Metroidvanias, Maps and Moving Mini-Maps

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  • Hey all! I'm slowly learning Construct 2 and I'm trying to create two action-adventure platformer games. A small scale Metroidvania on mobile and a large scale Metroidvania on PC. I'm sharing a lot of code, characters, events, assets, ect throughout . Both games are more Metroid than Castlevania.

    So I'm trying to wrap my head around how to create a moving or updating mini-map similar to Super Metroid. I've downloaded like 6 different map/minimap capx examples (let me know if you want me to share them). Seems easy to recreate but I need to create a mini-map for an entire "Metroid"-type world (or section of world), not just a small level. And I'm not sure how to go about that. I'm not sure how I'd go about restricting the mini-map "view "the specific player area. How would I move or scroll the "camera view" of the mini-map. This concept seems really beyond me. I haven't got a clue on how to even begin to think about this problem. Can anyone help me with this problem?

    All the mini map capx examples have small images of the entire layouts as the maps. I guess what I need is like an active picture-in-picture view of my mini-map on-screen? I actually looked up PIP on the forums and I'm sure that's not what I need. I'm not dead set on creating something exactly like Super Metroid. I do need something functional that moves or updates as the player moves through the environment. I'd take any advice on how to create a decent, functional map in whatever ways you guys might imagine. Thanks for reading folks!

    TL/DR; let's talk about maps and mini-maps, how do go about creating an scrolling mini-map like Super Metroid. Or how can I create a decent approximation using Construct 2. Has any else made maps similar to what I'm describing?

    One more thing, I'm adding a pic of prototype Metriodvania level so people can see with what I'm working with (in terms of progress of my game). My window size is 320x224 (good? aiming for NES wide-screen) As you can see, I have black and green zones throughout the layout. The layout is filled with "camera zones". Each zone clamps the camera scrolling in that zone. I imagine I can use the zones as a way to find the position of the player on the map or even help in creating the map, right?

  • <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy"> I've got something working in-game. After extensive searching on the forums, I started thinking my picture in picture idea wasn't so crazy after all. I downloaded the canvas and paster plugins by R0j0hound and implemented a small screen in the corner as the mini-map.

    Right now, I need to figure out the math for displaying the mini-map player indicator correctly in relation to the mini map sprite and the actual players location and centering the second camera/screen/mini-map pip on the indicator. The indicator seems to be at my 0,0 position of the mini-map screen. In my gif, I'm basically at the top-left section of my game level layout (near origin). My little map indicator isn't tracking the player correctly on the scene. I placed my mini-map image and indicator sprite near my spawn so I could see what it was doing. Here's a event sheet. Maybe someone can seem a simple math mistake. I got so excited I got this working, I came to post here and haven't really troubleshooted this yet <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy">

    I think this is a pretty decent and lazy way to make a mini map. I'm open to other ways of creating a mini map system though if any one's got some though.

    I also found two links with info on how to make a Super Metroid style map system. The forum post even has a capx! I really like how professional and elegant that style looks but I'm afraid it would be too difficult for me to implement. I will experiment and make my own map of this kind but I think I'd rather make a mini map another way if possible.

    http://madameberry.com/post/14486564952 ... rt-1-setup

    viewtopic.php?f=147&t=75959&p=630013&hilit=super+metroid+map#p630013

    The capx example looks like it could be very tedious! Imagine having to create a big array and manually placing all those tiles on a very large map. If I were to try and attempt to make a map like this, I should probably wait until the very end of game development right? I still haven't finalized my entire world layout so I don't want to do any work on a map system I'll have to change later. Either way, looks like I'll have some serious work ahead of me if I choose to make a map and mini-map this way.

    That's why I said before, I'm not married to the idea of creating a mini-map system exactly like Super Metroid! I'm willing to contrive a reason to fill the entire map in at the start (through story purposes or whatever) if it means I don't have to do the tedious work of having the map slowly "tick" into view. Or instead of the map ticking in visibility every 8*8 increments, my map system can just "highlight" the entire room the player is in and slowly fill in the map room by room. A system like this sounds functional and wouldn't turn my hair gray creating it. It might look something like this.

    http://images.pocketgamer.co.uk/images/ ... er-01a.jpg

    Anyway, I'd really like to talk about maps in action-adventure platformer games and Metroidvania-type games.

    Does anyone know of any good examples of good, simple, functional maps and mini-maps in Metroidvania games? Or any game really. Preferably stuff that isn't like Super Metroid?

    How would you guys go about making a map system if you were making a game like this on Construct 2?

    What does everyone think would be a good mini-map system in a Metroidvania game made in Construct 2 by a single artist not great at math and programming.

    Maps, maps, maps!?!

    Hope my post makes sense. Thanks for reading!

    edit: fixed the issue with the indicator displaying correctly. All I had to do was set the origin point to the the top left <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing">

  • holy crap guys, I think I got a mini map working <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy">

    The player is at the edges of the level layout so the map looks jumpy and is actually displaying empty margins I think. I guess I need to build my maps not so close to the edge of the layout.

    Guys, what would be a good way to visually recreate this kind of mini-map using an 8-bit NES restricted look? Obviously I can't use this actual image as the mini-map. I should probably paint over the map with Super Metroid looking black and white grid/tiles right? Like this.

    http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Plasmfi ... 8.png.html

  • Hello! Did you test the minimap on mobile? I mean it will work but i have no idea how performance intensive it is. It's a good a idea to test it on a phone before you work on the graphics

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  • Hey tutyses! Thanks for the comment! No, I haven't tested this on mobile. Whenever I finish my two games, the mobile version of the game won't have a mini map. There's just no space on a mobile screen for that but also it really just won't be necessary for smaller scale Metroidvania. A regular map screen will suffice.

    I am worried about how performance intensive this possibly is on PC though. I've got 3 fairly powerful PCs and they all run this prototype ok. I'm striving for NES limited graphics style and supposedly having a retro looking project is not a strong hit on performance. I don't know though.

    I have made some progress on the mini map though! And I'm sharing the capx too! I've now added a Metroid-style visibility feature to the system. I don't think I've seen a mini map system created exactly like this on the forums so I though I should share my creation! I'm not doing anything very complicated. It was all deceptively simple. I just glued a few ideas together to make it work. I was really intimidated by having to create an array in order to set up a proper mini map. So I desperately brainstormed/researched for another solution that wouldn't include tedious math and I came up with this ! Here's a capx example!

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/t7b4l7g1e49h6 ... .capx?dl=0

    I've tried my best to comment it clearly so anyone can understand how it works. Any questions, let me know. You need the canvas plug-in by R0J0hound for this map to work correctly!

    It's not perfect but it beats having to deal with a large and fussy array! I'm sharing it with everyone in hopes that maybe we can polish it up together as a community. From what I've researched, mini maps seem to be a pretty arduous thing to get working in a Metroidvania-type C2 video game. I think this system I set up makes a pretty good alternative but it needs some better polishing by more talented C2 thinkers!

    Please take a look at my help post if you've got the time! how-do-i-create-and-perfect-a-super-metroid-style-mini-map_t180262 I'm asking others for help tips and tricks on what might makes this a more professional mini map. I'm currently trying to get it to work more like Super Metroid (black map that slowly reveals itself through exploration, the "tile" you're map indicator is overlapping flashes displaying your position on map).

  • Is this just a big layout?

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