Production Notes Dungeon Keeper II

Official DK2 Editor

This is the Official Editor, though it has not been officially released by Bullfrog and is not supported.

The Editor requires Patch 1.70.

The following is from the Official DK2 Editor page.

The Editor will let you:

• Place terrain and any object found in the game.
• Set up triggers based on a number of criteria.
• Set up statistics for the level and any of the objects on it.
• Set up camera animations.
• Create waves of patrolling Heroes.
• Set up Campaign, Multiplayer, Skirmish or My Pet Dungeon levels.
• Change the way CPU Keepers behave.

This was crucial to the development of DK2 as it let the programmers concentrate on getting the game programmed, and let the designers and level designers spend time working on game data as defined in the Editor.

Since the DK2 Editor is far more than just a terrain placer, it takes a little more time to get it right. The Level Designers at Bullfrog have learned to avoid the pitfalls, but we would rather plug some holes and include some documentation before we release it.

As well as documenting the Editor in English (a big job in itself) we’ll also be translating the documentation into the other 12 languages we support. We’re hoping to have the Editor out some time in November. All we can say is, we’re working on it!

The Editor runs as a standalone Windows application.

This overview shows how the the Editor looks. Standard Windows features like dragabble toolbars, pulldown menus, tabs and buttons make it intuitive to use.

The Terrain Map gives you an accurate indication of where everything is placed. The window can be drawn in like a paint package, and there are even features that let you draw circles, squares, lines, and fill in.

The Trigger Tree controls events on the level. These are set up using the Terrain Map and menus. The screenshot here shows some of the trigger tree behind Level 1 of the Campaign.

The Creature Properties Window shows some of the data that can be altered for Creatures. In the Official DK2 levels we’ve ensured that all data remains consistent across levels, although we plan to make all data specific to the level created. If you wanted to, you could create a level where Goblins are the highly paid lords of the realm that are virtually unstoppable.

Similar propery windows exist for Traps, Rooms, Spells, Terrain, Doors, Objects, Creature Spells, Keeper Spells and the level itself.