Will there be a level editor?

Can't a platform be built to write scripts when you give it basic information? This would allow for all things up to a certain level of complexity to be covered entirely, making the user have to work on scripts himself only when he is trying to do something more complex...

It depends on what level of complexity we're talking about. I'm sure scripts for things like the Knytt Stories Warp are simple and also easy to make a graphical interface for, but the Python script would also be very short and easy to understand; it could still be worth it to make the editor build scripts automatically given a few templates, but which ones to choose?

Aside: what happens when a Python script for a room has a syntax error?

Quote from: GrayFace on January 13, 2013, 01:22:56

What does that mean? There's no 'Blurbloble' key is Keys Setup

Well, it's just an example. It could be any key already bound but that would interfere with existing commands; as an alternative, I assume it'd be possible to define a unique 'Blurbloble' key which would call the (also as-yet-undefined) 'Blurbloble' script if pressed... I think, anyway.

Forgive me if that's all wrong, though. I've never dabbled with coding anything

Oh, no thats not how it works. You place an item on the map, and you give it an identifier. The item allows you to activate it, which is where the keypress comes from. When you activate it, it triggers this script and checks which identifier on the map was triggered. You could work with 1, 2, etc... but it will be really difficult to go back on a screen if there are more than one items to check what does what.

Quote from: Dj Gopher on January 13, 2013, 03:06:23

Can't a platform be built to write scripts when you give it basic information? This would allow for all things up to a certain level of complexity to be covered entirely, making the user have to work on scripts himself only when he is trying to do something more complex...

It depends on what level of complexity we're talking about. I'm sure scripts for things like the Knytt Stories Warp are simple and also easy to make a graphical interface for, but the Python script would also be very short and easy to understand; it could still be worth it to make the editor build scripts automatically given a few templates, but which ones to choose?

Aside: what happens when a Python script for a room has a syntax error?

I'm sure we could make something that outputs scripts and then you copy/paste it into your room. I don't know what happens when you have a syntax error, but I assume the script just ignores it and doesn't do anything. I haven't actually tried that out.

Yes, a GUI to create simple scripts can be attached to the script editor (no copy/pasting, just insertion into the point of caret). The only downside is that this won't help with understanding existing scripts, but maybe parsing the script to display such information would also be an option.
BTW, I'll be making the editor from scratch and I'll start pretty soon I think.

Oh, no thats not how it works. You place an item on the map, and you give it an identifier. The item allows you to activate it, which is where the keypress comes from. When you activate it, it triggers this script and checks which identifier on the map was triggered. You could work with 1, 2, etc... but it will be really difficult to go back on a screen if there are more than one items to check what does what.

Just goes to demonstrate why it took me half-a-week's worth of evenings to incorporate a simple python script someone else had already written into a M&B:WB mod; and it all seems so obvious once it's been explained

Perhaps we'll just have to wait 5 years after the KU editor is released for someone like egomassive to write a script writing platform for it.  XP

Well, for KS we had the KS Manager sooner than that...

I haven't bought the game yet (not because I don't want to), so I was meaning to ask: is there a way (either in the full game or in all versions) to load a different level other than just changing directory and copying all the subfolders but bin and World?

I haven't bought the game yet (not because I don't want to), so I was meaning to ask: is there a way (either in the full game or in all versions) to load a different level other than just changing directory and copying all the subfolders but bin and World?

This is not yet decided I think. It has a world folder, but I don't know how it currently works. Its possible that there will be an update for the game once there is support, or maybe it automatically detects a new world and works like that.

Right now there isn't. As soon as there is an editor (even if it it's a third party one) I'll add in a level selector though and release an update.

Thanks for the reply!

Can I ask one more thing? At a glance it seems KU can only use the (animated) Sprites from the Default World. Is this the case? Can new Sprites be added? Can the Sprites.dat file be replaced (I know it's just PNG files)?

I think, at the current state its best to first wait until the level editor gets into beta before asking these kinds of questions. I know from experience that these kind of questions make development really hard.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I asked this mainly because of how the files are placed in the game folder: Sprites.dat is inside the World folder, which makes one think it's part of a single level, but then the game seems to only be able to use that file for Sprites.

IIRC, Sprites.dat is a Zip file. World.bin is an uncompressed Binary Array workspace file. All other files should be wav, ogg, png and ini.

Sprites.dat isn't a Zip file: it's a bunch of concatenated PNG images. By the way, World.bin is indeed an uncompressed binary file, but the level data is in INI format (the only really binary data is the size of each section).

I'm about half way through this game and couldn't be more impressed. A user-friendly level editor for KU would be such a triumph. It would allow the creation of thousands of other games. So cool.