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Pixx Suite

Build · Tilemap & world builder · Intermediate

Pixxori — Intermediate

Go past the first level: tune biome kits, build your own autotile terrains, layer and parallax a scene, paint collision kinds and hand levels to other apps.

Open Pixxori

#What you'll learn

  • How to steer the biome kit generator: views, tile sizes, level sizes and the layout seed.
  • How to build your own terrain set (autotiles) from any tileset, with random variants.
  • How to organise a scene with tile, object and collision layers, opacity and parallax.
  • How to use the six collision kinds and rebuild collision from your tiles.
  • How to send a finished level to Pixxizi or Pixxado, and bring palettes and tilesets in from other apps.

#Before you start

  • You should be comfortable with the basics in the Pixxori beginner guide: painting tiles, the tool keys and exporting.
  • You need a Pixx plan that includes Pixxori. To send levels to other apps, sign in and include Pixxizi or Pixxado in your plan as well.
  • Optional: a tileset image of your own (a grid of tiles, any tile size) for the custom terrain how-to.

#How-tos

#How to get the level you want from a biome kit

  1. Click Kits in the top bar to open Biome kits & levels.
  2. Use the group chips or Search kits… to find a biome. The Classic group holds simple preset kits, including a stone dungeon.
  3. Pick the View: Side-view platformer builds sky, parallax hills, terrain steps, slopes, liquid pits with bridges, ledges, chests, a spawn point and an exit. Top-down builds ground patches, water, cliffs, paths and props (cave and dungeon kits build rooms and corridors).
  4. Pick a Tile size: 8, 16, 24, 32 or 48 px. Every tile is generated at that size, so nothing is scaled.
  5. Pick a Level size: Small, Medium, Large or Huge.
  6. The Layout seed decides the layout. The same kit, size and seed always give the same level, so write down a seed you like. Click Shuffle for a new random seed.
  7. Click Create the level for a fresh map, or Add the kit to this map to keep your current map and just add the kit's tileset and pieces for painting by hand.

#How to build your own terrain set

A terrain set tells Pixxori which tile to use for each combination of neighbours, so edges and corners fill in by themselves.

  1. Add your tileset with Add a tileset… and select it.
  2. Click New terrain set… in the left panel.
  3. Give it a Name and choose the Kind: 47-tile blob (8 neighbours) for full edge-and-corner sets, or 16-tile (4 neighbours) for simpler sets.
  4. If your tiles are laid out in Pixxori's template order, type the first tile number next to Fill every mask from tile # and click it to assign every mask at once.
  5. Otherwise, click a mask on the left (lit squares mean "the same terrain is next door"), then click its tile in the tileset on the right. Pixxori moves to the next mask for you.
  6. Leave Map edges count as this terrain ticked if the terrain should run off the edge of the map without a border.
  7. Click Create (or Save when editing). The new terrain appears under Terrains (autotile); select it and paint.

#How to add random variety to a terrain

  1. Open your terrain with Edit terrain set.
  2. Click a mask that already has a tile.
  3. Tick Next tileset click adds a variant, then click one or more alternative tiles in the tileset.
  4. Give each variant a weight, and set the Base tile weight. Higher numbers appear more often.
  5. Click Save and paint: Pixxori mixes the variants in as it autotiles.

#How to layer a scene with depth

  1. In the Layers panel, add layers with + Tiles, + Objects or + Collision.
  2. Reorder them with the arrows; the top of the list draws in front.
  3. Select a layer to see its settings: rename it, set its Opacity and its Parallax factor (1 = moves with the camera, 0.5 = half speed, 0 = fixed sky).
  4. Click Parallax in the options bar and pan around to preview the depth.
  5. Use Duplicate to copy a layer as a starting point for a variation.

#How to paint collision with the right kinds

  1. Select a collision layer and the Collision tool (C).
  2. In the options bar, pick what the brush paints: solid, one-way platform, a slope, ladder, water or hazard.
  3. Paint, or click ⚙ From tiles to rebuild the whole collision layer from the tiles on your visible tile layers. Kit tiles already know their kind: ground is solid, ledges and planks are one-way, slopes are slopes, liquids are water or hazard.
  4. Turn on the Show collisions button (▦) in the options bar to check the result over your art.

#How to resize a map without losing your work

  1. In the right panel, scroll to the Map section and click Resize….
  2. Type the new Width (tiles) and Height (tiles).
  3. Click one of the nine anchor squares to choose which part of the map stays put (for example the bottom-left square keeps the ground and the start of the level where they are).
  4. Click Resize.

#How to send a level to another app

  1. Click Send to App in the top bar.
  2. Choose This level (tilemap: layers, collision, objects).
  3. Pick Pixxizi to package it as a level for a game engine, or Pixxado to light the scene and cast shadows from walls.
  4. The other app opens with your level loaded.

#Workflows

#A platformer level, start to finish

  1. In Kits, pick a biome, Side-view platformer, 16 px and Medium. Shuffle until the layout suits you.
  2. Edit by hand: widen a gap with Erase, add ledges from the Pieces panel, drop props with Scatter (P).
  3. Click ⚙ Auto collision so collision matches your edits.
  4. Place extra objects (checkpoints, enemy spawns) with the Object tool and give them a type.
  5. Send This level to Pixxizi and export for your engine, or Export a Tiled file if your engine reads Tiled directly.

#Recolour a kit to match your game's palette

  1. Build or pick a palette in Pixxulo and send it to Pixxori.
  2. Pixxori makes a recoloured copy of the current tileset ("tileset · palette name") and selects it, so the original is untouched.
  3. Paint with the new copy, or swap tiles over by repainting areas.

#Paint with a tileset drawn in another app

  1. Draw tiles in Pixxivi or pack them in Pixxula, then send them as a sprite sheet.
  2. In Pixxori, the sheet opens as a new tileset at its own cell size (an image is sliced at your map's tile size).
  3. Build a terrain set for it with New terrain set… and paint.

#Tips and shortcuts

  • [ and ] change the active layer. Z rotates the brush, X and Y flip it, so one corner tile can serve all four corners.
  • The Select tool (M) plus Save as a stamp turns any part of a map into a reusable stamp, saved in the project.
  • Pixxori saves on this device automatically ("Saved on this device"). Use Cloud to keep a copy in your account and open it elsewhere.
  • New map… has presets such as Screen 16px, Level 16px, Big level, Overworld, World 1024², 32px rooms and 8px handheld.
  • Maps can be up to 4096 × 4096 tiles. Zoomed far out, Pixxori draws a quick colour overview and the Minimap shows where you are.

#Troubleshooting

  • If autotiling picks odd tiles, open Edit terrain set and look for masks marked as missing a tile; masks with no tile fall back to the closest rule.
  • If a terrain leaves a border at the map edge, tick Map edges count as this terrain in its terrain set.
  • If the scatter tool fills everything with props, lower the density slider in the options bar.
  • If a recoloured tileset looks wrong, the palette may be missing a colour close to your tiles. Add colours in Pixxulo and send it again; the original tileset is still there.
  • If Send to App says "Paint some tiles first", the map has no tiles yet on any layer.