Creating the level from a file on a 2D scroller

Development World Creation
1

I’m a novice with UE4 but I’ve been programming for 13 years and have done a few games during that time.

I’m thinking of making a 2D scroller with plenty of fine tuned levels.

The nature of the game requires the blocks to be placed in very specific places (for example place the block near enough so the jump can be made but far enough that it’s going to be really difficult).

I don’t want to end up trying to place them by hand and make hundreds of trials and errors. For this reason I’m thinking of creating the level from a file that I will make programmatically with another programming language.

Bonus question:

  1. When creating a 2D scroller where the player is only able to control jumping / punching etc. but not sideways movement as the character moves by itself; is it better to just give the character auto run or move the map and have the character stay still (+ moving animation)?

  2. How can I add blocks to the game while playing? For example if you get a certain bonus some coins will spawn randomly. Is this something I should do with C++ or blueprints?