Strides Interactive

Visual editors vs Script editorsFiled Under: Weekly Tuesday Dose of goodness

Hi all,

There has recently been some debates between which type of editor is better. Notably, Visual-based and Script-based editors became the contrasting ends of the argument.

Before we begin, let me briefly explain what is an editor in this context.

We know that making games are already tough in terms of coding. Editors are meant to reduce our workload and hasten the development process.  However, not all editors are suitable. In fact, the wrong choice of editors can lead to a hell lot more extra work along with painful and repetitive tasks.

Read on…

Visual-Based Editors

Visual editors are suitable in most cases where you need to see the game object. They help a lot in realizing visionary ideas through the aid of graphics.

They’re extremely suitable to translate design ideas into in-game products.

Visual editors have the distinct advantage of being able to touch and customize changes and then packaging it into a single game entity which can be used directly.

However, Visual editors also have a distinct and natural disadvantage.

That is, it’s not easy to multiply intents or usage by a magnitude of 100 times and beyond. It’s simply too repetitive and tedious to accomplish. Thus making games development less fun and more mundane.

Script-Based Editors

Script-Based editors can range from simple text editors to assisted ones like ScriptIDE 3.4. The purpose of script-based editors primarily for orchestration.

Such editors perform particularly, poorly, in object construction.

This is subjective though. Simple sprites can be created easily with 1 or 2 lines. With script functions (we’ll talk about that separately), multiple script lines can be triggered with 1 instruction call.

And also, since you can’t see the game object in script-based editors, it’ll require an external tool, such as MS Paint or Photoshop to be able to paint the game objects represented on the actual game screen. And to add, this is limited to 2D games. For 3D games, visualization can be a nightmare with script-based editors.

In such cases, the game application itself is usually used as THE visualization tool to validate the script’s values.

Conclusion

In conclusion I have a few points to make:

• There is no silver bullet in games editing. There must be a mix of Visual and Script tools.
• Visual tools are good for creation of singular game objects
  • To be used in a declarative manner
  • Can use to define world objects
  • Starting positions, state of objects, etc…
• Script tools are good for propagating these objects and orchestrating the main game flow
  • Used for conceptual flows
  • Logic and algorithms
  • Orchestration and data flows
  • Propagation of objects in large scale (above 100 objects)
  • Handle changes in the game states
• Both types of tools are therefore important in hastening the game development process

Most importantly, these 2 types of tools must be productive, no matter how fanciful they might look; they must be able to allow a game developer to produce game products with as little time as possible.

Regards,

Jeremy