I am going to make a game like XNA example game "Platformer1" which comes with the XNA. But I need longer levels which doesn't fit in the screen (like Super Mario levels). How can I manage this kind of level? Do I need to use a 2d camera that follows the sprite? If I do this way how can I load the level? I am a bit confused and I am not sure if I could explain my problem clearly. Hope someone can help?
5 Answers
3
votes
The tutorial based on Platformer Starter Kit in MSDN has a step Adding a Scrolling Level which guides you through creation of longer levels. The tutorial is very detailed, I highly recommend it.
I couldn't find the tutorial in the section for XNA Game Studio 4.0, but differences should be minimal. According to the comment at the bottom of the page, all you need to change is replace
spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.AlphaBlend, SpriteSortMode.Immediate, SaveStateMode.None, cameraTransform);
with
spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Immediate, BlendState.AlphaBlend, SamplerState.LinearClamp, DepthStencilState.Default, RasterizerState.CullCounterClockwise, null, cameraTransform);
in the tutorial code.
2
votes
If you want to create a side scrolling game, then I would look into parallax scrolling. A quick google/bing will help you find lots of tutorials. Also, another useful tip is to search YouTube for XNA videos has we a lot of posters share their source code .
Here is a link to Microsofts Parallax Scrolling.
1
votes
Sounds like you have a few problems ahead of you.
But I need longer levels which doest'n fit in the screen(like super mario levels). How can I manage this kind of levels.
There are several ways to do this, but a fairly easy way would be to have a 2d array (or sparse array, depending on how large your levels are) of a class named Tile that stores info about the tile image, animation, ...whatever.
Yes, you'll probably want a "camera". This can be as simple as only drawing a certain range of that array or a more featured camera that uses transforms to zoom out and translate across your level.
Hopefully this will help get you started.
1
votes
I've done a decent amount of work in XNA, and from my experience, there are 2 ways to draw a 2D scene:
1) Strictly 2D. This method is much easier, but has a few limitations. There is no "camera" per se, what you do is move everything underneath the fixed 2D "camera". I say "camera" in quotes because the camera is fixed (as far as I know). The upside is that it's easy, the downside is that you can't easily zoom in or out or do other camera effects.
2) 2D in 3D. Set up a 3D world with a 2D plane. This is more flexible, but is also more challenging to work with because you will need to set up a 3D world and 3D camera. If this is your first attempt with making a game, I would highly recommend against this method.
I'm really only familiar with the strictly 2D method, and you would want a list of map objects that have a 2D coordinate. You would also want to store which section of the map you are looking at, I do this with a Rectangle or Vector2 that stores this. This value would move forward as the character moves. You can then take your 2D map objects' coordinate and subtract the (X,Y) of the top-left of what you are looking at to determine an object's screen position. So:
float screenX = myMapObject.X - focusPoint.X;
float screenY = myMapObject.Y - focusPoint.Y;
An other thing to note, use floats or Vector2/3 to store locations, you may not think it's required now, but it will be down the line.
It might be overkill, but my SF project uses XNA to draw a Strictly 2D scene that you can move around: http://sourceforge.net/projects/asteroidoutpost/
I hope this helps.
0
votes
Have a look at Nick Gravelyns tutorials. They helped me tonne when I was first starting out - Really really worth a look for learning a lot on 2D games.
All the videos are now on youtube here
