Egads, I’m finally learning more advanced GML code. And by advanced I mean stuff the most basic programmer could probably do.

If you recall, ShellBlast and Liquisity used a simple load/save mechanism for created files. It used the Windows Explorer option like most GM games do:

Check out the image above…that took me about ten minutes to program, and the level editor itself was about a day’s worth of work, tops. The problem is, not many people used it…and I think I know why.

The other day I booted up Liquisity and decided to load up some custom levels for fun. The problem was, there was a huge gobblegook of filenames that didn’t help me whatsoever. None of them had user names on them, so it was impossible for me to tell who made it unless it came with a readme. There was zero support for anything other than the level…and that’s a huge flaw that I need to correct in future level editors of mine.

Unfortunately for me, that would require a ton of code…but over the last week I’m finally starting to get the hang of it, and tonight I finally had success. I got Game Maker to read files and pictures in folders and display them without using “slots” (many of my games use 3-5 slots to save games in). Without slots, I’m able to grant a whole new freedom of level making. Early on I thought I’d have to do about 20 slots for level making…and you couldn’t simply throw in a level you downloaded; you’d have to check and make sure the slot is empty. That completely sucks and is incredibly un-user friendly.

This new system gets Game Maker to do the work. Instead of slots it organizes the filenames and displays however many levels I want per screen…I could have up to 200 levels in there without breaking a sweat (theoretically you shouldn’t have any limits, but the way I’m implementing the code, it has to be limited somewhat). So you will never see this Windows Explorer window again…it’ll all be done within the game itself.

So you get filenames in the game instead of in the Windows Explorer tool…big deal, you say. But with this new system I’m able to also implement content/naming support as well as screenshot support. So you could pick a level called, “Super Awesome 1” and see a pic of the level instantly, as well as all the supported modes of that level, the current high score, and who made it, all without actually loading up the file. Theoretically you could even have level unlockables within your own levels…perhaps beating your level on easy will unlock another mode for the level! I say theoretically because I’ve never done anything like this before, but thats the goal right now, and it certainly looks doable on my end.

There will be three different types of levels you can make: Free Play, Shifter and Puzzle. Free Play allows you to tailor your level to as many modes as you want to support…so if you want your level to have Color Bar Mode, Patterns and Arcade, you got it. The user will load your level, choose their game type, and away they go. I’ll get into Shifter and Puzzle later.

I’ll post pics next month on the editor, but it’s going to be really sexy. Oh so sexy.