How do I make a level without a separate tilemap editor?

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#1

I cannot seem to wrap around my head how to design levels.
I do not use programs like tiled specifically, because my plans require much more specific objects in the game that do more specific actions.
So what do I do? Since I am drawing a lot of inspiration from games like Geometry Dash, and since GD does not use the concept of tilemaps, what do you think? How did RubRub do level design?
Personally I would assume that I would need to make my own level/map editor and use that.
But if I make my own level/map editor, how would I save my creations to a file so I could later implement them into the game?
Please help out =)

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Level Data Question(s)
#2

watch tutorials from javidx9, its not cocos2dx but he will teach to exactly what you want to achieve in C++. I guess the video of the name was platformer game javidx9 on youtube

#3

I use vectors that contain my level data and I have a class that build the next level in the background while the player is playing the current level. This way I can switch fast and the player doesn’t need to pause. They must keep going.

something like this:

1111111404111114L11111111111000000000000
1111111404111111111111111111000000000000
1111111404111111111111111111000000000000
1111111404111111L11111111111111110000000
1111111404111111L11111111111110000000000
1111111404111111L11111111111100110100110
1111111404111111011111111111000110000000
11111114041111140111111111000001101110L0
00011114041111000111111110011000000004P1
L001111404111100L111111110011144110044L0
P401111404111104P111111111000000000010L0
L400000000000004L111111111111111111000L0
L40000B0000000040111111111111111111000L0
L4111144044111040444444444444444444000L0
L411114+0+4111040000000000000000@BBX00L0
L4444444044444040444444444444444444B00L0
L400000B0B0000040111111111111111111+00L0
L444004404400044011111111111111111111111
L400000B00000004L11111111111111111111111
L400444404044404L11111111111111111111111
L400000000000004L11111111111111111111111
L40^^^^^0^^^D^^4L11111111111111111111111
L404444404444444L11111111111111111111111
L4d1114+0+411114L11111111111111111111111
L401114404411114L11111111111111111111111
L400000000000004L11111111111111111111111
L0000000X0000000L11111111111111111111111
L000000000000000L11111111111111111111111
1111110404011111111111111111111111111111
111111l404l11111111111111111111111111111
111111l404l11111111111111111111111111111
11111114B4111111111111111111111111111111
#4

The problem is I have different kinds of blocks in my game. So how would I save texture data for them?

#5

I do this same thing above. Level data is comprised on characters and each character represents a different block.

#6

But how are you editing the block data and the vector positioning data at the same time?

#7

I am not sure that I understand your question.

the layout I posted above is usually stored in a vector. I read a bunch of text files in on game start while the main menu is being viewed. I do this threaded and its very quick to read in all the level data for each level before the user even presses the Play button.

#9

What I want to do is to be able to make a custom level editing system, where I could freely place any kind of object (meaning there is no grid or snapping) and then be able to save the level information to a file. I searched around for a bit, and I still cannot figure out a solution.

#10

Why not just traverse the scene graph and write out each node and it’s details to a file. Then it is easy to read back in.

#11

That is an idea I thought of, but I also thought that would be resource consuming. But if you say it is plausible, then I am gonna do that. Thank you a lot! :grinning:

#12

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