Games by Andrex

The Level Editor

I am pleased to announce that 4kg will come with its own level editor and a way to save and load level data. So if you’re unhappy with the small amount or possible low quality of the 15 included levels, you can roll your own, or even share them with friends!

The actual editor itself is an improved version of the AkibaKa editor that is an “extra” in downloads of Akihabara. I will be contributing these improvements back to the community so that future Akihabara games will benefit.

There will still be some 4kg-exclusive enhancements though, mostly centered around saving and loading files. For these, I will either be using FileWriter + FileReader or localStorage + Base64, depending on if the former stabilizes adequately in Chrome by release.

Basically, how it works is this: After you’ve beaten the game, when you start 4kg up select “Extras” on the main menu, and then select “Levels.” Then from this screen you can load existing levels (even the 15 included ones!), create new ones, or import/export levels. The import/export option is what you need to do if you want to share levels, or play levels shared with you. Unfortunately, there won’t be a robust LittleBig Planet-esque network for seamlessly playing levels, but I think this system is adequate, at least.

Another limitation is that you won’t be able to create new assets. So you’ll only be able to use the sprites, backgrounds, and objects that come in 4kg by default. I’m currently looking into setting it up so that you can tweet your designs, and have them stored on Google Docs for download.

I’ll be highlighting the best levels that people make here on this blog every week or so after 4kg releases, giving 4kg some life even after people beat it.

Can’t wait!
-Andrex