Bt Builder

About

The Bard's Tale Construction Set (BTCS) was an official tool for building Bard's Tale-style role-playing games, letting users define monsters, spells, items, and maps for custom modules. Bt Builder is an open-source, in-progress reimplementation of the Bard's Tale Construction Set, built with SDL, SDL_image, SDL_mixer, PhysFS, boost, and expat. It can read original BTCS module files and its core game engine is nearly complete for BTCS-level functionality; it ships two sample modules — one built within BTCS's original limits, and a second showcasing Bt Builder's own expanded features — along with a built-in editor for monsters, items, spells, and maps.

How it differs from the original

The second bundled sample module goes beyond original BTCS limits, offering a better-stocked in-game shop and 12 inventory items per character instead of BTCS's limit; most of Bt Builder's own expanded functionality, however, is still unfinished.

Getting started

Launching the program opens a module-selection screen where arrowing to a module and pressing Enter plays it, while pressing 'e' instead opens the built-in editor for that module's monsters, items, spells, and maps; command-line options can also print a module's spell, monster, or item lists, or a specific map, without opening the game itself.

Additional notes

Editor controls

In the map editor, arrow keys move the cursor directly and pressing 'r' resizes the map — both different from how the original BTCS editor worked.