Hey lucid!

Man we're keeping you buys these days. I have a quick question for you. I used instant tweening on an animation in order to get less smooth movements for my overworld character in this proof of concept here:

http://threesevenhosting.com/builds/rover/6-16-2016/

and while the animation looks smooth in spriter, the animation (particularly the left and right walking animation) jumps quite a bit in game. Here's a look at the scml playing, as well as the events I'm using for playing animations and syncing them with an invisible dummy sprite.

edit I guess this gif is kind of choppy...

Maybe my problem is in implementation? I even tried to key the very last frame on the timeline, but no luck. at least not on my side.

anyways thanks man!

R0J0hound - ah that's kind of what I was thinking. Thanks so much, a few things you've posted in other threads have really helped me thus far!

SoldjahBoy - thanks man! That makes a lot of sense actually, but I'm using the tilemap instead of sprites for my tiles. But that gives me a good idea of how to parse the array. I'm thinking I might select every cell that's not a 0 (ocean), and if those cells aren't near a 0 (like an overlap) at either of the 4 sides, leave it be - otherwise raise the cell by 1. I think that should give me a beach effect... do you think that would work? what kind of method did you use originally? like I mentioned, my algorithm is kind of wack right now. it almost seems like it shouldn't work <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy">

ryanrybot - haha oh, there will be caves... but it might be more like the spelunky style of generation (http://tinysubversions.com/spelunkyGen2/ which I did a long time ago with Galaxias, but it wasn't very efficient because I didn't know what I was doing). I feel like that gives me maybe some more control over some different elements. I did notice some of those things you mentioned, I think that's because my bitwise is checking for just specific numbers on the array that coresponds to the tilemap. like the normal grass is only looking for tall grass and water, and if some forest happens to be up against the tall grass, it ignores it (if that makes sense). in R0J0hounds example he just searched to see if the neighboring tile wasn't empty. I might have to figure that out a bit more. right now it seems to only be happening with the coastlines for the most part.

Here's an update with some character art, pretty basic right now for the overworld, using spriter.

I posted some of this over in the "How Do I..." section, but I thought I'd keep some updates here too for anyone interested

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I've been working for the last couple of days on a random island generator that I want to maybe use for a project in the future. I used the Zelda 2 overworld sprites and tiles modified them to work with a BitWise algorithm (thanks to R0J0hound), and I'm more or less using the method described here for my island generation: http://dxprog.com/files/randmaps.html (also similar to what Ethan described in a post somewhere, probably this one turn-based-strategy-like-advance-wars-devlog_t87666?&start=10&hilit=random+island).

Here's the first build I did, using zelda 2 graphics. I really wanted to achieve a sandy border around my islands, maybe I can still figure out a way to achieve that at some point... even if it's just creating an algorithm that raises everything on a land mass except for what's on the edge:

I just changed some graphics. Still wanting to figure out how to get some more natural landscapes, but for now I think I can still build on this engine. Any help would be great! I noticed that when I was trying to average out each cell based on the surrounding cells, if I didn't use int() I was getting some insane values.

I abandoned the sandy edges to my islands (for now) until I can figure out how to fix my algorithm. In terms of graphics, I put in an optional animated tiles option for things like water and coasts.

Here's the latest build:

http://threesevenhosting.com/builds/rover/6-14-2016

arrow keys, press space to regenerate the island, you can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel, and you can raise and lower terrain using the left and right mouse clicks.

June 9th Update

July 1st Update

Fleshed out the side scrolling a bit, and ran a pass through the array to fill in some of those bitwise gaps. Included some particles and the ocean as well. Really enjoying working on this! the grass is generated at random based on some variables I plug in, as well as the particles.

July 17

Creeping on some bull elk

working on a day/night system (pretty much completed, just needs some better visuals), ducking, crawling, and running for the player, etc. next I'm hoping to get some basic AI for NPCs going.

july stuff

the hunt is on. sort of.

August something

Slowly but surely plugging away. This has been a really neat project to work on, and I've learned a ton. In this example, I randomly generated a mountain, in part using the bitwise method and TMX files, as well as using the spelunky style of level generation. You only see the peak of the mountain here and some hastily drawn mountain peaks in the background, but the whole mountain is huge!

Next I'll be adding in more variation in the different parts of the mountain, as well as some enemy interactions. I'm planning on adding in some caves, too. We'll see how long that takes... this literally took like 3 weeks to figure out!

Just a quick update... changed some graphics. Still wanting to figure out how to get some more natural landscapes, but for now I think I can still build on this engine. Any help would be great! I noticed that when I was trying to average out each cell based on the surrounding cells, if I didn't use int() I was getting some insane values.

I abandoned the sandy edges to my islands (for now) until I can figure out how to fix my algorithm. In terms of graphics, I put in an optional animated tiles option for things like water and coasts.

Here's the latest build:

http://threesevenhosting.com/builds/rover/6-14-2016

arrow keys, press space to regenerate the island, you can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel, and you can raise and lower terrain using the left and right mouse clicks.

Oh yeah, one more question (sorry about the double post) - how would I select and expand or contract a selection within an array, based on a range of numbers??

Hello everyone,

I've been working for the last couple of days on a random island generator that I want to maybe use for a project in the future. I used the Zelda 2 overworld sprites and tiles modified them to work with a BitWise algorithm (thanks to R0J0hound), and I'm more or less using the method described here for my island generation: http://dxprog.com/files/randmaps.html (also similar to what Ethan described in a post somewhere, probably this one ).

You can view the build here:

http://threesevenhosting.com/builds/rover/

controls: arrow keys, press SPACE to regenerate the islands, zoom in and out with your mouse wheel

Originally I wanted sandy beaches on the edge of my islands, but when I generate my heightmap and run it through a few times, I get some ok island shapes but I wasn't totally sure how to make just the edges of my islands sand. SO, I ended up making everything at my 1st height sand. It just looks really sparse now, with so much sand.

I guess my questions would be:

1. How would I just outline the edges of my islands with sand, using an array? Is there a way to do that? I feel like it would almost be like a bitwise method, but just finding my tiles that are next to the ocean/water

2. Or, when I'm averaging out my array values, I really only end up with values of 0-5 - is there any way to increase that range?

These are some more complex array scenarios for me, and it's been great learning how to do some of this stuff! I appreciate any help!

Fidasx - thanks man, but actually I found a guy who seems to be working out well. I should close this...

Can you give a ball park on average cost of services? Nice work btw!

Fervir that looks great

Update: no longer searching, but thank you for your interest!

Hey Scirras,

I'm looking for a level designer to help me complete a bunch of levels for a 2D puzzle platformer called Caver O'Connor.

I think tryouts and audition type culling is pretty lame and bad for the industry, because you should be paid for your work instead of having to jump through hoops to try and land meager paying indie jobs. That said, I think prior work, a good name and a proven track record speaks for itself - so I'm looking for someone who has made some compelling, engaging, and fun 2D levels that they would be able to show in the form of a portfolio or something similar.

I have money, too. I'm talking USD's and the like. Not a lot. But there is some, somewhere, and I would be willing to give some of that money to someone who would fit the bill. I am not quite ready to start cranking out levels quite yet, but I will be in maybe the next month or so - and in the meantime I might have an interim project that could use a few nice levels before launching.

My engine uses levels built entirely in Tiled (tmx format) and spits them out into a playable format, so I'm willing to work out a rate per level for the number of levels I would need.

I hope that's enough info. Thanks guys. If you're interested, please contact me using my contact form:

http://threeseveninteractive.com/contact-us/

Thanks homies.

lucid - thanks for that explanation, I think that the hybrid version of importing will be super helpful going forward. since my last post, while I was using a dummy object for my main character and my spriter enemies, I wasn't sure what route to go with for collision detection. for now I'll just use the dummy sprites for things that aren't too complex.

thanks again man, this is a great update!