Inferno Edit Audio
Cecelia Seiner
The Editing section explains how to perform various editing functions in Inferno, from making the most basic cuts and splices, creating transitions such as dissolves and wipes, to creating composites through vertical editing.
When working with audio, you can perform many of the same editing operations that you use to edit video, such as cutting, trimming, and adding dissolves. A comprehensive set of audio effects tools is available in the timeline, in Batch, and AudioDesk for mixing and mastering your audio. See Audio.
This is a tutorial for modifying the Little Inferno game. This tutorial is written for players with basic computer knowledge, so some might find it a little elementary. However, our aim is to make this as complete as possible. You will be using tools to modify a copy of the game, not the original, so you can always play the game as you bought it. This tutorial refers to all elements of the game, so if you haven't played through the whole game, please be warned that there will be spoilers. You can comment to ask questions, and this tutorial will be updated when needed.
Tools
liTools v0.3.7. Several tools come with this download, which includes its own README.txt. These tools allow you to decompress the game, view individual files, and recompress modifications. Even if you only plan to modify your game with others' addins, you'll need liTools. So far, liTools is incompatible with the Steam version of Little Inferno. Sorry.
GIMP 2. Other paint programs are also fine, but this tutorial teaches you with GIMP. Your paint program must have the ability to work with layers, select a transparent Alpha channel, and save in PNG format. (Windows' Paint isn't adecuate.)
Getting started
Download and unzip the current version of liTools. Copy-paste your Little Inferno.exe from the Programs folder to the liTools folder. Now you've made a backup, and you can also play the original, no worries. (Note: Your player preferences are stored in another file, and when you open any other copy of the game, you will get the same player preferences. For some addins, you'll want to start a new chimney and play through the game from the beginning.)
1. Drag-and-drop "Little Inferno.exe" to strip.exe. Three files, "embed.pak", "frontend.pak" and "resource.pak" should result. Also, the Little Inferno.exe should be quite smaller, around 3.71 MB. If you're not planning to make your own mods, just to use addins, you don't need to follow step 2.
2. If you plan to make your own mods, drag-and-drop the three files "embed.pak", "frontend.pak" and "resource.pak" (all together or one at a time) to liDecompress.exe. This step will take some time, and two folders, "data" and "vdata" should result. Inside you can see the individual game files that can be edited.
Some players have created addins to modify the game, such as replacing the catalog items with new items, or changing the economics of the game. Keep in mind that these addins are player-created, which means they might not be as spectacular as the original game, and some might not even work. (See Troubleshooting for problems.)
When you've downloaded (and unzipped) an addin, the file will be called addin.pak. There might also be a restore.pak file to uninstall the addin. To use the addin, drag-and-drop the file to modManage.exe. Then open the Little Inferno.exe from inside the liTools folder. Play the game and see the effect of the addin.
Restoring
If you want to undo the effects of an addin, just drag-and-drop and drop the accompanying restore.pak file that comes with it to modManage.exe. Only some addins come with restore files, although we encourage all modders to make and distribute them with their mods.
Modding
Several elements of the game can be modified, and there are always more possibilities. Here we explain how to modify several elements. It's always a good idea to make copies of the file or files you're editing, so if the game crashes, you can always use the working (original) file. Also, start each new mod in a new liTools folder. Especially if you're including the itemmanifest.dat or sndmanifest.dat in your filelist, you won't wan to compress any files from other projects into your new mod. (These two files mentioned compress all the item XML and sound ids at once.)
For any mod, first create a pak file and a filelist file. You can make copies of "embed.pak" and "embed.pak.filelist.txt" and rename them however you want, such as "mymod.pak" and "mymod.pak.filelist.txt". You can open and erase all the data in the filelist, and here you will be listing all the files you edit.
Editing Items
The game has a total of 140 catalog items, plus 7 special items that are sent to you in letters during the game. These items are found in the data/items folder. The photos for My Pictures are located elsewhere, which will be explained later.
The items vary in complexity, from simple objects (images) to burn, to bodies with joints that move, and chain-reactions. It's best to start with something simple, and from there discover how to do more complex editing.
Open the item's folder in data/items. Here you will see 7 basic files, possibly more. You will be editing these files WITHOUT changing their file names, and you can think of this method as hi-jacking the item. The internal code of the game will always refer to your item as its original name, but what the player sees when playing the addin will be what you create.
For example, we will hi-jack the LittleInfernoBeta item. These are the item's files:
beta.disk.png - An image file of the Little Inferno Beta floppy disk
beta.disk.png.normal - A "shadow" of the disk
BetaMusic.flac.ogg - The sound file played when the disk is burned (see Editing Sounds below)
colorbgicon - A grayscale icon of the item for the catalog
coloritemicon - A color icon of the item for the catalog, and also for solving a combo
greybgicon - A black icon of the item
LittleInfernoBeta.anim.xml - Code for animating the item (uneditable)
LittleInfernoBeta.xml - XML code with several editable variables
Now we'll edit each editable file and leave the others as-is. First you'll want to find an image at least 200x201 pixels. Your image should on a solid background, which we'll make transparent. For example, we can use a Super Mario Bros. cartridge. Open the image with GIMP and set the image size (not canvas size) to width=200 or height=201, whichever causes the opposite dimension to be smaller. You don't want to end up with a width or height greater than these constraints. Now set the canvas size (not the image size) to make the image 200x201 pixels. You'll need to set either the width to 200 or the height to 201, and reposition the object to the center or the bottom, whatever your preference.
Using the Fuzzy Select Tool, click on the background. Then choose Color to Alpha... from the Colors menu. This should make your background transparent (shown as checkered). Proceed to select and delete (Del button) all the background space around your object. Sometimes an outline still surrounds the object, even after deleting the background, so you'll want to carefully select and delete all the background pixels around the object to clean it up.
When satisfied with your image, export your image as "beta.disk.png" to the LittleInfernoBeta folder. You will overwrite the existing file. For some other items, you will edit several PNG files with your own images.
Open the coloritemicon file with GIMP. Also open the image file you found, or just open beta.disk.png. You'll see in the coloritemicon that the disk is slightly rotated. (Icons for other items are often cropped, showing just part of the item.) Make the image size of your object 139x139, then copy-paste it over the Beta disk in the coloritemicon. Clean up your icon so that only your object shows. The corners of the colored background square should be rounded and transparent (checkered), so make sure this hasn't been lost.
When finished, export or overwrite your image as "coloritemicon". If GIMP requires a file extension, name it "coloritemicon.png". Then in the LittleInfernoBeta folder, delete the original coloritemicon file and rename your file without the extension, to replace the original.
To edit the LittleInfernoBeta.xml file, open it with Notepad or any other text editor. Here we'll explain what some of the variables mean and how to change them. These variables should be general of most items.
Now drag-and-drop your mymod.pak to liCompress.exe. If you get any errors, check all the files you edited and refer to Troubleshooting. If everything compressed, you can drag-and-drop mymod.pak to modManage.exe and play the game with your addin. It's always good to make sure the addin works before sharing it with the community.
Creating a Restore Mod
It's always a good idea to create a mod to restore, or undo, whatever modifications you're making. Even if the mod works fine, you and the community will eventually want to play the game without your mod installed. When sharing mods, it's always good courtesy to distribute a restore mod as well.
After creating your mod, make copies of both your mymod.pak and mymod.pak.filelist.txt files. As in the example above for modifying the LittleInfernoBeta, rename the two copied files to "libeta_restore.pak" and "libeta_restore.pak.filelist.txt". (The file names should reflect whatever will be restored.)
Now you'll need to compress this pak file in a SEPARATE liTools folder that hasn't been modified in any way. This is another reason why it's good to make a backup of all folders. When you drag-and-drop your libeta_restore.pak to liCompress.exe in the clean liTools folder, all the original files will be compressed. Now you have a mod to restore the LittleInfernoBeta.
As suggested by movildima, modders can also distribute the "*.filelist.txt" with their mod. The filelist should reference all the overwritten files. For example, "undo_whoopie.pak.filelist.txt" can be run through liCompress.exe, then modManage.exe. This essentially undoes the Whoopie Cushion mod with which the undo filelist was distributed.
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