Metadata and sharing a level
Metadata is the level's cover: name, description, picture, authors, age rating, difficulty and content warnings. Today a level reaches another person as a folder or through Steam Workshop
The official server and the site for levels do not exist yet. They arrive in an update after gv 1.0.0. Until then a level is shared as a folder or, in a Steam build, through Steam Workshop. Both ways are described at the end of the page
The metadata file
The level's cover lives in its own file. It is read without the level itself. That way a catalogue can show a thousand levels without opening one of them
Identity
The level has a stable id. It survives renames and folder moves. Scores and comments are tied to it, not to the name
There is also your own version number for the level. Bump it when you edit. It is unrelated to the format's version
Name, description and logo
Name and description can be translated into several languages. They have no keys: you write the text for each language right in place. The text is stored inside the level. That is how it differs from the game's own interface text
The logo is a file beside the level, logo.png or logo.jpg
The logo has its own record, like a resource: licence, authors, link, AI generation. Open it with the Credits... button under the logo.
A new image starts the record over, and removing the logo removes its record too. More - The resource record
Authors
Authors are the people who made the level: the mapping, the design. Resource authors are credited separately, in each resource's own record. Textures, fonts and audio have records, and so do themes, effects, shapes and prefabs
Confuse these two lists and the musician ends up uncredited
Age rating
The age rating is one number, the minimum age. It shows as "12+". Two ratings compare as plain numbers
Not rated is zero. It means nothing was declared, not that the content is safe
There is one scale, with no separate ESRB, PEGI and RARS fields. User levels are not submitted to any rating board, so a value for each would be a guess
The rating is the only warning on the card. If the level flashes or gets loud, say so in the description. In a game of drops and glitch effects flashing is common, and that line is the whole warning a player gets
Difficulty
Difficulty is one whole number: how hard the level is. A larger number is never easier
1 is Auto, and each next number is the next tier, up to 10, Singularity. The player sees only the tier's name and icon, never the number
Not rated is zero or less. It is the default, and nothing is drawn for it. A metadata file with no difficulty in it opens as Not rated
You set the value, and a moderator who republishes the level may overwrite it. It is still one field: the level does not keep the author's value and the moderator's side by side
A value above 10 is kept as written and shown as Singularity. The editor rewrites it only when you pick another tier.
The scale ends there for now. The next one will be built from the levels people actually make
In the metadata file the field is called difficulty
More - Playing levels › Difficulty
AI generation
AI Generation says whether the level's own content was generated by AI: the design, the objects, the texts.
Each resource and the logo say it for themselves, in their own records
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
Not specified | nothing was declared. This is the default |
Not generated by AI | you declare that no AI generation was used |
Generated by AI | you declare that the content was generated by AI |
Not specified means "unknown". It is not the same as "no"
The level screen in the menu shows "Contains AI-generated content" if the level, its logo or any resource says Generated by AI
An AI assistant sets Generated by AI itself, in the same undo step as its first batch of edits to the level. More - AI assistant
Like the age rating, this is the author's own declaration. The game does not check it
Sharing a level today
- Zip the level folder and send it
- The other person unzips it into their own
levelsfolder - The level opens. Nothing is installed or imported
Every file in the level folder travels with it, even an unused one. Clean it out before sending
Steam Workshop
The Publication tab of the level settings sends the level out: as an archive, and to Steam Workshop in a Steam build. More - Publishing
Steam builds also read Workshop: they show and play the levels you subscribed to. More - Playing levels
Before publishing, read the section on rights. The report on the Publication tab grades the level and every resource record by those rules
Sharing a level later
An official server and site are planned