Objectives. In this thesis I have, together with game developer and publisher Paradox Interactive, designed and implemented a level editor tool for use in their game Magicka 2. With this tool users can create, edit and share custom Challenge levels in the game. I have also done a more in-depth scientific study of usability in such level editor tools, especially pertaining to the disparity between various controller input schemes and platforms. Methods. I have performed a literary study of articles and books relevant to the field of game design, user interface design, general usability, controller input schemes and any other topic I found relevant. I have paired this with a study of similar level editor tools and their user interfaces and features in other console and PC games. This knowledge, together with feedback from both expert and non-expert testing, has then been analyzed and used to design and implement both the user interface and the features of the level editor. Results. Results of the literary study, level editor tool study and testing are presented together with their impact on the design of the user interface and all implemented features. The results of each iteration of the Challenge Creator are presented as well. Lastly, all results are analyzed and a set of design heuristics for creating a similar level editor tool is presented. Conclusions. I conclude that creating a platform independent level editor tool with high usability is very much possible, but that designing such a tool becomes far more difficult with each new platform and controller input scheme supported. I also conclude that additional features and further increase in tool complexity loses significant impact if the core user interface is lacking in usability. I also conclude that more time and testing will be needed to further empirically validate the design heuristics. Lastly, I conclude that additional iterations will be required upon the Challenge Creator to improve its usability in light of already known and established design flaws.

Detta arbete utvärderar huruvida Netbeans RCP är en lämplig plattform att bygga en kampanjredigerare för en spelmotor på. Arbetet är en del av ett större projekt där en spelmotor för Androidtelefoner skapas. Kampanjredigeraren ska kunna skapa och redigera filer i XML-format som spelmotorn använder. Den ska även kunna skapa nytt material till spelmotorn utifrån bilder. Allt detta ska fungera på flera operativsystem. Valet att använda en plattform istället för att implementera allt manuellt skedde för att påskynda utvecklingen och höja kvaliteten på programmet. Utöver Netbeans RCP gjordes en översiktsgranskning av andra plattformar och program för att se om dessa också hade kunnat vara lämpliga. Netbeans RCP visade sig vara lämpligt för att skapa kampanjredigeraren på då den tillhandahöll funktioner relevanta för kampanjredigeraren som gick att använda på flera operativsystem och programmets implementerade funktionalitet fungerade på alla testade operativsystem. / This paper examines if Netbeans RCP is a suitable platform for creating a campaign editor for a game engine on. The work is part of a larger project where a game engine for Android phones is being developed. The campaign editor must be able to modify and create files in an XML-format that the engine will then use. It must also be able to create new material for the engine from images. All of this functionality must be usable on multiple operating systems. The decision to use a platform rather than implement everything manually was made to speed up the development and increase the quality of the campaign editor. Other platforms and programs were also briefly examined to see if these could have been suitable as well. Netbeans RCP was determined to be a suitable platform for creating a campaign editor because it provides functions relevant to the campaign editor that are usable on multiple operating systems, and the functionality implemented in the program was usable on every tested operating system.