Game development log #2

Zephyros day 4

Map tiles and player sprites

One of the things I wanted to make different from the demo was to use better graphics and increase the tiles size, instead of use the demo setup (32x32), I wanted to try something bigger, like 64x64 or even 120x120, this way the details will be more visible instead of just pixel art (don't get me wrong, I love pixel art, but I wanted to try something different here).

All these specifications must be changed in Reldens basic configuration (this is going to the documentation as well).

In order to change these you can use the administration panel:

- Go to "Settings" > "Config" > and filter by the "path".

- Or run an update query in the database (which is a better approach if you like to have like a migration or setup script for your own game):

UPDATE `config` SET `value` = 64 WHERE `scope` = 'client' AND (`path` = 'map/tileData/width' OR `path` = 'map/tileData/height');

Since I've duplicated the tiles size, then I need to also duplicate the players size, for now, I will use twice the value from the demo as well (when I get the final player sprite I will set the correct size here):

UPDATE `config` SET `value` = 104 WHERE `scope` = 'client' AND `path` = 'players/size/width';
UPDATE `config` SET `value` = 142 WHERE `scope` = 'client' AND `path` = 'players/size/height';

And also I need to set the player speed (since the tiles are bigger the movement has to be faster):

UPDATE `config` SET `value` = 300 WHERE `scope` = 'client' AND `path` = 'players/physicsBody/speed';
UPDATE `config` SET `value` = 0.06 WHERE `scope` = 'server' AND `path` = 'rooms/world/timeStep';
INSERT INTO `config` (`scope`, `path`, `value`, `type`) VALUES ('server', 'rooms/world/movementSpeed', '300', 2);

UPDATE: don't use the last INSERT, in beta.30 I'm including the config so you should use an UPDATE.

As you can see these values were not matching the tiles size since this is just for the client side where the player sprite includes some empty space on the sides.

Setting up some basic data

Since I've edited the default template (index.html), and renamed the game container from "reldens" to "zephyros", I need to update this info on the config:

UPDATE `config` SET `value` = 'zephyros' WHERE `scope` = 'client' AND `path` = 'gameEngine/parent';
UPDATE `config` SET `value` = 'zephyros' WHERE `scope` = 'client' AND `path` = 'gameEngine/scale/parent';

So, let's populate the database with some basic data (this is where normally the sample data comes handy).

First the level set:

INSERT INTO `skills_levels_set` (`autoFillRanges`, `autoFillExperienceMultiplier`) VALUES (1, NULL);

Then the class path, for which you will need to know the level set ID, so two queries here:

SET @levelSetId = (SELECT `id` FROM `skills_levels_set` LIMIT 1);

INSERT INTO `skills_class_path` (`key`, `label`, `levels_set_id`) VALUES ('base', 'Base', @levelSetId);

Here I've hit another bug, the class path will require an additional image because it's not hitting the player fallback image, so for now I'm duplicating the file:

copy: theme/zephyros/assets/custom/sprites/player-base.png
to: theme/zephyros/assets/custom/sprites/base.png 
which is the `skill_class_path`.`key` value

Next is the initial level:

SET @levelSetId = (SELECT `id` FROM `skills_levels_set` LIMIT 1);
INSERT INTO `skills_levels` (`key`, `label`, `required_experience`, `level_set_id`) VALUES (1, '1', 0, @levelSetId);

With all this we should be ready to give it a try!