Level Saving Loading

Level Saving/Loading

Levels are saved and loaded to/from JSON format. Level save files contain:

• Tile Map Data
• Obstacle Data
• Obstacle Link Data

Loading/Saving Process

These files are loaded when a level is selected to be loaded by the LevelGameArea area. The loading process is as follows:

1. LevelGameArea.readAll() is run to begin the loading sequence
2. LevelGameAreaapplyTerrainSerializers(Json) is run to apply the serializers used to convert the TiledMapTileLayer to/from Json.
3. The file is read, and converted to a LevelFile object, containing all of the relevant level information.
4. The information is read from the LevelFile object and loaded into the game

In future, step 4 could be moved to a different stage in the loading process so that, for example, assets could be loaded before attempting to spawn obstacles.

When the level is saved (by the level editor), the reverse process occurs within LevelGameArea.writeAll(). Serializers are applied, a new LevelFile object is created and all relevant data is saved to it, and it is then saved to a Json file.

Adding New Data

Adding new data to the level file is simple. First, the LevelFile class should be modified to add the data field in the correct location. Next, read and write the data to/from the LevelFile in the readAll and writeAll methods, note that adding a serializer may be necessary for special datatypes, however is not needed for most things.