Programming like level designing?

[Callan S.]

I was just thinking how it's funny - with level design, say for a platformer, you just click in a block and that's it - that's the extent of what you do to make content.

But with programming you aren't drawing on something premade and implementing it, you end up creating from whole cloth (well, there are libraries, but I'm talking about making something fun - libraries aren't a bunch of fun functions in themselves)

Programming is sort of adding new capabilities. Like you land on the block and your character springs up or such.

Wouldn't it be interesting if you could simply work in terms of new capabilities in the same way as level design - simply choosing as you will from a series of premade elements and plugging it in.

Though I guess the more premade you get, the less control you have over the final product. However, my point is it would be interesting to program in the same way you level design - more on the whim of what feels good to do, rather than clawing together something from whole cloth.

[hallsofvallhalla]

well a few engines like Unreal have visual scripting that work that way. Quite awesome to say the least.

[Cayle]

Well the down side of the „premade“ blocks approach is that you are limited to what was already thought of. Unreal3’s Kismet language is interesting, but it is strictly tied to the unreal platform. What you really want is a language that can be represented graphically, like kismet, but is expandable (so that you can use blocks created by others or brew your own) and is not tied to an individual engine.

I think I’ve heard of such a language somewhere.