Is it really a good idea to make a game using a level editor or is just a waste of time, ive heard lots of people on here talking about them over the last year.
is it worth it?
Pros of level editor:
- Only one frame to edit. Making a bug fix in this frame affects all your levels. Much more maintainable.
- Give users the option of designing their own levels.
Cons:
- Hard to code and time consuming.
With the old frame-duplication it's quick and easy but you're screwed if there's a big bug you need to fix across all frames. Unless you work something out with global events or something.
Depends. For a platformer, it's often better not to because it's too much effort and the complexity would scare anyone else of using it anyway. For a tile-based game, it's usually not too much trouble and if people can make their own levels it'll extend the playability.
The frame editor is itself a level editor, so in my case I only make them if having one would noticeably speed up level design for me. Otherwise, unless you're making something totally sweet few people are going to use it.
the ggfx are tile based but the movements not, its a action RPG with a major difference, will be posting a preview soon. its all based around lvling and collection.
But thats beside the point, its tile based, using 64x64 tiles and multiples there of.
Well, weigh up the benefits. Like Tigs says, it's handy for fixing bugs (unless you're like me and never put bugs in in the first place). Ideally you would almost *always* use one just because it's good design practice, however if it's so complex as to require more effort than the rest of your engine combined, it's no big deal if you don't.
thanks for the help, i think im gonna have a go, any good tutorials you know of, i have the basics down but not much else.
n/a
Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
25th September, 2005 at 03:47:36 -
It depends on complexity, if you simply want to edit the way maps look then they aren't that hard. However if you need to add things such as triggers to make events happen (like an RPG) then they can be a bit more time consuming.
Yeh, but when you've got the thing up and running, making levels is really much faster than without a level editor.
Well, it really depends on the complexity, as mentioned, and on the length of the game, coz if you just want to make a few 5-10 levels it's no good idea coz making the editor itself takes more time than making them levels in the frame editor
That said, there are certain things that level editors can enable you to do that are far harder to achieve using MMF's editor.
My editors generally keep an array record of all tiles, and one record for the looping background tile (saves me having hundreds of grass tiles recorded).
The tiles are displayed as backdrops when the level loads, so they don't take up the object limit. However, you can still do basic location tests because you have their details in the array. So you can retrieve tile details from the array for whichever tile you're standing on.
This can be used to have multiple tile types, like checking if a backdrop object is a ladder, a platform tile, or some custom kind.
You can also alter the player footstep sounds depending on what material the tile is made of. You can make it so it leaves footprints in snow, different footprints in sludge, kicks up leaves on leafy grass, sloshes and splashes in puddles, etc.
There are even more advanced ways that can be used to generate reflections in puddles, all sorts of pointless eyecandy is possible!
It opens so many opportunities that, while possible using other methods, are so much more intuitive if you've built your own level engine.
Even just making slippery floors is a doddle once you have the concept of custom tiles built in!
cool, i really want to make one, can anyone give me a good example, ive searched the articles and there are lots of em, anyone know which one is the best?
ps: ive been thinking and im confused, if i make a level editor, will i be able to play test the levels before i add them to the game?
Depends. To me, whenever I see myself repeating the same piece of code or the same action over again a lot of times (for maps, weapons, armor, characters, conversation, etc), it's better to make an editor. Editors are for getting the computer to do what you're too lazy to do.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
I've written articles on them before, but none are on the DC.
I don't really have the time to build an example. The basic idea is to have an array that lists every tile in the level.
You use Associative Array object so that you can give a name to each element in the array, like "64,32" for the tile at 64 by 32 on the screen. The tile next to it (96 by 32) would be called "96,32" and so on.
Inside each one of these entries in the array, we can record information about the tile. What tile is it? We might pop in something like "water" or "gravel" or "sand".
So if you have a sand tile at 96x32, you would lookup "96,32" and it would give you "sand"
If we make sure all the tiles are the same size, we can look up what tile the player is standing on like this:
Player's X position: 343
Player's Y position: 411
X/Y size of the tiles: 32x32
so...
X position of the tile the player is on:
343 mod 32 - 343
= 320
Y position of the tile the player is on:
411 mod 32 - 411
= 384
So the name of the tile to look at is:
"320,384"
Do you see what we're doing here?
Now we know which tile the player is on, we can look it up by its name in the array. This will then tell us if it's grass, water, etc - we can retrieve any of the information that our editor has recorded about the tile.
Of course, when you build the editor, you make it so if you select a grass tile, it enters it in the array and names it by its x and y position, and puts the name of the tile type inside (like sand, water, etc).
Advertisement
Post Reply
Edited by the Author.
