One of the mistakes I made during the creation of my first mobile game Dragonflies was to not spend some time building a level editor. I figured the time it would take to finish the editor would be better spent just implementing the levels the fastest possible way. In my case this meant playing around with pieces of colored paper on a hand-drawn coordinate system, and then manually do the conversion from paper to json files.
It actually worked out quite well in the beginning, until I started making more complex levels... Not only did it take a lot more time than expected, but designing levels became so incredibly monotonous and tedious. That's not exactly what you want when you're trying to be creative and come up with cool, new level ideas.
Lesson learned. For my upcoming game Ice Trap I started out the same way, by just hand-crafting the level files in json format. But this time I knew it was only going to be temporary. When I got to the point where the gameplay felt solid enough to start exploring new ideas and level designs, I dedicated a few days to building a really sweet level editor. Ice Trap is created with Corona SDK so naturally the editor is as well, meaning I can run it on any mobile device as well as on my desktop using the Corona Simulator.
So, was it worth it? Yes, completely! It didn't come as a big surprise, but how well it turned out was at least somewhat of a surprise to me. The most noticeable benefits so far:
It actually worked out quite well in the beginning, until I started making more complex levels... Not only did it take a lot more time than expected, but designing levels became so incredibly monotonous and tedious. That's not exactly what you want when you're trying to be creative and come up with cool, new level ideas.
Lesson learned. For my upcoming game Ice Trap I started out the same way, by just hand-crafting the level files in json format. But this time I knew it was only going to be temporary. When I got to the point where the gameplay felt solid enough to start exploring new ideas and level designs, I dedicated a few days to building a really sweet level editor. Ice Trap is created with Corona SDK so naturally the editor is as well, meaning I can run it on any mobile device as well as on my desktop using the Corona Simulator.
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| Level editor comparison, Ice Trap vs Dragonflies |
So, was it worth it? Yes, completely! It didn't come as a big surprise, but how well it turned out was at least somewhat of a surprise to me. The most noticeable benefits so far:
- It's a lot faster to create levels
- I can get creative and play around with new ideas very easily
- I get a good feel for a level while designing it by quickly switching between editor mode and gameplay
- I can use my iPad or iPhone to design new levels anywhere, anytime
- It's a lot of FUN to work with. That's just awesome, to be able to turn the most tedious work into something fun.
- I've invited friends to use the editor to design levels for me. It's been great to not only get some new levels that might make the final game, but also to get feedback, input and ideas for new designs.
All in all, I'm extremely pleased with the end result and if I ever decide to start working on another level-based game in the future I'm 100% confident that it won't be without the help of a proper level editor.
Now I think it's time to grab my iPad and a cup of coffee, turn on some inspiring music, and slide down in the couch for another session of level design. :-)
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