Difference between revisions of "Block Designer"

Revision as of 12:04, 4 November 2016

Block Designer

Release type: Retail (Game-Maker suite)
Release date: 1991 (original release)
Author: G. Andrew Stone
Related tools: Palette Designer, Character Maker, Monster Maker, Map Maker, Integrator, Xferplay

Produces and edits .BBL, .CBL, and .MBL format files. Programmed by Gregory Stone.

1991 - Version 3.00

The subscreen in Block Designer.

There is no UNDO feature, so be careful to save your block set regularly -- and possibly under several file names. There is, however, the ability to import blocks from a file -- including the one under edit -- which can be used to emulate some sort of UNDO.
Unlisted feature: if you have a middle mouse button, you can use it to hold a secret third color on your brush. Try it out!

Block animation works on an absolute timer rather than a relative one, meaning that the moment a level begins the clock begins to tick. If a block is set to permanently change to another after 10 ticks, then all instances of that block will change 10 ticks after the level begins, regardless of whether a given instance was visible at the time.
Note that there are 18 ticks in one second, and 1092 ticks in one minute.
Be aware that unlike special counters, repetition counters can be reduced past zero -- often to undesirable results.
Although monster blocks can be solid, in practice their collision is... iffy. Unless you know what you're doing, it's usually best to avoid solidity -- unless you want your character to bounce off them as if they were made of Jell-O, of for the monsters to push the character through a solid wall. You can do some interesting things with these physics, but they are erratic and weird.

For hazards (spikes, water, lava) without the pop-in that you get from raw monster sprites:

Create a harmless background block of your desired element, with no solid edges
Layer a monster sprite on top, identical except with clear pixels where you don't want any collision
Unless you want the element to be destructible, make the monster invincible

@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 === Workarounds ===
+==== Stable, Pixel-Perfect Environmental Hazards ====
-* Simple technique for pixel-perfect environmental hazards (spikes, water, lava) without the pop-in that you get from raw monster sprites. Create a borderless background block of your desired element, that the player can easily pass through. On top of that, layer an identical monster sprite -- except with clear pixels where you don't want any collision to occur. Bang: you have functional, stable pixel-perfect spikes. Or whatever else you need.
+For hazards (spikes, water, lava) without the pop-in that you get from raw monster sprites:
+* Create a harmless background block of your desired element, with no solid edges
+* Layer a monster sprite on top, identical except with clear pixels where you don't want any collision
+* Unless you want the element to be destructible, make the monster invincible
 == Links ==