KBLE, a KeyBoard driven Level Editor

A work in progress level editor with extensive keyboard support. Designed for tile based 2D platformers. This is a work in progress program in unusable state.

Short term design decisions

Subject to change.

• Efficiency, simplicity and clarity are key goals.
• Fully keyboard driven modal editing. Mouse support is secondary.
• GUI software made in Zig with raylib.
• Configurable (editing src/conf.zig).

Installation

Runtime requirements: raylib.

Precompiled binaries

https://builds.sr.ht/~kikoodx/kble

Manual compilation

Build requirements: Zig master branch, raylib. For Arch users, I made kble-git available in the AUR.

$ # Clone this repository
$ git clone https://git.sr.ht/~kikoodx/kble && cd kble
$ zig build
$ zig-cache/bin/kble

Press escape to close the program.

Command line argument

Not available on Windows. Accept a path to KBLE file to open. If the file doesn't exist, the given path will be used for saving. Defaults to level.kble if no argument given.

$ kble #level.kble
$ kble sample.kble
$ kble $HOME/projects/kble/sample.kble

Configuration.

In src/conf.zig, edit values from BEGIN USER CONFIG. The configuration is applied at compile time. You have the possibility to:

• Disable mouse support.
• Swap mouse buttons.
• Disable backups.
• Change default grid size.
• Change default scaling level.
• Disable adaptive window size.
• Change and add colors.
• Edit keybindings.

Default keybindings

Repetition/parameter:

• 0 → 9: behavior similar to Vi.

Movement:

• h: left
• j: down
• k: up
• l: right
• y: up-left
• u: up-right
• b: down-left
• n: down-right

Verbs:

• <space>: clear selection
• d: delete selection
• r: replace selection with parameter
• +: increase scale (zoom)
• -: decrease scale (dezoom)
• =: reset scale

File (read/write):

• e: read (load) level
• w: write (save) level
  See kbleformat.md for technical informations.

Parameter buffer (change default value of verb calls):

• p: set parameter buffer to current parameter (defaults to 1)
• P: set the tile ID the keyboard cursor is on as parameter buffer

Modes:

• <return>: normal mode, default
• i: free selection mode
• v: rectangle selection mode
• I: free unselection mode
• V: rectangle unselection mode
• c: camera mode [not implemented]

Default mouse control

• Right click: free selection.
• Shift + left click: rectangle selection.
• Right click: libre unselection.
• Shift + right click: rectangle unselection.
• Left or right click while un·selecting: end selection.

Backups

Safety backups are made when:

• Reading operation is started (backup_read.kble)
• The program exit (backup_exit.kble)

License

Copyright (c) 2021 KikooDX

This project is under the MIT license. See LICENSE for more details.