In Game Image Editor?

Mattcus

Hi I'm working on a game at the moment and was wondering if it was possible to have a really basic in game image editor like Paint where the player can create an image which is then used as a sprite in the game?

jamie_c

There have been tutorials and apps that let you draw lines on screen, change the colors of actors, etc. You wouldn't be able to edit digital pictures taken with a camera but you could probably make a really simple drawing program. Though you won't be able to save the drawings and png's or jpg's or anything.

Mattcus

Aww that's too bad Thanks anyway, hopefully it will possible in the future.

TheGabfather

@mattcus
I actually made something like that for an Android application once it's loads of fun for the player and will definitely be amazing if you can pull it off in Gamesalad.

Right now, a good alternative would be to not focus on drawing, but on customisation.

For example, for a Character you can have a minimum of 2 parts (head + body) to as much as maybe 4 parts (head + torso + legs + arms) and give the player the power to cycle through different pre-made combinations of each. You can even provide different cloth colours or skin tones.

For an Object like a Dresser, provide choices for material and the shade of that material.

Then all you gotta do is save the choices and load those in your in-game scenes when rendering the Character(s) or Object(s)!

Gamesalad is awesome how it is right now, but there are still quite a few limitations -- but with a little imagination and ingenuity you can still create fun and amazing games with it. Good luck!

Mattcus

I was thinking of doing a more limited form of customisation like what you're talking about if I couldn't find a way to have a Paint-like program in it, but how would it work? Would it be different actors put on top of each other (One for torso, one for legs) or would It be more like having every single possible combination, and according to what the player chooses is what image is displayed?

TheGabfather

I'm sure there's best practice concerning this, but I dunno what's the best so I'll just give an example of something that can work.

You can have one central, invisible Actor which can serve as your "hitbox" if you're doing something like a platformer and your character can collide with obstacles or enemies. So that Actor has your Physics Rules, your Collide Rules, etc.

Then you Constrain to your hitbox the physical body, which can be composed of multiple Actors. 1 for the head, 1 for the body, etc. These will usually also have Rules in them that execute Change Image or Animate.

I suppose you can work with Tables to store the different file name combinations of each body part, but if you're working with only a few I just like to use Indexes (Attributes) that you change (and Save and Load whenever appropriate) to match the player's choices.

Simple example for one Actor for everything:
So something like if the chosen Head is choice #09 and the chosen Body is choice #02, you concatenate them to form something like "09-02" (something like game.headCombo.."-"..game.bodyCombo). Then do a Change Attribute and change the Actor's Image to "09-02.png"

Mattcus

Thanks for your help, I'll try to implement something like this in my game as soon as I can.