Labyrinth Z

[EgonOlsen]

My level editor is Notepad. But i guess that doesn't work for all kinds of games...

[fireside]

I've never tried anything like that.  Do you just write down the sizes of things or what?

[EgonOlsen]

No, i'm using a 2D ASCII-representation of my level and expand it to 3d when loading it.

But i guess it doesn't fit very well in your case, because you have different height levels.

[fireside]

Can you post a little example of it?  I'd like to see that.

[EgonOlsen]

Sure. It looks like this: http://www.jpct.net/download/tmp/level1.map

[fireside]

It's small.  Very efficient.  I may think toward moving into some kind of direction like that eventually, when I actually know where I'm going with the game.  It's kind of trial and error right now.  I think one interesting thing a person could do is come up with a set of rules and do a random generated level.  It would have to start with a grid design, of course, and that might be tough if I change height much. 

[paulscode]

No, i'm using a 2D ASCII-representation of my level and expand it to 3d when loading it.

But i guess it doesn't fit very well in your case, because you have different height levels.

You could do it with two seperate ASCII files (the second being a "height map").  I would create the main map first, then make a copy of it to work with as a template for your height map.  I did something similar to this in a 2D game I wrote which used a basic grid map with 3 height levels per square.  In that case, I used 3 ASCII files (since I was creating layer maps, not height maps), but something similar might work for you.

--EDIT-- BTW, I haven't actually run your game yet, so disregard if my suggestion was irrelevant

[fireside]

The second level is up for labyrinth Z.  It introduces a switch and an unlevel jump.

[fireside]

I added a jump animation, but it's only on level 2 so far.

[EgonOlsen]

I've tried level 2 on my EEEPC's default Linux installation. It had some problems with the keys...they simply didn't work. Apart from that, it worked fine and fast enough on this 630Mhz Celeron single core machine. I'm still having problems to determine when to jump, but i have no idea on how to improve this either. Mind you if i add Labyrinth Z to the "Projects" page?

[fireside]

Mind you if i add Labyrinth Z to the "Projects" page?

No, that'd be great.  I don't know what to say about the keys.  I used vk whatever it is so it's java's fault,then.  Eee pc is pretty new so maybe they will work it out in the future.  The jumping just takes practice.  I made the small blocks slightly larger.  I can go out and come back a fair amount of times, but sometimes I don't make it, so it's about right for me.  I find I need to look at the whole animation, not just the tail, to do it.

[EgonOlsen]

The tail is ok for me as an indicator for comparing jump widths. It's just that, when trying it first for a platform, i have no feeling which width is required to land safely. I have that feeling when throwing grenades in a shooter but not here. Maybe a kind of color schema would work or something that gives additional depth information like trees or bushes on the platforms that don't change its size. That would make it easier to tell if a platform is far away and larger or near by and small.

[fireside]

That would make it easier to tell if a platform is far away and larger or near by and small.

The whole idea there, is that all the platforms are exactly the same thickness, but differ in size.  I'm not sure they really are exactly the same right now because I'm still working things out, but that's the intention.   Since you can always see the edge of a platform, eventually your eye will become trained to it.  Starting out, you really have to do the trial and error, thing.  There's no way around that, but it's part of the fun of it all for me.  There's really no punishment for failure aside from you have to go back to the start after the third miss.  It keeps track of you're last jump point so you can make adjustment.  The levels start out fairly easy, if you've played the 1st one recently, and then will advance.  This one is probably about there aside from there will be more different height jumps.   After that, I plan to do switch type puzzles with moving platforms and whatnot with some pretty hard jumps once in a while.  There are so many games where the character just builds up experience, but it's fake.  I like games where I actually get better at doing things.

[EgonOlsen]

No, that'd be great.

Fine, i've added it to the projects page.

[fireside]

Great thanks.  I need all the publicity I can get.   I've gotten a few compliments about it.  I need more levels.  Working on a few more game elements to add to make it more interesting.