So, yeah. Since I haven’t posted all of the archive yet, the Level Editor that I’m currently building is called “ThiefEd” (pronounced Thief-ed, like how a mental child would say Thieved). It is the Level Editor – hence the Ed part- for the game with the working title The Thief’s Tale. Which is in turn a play on A Bard’s Tale and The Prince of Persia, with an emphasis on the The.
Anyhow, I’ve worked out the Portal Rectangles, so that’s super cool. When you select and build one, it saves what you’re working on, takes you to the Map, allows you to select another (or the same, if you’re crafty) level, place a marker, and then it reloads the thing you were working on and saves the marker you set. See, couldn’t be easier. Next up is to set the buttons in place and the other cute bits of nothing that help make the editor easy to use. Ease of course being important, since I don’t want to fight with the editor while I’m making the content.
In other stupid ideas, I worked out a neat way to combine the editor and the engine. You see, what I really want is the ability to play the game in the editor. That way I can make very fast changes to the system, play it and test, then make changes to really make each screen and puzzle flow really well. To do that, I realized that I was lazy and made all of the variables the same name. At first I thought this would be a liability, then I realized it was in fact an asset. The trick now, is to move the communal ThiefEd and Engine variables into their own file which I reference (since I can’t have Global Variables declared in 2 different programs that reference each other). Then when that’s done, I’ll update the engine so read the Load File functions that I built, instead of the Cave Code that I have in their now. Then make the Engine Loop a single function, made up of the pieces already in it. Then call the Engine Function, as a whole, from the Editor. In essence 2 things will be going on onscreen. The Editor will allow me to move and create, while the Engine will find collision, and deal with movement. The really cute bit about the idea is that it will do both at the same time. So, I should be able to try a jump, realize it doesn’t work, and then change it and try again in the same screen, without loading up anything. So, that’s on deck after I install the enemy placement.
Speaking of which, I had this idea to make a pop up menu for baddies and all that. Instead, I’ll put a clicker which will be easier to implement. So click up to change the enemy level and the enemy type. Sounds easy right?
-Basic game philosophy. I have a basic thought for game design and it goes like this. A game should make you look cool, and it should reward you by making you cooler. As an example I’ll use Ninja Gaiden Black. If you want to know what it is, look it up on Wikipedia. Anyway, as you play, you start off with a pretty good assortment of moves and the ability to lop freakin heads off. You start off pretty bad ass. But, later in the game if you play the same way, you look like a retard and you get hacked. However, if you’re skills improve, by the end of said game, you are Death Walking and are a super ninja. (As opposed to a Super Guy). So, it makes you look cool, but you can tell a good player from a crappy one, based on how cool they really look.