sexyexile

Dev Diary #24: Building a (Dev) Level Editor

Added 2018-04-15 16:16:35 +0000 UTC

Hey everyone!

Originally I wanted to write about this when I'm about done with it, but I haven't been as fast as I hoped in the last few days because of a few important commission deadlines and I think it's time for another update on what the heck I'm actually doing ;)

In other news, Cucu is sick right now which is further holding her back, too, so this seems to be a good time for me to post.

Anyway, as I already explained in our last monthly Progress Update, I'm currently working on a graphic level editor for Date Mode that we can use to develop the Dating Board and its events since it has become tedious to do it in code and by hand as the level grew. Once it's done, it will save enormous amounts of time and really make trying different layouts or balancing so much easier and faster.

Again, I haven't gotten around to implement everything yet, it's already possible to create fields, change their type, move them around and link them to other fields in different ways. All of this data can then be automatically compiled into a data format that I can later interpret in the actual game to create the board.

I'm currently about halfway through implementing the actual events that you can attach to each field, which is displayed in the center bottom panel of the window. Dialogue lines and multiple choice questions can be added row after row beneath each other and then interlinked to create sequences, if necessary as many alternate/parallel dialogue threads as we want. It's also possible to assign points - positive as well as negative - to certain choices or lines.

I'll show you some more when the event structure is fully set up and we've also got some other updates/ideas we want to talk about soon.

Have a great sunday!