Apologies for the necro, but I'd like this exact question answered too, if possible. Should we be running the game at the highest resolution possible and scaling down, or running at the lowest resolution and scaling up?

Since phones are all somewhat similar in scale, I'm assuming the quality difference won't be too noticeable whether you're scaling up or down, but I'm curious to know if it's recommended to use one option over the other - perhaps to avoid known issues, improve performance, etc.

Thanks for reading <img src="smileys/smiley12.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

spongehammer: That was something I tried at first - increasing particle speed with them pointing left (I wanted them pointing left slightly anyway). But because of that increased speed, they SHOOT through the air, really high. The only way of ensuring some of those particles don't shoot miles into the sky, is by limiting the cone angle. And that ruins the effect just as much unfortunately.

rogueNoodle: I probably could achieve it with animated sprites. It'd take a while to have it look as smooth as a particle effect, but it might be worth it. Do iOS and Android devices have problems with particle effects then? If so, I'll definitely hand animate this.

Thanks for the replies <img src="smileys/smiley31.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

I can't see a way of fixing this, so for now I've tweaked the appearance a little bit to make that trail being left behind look as though it's just a windy environment and that the embers are being blown to the right <img src="smileys/smiley20.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

If anyone can come up with anything though, I'd be eager to hear of any possible solutions. I'd really rather the player be running against the direction of the embers, rather than in the same direction. I really don't know why, I just get the feeling it would look better <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Hello! I'm playing around with an endless runner type of game, and wanted to use particles to create a burning embers effect. These embers spawn at random points on the ground, purely for visual goodness, and your character can run right through them.

The trouble is, because of the way the endless runner setup works, the ground and all the objects are moving to the left of the screen, even though to the player it looks like the character is moving right and the camera is following him. Since the embers are constantly moving to the left, it creates a trail of particles behind it as it moves across the screen, which ruins the illusion.

Is there any way to have the particles constantly moving to the left, as well as their spawn point?

Thanks for reading <img src="smileys/smiley12.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Thanks! It is working, I just don't have a website up there yet =P

I tried linking to the Woven-Worlds Facebook page too, but that link didn't work.

That worked! Thanks!

For some reason the other sections where I've used 100 + random(1000) work fine though. They don't need to be 100 + int(random(1000)). Odd <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Aaaaand... I posted this in the wrong forum section. Sorry <img src="smileys/smiley9.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

I'm having an issue spawning random objects. First, here's the section of my event sheet that isn't working as I hoped it would:

<img src="http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc212/darkstorne/Events_zps3c051dc5.png" border="0" />

I have another event that constantly subtracts from the value "NextObject". When the value of "NextObject" reaches 0, the game should spawn a random object further along the path, just off the screen (it's an endless runner). But for some reason, it only spawns an object the first time, and always the first object on the list (Rocks1, which is the default value for the variable used to choose which object is spawned). After that first object... nothing.

I've also attempted setting this up with the different random object variables as sub events, but then nothing happens at all (even if I remove the "trigger once" conditions).

This is strange, because I use a very similar system to generate enemies which works fine. Only difference is the enemies each have their own countdown global variable, so no extra step that randomises which enemy is spawned. That's making me question whether the random variable is working? I can't see where I made a mistake though.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading <img src="smileys/smiley12.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Definitely interested! Ouya is shaping up to be a fantastic platform.

So I should make a couple running animations on Paint.net (I finished the Photoshop trial and that's all I have), then export them to that program? Wouldn't that take out the whole need of an animating program if I paint all the animations in another program? Think I misunderstood.

I'd recommend Gimp over Paint. It's still free.

You don't paint all the frames of your animation, just the key frames (so for a walk cycle, between 3 to 6 frames depending on how detailed your sprite is. You then use a program with bone behaviours like Anime Studio Pro (though there are plenty of others) to create additional frames in-between the key frames. You do this by duplicating the key frames and editing them with bones, blending the animation together.

For example, here's two key frames from my wolf:

<img src="http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc212/darkstorne/5_zps085231d4.png" border="0" />

<img src="http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc212/darkstorne/5-5_zps02806e0e.png" border="0" />

I have a total of 8 key frames like that for him. If I left it at those eight frames, it would be an incredibly poor animation - you'd easily see when one frame changes to another. So I used Anime Studio Pro to turn it into a 22 frame animation by duplication the key frames and editing the duplicated frames, tweaking leg positions, head position, tail movement etc, so that the key frames blended together better. Much faster than painting all 22 frames by hand, but you'll still need to invest a lot of time painting the key frames:

<img src="http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc212/darkstorne/Wolf-GIFfaster_zps4102a1a5.gif" border="0" />

Animation is not easy, and it is not fast. If you're looking to create one single image of a character and create a walking animation from that, it's not going to look anywhere near as good. It can be done though, using vector art. A lot of flash games use this animation technique. They break their image up into (using a human as an example) torso, head, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg. And then just move the individual pieces around to create animations. It doesn't look natural though, and definitely looks cheap and rushed. It all depends on your own talents if you're an artist, or on your contracting budget if you're not.

I don't use Blender, so Jojoe will have to fill you in on that method.

I use Anime Studio Pro, which is specifically designed for 2d animation. It's easiest with vector art, but I animate with raster images - hand painting key frames. It takes longer, but the results are far more detailed and accurate. I wouldn't have been able to animate the legs of that wolf well enough with a single piece of vector art broken into individual sections.

So for my method: paint up several key frames in whichever program you prefer (Gimp, Photoshop, etc), then blend together using bone behaviours in a 2d animation like Anime Studio Pro to double, triple, quadruple the number of frames you have. It's up to you how detailed you go with them <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Practice makes perfect too. You won't nail it first time.

It's not easy. To do it well, you need some level of artistic talent.

I paint the key frames of my animations, then use a program called Anime Studio Pro to blend them together. So for this wolf animation I created 8 hand-painted frames (after studying closely how a wolf moves), and then using Anime Studio Pro's bone mechanics blended them into a 22 frame animation to make it smoother:

<img src="http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc212/darkstorne/Wolf-GIFfaster_zps4102a1a5.gif" border="0" />