Why make a Map Editor

In my last blog entry I showed a map editor that I had started working on. There are still a few thing I want to do, but for the most part the editor has been finished. I wanted to talk a bit today on the importance of having a map editor and supporting customization of your game.

First a little background on myself, for anyone who doesn’t already know. I started modding for Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, in like 2002 (nothing particularly good). I made a few maps for Star Wars Battlefront in 2005, then I started mapping for Star Wars Republic Commando (30 some odd maps I’ve released for it) The next game I did a map for was Killing Floor a year or so ago, and most recently has been Ace of Spades (I released a map last week) I also run the Sandcrawler Network (Unreal Modders Haven) website that offers mapping tutorials and downloads for Republic Commando, Killing Floor, and Ace of Spades. So yea, Modding and Mapping in particular are very important to me, even with niche games like Untitled that only a handful of players will try.

1. A Map editor can make your life easier, rather than creating the levels using code, you can make them using the editor.

2. They can clean up your layouts (in construct) or code. Just setup one page to load the level from the ini, and position objects. Rather than having one page for each level, you have 1 page + ini files for the levels.

3. They expand your game, when other players that enjoy your game get a hold of the map editor they may decide of create custom levels for it. That means more level for your players, without you having to do anymore work (assuming you make the level editor to build the game with)

The editor with a map loaded

My editor has changed a bit, now objects can be enlarged down, or to the right (or shrunk back down to one block) There is also support for saving a map to an ini file, as well as loading the map from an ini file. Overall I am happy with the editor (although some things will be tweaked as I develop the game. I plan to begin developing the game this weekend.


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