Canon Fodder

Games => Shadow Wolf => Topic started by: Dragyn on February 28, 2011, 03:32:01 PM

Title: Map Editor
Post by: Dragyn on February 28, 2011, 03:32:01 PM
So, I've been building a map editor for SW, and while it's rather far from completion, I feel I should ask:

What should a map editor built for building a 2D combat platforming game include?  Feel free to include things you think are obvious, as well as things you think I might not think of.
Title: Re: Map Editor
Post by: Tvorsk on March 01, 2011, 10:31:52 AM
You're gonna kill me for it, but...
Multilevel undo.
If an editor lacks it, it's either "save rarely, then after many hours of work realize you screwed up something and your last save is from yesterday", or "save after every click, and not realize you just saved broken version".
Been there. :(

Besides that, well... you definitely want to avoid 1-pixel (and other small) holes you would get stuck in or fall through, so you definitely should have a mode that highlights the "floors", and preferably either warn you about, or quietly "fill in" such tiny gaps.

Now, if you're asking about things that are feasible to code... I don't have any.
Best of luck!
Title: Re: Map Editor
Post by: Felblood on March 01, 2011, 09:49:35 PM
You can display each type of collision box in a different color. Currently, you don't get to pick your colors though, since we just stole the code from our hitbox debugging mode.

I don't think you can fall through a hole smaller than your collision box anyway, but there are bugs related to standing on the "space" between blocks in a stack. If you get good at it, you can climb vertical walls, or jump off of the tops of doors. We've taken steps to insure that it can't happen if you build the levels properly, but more aids to help with proper level building should come in the future.

There's still a laundry list of kinds of "doing" we need to get figured out before we even start developing a properly inclusive way to un-do, but rest assured that it's a significant priority for me as well. Since constructing a script to recreate the level in game space is the main function of the files this program will create, storing a list of changes to be made to the design space should be able to use the same notation in most cases. Once the notation is worked out, it just becomes a matter of storing that data and applying it consistently. (That's more work than it sound like, but it isn't infeasible.)

What else do you need? We deliver in 70 years or less.
Title: Re: Map Editor
Post by: Dragyn on March 02, 2011, 08:05:20 AM
Yeah.  That's a good idea, to be sure.

Like Blood said, though, I think we need more "do" before I implement "Undo," but I should at least consider leaving hooks in place, already.