What we need is an updated GLEE, No... not that Glee, instead a GLEED2D for XNA 4

Today's Fun Wednesday is a project I've seen mentioned on a number of game dev blogs and is one that I'd been watching for a while, GLEED2D. The problem is that that version is based on XNA 3.1. So I've watching and hoping to see a XNA 4 version drop.

Looks like I wasn't the only one. Via the magic that is OSS, Steve Dunn forked the project and released an XNA 4.0 version. Now we can GLEED2D with the latest XNA...

SteveDunn / Gleed2D

Usage under the Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL)

Detailed information on the wiki: http://github.com/SteveDunn/Gleed2D/wiki

**IF YOU'RE DOWNLOADING THE ZIP FILE OF THE SOURCE, ENSURE YOU UNBLOCK IT IN EXPLORER BEFORE YOU BUILD IT, OTHERWISE YOU'LL GET AN SGEN ERROR IN VISUAL STUDIO!!**

This is a re-write of the original GLEED2D tool (at http://gleed2d.codeplex.com/)

This version is plug-in based.  All the shapes you see are plug-ins.  The behaviours and lighting are also plug-ins.

Apart from the plug-ins, the other major differences are:

• Loading of levels is now done by including the Gleed2D.InGame assembly (there's versions for Windows, XBox, and Windows Phone), and creating a `LevelLoader` object.
• When a Level is loaded, nothing is drawn.  The previous version drew textures, but this one doesn't. Create your own in-game objects to do the drawing.

Although the format of the files have changed, **you can still import your old Gleed files** and save them in the new format.

What is GLEED2D?

Overview

Gleed 2D (Generic Level Editor 2D) is a general purpose, non tile-based Level Editor for 2D games of any genre that allows arbitrary placement of textures and other items in 2D space. This GitHub repository is the home for the new rewritten tool. For the original tool, please see here

Levels are saved in XML format. Custom Properties can be added to the items in order to represent game-specific data/events/associations between items etc.

Gleed 2D is free software and is written in C# and XNA Game Studio 4.0. You need the XNA Framework Redistributable 4.0 (download from Microsoft) and the Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 to run it.

See here for some videos of the tool.

Features

• placing & editing textures (move, rotate, scale, flip, tint)
• multiple layers
• several tools (align horizontally, etc.)
• primitive items (rectangle, circle, path)
• Custom Properties per item/layer/level
• undo/redo
• save to XML
• editing multiple items at once
• toggle visibility per item/layer/level
• preview in your application
• parallax scrolling

It is based on the original tool of the same name. The difference here is that the code has been reworked so that everything is a plug-in. All the elements here are plug-ins. Examples of the plug-ins are:

• Shapes (Rectangle, Path, and Circle)
• Lighting (Lights, Hulls)
• Behaviours

The tool generates an XML file. In your game, you instantiate a component in the Gleed library which reads this XML and you end up with an in-memory object model of your level.

There are two pieces to the Gleed project:

• The main Gleed tool which produces the XML output
• Components that read the XML (versions for Windows, XBox360, and Windows Phone 7.1)

Here's some things you might want to know about:

• Loading a level in your game
• Overview of the code
• What plugins are available
• The format of the XML output

So you not only get a cool level creator for your game, BUT you get the source for that level editor too.

Here's a snap of the Solution, which compiled and ran for me the first time with no problems or issues;

Here's some snaps of the running app.

If you are creating a game and need a level creator/editor, thinking about writing one or just looking for something fun to mess around with, GLEED2D is singing your song...