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JNKPlat Switch : Level Editor Blog
29th August 2022
One of the most fun elements of JNKPlat has been designing levels.

Left Trigger, Right Shoulder, Y

-=-=-

The very first version, which I made in College 25 years ago, used external ascii text files for its levels, with W's for walls, 1's for Floors, 3's for ladders, and so on.
Players could open up a level inside a text editor, hack away at a level, save it back, and then share the level with their friends.
It wasn't the most intuitive way to do it, but it was college, and we all vaguely understood the concept.


The original Level 14

For the next few versions, text and ascii levels were the way it was done, but eventually I got around to building a properly GUI driven level editor, and ever since that's been a staple of JNKPlat games.
Sharing levels with friends is all part of the fun of a JNKPlat.

But now we come to the Switch Edition.
Coded using SmileBASIC, and stuck inside the locked down world of a Nintendo Switch, there's not really a whole lot of opportunities to share the worlds that you create.
As such, I haven't made this a "feature" of the game.

But, whilst making all of those 100 levels, I certainly did need one.

So I made one.
And it's still in there!!


An approximate recreation of the original Level 14

Opening the Editor




Open the game, and on the main menu hold Left Trigger, Right Shoulder and Y
The new menu should open up.



From here, select a level, and tap either A to play the level or Y to edit it.

Hold X at any time to return to the editor's level selection menu, and save your current level.

Using The Editor


Navigate with the DPad or the Left Stick.
A places a tile, B removes the tile, Y will grab the current tile as the new drawing tile.

If you hold either shoulder button, you can use LeftThumb or DPad to select different tiles.
They're all listed down at the bottom left of the screen, with the currently selected tile raised, and there's a whole bunch of tiles to play with.



Cycle through to find the tile you want, then draw it onto the level with A, or remove it with B.
Be sure to have a Start and an Exit, and try to figure out a path as you draw the level.
Once you're done, Hold X, which will bring up the save requester then pop you back on the main menu.
From there, Give it a play, and if it's not quite right, hold X to get back to the menu, and Y to edit it some more.
Rinse and repeat until everything's perfect, and then find a victim to play your level!

What's the Point?


Make a level then pass it over to friends and family, and see if they can solve it.
I know, it's not the best situation.
Ideally level sharing would be a thing, and I'm really very sorry that I couldn't allow you to do that.
But it's something to do, isn't it?
Enjoy, and have fun making.

Maybe capture your favourite levels as screen grabs, and we can try to reproduce them ourselves?

If you want to grab a copy of JNKPlat '22 on the Switch, you'll need a copy of SmileBASIC from the eShop, and then use the SBKey 4Q4A5X4KD to download it.
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Jnkplat , Switch
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