Overview
The official documentation for the Bridge Constructor Portal level editor
Overview
The Editor has multiple modes for editing and testing your level:
- Edit Mode
- Items – Place and manipulate items
- Walls – Paint walls
- Test Mode – Simulate the level and constructions without vehicles
- Build Mode – Build constructions
- Drive Mode – Test the level with one vehicle
- Convoy Mode – Finish the level with a convoy to publish it
To change the editor mode, click on the corresponding button on the bottom of the screen.
Level Menu
To access the level menu, click on the button at the upper left corner of the screen. There you can save the level as well as save and load constructions.
Camera
Click and drag with the right or middle mouse button to pan the camera.
While editing items, you can also pan the camera by clicking and dragging on an empty area with the left mouse button.
Zoom the camera with the mouse wheel.
Level Bounds
The size of a level is determined by the foreground wall elements furthest to the sides, bottom and top. The game will automatically place bordering elements on the sides.
The gray diagonal stripes designate the maximum size a level can have.
Painting Walls
To paint walls, enter edit mode and select “Walls” in the upper left.
Select a brush to paint light walls, dark walls, or to erase walls.
Use the brush by left clicking and dragging anywhere in your level.
Switching between foreground and background determines where you paint the walls. In the background you can only paint dark walls.
Placing Items
To place items, enter edit mode and select “Items” in the upper left.
Select the item you want to place by left clicking on it, left click again anywhere in your level to place it.
Hold Ctrl while placing an item to continue placing items of the same type.
Press Escape or the right mouse button to cancel placing an item.
- Foreground and background offers different items that can be placed.
- Portals are always placed in pairs.
- Certain objects will snap and align themselves to nearby surfaces.
Manipulating Items
To move an item, left click and drag the item.
Some items have subelements that can be manipulated by left clicking and dragging the corresponding node.
To edit an item’s properties, right click it to bring up the item editing pop-up. Different items will have different properties that can be edited.
To delete a selected item, press Delete.
- To delete a section of a propulsion or repulsion gel, double click on its node.
- Portals can be flipped horizontally when lying completely flat, otherwise they will always orient themselves upright.
Connecting Items
Some items can toggle their state through the activation of switches.
- Laser fields
- Emancipation grills
- Cube dispensers
- Doors
- Pellet launchers
- Super-Colliding Super Buttons
- One Touch Super Buttons
- Pellet catchers
Items are connected to switches through the use of inputs.
To add inputs to an item, right click the item and select “Add Input”.
Inputs can be moved separately from the parent item by left clicking and dragging the input.
During play, all inputs must be active to toggle an item from its original state. If any input is deactivated, the item will stay in its original state, or revert to it.
To connect an input to a switch, right click the input, click on the connect button for either activation or deactivation, then select the switch you wish to connect it to.
Inputs can be activated by one switch while being deactivated by another, hence the option to have two connections. The only exception is the Super-Colliding Super Button, which will always control both the activation and deactivation of an input.
To delete the connection to a switch, right click the input and click the disconnect button for the connection you wish to delete.
Toggle item back and forth with a single button
- Add an item, e.g. a door
- Add a single input to the item
- Add a One Touch Super Button
- Connect both activation and deactivation of the input to the button
- The item will toggle its state back and forth each time the button is pressed
Turning laser off by activating multiple switches
- Add laser
- Add multiple inputs to laser
- Connect inputs to different switches
- Activate the “Start enabled” option for the laser
- The laser will be active from the start and will only turn off once all switches have been activated
Painting Cables
All connections from an input to a switch must be additionally visualized by a cable.
To edit a cable, right click a connected input and select “Edit Cable”. The editor will enter a separate edit mode.
To paint a cable, left click and drag a yellow node in any direction you wish.
To erase parts of a cable, select the erase brush at the top left. Left click and drag to select an area where the cable will be deleted.
The yellow nodes will disappear once a valid cable has been painted.
- Cables can branch from one input to multiple switches (if one switch activates the input and the other deactivates it). In that case you can complete the second cable by connecting it to the existing one.
- Conversely, a switch can not have branching cables to multiple inputs (e.g. if a switch activates one input while simultaneously deactivating a different one). In that case separate cables must be painted for each input.
Configuring Vehicles
To configure the vehicles for either drive or convoy mode, right click on the Start element and enter the desired values.
Changing Background
To change the overall look of the background, select the background submenu while editing items or painting walls and switch between the different background variations on the left.
Start Construction
To define a construction that all subscribers start the level with, use the “Save Start Construction” button while in build mode. Start constructions can be used to facilitate more complicated constructions, guide players or even intentionally misguide them.
- Do not save your testing solution as a start construction, otherwise players will start the level with the solution already provided. Use the save slots in the level menu for saving solutions instead.
- To clear a start construction, save an empty construction.
Validation
While it is not possible to detect every case of a level being faulty, the editor will perform a number of basic validation checks to ensure its integrity.
A validation check will be performed any time you exit the edit mode into another mode. Additionally, you can manually perform a check at any time by pressing the “Validation” button on the bottom right.
The editor will highlight invalid elements of the level. Hover the mouse cursor over the affected elements to see what the problem is.
The following things will render a level invalid:
- Invalid constructions
- Items being obstructed by walls
- Items overlapping each other
- Items floating in the air
- Inputs not having proper cable connections
Publishing a Level
To publish a level, finish it with a convoy. The finish screen will give you the option of uploading the level to the Steam Workshop.
