2D Minecraft type game? PLEASE REPLY

Fejuko Games

I know that there is already a post about this but i just rewrote this because no-one answers the other one. I was planning to make a LEGIT Minecraft game just 2D. Like terraria (a little less advanced) or Pixel Junk. But the thing is that i do not think is possible is the world generator, i mean that is going to be really hard to make. So please reply if that is possible and a method.

TheGabfather

What do you mean by "LEGIT?"

KevinCross

In terms of speed issues GameSalad may not be the best tool for this, especially if you're thinking of spawning 1000's of squares/tiles to create a random world/scene. There's no quick way of spawning that many blocks. I'm only spawning about 80 blocks on the screen and there's a noticeable delay.

I have found that the loop behaviour works almost twice as fast as the timer behaviour for looping but it's still too slow and needs fixing by the GameSalad team

KevinCross

Just make sure you cover the whole screen when or a portion of it when you generate the grid because it looks rubbish watching blocks spawn 1 at a time.

You could fill the screen with a 100 or so blocks and recycle them as you move around, this means you'll be using the same 100 or so blocks. I've got an endless scrolling grid of a 100+ tiles, and when it scrolls it fakes the appearance of a grid of any size

Socks

In terms of speed issues GameSalad may not be the best tool for this, especially if you're thinking of spawning 1000's of squares/tiles to create a random world/scene. There's no quick way of spawning that many blocks. I'm only spawning about 80 blocks on the screen and there's a noticeable delay.

@KevinCross
Have you tried any of the fast loop methods, with these you can spawn hundreds of actors very very quickly, using one of these methods 80 actors would appear pretty much instantaneously.

KevinCross

Have you tried any of the fast loop methods, with these you can spawn hundreds of actors very very quickly, using one of these methods 80 actors would appear pretty much instantaneously.

I briefly looked at the fast loop post before and think I found quite a few dead links. I'll have another look.

I'd prefer not to add a load of code to create a quick loop though, and certainly don't want to go the route I had to take for my jewel templates which required a loop for each row as that makes it hard to change the size of the grid anytime. Especially not when GS said it would be a quick fix for them to do, and something I was hoping would be fixed in the last two versions of the nightly builds

Fejuko Games

Ok thanks guys i will try looping, then spawning. Allthough i tested looping before i already know it's better then spawning, either way i will just test spawning.
By "legit" i mean like not like that little Minecraft X time of thing
I do not mean to copy art and sounds.

Manto

I posted this to another thread too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=58QQw_KjP2k

It has 170 actors placed on the scene. World is generated to a table and the blocks load their values from it. Runs at 60 fps on iPad 2.

I think performance-wise it's better not to spawn any actors. Just recycle them. When the blocks go outside the screen move them to the other side and load new values from a table.