Before You Start

Some Terms You Need to Know

Game design has a language all its own. You will need to know these terms before you continue.

Map: The entire geographical area for each level. It is composed of scenery blocks and events such as enemies, platforms and tings.

Rayman's size in blocks Block: A square, fixed sized piece of the scenery for the level. The screen during game play displays approximately 19.5 blocks across and 12.5 blocks down. Rayman is approximately 4 blocks tall and 2 blocks wide. When designing your level, keep in mind Rayman's jumping abilities:

7 blocks horizontally when walking or standing
14 blocks horizontally using the helicopter power
11 blocks horizontally using the power to run
21 blocks horizontally using both the helicopter power and the power to run together
6 blocks vertically when walking or standing
8 blocks vertically with the power to hang

Block Type: Each scenery block in a map has a "Block Type" associated with it which defines how Rayman, his enemies and other events in a level react to the block. For example, if Rayman is walking on ice, the block would simply be a picture of ice, but the Block Type tells Rayman to act as if he is slipping.

Event: Moving objects such as enemies, platforms, animations and tings. Everything in a game level that is not part of the scenery.

Steps in Creating a Rayman Level

1) Sketch your map on paper

You may wish to sketch out your map on paper before you start building it with the Rayman Designer tools. Include rough outlines of the platforms, placement of enemies, bonuses and tings. This will give you a global perspective rather than planning moves one at a time.

2) Create a new map

Your level will be created in one of Rayman's six worlds (Jungle, Music, Mountain, Image, Cave or Cake). You have to decide the shape of your new level (square, long horizontal, vertical, etc.) before you can create the level. Use the Mapper program to create an (almost) empty map as the starting point for your level. (For more information, see the section on Creating a New Map.)

3) Design the scenery in the Mapper

The Mapper program is also used to copy pieces of the scenery into your new level. For example, in the Jungle level you can add water, grassy platforms, hanging vines and plants to decorate your level. Note - you can only create scenery with the design elements that Ubi Soft created for that world. This means you can not have jungle vines in your Mountain level, nor can you draw your own new scenery elements. (For more information, see the section on Building the Scenery with the Mapper.)

4) Add the events with the Events Editor

Next, the dynamic events of the level are added using the Events Editor program. This is when you add enemies, tings and moving platforms. (For more information, see the section on Using the Events Editor.)

5) Play your level to test your design

Don't attempt to make your level all at once. It's preferable to construct it in sections and test the level by playing it to make sure that all is going well.

6) Continue to design and test your level until it is completed. Have fun!

Helpful Things to Remember

The game play in Rayman's new levels is slightly different from the Original Rayman game. Before starting to design your level, we suggest that you first play Rayman's new levels to become familiar with Rayman's worlds, enemies and game play.

The goal of the game in Rayman's new levels is to collect all (usually 100) of the blue tings on a level to make the Exit Sign appear so that he can exit the level. That means he must explore the entire level to search out and find every blue ting. There are no cages in Rayman's new levels.

You should leave clues that allow the player to detect danger or find the trick for getting through a difficult place. Tings are a great way to help "steer" a player by creating incentives to go a certain direction.

There is a Golden Rule of platform games: Always leave the player a chance! Don't create situations where Rayman can not avoid being killed.

Give your map a theme. This can be done by emphasizing a visual feature (sliding, for example, or being up in the sky) or through a type of game play (horns, water lilies, or bouncing erasers).

Avoid creating lots of flat platforms. Take advantage of the variety of scenery to create hills and valleys.

Check that there are no places where Rayman might end up stuck without being able to do something. When this happens, it's called a "Map Bug". At every location, there should either be a way out or Instant Death Types which kill Rayman immediately.

We hate to tell you, but the cheat codes don't work on levels that you are creating. But you shouldn't need the cheat codes anyway!

Power failures occur, storms strike, glitches happen. If you have spent days working on a Rayman level, don't forget to back up the files occasionally. While we have never experienced problems with the Rayman Designer tools, we are firm believers in backing up our work, just in case!