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Getting Started with TheoTown Plugins#

This index groups TheoTown plugin-development topics. Each topic now has a short introductory page; full tutorials can be added incrementally.

Before you begin#

Things to review before creating or sharing a plugin.

  • Copyright and attribution — Review attribution, original sources, and the basics to consider before sharing a plugin.
  • Installation — Choose the guide for installing TheoTown plugins or maps. The full step-by-step guides are in General TheoTown Tutorials.
  • Recommended software — An introductory list of tools for editing JSON, preparing images, inspecting archives, and packaging plugin files.

Beginner guide#

Start with JSON data structure and work towards a first TheoTown plugin.

  • JSON syntax basics — Learn about objects, arrays, strings, numbers, booleans, commas, and brackets used in JSON files.
  • Creating a simple plugin — An introduction to the files and basic values needed to create a small plugin.

Buildings#

Building topics cover residential and commercial structures, parks, industry, landmarks, hospitals, police stations, and many other object types.

  • Simple building plugin — An introduction to the basic structure of a building in TheoTown.
  • Building plugin values — An overview of configuration values that define a building’s appearance, behaviour, and metadata.
  • Requirements — Learn how to define conditions or requirements that affect when a building is available or functions.
  • Upgrades — An introduction to upgrade systems for adding stages or extra capabilities to buildings.
  • Non-square buildings — How to approach the size and layout of buildings that are not square.
  • Compositions — An introduction to compositions for building objects from multiple parts or elements.

Animation#

Topics covering visual effects, texture changes, and movement of in-game objects.

  • Animation — An introduction to animation concepts and connecting multiple visual frames or states.
  • Night mode — An overview of preparing a building’s appearance for nighttime.
  • Saving texture space — Approaches for using texture space more efficiently and keeping assets organized.
  • Building smoke — An introduction to building smoke effects and configuring their emission points.
  • Moving animations — An overview of animations involving movement, such as vehicles or moving object parts.

Transport#

Topics for roads, vehicles, transport routes, and movement systems in a city.

  • Roads — An introduction to creating and configuring roads in TheoTown.
  • Road vehicles — The basics of road vehicle objects such as cars, buses, and trucks.
  • Vehicle flags and tags — An overview of flags and tags that define vehicle categories or behaviour.
  • Road decorations — Creating decorative elements placed on or near the road network.
  • Airplanes — An introduction to airplane objects and their use in the transport system.
  • Helicopters — A basic overview of creating and configuring helicopter objects.
  • Trains — An introduction to train vehicles and their main configuration.
  • Railway tracks — A topic on railway tracks as infrastructure for train transport.
  • Pedestrians — An overview of pedestrian objects and behaviour in a city environment.
  • Buses — Basic guidance on bus objects and their use on the road network.
  • Ships — A topic covering ships, including river ships and small vessels.
  • Transport System Extension — An introduction to the Transport System Extension plugin and considerations when using it.

System#

Topics related to plugin identity, file protection, and language support.

  • Overriding IDs — An introduction to ID overriding and its potential effects on other plugins.
  • Plugin encryption — An overview of plugin encryption and considerations before protecting plugin files.
  • Hiding IDs — An introduction to settings for hiding specific ID information.
  • Translations — The basics of preparing plugin text to be displayed in multiple languages.

Terrain and environment#

Topics covering water, surface decorations, backgrounds, trees, and biomes.

  • Custom water — An introduction to configuring custom water textures or appearances.
  • Custom decals and terrain — An overview of surface elements used to shape terrain and environmental details.
  • Custom backgrounds — The basics of changing or adding background appearances.
  • Trees — An introduction to tree object configuration and vegetation variations.
  • Biomes — An overview of biomes and how they affect environmental appearance.

Miscellaneous#

Additional topics for organizing, structuring, and presenting plugin content.

  • Fences — An introduction to fence objects and their use as boundaries or decorations.
  • Categories — An overview of how categories help group plugin content.
  • Templates — An introduction to templates for simplifying content configuration.
  • Zones — An overview of zones and their use in defining particular areas or behaviours.
  • Preview frames — Preparing preview frames to present a plugin in the game menu.
  • Heightmaps — An introduction to height data and its use in terrain creation.
  • Scenarios — An overview of scenarios and configurations for specific gameplay experiences.

In-game sources#

How to inspect built-in assets from archived game versions.