Before you create or edit a KGoldrunner level, you must create a game in which to save it. Use Create Game on the Editor menu. If you forget, you will be reminded.

The most important decisions to make when creating a game are to choose the rules you are going to follow (“Traditional” or “KGoldrunner”, see Choice of Rules) and to choose a unique 1-5 character file name prefix for your game and levels. You also need a name and description for your game, but those can easily be changed later.

The prefix is used internally by KGoldrunner to identify level files, high score files and saved games. You can use your initials as a prefix provided they are not the same as a KGoldrunner prefix. So far, the prefixes “level”, “plws”, “wad”, “plwv”, “sot”, “tute” and “tutea” have been used.

The four-letter “tute” prefix is reserved for tutorial games, which show the hint on each level as you play it. If you compose your own Tutorial game you could use the prefix “tutex”, to make it run as a tutorial but not get its files confused with those of the basic Tutorial or Advanced Tutorial (prefixes “tute” and “tutea”).

When you have a game set up, use Create Level on the Editor menu to start creating a level. It provides you with a blank playing area of 28x20 squares, with the hero at the top left. You can put the hero somewhere else if you prefer and you do not have to use the whole 28x20 area. Lots of interesting levels use smaller areas.

The minimum requirement for a level to be playable is to have a hero, a gold nugget he can get to and a visible or hidden ladder leading to the top of the playing area. You do not have to have enemies, bars or even bricks. There are many challenging levels that have no enemies or no bricks.