2D Game Making

Posted By: Jojanzing

2D Game Making - 05/29/06 16:43

This may sound like a dumb question, but where is the option to make 2D games? I want to start small, and it says on the website you can make 2D games, but i cant figure out how to do it. Can anyone help me?

Das hoert sich vielleicht dumm an, aber wo findet man die option 2D Spiele zu entwickeln? Ich moechte klein anfangen, and auf der homepage steht das man 2D spiele entwickeln kann, aber ich weiss nicht wie. Kann mir jemand helfen?

Posted By: xXxGuitar511

Re: 2D Game Making - 05/29/06 16:52

There's no checkbox, if thats what your looking for.. lol

You have to use 3d space, and just use panels and stuff (I've never made a 2d game with 3dgamestudio before, so don't quote me on that).

For 2D games, I use GameMaker...
http://www.gamemaker.nl/

Posted By: ulillillia

Re: 2D Game Making - 05/29/06 16:56

Currently, there aren't any known templates. I did make a 2D game myself, but I had to script practically everything for it. Along with being 2D, my 2D game has a very strong 3D feel to it.

This is what my 2D game looks like. It's fully functional and I'm about 84% done with it at the moment.

2D isn't the best way to start with Gamestudio, rather, learning how to work with basic camera and entity commands are the first things. You are right in that you should start small.

Posted By: Jojanzing

Re: 2D Game Making - 05/29/06 18:34

Thanks for your help, but too bad that its not possible. I have absolutely no experience with scripting, except for the first exercise in the tutorial (which consists of typing things into notepad).

@xXxGuitar: I checked out GameMaker, but it seemed very inaccesible. Im trying out "Scrolling Game Dev Kit". Do you know if you can make games in GameMaker that are side-scrolling but with a crosshair that follows the mouse?

@Ulillillia: Ok thanks. Im going to try to work my way through the tutorials some more. That game looks very good. Have you made any others?

Posted By: Orange Brat

Re: 2D Game Making - 05/29/06 20:04

No one said it wasn't possible. It is but you're going to have to script it as opposed to relying on an existing template. There's used to a be an official workshop that illustrated how to make a 2D game, but it has long since been removed from the downloads page. It would probably require some overhaul, since it more than likely uses old instructions no longer supported.

Posted By: xXxGuitar511

Re: 2D Game Making - 05/29/06 22:26

Yes. You can do anything 2D in game maker. I use one of the older versions because the newer version has alot of limits unless you buy it (~$20). It also supports online multiplayer (Free in older version).

Screenshots of some games made with it:
http://www.gamemaker.nl/games_exe.html

Thats what I used when I started making games. I learned how to program from it, and still use it now (every once in a while).

Posted By: ulillillia

Re: 2D Game Making - 05/30/06 06:56

Quote:

Thanks for your help, but too bad that its not possible. I have absolutely no experience with scripting, except for the first exercise in the tutorial (which consists of typing things into notepad).

You can use SED for making your scripts with. The four main fundamentals to scripting are:

1. Manipulating variables and performing calculations, both simple and complex
2. Using if statements and while loops
3. Working with strings
4. Working with functions

With just these four things, you can do quite a bit. The other things such as using bmaps and panels aren't fundamental, but are still useful. I first recommend mastering the four fundamentals.

Quote:

@Ulillillia: Ok thanks. Im going to try to work my way through the tutorials some more. That game looks very good. Have you made any others?

At the moment, this game is the only one I truly have. With dedicated focus on finishing it, I could be done before the first half of June is over with, before the start of July at the very latest. I have attempted a 3D game and had some progress, but it's completely unplayable and there's otherwise nothing really much to it. MED is holding me back because of all it's bugs, limitations, and annoyances.

My 2D game, called "The Supernatural Olympics", has a single script of 28,000 lines. About 4000 of which are just in panel definitions alone and another 12000 or so in the very extensive menu system (excluding the tutorial and challenges, of which take another 6000 or so lines). This leaves about 6000 lines for running the main game itself - panel position calculations, character movement, and other relevant stuff. 2D isn't as hard as it seems either. I just went an extra step (correction: several extra steps) and make the game have a strong 3D feel to it (and provided full customizability to practically everything as well).

Posted By: Jojanzing

Re: 2D Game Making - 05/30/06 15:39

@Orange Brat: I didnt mean to say not possible. Just not possible for me, yet. Do you know any download sources for that Workshop? I would like to try it.
@xXxGuitar511: Ok, thanks for the info. Ill get the older version then. Ive already seen the screenshots. Are any of those yours?
@Ulillillia: Im assuming those fundamentals are covered in the tutorial. It will probly take a while for me to learn even the basics.
28,000 lines... and if you make one mistake the whole games screwed... sounds like fun.

Posted By: FoxHound

Re: 2D Game Making - 05/30/06 16:19

uh no. You dont' make 28k lines and then test it. You code a couple of lines at a time and test as you go.

with 50-100 lines you can have something to see on screen.

Posted By: ulillillia

Re: 2D Game Making - 05/30/06 16:26

Quote:

@Ulillillia: Im assuming those fundamentals are covered in the tutorial. It will probly take a while for me to learn even the basics.
28,000 lines... and if you make one mistake the whole games screwed... sounds like fun.

If you go to the downloads page, you'll see the C-script tutorial. Try using it once, if you haven't already. Although it covers things using the 3D part of the engine, it should, at least, cover the main fundamentals.

And having 28,000 lines is nothing compared to the bigger Gamestudio projects around (and other games made), of which could easily have more than ten times that (even over a million lines for the most advanced commercial games). And no, if one line is faulty, the compiler tells you of the script error. Just go to the line number mentioned in the first error and check the surrounding area for the error and fix it. Fixing syntax errors is often the easy part. Fixing bugs, well, that's much more difficult. Some bugs are easy (such as because you add instead of subtract (I've had this quite a few times)), but some can take a long time to figure out (I have one bug with the speed blast that I cannot yet explain).

For a basic understanding of simple 2D games like those from the Genesis era, remember that, if you go toward the right, the background slides to the left and if you go up, the background moves down. I use a concept called "scaling" which basically sets the size and distance of objects. If you've played Sonic 3 on the Sega Genesis (or GameCube in the "Sonic Mega Collection" system) and you've been to Launch Base Zone act 1, the vertical scaling is 16. This means that, for every 16 pixels the "camera" moves, the background moves just 1 pixel. Naturally, the scaling is always the same on the horizontal and vertical, a pricipal the classic Sonic games very rarely used (which gives an unrealistic feel).

My 2D game's furthest mountains have a scaling of 2400. For every 2400 coordinate units moved, the furthest mountains move just 1 pixel. The closest buildings have a scaling of 8 and thus they appear to move 300 times faster than the furthest mountains. The visibility, by default, is 2700. You should also know that objects up close appear in front of objects further away. Scaling times pixel height gives how tall the object is in coordinate units. I define the coordinate unit as the distance travelled at 1 mph for 1/10 of a second (after my 2D animations I've been making since late 2001 or so). This makes acceleration calculations much easier to work with.

I'm now done with updating the mountains and now I'm working on the hills which are in front of the mountains and not as tall.

Posted By: ROMAC

Re: 2D Game Making - 05/31/06 09:50

There are 2 ways of making 2d games in 3dgs:
1) Using panels and moving them based on this. An example is a project we made just recently (banana run): http://www.download.com/Banana-Run/3000-2099_4-10525812.html?tag=lst-0-1
2) Using 2d sprites in a 3d level. This way you have much more freedom, and is much easier to work with. Also this way you can have a much more "3d" feel for your 2d game.