Hi Dark, Unfortunately, though, I understand very well why developers like David Greenwood hasn't added a level editor for Shades of Doom, GMA Tank Commander, etc, and probably will never add one. It has to do with the way the GMA Engine is designed.
In order to modify an existing game like Shades of Doom you must actually own a copy of the GMA Engine, and have to use a form to build new levels which isn't all that straight forward truth be told. So the problem is in order to add new levels David Greenwood would be in the unenviable position of giving his engine away for free in order to modify a single game which is unacceptable. Nor would rewriting the game from scratch just to add a new level editor,one specific to the game, be a better alternative. So its just not practical to go back and add a level editor to a game like Shades of Doom without really adding something like that from the beginning. I guess the reason many mainstream games have level editors is simply because the engine, say the Quake Engine, was designed from the beginning to have new levels and mods added where as the GMA Engine or even BGT for that matter were designed to hard code the level information directly into the game itself. Adding a level editor therefore would have to be something really designed into a game from the beginning and its not that easy to do from a programming standpoint and make it easy for the end user. What I mean by that is at a very basic level in order to add an extension to a game at some point you'll have to resort to writing some sort of custom script. Even the Lone Wolf Parser requires a minimal amount of scripting so to speak to create the types of objects present in the mission and then to initialize them. The Lone Wolf mission parser is simplistic compared to some level editors I've seen or heard of, and yet I know of some V.I. users who just couldn't do it. So the question for a developer is how can we develop something that is simple stupid and give us the flexibility of a script? The answer is you really can't. Yeah, its possible to write some dialog based wizard that asks you questions and builds a new level for the game, but also would be very limiting to whatever the level editor was designed to do. Let's say you wanted to add a new weapon to Shades of Doom and assign it to number 7. You could do something like that through scripting easy enough, but not through a wizard based level editor unless of course the wizard itself allowed you to create custom weapons. You are limited in scope to whatever that wizard has and have no way to really build onto the game and expand it beyond its design. I don't know. I just think that level editors is a complicated subject and there is more here than just weather or not the community wants one for a certain game. At some point some programming must be involved in the expansion process of game x, and how simple or complex it is requires some careful planning. As a game developer myself I'm buried under work enough as it is to start over and write custom level editors and such for my own games. So time is as much a problem as complexity. :D Cheers! On 3/31/13, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi tom. > > I'm not sure on audio space invaders since the differences betwene the audio > > version and the original simply by virtue of one being audio are rather > large, but you are dead right about games like troopanum, alien outback and > > especially judgement day having vastly expanded gameplay over the original. > > As regards level editers, I agree entirely. I have mentioned before the > graphical turrican remake t2002. Being exploration based similar to metroid, > > Turrican's gameplay can potentially be endless in different environments, > and this is why an indi remake created originally in 2002 with expantions in > > 2007 is still! having many levels made for it, including having turrican > style gameplay in some different and often quite weerd places (there is a > very strange Turrican/megaman remake, as well as some fantastic levels based > > on the metroid games but with all new music and gameplay). > > This is something I'd love to see more expanded in accessible games, > especially those like shades of doom with an exploration component, > particularly because it is a way for none programmers to contribute to the > amount of accessible games. > > beware the grue! > > Dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
