Level Format...

hi all, im at a very important stage in my game in which the level type etc... will all be set in stone, i was wondering what people thought was the best format.

as it is now i have a file like this
sizex,sizey
texturename
1 0 0 0 0 1 2 5 2 -1
1 1 1 -5 1 1 1 1 1 -1
etc...

my question is: should i use just a mesh to do my levels or should i do block like it is now

here is my game, please tell me if you think that it would ruin it to make it mesh levels, it would look much nicer but it would also be much more traditional :)

http://littleboy550.tripod.com/platformer.zip

Please help me, i really need to start writing my level editor + game code

The link doesn't work.

"This file is hosted by Tripod, a Lycos®Network Site, and is not available for download. Please check out Tripod's Help system for more information about Remote Loading and our Remote Loading policy."

sorry bout that, it worked for me but here it is
http://littleboy550.tripod.com/

then click on My Game

tell me if that works, i hope so

thanx

For such simple level design the blocks work fine. I would go to the effort of merging everything together and removing unnecessary polygons (sides of blocks which are aligned) however in order to keep the surface count down and to eliminate the cracks which appear between blocks. Just using a mesh would work too but would probably be slower to load.

If you want to do anything more complex with the level design you will almost certainly need to switch to modeling your level externally and loading it in as a mesh.

ok, do you think that i should make levels more complex than that, im leaning very much towards yes

Will you be including the level editor tool with the game when you release it ?

If yes, then sticking with blocks seems sensible - and would probably give your game some extra appeal.

I liked it so far, even if I couldn't actually get past the second 'redeye' :-(