Rhindon's Forum Posts

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    The Getaway is a "unique" racing game in that the opposition comes in the form of time and the assortment of enemies and obstacles found.

    Held captive by a mysterious villain, the Driver must navigate an enclosed cityscape to survive and escape to freedom. With complete freedom to navigate the city, the Driver must complete a series of missions in the hope of outwitting his captor and leave the giant prison. Further, the Driver can explore the city to find clues as to the truth behind his capture and the nature of the city.

    Features

    These are aspects to the game I hope to include, though the cutting room floor is sure to be filled...

    • Multi-level roadways - Using layer scaling and Z-elevation in creative ways, a sense of depth will be crucial to the level design and graphical presentation.
    • Hi-speed missions - Each of the main missions will feature a race against time as the Driver seeks to achieve his goals. Quick reflexes will be needed to navigate the city as the Driver pushes the pedal to the metal. If time runs out, it's only the beginning of the end as the Driver must then face off against an increased set of challenges all while still trying to complete the mission.
    • Drive + Run - The obstacles and enemies will leave a toll on the Driver's car. But just because the car takes one too many hits doesn't mean it's automatically game over. The Driver will have the option to get out on foot to find alternate vehicles to drive. But this will leave the Driver severely vulnerable...

    Themes

    The themes of the game could probably fit all under the "do or die" mantra...except on four wheels (and sometimes two legs).

    • Fast, constant tension
    • You're not racing to be first, but to survive
    • Exploration is the key to solving the mystery
    • Time is a patient enemy

    Tagged:

  • jobel - I wanted to avoid using additional layers because, with z-el now a feature, it's unnecessary by-and-by. At least, if there's a better way to accomplish the visual effect I'm hoping to achieve. It's more details to manage and it can get rather cluttered in my mind.

    oosyrag - Ah okay. I'll try those effects instead. Thanks!

  • Sorry slightly offtopic, but that looks great! Hopefully you want to do a tutorial some day (in high concept form - to save time).

    Good luck!

    I appreciate that, very much! Thank you!

  • I was hoping to avoid having to use so many layers, but, ah well. Worth a shot. Thanks!

  • My game is a top-down view of a circular environment with a center pillar...Basically, imagine a gladiator pit in the shape of a donut.

    Using Z-elevation on multiple instances of the inner- and outer-ring wall objects, I've created a pseudo-3D arena effect. Works almost perfectly!

    But to really drive effect home, I want to implement the blur effect that happens when objects in the distances or up close - whatever is not in the focus view (like how movies do for people in the distance or up close) - are blurred. The focus is primarily on the ground level. So that would mean that the closer you get to the camera (assuming it's waaaay up there above the arena) the more the top of the walls and pillar becomes blurred.

    I tried using gradual intensity settings for each layer of the center pillar but the results weren't quite what I intended.

    I was hoping for some suggestions on the settings I could use.

    Thank you, kindly.

  • Doh!!! So obvious... Thanks for that. I'll test it out when I get home. Thank you!

  • Objects in question: Enemy (sprite) and Enemy_Life_Piece (also a sprite, dubbed ELP for this post).

    Event lines under the Enemies Group starting at event line 7.

    .c3p file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mDQ7d1IbTZcVgGcrrNBfhL89J9rvi-wt

    Controls: Arrow keys to move, spacebar to fire

    (Allow a few seconds to pass for Enemies to spawn from the center pillar in the game environment. Their movement system has been disabled for testing. They will spawn and stop once they are no longer overlapping the center ring. Up to a max of ten Enemies will appear around the edges of the center ring.)

    When an Enemy is spawned, the ELP is auto-spawned with it because they are in a container together. The Enemy has up to six stages (from a triangle to an octagon) with its own HP at each stage. The ELP is a kind of "health gauge" for each stage which "fills in" each of the slices of the Enemy's current shape (eg: if it's in its triangle stage, the ELP will show three transparent triangle slices). As the Enemy gets hit, the HP will drain and the animation frames of the ELP will display accordingly. So if the Enemy has a max HP of 75 and has only 25 HP or so left, only one triangle slice should be displayed via the ELP.

    Now, this system works in as far as continual attacks go. The problem I'm having is that when the Enemy is initially spawned, the ELP does not display correctly. In fact, it won't display correctly at all until it is reduced in its stage. If it starts out at the square stage, reducing it to the triangle stage will result in the ELP displaying correctly as the Enemy's HP is continually drained.

    I can't figure out why this is happening... Can anyone see what I'm missing?

    Thank you.

  • Oh!! That must be it! I had forgotten that z-el had a base limit of 0. I was setting it to 0.25 and THAT'S why it didn't seem smaller/father away than the "twin" object above on the layer atop.

    That explains everything.

  • That shouldn't make a difference here. One 9patch item is the only object on an entire layer. The other, its "twin" is at the bottom of the other (which is also z-elevation=0). The one on its own layer is below the other layers altogether.

  • Am I missing something here? I have a 9patch object with a 0.25 Z-elevation value but compared to another 9patch object which is like its twin (minus color and layer differences...layers are ultimately the same, just different ones), there appears to be no distinction.

    Nothing I do to the 9patch object in question seems to affect it other than setting its size to that of the layout (the other 9patch also is the same size so one overlaps the other equally). Curiously, the opacity works fine, too. But there is no difference in the Z Elevation.

    Am I missing something here? Are 9patch objects an exception? ...which is silly to ask, I know, because it allows me to SET the Z Elevation value...soooo...I'm at a loss here.

    Tagged:

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  • Thank you. I cannot believe I forgot about that detail. I'll test it when I get home.

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  • .cp3 link https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RBqWtX3ymDUtZAPNY82qM4IW7BTPuDK5

    WHAT YOU'LL SEE: Looking top-down, you'll see grey squares ("Ceiling tiles") falling down at random rates. Z Elevation is basically being reduced each. The purple shape is the Player Character (use WASD or arrow keys to move and B to jump). The red/pink circles are Energy Bases and have the Solid behavior.

    THE GOAL: As the Tiles descend, they'll come within range of the Player's ability to jump above them. The idea is to be able to jump on top of them and make it appear as if the Player is actually standing on top of a Tile. However, if the Tile is clearly too low, the Player's max jump height is cut short. ...Like Mario Bros but with a different camera angle.

    CURRENT ISSUE: The problem I discovered is that if the Player is overlapping at least 2 Tiles, I have no clear way to discern which one is the lower one. Off the top of my head (meaning, not yet tested), I could stuff all the Z Elevation values into an array and sort then pick by ascending/descending values, but I'm wondering if there's an easier way.

    Further, I discovered (tested) that even when overlapping just one Tile, the Player still can jump up and through it. So my effects to use Clamp( ) doesn't seem to have any effect.

    I was hoping someone could help me identify if my current set up is off or if I need an entirely new approach. Thanks!