Hello everyone,
We know that many of you come from tile-based mapping game makers. So this week we are going to cover the mapping system in EGM and why it's better than the traditional tiled mapping systems. I've used tile-based game makers before and using EGM may feel like the same at first but the more you use it you will notice the key differences.
EGM's mapping system is a layer based free/pixel mapping system. This means you can freely place tiles in a map and each tile is an object with its own properties (scale, rotation, and tint). In short, you don'™t have to follow a grid or be stuck with 3 or less layers.
Since there is no preset grid in EGM, you can have as many layers as you want. Even though there is no preset limit to the amount of tiles, because each tile is an object you'll have to be careful about the amount of tiles you use. In the current version, we haven't come up with a way to use unlimited tiles€ yet.
That's the map editor. It's made up of several components, which are:
1. The map - where you place the tiles and events to.
2. The maps explorer - where you manage your maps.
3. The layers - where you manage the layers.
4. The map's events explorer - an extra simple way to access the events on the selected map.
5. The tiles explorer - contains the graphics you can place on to the map.
6. The tileset editor - where you add the graphics to be used for the map.
Although you don't have to use a grid based mapping system in EGM, it's still best to use tilesets because they are easier to manage then loads of single sprites. However, if you do not wish to use tilesets, you can just easily match the sprite's grid to its size, making it a single sprite like so:
Now, in order to map, we need to create a map which can done by clicking the gridded map icon with the small green plus sign. You can edit the map settings by clicking the gray cog icon.
You can edit the map size, the grid size, the gravity (optional), the effects (BGM, BGS, Tint, and Fog), dim the layers, and snap to grid.
Snap to grid can be used for tile based mapping and can be turned off to pixel map and add details to the map. This is actually my favorite feature in the whole map editor simply because it lets me add the small details and layer tiles on top of each other without using different layers.
Notice that the swords and the shields are on the same layer (named €œEvents€). With snap to grid off, you can place tiles anyway you want. Also, one of the swords is tilted (rotated) by 17 degrees thanks to the edit tile dialog. There are other tiles in the screenshot that are placed by pixel mapping such as the chairs and the torch.
So, why exactly is this an important feature for mapping? In short, tile/grid based maps don't look very natural and pleasing to the eye because everything is neat, squared, and extremely symmetrical. Even if you wanted to make small changes such as a simple rotation or layer/group tiles, you would have to edit the whole tileset in an image editing software (ie. Photoshop, paint) and re-import the tileset. Which is very inconvenient, time-taking and limiting.
Tha's it for now, once the demo is released, we will be posting video tutorials on how to use many of EGM's features.
Remember to tell others about us!
Express Game Maker Team, www.expressgamemaker.com
This post has been edited by Express Game Maker: May 16 2010, 11:12 PM
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Feb 5 2010, 02:11 PM
but as I noted in the post we will try to do so 
