We're planning to look in to developing an editor feature for this.
Ashley This would be a game changer for anyone who develop 2d platform! And when implemented it should be on the homepage of the website! Considering that Construct is a tool to develop software/game 2d, this would be a HUGE feature for any artist and game designer.
I bet that I'm not the only one who had problem figuring out how to implement a good looking terrain without killing the performance. Here I'm describing my experience so far about designing 2d levels:
With tilemap it was too complicate to make nice graphics without puzzling with the tiles.
Problem with tilemap:
- Platforms are limited based on the tiles itself (you can't make curvy terrain without making a lot of tiles matching together).
- If you need to change something in the level, you will need to move all the tiles again and it takes ages to design a level.
- If for some reason you change the size of the source tilemap png, then you need to start over again.
- If you want to match different design terrain, then good luck.
- When using tilemap, it is extremely hard to have the texture in front of the player to simulate the grass. I have tried multiple time to have the grass on top of the player and is is too way complicate.
- Matching the tilemap with the solid is a huge problem.
Basically, tilemap is good for most people who develop a pixel art game. If you want to do a game design like Rayman, it would be extremely hard if not impossible.
So the best solution I have found is to simulate this sprite shape using my own functions. It works good because I use masks and a lot of tiled background. The pro using this approach is:
- You can change the sprites/design over time without braking the whole game.
- Easy to make and edit a level, take minutes to design complex level.
- To make the design, you need two 46X46 tiled background. Basically, to make a whole new terrain it takes 10 minutes. In tilemap, it takes hours if not days.
- If you want to change the whole design in a level, it takes a 3 clicks.
- Sprite can be "alive". The columns on the gif are movable.
- Infinite ways to make a level. Easy copy/paste between layouts.
Problem with this approach:
- Hundreds of objects. for 100 sprites, there is an average of 300 tiled background spawned.
- You can't see what you are designing, so you must use a lot of immagination.
- Use of multiple layer and force own texture. (performance)
To conclude, I have tried both solution (tilemap and sprite+tiledBackground). It ended up that sprite+tiledBackground is more performant then tilemap, if you design long level.
With Sprite Shape, I'm pretty sure that most of the performance problem will be solved, and you would allow designer to design the level in real time in construct.
PS: I compared tilemap vs sprite+TiledBackground because these are the only choice we have when designing a level. Also, I forgot to mention that I made this method because I didn't want to deal with any tiled background manually. I can't imagine someone design a level with 1000 objects in the editor, only for the terrain.