2d top-down shooter game design question

**paul_nicholls** · 28-10-2008, 12:59 AM

Originally Posted by tpascal

When I am talking about what to rotate/translate - the ship, or the arena, I mean that in version #1, the ship would be in the center of the screen, and not apear to move or rotate, but the area would move and rotate around the ship.

Then yes, use option #1, almost all 2d scroll side type game i have seen does that, the player is cenetered in the monitor and the world scrolls, except when the player arrive to the world limits.

Note that even when the user ship most the time will be phisically draw at 160,120 in the monitor you still need to keep your ship coordinates in the world, and have to be updated as it is "moving" in the virtual world, those coordinates are used for colision with enemies ships and everithing else you normally do as if the ships is moving, so dont worry about the maths, it is exactly the same in both option #1 and #2, just in option #1 you use the user¬¥s ship world coordinate to calc which part of the arena to draw.

good luck.

tp.

Sorry if I wasn't quite clear enough, but the game isn't a side scroller, but a 360 degree scrolling 2d top view, and with #1, the arena would rotate/translate around the user's ship, with the user's ship appearing to not move in the view port. Not sure if this affects what you wrote :-)

With #2, the ship would rotate and move around the non-rotating arena (like Subspace Continuum I'm assuming - not played it yet), and the camera would be centered around the user's ship so the arena translates around the ship in the view port.

cheers,
Paul

**Ñuño Martínez** · 28-10-2008, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by paul_nicholls

@JSoftware: isn't GTA a 3d game? would you have a screenshot of a 2d version or similar? If I went for #2, I think it would be much harder to control things like strafing, etc. and the user may get confused.

The first two GTA were 2D. Another game that uses a similar game arena are the Diablo series (at least the two first ones) and the classic Bitmap Brother's Xenon (only the first one).

**paul_nicholls** · 30-10-2008, 01:37 AM

Thanks everyone, I will try and whip up a prototype example of a controllable ship that can fly around a map, and you will be able to set either of the two 'modes' #1, or #2 to try it out.

I am looking forward to seeing which way you prefer for real

cheers,
Paul

**cronodragon** · 30-10-2008, 02:08 PM

In Sins of a Solar Empire, the ships move and rotate around the arena (a gravitational well). You can rotate the arena clicking on it and moving the mouse, and when you hover on a ship, it is centered and the mode is changed to an arena that moves around it, to return to the other mode you just click on the arena again. It's a cool system to track space ships.

Another feature is that you can zoom in/out the ships. When the camera gets too far, the units are shown as icons. When the zoom is nearer the ships are actual 3D models. You should give it a try to get some nice ideas.

**paul_nicholls** · 30-10-2008, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by cronodragon

In Sins of a Solar Empire, the ships move and rotate around the arena (a gravitational well). You can rotate the arena clicking on it and moving the mouse, and when you hover on a ship, it is centered and the mode is changed to an arena that moves around it, to return to the other mode you just click on the arena again. It's a cool system to track space ships.

Another feature is that you can zoom in/out the ships. When the camera gets too far, the units are shown as icons. When the zoom is nearer the ships are actual 3D models. You should give it a try to get some nice ideas.

Neat! thanks, I will try it out

cheers,
Paul

**ize** · 26-02-2009, 12:21 PM

Hi Paul. I'm not sure if you are still working on this, but i've only recently joined and slowly reading through the thousands of posts.

Originally Posted by paul_nicholls

Version 2. would be easier to program - I could just have the arena made up of run-of-the-mill tiles and not have to rotate them, etc. But the user's ship would be harder to control in my mind, especially compared to the AI ships (they would make decisions relative to their heading like in version 1.).

I think this would be the easiest/best control method. As for it being harder to control, Asteroids springs to mind.

At the end of the day gamers always adapt to the control method for what they're playing.

**paul_nicholls** · 26-02-2009, 09:44 PM

Originally Posted by ize

Hi Paul. I'm not sure if you are still working on this, but i've only recently joined and slowly reading through the thousands of posts.

Originally Posted by paul_nicholls

Version 2. would be easier to program - I could just have the arena made up of run-of-the-mill tiles and not have to rotate them, etc. But the user's ship would be harder to control in my mind, especially compared to the AI ships (they would make decisions relative to their heading like in version 1.).

I think this would be the easiest/best control method. As for it being harder to control, Asteroids springs to mind.

At the end of the day gamers always adapt to the control method for what they're playing.

Hi ize,
thanks for your input, all is welcome :-)
This project is in the back-burner for now though...

cheers,
Paul