Hello guys I'm developing a kind of jump and run game and there should be an editor for creating levels. I'm questioning myself whether an "in game" editor is better than a separate application or vice versa. By "in game" I mean an editor that you can access from the game's main menu. It has the custom GUI of the game. Example of in game editor: Age of Empires. By "separate" I mean an editor that is in a separate executable. The editor would probably use the standard GUI from the OS. Example of separate editor: Warcraft III. Currently I have a simple editor in the game itself. But it's very simple for now. My subsystems should be reusable for a separate editor if I want to create one. I really can't find a key argument for using one type of editor instead of the other. My requirements on the editor is that it has multiple "windows" for selecting entities from a list, selecting textures, editing objects, creating triggers and objectives. The only pros and cons I can find for each editor type are: In game editor:

• (+) Easy access in the game menu
• (+) One single "package" instead of multiple programs
• (-) Needs programming of custom GUI
• (-) Multiple windows can be confusing

Separate editor:

• (+) Clean look (maybe my personal taste)
• (+) Can easily be used parallel to other programs (e.g. Internet browser) since not fullscreen
• (-) Need to load up the whole game for testing a level

But I think that none of this points is very important. Is the whole think only personal taste? Which kind of editor would you prefer in your favorite game? Can you point out some other arguments in favor and against each sort of editor? Still a few points that are probably of importance: 1. My game is cross platform (GNU/Linux and Windows so far). So using the Win API directly is not a solution. 2. I have no (good) GUI implemented yet in the game. I'll use something like CEGUI or guichan for the game GUI. Maybe this is good/bad for an editor. 3. I'm thinking about using some scripting languages like Python for the editor (for writing the editor itself, but maybe also for using in levels), but that would probably not work because the game framework is written in C++ Thanks for the help! aeroz

I'm a fan of in-game editors, but that might be because I somewhat enjoy making a custom GUI.

If you use a separate editor, one trick that you can use to improve the experience is live asset reloading. In the game, you write some code that constantly checks the modified-time of the level file. (this code gets disabled in the final production version) If the modified-time ever changes, you reload the whole level. Then when editing, you run the game and the editor simultaneously. Every time you save something in your editor, the game will pick it up and start showing you the new version instantly. So you get the best of both worlds.

That's easier said than done; it can take some work to make the game engine support quick level reloading. But if you can support it, it's a pretty fun way to work.

I'm actually playing around with a game with a map editor now, I'm doing it in C#/XNA and the way I have it set up is in 3 projects:

Game (XNA Project)
SharedLogic (XNA Library)
MapEditor (XNA Project / C# Windows Forms Application)

MapEditor and Game share classes such as the map and camera from SharedLogic, making them seperate executables but having the exact same display methods of the game world. MapEditor is actually an XNA project due to the hackiness I went through to get an XNA window inside a windows form panel. It really works quite well and removes the need to create a custom GUI system.

Thought this might give you some ideas for your own. :)

Hi, thanks for the replies! A few comments on your replies:

Quote:by AverageJoeSSU
My editor is purely internal so I dont limit myself to APIs and platforms based on my game being cross platform. The advantage of this is that i get to use WPF and C# which imo is the current leader in GUI contstruction. I picked up expression blend 3 over the weekend and although the learning curve is really high, it is pretty awesome what you can do.

I have never used WPF but it seems to be very Windows specific (you say your game is cross platform??).

Quote:by AverageJoeSSU
So as you can see i went the "separate" way.

First you say internal and then you say separate, what is it exactly? Sorry, maybe it is just my bad English that makes me not understand.

Quote:by Telcontar
I personally prefer separate editors

Quote:by pinacolada
I'm a fan of in-game editors

Sounds like it's really personal choice...

Quote:by pinacolada
(...) but that might be because I somewhat enjoy making a custom GUI.

So you actually prefer in-game editors just because of the development process or also do you like it as end user?

@Codeka: your two approaches of making the editor are basically the same as mine.

This options are currently on my list:
- Separate editor application made with wxWidgets
- In-game editor with CEGUI as GUI
- In-game editor with guichan as GUI
Which one of those can you recommend me? (Note: I have never used these GUI libraries before, just a bit o wxPython)

Thanks again!