Reasons
I wanted to document my progress on my new game, which is a 2d side scrolling, mining type game, somewhat similar to Minecraft or Terraria, or the hundreds of other games somewhat like that out these days. I noticed that there are no good ones on the Android Market/ Google play, and I’d personally like to be able to build/ play on my Android.
I also will be using my code from another game, to have multiplayer added in from early on in the game. Looking at Terraria- the guy who made it started with a “Super Mario Bros” clone.
I’ve wanted to create a 2d side scrolling game similar to Mario Bros, and Commander Keen with decent production value for some time, so this project should help satisfy that longing as well.
Planning
Looking at Terraria, everything that is in there would take me a very, very long time to create, it’s is quite an impressive game. So, initially I only hope to have the same basic functionality as Minecraft or Terraria, which would be being able to move around in the world, and being able to harvest and replace blocks.
Then, I will start adding in crafting, and monsters, and expand from there. I would really like to add some unique elements to the game. I’ve thought from the beginning, when you can jump up into “space” in Terraria when you get too high- that it would be cool to have space stations, or even a minimum amount of space area to explore- such as a “moon”/satellite environment.
I would have also liked to have villages in the game with… “smarter” NPC’s, so that the world would become more alive. Add more RPG elements to the game as well- since both other games borrow from the genre.
Initial Progress
Well, the first step in creating any side scroller, that is tile based, is to create tiles. So I created a very small, tiled world, partially “air” and partially “dirt”.
Next step
The next step will be to add “character blocks” (about 1.5 width/height in hit area) to the world, and allow control, as well as have the camera following it.