Original author Chris B. Edited by Tenchu Checkpoint Team.

So you have finished Tenchu 2? You need a new challenge? Welcome to the world of the Tenchu mission editor. Tenchu 2’s mission editor enables you to both create and play custom made Tenchu missions. Once you have made your own missions you can put them online and share them with the Tenchu community.

Making your first mission – Getting Started

To be able to make great missions you need to familarise with the basics of mission creation. Don’t worry if your first few missions are not brilliant, it takes time and patience to make a masterpiece. Remember practise makes perfect!
To start your first creation at the main screen select Mission Editor. You are then presented with two options; Run Mission is an area where you can load up and play custom missions, Edit Missionis for new creations and editing existing missions.

Selecting Edit Mission brings you to this screen where you can either choose to a create a new mission or alternatively edit existing missions from your memory cards. Now things are about to get interesting! On the next screen you get to set the parameters for your mission. So questions you need to ask yourself are: What tileset do I wish to use? What objective do I want? Do I want stealth or a time requirement?

Enter the following parameters:

1. Title (this is the name of your mission and can be up to 32 characters)
2. Creator (your name goes here, up to 16 characters)
3. Password (if you don’t want anyone else to edit your mission then enter a password)
4. Location (choose the tileset you wish to use)

Your next choice is to choose which objective you would like for your mission. Each mission has a specific objective that the player must achieve in order to complete the level. The objectives are:

	Seek Out Find Azuma Shiunsai.	Eliminate Eliminate every character on the board.
	Protect Locate Lord Gohda, then escort him safety to where Sekiya, his senior councilor, is waiting.	Assassinate Assassinate the target character. No other characters matter. The target character is determined by the location setting.
	Retrieve Find the three missing scrolls. The scrolls may be hidden or in the possession of enemy characters.	Steal Locate a secret document hidden somewhere on the level, and bring it back to Lord Gohda.

The further options you have are to choose which characters can be used for the mission. A mission can be limited to one, or open to all the three main characters. You can also add a stealth requirement, with the mission resulting in failure if you are seen, or a time limit for the level.

In this area we discuss in more detail about making your first mission. Having set up your mission parameters we are now ready to create out masterpiece. But first we must look at in detail two areas; The Terrain Editor and The Character Editor. When creating missions I always make my terrain and then position the characters afterwards. So we will look at the two in that order.

Making your first mission – The Terrain Editor

The terrain editor is used to lay out the shape of your mission. Each mission consists of a grid 32 by 32 squares. This is the area in which you can place your terrain. The red square (1) indicates the active square, this would be where any terrain selected would be placed.

Normal View compared to Wireframe View

The white square outline in the top left corner (2) is an overview of the terrain. It allows you to quickly check you character distribution. The smaller red rectangle within indicates the part of the terrain which is displayed on the screen. The key to the coloured dots is as follows:

By pressing L1 and L2 you can scroll through all the terrain elements. These elements comprise of two types; terrain blocks, which make the actual terrain of your level, and terrain objects which are for decorational purposes. You do not have an endless supply of terrain objects, 64 is the maximum, so use your quota wisely.

As you scroll through the objects they are visually displayed on the left. Above that display is further information (3) telling you what height this terrain block can vary between. When you place the terrain the height meter bar (4) to the right will tell you at what height the block is you are placing. To alter the height just keep re-assigning that terrain with the “x” button. One you have placed the terrain for that square move the red cursor square to your next space and choose which tile and at what height you want next.

In the terrain editor you can change your view, zoom in and out, and change to the wireframe view (by holding L1 in combination with other buttons). You should now of created your terrain… on to adding some characters.

Not far to go now. You should now have a completed terrain, but without any enemies – except those preplaced by the initial mission setting. We will now look at the Character Editor. We use this to place enemies and set there paths. You also use it to set other character and special document positions.

Making your first mission – The Character Editor

The maximum number of enemies you can place in your terrain is 20. I would recommend not being tempted to use that many as many strange things can occur (see Tips & Tricks). To place an enemy press START. This toggles you between the Terrain and Character Editor. In the same way as the terrain editor select which enemy you wish to position and press “x” to place.

Once you have placed an enemy you need to specify a route. If no route is specified then the enemy will randomly rotate between the 4 directions on the spot. To open up the route menu press R1, note you need to have the red active square cursor on your enemy.
To define a path use the direction arrow to move the blue arrow. The blue arrow displays which way the character is facing. You can add different length pauses to your characters routes. Each character path can contain up to 160 squares of movement, though I would suggest keeping patrol areas relatively small and simple.

Note that you cannot place guards on slopes and they can only be traversed if the character goes up and down a slope, not across it.

Now all that remains is for you to test your mission. If you press SELECT a menu will pop up where you can save and test your mission. Does the mission play and look alright? Is there areas for improvement? When you are happy with your mission complete a final save and set a password. Now you can let your friends try your new creation and maybe send it for submission to the search engine. For more advanced mission ideas see the Tips & Tricks section.