AuthorTopic: GR#098 - iPhone Sideview Platformer + Animations  (Read 37199 times)

Offline TheMonsterAtlas

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Re: iPhone Platformer + Animations

Reply #40 on: January 29, 2012, 12:03:18 am
Since you aim at a iPhone game now, you may want to get a look at the frogatto story on controls placement on the iPhone screen.
Yes, this is what I was going to bring up next. A vast majority of games on the market, at least what I've played on my Android is that the button area is so small, the button icons are big but when you click on them slightly to the side it doesn't respond. So encompassing a larger area than the icon is probably the most beneficial thing that can be done, just keep the GUI spread out enough that they wont hit the wrong button, but not far enough so that it becomes difficult to play.

Offline Dusty

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Re: iPhone Platformer + Animations

Reply #41 on: January 29, 2012, 12:12:32 am
I've often thought about ways to emulate a D-pad with touch screens; instead of just placing arrow buttons... trying to create code that attempts to predict what you're trying to do in a smart manner.

For example when using a dpad people tend to hover their thumb in the center and waggle it left and right(when say, playing a platformer) instead of actually moving their thumb over to the left or right and pressing. Also, other sort of mechanics such as trying to predict whether the player is finding their "center" with their thumb(for said waggling) and adjusting the center of the dpad there, or to consider whether it was a quick tap(as would happen when running right and suddenly trying to move left).

Sadly I have no manner of which to code and test these things as I only know Java, and have no iTouch or Android phone :/

Offline Kasumi

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Re: iPhone Platformer + Animations

Reply #42 on: January 29, 2012, 02:01:41 am
Super Mario 64 DS has a moveable joystick.

Touch the screen. Wherever you touched is the center. If you move the stylus far away enough from the center that you've passed the max value, it moves the whole joystick to keep up.

In this way it's very easy to switch directions without constantly thinking about where exactly the joystick's active area ends. Because it basically never ends, it just moves the joystick and that is the new active area. As well, it's easy to center. Just stop touching, and touch again and the joystick is centered.
I make actual NES games. Thus, I'm the unofficial forum dealer of too much information about the NES

Offline PypeBros

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Re: iPhone Platformer + Animations

Reply #43 on: January 30, 2012, 09:10:27 am
Touch the screen. Wherever you touched is the center. If you move the stylus far away enough from the center that you've passed the max value, it moves the whole joystick to keep up.

That could be applied here; good idea. I note however that M64DS had analogous control. It could need some tweaking before you've got the deisred responsivity for a beat'm'all / hack'n'slash / platforming gameplay.

Offline Kasumi

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Re: iPhone Platformer + Animations

Reply #44 on: January 30, 2012, 03:17:42 pm
There would be some tweaking, yes. For a game that handles d-pad diagonals like a fighting game, the method would need to get smart with how it shifts the active area or you might end up doing say... diagonal up and right when you've only moved straight up.

But it's nearly as simple as making the distance between the max values very small. It's even easy to let the player customize this distance with options. You can then slide left when you're going right just as you would on a dpad, and even if you overshoot by a mile you'd still only need to slide a short distance to move back to the right.

I'll say that while I absolutely hate touch screen controls, I have no doubts at all this method could work quite well (and probably better than it does for analog controls) for d-pad controls and wouldn't mind it myself unless I was playing something like this. Until touch screens can give tactile feedback buttons are better for any game that's goal is responsiveness like the linked game, though. I'd say the movement controls aren't even the problem, because of how the buttons always work. You can press two at once, and usually the game only cares about one. It's the other buttons. When I play Tetris Grandmaster, I can feel which one is rotate right and rotate left and handle the speed. Throw a third button like hold piece and this method no longer works because I have to at least remember where one button is. Same with a game that requires you to hold a shoot button while you must jump sometimes like Gunstar Heroes. Even worse is a game like contra where you PRESS a shoot button and must jump. But now I am so far off topic, that I will stop my rant.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2012, 03:24:16 pm by Kasumi »
I make actual NES games. Thus, I'm the unofficial forum dealer of too much information about the NES

Offline slym

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Re: iPhone Platformer + Animations

Reply #45 on: March 17, 2012, 06:27:29 pm
Changing up the style a bit. I wanted to use more bold colors. Here's a mockup with the modified grass tiles and new character!



[edit] btw: does anyone know how to fix photoshops color saving settings. (gamma?) The colors appear differently in the image files as they do in photoshop.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2012, 06:44:36 pm by slym »

Offline infinitegames

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Re: GBA Platformer + Animations

Reply #46 on: March 17, 2012, 09:56:11 pm




I really like this edit. Not only does it improve the viewability of the character (although putting him on top of the house instead of in a position where it would automatically be hard to see him is kind of cheating), it still looks really good

Offline infinitegames

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Re: GBA Platformer + Animations

Reply #47 on: March 17, 2012, 10:05:57 pm

Idle animation?



This isn't subtle enough. It makes it look like it's extremely windy. I'd also say you have this problem on the jump animation... it makes him look like he's flying in an anime show at a thousand miles an hour.



And for your GUI. I really, really don't like it. It's one thing to have contrast, but the pink doesn't fit in AT ALL. I think using a saturated blue might work better, especially if you decrease the saturation of the background graphics. The health and stamina things both bother me, looking far too out of place, hard to read, and they don't look good next to each other. I see what you were trying to do, making stamina less important than health, but I don't think it's working. It should at least be equal in length to the health bar, and since it's so much smaller, it's hard to read the word "Stamina"

Offline slym

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Re: iPhone Platformer + Animations

Reply #48 on: March 17, 2012, 10:28:33 pm
@Infinitegames thanks for the critique. The UI that is shown on there is a ui map, it isn't the actual interface. A seperate idle animation will be made, but how do you think it would fare in an environment that is actually windy? And yeah the jump animation is kinda crazy. I'm not sure how the movements work on a jump yet.

Tiles Update

« Last Edit: March 18, 2012, 01:49:51 am by slym »

Offline infinitegames

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Re: iPhone Platformer + Animations

Reply #49 on: March 18, 2012, 03:47:30 pm
@Infinitegames thanks for the critique. The UI that is shown on there is a ui map, it isn't the actual interface. A seperate idle animation will be made, but how do you think it would fare in an environment that is actually windy?

I think it'd look great. It would definitely show the wind