How to split big level

Hi guys,

so far I learn that proper organization (grouping, commenting) in Fusion is half job done.

Now I need a really good strategy for my first stage of prototyping. My level is huge, has many floors and rooms. Because it's slow-paced adventure game, player will go from room to room in classic point and click adventure fashion: player click to open the door -> screen goes black -> player is inside the room. So, there is transition between rooms.

With that in mind, I don't know how smart idea is to have whole level loaded into memory. I think that parts of the level should load the moment when player decide to go there. When he exit, that part should unload from memory. Or there is better approach to this, I don't know.

If I place whole level into one frame, probably will be easy to code and "see" things, but I don't know what's going to happen with the memory resources. If I split one level in more than one frame, I have to make redundant things - to copy events from one event to another because the mechanic of the game is staying the same trough all game.


Do you have any advice or strategy how to make things right in this process?

You have the right mindset. Either you split it up into different frames which has the challenge of copy pasting the code to each and every frame. The better but more advance method is using one frame and using a level creator that saves levels/rooms into an array. Then it would load each room when player hits different triggers. Search the forums for array level editor and you will probably find good ones. I really like (and use) this simple method by AndyH http://community.clickteam.com/threads/84185-Array-Level-Builder-for-Fusion-2-5-(variation-on-Shawn-s-example-of-the-same-name)

Thanks, zip2kx. I read somewhere on the forum that it is also possible to use INI for saving the levels. Is there any pros/cons of using arrays over INI?

ini can more easily be edited externally (yes i know there are ways to lock it in) and they dont hold the same amount of complicated data (atleast not as smoothly). Arrays aren't really that complicated, just think of them as a excel sheet with a X/Y axis and the Z being different sheets.
So you could have z1= level 1, z2= level 2 etc

x1=player valyes, y1=hp, y2=position
x2=level block positions

etc. Check the example i linked, it's really easy if you sit down one or two hours and try to understand it :)

I will definitely dive into arrays, thank you very much for your help, zip2kx.

Ok, I think that I've figured something out, but correct me guys if I am wrong. Instead of doing copy-paste of codes to each and every frame I can simply use Global Event Editor, right? Main character logic, enemies logic, etc. I can insert there cuz they are going to be active in every frame anyway.