Level file

A level is a JSON file. Level Lab's Download writes it, and the games load it exactly as it is. Every level that ships with Ember and Delve is one of these files.

An example

{
  "version": 2,
  "type": "level",
  "game": "ember",
  "name": "First light",
  "width": 64,
  "height": 17,
  "layers": [
    { "name": "ground", "tiles": [0, 0, 1, 1] },
    { "name": "decor", "tiles": [0, 6, 0, 0] }
  ],
  "entities": [
    { "type": "spawn", "x": 2, "y": 12 },
    { "type": "brazier", "x": 30, "y": 11 },
    { "type": "goal", "x": 60, "y": 11 }
  ],
  "links": []
}

The example's tile lists are cut short. A real file has one number for every tile of the map.

Fields

Level Lab writes one row of tiles per line, so a level reads as a map in a diff.

Versions

• Version 2 added id, props and links. No thing in Ember or Delve takes settings or links yet; the worlds still to come bring the first (plates and gates, moving platforms).
• Version 1 files are read as version 2 with none of them, so every level made before still plays. Level Lab saves as version 2.

Playable or not

A file can be valid without being ready to play. Level Lab saves drafts too. A game only offers a level when:

• every tile on a layer belongs on that layer;
• each thing that a level needs (a start and a goal) is there, and no more of each than allowed;
• no thing is of an unknown type, or off the map;
• every setting is one that kind of thing takes, in its range, and every link joins things that can be linked.

Level Lab's Ready to play? lists any of these in words.

Ember's tiles and things

Delve's tiles and things