Help with where to start my game idea

osakamitsu

Hello everyone. I have made small simple games. But now I am ready to start the big game idea that I have been wanting to start. Problem? Not sure with where I start this. Its not side scroller. That's what I have mainly made. Basically I am trying to do this (without giving too much of my game idea way):

I need a large square divided into smaller squares. The large square will be almost the size of the ipad screen. But these squares will have dead space in between them in the x and y direction. Meaning that this space will be covered up and no actors will use this space in between each of the squares. Now my so called enemies will appear within these squares and no where else. They will appear at random as well. But I am not quite to this point yet so currently I am asking how I would start to build such a game. Do I need to design some sort of grid layout for it? If I need to make some sort of grid how do I do that? I am really confused at my starting point.


OR

Would the best approach be to just create a GIANT square actor, put him on the furthest layer on the back. Then create separate actors for each smaller square as place holders to spawn the actors?


BUT

The reason I ask about he grid is because I was hoping to have control over the space in between the squares that the actors would spawn in. I am hoping to spawn actors on top of the so called dead space in between the main squares that will house the actors. The actors that will be spawned in the dead space wouldn't really be interactive and more for the look of the game.


Also

If I lay the grid out in squares. One on the x and y border of each until the entire larger square is filled... How would I get the enemy actors to spawn on top of certain squares that I designate as the only ones that are allowed to spawn actors onto. How would I get the game to only spawn one at a time or as many as I say it can spawn on these certain actors. Or am I thinking about this the wrong way??

I am essentially going for this:

http://i.imgur.com/MB1JUuP.jpg

1. Randomly spawned actors in the lighter squares at a controlled rate. Ability to control how many can be spawned at certain times.
2. Determine which ones of a group of maybe 3-5 different actors can be spawned and at which times or after the previous actors condition such as time has ended.
3. If a certain condition comes up, the surrounding 8 white squares + the main square in the middle will be permanently told not to have anything spawned on those squares. Example. A timer reaches 0 on the spawned actor, that actor and the square its sitting on as well as the 8 surrounding actors are turned off and no more actors can be spawned on those squares. Meaning the center square and the radius of squares around it. BUT at the same time that the timer reaches 0 they have an actor spawned on top of them to change their appearance but is no logger interactive. Purely to enhance the graphics.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

osakamitsu

Bump. Still need a solid answer...

tatiang

There isn't a built-in way to spawn actors within another actor's boundaries, so you're going to have to think about how you want to keep the spawned actors within the small squares. One idea is to have walls and since you have what look like grid lines, you could just make the spawned actors collide/bounce when hitting those lines. Another idea is to constrain by x/y position values and keep the actors within a certain radius of the center of the small square actor(s).

As for the spawning itself, you can have the small squares do the spawning based on whatever rules you like (random, etc.).

You've described quite a few different requirements. My suggestion is to pick one aspect of your game (e.g. spawning within a square) and focus on getting that working. Trial and error, then back to the forums for more advice, repeat as needed.

SolarPepperStudios

@osakamitsu I agree with @tatiang , the only way to really come up with the "engine" or logic for a game is through trial and error. I designed almost every single one of my games off of ideas that I stumbled upon with trial and error. Just come to the forums when needed and you should be good. Also about spawning actors only in the squares: You could use a table with all of the X & Y coordinates of the squares (the center of them) and then do something like this:
Spawn Actor Enemy

X Position: tablecellvalue(game.table,random(tablerowcount),1)
Y Position: tablecellvalue(game.table,random(tablerowcount),2)

The 1 in X is the 1st row of the table and that is your X coordinates row. The 2 in the Y is the 2nd row and that row has your Y coordinates row.

osakamitsu

Thanks guys! I have a question though. If I do the tables thing I am a little confused. I understand the column and row part but how do I get that to relate to an actors position. You say the center of the squares? So I enter the center pixel coordinate of the square into the x and y coordinates in the table? But if I am entering the center pixel then do I really need an actor as a place holder? I could then just choose to use the back ground pixels if I wanted right? If this is so what would be the point of using the square actors?

Then I could just use the expression editor to randomly spawn from the list of coordinates from the table then right?