reana1 - Thanks for the suggestion, the GTA controlls could be an interesting option, but I have just allowed for tile to tile movement, press up once and you move 1 tile, there is no constant motion yet, however I may implement it with a delay between steps.

For Development time, hrmm I would say to get to the point I'm at now I've spent no more then 3 hours actually programming (I've spent more hours just playing with the graphics but thats because I'm not great them).

I was able to reuse the Resource Manager and everything from Turt's Puzzle Blocks because this new ISO game is really just going to be an add-on to the current game (you will move around in a town and you can enter the arcade if you want and play Turt's Puzzle Blocks along with any other games I create)

Also the development has been short because I had started a tile based game before so I knew most of the things I had to do, and please keep in mind that although I can play a simple game already with what I have created the code isn't very clean and the map is just hardcoded currently, there are many improvements needed that will not really effect anything from the players side

To clarify what I said earlier:

I mean use the up arrow to move northeast.

alternately, use up to move forward, and left, right, and down to turn.

while this might be a litte off topic,

has anyone ever used the FPShooter style for isometric control?

that is, angle between your character and your mouse sets direction, and arrows or AWSD provides forward backwards and strafe.

not sure how it would work but i think it could be fun =)

EDI - Thats not really off-topic, its actually a pretty interesting concept, I really think it would be hard to explain to non-gamers how your supposed to control your character but for players of FPS games you'd probably be okay

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Anyways for my game I have now created a Arcade Machine (Seen Below) and when you step in front of it and press "Space" you start up the original game Turt's Puzzle Blocks



This version is not ready for download yet but I'm thinking I might release something to play with in the near future.

So the game is moving along quite nicely, I think my next steps will be to create an actual player class to store additional data on the player, rather then just knowing the location, and then I'm going to see about making an enemy that tracks you down.

Quote:Original post by EDI
while this might be a litte off topic,

has anyone ever used the FPShooter style for isometric control?

that is, angle between your character and your mouse sets direction, and arrows or AWSD provides forward backwards and strafe.

not sure how it would work but i think it could be fun =)

Nox did something similar. The character faced whichever way the mouse was pointing, and the distance to the point set the forward speed. No backwards or sideways motion, however.

TANSTAAFL
Ultima online also does the control like that, but they just use the mouse only, you just click and hold the mouse and your character runs in that direction

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With my Arcade Machine I'm trying to think of a way to show the player what they have to do.. When they go to the Arcade machine they are going to need coins to play (coins can be collected through the adventure type game) so when they step up to an arcade machine they need to know how many coins it will cost and what exactly this arcade machine will do..

I have a couple ideas here:

1) I put a tile in front of the arcade machine that glows and/or has something referring to the amount of coins needed on it, when the player is walking around and spots a special tile like they they will know its an action tile and go check it out

The only problem I see with this is when I actually create the full arcade room with a bunch of machines its going to be very hard to see everything

2) I just leave the tile alone, but program into the system that when the player is facing a special tile a message window appears to explain what they can do, ie. if its a arcade machine it will tell how many coins, but if its a locked door it will explain about a key..

What do you guys think? Visual Information, or Popup Explainations?

I think that it was FFVII that had a little thought bubble type thing show up when there was an object that could be activated. But like you said, having to go up to everything to see if it is real can be such a pain.
But you have to admit, FFVII is one of the best games of all time.... (yes I am a Final Fanstasy Addict)

Hrmmm, I like the thought bubble idea, I don't expect alot of things to be interactive in the game, maybe only 3 or 4 different objects.

Arcade Machines let you play games
Door (Locked or Unlocked) let you into different rooms
The Crate can be pushed around
and then maybe there could be buttons of some kind

also I don't think there will be many things that stand out in the game, the tile set will more then likely be very plain (I'm the only person working on it and although I can do simple graphics it takes a long time)

I would assume as long as I only have those things as interactive then it will be quite obvious to the player what they can do in a room..