AuthorTopic: Platform game stairs help  (Read 3226 times)

Offline Vercingetorix

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Platform game stairs help

on: October 02, 2009, 09:03:30 am
Hi, i was wondering if anyone would be able to offer any help, opinions etc in a dilemma I'm trying to figure out at the moment.
You see i'm planning to make a Castlevania inspired patform game and most of the castlevania games take a directly side on view, i can think of only two games off of my head that aren't mostly straight on side view - those being Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania Dracula X for the snes. However i really like how the 2 snes games platforms are not directly side on because it feels like the player is more inside the terrain rather than sitting on top of it.

As a very basic example this is sorta the kind of platforms i'm going for

 as opposed to this


I wanted the level design to be similar to Castlevania SOTN but  I'm having some difficulty creating stair shaped slopes that are suited to this kind of platform view without it throwing things off considerably, and making the overall view look awkward or the platforms strange.

so i was wondering if anyone has any ideas or could offer some advice as to how i could approach making levels with stairs like this - even if you know of some games that might be close to what i'm after that i can look at it would be a graet help.
Or perphaps i should drop the stairs idea completely? i've seen quite a few castle themed levels in other games that either have no slopes at all or just use ramps instead
any help would be much appreciated. 
Thanks
« Last Edit: October 02, 2009, 09:07:04 am by Vercingetorix »

Offline PypeBros

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Re: Platform game stairs help

Reply #1 on: October 02, 2009, 09:29:58 am
i'm unsure to understand what seems so difficult for stairs with that perspective. Do you have examples of your failures ?

Offline setz

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Re: Platform game stairs help

Reply #2 on: October 02, 2009, 09:33:21 am
The game i most closely associate with that viewpoint (and therefore I'm pretty surprised you haven't used it for reference already) is Castlevania: Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis. There are some screenshots here, including stairs. I'd suggest playing through the game yourself and taking screenshots of things you might feel useful to reference later.

Offline Vercingetorix

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Re: Platform game stairs help

Reply #3 on: October 02, 2009, 01:24:01 pm
Heh, for some reason i always seem to forget about the Castlevania game for the genesis

Well here are some examples - i'm not sure they're quite failures it's just that if you placed one above the other leaving space for a character to walk (which might be done if you had a tower level where the player progresses upwards) then the perspective seems to get quite awkward - atleast thats the impression i get, although i may just be being picky. If they are only used for  the very bottom ground of a level then they could maybe work alright i think. perphaps the sort of level design i'm thinking of doesn't really work very well with this sort of view, i may yet decide to try going for a full side view instead i suppose.







Offline roxm

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Re: Platform game stairs help

Reply #4 on: October 02, 2009, 02:16:39 pm
Well, this red set is totally off, because you can see both sides of the stairs:



This blue set is promising:



But you might want to keep both sides of the stairs at the same angle.  On the ascending stairs you can show the vertical faces, and keep the descending stairs the way they are now.