In just about every game you see with an editor function, this functionality is contained in a separate area. There's a button labeled "Editor" which you click to enter another room (or sometimes another program) and edit stages. Actually playing your new stage typically involves a playtest button and a bit of load time - not good for seamless editing.

Which is why it is a bit confusing to me that so few games implement true ingame editing - which is to say, a tool accessible from within the game itself that allows you to add new objects to the world at will - sort of like Halo 3's Forge. The possibilities are extensive - if a gap in a platform game is too hard to jump, just plop in a block and rectify the situation. If an area is too easy, it's a matter of a moment to add in a few extra enemies. You can play the game as you create it - and have fun the whole way.

Of course, this method of game construction conflicts with Game Maker's default room-based methodology - to use it requires an external level format/loader. But I believe the advantages to such a method - greatly-decreased development times, hands-on programming, and easy level design - vastly outweigh the costs of adding a new system to your game.

Which means Eldenvald is going to use this method, and possibly DoC as well.

In other news, DoC now successfully loads editor-based files into the game itself. I am continuing to work on editor functionality, especially getting buildings represented properly.

In games: Dwarf Fortress! It's truly amazing how much Toady has managed to put into this little (huge) jewel.

->Gamer3d: Have you got Portal yet?

Odd thing: I found an undocumented GM function today. Typing object_name(object id) will give you a string representing the name of that object or instance. Useful if you keep track of objects in variables or by ID.