Thanks for the explanation of clamp. I hope the wiki (of CC and C2) will get more extensive.

In game design everything is about teaching. Everything can make perfect sense in your head but the real work is about making it about just as clear in about anybody else's mind. Learning is fun!

The designer is usually the best at determining what needs to be taught. Then he sets his learning curve in motion and ask production for necessary assets and HUD element, voice overs, upgrade system, mechanic distribution, etc... validate everything, keep testing with people who never played the game to see what information is getting across, and which one is just falling flat in pain on the pavement.

But the best is when you have a playtest lab at your disposal. The designer can sit with ergonomics and playtest experts to really design an experience where learning is completely blending with gameplay and the player is learning without realizing it or reading a single line of text. Then you're really having a blast.

I agree about texts as explanation from a personal point of view as a gamer. I sometimes wanted to start with a game and didn't read all text it was giving me in the tutorial.

But abandoning text is not necessary, as long as it is not too "meaty" (I like to use this expression - I hope I used this right. Not native English myself, so excuse me if my use of language gives anyone goosebumps here <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> ).

I guess (and I don't have much experience with game making/thinking so far) it's all about a balance between methods of teaching (as you said: voice overs, GUI-help, texts) and play testing.

Gropwel, you have worked on a combat system (in a Spiderman game).

Does working on the combat system include thinking about the explanation of this system, or were you only working on the system and someone else was working on how to explain it to the gamer?

2nd question about the same topic: were you able to be as innovative as you wanted, or did the producer or publisher give you limits/boundries (for example: make the combat look/play like game x)?

Steven from this forum made a cap for me.

In it he made a "switch" with a global variable.

But very efficient.

If pressed 'm'

set variable to 1 - variable

I always did:

if variable = 0 and 'm' is pressed (...)

if variable = 1 and 'm' is pressed (...)

I like how efficient this is and I'm sad I did not come up with this myself.

What is my point? I hope someone can comment on this, in any way.

For example: is this new for you?

Steven,

Thanks a lot for the cap.

Your 1st cap's method is what I use to find out the x/y offset and hardcode this for the menu.

Your 2nd cap is something I can use for general purposes. Thanks again!

About your 2nd cap: you used the function "clamp".

I have never seen or heard of this before.

I could I have known how to use this?

Thanks for the reply Tulamide. I think I can use Steven's method.

I wonder: How do other people deal with this issue?

Steven, sorry for my late reply.

Thanks for the cap.

Before I ask any questions, was it clear, or does it make any difference, that the player is not supposed to change anything, only me?

The only thing I want to do is: position sprites that overlap eachother in a way I like and keep it that way (since it will be a menu in the game).

hello,

Is it still possible to receive an email message when a topic, you responded to, received a new update (= new message)?

Now I have to bookmark (my) topics and check a few times per week, to see if there are replies. I sometimes forget to check.

This works when I'm installing on other machines. However, it requires an internet connection, so if you want the (larger) offline setup you can get it here.

Could these 2 links be included in a future release of CC, when exporting an exe file or setup-file, for the end user?

Yes, but what if you move the sprites around, on the canvas, and think: this is how I want it.

Then how do I know how many pixels I insert at the background.x + ? and background.y + ? ?

I guess the answer is: making image points and matching them with the hotspot of the other sprites, I now realize.

Is that correct?

But you can't test this out, unless you run the game, if I'm correct.

I have a square-sprite (= background) and a few sprites (= pictures of items). Together they form a list of pictures of the items you can upgrade.

How do I position it all effeciently (for me, as fast as possible) in the event sheet?

For example:

in runtime: right click will display the square, on the x/y where I point, and inside the square I want the other sprites (items) displayed.