Last week I wrote about how I could support various screen resolutions. I listed a couple of options with pros and cons, but there seemed to be no easy way to it.
Fast forward one week and here I am with a solution. It was really obvious now that I think of it.
Support for various screen resolutions (solved!)
Oh man. Since beginning of development (which seems like ages ago), I was so set on having static one screen maps in Power Heroes. Large areas would not make sense considering the game's short, action packed gameplay sessions that I aimed for. Wipe out an area of enemies, collect loot and head on to the next area. That's what I wanted. I did not want big maps to navigate in. I had a tileset of 10 x 10 tiles, scaled up 3x. By using 16 x 9 maps and having a HUD, I covered the whole screen on all iOS devices.
Except iPhone 5 and later. That was a problem.
The solution that struck me is kind of a compromise, but it works so well that it's worth it.
I made a 20 x 9 map and made it scroll. Horizontally.
On an iPhone 5 (and 5S) there will be just a little bit of scrolling while on other devices the map will scroll more but you are still able to access it all. All of the problems I originally thought I had were gone. Half tiles on the edges? Blocked edges? Inaccessible areas outside the screen? Enemy spawn issues? Not any more.
So with a 20 x 9 map there's some horizontal scrolling but no vertical. Then I experimented more. I made 20 x 11, 20 x 13 and even 20 x 20 maps before finally settling down to 20 x 11. Although 9 tiles high was the original size, 20 x 9 felt a little cramped probably because of the newly added small horizontal freedom. And going over 11 started to feel too large. 20 x 11 felt just right.
After all this it was just a matter of juggling some things around to make everything work with scrollable maps. I'm really happy how it turned out. The maps are still "small" so that you don't get lost, but with scrolling I can support any screen resolution.
Enemies
I gave names to the different enemies that you encounter in the world of Power Heroes. They are on the cute side to suit the game's style. Below is a bunch of them (not all), and remember, if you have more ideas for enemies or their special moves, let's hear them!
Movement type: Walk
Special: None
Spotty
Movement type: Walk
Special: None
Tootl
Movement type: Walk
Special: When killed, Tootl releases a shell that slides around with high speed. Shell deals damage to anyone on its path!
Boomba
Movement type: Jump
Special: When killed, Boomba turns into a bomb that explodes soon after. It can destroy some objects, like rocks. Watch out for its blast radius!
Burnr
Movement type: Jump
Special: Burnr can set flammable objects on fire. In close combat, Burnr's hot surface will cause the player to drop all of his/hers power coins.
The style this game has is amazing. One of my favorite things is just how you use the word power. You still managed to make the characters look perfect despite their size. I'm sure you've thought about flying enemies. Maybe ones that can swoop down to the players predicted position since velocity is obviously a huge factor in your game. My only gripe is about the tree and bush sprites. I see people use these all the time (you know what game they're modeled after) and a game as unique as this should capitalize on unique sprites.
Thanks for the feedback! Yes I have thought about flying enemies that could fly over pits, I just haven't had time to put them into the game yet. I will be revealing more enemies in the future.
While the tileset is not yet complete, your comments on the bush and tree sprites has been noted. :)