Platformer games dominates most of the gaming market. Most indie game developer started with platformer games. I start with this post by discussing how Pinoypixel tackles or stumbles on platformer game level design.

We would be discussing Pinoypixel games by referencing and adding a few details from this devmag how to design levels - blog post. Minero is our first Pinoypixel platformer project prototype, and is our starting point in developing future Pinoypixel platformer games. Below are this things we have note of while building platformer games.

1. Theme. Defining gameplay and artwork theme is key in starting a platformer game. It will dictate the flow of events and the type of mechanics one can put into. Pinoypixel will stick into pixel art graphic theme and gameplay will varies depending on the type of games we try to build.
2. Layout types. There are various layout types for platformer games. These type are important and would also serve as templates for other game types. A few of these layouts are ditch, high ground, narrow c-space, walled, locked and key, fall trap, moving platform, switched platform, water ditch, waterfalls and more.
3. Rough layout. Drawing the entire layout by paper is very important. For us we tried to directly sketch the layout since we already have a pre-defined layouts.
4. Sketch layout. Build the entire layout.
5. Full path layout. Predicting user flow is important in platformer games. The flow indicates the user experience and engagement.
6. Actual layout. Finally build the actual layout.
7. Play level. Play the game and check the mechanics. Mechanics involved such as double jump, jump-thru, walled area, locked doors, wall jumping path and others.
8. Detailed layout. Lastly if the game feel is good, you can further add the other game details. Such as art effects, boss conversation, tutorial notice and monsters.

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Creating world maps is a tedious task. Often times large world maps have performance issues and are difficult to manage. Creating a very large map in one layout, and rendering it in one go consumes a lot of memory. Not to mention if you have collision checks thus adding additional processing cycles on the large tilemap. The solution for this is to create small sized tilemaps and generating them on demand, and destroying the tilemap objects when it is not visible in the screen.

Tilemaps is one of the key features of Construct 2, which helps designers build a resource efficient game world. Despite being handy, it still has some flaws and gaps if not properly used specially for large sized map. This is a template on how to manage tilemaps in local storage for Construct 2, Template: Load and Save Large Tilemaps in Localstorage.

Below are the common challenges in managing large maps in Construct 2.

1. Multiple tilemaps in a layout. People tends to create one big map in a single layout. This process is understandable since it is easier to visualize the entire map. The problem with this approach is the loading size, drawing time and the increased collision checks.
2. Rendering speed. Large maps are difficult to render, and if the maps are also defined in the json files, it also creates an additional overhead loading and reading the files.
3. Auto-generated maps. Some games try to auto-generate maps, such as rouge games, simulation games and open worlds.

Below are the common solutions but are difficult to manage.

1. Storing tilemaps as json. Most people will consider storing their tilemas in json files and loading them when needed, but writing and managing tilemaps on a json is a pain and most of the time doing this approach reduces our productivity.
2. Loading tilemaps on demand. Identifying when and what tilemaps to load is also challenging.

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This last month, January has a few minor changes in the website. A lot of change in the backend and frameworks. Made a few reusable graphic assets. The start of the year should be busy and well motivated.

1. Popover. Improved game modal pop-up over triggers. User can play a decent full screen game on desktop and mobile device.
2. Platform Icons. Removed the mobile direct link, added platform icons instead of text link. Icons are more visible and are neatly presented.
3. Framework. Upgraded Pstahl framework to better manage the backend images and content.

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Liferay is a reboot from an old gamejam from rikoshe. Liferay is a basic scaling game for slash and attack.

• Project Objectives:
  1. Monster balance and attack slash
  2. Scirra arcade score posting
  3. Used background movement effect rather than platformer
• Game Features: Slash and Level-Up and of course when there is a knight there is a princess.
• Graphics: 16 bit open creative content pixel art.
• Production Time: approximately 24 work hours, on-going production.

Check out the game below, share your thoughts and drop some feedbacks in the scirra arcade comments section.

Pinoypixel is a low cost independent game development blog center. It basically just consist of me and my wife. We normally purchase assets! Yes we do purchase our assets and at times we customized them based on our requirements. Despite naming it Pinoypixel, we focused more in technical development rather than creation of graphic content.

For independent developers, knowing ones skill and talent is key to producing acceptable products. Focusing on core skill reduces time and effort. Thus for this entry we are focusing on why developers or us pinoypixel should purchasing assets in website such as itch.io and gamedevmarket is more realistic, instead on manually creating them.

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