[Disc] What is the definition of an art-based game?
The post is basically in the title. What is the definition of an art-based game? I'm making something which takes things that I draw in flash (calling it art would be a mistake, with the way I draw) and builds a game around them. Is this what art-based means?
Usually, one of the biggest defining factors that make an art based game in flash is heavy use of point vs shape collision. If you're talking about your blob engine, I'd call it art based regardless, as it uses no tiles, bitmaps or geometric collision detection.
Commonly art-based game has vector graphics and uses hittest method for collisions. But it is used mostly for platformers where 2 usual engines exist (art based and tile based).
Ah, I figured it was something like that. Although I'm still not entirely clear on the difference between art and tile based. I suspect that my engine will really be somewhere between the two by the time I am done.
art based = drawing level in Flash, and prey that the collision checking will work- though there are already some nice soloutions
tile based = whole level fits in a grid and is designed in a text editor or mappy as array/xml structure. The advantage is that you can better predict wich tile will be when visible + alot of old famous games used it (mario, zelda, sonic, metroid,...)
super tile based = again tiles but in various sizes thus they dont fit into a same grid- almost like Working in Flash except that it usually is defined as well in arrays or xmls wich tile on wich x/y pos goes, strille´s word on it
3d polygon engine = filling triangles with bitmaps and sorting their depths,- data is stored as vertex points, face with vertex id´s, texture coordinates and texture faces- usually as a specific 3d file format or arrays.
on a sidenote: alot art based engines are on a technology level of flash 5 meaning they still use the old mechanics of onClipEvent(load){..onClipEvent(enterFrame){.. and a few hitTest stuff. I assume this is partly Flashkit.com´s fault for not cleaning up the movies section.
art based = drawing level in Flash, and prey that the collision checking will work- though there are already some nice soloutions
tile based = whole level fits in a grid and is designed in a text editor or mappy as array/xml structure. The advantage is that you can better predict wich tile will be when visible + alot of old famous games used it (mario, zelda, sonic, metroid,...)
super tile based = again tiles but in various sizes thus they dont fit into a same grid- almost like Working in Flash except that it usually is defined as well in arrays or xmls wich tile on wich x/y pos goes, strille´s word on it
3d polygon engine = filling triangles with bitmaps and sorting their depths,- data is stored as vertex points, face with vertex id´s, texture coordinates and texture faces- usually as a specific 3d file format or arrays.
on a sidenote: alot art based engines are on a technology level of flash 5 meaning they still use the old mechanics of onClipEvent(load){..onClipEvent(enterFrame){.. and a few hitTest stuff. I assume this is partly Flashkit.com´s fault for not cleaning up the movies section.
Yeah, I guess mine would be art based, then... The data is all stored in an Array, although it was originally generated using hittests. (with the same general method as in the link you provided, although mine is a bit more complicated.)
I don't know, I don't think people recognize how much is possible with the method I'm using. I guess that means that it's up to me to show them. Hopefully I'm qualified for the job. (I'm not)
Wes, as someone who uses art based a lot, the potential of your engine really got me thinking (though I'm not 100% sure how you achieve it.) I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.
Art based seems to sometimes be used as a dirty word around here, but I personally like the look of artbased games a lot more. Tilebased games almost always LOOK tilebased.
Artbased games however have serious issues with filesizes, so flash tends to gravitate to the much more economical (for speed and filesize) tile games.
I'm pretty sure you can combine the two and still have the same performance. Use art-based for the visual part, but use tiles for your collision and object spawn layer.
Hrm. Interesting distinction Ray. Wouldn't that tie you to only having certain angles for slopes and such though? Only the ones that you have tiles for?
When I think tilebased I think mario, zelda, sonic, etc... all of those had VERY visible tiles.
I've done the hybrid scroller as suggested by Ray on a couple of games, and it works well if you're in a situation where the designer is making a lot of amends, or is behind on the asset delivery.
So long as the map structure itself doesn't change too much, you can leave them to it and then just drop the image in there when it's done ( A good example is the car tail game I did for the Spooks games ( http://www.spooksmi5.info/ ). The actual display is art based, just a big dumb bitmap, but behind all that it's "tile" based, so I could use simple path finding etc. ).
@Alluvian: You just need a wide enough variety of "slope" tiles, that you pretty much cover any variety of shapes. Cool Spot and other side scrollers from Virgin Games (early 90's) for example used the set of slope tiles attached here (16x16) pixels.
Wow, I post the actual slope detection tile set used in the games Cool Spot, Aladdin, Global Gladiators, Jungle Book, probably Earthworm Jim, etc and no response! wow
Wow, I post the actual slope detection tile set used in the games Cool Spot, Aladdin, Global Gladiators, Jungle Book, probably Earthworm Jim, etc and no response! wow
That's the problem. If you want attention it cannot be actual, has to be speculative and it has to have AS3, AS4, 3D and Demo, somewhere in there.
@Alluvian: You just need a wide enough variety of "slope" tiles, that you pretty much cover any variety of shapes. Cool Spot and other side scrollers from Virgin Games (early 90's) for example used the set of slope tiles attached here (16x16) pixels.
Interesting, thanks!
I was thinking to use a similar way to do slope tiles in my engine.
Where did you get the original collision tileset?
I thought the tileset was neat, but didn't have anything to add, sorry I didn't respond.
Honestly I have not looked into tile based collision yet so I would not even know where to start to use that tileset (other than tonyPA's site of course). I just don't have much interest in making a platformer myself (I don't think I have much to add to the genre).
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Originally Posted by Ray Beez
