EL405: Advancing Antarctica

While working in the Game Factory 2 on my Dodge Intrepid game, I spent my last session crafting the Antarctica level. Because of the time frame involved in developing these games I don�t have the time to craft all of the graphics for these levels.

In GF2, it�s best to make the graphics first and then define them as platforms so that the player characters don�t fall off the screen. If you don�t have the time just yet to create proper graphics, but you still want to get a working demo, just create a colored rectangle object and define it as the platform. I used this method, first showed to me by Dr. Jerz, to set up my level. I created all of the platforms using gray rectangles, and then I would find the graphics I needed and lay them on top of the gray. The character will still be walking on the gray boxes, but the player wouldn�t be able to tell.

The Pro edition of GF2 comes with a number of cool textures and characters preinstalled in its library. While a lot of them are made specifically for a certain kind of game, the platforms and wall textures can be used for almost anything. I found a number of �crystal level� textures that I was able to shift to look like an ice cave. So I just laid those into the scenery and then re-edited them so that they would become active objects (the idea that these textures are �quick backgrounds� that can�t be changed to active objects still befuddles me).

Another trick that makes creating platforms a lot quicker is the qualifier property. If you make a rule that a certain character or object cannot pass through something with the property of 0 for example, then you can assign a whole bunch of objects with this 0 qualifier and you save yourself a lot of time coding. Sounds confusing, and for some reason you can�t use the qualifier option on everything, but it�s great when it works.