savage
07-02-2006, 12:45 PM
I was chatting to FNX last night about MIDlet development and it became clear that in order to accomodate the different screen sizes that one might encounter, what is required a is a scalable map/level format and algorithm.
Call me lazy, but I really don't fancy compiling different versions of the same application to accomodate different screen resolutions. I want a one size scales to all. Come on we are programmer for crying out loud, how hard can it be ( famous last words ).
My current test project, Blitz Bomber, should scale width wise to a maxium of 32x8 columns and the height is fixed at 29x8, also all levels are randomly generated. This works fine for a simple game like BB, but for something more complex or story driven, you really want to be able to have fixed levels, which scale to the mobile gamer's phone. An SVG for maps and levels if you will. Of course this is fairly meaningless if you allow the map to be scrollable, but sometimes you want all the information for a particular level on one screen.
Anyone written one already? My initial thought is to create my level with the smallest 2D array I can live with, then based on the that, scale the location of enemies and objects/objstacles accordingly dependent on the gamer's resolution.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller, Bueller?
Call me lazy, but I really don't fancy compiling different versions of the same application to accomodate different screen resolutions. I want a one size scales to all. Come on we are programmer for crying out loud, how hard can it be ( famous last words ).
My current test project, Blitz Bomber, should scale width wise to a maxium of 32x8 columns and the height is fixed at 29x8, also all levels are randomly generated. This works fine for a simple game like BB, but for something more complex or story driven, you really want to be able to have fixed levels, which scale to the mobile gamer's phone. An SVG for maps and levels if you will. Of course this is fairly meaningless if you allow the map to be scrollable, but sometimes you want all the information for a particular level on one screen.
Anyone written one already? My initial thought is to create my level with the smallest 2D array I can live with, then based on the that, scale the location of enemies and objects/objstacles accordingly dependent on the gamer's resolution.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller, Bueller?