So how can you mod Zelia?

At our v0.0.0 initial release we boasted that Zelia is the "most moddable game we know. "

Well we don't know, really... As you might have noticed we are actually really new to this! 

But you  can actually -for instance- change the appearance of the whole game+editor by knowing your way around a directory structure. Or add your own stuff. All you need is to know the install dir of the game and (probably) admin rights to your own machine.

Image asset location

The default install dir of Zelia is C:\Program Files\Zelia Editor 

There you'll find the resource-pack you could change: zelia-assets

What types of sprites I change or add ?

We have:

• decorations (add and change) 
• doors (add and change)
• surfaces (add and change)
• monsters (change / add sub-types)
• items (change only)
• the player and all the rest (change only; at your own peril)

Decorations - zelia-assets\decorations

These are the easiest. Just add a sub-dir directly under decorations and add a numbered png-sprite per animation frame: 1.png 2.png 3.png

(Be sure to name your sub-dir without spaces and without special characters though! In this stage of development, stuff might break)

Take a look at the torch example:

Doors - zelia-assets\doors

A similar recipe goes for doors, however, Zelia's doors are not animated. They just know 2 states: open.png and closed.png

Surfaces - zelia-assets\surface-maps

Surfaces are not animated (yet) so for now they only have one file: 1.png. These contain a map of 15 types of tiles. 

My favorite is the brick-face (I even added it to yams - yet another marble shooter):

Monsters - zelia-assets\monsters

Monsters should be the most fun, but of course can be a lot more work.  Monsters have varying amounts of images they need. Also they have defaults.json file configuring their default HP, speed, and the like: you at least need a copy of that file in your subdir as well. Also: monsters pics live in a deeper subdir; their filenames need to all be present and the icon.png is used for the editor. -- otherwise, stuff will break.

For instance, the most fun and stable is the slime: zelia-assets\monsters\slime

I modded the slime to be a bouncing eye like this:

The most work and buggy is the worm:

In conclusion

Once you recognize these patterns, the rest should document itself, I guess. Items, the player, spells and all the rest are stuff you might try as well.

It's not hard, my child can do it... 

But it's hardly new, is it?