def _map_to_list(game_map):
 list_map = game_map.split('\n')
 return [(character.decode('UTF-8') if isinstance(character, basestring) else character) for character in list_map]

def _map_to_list ( game_map ) : list_map = game_map . split ( '\n' ) return [ ( character . decode ( 'UTF-8' ) if isinstance ( character , basestring ) else character ) for character in list_map ]
splits multi line map string into list of rows .