Kodu Worlds: Import and Export
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Importing Worlds Into Kodu
Kodu world files are self-contained and have extension .Kodu2
but are actually compressed folders. To import a world into Kodu,
place it in your Imports folder. By default, this folder is:
Documents\SavedGames\Boku\Player1\Imports
You can change this default with the Kodu
configuration tool.
When Kodu starts up, it automatically looks in your Imports folder
and moves any worlds it finds into its internal storage. The files
will magically disappear from the Imports folder, but they will
appear in the "Downloads" listing when you do "Load World" from the
Home screen.
Importing Worlds from a Zip Archive
If you have a zip archive named worlds.zip containing multiple worlds,
place the archive in your Imports folder. Then right-click on it
and select "Extract All". In the file chooser dialog box, delete the
"\worlds" from the end of the path before clicking OK. All the worlds
need to end up in the Imports folder, not in a sub-folder.
Importing a World by Clicking on a File
If you double click on a .Kodu2 world file, you will launch
Kodu and it will automatically import and run the world, but it will
not delete the original file. If you exit Kodu and run it again
without double clicking on any file, the imported world will still be
visible under "Downloads".
Importing a World by Clicking on a Link: Avoid Internet Explorer
If you're browsing a page with links to Kodu worlds, when you click on
a link the world will be downloaded, but what happens after that
depends on the browser. Chrome will correctly open the world in Kodu,
but Internet Explorer will treat the world as a zip archive and open
it in Windows Explorer, showing you the world's internal data files,
which are of no use. If using Internet Explorer you must download the
world, then use Windows Explorer to visit the Downloads folder and
click on the file there to open it in Kodu. If you try to open the
file in Mozilla you will get a message about Kodu being installed, but
it does eventually open the world in Kodu.
Exporting Worlds From Kodu
When you create new worlds in Kodu they reside in Kodu's internal
storage, in a form that is not directly accessible. In order to
transfer a world to another computer you must first export it, which
produces a file with the extension .Kodu2 (see above).
The procedure for exporting a file is simple but a bit
counter-intuitive:
- Go to the Home screen and select "Load World".
- Navigate to the world you want to export and select it.
- A familiar menu will pop up with several options, of which the
most commonly used are "Play" and "Edit". If you want to save the
world with a student identifier, e.g., for student #12 you might want
to save FreeWorld1 as "FreeWorld1-12", follow these steps:
- Select "Edit" from the pop-up menu.
- Press the Start button and select "Save World".
- In the file chooser dialog, change the world name to whatever you want.
- Press the Start button to save the file.
- Now press the Start button again and select "Load World".
- Select the world again, and continue with the steps below.
- In the "Play/Edit/..." pop-up menu, select the "Export"
option instead of Play or Edit.
- Now you'll see a file dialog window where you can specify where
to store the exported file. One option is the Exports directory,
which by default is here:
Documents\SavedGames\Boku\Player1\Exports
It's best to put the file someplace outside of Kodu's storage area,
such as in Documents\MyWorlds. Select the location you
want, then click on the "Save" button to export the file.
Notes:
1. Any time you make changes to a world, you will need to export it
again if you want to share that world with someone else or copy it to
another computer.
2. You must use "Save World" to change the name of a world. You might
think you can rename a Kodu world simply by renaming the file in the
file browser, but that won't work. When you import the world back
into Kodu, it will show up in the "Imports" listing under the name it
was saved as, not the new name you gave to the file.
Configuring Kodu
The Kodu installer actually installs two programs: Kodu itself, and a
configuration tool called Configure Kodu Game Lab. On the desktop,
Kodu has a green icon and the configuration tool has a gray icon. The
main use of this tool is to change the location of the SavedGames
folder where Kodu keeps all your worlds. (This is not the same as the
folder you use for worlds you've exported.)
You can change the location of the SavedGames folder to a networked
file system if you have one.
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