Hey folks so I looked at this guide on the wiki, using paint shop pro..
Use the following steps to create a WA-compatible map in Paint Shop Pro:

draw or open your map
select Image → Decrease Color Depth → X Colors (8 bit)
set Number of colors to 113 or below (see above for details on side effects of using certain colour ranges)
it is recommended that you select Optimized Median Cut from the Palette options and Nearest color from the Reduction method options
The image will be saved as a 4-bit image if you select fewer than 17 colours. WA only accepts 8-bit images.
select File → Save As
enter a file name
select Portable Network Graphics (*.png)
click Save


I've done all this and I set the map size to 1920×696

when I try and open it in the game I get an error that it cant open it, is there a step I'm missing?

Where are you saving it? You should be saving it to User\SavedLevels (NOT User\Import) and opening it from the drop-down box under the large map preview (NOT the drop-down under the small thumbnail, nor the floppy disk).

Where are you saving it? You should be saving it to User\SavedLevels (NOT User\Import) and opening it from the drop-down box under the large map preview (NOT the drop-down under the small thumbnail, nor the floppy disk).

For some reason it worked fine when I choose 64 colours, but not when 113.

Hey folks just wondering why is it some of my maps have nothing behind when I destroy terrain, as in you just see the background of the level, where as some will have the terrain behind is as (jungle, hell, snow, time etc, which ever you select).

I prefer the former where nothing is there, for some reason my most simple map is like this, but others aren't.

You're saving the map with too many colors.

MS Paint is unable to save a map with less than 256 colors (glitch).

Get Irfanview - it's free, lightweight, easy to use, and feature-packed. Use the "decrease color depth" tool to reduce your map to 64 colors. It has very good algorithms so it doesn't decrease the quality very much.

If WA still won't load your map, use Irfanview's "edit palette" tool to ensure the 1st color is pure black. You can only use this tool after doing the above step (it's greyed out).

Good luck. After you make a map or two it gets really easy.

Hey folks just wondering why is it some of my maps have nothing behind when I destroy terrain, as in you just see the background of the level, where as some will have the terrain behind is as (jungle, hell, snow, time etc, which ever you select).

I prefer the former where nothing is there, for some reason my most simple map is like this, but others aren't.
The "nothing there" situation happens when a map has over 96 colours (EXCLUDING black). See http://worms2d.info/Colour_map