LÖVE

HELLO Love community!
I have started with a zombie survival themed top down shooter. My problem is that i have some basic movement, walking animations, and player functionality but i don't know how to continue with world building. I was going to start creating the shooting code or creating a scrolling camera but without knowing how my maps are going to be made i was worried it might not be compatible with whatever other things i code. My basic question is whether there is a program for creating maps with object qualities like whether or not something is solid for a free movement top down shooter. I saw the Tiled editor but i was afraid of messing with it because the only demos i have seen are with tile based movement for RPGs while my game will be free movement action game. Are there any tools that i could use to build my worlds?

My plans for the project if i find an appropriate tool for map building is for the player to narrowly escape from a hospital filled with zombies (Walking Dead- style) and then come to a small, walled-in town filled with people who need your help (RPG style). So it will have a questing system but with TDS shooting action.

If i cant find an appropriate tool then i had a weird idea of having the same story as above except the world roaming would be in final fantasy/pokemon - esque tiled movement but when you encounter an enemy you would enter a top down shooter arena to resolve combat but i dont know how well that would work.

Let me know what you guys think and i've included my work up until this point

Heya! I played around with your demo for a little while, and thought it was pretty cool! First off just a small suggestion of slowing the player, currently he is running faster than superman flies :p

http://gleed2d.codeplex.com/ - I did a little research and found this non-tile Generic 2d level builder. I think it would work perfectly for you!

Thanks so much for the response! The Love community never ceases to amaze with the quality of help that can be found! I'll start building some maps with that tool tomorrow and let you know how it goes . I just added some shooting functionality and a zombie with a randomly chosen sprite ( though you can't kill it yet ). I'll get on the first map, some atmosphere building music, and maybe a firing animation for the pistol tomorrow too!

on a second look using the tool might be more difficult than i previously thought since i don't know how to use an xml file to restrict movement for my character BUT i will try my best and we will see what happens! Maybe i ca gleen something from the tileloader hmmm...

I already compiled once here (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8565#p52770) a list of zombie games made in LOVE some of them very close to what you doing. Feel free to browse for inspiration and techniques (and obvious don't copy unless than permitted/granted of course).

About restrict the movement is not about do it in xml (one simple tag should do) but about do it in your game with proper boundary limits and collision routine (a circular one is advised for this kind of game).
I don't see necessity of Tiled in this kind of game but no problem of a Tiled/XML solution. Otherwise you can always do a quick basic editor that help you create maps in your game.

EDITED: about my website that you mentioned in other thread. When I feel that my games, code, libs whatever are ready I be glad make my site more active. Use RSS for keep in touch

It's looking good I like the shooting, it is nicely done! The player could be a tad bit faster now Maybe something like pressing shift well cause him to run? Later down the road you could add timers to limit the amount of time the player could sprint. Sorry about the Editor, I didn't really know much about it I just googled what you were looking for and found that!