Jump Game and LovelyBigPlanet both need a level editor. So I thought: why not make one common level editor library? This might be usable for other games as well.
There are several problems causing trouble:
The GUI. This is not a very big problem, but the existing GUIs are too complex for a level editor, and I'm not sure how well they mix with the games.
Saving. Not very hard to do, but on the other hand, it's not that easy to make it support both JG and LBP level API, which is quite different.
Loading. This presents a bigger problem, because levels and maps are lua files, and the best way I can think of loading them is simply executing them. That might cause a problem for programs that have active set-up code, such as the current default LBP map: right when it is executed, it sets up a message box.
This list might change over time.
Ideas, comments and suggestions for other ways to do this are welcome.
In the end, bartbes has to decide what to do for LBP, and I have to do the same for JG.
Saving: Well, if you want it for two games you'd need some abstraction, so, a plugin-system probably?
Loading: I guess that needs to be abstracted too, but it isn't necessarily a bad thing you see the message box right away (though you could consider that bad coding, by me.. ) if you see a map like the map is supposed to be, how can it be a bad thing? Makes it more WYSIWYG.
Saving: I'm not sure I know what you mean
Loading: maybe, but imagine you'd get the messagebox every step in the editing->testing->editing->... cycle. That would be rather annoying, if you'd ask me. (This is also a case for a less show-stopping messagebox, IMHO.)
) if you see a map like the map is supposed to be, how can it be a bad thing? Makes it more WYSIWYG.