yes, i get the image copy idea. don’t see any advantage over separate sprites if you have them. and yes, i’m checking out avail sprite stuff.
@RonJeffries - I just prefer to load a single file, not multiple files which give you the mess in the filing system and the pain of going through the asset load system for each one. Once setup for a Sprite sheet you can forget it.
yes, i can see it would cut down the asset pile. i’ll try a sprite sheet if i get a chance.
@RonJeffries - on another front I have been following your Dungeon programming and noticed you have introduced new sprites. They really lift the appearance of the project. Can I make a suggestion - the new sprites highlight exits/entrances much better. I find that displaying a rectangle of sprites could save room beyond the central area - extending the passages complicates the screen. Filling in the ‘external areas’ with soil/Earth/stone I find presents a better effect. Something like a 11/7 width to height. Worth a look.
The passages extend when your view allows you to see part way down them. I’ve seen games where you just see the room or hallway you’re in. I’m trying going another way, to see what happens.
I’m glad you’re following along. That makes maybe five people. 
Thanks!
Mind you, I’m not totally sure quite what your suggestion is. Have you a screen shot of a game that does as you suggest?
@RonJeffries - this is an old game I remember from my Amiga days. The central screen holds the game position, surrounded by controls and artwork. In this case it’s just a room but movement of the character scrolls the background leaving the main character in the centre, viewed in this case from above. So you see corridors, doors and objects as the character ‘moves’.
so as applied to my game, are you saying you’d prefer a simple rectangle all the time?
@RonJeffries - hmmm, in a word yes. But, that is my vision of where you are going. Not yours or that of your Zoom Crowd. I’m just an observer trying to learn and throw in the occasional crumb.
I was on your wavelength when you were working on Space Invaders and Asteroids - Classics. But I am not that familiar with the early adventure style games - I don’t know what the ‘remit’ is for your group here so I fire in ideas taken from my own Classic adventures.
I think a simple rectangle with graphics of the sort you have introduced together with a small rectangular map (including just the surrounding area not the whole map) would be more interesting. But, as I say, just my own view from what I have seen.
@RonJeffries - Oh, another thought. In your approach there is only one level. Each time you run the game it is new. So one element of adventures is not included - that of progress. Putting levels behind you that you have satisfactorily completed. Half of the enjoyment in these kind of games is dialog with other users on how you got past a particular stage - ever played Tomb Raider. In cases like that the levels are fixed, the obstacles may differ slightly and each level is scattered with foes, energy boost, keys and puzzles. The whole package is what makes it buzz!!!
Hi … somewhere deep in the 74 articles so far, I mention that we need to do levels. I doubt that I’d ever do fixed ones, those are mostly just work with little learning, from a programming viewpoint.
As for the remit … I’m just having fun, following my nose and showing what programming is like for me, someone who has done it for years, hoping to draw a few lessons.
Today, I’m going to create some new loot. And I think I’ll discuss an interesting problem for a game being built like this one. But I never know for sure what I’ll do on a given day.
Thanks for following along and I sincerely appreciate your comments. They will guide me even if I don’t do exactly what you—or anyone—says.
R
@RonJeffries - Picking up on your thoughts on where to place entrance and exit positions - you could introduce doors/gates. You could conceivably place the hero in the next room to the exit/end bad guy. To get there the hero has to find the appropriate key. Which means tramping thought the maze to find keys (for other doors) power ups and loot. But this could be a major issue in programming - where to place all the objects. Glad I’m not programming this - your expertise needed there I think!
yes, those are issues, and one of the oddities is that my maze can have double width or wider hallways, making doors … interesting.
@RonJeffries - yes, I’ve noticed many of your rooms have multiple entrances/exits. So you would probably need coloured gates and colour coded keys.
This all adds to the complexity of the maze and challenges other than bash the baddies - also making it more addictive.
Also, after expiring, it means the enthusiastic hero has to go back to the beginning of the level and start again. So you need to consider saved game/level with points other things to consider are boosting the hero with enhanced weapons, health and invulnerability spells/elixirs etc. But that’s a long way yet. Are these in your overall plan?
Yes, we’ll want to do something about the permadeath thing, although in the original rogue like games permadeath is a thing. I don’t care for it though.
In the past couple of articles I started some simple loot, providing strength, health, and speed. Playing with those today, I was too powerful, could kick any monster’s tail. So I think some power-ups need to decline fairly rapidly.
The possibilities are endless. I’m not here to build a game, but to explore what happens when you build a game, so I’m sure to skip over some boring bits.