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[Matt Thorson]

http://ogmoeditor.com/

Ogmo Editor is a general-purpose 2D visual level editor for independent game developers. It's an Adobe® AIR™ application and it is cross-platform, running on Windows, OS X and Linux.

What does "Ogmo" stand for?

Nothing! Ogmo is a character from a game I made. My development process is very level design-centric, and it's really hard to make good levels without a visual editor. I found that a huge barrier to me getting projects started was the fact that I'd have to build an editor just for that project. Ogmo Editor was born out of a desire for a flexible, reusable 2D editor!

How It Works

After deciding to use Ogmo Editor for a game, the first step is to write up a "project file" for that game. A project file is just an XML file defining all the tilesets, objects, layers and settings for a project. Once you've got that done, you open it in the editor and you're good to go - you can start creating, editing, saving and re-opening levels. If you need to, you can add new tilesets and objects to your project along the way and all your old levels remain compatible, so you aren't required to define every asset you'll eventually use right away.

Getting Your Levels Into Your Game

Exported levels are just XML files, and the format is largely defined by you in the project file. Ogmo Editor was designed with Flash in mind, but most modern programming languages have robust XML support. If you're lost, check out the tutorials section - there might be an article on using Ogmo Editor with your language or library of choice.

It's Donationware!

This program is for hobbyist or independent developers only. If you profit from a game you made with the help of Ogmo Editor I ask for a donation in return, otherwise it is optional. Please donate whatever the application was worth to you. Donations help support future development!

[agj]

I was told about this by Greg earlier. I don't have a project that requires any level design for now, but I'll be sure to give this a try when I do. It sure seems useful.

[PsySal]

I am totally juiced to try this. Was reading the help files and it seems really nicely thought out. What's most exciting to me is the idea of laying out/conceptualizing a game using the editor, then makin' it moooove!

[Matt Thorson]

Along those lines: you can also save levels as PNG files, so it's good for concept art too

[Hinchy]

I have a project (or two (or ten)) this could be useful for! Thanks in advance! If I ever get any games done with it I'll shoot a donation your way, promise.

[Cokho]

Is this working with the Flashpunk library?
Anyway that awesome! Thanks a LOT! 

[xot]

I'd like to try this out but since it requires an internet connection to install I can't.
/flog

EDIT

OK, I'm a dumbass. It installed just fine without internet (as long as AIR is installed, which it is). I blame Game Maker induced retardation for making me forget that it IS possible to do something very useful in only 85KB.

[Matt Thorson]

Is this working with the Flashpunk library?
Anyway that awesome! Thanks a LOT!  

It'll work with any language/library with XML support. Flash has awesome XML support, so any AS3 library will work great with it (Flixel, FlashPunk, PushButton, etc). XNA also has good XML support I believe, and I'm sure there's good libraries out there for other major languages like C++, Python and Java.

[ChevyRay]

I Ogmo Editor.

If any of you guys have seen screenshots of mine and GregWS's game floating around, all 40 levels of this game were created using Ogmo Editor and then loaded with FlashPunk:



Worked like a charm. Definitely recommended.

[lasttea999]

Is it possible to use tilesets with separation between tiles? For example, the tilesets (images) I make always have a space of 1 pixel between adjacent tiles. I know it's not too hard to edit out the separation, but it'd probably be mighty convenient if the editor accommodated for that.

[Skofo]

Interesting!

Just FYI, Unix and Linux are different things. Adobe AIR supports only the latter.

[Matt Thorson]

Is it possible to use tilesets with separation between tiles? For example, the tilesets (images) I make always have a space of 1 pixel between adjacent tiles. I know it's not too hard to edit out the separation, but it'd probably be mighty convenient if the editor accommodated for that.

I'll write that down to add for the next version

[Shiny]

This is pretty neat.
I'm liking it allot, actually, and may use it at some point.

A few suggestions:

Is there any chance of meta-tile or brush support? Working with 8x8 tiles directly is so tedious. Grouping them into larger blocks of, preferably, 16x16 would be great.

The ability to define custom attributes for both objects and rooms could be useful in many cases, especially if you want to link rooms together.
_{Nevermind, you already have this. <3}

When you press escape, it closes the current project without hesitation. A confirmation would be the nice thing to do.

This one is really minor, but when zooming I feel that it should zoom to the cursor, and not to the center of the window.

[xot]

This looks really cool and seems pretty deep. Sorry about previous unwarranted complaint about installation.

I was able to download the installer a couple days ago but now stupid Websense is blocking ogmoeditor.com so I can't see the Help or Tutorial pages. You might want to bust their kneecaps.

Reason:
This Websense category is filtered: Potentially Damaging Content. Sites in this category may pose a security threat to network resources or private information, and are blocked by your organization.

URL:
http://ogmoeditor.com/

Details:
The user adult has been filtered attempting to access http://ogmoeditor.com/ on 4/15/2010.

Restrictions:
Your Websense policy blocks this page at all times. .

[Matt Thorson]

New version with mostly bugfixes, but also spacebar panning (for those without middle-click).

[lasttea999]

Very nice. (I'd read the tutorial, but hadn't tried the application.)

There's no easy way to refer to an OEL with Game Maker, is there...?

Also, the editor currently helps the user to modify levels, that is, OELs, but are there plans to let the user edit the properties of the OEP itself from within the application?

[Matt Thorson]

That is an area that I know could be improved, but I'm a lot more concerned with adding features to the OEL area of the application. OEP file editing is very low priority and I have limited time to work on the editor.

Edit:
New Tutorial: Using Values
http://ogmoeditor.com/help/values/

[lasttea999]

Ah, okay. Good luck!

I really like the two tutorials. They're very easy to understand!

I apologize if it's inappropriate to post so much feedback here. I know this is the Announcements section and not the Feedback section...

Speaking of feedback, are there plans to make it possible to place tiles, in the same layer, with "depth" relative to each other, as in top-down RPGs? In other words, will it be possible to place tiles with sprites that exceed the dimensions of a single square on the grid (but whose locations nevertheless conform to the grid)?

[ChevyRay]

When I'm designing levels like that, I usually don't actually like to have tall objects in the editor, because it obscures areas which I need to see while placing objects and stuff. I'd just make a grid or object layer with grid-sized blocks and place those for walls, but load the actual tall objects in when you load them in the game.

BUT, in opposition of that, if you've got a really nice tall-wall tileset, and lots of different wall types that are not easy (or too specific) to auto-tile when you load them in the game, it'd be nice to be able to actually place them visually so you could see how they look as you assemble them. So a "SortByY" parameter for object layers might actually be a nice future addition anyhow.

[Matt Thorson]

Updated the editor. Big addition is much better node support. What are nodes? Glad you asked! I also just posted a new tutorial covering them: http://ogmoeditor.com/help/nodes/index.html