geoSwarm Editor
I am a huge fan of the geoDefense games, and I especially love geoDefense Swarm. The other day I had an idea... what if I could make my own levels for geoDefense Swarm? I had a look at how the existing game levels are made, and it turns out they're a simple but awesome XML format, so I decided I'd try to make a level creator/editor program for geoDefense Swarm.
This is what I came up with....
NOTE: I created this for my personal use only. I have no intentions to release it. Also, to play custom-built levels, you need to have access to your device's file system (AKA you must be jailbroken).
I'm still working on it, but that's it so far. It makes fully playable levels for geoDefense Swarm, which is insanely awesome. :)
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That level editor looks great. I thought about doing this type of thing in the past. Are you going to release this tool to the public? Having new levels would be nice and the ability to create them is awesome. Buying levels in game" is useful, unless there aren't games to buy. Maybe this will help start a flood of new levels. Looking forward to a (hopefully) public release.
I would like to release it, but at this stage I'm not going to because I'm unsure about what the developers would think. I know that they sell level packs in-game, so the release of a tool to create levels might be bad for their business. Another concern I have regarding releasing this is the fact that it uses some of the images from the game, which could very easily pose a legal issue.
As I said, I LOVE the geoDefense games and the last thing I'd want to do would be cause issues for Critical Thought Games or myself. I made this purely out of my love for geoDefense, so I really don't want something bad to come out of it. :)
I was also pleasantly suprised on how easy and simple the maps file were to read. My first map was a modification of one of the hard levels, except that all the towers cost $1 :P
Setting up the waves of creeps is easy even in a text editor. The tricky part is visualizing the hex map and placing the hex types properly, and this where I think your map editor would be really helpful. My kudos to you for making such a clean and simple interface.
Anyway, after having tried making new maps, the hardest part was making the game play balanced and fun. Playing your own maps over and over again in an attempt to balance them is no fun. I rather play maps made by other people! I hope you release your utility.
Just a quick update for anyone who's interested: I've been working on this program some more and have improved the graphical side of it, as well as adding a new feature.
Here are some screenshots:
I would also like to take this opportunity to correct myself; one of my friends pointed out that you do NOT need to be jailbroken to play custom levels. You can place the custom levels on your un-jailbroken device using a program such as DiskAid.
I have added a handy feature which transfers the level via SFTP to an iOS device. This transfer feature only works if the device is jailbroken and running OpenSSH.
As far as a public release is concerned, I still hold the views expressed in my previous posts. I would release this if and only if I knew for sure that it would cause no problems or hassles for Critical Thought Games or myself; because as I said, I would hate to see anything bad come out of this.
nsxdavid..... Do you have any thoughts on this level editor? Would it be possible for you to give it a thumbs up or thumbs down on us geodefense fans sharing level editors and homebrew levels? Your blessing here could really spark a lot of renewed interest into this game.
Your level editor is 100x better than the one I used to create the game!
Write me an email david at critical thought games dot com
-- David
Just another quick progress update for anyone who's interested...
I've been working more on the editor and have changed the hex matrix around a bit to support placing spawns and exits in the side hexes, as shown in the screenshot below:
I'm really happy with my progress so far, but I still have more features to implement, such as the following:
It's looking hopeful for a public release at some point down the line - David has been awesome about the whole thing. He's an all-round cool guy. :)
The editor keeps looking better. Nice features you want to add. Keep up the good work. Thanks David for the community support. :)
I've found some time to do more work on the editor. I've been adding features to the waves system, but now it's getting a bit too repetitive to use... I'll have to work out a way to make it smoother.
I just have a few more things left to work on - getting close to being complete. :)
Oh, I would like to apologise and correct myself once again, I have tried to install custom levels on an un-jailbroken device and have found that it is NOT actually possible, despite me claiming in a previous post that it was. The game's files (bundle) is signed at installation, and any changes break the signature. This means that unfortunately, only those who have jailbroken will be able to play custom levels at this time. Who knows, maybe sometime down the road there will be an official way to transfer custom levels (which would be INSANELY AWESOME).
Check out this level I made. :P It's quite difficult.
Glad to hear you are still working on it. Any new info on if this will available to the GeoFan public :)
I haven't managed to do much on this at all lately - I've been incredibly busy with other things. I'm still hoping to finish it up and release it when I get time. :(
Sometime you have to put a fork in it and call it done :)
Time to release a Beta!
i agree! you really should! i currently have a jailbroken ipod touch 2g but i cant edit levels without them crashing! this will most likely help so please release a beta!
Sorry everyone, I just got way too busy to maintain this project, and eventually I forgot all about it.
GeoSwarm Editor is still unfinished (although it is quite complete), and I won't be continuing work on this project. I have released the editor as open source under the Apache 2.0 license on Google Code.
If you want to download it and try it out for yourself, go right ahead. I won't be providing any official support, however.