If I set this up correctly, we should now have a new board just for modding and hacking, tools, level editors, whatever you want. Please be good, and all I ask is that you refrain from hacking the leaderboards (it's not much of a challenge anyway)!

Does this mean that 2DBOY will not release a level editor? I might work on one myself if I knew it wouldn't be obsoleted by ah official release.

There are several features that would need to be in place before a level editor would really be useful from a modder's point of view.

1) Attempt to read an unencrypted file before an encrypted one (.bin suffix), or even better, drop the encryption altogether (except for user profiles).

2) Built-in support for user-made levels. Maybe a folder /custom/, where each folder would have an xml manifest giving WoG information such as name, creator, a description, and a possible thumbnail. Grouping multiple levels together would be nice as well. Custom levels right now would be ugly.

3) Mods should be able to define material types, particle effects, ball types, and generally anything that the normal levels use. Inheriting /properties/fx.xml and allowing definitions in /custom/modname/properties/fx.xml to override existing ones or add new one would be nice, but attempting to load the file from the mod's directory first, then falling back on the global would be fine too.

4) Release documentation for the movie format? I don't want to figure out binary animation files :(

We are not working on an official level editor, and don't plan to. The "level editor" I used to make the levels in the game was horrible.

I'll see about adding a special folder for custom levels, etc to a future more moddable release. It's a good idea to keep things clean. Can't promise when, though.

Horrible as buggy?  OR just ugly?

In any case you might want to make it downloadable so people can work on it and make it better  ;)

[quote author=martinarcand1 link=topic=634.msg4533#msg4533 date=1225172015]
Horrible as buggy?  OR just ugly?

In any case you might want to make it downloadable so people can work on it and make it better  ;)

Probably hard to use, that's why in the game me and grant kot are making, Liquidized, were gona make a ripped level editor of awesomeness then make all the levels in it.  ;)

Nice! Point 2 was the strongest point we had as well, glad to see you're considering a fix :)

[quote author=martinarcand1 link=topic=634.msg4533#msg4533 date=1225172015]Horrible as buggy?  OR just ugly?Just ugly; it would replace the current levels.

You really should put the effort into either helping or making a good level editor, alot of games really miss out on this part, its amazing how much more life you would put into the game with such a small addition.

Really hope something comes up soon tho :D really cant get enough of this game.

[quote author=RMJ link=topic=634.msg4564#msg4564 date=1225198702]
You really should put the effort into either helping or making a good level editor, alot of games really miss out on this part, its amazing how much more life you would put into the game with such a small addition.


It's true. Easy access to modding can do wonders for a game. It increases both the sales, community and life span of a game. I'm glad 2DBoy appears to agree, even though they haven't made the game very moddable from the beginning. Opening up the game for modders will surely pay off in the end.

I'm considering starting work on a simple level editor, just gotta think about how much time it'd take... more importantly, how much time I have. It seems like it'd be pretty simple to work out, just requires a bit of patience.

Also, you can edit the island screens the same way you would individual levels. Might be able to work out a custom level screen seperate from the full game, gotta have a few hours spare to investigate it.

Someone should beat me to working this stuff out though :P