Welcome! This guide was created to help users create maps in the BoringEditor map tool. The BoringEditor is a bit primitive but it works, it's control scheme is mostly hot keys unlike your typical editor which uses menus and GUI. The map has also experienced a re-write, so if you've read it already, I recommend giving it a once more as the program has changed a bit.
Hopefully this guide will be helpful to aspiring map creators, and we can have fun on the way.

As you can see below, the home screen isn't much to look at:


The right pane is where you will make your selections and configurations. Each tab holds different items and functions to use on your map. This guide will go through each tab and option's function.
There is also useful information in the upper left, such as the controls, the FPS the map is running at, the amount of objects in the map and how much memory the map editor is using.

Each tab holds settings, or objects to be placed into the world. There is also something always following your mouse cursor called the "Placer" which will govern where your objects are placed.
A few hot keys will allow you to manipulate the cursor, such as making it precise or following a grid. You can see the coordinates of the Placer on your map with the X and Y values displayed in the upper left

The controls are mostly on the keyboard. Most Windows hot keys are not applied to the program. When you first open the program, you can see a cheat sheet in the upper left with the controls listed.

• F1 - This toggles the display of the controls.

• F4 - This turns full screen on and off

* F10 - Reloads the image files and objects. Sort of like a 'refresh' key.

• F11 - This deletes every Tile on the map.

• F12 - This deletes every Object on the map.

• Left Click - Places objects/tiles/etc on the map, depending on whats selected.

• Right Click - Hold right click to drag the camera around.

• V - Hold down the V key to see the properties of each "OBJ" object.

• C/Alt - Makes the Placer follow your mouse cursor precisely, instead of snapping to a grid

• X - Switches the OBJ type (Normal, hurt, lethal, heal, etc) See Objects section below for more info.

• Z - Switches the OBJ terrain (Cement, grass, etc). See Objects section below for more info.

• B - Hold this key while holding left click and moving the mouse to make a "trail" of the current object you are placing. Useful for placing many objects at once.

• N - Turns on the drawn grid or not. The grid size can be set under the CONFIG tab.

• Mouse Wheel - Scroll through the tile list when the TILES tab is selected.

• Mouse Wheel - Rotate certain assets under the ASSET tab.

• Mouse Wheel - Change the weapon in certain assets, like WeaponHolo

• Space + Mouse Wheel - Sets the tile layer when the TILES tab is selected. See TILES below for more info.

• Shift + Left Click - Left click an existing object on the map and hold shift to move it around.

• WSAD - Move the camera manually.

The file tab mostly manages your save files.

• New - Starts a new map, any unsaved changes will be lost.

• Load - Load a BMAP file. These files are loaded in-game and in-editor now.

• Save/Compile - Save and compile a BMAP file. This option will let you pick a location to save your map. You will use this file to load the map in-game AND in-editor.

• Submit to Workshop - When the feature is available, you will use this to submit your map to the workshop. Hopefully the map editor will be able to do most of the work.

• About - Shows current info about map editor.

• Quit - Quits the map editor.

The CONFIG tab contains settings used for your map. Such as backgrounds, the map's weather, and the ambience sound effect.

• Background - The file name of the background used in the map. Boring Man will look for this filename in the Backgrounds folder, but you will not be able to preview it in the map editor.

• Weather - Sets the weather of the map.
i. Clear - No weather effects.
ii. Rain - Enables the rain background and sfx. No gameplay changes.
iii. Snow - Enables the snow background. Very pretty!
iv. RainThunder - Enables the rain background, and randomly causes thunder strikes.
v. Blizzard - Similar to Snow, but is set to the foreground and is a little more intense
vi. Windy - Pushes players around in a back and forth manner.
vii. Sandstorm - Similar to the Blizzard weather, but with sand instead.

• Climb Map - Toggles whether this is a Climb map or not. Climb maps will automatically set the server's game mode to Climb.

• Map Name - Sets the map's name. Players can see this in the scoreboard.

• Grid - Sets the map editor's grid setting. This will effect the grid background, and the Placer's grid-like movement.

• Secret - Probably nothing, keep moving.

• Author - Sets the Author's name (thats you!) Players can see this in the scoreboard.

• Ambience - Sets the background sound effect. I named them after the map they orignate in to give you a generally good idea what each does.

• Force Skateboards - Forces all players that join the server on to a skateboard, whether they have it unlocked or not. Used mostly for Climb maps with skateboards.

• Workshop Preview - When the workshop is enabled, this will set the preview image in the workshop page you will generate on submission. Works much like Backgrounds, except uses the PrevImages folder.

Assets are probably the most fun part of the map editor. These objects each have special properties, either aesthetically or makes changes to the gameplay.
You can set certain attributes to certain assets with the Mouse Wheel, such as the angle and the weapon ID.


• Ladder - The alternative to walljumping and the bot's lifesaver. Use this to allow players to climb up and down when there is no other way to get up.

• AIWaypoint - Used to make paths for the bots. See Bot Waypointing section for more.

• Turret - The base turret for CTF. When you place this item, a dialogue will open asking to set the team. 0 = DM (Attacks everyone), 1 = Blue Team, 2 = Red Team.

• Resupply - The resupply device for CTF. Opens the team dialogue. Only heals/gives ammos to those who are on the same team as it.

• Generator - The generator for CTF. Opens the team dialogue. Any devices that don't have a generator for their team will be powered down, so remember to place this if you have any turrets/resupplies.

• NPC - Places an NPC on the map. Opens the team dialogue. This character will generate a name and you can select which weapon it has equipped with the mouse wheel. It will simply stand still.

• WeaponHolo - Places a "weapon hologram". This item will only appear on Zombrains and Climb mode. You can select which weapon is assigned to it with the mouse wheel.

• Checkpoint - The checkpoint system is for Climb mode only. Any players that step near a checkpoint will activate it and can use CheckpointEntrance to teleport to the most recently activated checkpoint.

• CheckpointEntrance - Place this towards the beginning of the Climb map. Players will use this to reach checkpoints they activate.

• BlockWaypoint - Blocks bots from certain pathways. See Bot Waypointing below.

• Spikes - Deadly spikes that kill the player instantly when touched.

• QuickSand - Some cutting floor content. Does nothing but can make a good decoration.

• Water - Players will begin to swim when entering a water tile. Sharks can also survive in it.

• Lava - Kills players instantly when touched.

• SpikeTrap - Spike traps are triggered when a player walks over them. They will click then pop up to kill the player.

• ExpBarrel - An explosive barrel, explodes upon taking damage. This asset will reset on a TDM round reset.

• Window - Breakable glass that breaks upon damage or a fast moving player.

• ClimbCoin - Climb coins can make an optional challenge on climb maps. Doesn't do anything beyond being something for the collectibles.

• NoWeapon - A hitbox where if a player touches it, they're items will be reset to just pistol/fists and hand grenades. Good for controlling where players can take weapons on a climb map.

• Red Yellow and blue keys - Touching these keys will collect them for the server, and delete the color corresponding block.

• Red yellow and blue doors - These "doors" are blocks that will stop players. They can be deleted by collecting the matching colored keys.

• DoubleDamage - Places the double (or triple..) damage power-up

• Regeneration - Places the regeneration power-up

• SpeedBoost - Places the speed boost power-up

• EventTrigger - Probably nothing.

• BFG - Places the BFG power-up weapon. Won't respawn if a player already has it.

• Medikit - Places the medikit spawn point. Will only spawn if the medikit assigned to it is missing.

• Ammo box - Same as above, but with ammo boxes.

• Shark - A s-shark! They will chase any players in the water and kill them instantly. Placing a shark outside the water will kill it. They have about 2000 health each.

• SwingingAxe - A giant axe that will swing from 9 o clock to 3 o clock. Kills players instantly.

• Laser Walls - These are lasers that will turn on and off in a predictable fashion. State 1 and 0 determines they're on and off status from the start of the map, this will let you make alternating laser walls

• Scoreboard Info - Displays game match info in a "scoreboard" fashion. Such as blue score, red score, the time left and amount of deaths experienced on the map.

• Invisibility - Places the invisibility power up.

Bots use a method called waypointing to navigate themselves around the map. They create a path based on the AIWaypoint assets you place on the map. You can see a typical AIWaypoint path set up below:


The bots will also try to avoid passing through the BlockWaypoints blocks. These assets won't stop their movements entirely, just make them create a path around the BlockWaypoints as if they were solid walls.

Bots aren't an integral part of the game, but decent waypointing is needed for Zombrains and Survival as those game modes are usually bots vs players.

A good map will be flexible and available to all game modes. A good way to tell if your waypointing is decent enough is to try CTF and see if a single bot can get to the enemy flag and back to his base successfully.

A trick I use for maps in something like Zombrains is to put a DM spawn point in places where zombies couldn't initially reach players. This will force them out the hole otherwise face a randomly spawning zombie dealing damage to them. So don't be afraid to make a spot where bots can't reach, when in doubt place a DM spawn.

You can set Waypoints to 1 in bm_settings.ini to help you debug any issues with your boy waypointing. This value will turn on bot's path line and see where they are trying to head to.
Bots can't wall jump, but they can climb ladders. Cleverly placed ladders will allow bots to navigate fairly and also not saturate your map with too many ladders.

OBJ objects are what creates the world's structure in your map. It's what makes the ceilings, walls and floors.

Please note in-game, these are invisible to players and you must decorate your maps with tiles. These are merely collision boxes for structures.

There are a few shapes of objs to select, but unfortunately you can't make custom objs because of Game Maker's collision system.

There are 7 types of objects you can place in the world. You can cycle through object types by pressing "X".


• Solid - Normal objs with nothing special
• Ice - When on these objs, players have much less friction and slide around.
• Damage - Players take damage over time while on it.
• Lethal - Players are killed instantly when touching these
• Heal - You are healed over time while over this obj
• Bouncy - Players bounce on this terrain, and much higher then a regular jump
• Ammo - You regenerate ammo while on this terrain.

An obj's type effect is only effective while on top of the obj. Walljumping and hitting the bottom will do nothing to you.

You can also set the terrain sound of the object by pressing "Z". Changing this will change the sound of the footsteps players will make on the obj.

Spawn points are what manages what goes where. There are player spawns and flag spawns. Player spawns are random.

• Red Flag - Spawns the red flag for CTF, and the Climb flag for Climb (one at a time)

• Blue Flag - Spawns the blue flag for CTF (one at a time)

• Red Player - Spawns red team players

• Blue Player - Spawns blue team players, zombrains survivors, and survival/climb spawn points.

• DM Player - Spawns players during DM and Zombies during Zombrains

• CP Flag - Control point flag during Take Over mode. You can have multiple CP flags in one map. The game will set the letter flags on its own.

Tiles are used to decorate the world. They have no effect on the gameplay, other then telling the player visual info on collision.

Tiles are automatically detected in the Tiles folder that is in the root directory of the BoringEditor. Only png files are accepted as tiles. Transparency is supported.

Tile's background and foreground are managed by the tile layer system. The lower the tile is (0, -10, -999, etc), the more "in-front" the tile will be in the foreground. The high the tile layer is, the more in the "background" the tile will be.

You can adjust this by holding the space bar and scrolling the mouse wheel up or down.

To play your map, go to the FILE tab and click SAVE/COMPILE. Then name and save the .bmap file to a location you can easily find, like your Desktop.

Take your newly compiled map file and go to where Boring Man is installed for Steam. Usually under:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Boring Man - Online Tactical Stickman Combat"

Inside this folder, place your newly compiled map file and place it in the "Maps" folder. If you have any custom tiles or backgrounds for your new map, place those in their respective folders as well while in the Steam folder.

Load your game and look in the map list when you a host server. Look for the file name you typed when you compiled your map. Voila.

Those are the basics. This should help you get started on your map making adventures.

Remember, the good maps are the one that can support all the game modes (excluding Climb)

If you host a server with your custom maps, the players who join must manually download the map, as Boring Man does not support automatic FTP server downloads (i really want it though)

Climb maps should be very difficult but still possible. Use "/blink" or "/checkpoint" in-game as the host to skip through difficult parts to test the rest of the map.

That's it. Good luck,
- Spasman

A recent update has changed where you only load and save bmap files now. In the past, you loaded a bmapsave into the editor, then compiled a bmap file for the game. That has been streamlined into one file type.

If you have bmapsaves you need to load, you can attempt to load them in the old map editor however I can't guarantee it will work

http://spasmangames.com/downloads/BoringEditorOld.zip

If it manages to load, you can then compile the map, and successfully load it into the new version with no problems.

If it doesn't work, then theres nothing I can help with to recover whats on that file.