intro guide to making 2d platformers


timothee

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I just stumbled across this article, which I thought was quite a nice intro to the topic (with nice retro-game examples):


http://higherorderfu...2d-platformers/

Having previously been disappointed by the information available on the topic, this is my attempt at categorizing different ways to implement 2D platform games, list their strengths and weaknesses, and discuss some implementation details.
 
This looks very interesting indeed, thanks for the link - will give it a read later.


While I am already posting, here is another guide I like to mention - it's not as in-depth as the one you posted, but interesting nevertheless: Programming M.C. Kids « games.greggman.com
 
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I always find the colour (bitmap) based method not only easiest to understand but also easiest to implement for a small team.


I've used it ever since the ZX spectrum.
 
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Yeah, the bitmap method works great .. as long as you don't hard-code the values all throughout the code, grr .. ;)
 
I remember doing a bitmap version, however, I ran into a really weird bug. If you're screen colour resolution was too low, and you were looking for certain colours not available in that range, you'd always "miss". I had a werewolf falling down the screen. It wouldn't land.


That said, if you pick sensible options, it's probably not a big deal :)
 
I remember doing a bitmap version, however, I ran into a really weird bug. If you're screen colour resolution was too low, and you were looking for certain colours not available in that range, you'd always "miss". I had a werewolf falling down the screen. It wouldn't land.


That said, if you pick sensible options, it's probably not a big deal :)

In that situation you need to check every pixel, so if he is falling at +=8, then you need to check all 8 pixels he is going though in the loop.


If your platforms are all 2 or 3 pixels high at least, then you obviously only need to check at intervals of 3.


After it's found in that instance you might want to use a -- until you don't find land to get him on it pixel perfect.
 
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In that situation you need to check every pixel, so if he is falling at +=8, then you need to check all 8 pixels he is going though in the loop.
It was definately to do with the colour I used, because it ran fine on any systems running 24 or 32 bit colours; was just when you switched it down to 16 bit.
 
Yeah, I did pick a really stupid colour. I'm not even sure why. I fixed it after a saw the effect, but because I primarily ran it on a 32bit colour screen, I'd never noticed it before :)
 
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