Good DIY thing for making a level editor?

Sivak

Just wondered if anyone had any recommendations for something to make a simple level editor.  I used to use Visual Basic 6 on my old computer, but I don't have it over here and supposedly it won't even run on Windows 7.  I guess I could look into the newer one, but I don't know.



I'd just to just take one image file with my tiles laid out and cut out pieces and use those for image instances.  Flash won't let me do that it seems. 



Whaddya think?

Shiru

Just about everything will do, C/C++/C#, Delphi, Python, Java, etc. Flash as is won't, but (Adobe) AIR will do - that's the same AS3, but provides GUI library and ability to load/save files.

GradualGames

I'd personally highly, highly, highly recommend giving Python/PyQt a shot for making a level editor. Comparing my experience having written some tools in C#/.NET 2.0 versus now rewriting them in Python/PyQt, I really think this may be the ideal combination for building personal productivity tools. Not only is it incredibly fun to use, but the code is *tiny* compared to C# (and probably Visual Basic as well). For example...my famitracker text to asm converter used to be 1500 lines of code. It is now 278. My palette and bitmap importer was 700 lines of code, they are now individually 50 or so. You read that right.



I've been using Python 3.3 and PyQt 5. There's plenty of documentation out there on how to use it and damn is it fun. Some of the most fun programming I think I've ever done. Good luck no matter what you choose!



*My only comment about Adobe AIR would be, interestingly, at my current job, there are two in-house GUI applications used for some of the work we do. The first version was written in Adobe AIR. The new version? Python/PyQt. I haven't used Adobe AIR, personally, but there must have been a reason for the switch!

arch_8ngel

I agree with the notion of giving python a try. It is a really nice language for file I/O and string handling.



Very well suited to a level editor, IMO

GradualGames

I feel compelled to add that PyQt's QImage class is stupidly easy to use and incredibly useful for image manipulation. There are a couple of related classes intended for fast drawing situations, etc. but QImage seems to be the most feature rich class and seems more than fast enough for a simple level editor. The QColor class is also really useful, providng rgb, hsl, hsv color models at any time when needed.



As for IDE for Python code editing., you can use Python's built in IDLE, but I really like JetBrain's PyCharm.

bunnyboy

Excel -> CSV

removed04092017

Parsing CSV is a 300 line bitch do it right though. I'd say a simple C+SDL app would work best.

facm

VB can run on Win7, but you have to install Windows XP Mode and use it in that VM. XP Mode requires Win7Pro, of course.



Alternately, you can grab one of the Visual Studio Express installers, they're free and give you VB.NET and C#.

Sivak

Thanks for the replies all. I have heard about Python and good things. Basically, I just need to be able to take an image file with all my tiles laid out (in my case 256x128 for a total of 128 possible tiles), have the ability to cut out 16x16 regions of it, and utilize those. I'd also need mouse support and something that could write text that I could easily copy and paste into my ASM files.



I considered getting SFML for C++ as I was able to do a game demo with that and handling graphics was easy, although getting Visual C++ seemed like a hassle.



I'll look into Python and see what I can do. Thanks again.

DarkKobold

Are we going to get a crowd-sourced Battle Kid? That would be freaking amazing.



Also, Sivak, are you soliciting ideas for Battle Kid 3?

removed04092017

C and SDL, probably take just a few hours if you know SDL libraries functions. C++....good luck. Lol.