JSON Asset
Creator has officially supported the JSON file since 1.10. All the .json files under the project's assets folder are imported as cc.JsonAsset.
You can associate a JSON directly with a component:
    // Declaration
    npcList: {
        default: null,
        type: cc.JsonAsset,
    },
    // Read
    var json = this.npcList.json;
    loadNpc(json);
Or load dynamically:
    cc.resources.load('configs/npc', function (err, jsonAsset) {
        loadNpc(jsonAsset.json);
    });
