Tile Placement
One step at a time goes a long way
Last updated
One step at a time goes a long way
Last updated
When it comes to constructing your level, the editor allows you to input each tile using the keyboard. There are also several methods to custom input an angle into the game. Before we continue, here is how the image will be subtitled for your understanding:
White Letters - Keyboard Shortcut for tile placement
Yellow Lines and Angles - 90º Separation placement and their associated angles
Blue Lines and Angles - 45º Separation placement and their associated angles
Green Lines and Angles - 30º Separation placement and their associated angles
Red Lines and Angles - 15º Separation placement and their associated angles
Let's now learn how to start counting angles according to the planet's rotation. All examples will be based out of a 4/4 Tempo Signature, which is the most commonly used around most songs. Each angle will be counting from 0º at its most right side radius, turning counter-clockwise and increasing this number until one full lap around is complete, where it goes back to 0º
Learning this angle measure is efficient as your level will register angles into your Angle Data portion on your level files. Learn more about this on Surgery Page
Starting from the basics, 90º placements are the simplest to use, as they represent our on-beats and off-beats of the song
So let's consider that every time we hit 0º, we are doing 1 beat into the song beat
According to the game tile values, each tile represents an angle. Said angle is always base out of a counter-clockwise rotation from each beat, meaning 1 beat equals a starting point of an angle value.
With this in mind, every time you place a tile that isn't at beat start, its angle value will increase depending on how its angle ends, based from the beat start position.
These vertical angles (90º and 270º) are what we call off-beats, meaning they can occur in between each beat
Notice how the last horizontal tile had an angle of 180º? This is due to the origin point of the track being left to right, meaning this angle has a value of half a circle = 180º
Same logic applies here, each angle doing down has to turn a radius angle from the right to left, so 1 and a half circle = 270º
This case is a bit tricky. Each angle, compared to the last one, is a 90º different, however, when counting angles always remember to do it counter-clockwise, always starting from the beat line radius angle.
In conclusion, the angles presented in the square are 0º, 90º, 180º, 270º and 0º again. These are the angles the game file will record to make the square form.
Now that we got the hang of on-beats and off-beats, let's add one more beat in between those. We now can play 4 beats inside each sheet beat. Each beat now is considered a sixteenth note
For this example, you can see that we created a tile that doesn't go fully horizontal, nor vertical. Sixteenths splitting allow notes to be played in between on-beats and off-beats
This is how a curve using the previous sixteenths angles would look like. As the sum of some sixteenths angles is equal to some off-beat and on-beat notes, those tiles also appear in the sixteenth curve to support the rhythm
Following the logic of a square pattern, we can build one using only intervals from the sixteenth placement, making all angles be hit in between on-beats and off-beats
These angles are mostly used for swing style of music, but the tile placement logic is the same. Take in consideration the 45º angles, where we placed 1 beat in between each on-beat and off-beat. This time, we are placing two beats in between each, rather than one, allowing us to count 24 beats in each sheet compared to the 16 beats from the 45º angles.
You can access these shortcut tiles by holding Shift during the placement
Similar to 45º angle example, you can see that we created a tile that doesn't go fully horizontal, nor vertical, however since we have two beats between those angles, we can go beyond a perfect middle angle, but one that equally divided more to the horizontal angle, and another more to the vertical angle.
A curve that fits the 4/4 tempo is only possible if we use angles above 90º, which means 30º angles will be taking too long, requiring more than one sheet of 4/4 tempo. So we are using what we call the Hexagons (Curves made out of 120º angles). For this example, you can see how a swing beat can interact with a full rotation angle tile.
Making squares on swing tempos can be a bit tricky. These come from a mix of on-beats and swings beats, to create the jazzy gameplay style.
Take into consideration that we are using the same angles for both the on-beats used, but alternatives to these angles are possible too. So get creative and place some tiles around, get creating!
As an extra demonstration, the game allows you to fast input 15º Angles
You can access these shortcut tiles by holding Shift+ ` during the placement
If any of these methods won't do for your levels, you can customize the exact angle you're looking for. To insert a custom angle, press the angle button after selecting the tile you want to insert the angle from.
From there, your options should look like the image below. Simply write your angle inside the text box, and click in one of the two tile types, to add the desired angle. (Regular tile or Mid-spin tile)
As you can see from the image below, one 15º angle tile was added to your track. This angle was the calculation from the last tile position angle + your angle value, creating a 165º angle that is a difference of 15º angle, between your last tile and the new one!
These angle inputs always measure clockwise from the last tile angle position, rather than angle 0º as explained for your Angle Data storage values. These inputs are merely informative to help place custom angles and their values are not stored based on them.
