides) or green (top/bottom) handles to fix its size. [ and ] turn the selection by 90°, Page Up/Down raise or lower it.

5. Check the collision

Press C to show collision. Every surface the llama can stand on is coloured; the death plane shows as material 30. Look for:

• platform tops without colour (collision switched off),
• small gaps between pieces that should touch – Level → Check for problems reports gaps under 0.2 cells.

6. A checkpoint

The llama should not have to start over after every fall.

1. Open the Objects panel (left dock) and click Checkpoint in Quick setups.
2. Click on a platform in the middle of the course.

You get a checkpoint post with its respawn point just in front of it. Falling after passing it puts the llama back there. See Objects for the details.

7. Coins

1. Click Coin line in Quick setups (or the Coin line / arc tool, O).
2. Click above the first platform, then above the last one. Coins appear every spacing along the line, following the floor.

Coin arc places coins on a circle: click the centre, then a point on the circle – nice over a round platform.

8. The goal

The template's exit is still on the flat floor. Move it to the end of the course:

1. Draw a Block as the goal platform at the end.
2. Click Exit in Quick setups and click the middle of the goal block's top.

That places a LevelDoor in the cell centre plus a 1×1 floor with collision material 16. The door only fires while the llama stands on material 16 in its cell. In the options bar, choose where the exit leads (for example the next chapter of a world).

3. Select the old exit on the flat floor (the LevelDoor and its small floor) and delete it (Del), so the level has one exit.

9. Play-test

1. F5 (Play) builds the level, installs it as a mod and starts the game directly in it.
2. Run the course. Fall into the pit once to see that the death plane and the checkpoint work.
3. Press Escape in the game to quit straight back to the editor.

To test a hard jump without running the whole course: point the camera at the platform before it, so the middle of the view lies on its top, and press Shift+F5 (Play from camera position). The llama starts there, facing the way the camera looks. If there is no walkable collision at that spot, the editor tells you instead of starting.

10. Iterate

• Jump too long? Select the platform and nudge it with the Move tool (W) – with snapping (G) on, steps are 0.25 cells by default.
• Too easy? Make platforms smaller (handles) or add an Invisible wall that forces a detour.
• Add decoration: a Fence along the start, a few Trees, a library piece (see Importing meshes and the library).
• Run Level → Check for problems before you share the level, then see Sharing levels.