Wrapping up the parallax tool for dynamic backgrounds #pixelart #gamedev #indiegamedev

Here's what it looks like in practice. I'm navigating the tile context with the WASD keys, and clicking to place a tile when the correct tile is selected.

I also added keybindings to the tile context, so you can quickly select nearby tiles to paint.

But now when you're painting tiles, you can see the tile *context*, on the right, for the selected tile. This tile context comes from the tileset itself, so you can see more of how the artist intends for the tile to be used, based on its surrounding tiles.

When placing tiles in a map, this problem makes it very difficult to find the tile that fits in a missing spot, because the tiles in the tile palette are basically jumbled together.

Like this corner piece. It's easy to see what it's connected to when you see it in the original tileset. But in the object palette, it's much harder to tell.

Took a break from the story and dialogue editors to do a small quality-of-life update to tilesets.

Here's the problem: tiles in the palette (the bottom half of the screen), which have been sliced from a tileset (the top half), lose their spatial context to other tiles.

We're in the process of packing and moving. Updates to the dialogue/story system coming once I'm settled in to the new place.

The reflection layer is doing quite a lot of work 😅

Wrapping up a 1965 Lincoln Continental for... reasons... #pixelart #gamedev #indiegamedev

made my engine visualize depth. looks neat 📸 #gamedev #indiegame #indiegamedev

[5/5] The solution is to give objects multiple Zs. One Z can be higher up on the tent, so the player is always in front. Another Z can be lower, at the doorway, so that when the player crosses over, they disappear inside. This is what the new Z tool allows.

[4/5] And if we set the tent's Z to be higher up, the player is correctly in front of the tent, but then they can't enter the tent 🥲

[3/5] The tent is an example of where this breaks. Its Z needs to be at the doorway, so that it can be entered/exited. But then when the player walks next to the tent, they go behind it, because they are higher than the doorway. It looks weird, right?

[2/5] Usually, the Z-index is synced with the object's vertical position. So if the player is further down in the map, it increases their Z, which puts them in front of objects that are higher up in the map.

[1/5] Have you ever seen the Z-buffer in a 2d game? 👀🤯

A Z-index tells the engine if an object in front of or behind the player. If the player's Z is greater than the object's Z, the player is in front. If the player's Z is less than the object's Z, the player is behind.

How can I commission something?

"Why are you making your own engine and editor instead of using Unity/Godot/Unreal etc?"

Mainstream engines let a team build & publish a game. Get Lost lets *anyone* make new content (art/story/code) for an already-published game.

#gamedev #indiegame #indiegamedev

As well as control the speed of time

I added some debugging controls to advance time #gamedev #indiegamedev

I'm applying for a local artist grant in this very thing...

I finished adding collisions back to the engine, and you can see them working in the level preview tab. I've also added engine visualizations to help you debug things like collisions.

As a side note, the collision editor is generalized enough to handle concave shapes, separate "islands" of shapes, and shapes with holes. [4/4]

The painted collision shape is converted into triangles in order to work in the game engine, but this process is hidden from you. You just need to worry about painting the collision area accurately. [3/4]

Some people think that the collision shape should be the object's outline, but that's often not the case. The collision shape should be where the object touches the ground, otherwise the player would be blocked from walking behind it. [2/4]

🧵 I just completed the collision editor. The collision editor lets level creators mark parts of an object that block the player from moving. [1/4] #gamedev #indiegamedev #indiegame

Game quality over number of polygons should be a metric #zelda #gamedev #indiegamedev

It's getting closer. The engine can now read editor assets.

#gamedev #indiegamedev #indiegame