Questions about DizzyAGE

Hi,

I am quite new here and I have some questions about the Dizzy Age. I am thinking about making my own Dizzy game one day, but I don't know much about coding. I did some C++.But I am not sure if this is sufficient. I want to create mini games and colorful backgrounds but first I want to know the limitations of the DizzyAGE.

First question: Is it possible to program a farmville type of a mini-game? I want Dizzy to find strawberry seeds in the forest and grow them in his backyard. I want the health system to be a bit more complex. So instead of simply finding the fruits Dizzy will have to get the seeds first and grow them. Is this possible?

Second Question, if the farming system is possible, then how hard it is to program a money system? I know that there is already a coin system in the Dizzy games. So this shouldn't be that hard correct?

In short: I want Dizzy to be able sell items at the downtown and make money, buy new items etc...

More: I want a mini hot air balloon game. Some areas will be only reachable by a hot air balloon. But I want the hot air balloon to be controllable by the player. I have something like this in my mind:



Even limited control is fine by me.

More:

Is it possible to create an inventory item with multiple sprites?
Is it possible to examine inventory items in detail? (reading a newspaper, examining a parchment etc...)
What are the system limitations? What happens if the game gets too colorful or too big?
Is it possible to create simplistic cutscene?


The Plot:

There is a total Solar eclipse coming up but due to the cloudy skies, yolkfolk won't be able to see the eclipse. Dizzy thinks that this is unacceptable and prepares the hot air balloon. While up in the sky he notices a comet headed for earth. But in the end it turns out that the comet was actually a fallen angel. The fallen angel reveals Dizzy his true origins, and explains why Zaks was after them for so long.

Everything we have witnessed in the series involves a secret society whose members include the Good Witch Glenda, Zaks, and Theodore. The master behind the society hides a deep secret that is as ancient as the humanity itself, and Zaks is after this secret. However, this is not all, since Zaks is also hiding a secret, in the form a mysterious animal...

DizzyAge is based on C++, so most of the functions, ie action and use objects are similar to Chris Jones' Adventure Game Studio. Plus there are a lot of video tutorials for basic functions available to watch. Not forgetting that people will always give a hand in this thread to help with coding problems.

Most of what you are asking isn't a problem, even though some functions can be a bit long winded. Game size is not usually a problem, but sprite size can slow or stop the game (someone tried using a huge background sprite that covered about 12 rooms but the game screwed up when trying to move it).

Give it a go - I love Dizzy games with brightly coloured backgrounds.

[quote data-userid="279" data-postid="83378"]

DizzyAge is based on C++, so most of the functions, ie action and use objects are similar to Chris Jones’ Adventure Game Studio. Plus there are a lot of video tutorials for basic functions available to watch. Not forgetting that people will always give a hand in this thread to help with coding problems.

Most of what you are asking isn’t a problem, even though some functions can be a bit long winded. Game size is not usually a problem, but sprite size can slow or stop the game (someone tried using a huge background sprite that covered about 12 rooms but the game screwed up when trying to move it).

Give it a go – I love Dizzy games with brightly coloured backgrounds.

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OK thanks. I will try to learn all this when I have some free time on my hand.

You really should! A Dizzy game with art like that would be great to play. I think I like the graveyard scene the most :smile:

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You really should! A Dizzy game with art like that would be great to play. I think I like the graveyard scene the most :smile:

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Thanks. I downloaded the DizzyAge and I am trying to figure out what to do. It is a bit harder than I have imagined. But after figuring out the basics I will be fine I guess. {dizzy}:cool:

In the mean time I will be trying to create a simple room. :tup:  

EDIT: I barely created a solid ground today. :tongue: Well even that's something. I will be making appropriate sprites for all my creations. Which sounds like a massive job at the moment. Sad part is I am having problems scaling my props. Even the flowers look so much larger than Dizzy. {yolkfolk}:jawdrop:

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Even the flowers look so much larger than Dizzy. {yolkfolk}:jawdrop:

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Take a lead from the iPod Shuffle (and others to be fair) of instead of fixing a problem (designed with no screen, so you can't see what is playing or choose what will play next, so you have to keep shuffling!), turning it into a feature. May I suggest the game title Dizzy and the Day of the Triffids? (C) Frogandhat. I charge reasonable rates for rights to use my intellectual property! {yolkfolk}:animwink: {yolkfolk}:rofl:  

Good luck with the coding, your artwork looks amazing!

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I barely created a solid ground today. :tongue:  Well even that’s something. I will be making appropriate sprites for all my creations. Which sounds like a massive job at the moment. Sad part is I am having problems scaling my props.

Even the flowers look so much larger than Dizzy. {yolkfolk}:jawdrop:

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Try unpakking some of the fan games (Colin's Yolkfolk sprites much better than the 'originals'). Also there's no problem with cracking open sprites from other games and using them as a template to make your own tiles if size is an issue.

I would recommend watching jamie's videos as they are excellent for getting to grips with the basics of DizzyAge coding.

[quote data-userid="279" data-postid="83386"]

Try unpakking some of the fan games (Colin’s Yolkfolk sprites much better than the ‘originals’). Also there’s no problem with cracking open sprites from other games and using them as a template to make your own tiles if size is an issue.

I would recommend watching jamie’s videos as they are excellent for getting to grips with the basics of DizzyAge coding.

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I am using my own yolkfolk sprites and I agree that they look so much better. However I ran into a small problem. I can't select some of the props without selecting the entire background. It gets really cumbersome. Is there an easy way of selecting this stuff?

EDIT: Never mind it seems I have solved the problem.

Here's my most recent screenshot:


Headstones look a bit big, but there isn't much I can do at the moment.

Current Map of My Game. So much stuff needs to be changed.


EDIT: I am have learned the basics of the DizzyAge Here's the current map:



I will open a new topic in the fan games sections I think. My next step is learning how to create moving sprites.

EDIT II: I also learned that.

Newer version of the Cemetery:



It is clearly inspired by my Halloween themed artwork.

Now I am trying to create falling leaves, But sadly I can't find any tutorials. The Dizzy game with the snow effects was the closest thing to a tutorial, but I didn't understand how to reverse engineer that.

Useful little tip on selecting sprites for property changes - the editor tries to select the 'last' brush placed regardless of the layer, so just use the 'send to back' at the bottom of the list of options for the brush you don't want, then you can usually get at the correct brush.

What sort of falling leaves are you thinking of - leaves just blowing about or more like the 'acid drops' in the original games where they fall in a straight liine?

[quote data-userid="279" data-postid="83389"]

Useful little tip on selecting sprites for property changes – the editor tries to select the ‘last’ brush placed regardless of the layer, so just use the ‘send to back’ at the bottom of the list of options for the brush you don’t want, then you can usually get at the correct brush.

What sort of falling leaves are you thinking of – leaves just blowing about or more like the ‘acid drops’ in the original games where they fall in a straight liine?

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Thanks for the tip.

I want blowing leaves. They will be falling from a tree and disappearing in the ground. Do you know how that can be created?

I am trying to make my mini-game as colorful as possible. And I am learning the visual stuff before the actual coding about the items and the coins. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. {dizzy}:biggrin:

Hi darkly, it's great your giving DizzyAGE a go. I've got to say though, your game idea sounds very complicated for a beginner. I'm quite sure everything you want to do in your OP is possible, but you'll need to spend some time, not only learning how to code puzzles, but working out how the existing code fits together.

On the other hand, you've got some proper coding experience, which I didn't have starting out, so you might find it easier than I did.

With the falling leaves, you'll need to write your own bit of AI to do the motion. DizzyAGE comes with a simple bit of AI to make enemies move in straight lines, but if you want to do anything more complicated, you'll have to write the code yourself.

BTW - the resources you'll need to get started are Jamie's video tutorials and Alex's tutorial game. You can find them here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Q4aMGEDOM

and here: https://www.yolkfolk.com/dizzyage/game.php?id=52

[quote data-userid="642" data-postid="83394"]

Hi darkly, it’s great your giving DizzyAGE a go. I’ve got to say though, your game idea sounds very complicated for a beginner. I’m quite sure everything you want to do in your OP is possible, but you’ll need to spend some time, not only learning how to code puzzles, but working out how the existing code fits together.

On the other hand, you’ve got some proper coding experience, which I didn’t have starting out, so you might find it easier than I did.

With the falling leaves, you’ll need to write your own bit of AI to do the motion. DizzyAGE comes with a simple bit of AI to make enemies move in straight lines, but if you want to do anything more complicated, you’ll have to write the code yourself.

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Thanks for the kind reply and the links.

I decided to create a smaller game first. I am still learning the DizzyAge program and its harder than I expected.

I am still unsure about the plot and the puzzles for this game. I just know that it will take place in a cemetery at night.

The basic AI function can make items move around a bit more than just move in a straight line if you use targets to move the item such as bats etc you see in some of the games ...but will take ages to do if you have stacks of different leaves falling from different trees in lots of 'rooms' (and lots of room updates).

If you check out some of the games with falling acid drops you will see that the function moves the drop down a few pixels at each cycle, but to add sideways movement at the same time is a lot more complicated as Simon has already said.

Of course, there's no reason why you can't 'cheat' and make animated sprites of leaves that change position every frame, leaving a few frames blank so that there is no leaf for a few seconds. Timing would be by setting the 'delay' in the properties to make it look reasonably realistic and as long as you make the layer 'lower' than the tree and the ground, it would seem that they fall out of the tree, blow around a bit and disappear into the ground. As long as you set the 'length' travelled between the tallest tree and the ground then you can just place them on the map ...just make sure that the rooms below are not used if the leaf is going to enter the room below from a smaller tree.

NB if you make the distance longer than the bottom of the tallest tree, you can place the 'tile' higher up the tree so that they don't all appear at the same time.

[quote data-userid="279" data-postid="83396"]

The basic AI function can make items move around a bit more than just move in a straight line if you use targets to move the item such as bats etc you see in some of the games …but will take ages to do if you have stacks of different leaves falling from different trees in lots of ‘rooms’ (and lots of room updates).

If you check out some of the games with falling acid drops you will see that the function moves the drop down a few pixels at each cycle, but to add sideways movement at the same time is a lot more complicated as Simon has already said.

Of course, there’s no reason why you can’t ‘cheat’ and make animated sprites of leaves that change position every frame, leaving a few frames blank so that there is no leaf for a few seconds. Timing would be by setting the ‘delay’ in the properties to make it look reasonably realistic and as long as you make the layer ‘lower’ than the tree and the ground, it would seem that they fall out of the tree, blow around a bit and disappear into the ground. As long as you set the ‘length’ travelled between the tallest tree and the ground then you can just place them on the map …just make sure that the rooms below are not used if the leaf is going to enter the room below from a smaller tree.

NB if you make the distance longer than the bottom of the tallest tree, you can place the ’tile’ higher up the tree so that they don’t all appear at the same time.

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Thanks for the help. I will try to do all this stuff during the next version of my game. It already looks quite good. I have sent a finished demo to the dizzyAge website. I think that I will open a new topic in the fan games section to hear everyone's thoughts.