If you have a creative itch it is possible to design your own slopes and share them with the rest of the world. The tool GLEED2D is used for this. In this tool you can drag and drop trees and other objects onto a slope and design it exactly like you want making level design a smooth and rewarding experience. In only a few hours you will be enjoying the thrills of speeding down your personal slope. Once you tire of the privacy you can share your slope with the rest of the world. A custom leaderboard will be created and you can follow who is playing your slope and how well they do.
Installing GLEED2D
You need a desktop PC running Windows.
Install GLEED2D from http://gleed2d.codeplex.com/. Pay attention to the prerequisites - you will need to install XNA 3.5 from Microsoft web site.
Edit the slower_slope_with_rocks.xml file: Scroll to the bottom and change
D:\Martin\Source\workspace\SkiGame\res\raw\po2\
to the folder where you unzipped the images.
Run GLEED2D and open the slower_slope_with_rocks.xml file
You are now able to view and modify the slope.
Creating your own slope from scratch
Create a new file in GLEED2D. Select the folder where you unzipped the images. Place images until you are happy with your slope.
Testing your own slope
When done you can load your own slope in-game. First you need to mount the SDcard of your phone and copy the xml file to the folder where custom maps are stored. By default this is /sdcard/AlpineBoarderMaps. Now you can start the game and select your slope.
Rules and hints
There must be exactly one startmarker and one goal image placed on a map.
There must be an even number of poles. Poles are paired up based on which are closest to one another to form gates that the player must drive through.
The large textures with trees are convenient for blocking up large pieces of the slope. However be aware that the physics of trees in these is different from physics of single trees which can be confusing to the player. It is recommended to cover them with a few ordinary trees so the players don't get too near to them.
Performance: Placing too many trees may lag the players phone. It is recommended to use the big subforest textures as much as possible as these perform better than a large collection of single trees.
Rotation and scaling, which can be done in gleed2d, is not supported by the game.
Creating Ice and Pebbles
Ice and pebbles are areas on the slope where the surface is different from ordinary snow. Ice makes it harder to turn. Pebbles slow you down. In order to use these in your own slope go to the "Primitives" tab in GLEED2D and select Path. Draw a path that surrounds the area you want to be ice or pebbles. The "isPolygon" property on the left hand side determines if it will be ice or pebbles. True makes the area ice, false makes it pebbles. Note that the texture will not be applied in GLEED2D. But as soon as you load your map in-game you will see it.
Blocking lines
If you have areas of the slope where you don't want the player to go you can shield them with invisible, blocking lines. This could be around the outer edge of the slope. These are drawn the same way as Ice or Pebbles. In order to turn a path into a blocking line select it, right click it in the upper left side window and select Add Custom Property. Give the property any name and click Ok. Now the property has appeared in the lower left hand corner. Give it the value "blockingline". This will turn it into a line that the player cannot cross - he will be repelled. Note that any other values will cause the slope to not load in game. Note that blocking lines should be placed in places where the player usually is far away from. For example in a deep forest. As they are invisible they will be confusing to the player to interact with and should only be used to protect your map from players "cheating" by for example driving through the forest and race down the outside of the slope where you might not have bothered to place trees.
Debugging your slope
If the game fails when you are loading your slope it will show a message dialogue detailing the problem. If you still have problems we are very happy to hear from you and help you out. email us at logisoftgames@gmail.com.
Sharing your slope with the world
In order to upload your slope first you need to zip your slope xml file. After that you can upload the zip file here:
skigame/php/uploadform.html
After the upload it can be downloaded via the in-game mapbrowser. A highscore list will be created for it so you can see who is playing and how good they are. Please let us know if you upload a cool map. Then we will review and rate it so that it gets on the recommended list in the mapbrowser.
