platformer screen size
gooner
Lancaster, PAMember Posts: 135
Looking for a starting screen size for a platformer style game. I've been making games using one screen and wasn't sure what size would make a level too small/too big. If anyone has had success with a certain level size please share dimensions. Thanks.
Comments
Hi @romfordpele - My latest game is huge in terms of level size - I wouldn't say level / scene size is a huge factor, only in respect to how many actors / elements you fill it up with, and how many complex behaviours they have, custom colliders, etc - sometimes clever level design, and minimising actors for your level walls, platforms, etc can enable you to make huge levels.
Case in point - My Parcel Monkey sample game level scene is about 55,000 by 9,000 pixels:-
http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/95548/my-upcoming-parcel-monkey-simulator-game-is-in-beta-alpha-etc-any-ios-playtesters-d#latest
Hope that helps....
PS - it actually runs VERY smoothly - the YT video quality settings need to be HD / 60 to see it realistically, as it runs / as I captured it, or it looks waaaay jerky....
OK, thanks ... I'll make sure to keep actor numbers in mind!
Don't get me wrong! - if they're just collision / wall actors, with no real behaviours, then you can add tons of 'em...
Just perhaps rein in your instances of actors which have complex rules, lots of constrains, etc, but the upshot is that you can just keep going until you maybe hit that point...
I'm kind of getting there now, with Parcel Monkey, in terms of perhaps pushing it a little too much, after adding masses of actors, all with lots of logic, plus 3 layers of parallax -
the full width of that scene (and a half), music, etc...
If in doubt, maybe temporarily spawn the required amount of extra actors (make a temp actor up to do it), to see what the impact/frame rate will be, given the amount of them you suspect you might need for a level, BEFORE you hit that point and have to re-think your level design to optimise etc...