Beginning of another SGDK2 Graphics set [Lost Garden]

[durnurd]

I happened to find a link to this set of graphics (about a day after BlueMonk happened to find it...) and thought it would show off overlapping tiles quite nicely, so I imported some of the graphics into SGDK2 to see what it looked like.  So far, it looks very nice.  I will continue to work on importing more of the graphics in my spare time.

[Jam0864]

looks cool =D

[Tanja]

yeah, looks amazing

[bluemonkmn]

Okayokay...
1) How do you always happen to visit Gamehippo one day after I do?  (Or do you always visit and just pay attention when I post?)
2) You did what I was in the process of doing and finished first!  D'oh...
3) You did what I was in the process of doing and finished for me!  Woohoo!

Okay, finished might be an exaggeration, but you certainly got farther than I did.  Did you figure out what name(s) to put in the credits?

Now I guess that means I have to attend to the items on your list.

Edit: You also did a better job that I would have.  How did you do the shadows (I was going to leave those out)?  They seemed to have purple and stuff in them, which I didn't understand.

Edit2: Durnurd, did you realize the guy who made these graphics also worked on Tyrian?  He has some other cool unused graphics sets (that remind me of Tyrian) out there in his archive too.

[durnurd]

1) That seriously was totally by accident.
2) I thought you might be already working on them.
3) heheh
Edit: Photoshop, an alpha layer, and flood fill.  I think the purple corresponds to how the colors were stored and how that relates to the bit-shifting to achieve transparency.  I didn't use that though.
Edit2: They looked like a similar style.  That would explain it.  Very nice stuff.

My own addendum: I've got the indoor walls tileset also done now.  I'll work on the benches and stuff now probably.

[Jam0864]

wow.... lolz.... =D

[Tanja]

that guy's blog is very cool, good stuff about game design

[durnurd]

A few more screenshots:

[SmartBoy16]

WOW!

[durnurd]

In the middle of doing shadows.  Implemented the door as a sprite that opens.

[bluemonkmn]

How do the building/house/town tiles work?  They're a different size than the other tiles, right?  Can you have them on the same layer?  Did you split them up?  Because of the extreme height, do you have to build it in pieces, or did you just make really tall tiles?

Do you have any ideas on how to transition from outdoors to indoors?  Think it'll be possible to stay on the same part of the map and remove the exterior when the player enters like some games do?  Or should the player be transported to the interior implemented elsewhere?

When I think about it, maybe the exteriors should be on a layer of their own (with their own tile size) so they can be removed.  Maybe each exterior should be on its own layer so it can be hidden independent of the exteriors for other buildings.

Just a bunch of ideas; I don't know what will work best.

How do the shadows work?  Are they part of the same tile with the rest of the graphic that produced the shadow?

[SmartBoy16]

  ive gotta start getting a new computer!

Do you have any ideas on how to transition from outdoors to indoors?  Think it'll be possible to stay on the same part of the map and remove the exterior when the player enters like some games do?  Or should the player be transported to the interior implemented elsewhere?

in the paper mario series (Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door) whenever you enter a small building or room, the walls move out of the way so you are able to see inside. also in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, it switches to a different map when you enter buildings, some i think are repeats with different sprites and certain tiles changed. i guess it would work either way.

the graphics almost look realistic, that's cool!

[durnurd]

The shadows are part of the same tiles, yes.

The tiles are much larger in this case, yes.  Some are twice as large in both directions.  Some are twice as wide and three times as tall.  Building in pieces is still necessary so you can get houses connected in different ways (rather than just rectangles) as seen in the image, but the whole bottom is in three pieces, Left, Center, and Right, as is the middle and top.

I have since moved different groups of images to their own tilesets, so it's not possible to have this on the same layer as trees and rocks, or on the same layer as fences (on their own layer).  This is one of the reasons I wanted the ability to use solidity information from several different layers all at once.

I never thought of the ability to have the insides on the same map as the outsides.  I was always imagining the inside on its own map like in most older RPGs (thinking Final Fantasy here).

Gotta go to class now.  Talk more later.

[bluemonkmn]

The shadows are part of the same tiles, yes.

The tiles are much larger in this case, yes.  Some are twice as large in both directions.  Some are twice as wide and three times as tall.  Building in pieces is still necessary so you can get houses connected in different ways (rather than just rectangles) as seen in the image, but the whole bottom is in three pieces, Left, Center, and Right, as is the middle and top.

Maybe I should just wait and see, but I'm still not entirely clear on which 2 of 3 dimensions we're dealing with.  Do you have to build the house by pieces in all 3 dimensions?  I understand building it piece by piece from left to right, and I understand building it piece by piece from front to back, but I would have hoped that each tile placed could be responsible for the entire height of the house.  So you only need 3 tiles to build the smallest front, then 3 more to build the roof behind the front, and 3 more to build the back of the roof (or maybe you need more than 3 rows, but the point is each tile represents an entire column above that space of ground -- is that possible here?)

I have since moved different groups of images to their own tilesets, so it's not possible to have this on the same layer as trees and rocks, or on the same layer as fences (on their own layer).  This is one of the reasons I wanted the ability to use solidity information from several different layers all at once.

I'm hoping that the house can be on a layer that kind of covers up the interior of the house, which will be on the player's layer and define the actual solidity.  And hopefully there's some other way to merge the solidity into the player's layer... is it necessary to have fences and rocks on separate layers from other walls?  Hm... I wonder if ReactToSolid could simply be modified to accept a layer parameter, assuming the layer scrolls at the same rate.  Then ReactToSolid could be called once for each layer.

[durnurd]

It's not necessary to have them on different layers, no, but I would like to use the same fences in different settings, and rather than having to redefine the tiles for each tileset they are in (and their solidity) I'd like to use the same tiles.

Your assumption about building the house is correct.  I must have been needlessly wordy when explaining it.  I just say bottom middle and top because the tiles in the back show the top of the roof and the tiles at the front show the bottom of the ground floor.  Each tile does indeed count for the entire height.