SmokeHacker
November 1st, 2004, 01:55 PM
( Sorry, I couldn't think up a more descriptive title )
I am working on a game and I cannot decide which method is better suited for what I would like to do. I will give a little background information on the game first, which will hopefully give you enough information to help me.
Basically my game is a turn-based version of the original Grand Theft Auto game. So the viewpoint is top down on a city and mostly involves driving a car around. There is also an ability to enter buildings to perform certain tasks.
As I mentioned my game is turn-based, so movement is based on steps ( instead of the usual real-time movement of a car ). When the player presses the arrow keys the car will move one step in the correct direction ( each step is 128 pixels, so everytime the 'Up' key is pressed I need the car to move 128 pixels upwards ).
I also need to keep the player on the road, they cannot drive off of it. But since my car movement is based on steps ( 128 pixels a step ) I cannot have the car move 40 pixels, hit a wall and stop. The game needs to know if the car can move a certain direction before it actually moves the car. So if the road is only going up and down, and the player presses 'right' I do not want the car to move at all.
The same idea of not driving off the road applies to entering buildings. If there is a building to the right of the road and the player presses the 'right' arrow I do not want the car to move at all, but I would like text or something else to appear. This, I'm assuming, can be accomplished the same way as keeping the car on the road, except with some added code to display the proper text.
So now to my actual question, what is the best method to create this game? Art based or tile based? ( Or any other method possible... )
I have created all of my graphics in tiles, except they're different sized tiles. So roads are 128x128 pixels, buildings and environment ( grass, dirt, water, etc ) tiles are 256x256 pixels ( I outlined them in red in the above image ). I am not sure if it is possible to create tile-based games with varying sized tiles. But if tile-based is the way to go I can always cut the 256x256 tiles into several 128x128 tiles.
I think I would prefer to make the game art based though, so the artwork wouldn't appear repititious and I could add various details without worrying about them tiling. But I have been trying a few tests in Flash and have been unsuccessful. I am attempting to use hittest's to stop the car from driving off the road, but I have noticed that the hittest code only works after the car intersects the hittest area. So the car drives off the road, then the code to stop the car is executed.
I am new to Flash, so this could be a very easy problem that I simply do not know how to solve. I would appreciate any input on how to create this game. Once I know which direction to go ( art-based, tile-based, or other ) I will be able to look at sample code or tutorials for what method I'll be using, but I'm sure I will still need plenty of help here.
Thank you for any help you can offer me.
I am working on a game and I cannot decide which method is better suited for what I would like to do. I will give a little background information on the game first, which will hopefully give you enough information to help me.
Basically my game is a turn-based version of the original Grand Theft Auto game. So the viewpoint is top down on a city and mostly involves driving a car around. There is also an ability to enter buildings to perform certain tasks.
As I mentioned my game is turn-based, so movement is based on steps ( instead of the usual real-time movement of a car ). When the player presses the arrow keys the car will move one step in the correct direction ( each step is 128 pixels, so everytime the 'Up' key is pressed I need the car to move 128 pixels upwards ).
I also need to keep the player on the road, they cannot drive off of it. But since my car movement is based on steps ( 128 pixels a step ) I cannot have the car move 40 pixels, hit a wall and stop. The game needs to know if the car can move a certain direction before it actually moves the car. So if the road is only going up and down, and the player presses 'right' I do not want the car to move at all.
The same idea of not driving off the road applies to entering buildings. If there is a building to the right of the road and the player presses the 'right' arrow I do not want the car to move at all, but I would like text or something else to appear. This, I'm assuming, can be accomplished the same way as keeping the car on the road, except with some added code to display the proper text.
So now to my actual question, what is the best method to create this game? Art based or tile based? ( Or any other method possible... )
I have created all of my graphics in tiles, except they're different sized tiles. So roads are 128x128 pixels, buildings and environment ( grass, dirt, water, etc ) tiles are 256x256 pixels ( I outlined them in red in the above image ). I am not sure if it is possible to create tile-based games with varying sized tiles. But if tile-based is the way to go I can always cut the 256x256 tiles into several 128x128 tiles.
I think I would prefer to make the game art based though, so the artwork wouldn't appear repititious and I could add various details without worrying about them tiling. But I have been trying a few tests in Flash and have been unsuccessful. I am attempting to use hittest's to stop the car from driving off the road, but I have noticed that the hittest code only works after the car intersects the hittest area. So the car drives off the road, then the code to stop the car is executed.
I am new to Flash, so this could be a very easy problem that I simply do not know how to solve. I would appreciate any input on how to create this game. Once I know which direction to go ( art-based, tile-based, or other ) I will be able to look at sample code or tutorials for what method I'll be using, but I'm sure I will still need plenty of help here.
Thank you for any help you can offer me.