Level Editing - what's the deal?


Ever since the level editing was introduced to the public (which dates back to the days of Doom1 and perhaps even earlier), hundreds and hundreds of people have spent hours and hours of their time making custom add-ons, even though nobody paid them for it or even asked them. Why did they?

Well, I can't say for everyone else, but after quite a while of doing this stuff, from level editing and AI scripting to programming the level editors, I've formulated it for myself. In short - because it's fun! There's nothing like polishing pieces and then putting them together to form a complete picture, telling your own story, basically creating your own world. You get a chance to tailor the game exactly for your taste, making it yet more fun to play. And, of course, there are other bonuses that go with it like you might become recognized or even get a job (Remember Yves Borckmans, Serge Debroeyer and Don Sielke from Dark Forces times? They now work in one well known game company).

Many people seem to put level making next to wizardry. It isn't, really. However, it does require a lot patience and hard work. And it takes really a lot of patience and hard work to do it well. At times it can even be frustrating. In fact, I can promise it will be at times. But at the end, if you ask me, it's well worth it.

And now in the time when every other game is designed with modifiability in mind it's the perfect time dive into editing. With introduction of scripting within game engines there's very little to limit your imagination. You can create your own scenarios, program the behavior of the characters, make multiplayer games with your own set of rules (simple deathmatch does get boring after a while, doesn't it).

Now, why would you want to edit Jedi Knight and not, say, Quake. One can come up with hundreds of reasons :-). Here's two that are hardly arguable: First, it's Star Wars. If you intend to create Star Wars-related add-ons, there's no other place to look (look how long it took Star Wars TC guys, who are pretty good at it. They started several months before JK was out and they are still not done. It's awful lot of work to redo it from scratch). Second, you won't need a lengthy pre-processing to play your levels (ever heard of BSP and VIS?).

So, if you think you're ready to jump into it, here's some links to get you going. There's a bunch of utilities available. You can download them at
Darkjedi, JK downloads: http://www.darkjedi.com/jedfiles.htm
File Database, editors section http://www.jedinights.com/filed/editors/editors.htm

And here's a bunch of editing links:

DarkJedi: http://www.darkjedi.com/
Massassi Temple: http://www.jedinights.com/massassi/

COG Archive: http://www.jedinights.com/cogarchive/
Darkness Falls articles: http://www.jediknight.net/darkfall/jkarts.html
JK Editing Zone: http://www.jediknight.net/zone/

JK Editing Web Ring: http://www.jediknight.net/zone/jkeditring/

And here's also some message boards where you can come with questions:

DarkJedi JED message board: http://www.darkjedi.com/bbsjk/
Massassi Temple message board: http://www.jedinights.com/massassi/wwwboard/wwwboard.html
JK.Net editing board: http://209.1.245.15/cgi-bin/mboard/UltimateALT.cgi
JediNights editing board: http://www.jedinights.com/wwwboard2/wwwboard.html


And in conclusion, a few of thing I would suggest to beginning level designers:
Have fun and happy editing, Alex.