guidebook/docs/custom-levels/publishing.md

Publishing Levels

Sketchy Maze is designed to be very friendly to mods and custom user content, and the Publish Level feature is an important part towards that goal.

When you have created your own level and you have added some custom doodads to it, publishing your level means that your custom doodads will attach directly into the level file for easy sharing with others: another player can download just your .level file and it will "just play" in their copy of the game, and they don't need to track down all the same custom doodads you've used.

Notice: This feature is only available for full (registered) versions of the game. The free (shareware) version of Sketchy Maze supports custom levels and doodads, but you would need to copy the custom .doodad files to each computer your level will play on, otherwise the game won't be able to find them! Check the website for details how to acquire a full version of the game.

Publish a Level

When you are ready to share your level, click on the "File->Publish level" menu option in the Level Editor.

The Publish window will show the list of named doodads which currently exist in your level, designating which doodads are custom and which were built-in with the game (the built-in doodads are shown in blue text plus an asterisk* symbol).

The blue Export Level button will prompt for you to give a file name, and the level will be written there with all of its custom doodads embedded inside.

Optionally, you can choose to "Attach built-in doodads too" -- this will attach copies of the built-in doodads to your level, too, which will override the game's actual built-in doodads. Doing this comes with some pros and cons:

• Pro: if future releases of Sketchy Maze change the behavior or appearance of a built-in doodad, your custom level will still use the older version that it was published with.
• Con: if future updates to a built-in doodad have improved its appearance, added functionality or fixed bugs, the published level will not benefit from that update because it brought its own (older) version of the built-in doodad.

Managing Attached Files

You can view and manage the files attached to a level by clicking on the "Level -> Attached files" menu in the level editor:

This window lists the doodads, wallpapers or other custom assets which have been attached directly into the level file. A published level will have all of its custom doodads attached (and possibly copies of the built-in doodads it used), as well as the custom wallpaper image (if any).

Removing Attached Doodads

Attached doodads may be removed from the level if doing so will not break the level. Generally, this means: if an instance of that doodad is still in use somewhere on your level, and removing the doodad from the Attached Files would cause the level to be unable to locate that doodad, then removing it from your level will not be permitted.

Doodads can be removed from the Attached Files list if:

• They are built-in doodads; removing them will cause the level to go back to using the built-in copies of these doodads instead.
• They are custom doodads and you have them in your profile directory: the level will start using the named doodad from your profile directory (similarly to how you designed the level in the first place, before publishing!)
• The doodad is no longer used in your level, e.g. you have removed every instance of the doodad from your level geometry.

Removing Attached Wallpapers

Similarly: if the level is using a custom wallpaper image, you can not remove the wallpaper from the Attached Files list while the level is still using it.

To remove the wallpaper image, you need to:

1. Go into the Page Settings (Level->Page settings menu) and select one of the built-in wallpaper images, such as "Notebook."
2. Then you can remove the custom wallpaper image from the Attached Files window.