The iPhone Project

[Gan]

Animation in general is fine, has always been. Just not so with characters, tiles, and other pieces of the game that are already made and working. We can animate characters later but it's unnecessary at the moment. Not essential, though spells are. I'm partially through the new battle system and I would have posted a video but ran out of time. Now I'm bringing this message to you in the middle of class from an iPhone.


-Gan

[WarHampster]

Fair enough, but how would this lightning animation work? The player will (I assume) be able to cast lightning in any direction at enemies at a distance, so making lightning sprites won't work (unless you were planning on stretching the images, but that wouldn't look too good). For lightning at least it would be more efficient to code the effect using particles or something.

[Silverwind]

I think you can display specified portions of an image.

[Gan]

I've thought through every nook and cranny with this and have found a way.
With a 480x36 lightning bolt it'll be able to reach the furthest parts of the screen. Using some trig I can make a right triangle with the player as the origin and bad guy as the opposite point. Using that I need to find the hypotenuse and I can do that with trig or pythagorean's theorem. The lightning bolt will be riding the hypotenuse so that'll be the length. By changing the lightning bolt's image size I can chop it to the right size so there'll be no need for resizing. Thus the image is preserved.
Now I have the right size of the bolt I need to rotate it towards the bad guy and place it so. Using cos I can get the angle of rotation. Set rotation with the the correct size and bingo!
One perfect quality lightning bolt to be used freely at your disposal.
I can use this method for other beams and even thrown objects like arrows and fireballs.


-Gandolf

[Silverwind]

I get the logic, but that trig stuff sails right over my head. Good stuff anyways!

[EqwanoX]

or you could have the lightning cast from above the enemy and eliminate all that math

[Gan]

True, though would that be more fun to implement? I think not!
All this math and the amazing things it can do just gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Besides how much cooler would it be to shoot lightning out of your hands at an enemy instead of bringing it down from the heavens?


-Gan
P.S. Think Oberin.

[Tireas Dragon]

I've thought through every nook and cranny with this and have found a way.
With a 480x36 lightning bolt it'll be able to reach the furthest parts of the screen. Using some trig I can make a right triangle with the player as the origin and bad guy as the opposite point. Using that I need to find the hypotenuse and I can do that with trig or pythagorean's theorem. The lightning bolt will be riding the hypotenuse so that'll be the length. By changing the lightning bolt's image size I can chop it to the right size so there'll be no need for resizing. Thus the image is preserved.
Now I have the right size of the bolt I need to rotate it towards the bad guy and place it so. Using cos I can get the angle of rotation. Set rotation with the the correct size and bingo!

That is most efficient and an excellent use of trigonometry BTW.

[Gan]

Yeah, trying to make it as cpu in-expensive as possible.

So would anyone like to try their hand at making graphics for the new battle systems such as lightning, fireballs, arrows, or anything else that you would think would fit in?
Doesn't have to be animated if you don't want to make it that way but it would be cool.


-Gan

[Silverwind]

I've never done animations, but if I can spare some spare time I'll give it a shot.

[WarHampster]

I'll do it this weekend.

[Gan]

Awesome   Until then I'll use my cruddy lightning bolt as a stand-in. Have Independent Programming class tomorrow. I expect to get lots done. (I'll mostly be working on the Sorcerer's battle system, might make it to the Markman's)


-Gan

[j]

Ah, no prob, I was just wondering whether or not to upload the PSD. Here's a flat copy anyways:



Any good?

Just a small, knit-picky UI suggestion:

I would switch your button order so PLAY is on the left and DELETE is on the right. YES/NO and OK/CANCEL button pairs are usually displayed in that order, so I'd say it's what people are used to. I'd hate to accidently delete my game because of muscle memory. If you prefer having PLAY "on the end" then I would just flip the whole layout; buttons on the left (PLAY/DELETE) and the save files listed down the right.

[Swamp7hing]

Awesome.
When can I start mapping.  

[Gan]

Just a small, knit-picky UI suggestion:
 
I would switch your button order so PLAY is on the left and DELETE is on the right. YES/NO and OK/CANCEL button pairs are usually displayed in that order, so I'd say it's what people are used to. I'd hate to accidently delete my game because of muscle memory. If you prefer having PLAY "on the end" then I would just flip the whole layout; buttons on the left (PLAY/DELETE) and the save files listed down the right.

I'm not so sure. The whole game is mostly right thumb oriented. The right thumb rides along the right side of the iDevice, it'd be easier to tap Play which is right next to the right thumb. Though if the player used an index finger then that could lead to trouble.
Solution: I shall implement a pop up window that asks if they are sure they wish to delete the game file.

Awesome.  
When can I start mapping.

That's up to WH, I'm ready for maps at any time you guys are.


-Gan