mikalichov - Developer IT

How to design good & continuous tiles

- by Mikalichov

I have trouble designing tiles so that when assembled, they don't look like tiles, but look like an homogeneous thing. For example on the image below: even though the main part of the grass is only one tile, you don't "see" the grid; you know where it is if you look a bit carefully, but it is not obvious. Whereas when I design tiles, you can only see "oh, jeez, 64 times the same tile". A bit like on that image: (taken from a gamedev.stackexchange question, sorry; no critic about the game, but it proves my point, and actually has better tile design that what I manage) I think the main problem is that I design them so they are independent, there is no junction between two tiles if put closed to each other. I think having the tiles more "continuous" would have a smoother effect, but can't manage to do it, it seems overly complex to me. I think it is probably simpler than I think once you know how to do it, but couldn't find a tutorial on that specific point. Is there a known method to design continuous / homogeneous tiles? (my terminology might be totally wrong, don't hesitate to correct me)

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How can I design good continuous (seamless) tiles?

- by Mikalichov

I have trouble designing tiles so that when assembled, they don't look like tiles, but look like a homogeneous thing. For example, see the image below: Even though the main part of the grass is only one tile, you don't "see" the grid; you know where it is if you look a bit carefully, but it is not obvious. Whereas when I design tiles, you can only see "oh, jeez, 64 times the same tile," like in this image: (I took this from another GDSE question, sorry; not be critical of the game, but it proves my point. And actually has better tile design that what I manage, anyway.) I think the main problem is that I design them so they are independent, there is no junction between two tiles if put closed to each other. I think having the tiles more "continuous" would have a smoother effect, but can't manage to do it, it seems overly complex to me. I think it is probably simpler than I think once you know how to do it, but couldn't find a tutorial on that specific point. Is there a known method to design continuous / homogeneous tiles? (My terminology might be totally wrong, don't hesitate to correct me.)

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How can I replicate the look and limitations of the Super NES?

- by Mikalichov

I am looking to produce graphics with the same limitations / look that in the Super Nes era. I am specifically looking for graphics similar to Chrono Trigger / FF6. It would be a lot easier to do if I had an idea of the resolution / dpi I am supposed to use. I found that the technical specs for the SNES are: Progressive: 256 × 224, 512 × 224, 256 × 239, 512 × 239 Interlaced: 512 × 448, 512 × 478 But even by using these resolutions, it is pointless if I set it at 72dpi, as I will still have possibly very detailed graphics (that is the main thing, I don't want detailed graphics, I want to go pixelated). I figured it might be related to the sprite size limit, i.e.: Sprites can be 8 × 8, 16 × 16, 32 × 32, or 64 × 64 pixels, each using one of eight 16-color palettes and tiles from one of two blocks of 256 in VRAM. Up to 32 sprites and 34 8 × 8 sprite tiles may appear on any one line. This would work for sprites (characters, objects), but what about maps? Are they built entirely from 8x8 tiles? And then, at what resolution is the end result displayed? It might seem like I am giving the question and answers at the same time, but all of these are suppositions I am making, so could someone confirm or correct them?

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How to control an actor movement in UDK

- by Mikalichov

This might be very basic, but I couldn't find something relevant to what I need (see below). I am working on a very basic thing: a 3D environment with some buildings, and actors walking inside it. It looks like following: I mainly want to manage to have one actor standing around, idling, and another walking around the area. Right now, this is done through matinee + skeletal mesh groups, and forcing a looped animation on the actors: But I realize this is super caveman-level. So I've build an AnimTree, linking the idling and directional animations to the corresponding nodes. But then, I'm stuck. I added the AnimTree in the actors properties, but nothing happens. I've tried MoveToActor, but no success - is there a thing to set to allow an actor to move? Also, I place the actors on the map manually (they are supposed to be unique), should I spawn them instead? Every tutorial I find explains how to use an AnimTree for the player character, which is not what I want. I need a way to move the actors. I tried to look for AI tutorials, but only found UT3 bots-modifications, which is not what I need either. Since I have so much trouble finding how to do this through Kismet, I'm starting to suspect this has to be done through scripting/coding, but I would like to be sure there is no way to do it through Kismet before going that route. Every bit of answer about how to tell an actor something along the lines of "go in that direction as much as you can, then when you hit a wall turn 45° and continue" would be awesome. I'll be happy to move/edit the question if there is any problem with it

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Whole map design vs. tiles array design

- by Mikalichov

I am working on a 2D RPG, which will feature the usual dungeon/town maps (pre-generated). I am using tiles, that I will then combine to make the maps. My original plan was to assemble the tiles using Photoshop, or some other graphic program, in order to have one bigger picture that I could then use as a map. However, I have read on several places people talking about how they used arrays to build their map in the engine (so you give an array of x tiles to your engine, and it assemble them as a map). I can understand how it's done, but it seems a lot more complicated to implement, and I can't see obvious avantages. What is the most common method, and what are advantages/disadvantages of each?

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When should I decide what language and platforms I will use for a project?

- by Mikalichov

During your development process, when is the recommended phase to decide what platform to aim for, and what language to use? I figured that it would be better to choose at the beginning what would be your target platform, as it would affect your design decisions, and limit the language you are supposed to use. However, I have heard several stories of people developing their game with whatever language they were the most confident with, and then porting it to the various platforms. So, what is the best moment to choose? Before, during, after? If there is not one best choice, what factors should affect the decision?

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Purchasing a TV show adaptation rights, how does it work?

- by Mikalichov

Basically, I was thinking about a game based on a TV show, just for fun, and ended up thinking "well, it's not like it can be made anyway". Or can it? In the present situation, developing a game by myself/ourselves on my/our free time, and then using crowdfunding to purchase the rights is not that crazy, if the show is really popular... and the rights not too expensive. Purchasing the rights of the whole show is obiously a sh!tload of money, but what about adaptation rights? What is the range of price it can be? Is it a percentage of the full rights? Does it depend on the kind of adaptation (novel vs. toy vs. game)? ps: if it can help answer, I was thinking about a MLPFIM retro RPG. Please don't laugh at me.

Developer IT