Yes, in Orange the key is a key, but I am pretty sure I grabbed the texture from an old version of the Cloudscape theme (i.e. the DEFAULT theme). Anyway, right now, under DEFAULT settings, either the texture or the tutorial text needs fixing. Or should the word “key” be more read as a metaphor?
I just took some time to review the level editor.
Level editor / level formatNice work! The level editor looks quite powerful and its mostly convenient to use, too. The GUI is solid and does its job well most of the time.
It's a noticable improvement compared to the previous version.
Still, I have a ton of smaller usability complaints here and there, but overall, it's good.
Bugs:
- Testing a level seems a bit broken. Nothing happens if you hit the exit (not even a message). There are a lot of render problems, too. The starting positions still render when you test a level. A broken fragile block leaves behind a trail of pixels. And a lot of other ugly things
- If you create a new level, then set goal recordings to 1 and the goal time to 10 seconds, then save, then set time to 0, then save again, then you playtest the level, you will notice the goal time is still 10 seconds.
- If there are multiple blocks overlapping, and you rightclick it, the block names might be too long for the context menu. For example, in German, the block name “Beweglicher Schattenblock” / “Bewegender Schattenblock” is too long. The context menu should be wider.
Toolbox:
- The toolbox is a bit hidden, it should be more discoverable. The arrow is a bit small. It's weird there is no button at the bottom toolbar. I think if an additional button in the toolbar is added, then it will probably OK.
- Would be nice if the available keyboard shortcut is written in the tooltip
Context menus:
- The context menu which shows the list of layers uses checkboxes wrong. As you can only activate one layer at a time, checkboxes are wrong here. Replace the checkboxes with radio buttons, i.e. circles with a black dot inside if selected.
- The entries “Delete selected layer” and “Configure selected layer” don't work when you have selected the block layer. Either gray them out or hide them when the block layer is selected
- Very good you thought of the case when multiple blocks overlap.
Level settings:
- It's not clear that setting the goal time to 0 means there is no goal time (and the recording goal is ignored as well).
- Ideally, is should be possible to disable goal time and recordings goal with a checkbox individually. Forcing the user to remember “magic” values is not good.
Scripting:
- In the scripting window, there should at least be some note or pointer to a manual of some kind, as this is not self-explanatory at all.
Resizing blocks:
- Nice feature, but might be overlooked by people
Missing features:
- Resizing the level. The level size automatically increases by placing blocks, but it appears you can never shrink it.
- There is not even a warning when starting positions or the exit are missing.
Layers:
Oh, layers. This is a big one.
The level format now appears to support layers. Apparently it is now “legal” to place normal blocks as scenery. They look EXACTLY like real blocks, except they act like empty space. I don't like this concept. It doesn't seem to be (ab-)used yet, but I can already see a future of low quality troll levels with many fake blocks, since they are in the background layer. This is a bad idea, trying to figure out which blocks are fake in a level would be just a chore and not fun at all.
I think the layer system is interesting, but it should not be trivially possible for such abuse. Using normal-looking blocks as scenery is just evil. Foreground and background layers should really only allow scenery blocks, not fake blocks that look like you can walk on.
Still, having this background layer will certainly allow for good background decorations in future. Like that brick wall. I can already imagine some nice “interior” levels.
The way to determine whether a layer is foreground or background is
weird. Why does the name matter at all? Also, apparently capitalization matters as well, which is even more confusing. This means the layer “g” is a foreground layer, but the layer “G” is a background layer. Can't this nonsense just be abstracted away from the user? Maybe by adding these “magic” letters automatically at the start of the layer name, but hiding them in the editor. I.e. layer “Alpha” is internally saved as “bAlpha” (background) or “fAlpha” (foreground).
Finally, apparently you can now also make blocks invisible and even give them a completely different (fake) appearance. This is truly evil. This means you can make spikes invisible, and turn normal blocks into shadow blocks, etc. and all sorts of nasty things. I really see no reason for having such a feature that only serves to make levels more annoying. This basically means, technically, players cannot trust anything they see. Any open space might hide spikes or the exit, and any block they see might not be what it seems to be.