Tap Tap Dungeon - Quest Builders Guide
Testing and Distributing Quest Packs 8
Introduction
This guide describes the process of creating Quest Packs for Tap Tap Dungeon. It covers the tools, the process and the distribution of packs. It’s a fairly limited set of features at this stage but enough to be telling a story.
A quest pack is a collection of files that represent the quest’s dungeon maps and the interactions within. Optionally the quests can include translations and voice over to make the feeling of playing the tabletop game more immersive.
Tools
The only tool you explicitly need for creating quests in Tap Tap Dungeon is LDtk (https://ldtk.io). This is the tile mapping tool used to create the main quests.ldtk in any quest pack.
Other tools that may prove useful are:
DeepL Translation Service - for providing quest text in other languages
Eleven Labs - for generating voice overs
Setup and Files
The easiest way to get started is to modify the existing maps. The zip file containing the 5 demo quests is available at:
https://taptapdungeon.com/taptapdungeon-demo.zip
The contents of the demo zip are as follows:
At the top we have quests.ldtk and taptap.json - these two files are the only required elements. The LDTK file is generated from the mapping tool and the taptap.json descriptor includes meta-data about the quest.
In the translations folder we have files that map to different languages - these are simple tables of text in the quests to their equivalent translated text.
Finally in the voiceover folder we have MP3s for each level and each language. So for Level_0 (the name of the level in the LDTK file) we have an mp3 for each of the entity IDs that represent objects in the map.
We also have several “special” voice overs for the text that appears on specific events - death, winning, intro and failing to complete in turns.
Editing the Maps
Maps in Tap Tap Dungeon have 4 layers as shown below:
The Floor layer defines the rooms and the walls between them. You can use any of the room types in the tileset to create rooms. Walls are automatically created between different “types” of floors - where the type is defined by the type of pattern being used.
The Decal layer is for simple decoration. The tiles on this layer can be aligned either on the grid line or half way across. This lets us place blood splats and rubble to add character to the dungeon floors. Note that there is no interaction between decals and the game. It simple renders them.
The Object layer is where we place things that block movement. This layer can contain furniture, traps and doors. Doors are placed either to the left or above the wall they open through. There are two types of doors - normal and secret as shown below:
The Entities layer is where we define the interaction with the dungeon maps. This can be in the form of placing monsters (as shown above) or by placing interactions. Interactions define what happens when a player clicks on or moves through a particular space.
Interactions
Interactions allows scripting of the quest and its events. Interactions have the following configuration options
conditions - this allows you to link this interaction to another and indicates that this interaction is only able to take place if the linked one. So if you need a door to only open when the players get a key from a chest, you link the door interaction to the chest here.
requiresClearRoom - Some interactions can be used by players before the monsters in the room are killed. This setting allows you to control that.
text - The text that is displayed when a player clicks on this interaction.
gold - The amount of gold the players get for interacting here.
conditionFailMessage - The text to be displayed if the players action this interaction before they’ve satisfied the conditions above.
completeQuest - Indicates whether this action should complete the quest and allow the heroes to leave the dungeon.
item - The item that the players get for interacting here.
action - The dungeon level action that needs to take place when the players interact with this entity.
trapped - Indicates whether the interaction is trapped.
trappedMessage - The text to show if the players trigger the trap.
Per Level Settings
Each “Level” in the LDTK file represents a quest in the pack. The level settings allow you to configure the quest setup.
title - The title of the Quest
intro - The introduction text of the quest.
death - The text shown if the players die
win - The text shown if the players lose.
questNumber - The index of the quest in the pack. Allows ordering of quests.
turns - the number of turns the quest allows (zero means infinite)
turnsFail - The text shown if the players don’t complete the quest in time.
Testing and Distributing Quest Packs
To test or distribute quest packs they must be hosted on the web. Once the files are available point the game at them with a URL that looks like this:
https://taptapdungeon.com/play/?packUrl=https://taptapdungeon.com/play/quest-packs/default
The pack URL needs to point to the web address where quests.ldtk and taptap.json can be found. When the game loads it’ll start the quests provided instead of the default ones.