I don't think you have to loop through the array, you can compare x,y values directly. Say you want to test the third tile south of the player you check the array like this:

compare at XY

-X: player.gridX

-Y: player.gridY +3

= 0

then [do things]

You can use tilemap.PositionToTile to get the object grid position but I usually create two variables where I store that info instead, makes it easier to work with, compare the above to:

compare at XY

-X: tilemap.positiontotileX(player.X)

-Y: tilemap.positiontotileY(player.Y) +3

= 0

then [do things]

When it comes down to it it's all about how you adapt to the situation, just like any business (unless it's regulated) you have to give people a reason to play your game and a reason to talk about it, those are the most important things you can provide your audience. It doesn't really matter how much time and money you put into a game if you can't convince people that your game is what they want, this can be achieved by pushing genres, innovate, perfect, utilize an underserved genre or having a great style/tone because those are marketable things. You have to always stay on top to survive in the "free market". If you make a thing that most people either don't have a reason to be excited about or if they can get something equal or better somewhere else, you're out.

And this is not just the games industry, music, film and books are in the same situation, anyone can pick up and guitar and a cheap mic and play music or make videos/short-films on youtube, write a novel and put it up onto Amazon. If something is worth paying for, people will pay, the race to the bottom mostly apply to games that are mediocre or similar to other games where the price matter more than the product, it's probably the only thing that matters because why pay when you can get something similar that's better and free/cheaper?, if you have a solid game that's good, on-top and marketable you can definitally charge a decent amount of money for it. Ruskul made a good point about this, look at the developers that put not just their soul and heart into it but they are all very competent designers and they all have distinct, marketable visuals and style/tone.

That said, "make it good and they will come" is not really true either even though that's the impression you might get, I think that statement is vague and not particularly applicable because what is good differs and sometimes having a mediocre game that is amazingly marketable will break through and sometimes it's the other way around but the point is don't settle for mediocrity, strive for marketability and like I said above give people a reason to play and talk.

That's my experience from reading and talking to people about these things so take what I said with a grain of salt.

I saw this image on twitter the other day, thought it'd lighten up the mood a little as I found it pretty funny:

If I understand the problem correctly, isn't it possible to do this with arrays? If you set the array size to be the same as the tilemap and whenever an object moves or is placed you update the array with the same x,y of the object on the tilemap. 0 for empty and 1 for occupied. Then you can check if a certain space is empty by referring to the array.

I haven't tried it myself yet but it seems like something you could easily do with arrays.

You can also do this:

if button is [not] down && object.jumping

-> set object.vectorY = object.vectorY/2

This will, as long as your character is jumping, halve it's Y speed every tick.

Sometimes when you change from linear to point in sampling you need to re-import the images that were imported before the change. I don't know why that's the case but I just go into the image editor and press the refresh button and I'm good to go.

You could cramp the items horizontally and move the entire frame to the left or right, leaving you with room on the side for buttons like options, back etc.

I mean scaling in-engine, not resizing in the image editor.

But then you can only divide it once, you have to define the size before substracting which becomes a problem when you want to scale images 1:1. For example, I can't take 1022/2 = 511 and then take that and divide it again, you get 255.5. In fact, if you subtract any even number from a number of base 2, you can divide the result.

With a base of 2 you can continuily divide or double a number without running into any half-numbers, it's more error-proof. I do understand what you're getting at though since the way the C2 spritepacking works.

Images that are in the power of 2 are the most easily scalable because there are no odd numbers. It's generally a good rule to follow if you intend to scale images for different devices and resolutions, not only for you as an artist but for the programmers as well. No matter the size when you divide an image that is in the power of 2 you eventually end up with one pixel, always. That's not the case for images not in the power of 2, and the amount of times you can double the size without ever getting an odd number is indefinite.

A few questions:

-Are the games free on the platform or do you sell the games you buy?

-If it's free, how do you make the money back?

-If you run ads, how do you split the revenue between the developers?

It should be noted that even though you don't directly copy the assets it's still possible for the copyright holder to threaten with legal actions if they feel their property is being violated, even if the subject is only copying their style or uses a similar image (like yours), if they do take that threat to court the outcome is usually dependant on who has the most expensive(best) lawyers and how derivative is the subject of copyright violation. It happens all the time, it's called copyright trolling/trademark trolling. One famous example is The Banner Saga that got legal threats from King for using the word 'Saga' in their title.

The bad thing about legal trolling like this is that they usually go after smaller companies or individuals who don't have the money to pay legal fees and even if no legal actions are taken most of the time the threat is scary enough to force the accused to change their work, because you never know, they might actually take it to court. So they are rather safe than sorry. It's all about protecting their products, even if they do it through questionable methods.

Just ought to let you know.

A few death animations from the game.