Introduction to Level Building (by Technostick)
However fun it is to play MarbleBlast, few would disagree that making your very own levels is even more satisfying! To do so, a little knowledge about the inner workings of MarbleBlast is recommended. Firstly, all levels are associated with a file of extension .mis. This file is in essence the level itself; when you play a level, what the game is doing is basically reading the .mis file, and interpreting the code in that file into all the things you see in the game, such as gems, powerups, etc. Note, however, that the actual items themselves are associated with different files - for example, all powerups have a file of extension .dts associated with them. That file describes the powerup itself - i.e. SuperJump.dts would roughly say “a red arrow inside a big gray spring”. Also, all the platforms that the marble rolls on are described by files of the extension .dif. (These files are called interiors.) The main point here, though, is that the .mis file does not describe the objects themselves, but rather what to do with the objects. For instance, the .mis file for the level Time Trial basically says to the game “put a finish pad in front of the start pad, put the interior training_time.dif (that's just the name of the interior) between the two, and put a time travel of 5 seconds halfway in between the start and the finish.” Of course, that's in easy-to-understand “human speak”; our goal in writing a .mis file is to put that into “MarbleBlast speak”. As we will see, though, this concept of MarbleBlast speak is not too difficult once you get the hang of it.
For example, let's suppose you want to create a level that is made of the level Learning to Roll, followed by Jump Training. Therefore what needs to be in the .mis file is the set of instructions (translated into our so-called MarbleBlast speak, of course) “Put the interior training1.dif (that's just the name of the Learning to Roll interior) under the start pad, put the interior training_jump.dif in front of it, and put a finish pad on top of that interior.” Easy! As you might have guessed, in practice it isn't quite that simple, but that is indeed the basic idea... But you might think “Are we limited to using already made interiors? Why can't we make our own?” Alas, making custom interiors requires a program called QuArK, and its setup and use are supposedly very difficult. (I have never tried, and do not intend to.) However, we need not bemoan this fact, as there are plenty of interiors that come with MarbleBlast - over 160, in fact!
The MarbleBlast designers have also left us with a slightly hidden “level editor”. This program, in essence an automated .mis code creator, allows you to visually create your level much as you would with real, tangible objects. Unfortunately, there are certain hard-to-avoid bugs, and personally I feel that it is advisable to type the .mis code directly without using the level editor. However, many do find that being able to see the level in front of them outweighs the inherent disadvantages of the level editor. It's completely your choice!
Next steps...
If you would like to see how to type the .mis code yourself - click here
Or if that's not for you... see Accessing the Level Editor