Oh man, did that text document way of creating levels get tiring. I always marveled when seeing actual developers and the crazy awesome tools they had at their disposal. I didn’t think I’d need that, especially not for this game. But as I started adding switches, and scripting, it became clear pretty quick that my 1s and 0s wouldn’t handle it anymore. So, I built a level editor:
Here’s the beginning of level 1
It’s a relatively simple form. It just loads the serialized level, drops the images where they should go on the grid, and from there I can select individual or multiple blocks to make changes. This has proven to be especially useful when filling in areas with blocks. All I have to do is a quick shift-click and select “Block” from the dropdown. DONE. I just today finished converting my old txt documents to this new editor and will use this going forward.
All this made me realize that these big studios don’t build these tools just for the hell of it, it actually makes their job significantly easier. I spent about a day and half making this thing, and it will definitely save me way more than that by the end of the project. And hell, if I can get it full featured enough, I may just throw it into the game to let people create their own levels. Or not, I should finish the game before adding more stuff to the pile.
But the lesson here is clear. If you’re making a game, and you have the means, build yourself some editing tools. You’ll be glad that you did.
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