Creating The Game - 03/02/2013

This week I have been successful in rendering a map to the screen using some of the art assets that Stephen has given to me. But first as with every week I will be discussing what has been said within the group meeting on Saturday. This week me and Stephen decided that having the character a 32x32 which is the same size as the blocks used within the map would not look right, because of this we decided that a 32x64 sprite would be better used for the character and this is now what Stephen has set about designing. Sam has completed the first complete draft of the level music which now sounds a lot better after the discussion we had last week, there a a few improvements that he decided that he would like to make but after this he will start working on the sound effects that will be used within the game such as for jumping and collecting coins. Andy has finished his initial designs and has started creating some very early flash animations and posters from these designs to see what these will look like and decide from this which one he will be using.

This week I have as described up above managed to render an image of what the map will be like within the game. First of all to do this I created the map image in a program called TileD. This is a very highly praised program as it allows for the creation of 2D maps very quickly and easily using a painting style interface with the tiles that you import. Once the map has been created the program allows you to export the map as a .TMX file which can then be read instantly by Slick2D and then rendered onto the screen. This is only the image of the map first of all though as such there is no collision or any other features within the game. I have also managed to get a representation of the played rendered on the screen, for which I have just used a 32x64 coloured box until such time that I have the actual character sprite from Stephen. This is some major progress as I now know draw images onto the screen with great ease and how to draw these images at certain points. By next week I hope to have movement working with the sprite that Stephen will be sending me during the week.