How to save custom levels in Ultimate Chicken Horse?

Question

I'm stuck in the level builder in Ultimate Chicken Horse.

I can only press Y to build, or B to play through the level to test it.

I see absolutely no way to get to a Save Menu of any kind, but I've already invested almost 2 hours into creating this level and I'd never be able to replicate it exactly if I lose it.

Answer 1

Saving levels

You need to PAUSE to get to the menu that includes the Save functionality.

If playing on Nintendo Switch, Pause will be the usual + button.

I think the only time I use Pause during normal gameplay is when a local player needs to take a bathroom break. 🤣 Hence having not paid much attention to the Pause menu.

I discovered it in this video.

Here's an entry about the game's Pause Menu on Fandom. It's helpful for getting started. Also check Clever Endeavor's Change Log for the most current info.

Custom level "Fullness" is displayed as a rounded percentage in the top right while editing. If viewed in the Pause Menu, "Fullness" is represented more precisely as a number XXXX/5000.

^{Detailed explanation: This data size value must not exceed 5000 if you intend to share your level online. Note that if your level's Fullness is 5001, for example, it will not be sharable, but the percentage while editing will still round to 100%. If this happens, the percentage value text turns orange to let you know the 5000 limit has been exceeded.}

On Switch, you can press ZL to zoom further out, which is really helpful for seeing the bigger picture when crafting levels.

^{Tip: Large levels are harder to play in local multiplayer, as the screen will zoom out to fit all the characters, making them proportionately smaller and hard to control precisely. So if you want your levels to actually be fun, don't make them excessively big.}

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Loading and editing saved levels

To resume editing, you need to once again be in Free Play mode, go down the well into the Level Loader, load the level into a slot, and then navigate to that slot.

To Delete or Rename, you can simply do that once inside the Level Loader menu. However, to edit a level you previously started, you must first load it into one of the four slots. (A, B, C, D) Click the arrow → pointing to the slot you wish to load into.

Saving your level does not overwrite the one you opened, but instead does a Save As, creating a new file. If there is an existing file with that name, the newer file gets a number appended to it.

Example:

• MyLevel
• MyLevel (1) <-- newer
• MyLevel (2) <-- newest

However, as of this writing there appears to be a bug that can crop up if you save a Challenge mode level as a Party mode level, and vice versa. The save may fail, changing only the thumbnail image. I believe you can avoid this if you make the file names different. It might also be a good idea to differentiate files still in development from those that are finished and published.

A better file naming convention for incremental development:

• dev_mylevel_01_ch
• dev_mylevel_02_pr <-- newer, changed to Party mode
• dev_mylevel_03_ch <-- even newer, changed back to Challenge mode
• My Level <-- final, published file (mode is included in listing, not necessary to differentiate unless you plan to release two versions)

Those are the most important things to know if you want to make and share your own levels.

🐓 Have fun! 🐎