Programming a beat 'em up
Hi guys,
I'm about to begin programming a beat 'em up with a small team, and I've been contemplating how to resolve collisions. In games I've made in the past it's been simple, in shoot em ups for example if a bullet hits a ship it damages it without question.
With a beat 'em up however you need a way of defining exactly which part of the character has collided with which part of the other character before you can decide who should be damaged. The first thing that came to my mind was to have 2 spritesheets for each character, one simply containing the character's texture and the other (in which the frames match the first texture exactly) being completely blank apart from coloured areas which represent damaging volumes. Along with a FSM for each character I think this could work, but I'd appreciate any insight you have. It's my first time dealing with any kind of priority system in combat and I think it'll be quite interesting.
Thanks.
I'm about to begin programming a beat 'em up with a small team, and I've been contemplating how to resolve collisions. In games I've made in the past it's been simple, in shoot em ups for example if a bullet hits a ship it damages it without question.
With a beat 'em up however you need a way of defining exactly which part of the character has collided with which part of the other character before you can decide who should be damaged. The first thing that came to my mind was to have 2 spritesheets for each character, one simply containing the character's texture and the other (in which the frames match the first texture exactly) being completely blank apart from coloured areas which represent damaging volumes. Along with a FSM for each character I think this could work, but I'd appreciate any insight you have. It's my first time dealing with any kind of priority system in combat and I think it'll be quite interesting.
Thanks.
Something you may want to read: http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/sywtbapa_animating_basic_attack.php
Also, (IIRC) he talks about the actual collision detection in his set of tuts as well, his graphics are horrid, but the ideas are interesting and helped me learn quite a bit. As far as resolution goes, I would probably define the velocity of attacks and the mass of attacks so you can get realistic(heh) responses from hits on different characters. (force = mass * acceleration)
What are you using for graphics?
Also, (IIRC) he talks about the actual collision detection in his set of tuts as well, his graphics are horrid, but the ideas are interesting and helped me learn quite a bit. As far as resolution goes, I would probably define the velocity of attacks and the mass of attacks so you can get realistic(heh) responses from hits on different characters. (force = mass * acceleration)
What are you using for graphics?
Thanks Ulti.
Were making it in XNA as it's headed for the XBL indie section.
I like your ideas about defining velocity and mass. My method helps determine which parts collide, but if two damaging volumes (like two fists) collide then I do need a way of deciding which wins. It'll be a while until I start programming this anyway as we have only just begun, but I thought it'll probably be the most difficult part to implement so I need to start thinking about it.
Were making it in XNA as it's headed for the XBL indie section.
I like your ideas about defining velocity and mass. My method helps determine which parts collide, but if two damaging volumes (like two fists) collide then I do need a way of deciding which wins. It'll be a while until I start programming this anyway as we have only just begun, but I thought it'll probably be the most difficult part to implement so I need to start thinking about it.
That's awesome, with XNA you can release for windows as well, correct?
I've never done a fighting game, but some of my NPCs in my unreleased had some attacks that were similar in style, so if anyone else has good ideas, theirs would definitely trump mine.
Do you have an artist? What's your time line?
I've never done a fighting game, but some of my NPCs in my unreleased had some attacks that were similar in style, so if anyone else has good ideas, theirs would definitely trump mine.
Do you have an artist? What's your time line?
We have 2 artists, 3 programmers and 1 sfx and music guy. As for a timeline we're not really sure as some of us are unemployed and looking for work, others work full time, so it really just depends how much spare time we can put into it.
And yeah you can release for windows too using XNA.
And yeah you can release for windows too using XNA.
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