Board Thread:Suggestions and Ideas/@comment-24024859-20131010141305

Sparkystream mentioned that he found the current level "editor" feature somewhat troublesome, because it requires you to either save over the original game, or create a new save of the game with the self-made levels in it. He also asked if there would eventually be a built-in editor that lets you save custom levels on the side, without affecting the core game.

There are a few pros and cons to both a dedicated editor solution and the current solution.

Current solution, pros and cons

Pro: Filesize. Levels right now take up minimal space because they're typed in the source as symbols.

Pro: Ease of use. Right now you don't need to learn an editor to make the levels; you can look at the existing ones, modify them and add your own easily. However, I'm not sure how easy it actually is; I haven't gotten any feedback on this.

Con: Overview. It's hard to keep track of levels, and the editing might not be as easy as I think it is.

Con: You will have to save over the core game, or create a new save of the program file for your own levels. Makes redistribution that much harder.

Dedicated editor, pros and cons

Pro: Ease of use. Possibly easier than the current solution if done right. And depending on the save data structure, it could be much easier to share levels with others, as packs or individual creations.

Pro: No need to fiddle with the source or the core game, nor to create a new program save file.

Con: Development time. If I made a dedicated editor, it would require development time. That's a personal con, but it could also postpone the creation of new levels, which is a con to users.

Con: File size. I would probably have to save the level files as GRP files, which could be wasteful depending on the structure I come up with. I have an idea here, though, that I haven't tested yet but that might prove to be very useful.

Addendum:

So those are my own opinions on the level edit situation. What are your thoughts? The system I have in mind for saving levels as GRP files would be to map each character byte in the game to a pixel color; there are 256 available colors, and I think (?) they can all be present in one GRP file. If not, I could make it a combo of 2 pixels next to each other, or 2x2 in a square pattern; whatever is necessary to hold enough character bytes :) This, in turn, would mean that GRP files could become compressed collections of levels – sort of like level packs. You'd still have to load it in by typing the name of the GRP file, since there's no way in PetiCom to list files in self-made PRG, but it would work. Any ideas or thoughts on this? 