Basic level editor for a tile based game

October 8, 2008 by Emanuele Feronato
Filed Under Actionscript 3, Flash, Game design, Users contributions • 20 Comments 

I am sharing with you a basic level editor made for the platform engine but easily adaptable to any tile based game made by Daniel Felipe Rodriguez

Your recent set of tutorials about the platform engine inspired me so I decide to contribute to your cause, I made a really really basic level editor but I’m sure it will help the level design, and maybe some future projects because the editor can be adapted really easy to any game.

In a future I will do a better editor, but this was just a quickly one, because really love this tutorials, continue with the good work!

The editor is made in AS3

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var currentTile:int = 0;
 
var horizontalTiles:int = 20;
var verticalTiles:int = 10;
 
var totalTiles:int = mcCurrentTile.totalFrames;
 
var levelTilesContainer:Sprite = new Sprite();
 
makeSelectionTiles();
makeLevelTiles();
 
function makeSelectionTiles():void {
	var container:Sprite = new Sprite();
	container.x = 200;
	container.y = 20;
 
	for (var i:int; i<totalTiles; i++) {
		var tile:Tile = new Tile();
		tile.gotoAndStop(i + 1);
		container.addChild(tile);
		tile.x = (tile.width - 1) * i;
		tile.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, selectionClick);
	}
	addChild(container);
}
 
function selectionClick(evt:MouseEvent):void {
	currentTile = evt.currentTarget.currentFrame;
	updateCurrentTile();
}
 
 
function updateCurrentTile():void {
	mcCurrentTile.gotoAndStop(currentTile);
}
 
 
function makeLevelTiles():void {
	var xPos:Number = 0;
	var yPos:Number = 0;
 
	for (var i:int=0; i<verticalTiles; i++) {
		for (var j:int=0; j<horizontalTiles; j++) {
			var tile:Tile = new Tile();
			tile.x = xPos;
			tile.y = yPos;
			tile.name = "" + i + j;
			tile.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, levelClick);
			levelTilesContainer.addChild(tile);
			xPos += (tile.width - 1);
		}
		yPos += (tile.height - 1);
		xPos = 0;
	}
	levelTilesContainer.x = 50;
	levelTilesContainer.y = 100;
 
	addChild(levelTilesContainer);
 
}
 
function levelClick(evt:MouseEvent):void {
	evt.currentTarget.gotoAndStop(currentTile);
}
 
btnGenerate.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, generateClick);
 
 
function generateClick(evt:MouseEvent):void {
	var array:String = "[ ";
 
	for (var i:int=0; i<verticalTiles; i++) {
		array += "[";
		for (var j:int=0; j<horizontalTiles; j++) {
			var target:DisplayObject = levelTilesContainer.getChildByName("" + i + j);
 
			if (j == (horizontalTiles - 1)) {
				array += (MovieClip(target).currentFrame  - 1);
			} else {
				array += (MovieClip(target).currentFrame - 1) + ", ";
			}
		}
		if (i == (verticalTiles - 1)) {
			array += "] ]";
		} else {
			array += "],\n";
		}
	}
	trace(array);
}

And this is the result: once you click on “Generate” the script will trace the array.

For this reason there is no way to see the result online, you have to download the source and execute it inside Flash.

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20 Responses to “Basic level editor for a tile based game”

  1. Niall Lavigne on October 8th, 2008 2:02 pm

    Wow, that looks pretty sweet, nice job Daniel. Now to learn AS3…

  2. Andrius on October 8th, 2008 2:42 pm

    Good. But I need AS2 version :)

  3. Daniel on October 8th, 2008 3:14 pm

    AS2 version will be easy to do with the as3, I love OOP(so hate as2) for this reason made it in as3, if I get some free time will make the as2. remember its a really! really!! really!!! basic editor, but if tou are in a hurry :-).

  4. dix huit on October 8th, 2008 3:55 pm

    Cool. Any news on the WordPress arcade plugin yet?

  5. Emanuele Feronato on October 8th, 2008 4:19 pm

    still working on it…

  6. Josh of Cubicle Ninjas on October 8th, 2008 4:58 pm

    Both Emanuele and Daniel are kings among men. This made my day! :)

  7. Gecko on October 8th, 2008 7:15 pm

    Argh! DARN YOU AS3!
    I can’t wait for the as2 version!

  8. Javier Lázaro on October 8th, 2008 7:59 pm

    AS2 version, please…

  9. Jerry on October 8th, 2008 9:11 pm

    I click on generate and nothing happens?

  10. brart on October 8th, 2008 9:27 pm

    Jerry, read the text under the editor

  11. Arxanas on October 9th, 2008 12:01 am

    Wow, that’s really good! Can you convert it to AS2, though, because I really suck at AS3.

    Could you also maybe explain how it works, in case we want to make our own custom level editors fitted to our own needs?

    Also, to Daniel Felipe Rodriguez, whoever you may be, you might want to add a legend at the bottom of the legend editor. Awesome work!

  12. Prankard on October 9th, 2008 1:49 am

    This editor only traces out the level array. Basically, the traced array should be the same for both versions of the engine (both AS2 and AS3).

    But obviously you need flash 9 or greater to export AS3 (unless you have flash 8 with the beta AS3).

    Just remove all the “level[0] = ” etc and replace it with:
    level = *insert traced level here*

  13. Daniel on October 9th, 2008 3:10 am

    @Prankard yes the editor make the array of arrays in one big array, and its the same in as2 and as3.
    For the as2 fans I have develop an as2 version, can found it in the forums http://www.triquitips.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=641&p=4516
    Enjoy.

  14. Daniel Rodriguez on October 9th, 2008 3:24 am

    @Arxanas, well it works really good to be something I made really fast :-), just need to change the tile movieclip and add other keyframes, I copy the emanuele movieclip tile, for this reason have his tiles.

  15. Aksel on November 19th, 2008 1:13 am

    Hey, what you could do, is to use System.setClipboard(array); instead of tracing the whole map. That would do so you can just get the map code directly to the “copy paste” thing.

  16. Daniel Rodriguez on December 26th, 2008 8:16 pm

    @Aksel Thanks, its done.
    More updates in this new post.
    http://tutorials.group84.com/2008/12/tile-based-game-level-editor.html

  17. Daniel on June 24th, 2009 2:43 pm

    Man! You take a rock of work down of my shoulders – thank you so much!

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