My first platformer

[Z_Blade]

Hello, Clickteam. I'm new to the world of making games and, since MMF2 costs money (which I don't have ATM ._.'), I recently downloaded AGS to try and make a game. Unfortunately, it didn't meet my needs. That's when I learned MMF2 has a free demo, which I just recently downloaded.

This program seems to have all that I need to make my game. The trouble is, the included tutorial only teaches how to make that basic Breakout-style game.

I'm totally stuck. I've figured out some real simple things, like editting and animating sprites, as well as inputting movement (kinda), but I can't even lay down a functioning platform: I fall right through it like it's in the background.

Is there a platformer-making tutorial for a simple scrolling platformer? If not, I'll try to make due by myself, but I have a lot of questions I'm gonna need answered.

I apologize if there's already a topic like this (I bet there is.) that I missed, but as someone who dreams of one day making games for a big company like Nintendo or Konami, I really need your assistance. Please help a newbie out.

~Blade

[Renatos]

Hi Z_Blade. If you look on the file archive section of the forum, you will find many tutorials written from users here at CT! MMF2 is a great program and It has everything you need to create your platformer. Here is a link I found with a platformer engine

http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=54&Number=71073& Searchpage=1&Main=10248&Words=platformer&topic=0&S earch=true#Post71073

[Chaos]

Also, the 2 commented platformer examples I created are at the bottom of this thread:

http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=81502#Post81502

and once you get more familliar with MMF2 I would highly recommend DavidN's custom platform example that can be found in the tutorial section to the right side bar at the top -->

Cheers

[Z_Blade]

Thank you both so much for being so helpful to a newbie. Just downloading your link, Renatos, didn't just give me a working platform engine, but it also showed me what I was doing wrong the first time: I thought 'Static Movement' meant the selected sprite would be active, but not move at all, likea stationary enemy or obstacle, so I kept selecting 'Platform(er[?]) Movement,' thinking that would create a platformer engine that I could put my active sprite on...

Anyway, enough rambling. Thanks to you too, Chaos, for recommending DavidN's platform tutorial. It scared me at first, but I skimmed over it again, and it looks like it'll be a big help later in the game when I try incorporating power-ups that let the player walk up walls and on ceilings. Sweet, but... uh... I'll save that for later. >.>;

Thanks once more to both of you. You guys really made me feel welcome and less nervous about using MMF2. ^^; But, uh... one last thing: If/when I have anymore questions, should I post them here in this topic, or is there a specific place to ask questions about making a platformer/action-adventure game (I'm not sure what's the proper term for a Metroid-ish platformer as opposed to a sidescroller.)?

[Chaos]

This forum is generally for tech support for MMF2 like if you are having crashing problems, or something similar, but I know lots of questions like this end up here, so it's a bit of a mixed bag.

I would suggest using the Community Center http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm&c=4 for posts with general creation questions and the like.

Metroid-vania (My favorite genre), I beleive is the term you are looking for.

[James]

To clarify, if you have questions about MMF2 as a program and how to use it (how can I implement X into my game), post in this forum.

If you have game design questions (should I do X or post in the community centre.

[Z_Blade]

Metroid-vania (My favorite genre), I beleive is the term you are looking for.

THAT'S it. The focus is more on explorable 2-D levels with multiple goals than mazes that you get hopelessly lost in, but yeah, that's the phrase I was looking for.

Anyway, I checked the Community Forum, and it looks more like a place for games themselves than the making of them, so I'll stay here for now.

That having been said, I tweaked the sprites in that Platform Engine so that the active sprite is Mario (Yes, I'm making a Mario fangame. Shut up. -.-), and I gave him stationary and walking sprites. The thing is, he won't walk. He either walks in-place (Direction Options, Repeat and not Loop), or he walks a little bit and then zaps back to the start (Directional Options, Loop and not Repeat), essentially just covering the same small area over and over again. More strange is that, while he can't walk any more than an inch, he can clear the entire expanse of the screen just fine when jumping and moving in mid-air.

What did I do to cause this? Walking worked fine before I editted the sprites, and they're all I touched.

[Chaos]

check your sprites properties and make sure that 'fine detection' is turned off. That should fix what sounds to be your problem if you can move fine while jumping. That is why most people use a square or rectangle as thier actual player object, and then just put a fancy sprite attached to that - so that way the animations don't interfere with the movement engine.

Thanks Jamie - thats what I meant.

[Z_Blade]

That did it. Thanks, Chaos. The movement is a bit jerky (Mario seems to stop for a fraction of a second everytime he travels the distance of a single full walking animation), but other than that, walking (and jumping) seem to work fine now.

[Z_Blade]

I mean that when I press and hold Right, he walks right for one animation, and then when the animation is complete, he stops walking for a fraction of a second before the animation... animates again, and then he continues walking.

As for the coding, I've changed nothing but the animation of walking. Everything else is the same as the base Platform Engine I used, which is this: http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=54&Number=71073& Searchpage=1&Main=10248&Words=platformer&topic=0&S earch=true#Post71073