Scrolling Game Development Kit Forum

Can you pleeeease tell me how to do this?
I hate my map editing script right now. It just gets in the way. I'd assume all the enemies that you place have to be inert/follow flat floor or something, right?

This will not get you away from the map editor, hopefully it will get you away from the everything BUT the map editor (solidity is already defined, tilematching done, sprites are dynamic so no need to edit, all special functions relating to the player sprites functions are automatically copied to all maps)
You want to know how to do this for one of your projects?  Basically you have to script it in.

For instance, I want to have a designer (me or someone else) be able to create a new map, place the tiles, place the sprites (by placeing tiles on an "enemy sprite layer")  add in a playersprite and any special functions (optional), add in item pickups (just like placing tiles again on a "item" layer) then all you would have to do is make some transport special functions to get to and from the new map and you are done.  Also, I could make it even easier by having a map template that is just copied whenever a new map is created.  Then it would be: add tiles, done.

In order to do this, my script is constantly scanning the boarders of the screen looking for tiles on the "enemy sprite layer" that are not blank, if it finds one, it uses script to add the appropriate enemy/NPC sprite and delete the tile.  The enemy sprite is then controled by script depending on what enemy it is.  If the player runs away so the enemy sprite is off the screen, the script turns him into a tile again. (this is to save on system resources so their aren't 50+ sprites running around and getting tested for collisions)

Also, when the map first loads, the script creates the correct player sprite (so the content creator doesn't have o worry about designing one) or edits the current player sprite to be the correct one.  All the appropriate special functions for the player sprite are copied to new maps as well (so player still shoots, gets hit, dies, etc)


If you wanted to do something similar for you game, it would definately require a lot of custom code to fit your particular genre/game.  I think I have posted said project once before on these forums but all the code is in VB 6.0 not a .vbs file.  Here it is again if you want to see what I'm talking about, just run the exe.

Dynamic Content Adventure Game Alpha

I'll admit, I looked at the izilla and thought it was real.  (you know, those elitist mac people who are also elitist about audio and think if its not on vinyl, it sucks.  I could see that crowd buy it)  once I saw the other 2 i started scratching my head.  my first hint was that they were 400 watts and I think usb is limited to like less than 10, plus most computer power supplies couldn't even provide that, then I started noticing all the other funny stuff like "don't sue" on the microwave extention cords. hehe

I very much agree that Userdata is the best and easiest place to store enemy hp.

If you want a more fancy display for their hp bar, like above their heads, or a display of the most recent enemy that has attacked you or has been attacked, i know this is very possible in the sgdk environment.

Actually, i implemented the latter in this very rough and unfinished project here:
LINK
Run the .EXE in the code folder.
the script is not in normal script, it is a compiled com object, but the source is included.  it probably won't be very helpful if you don't have VB 6.0, but the .bas files where the source is located are readable with a text editor. 


If you want a fancy display like that you have to get a little more complicated.  You have to have a MaxHP and a currentHP for each monster.  You then have to edit inventory and how they are displayed every time the monster losses hp (usually in the onspritecollide event).


If you have any question, or are totally confused,  I can pull the correct snippets of code from the source and post them.  (providing I have sufficient motivation tomorrow )  Should be enough to get you started.

Some products I think you guys should all buy.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/wec.shtml?cpg=28T
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/usbtanner.shtml?cpg=28T
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/izilla.shtml?cpg=28T


Happy 4/1/06

I like all 2d games   well almost all.

My favorites are pretty close to durnurds, FF, Super Metroid.  Actually I just started playing through super metroid again last week sometime.  STill fun eventhough I've probably played through it 8 or so times.

Hopefully my athlon xp 2100 with a radeon 9600 can handle it
Ill have to use my laptop if my desktop can't handle it.


I can't decide whether I want this game or Galactic Civ 2, since I probably won't have time to play both.  Really, I shouldn't get either so I have more time to work on making games.

Thats good news.

I remember having some problems with functions not firing properly when in a sequence with a save/load function.  They could have been unrelated, but I just assumed that load was haulting all functions.  I suppose I could do the testing since I already have a project all setup for it, wouldn't take me long.

i am working on a project that uses the load function on death, but i want the player to keep the items he has collected, so I have the load function raise an event that takes all the collected items off the map and adds them to the player's inventory.  Kind of a treasure hunting game, and I don't want to annoy the player by making him recollect every life.

My goal was to make the simplest game possible, but once again "feature creep" has got me writing a bloated script file and scores of special functions.