How should I refer to the next level?

manabreak

I'm working on a puzzle game where each level just takes you to the next one. Currently, my exit node script has a PackedScene reference, and when player reaches the exit, I'll just swap the scene with get_tree().change_scene_to(next_level). However, I noticed by accident that if a level points back to a previous level, the whole game fails right away due to a circular reference.

What would be a more suitable option to do this? I'm planning on adding alternate level routes, in which case the current solution would not work anyway.

TwistedTwigleg

I've used exported file paths to scene files using export (String, FILE) var next_level and then changing the scene using get_tree().change_scene(next_level), but it can still have the issue with circular references.

Depending on how your levels are setup and the naming used, you might be able to programmatically construct the file path and change levels that way. For example, if all of your levels are in a folder called levels and are named level_x, where x is the level number, you could do something like this:

export (int) var current_level_number = 0
func change_level():
	get_tree().change_scene("res://levels/level_" + String(current_level_number+1))

Though it has its own set of constraints and design limitations.

cybereality

I've used the string approach before. Seems more flexible to me. Also, if your levels are not linear numbers (for example, they have string names or jump out of order) then just set an export variable as a string and type it in on each level. This is more error prone (as you could misspell a level) but avoids needing a current level number, and also is easier to be dynamic (such as if actions you take in one level could lead to multiple other levels).

manabreak

Thanks a lot! I ended up doing the export(String, FILE, "*.tscn") var next_level and seems to work nicely.