Well I finally did it and am totally pleased. Though it is bittersweet!
I spent A GREAT DEAL OF TIME, making a really full-featured editor only to wish that it was easier, simpler and faster.
Thus this weekend I’ve been working on that. Though it wasn’t a total waste as I learned a bunch and a lot of those features still exist, but beneath the surface.
One reason I wanted it simpler was so that the editor could be consumer friendly and players could share levels online.
So overall it’s a lot simpler/slightly less pretty(no more parallax), but a lot of the advanced graphical stuff can be skipped while a fun level can still be constructed.
Over and over again, I re-invent the wheel with lots of whistles, only to realize the wheel everyone else has been using is better.
STAY TUNED!

A quickie post just so I keep this a habit!

The enemy corral is what I call basic enemy grouping. It involves a lot more however. The basics of it are enemy approach distance and attack distance. More advanced things include variations in enemy placement that look natural–like an enemy flanking you while another one rushes you. It also involves a lot of value adjusting for knockback and range on attacks.

Yesterday I got lucky with a some numbers. I set the basic enemy approach 100 pixels back farther than normal and it did wonders. It made the battles feel more controlled, but still manic and threatening. It also set up the enemies to be struck more frequently when other enemies are rebounded off of walls. VERY SWEET!

Just chugging away at developing enemy AI and interactive environments.