What way should I approach my game?

[Brinith]

Well I am making a Pokemon based single player game. Now, I am creating the maps. Should I create a form for every map? There is going to be 4 towns and 20 someodd maps, so about 24 map in total. Or should I make it the 20 maps all in the same form and the all the towns the same form? If the latter is better then please show me an example of how to use the form for multiple maps.

[Niya]

Stop thinking about Forms and maps as being connected. They are not. The maps would be game data and a Form would be analogous to the canvas upon which you render any of the maps you want. So no, you don't need 20 Forms for 20 maps. One Form would do.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Right. One form where the surface of the form is where the elements that make up the map are drawn.

[dday9]

Also, idk how much knowledge you have in xna, but XNA 4.0 now supports vb.net 2010. You can create 2d and 3d games with xna.

[Brinith]

So instead of placing the items on the form, you would type it all in code for each one and display one of them each time on the same form? Also should I create the game first or make the actual game and maps first?

[Niya]

So instead of placing the items on the form, you would type it all in code for each one and display one of them each time on the same form? Also should I create the game first or make the actual game and maps first?

Oh hell no. You create a map editor that generates a map file of a format you create. Your game reads this file and generates the map based on this. You don't hard code the map, that's crazy.

[Brinith]

But mine are just going to be a image since its 2D and all I need to do is define the boundaries and walls for each map. However if you insist on making a map editor, is there any good guides for it?

[moti barski]

oh man, finally an interesting thread, I was so bored, yeah man lets do this thing man lets get this show on the road. you game man ? yo check it :

first of all the map : the character always stays on the middle of the screen man, therefore the map is tiled : 11 over 11 tiles man with each step the tiles refresh man thats a good way to do it ya know what I'm saying man, for each screen you take a picture m'k then you slice it to 121 smaller pictures

next you glue the pictures on a grid :

image slicer :
http://yotamarker.justforum.net/t21-vbnet-image-slicer

[moti barski]

how to make a map :

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=662936

[Brinith]

Thanks, Ill see if I can do it(I'm not very good at programming yet lol)
EDIT: after reading and trying to understand the code, it made me even more confused. So basically the character is always in the middle in the form and the tiles are the ones changing. But do you have to code how each tiles changes for every movement?

[moti barski]

http://yotamarker.justforum.net/t97-...map-char-on-it

oh yeah
OH YEAH !

[SJWhiteley]

what the....

[Shaggy Hiker]

If you don't know Moti, enjoy the introduction.