Platform Game Design

JakeMor

I'm in the middle of an awesome platform styled game. I was wondering how people go about doing the artwork - I have all of my actors layer out as I wish but theres no art attached to them. I would like to make one huge overlay for each level but how would I now where to put all the images (floor walls - to line up with the generic actors i have in place)? I don't want to make individual actors because it would be a waste of ram - its a big game as it is.

Any experienced platform game makers out there wanna help?

bazookaBen

what's wrong with putting single image tiles into individual actors? as long as they're neutral, fixed and don't have physics incorporated, i don't think it'll be a memory hog. Sous chefs feel free to comment.

Let's say you paint the entire platformer level (2048x512) with 1000 wall actors . Each wall actor has an image in it (to resemble floors,walls,ceilings,etc). Wall actors have fixed rotations, don't move and are just there for cosmetics.

Add a player actor
Add 10 enemy actors

Add a collision layer that has about 20-30 collision actors of different sizes, with friction, density, etc. These actors will be placed over your platforms, but invisible at launch of game. Gives you the illusion that player is interacting with the wall actors, but in fact is colliding with your collision actors.

Will there be a memory hog? What do you guys think?

bazookaBen

another way of doing a non-interactive background, is to design it in photoshop/gimp as a 2048x768 image, place it in GS and then place the collision actors on it.

but i've been reading some threads on laggy performance when the image size is more than 1024x1024. Can anyone comment, on which way is more efficient?

JakeMor

Hey,
The first comment you posted is how I set it up and it works great thanks you

JakeMor

Check the alpha preview out!
http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/38927/rascal-sneak-peek-game-preview-100-hrs-of-work#Item_13

MotherHoose

Good that you have all your lay-out and code working!

Preview and take a screenshot … little camera icon … and in the drop-down that appears
Save… gameNameTP and open in your graphics program

creating your BG:
-add new transparent layer to that image …
-move down that transparent layer in layerOrder
-bucket-fill the moving/active actors' areas with black
-magic wand to cut; or color-select to delete; or erase the black
-(good idea to duplicate the imageLayer)
-then draw your background objects there … you'll know the size and areas you have to fill-in

creating your activeActors:
-open the screenshot in a new window

for each actor:
-add new transparent layer … draw an image in the area over an actor's area in the screenshot
-then you can see the size and relationship to other elements of the scene

when everything looks good …
-duplicate the file (image with all layers)
-delete the unneeded actors' layers and bg layer
-crop the actor and save

*Repeat for each activeActor

import those images into yourProject
and replace actors' images

@};- MH