Level Generation Tool
The level generation tool is a tool designed for the final assignment of FIEA’s Tech Design 1 class. Students had the opportunity to either continue an extension of Zork (an assignment we had worked on for much of the semester) or create something new. I opted to create this: a tool that generates level layouts based on an inputted image and a given tileset. I also had the goals of adding path generation into the tool and use Unity’s inspector override system, both of which I achieved in the final version.
Lessons Learned
One of the hardest parts of making a tool is making it user-proof and intuitive. Prior to this project, I hadn’t had a ton of experience designing tools, so even while I kept these goals in mind, I feel like if I were to revisit this tool today I could greatly improve upon them. Setting up the tilesets in a cleaner and more intuitive way would be the biggest change, given the opportunity and time to continue development on this tool.
A view of the inspector to generate a level.
An image inputted into the tool
The outputted level using a mini-golf tile set
A pathing test, successfully detecting path ends, turns, and intersections
Adding city elements to the pathing test
A simple dungeon are and tileset
Setting colors of the inputted image to spawn specific types of tiles. “Layer Type” affects how they spawn in, such as “road” types considering pathing.
Adding elements within a tile set. Sets can have multiple tile prefabs to spawn to add variation, and the user can chance the spawn frequency and spawn rotation of each element.