Monogame - Issue with Loading between levels

Question

As I'm currently making a 2D game, I'm trying to make it possible for my character to load between levels but I'm having a bit of an issue. The first level that my player starts on is loaded in an array with no issue at all in the Game1 class like this:

secondLevel secondLev;  // instance for secondLevel class
Map map;                // instance for Map class


secondLev = new secondLevel(); // used in the Initialize() function

protected override void LoadContent()
{
    map.Generate(new int[,] {

    // 0 = no tile drawn
    // 3 = tile is drawn

    {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,},
    {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,},
    {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,},
    {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,},
    {3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,},
    {3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,},

    }, 57); // size 
}

So to be able to load the second level, I have attempted to make a new class called secondLevel that holds the new level array and simply loads the array in its Load() function, like so:

class secondLevel
{
    Map map;

        public void Initialize()
        {
           map = new Map();
        }

        public void Load()
        {
           map.Generate(new int[,] {

            // 0 = no tile drawn
            // 3 = tile is drawn

            {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,},
            {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,},
            {3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,},
            {3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,},
            {3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,},
            {3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,},

            }, 57); // size 
          }
       }

Now in my Game1 class, I have placed an if statement that checks if the player has collided with the spike that loads the next level, like so:

if (player.Bounds.Intersects(spike1.Bounds)) // if player intersects with spike
{
    secondLev.Load();
}

But when my player intersects with the spike, my game freezes and I get the error message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

What is my issue?

If I'm missing any additional code to my question that could help you fix this, please let me know!

Answer 1

Due to lack of context, it is hard to tell what exactly caused it. However, if the exception were to happen within the code that you presented, one of the following might be not be initialized : secondLev or secondLev.map.

if (player.Bounds.Intersects(spike1.Bounds)) // if player intersects with spike
{
    secondLev = new secondLevel();
    secondLev.Initialize();
    secondLev.Load();
}

If that doesn't solve the problem, you should look at the stacktrace for clue.