Level Editor 1.0 Showcase (7/3)

Hey everyone! A little late posting this time around, but that's cause this was a pretty big update. How big you ask? Well... I guess for yo

Hey everyone! A little late posting this time around, but that's cause this was a pretty big update. How big you ask? Well... I guess for you guys, it's not that big, since there's not really a whole lot of new content to show of yet. But for me, this was the last big systems hurdle I had to overcome before I could really start to ramp things up with new levels and gameplay elements, as with this update I now finally have a (mostly) fully functional level editor. So, what does the editor look like now?

The first new feature you'd notice are some new icons. Now in addition to the normal drawing tool, you can use a box fill tool to fill or erase large areas of a level at once, with the cursor updating to show this and matching whatever layer type you want to draw with (No more having to draw in every single tile).

This was long overdue to speed up the process of making levels, but the main attraction with this update is object mode. By pressing this button on the right, you can switch from drawing tiles to dropping in objects for Maya to interact with, These objects can be added, moved and deleted with the mouse, and some like the ladder can even have their size manipulated. And of course, all these objects will be saved with a level and loaded again later just the way you left them.
Additionally, special objects have been added that can be used to mark the start and end of a level. The goal object still doesn't do anything, but by moving the start object around you can chose exactly where Maya will begin the level when you test it out. And every other object here has it's full functionality when testing, allowing you to now use the fat fruit in these levels

What's more, a ton of usability features have been added to bring the editor to a point where it's useful for someone other than just myself. When creating a level you need to enter a name (as this is the name used to save the level file), but the game wouldn't tell you this. Now though, a message will appear telling you why a level can't be created, as well as a separate one warning you when you risk overwriting an existing level file with the same name. And on top of that, the name field will automatically be filled in with a unique level name in case you don't want to fill it in yourself. When a level is saved, a message now pops up letting you know that the save was successful. And there's a new button allowing you to quit to the main menu, but of course with a prompt asking you if you'd like to save first to lower the risk of accidentally losing progress. It still has a long way to go before it's comparable to a modern editor, but compared to the previous version, the difference is night and day.

Also new in this version, music! When playing the game (both playing normally and testing in the level editor), original music will play, and a new victory jingle will play at the end of levels. This music was provided by a supporter and I'm incredibly thankful, it adds so much to the feeling of playing and it's way better than anything I could've made myself.

Beyond all of that, a ton of groundwork has been laid out to make adding more objects to this editor and building new levels much easier, both for me and anyone else playing the game. Though it goes unused, the functionality to set the height of ladders can be applied to also set the width of special platforms, or the size of any other scalable object the game might have. With this update marks the last major roadblock stopping me from really picking up the pace of development, so you can expect future updates to be even more exciting than this one.

And speaking of future updates: Here's another update on the blimp sprites that were teased last post, showing just how big she'll be able to get compared to her normal state. But it's still a long way away from being added to the game proper (as you can imagine it's not easy making or working with sprites this big lol). Her normal inflated state on the other hand is now set to hopefully be reintroduced next update. I hadn't included it in previous updates not because there's anything wrong with it, but because I wanted to tweak the mechanics before including it in the level editor. When it comes back, her gliding mechanics are planned to be much easier to control, and for inflated I want to give her a new ability to deflate all at once for one massive jump. Additionally I'd like to finally get back to that enemy I had started adding, see if I can finish him and the throwing mechanic you're meant to use to fight him. Now that I've got the editor at a good spot, I want to really get back to focusing on fun gameplay first and foremost.

I've got a lot planned in the coming weeks, but at the same time I'd love to hear from you guys. What sort of things would you like to see me add to the editor in the future? I'm always open for ideas and suggestions, especially now that I'll have a much easier time testing them out. Whether your a patron or not I look forward to hearing from you. Until then, later!