RhapsodyInGeek's Forum Posts

  • Depends on what you need help with. I'm not about to join any teams to make games, but if you've got a couple questions on how I did some things feel free to ask and I'll try to answer as best I can.

  • Here's what I'd do:

    Always Set Score X = DisplayWidth - Digits.Width - Score.Width

    or

    Always Set Score X = Digits.X - Score.Width

    You'll have to do some tweaking to make it look nice of course, and not clumped up or cut off. I don't know if the origin on Text objects is on the far left of the textbox or if it's centered. If it's centered, use the first one. If not, the second one should work fine.

  • Well you can set the window to always be on top, so popups like messengers shouldn't be an issue. Theoretically of course. Haven't tested it myself, but I also only have the window be set on top once.

    Also, the distortion should be accounted for in my example because it uses a combination of window resizing and display resolution resizing. In my example I just use the 3 common ones of 4:3, 16:9 and 16:10. If you want to support all resolutions imaginable, well... good luck! <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> But yea, the methods I use can work for any aspect ratio, you just need to put a check for that specific aspect ratio if you want the resolution a specific size.

  • In order to get a good 4-direction angling going for my RPG, I've used "Compare round(Player.Angle / 90) * 90" and check it to see if it's equal to 0, 90, 180, or 270. Then I set the animation accordingly.

    Player is moving

    System: Compare round(Player.Angle / 90) * 90 = 90

    ----> Set Player Animation to Walk South

  • I just put up an example on how to do an easy to set up retro style fullscreen in the Tutorials forum.

    http://www.scirra.com/forum/topic47220_post295684.html#295684

    Hope it helps you out!

  • So a lot of people ask how to pull off a sweet retro style fullscreen effect. There are other methods but they seem to involve using zoom, which bugs out scroll rates quite a bit. Quite frustrating.

    I developed my own fullscreen system with support for multiple aspect ratios that doesn't involve zooming, so it works great with scroll rates and things, especially useful for HUDs and the like.

    The example cap file:

    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20459682/Full%20Screen%20Tutorial.cap

    It's a very stripped down version of the system I use in my Action RPG, but you can use it as a starting point for your own screen systems. What this shows is how to automatically detect the resolution and decide on a resolution based on it, and then setting the window size to emulate fullscreen. It's not true fullscreen, but the user won't notice it and Construct doesn't hate it like it hates real fullscreen.

    Anyway, yea, hope this helps all of you! <img src="smileys/smiley4.gif" border="0" align="middle">

  • Actually, I've developed a method that works wonders without using zoom and supporting 3 different aspect ratios (4:3, 16:9, 16:10).

    I'll see if I can come up with an example, but it IS a bit complicated. However, I've not had any problems with it at all.

    If you don't feel like waiting for me to come up with an example you can see how I accomplished it by checking the cap file for my RPG game here:

    http://www.scirra.com/forum/action-rpg-demo_topic45431.html

    It should be under the "MainMenu" event sheet, in its own group called "Window and Aspect Ratio Settings". You'll need a SysInfo object and a Window object to use my method. You'll also want to check the "start of layout" actions below the "Array Initialize" group, as those use an automatic detection of the screen size to come up with a default aspect ratio. I also have the Project Settings set to have Menu, Caption, Resizing, Minimize, Maximize, and Fullscreen all disabled.

    It's probably a bit more complicated than it needs to be, but it works great for me. I have no issues with scroll rates and only have to compensate for having additional aspect ratios.

  • I love you Mipey.

  • That's a very wiiiiiide game.

    39 views and no answer isn't really something to comment on. Those people that looked at the post may have been looking to see if you had the same problem as them and hoping for an answer too. Or it could be that the people trying to figure out your issue just haven't solved it yet. Patience is a pretty sweet thing to practice. Almost all problems on this forum get answered before too long, just gotta wait sometimes while folks brainstorm.

    As for your problem... unfortunately, screen size isn't something that's easily patched in if you've got things like statically positioned HUD elements to contend with. In all likelihood you will in fact have to go back and edit all the positions. Some things to also consider are what you want in your resolution changes. Do you want only one aspect ratio and have the "gaps" to be covered up so you only see your ratio? Or do you want the player's viewport to expand or decrease depending on their screen resolution? Are you planning on adding zooming or other camera tricks? I'm sure the other more experienced Construct guys could think of more scenarios, but the first thing you'd need to know is what you even want.

    Your resolution is really bizarre. Is there a purpose behind it?

    Also, when seeking help, it's recommended that you also leave a link to your game's cap file, preferably a Dropbox link. That will help with solving any issues or making any suggestions immensely, since all we really have to go on is you say your game screen is 1680x105 and that you'd rather not have to recalculate object positions. So post a link to your cap, and maybe I can see if my method for resolutions would help you out.

  • There are a million methods, really. I personally like to use spritesheets of each animation, saved as PNG files. Then I can just cut up each animation in the Animation Importer and easily set the origin points. However, this requires you to know each spritesheet's dimensions, and the frames all need to be the same side if you want it to be as efficient as possible.

    Your best bet if you're not intimately familiar with each animation you're being sent is to have your team member make each animation frame as a separate PNG file. That way you don't have to worry about dealing with transparency or trying to figure out frame sizes and things like that. All you end up having to deal with is having a lot of PNG files! <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

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  • I learned a ton a ton a ton from Deadeye's Platform School and scidave's Mikey's Adventure tutorials.

    Platform School

    Mikey's Adventure

    You can also find a lot of other methods and such in the Tutorial Section.

    Good luck!

  • Not dead, just mistyped. <img src="smileys/smiley9.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

    Post updated with the proper links.

  • Sorry about that. I did use Color Overlay on the hero and enemy sprites, but I got rid of it since it'll be better to use the Color Fusion that I also have. I am not using either right now though (they had no in-game function yet).

    Anyway, I updated the download to the current cap file. It has in it an early but functioning version of the save system, and features numerous tweaks to the UI. I still need to work out a few kinks in the Save System (if you have multiple save files and delete a save file in the middle, you can't save over the later save files, but you can still open them). It's just a matter of tweaking some numbers in the save menu, not a big deal. It does save and load properly though.

    Yea, main post updated.

  • If you're looking for a standalone .exe, Construct Classic does that. Construct Classic's IDE can be a bit unwieldy sometimes, but once you learn her quirks you can work around the few instabilities in the IDE. Quite powerful.

  • Ashley has it for the most part spot on.

    I'll also start with the disclaimer that I'm no lawyer, but as a semi-professional original musician I've had to do a lot of studying up on copyright law in order to better protect myself.

    So, first off, to clear up a few misconceptions about U.S. Copyright Law:

    * If the character itself is someone else's creation, you need a license given by the copyright holder to use the character (in most famous characters' cases, it is a company, often cold and heartless <img src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> ).

    * Non-profit does not equal fair use. Copyright is what you'd call "as advertised". It means that only the copyright holder has permissions to control how their creation is copied, in any way, shape or form. They can issue licenses to third parties, for a fee or for free, but they still get to control who gets those licenses, with a couple exceptions.

    * The exception, in the case of music, is a compulsory license. That, however, is not applicable to your case, as that deals only with covering songs, not for doing things like compilation albums, which needs a different licensing deal. You'd need to obtain a different license to use someone else's characters.

    * Fair Use laws come into play when dealing with commentary and parody, or for educational use (though educational use is more meant for examples to teach classes, does not actually qualify for fan games). It has nothing to do with percentages or an infringer's economic profit. A copyright holder could sue you for dilution of brand if they'd like (I make a god awful Mario game that could give people who don't know Mario a bad impression of the plucky plumber, which would hurt future Nintendo sales), or if an infringer's product obtains the specific demand the copyright holder's product or potential products would have held (if I made a free Mario game that was better than Nintendo's $50 Mario game and people substituted Nintendo's game with mine instead, that equals lost earnings for Nintendo).

    Some companies don't mind people using their sprites and characters in free fan games. Capcom is famous for unofficially supporting it. Others, like Nintendo, often turn a blind eye to it, unless it could potentially compete with their own products, in which case they almost always just send a cease and desist. There are just so many people out there, and sending a cease and desist to them all would be a waste of time. You still risk a lawsuit of course. That's their right.

    I'm sorry if that's a lot to digest, but copyright law is a complicated affair that's meant to protect everyone from all sorts of scenarios.

    Short version:

    Are you allowed to, by law? For the purposes of your fan game, not without a license from the copyright holder. You can decide for yourself whether or not you feel your use would be ethical and if the risk of you being taken to court is worth it.