EPTPrevious blogs:
Dev Diary - The Art of Dying #1: Movement
Dev Diary - The Art of Dying #2: Attacking
Dev Diary - The Art of Dying #3: Enemies
I'm a Computer Science student focusing on Game Programming and Design and, in my free time, I happen to work on a little retro action platform game called 'The Art of Dying'. I record short videos that focus on particular aspects of the game. Please do take a look at my previous videos to get an impression of my upcoming game first, then check out this video which introduces the level editor that I've made in order to, hopefully, grow a bit of a scene, motivate a couple creative people to make really cool levels and share them with the other players!
So, this is how the editor looks and works:
As always, I like to flesh my blog posts here out a bit more with some additional writing.
I really think a platformer these days should either have randomly-generated levels or a level editor. If your project has neither, that cuts your replayability obviously. The reason why this aspect is so strong with platformers is that the editors you use to make your 'official' levels are so easy to make that there just is absolutely no reason not to ship them alongside your game. With other genres, developing a user-friendly editor that can be used by everyone certainly is a serious time/money investment - but with platformers, there usually is no complex scripting involved, no in-game cutscenes, no 3D geometry. If you don't have a stable tool that simply allows you, the game developer, to draw tiles and place power ups and enemies, then you are doing it wrong and need to reconsider the way you make the game, if you do have it then why, for the love of god, not share it with the world?
I also think a lot of developers might just be a tad bit too critical of themselves when it comes to editors. I believe that the player base can understand that an editor can crash every now and then. That it's not always perfect and bug-free as the game (should be). Often times they believe their tools are only 'good' for themselves, they deem them too 'hardcore' for the average user. So what? You can make it absolutely clear that the editor is a bonus. It's a nice feature for a small portion of your player base. That's it. If a game is great but the editor sucks - is that dragging down anybody's opinion of the game? Hell no! And players aren't idiots, they are generally more willing to work with tools - even slighly awkward and unstable ones - than most people think. Not the majority, sure, but some talented individuals. In the end, if releasing an editor that you already developed costs you exactly nothing, and only one person out there develops one cool level with it, surely that already payed off for everybody, for you and for the players?
As always, let me know what you think and if you could see yourself using this editor. Also, ask any questions you might have, I'm sure there's plenty of stuff I forgot to explain how it works in the video. If you have improvements on user friendliness (that are reasonable given the very limited engine I am working with here), please share them with me!
Cheers,
NihiL
