Because there was some interest in a part 3, of this series, I've written it, and in this part we'll cover creating bounds that the camera can't move beyond. Make sure you've read part 1 and part 2 before continuing.
In case you're wondering what I mean by this, I mean restricting the movement of the camera to a "box", as in, having minimum and maximum x/y coordinates for the camera. This comes in handy when you're following players, for example, and you don't want the camera to show any of the stuff beyond the level (usually blackness) when the player comes to an edge. Now of course, movement bounding can get much more complicated than a simple rectangle, you restrict it to certain paths and the like, but we're going to keep it simple here.
Read moreIn this post I'm going to be showing you origins when drawing stuff in Love2D. First of all, what are origins? They specify the offset for the origin of the object's x/y coordinates. In other words, if you specify the x origin to be 20, the object will be drawn 20 pixels to the left, as in x - 20. It's the same for the y origin: if we have a y origin of 20, the object will be drawn 20 pixels up, as in y - 20.
This allows us to do many useful things. First of all, if we have an object with centre based coordinates (like physical bodies), instead of drawing like this:
Read moreFrom April 29 to May 2 Ludum Dare 20 has been going on. For those who don't know, the main competition involves making a game based on a certain theme in a 48 period; tough call. Hundreds of developers have a shot at this every four months, and I thought I'd give it a try. In this post, I'm going to write about my experience in it, and the lessons I learnt. I'll let you know now, however, the end result was me pulling out not long after half-way.
So anyway, I started when the competition was about 6 or 7 hours in. My plan was to use the Love2D engine, along with a personal framework I'd written for it. The theme was "It s Dangerous to go Alone! Take this!" So my first idea was to have sort of dangerous test facility which was pitch black with darkness (making it dangerous to go all alone), and you're given a light or something (the "this") to see your way through. Well that didn't work too well, so I switch the character to a rolling ball, and made "this" the ability to propel yourself in any which way.
Read moreIn part 1 we constructed a basic camera. Now we're going to extend it by adding some parallax scrolling. Note that the method I'll use is probably not the prettiest, as I came up with it in half an hour. Nevertheless, this will be a starting point for you to develop your own system.
Now, for those who don't know, what is parallax scrolling? It's a way to get a pseudo-3D effect while still have all graphics and gameplay based in 2D. It's currently used very widely among 2D games, as it adds a sense of depth that normally isn't there.
Read moreThis is the first of a couple of blogs on creating cameras in the LÖVE engine. This part will deal with the fundamentals of creating a camera. Part two will deal with parallax scrolling and creating layers. So, let's get to it!
Update: I've actually ended up writing a part 3, which covers restricting camera movement.
Read moreI've been working on a little game (in the LÖVE game engine), which for now I'm calling "Launcher". The core gameplay mechanic is this: you are a circle, which can stick to certain surfaces, and then launch yourself at great speed off them in the direction of the mouse. It's completely controlled by the mouse, you aim with it, and the distance between the player and the mouse determines the speed of launch.
On my YouTube channel I've already posted three gameplay videos of the work done so far. Here's the first:
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